What's New at Log College Press? — September 1, 2023

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Dear Friends,

As summer draws to a close, we wish to give an update on what’s been happening at Log College Press. Our virtual shelves are filling up with old Presbyterian books, articles, poetry and manuscripts. We recently reached a milestone of sorts - there are now over 20,000 works available to read at Log College Press.

In a year of celebration and remembrance, we have previously paid tribute to John Witherspoon’s 300th birthday (Feb. 5, 1723); Thomas Murphy’s 200th birthday (Feb. 6, 1823); the 100th anniversary of Robert P. Kerr’s passing (March 25, 1923); the 250th anniversary of Joseph Caldwell’s passing (April 21, 1773); the 150th anniversary of William H. McGuffey’s passing (May 4, 1873); A.A. Hodge’s 200th birthday (July 18, 1823); the 150th anniversary of Gardiner Spring’s passing (Aug. 18, 1873); the 150th anniversary of Thomas Smyth’s passing (Aug. 20, 1873); and we are looking ahead to the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies (Nov. 3, 1723). These anniversaries are reminders of the rich heritage of American Presbyterianism, and how these men have contributed in their own ways to shaping our history. As we like to say, there is no time like the present to study the past.

Meanwhile, to return to the here and now, members of the Dead Presbyterian Society have special access to certain features on this website, which include the Early Access and Recent Additions page, as well as the DPS quote blog, and the Log College Review. We wish to draw your attention to notable works of interest that have added recently.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • Samuel Davies, Travel Diary (1753-1754) — A kind and helpful supporter of our work noticed that some handwritten manuscript journals have been digitized by the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, including Davies’ diary which covers a portion of his trip to Great Britain to raise funds for the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

  • William Henry Foote, Journal (3 volumes, 1794-1869) — This is a remarkable manuscript journal (written in beautiful penmanship) which covers almost the entirety of Foote’s life, and includes newspaper clippings, family history, ecclesiastical records (some pertinent to the founding of the Presbyterian Church, C.S.A.), and much more.

  • Francis Alison, Peace and Union Recommended (1758) — A notable sermon preached by an Old Side divine at the opening of the synod at which the Old and New Sides were reunited.

  • David Bostwick, Self Disclaimed and Christ Exalted (1758) — A powerful sermon on the words from John 3:30: “He must increase but I must decrease.”

  • Jonathan Dickinson, A Sermon, Preached at the Opening of the Synod at Philadelphia, September 19, 1722 (1723) and A Vindication of God’s Sovereign Free Grace (1746).

  • Samuel Finley, The Curse of Meroz; or, The Danger of Neutrality, in the Cause of God, and Our Country (1757) — A notable patriotic sermon preached during the French and Indian War.

Some highlights at the Recent Additions page:

On the Log College Review:

  • Reviews by Jonathan Peters: Review of Francis R. Flournoy, Benjamin Mosby Smith: 1811-1893 (1947) [2023], and Review of William E. Thompson, In Stonewall’s Long Shadow: James Power Smith, Aide de Camp (2020) [first appeared in The Confessional Presbyterian 18 (2022)].

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

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

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

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

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

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Day Old Princeton Died

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

In evaluating the history of that great institution known as Princeton Theological Seminary, many would consider that “she” died in 1929 when the seminary was reorganized on modernist terms. But in a letter to his mother dated February 20, 1921, J.G. Machen wrote these sad words (quoted in Ned B. Stone, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954), p. 310):

Dr.Warfield's funeral took place yesterday afternoon at the First Church of Princeton . . . It seemed to me that the old Princeton — a great institution it was — died when Dr. Warfield was carried out.

B.B. Warfield, the great defender of historic Protestant orthodoxy, who carried that banner for Old Princeton, entered into glory on February 16, 1921.

Born near Lexington, Kentucky on November 5, 1851, Warfield completed his undergraduate studies at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and then, after a tour of Europe, embarked on theological studies at the seminary in Princeton. He graduated from the seminary in 1876, and then, after a period of transition, he was ordained to the ministry in 1879, and in 1880, he was inaugurated as a professor at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Eight years later, in 1888, he was inaugurated as Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, succeeding both Charles and A.A. Hodge, and he remained at Princeton for the next four decades of his life, contributing to the cause of Christ as an outstanding theologian, a remarkable teacher, and a prolific author.

He was stricken by a first heart attack on December 24, 1920 while walking in front of the home of Geerhardus Vos, which was witnessed by his son, J.G. Vos (this account came from J.G. Vos to R.C. Sproul and was repeated in the April 2005 issue of Tabletalk Magazine, although the account repeated there makes it seem as if the event was the fatal heart attack, which did not happen until February 16, 1921).

William Childs Robinson was a student in Warfield’s class on that day in February (his recollection too fudged a detail but it is worth repeating here [see his 1974 review of Warfield’s The Lord of Glory titled Warfield’s Witness to Christ]):

I was in the class he taught on Feb. 17, 1921, the day of his death. In an exposition of I John 3:16, he pointed out that for Christ to lay down His life was great, but the stupendous thing was that He — being all that He was and is, the Lord of glory — laid down His life for us, mere creatures of His hand, guilty rebels against our gracious Maker.

Up until his final hours, B.B. Warfield testified of Christ our Lord, and that, we may rightly conclude, was the true banner and testimony of Old Princeton. Warfield’s personal witness to Christ was so powerful and outstanding, and the dramatic spiritual downfall of the institution that he loved which followed soon after was so much the opposite of Warfield’s own testimony, that it seems Machen was right — when Warfield died and was laid to rest in the Princeton Cemetery, Old Princeton itself indeed died that day.

What's New at Log College Press? - October 18, 2022

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Here is an October report on what’s been going on lately at Log College Press.

In September 2022, we added 370 new works to the site. There are now over 16,000 free works available at LCP. Today we are putting the spotlight on some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • John Moorhead and Ebenezer Pemberton, Jr. were among several New England ministers who attested to the originality of the 1773 landmark volume of poetry by Phillis Wheatley titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral;

  • James Porter Smith, An Open Door in Brazil: Being a Brief Survey of the Mission Work Carried on in Brazil Since 1869 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1925);

  • Charles Stelzle’s autobiography, A Son of the Bowery: The Life Story of an East Side America (1926);

  • Some new discourses by William B. Sprague; and

  • several works by James Renwick Willson, including the complete run of The Evangelical Witness (1822-1826).

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

  • John Breckinridge, The Annual of the Board of Education of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Vol. 1 (1832), a remarkable compilation of valuable discourses;

  • Dozens of new works — including many biographical sketches — by Louis Meyer, the Jewish Reformed Presbyterian minister, who also served as an editor for The Fundamentals;

  • Dozens of articles and sermons by Thomas Smyth; and

  • Thomas Cary Johnson, God’s Answer to Evolution (1924).

Be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including A.A. Hodge on God’s moral law; C.W. Grafton on the design of the Christian Sabbath; and a set of quotes from the ecclesiastical catechisms of Alexander McLeod and Thomas Smyth on the divine right of Presbyterianism.

In general, we have also been seeking to add biographical information and photos to author pages that have been around for a while, giving many of them a fresh look and more usefulness to our readers.

Please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. There is a lot to explore, and many Presbyterian voices from the past to hear. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends.

Nevin's Presbyterian Encyclopedia

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

There are some wonderful modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of Presbyterianism (D.G. Hart & Mark Knoll’s Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America [2005], and Donald K. McKim’s Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith [1992] come to mind). But in this writer’s view, though somewhat limited in usefulness to the modern student of church history by its late 19th century date of publication, still nothing compares to the magnificent Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Including the Northern and Southern Assemblies (1884) by Alfred Nevin.

Alfred Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia.

It is a treasure that spans over 1,200 pages, and includes many illustrations, and also Henry C. McCook’s Historic Decorations at the Pan-Presbyterian Council: A Lithographic Souvenir, a collection of beautiful tributes to the people and places of the First and Second Reformations which were a highlight of the 1880 Pan-Presbyterian Council. The Encyclopedia itself is full of biographical sketches of noted Presbyterian ministers, and articles on different aspects of church history, in rich detail.

Noted contributors to Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia include B.B. Warfield, Charles A. Stillman, A.A. Hodge, James C. Moffat, W.A. Scott, Sheldon Jackson, Henry Van Dyke, Sr., J. Aspinwall Hodge and others.

Title page.

We at Log College Press often return to this volume as we work to expand our knowledge of American Presbyterianism and make accessible the men and women and their writings which are reflected therein to all. Take note of this remarkable resource for your own studies of church history and biography, which is available to read online at the Alfred Nevin page.

The Natural Bridge of Virginia: An American Wonder

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Visitors to the Natural Bridge of Rockbridge County, Virginia have been awestruck for centuries of recorded history. With ties to many American Presidents — such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Calvin Coolidge, and others — and references in American literature, including Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick — it is clear that the Natural Bridge has left a deep impression on the minds and hearts of many. American Presbyterian writers have also left a record of their impressions.

Benjamin Mosby Smith became engaged to Mary Moore Morrison (grand-daughter of the famous Mary Moore Brown, “the Captive of Abb’s Valley”), while on a picnic under the Natural Bridge in 1838, according to Francis R. Flournoy, Benjamin Mosby Smith, 1811-1893 (1947), p. 44.

Joseph Caldwell, who served as the first President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote about his 1808 tour of Virginia the following year, in which he described the Natural Bridge.

My Dear Friend — I write this from Douthit's tavern, one mile and a half from the Natural Bridge, and thirteen miles from Lexington; having just now returned from the bridge, I had determined on giving you a concise description of this sublime object, but fearing to fall short of the truth, I have turned to Mr. Jefferson's notes on Virginia, from whence I copy the following extract. "It is on the ascent of a hill which seems to have been cloven through its length by some great convulsiun. The fissure just at the bridge is by some admeasurement, 270 feet deep, by others only 205, it is about 45 feet wide at the bottom, and 90 feet at the top, this of course determines the length of the bridge, and its height from the water. Its breadth at the middle is about 60 feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass at the summit of the arch about 40 feet; a part of this thickness is. constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to many large trees ; the residue, with the hill on both sides, is one solid rock of limestone. The arch approaches the semi-elliptical form, but the larger axis of the ellipsis, which would be the chord of the arch, is many times longer than the transverse. Though the sides of this bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have the resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss; you involuntarily fall upon your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over it, looking down from this height about a minute, gave me a violent head ache. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime, to be felt beyond what they are here: so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing, as it were up to heaven! the rapture of the spectator is really indiscribable. The fissure continuing narrow, deep and strait for a considerable distance both above and below the bridge, opens to a short, but very pleasing view of the north mountains on one side, and the blue ridge on the other, at the distance, each of them, of about five miles. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to which it has given name; it affords a public and commodious passage over a valley, which cannot be crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. The stream passing under it is called Cedar creek; it is a water of James' river, and sufficient in the driest season to turn a grist mill, though its fountain is not more than two miles above." I felt so strongly "the emotions arising from the sublime" that I could not in plain rational language convey to you my ideas of what I had seen, so you may be well pleased that I thought of the extract. I am here informed that Mr. Jefferson, since the publication of his Notes on Virginia, which first gave celebrity to this wonder of nature, has purchased from the United States fifteen acres of land, in the midst of which stands the bridge, and perhaps no private estate in the world can produce a grander or a more surprising subject of admiration — Adieu.

William Maxwell, in his 1816 Poems, includes a tribute to this very special place.

THE NATURAL BRIDGE

Hail! to thy Bridge, romantic Nature, hail!
O! more than true what I esteem’d a tale.
How light the wonder of that magic arch,
From cloud to cloud for angel bands to march;
So lightly pois’d upon the downy air,
For Art to view with rapture and despair!
But lost in wonder, I can only gaze,
While Silence owns the impotence of Praise.

And was it then the Spirit of the Storm,
Hiding in clouds his miscreated form,
With meteor apear, that smote the rocks aside,
And bade their frighten’d pediments divide,
For yonder Naiad with her tuneful stream,
To murmur thro’? O! this is Faney’s dream.
’Twas Heav’nly Nature made the magic pile,
And own’d the wonder with a mother’s smile.

I see her now. An angel sketch’d the view,
And bade her follow as his pencil drew.
Then smiling, conscious of celestial pow’r,
She took the rock, like some wild little flow’r,
And threw it lightly o’er the craggy ridge,
And gaily said, ‘Thus Nature makes a Bridge.’

Let pensive Beauty rove beside the stream,
To sooth her fancy with a tender dream;
While the sweet Naiad, as she trips along,
Beguiles her love with sympathetic song.
Let Genius gaze from yonder dizzy steep;
Whence Horror shrinks, yet madly longs to leap;
Then spread his wings triumphantly to soar,
And bless the world with one true poet more.
Here let Religion fondly love to stray,
A virgin pilgrim, at the close of day;
And sweetly conscious of her sins forgiv’n,
Exhale her soul in gratitude to Heav’n.
For me, fair Nature, far from War’s alarms,
Stealing thro’ shades to gaze upon thy charms,
The while yon Moon slow rises o’er the hill,
And Silence listening feels that all is still;
I gaze in wonder at the view sublime,
And own the charm that holds the breath of Time.
But hark! the voice of Rapture in my ears!
An angel sings! The music of the spheres!
A present God! — I feel myself no more, —
But lost in him — I tremble — I adore!

September 13th, 1813.

David Johnson, The Natural Bridge (1860)

David Johnson, The Natural Bridge (1860)

The testimony of Archibald Alexander appears in J.W. Alexander’s biography, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1854), in which Archibald writes of “the sublime”:

But in this same [Shenandoah] valley, and not very remote from the objects of which I have spoken, there is one which, I think, produces the feeling which is denominated the sublime, more definitely and sensibly than any that I have ever seen. I refer to the Natural Bridge, from which the county takes its name. It is not my object to describe this extraordinary lusus naturae, as it may be called. In fact, no representation which can be given by the pen or pencil can convey any adequate idea of the object, or one that will have the least tendency to produce the emotion excited by a view of the object itself. There are some things, then, which the traveller, however eloquent, cannot communicate to his readers. All I intend is, to mention the effect produced by a sight of the Natural Bridge on my own mind. When a boy of fourteen or fifteen, I first visited this curiosity. Having stood on the top, and looked down into the deep chasm above and below the bridge, without any new or very strong emotions, as the scene bore a resemblance to many which are common to that country, I descended by the usual circuitous path to the bottom, and came upon the stream or brook some distance below the bridge. The first view which I obtained of the beautiful and elevated blue limestone arch, springing up to the clouds, produced an emotion entirely new; the feeling was as though something within sprung up to a great height by a kind of sudden impulse. That was the animal sensation which accompanied the genuine emotion of the sublime. Many years afterwards, I again visited the bridge. I entertained the belief, that I had preserved in my mind, all along, the idea of the object; and that now I should see it without emotion. But the fact was not so. The view, at this time, produced a revival of the original emotion, with the conscious feeling that the idea of the object had faded away, and become both obscure and diminutive, but was now restored, in an instant, to its original vividness, and magnitude. The emotion produced by an object of true sublimity, as it is very vivid, so it is very short in its continuance. It seems, then, that novelty must be added to other qualities in the object, to produce this emotion distinctly. A person living near the bridge, who should see it every day, might be pleased with the object, but would experience, after a while, nothing of the vivid emotion of the sublime. Thus, I think, it must be accounted for, that the starry heavens, or the sun shining in his strength, are viewed with little emotion of this kind, although much the sublimest objects in our view; we have been accustomed to view them daily, from our infancy. But a bright-coloured rainbow, spanning a large arch in the heavens, strikes all classes of persons with a mingled emotion of the sublime and beautiful; to which a sufficient degree of novelty is added, to render the impression vivid, as often as it occurs. I have reflected on the reason why the Natural Bridge produces the emotion of the sublime, so well defined and so vivid; but I have arrived at nothing satisfactory. It must be resolved into an ultimate law of our nature, that a novel object of that elevation and form will produce such an effect. Any attempt at analyzing objects of beauty and sublimity only tends to produce confusion in our ideas. To artists, such analysis may be useful; not to increase the emotion, but to enable them to imitate more effectually the objects of nature by which it is produced. Although I have conversed with many thousands who had seen the Natural Bridge; and although the liveliness of the emotion is very different in different persons; yet I never saw one, of any class, who did not view the object with considerable emotion. And none have ever expressed disappointment from having had their expectations raised too high, by the description previously received. Indeed, no previous description communicates any just conception of the object as it appears; and the attempts to represent it by the pencil, as far as I have seen them, are pitiful. Painters would show their wisdom by omitting to represent some of the objects of nature, such as a volcano in actual ebullition, the sea in a storm, the conflagration of a great city, or the scene of a battle-field. The imitation must be so faint and feeble, that the attempt, however skilfully executed, is apt to produce disgust, instead of admiration.

In a letter from Charles Hodge to his wife Sarah dated May 28, 1828, written during his trip to Europe, which appears in A.A. Hodge’s biography The Life of Charles Hodge D.D. LL.D. Professor in the Theological Seminary Princeton N.J. (1880), Charles refers to the Natural Bridge (which he had visited during his 1816 tour of Virginia):

My Beloved Sarah: -- I have seen the Alps! If now I never see any thing great or beautiful in nature, I am content. I felt that as soon as I saw you, I could fall at your feet and beg you to forgive my beholding such a spectacle without you, my love. You were dearer to me in that moment than ever. I left Basel about one o'clock with a young English gentleman for Lucerne. We rode about fifteen miles and arrived at the foot of a mountain. As the road was steep and difficult, we commenced walking up the mountain in company with two Swiss gentlemen. We ascended leisurely for about two hours before we reached the top. I was walking slowly with my hands behind me, and my eyes on the ground, expecting nothing, when one of the Swiss gentlemen said with infinite indifference -- "Voila les Alpes." I raised my eyes -- and around me in a grand amphitheatre, high up against the heavens, were the Alps! It was some moments before the false and indefinite conceptions of my life were overcome by the glorious reality. The declining sun shed on the immense mass of mingled snow and forests the brightness of the evening clouds. This was the first moment of my life in which I felt overwhelmed. Every thing I had ever previously seen seemed absolutely nothing. The natural bridge in Virginia had surprised me -- the Rhine had delighted me -- but the first sudden view of the Alps was overwhelming. This was a moment that can never return; the Alps can never be seen again by surprise, and in ignorance of their real appearance.

In the 20th century, inspired by this American wonder, Robert Alberti Lapsley, Jr. wrote The Bridge of God: A Spiritual Interpretation of the Natural Bridge of Virginia (1951) [not yet available on Log College Press].

A visit to Natural Bridge may be just another American Natural Wonder seen and checked off the list, or it may be a real spiritual experience. All depends on the visitor himself, and the spirit in which he approaches the Bridge. For here is something man with all his vaunted skill could never have made. Here is something straight from the hand of the Creator.
…
That God is recognized as the workman is shown by the comments of visitors to the Bridge. An employee found a German refugee kneeling under the Bridge just at twilight in the attitude of prayer. As he approached she rose and said, “I have been thanking God that there are place like this left in the world.” Two women stood under the Bridge for a long time in silence. Finally one said, “It gives me a feeling of mightiness.” But the other replied, “It gives me a feeling of smallness.” A mother, showing the Bridge to her child, said, “See, dear, the Bridge was made by God. Man did not build it.” Said a couple from York, Pennsylvania, “Often when we visit places and see things of which we have been told, we are disappointed. But Natural Bridge surpassed all our expectations.”

That God is recognized as the workman is shown by the comments in the Visitors’ Book at the entrance. In the Gatehouse there is a large volume where visitors are invited to write their names as they leave, with any comments they wish. Most of the comments are trite and commonplace, such as “Beautiful,” “Wonderful,” “Stupendous,” “Awe-inspiring,” “Grand,” etc. But every once in a while some visitor will take the time to record in this book a profound religious experience. Here are a few examples:

A lady from Pittsburgh: “It brought me as near to Heaven as I will probably get.”

A man from Indiana: “It would be hard to find something more God-like.”

A lady from Portsmouth, Virginia: “We left in a mood of reverence.”

A mother and son from Texas: “It brought us a new realization of God’s creation, beautiful and breath-taking.”

A couple from Massachusetts: “We found it a beautiful way to worship.”

A young lady from Kentucky: “It has the atmosphere of a Cathedral, and it drew me closer to my Maker.”

A girl from Elkton, Virginia: “It lifted me into the Seventh Heaven.”

A couple from Oak Ridge, Tennessee: “It brought us in touch with the Infinite.”

A professor from Yale University: “It is religiously inspiring.”

That God is recognized as the workman is shown by the tributes of famous men and women who have visited the Bridge. Samuel Kercheval, in his History of the Valley of Virginia, speaks of it as “the most grand, sublime, and awful sight I ever looked upon.” Arno B. Cammerer, Director of United States Parks, who is familiar with all the natural beauties of America, in a personal letter to a friend says that the Bridge impressed him as “one of the most wonderful and lovely examples of Nature’s Architecture” he had ever seen. Mildred Seydell, internationally known author and writer, put her feeling in these words: “Man expresses the beauty of his thoughts by making songs and poems and pictures and sculpture, but God has expressed the beauty of His thoughts by creating Natural Bridge of Virginia.” It was Henry Clay, the great Kentucky statesman, who coined this expressive phrase, “The Bridge not made with hands,” while John Marshall described it as “God’s greatest miracle in stone.”

Over and over, we see among these extracts references to the sublime. Truly, that word perhaps best captures the elevated impression that this remarkable natural wonder of God’s handiwork in creation. The tributes to this special found in the writings of many, including these American Presbyterians, testify to beauty, power and wisdom of God.

Resources on Calvinism at Log College Press

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

And I have my own private opinion that there is no such a thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering, love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and him crucified in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply, "We have not so learned Christ." (Charles Spurgeon, Sermon no. 98, New Park Street Pulpit 1:100)

It is no novelty, then, that I am-preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, which are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me. Were I a Pelagian, or a believer in the doctrine of free-will, I should have to walk for centuries all alone. Here and there a heretic of no very honorable character might rise up and call me brother. But taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the ancients peopled with my brethren - I behold multitudes who confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God’s own church. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermon on Election 1:551)

Although Calvinism (which Charles Spurgeon has described as “the gospel, and nothing else”) permeates the works of American Presbyterians on numerous topics, and we have pages dedicated to the topics of Systematic Theology the Westminster Standards, there are particular resources on Calvinism to be found at Log College Press which we aim to highlight today. These may be worth bookmarking for future study by the student of the doctrines of grace.

Calvinism is also known by the acrostic TULIP, which is intended to make the so-called ‘Five Points of Calvinism’ easier to remember. It was the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) in The Netherlands which articulated the Calvinistic Five Points in response to the Arminian Remonstrants. And it was Loraine Boettner who popularized (and modified) the TULIP acrostic summarizing those Five Points in The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932), but it was Cleland Boyd McAfee who is believed to have coined it in the first place c. 1905. We have noted this previously, but it is worth mentioning again.

The history of McAfee’s utilization of TULIP as an aid to teaching the doctrines of grace was perhaps first recorded by William H. Vail in an important 1913 article as was discussed previously here. What’s particularly interesting about Vail’s historical study of the Five Points is that is draws from multiple authorities, including the Synod of Dort, Jonathan Dickinson, and several living (at that time) leading clergymen.

William H. Vail’s chart showing the Five Points of Calvinism compared historically. A represents the list derived from Abbott’s Dictionary of Religious Knowledge; B comes from Dr. Francis Landey Patton; C is from Dr. Hugh Black; D is from the Rev. G…

William H. Vail’s chart showing the Five Points of Calvinism compared historically. A represents the list derived from Abbott’s Dictionary of Religious Knowledge; B comes from Dr. Francis Landey Patton; C is from Dr. Hugh Black; D is from the Rev. George B. Stewart; and E is from the Rev. Isaac N. Rendall.

The Five Points, says Mr. Vail, “as formulated by the Synod of Dort, according to two authorities, are as follows:

1. Personal, Gratuitous Election to Everlasting Life.
2. Particular Redemption.
3. Depravity, Native and Total.
4. Effectual Calling, or Re generation, by the Holy Spirit.
5. Certain Perseverance of Saints unto Eternal Life.

1. Divine Predestination.
2. The Redemption of Men through the Death of Christ.
3. Total Depravity.
4 Redemption through Grace.
5. Perseverance of Saints.”

The list from Jonathan Dickinson is as follows:

1. Eternal Election. Ephesians i. 4, 5.
2. Original Sin. Romans v. 12.
3. Grace in Conversion. Ephesians ii. 4, 5.
4. Justification by Faith. Romans iii. 25.
5. Saints' Perseverance. Romans viii. 30.

The TULIP list from Cleland B. McAfee, as noted by Vail, is as follows:

1st, T stands for Total I)epravity.
2d, U “ “ Universal Sovereignty.
3d, L -- “ Limited Atonement.
4th, I -- “ irresistible (, race.
5th, P -- “ Perseverance of the Saints.

Jonathan Dickinson covered this ground in The True Scripture Doctrine Concerning Some Important Points of Christian Faith (1741).

Robert L. Dabney wrote on The Five Points of Calvinism (1895) [not yet available at Log College Press] and identified them as follows:

1.. Original Sin
2. Effectual Calling
3. God’s Election
4. Particular Redemption
5. Perseverance of the Saints

The works by Dickinson and Dabney have been republished by Sprinkle Publications in 1992 as one combined volume.

Loraine Boettner in 1932 wrote: “The Five Points may be more easily remembered if they are associated with the word T-U-L-I-P; T, Total Inability ; U, Unconditional Election; L, Limited Atonement; I, Irresistible (Efficacious) Grace; and P, Perseverance of the Saints.” This has become the standard meaning of the TULIP acrostic.

Other resources to be found at Log College Press which concern Calvinism either historically or theologically considered include:

  • Ashbel Green Fairchild, The Sovereignty of God, Especially in Election; The Great Supper: or, An Illustration and Defence of Some of the Doctrines of Grace; and What Presbyterians Believe;

  • Abel M. Fraser, Calvinism: A Bible Study;

  • John L. Girardeau, Calvinism and Evangelical Arminianism;

  • A.A. Hodge, Calvinism;

  • Samuel Miller, Introductory Essay to the Thomas Scott’s Articles of the Synod of Dort (available in print here); Presbyterianism the Truly Primitive and Apostolical Constitution of the Church of Christ (available in print here); and Mole-Hills and Mountains, or The Difficulties of Calvinism and Arminianism Compared;

  • Nathan L. Rice, God Sovereign and Man Free: Or, The Doctrine of Divine Foreordination and Man's Free Agency, Stated, Illustrated and Proved From the Scriptures;

  • W.G.T. Shedd, Calvinism: Pure and Mixed - A Defence of the Westminster Standards;

  • William D. Smith, What is Calvinism?; and

  • B.B. Warfield, Calvinism and Calvinism: The Meaning and Uses of the Term; and Calvinism.

There are additional works on the subject that Log College Press hopes to add in the future such as Robert Hamilton Bishop, An Apology For Calvinism; and Samuel A. King, Presbyterian Doctrines, as Contained in the Five Points of Calvinism. And many more are already on the site relating to the thought of both John Calvin and Augustine. Also, be sure to consult, David N. Steele, et al., The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented.

It is a core belief of historic Presbyterianism that people who are saved are saved by grace alone and not by works (Eph. 2:8-9). This is a reflection of both God’s sovereignty and man’s inability to save himself. The works referenced above concerning the doctrines of grace, and many more not mentioned by name here, are resources to take up and study by those who wish to better understand historic doctrine, which is, in the words of Spurgeon, “no novelty…no new doctrine,” but simply the fundamental teaching of God’s Word on soteriology. To God be the glory!

The Man, Charles Hodge

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Editorial note: This is the first in a planned series of articles by Rev. Dylan Rowland, Pastor of Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Mansfield, Ohio, about the life and legacy of Dr. Charles Hodge.

Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was an American Presbyterian theologian and prolific theological commentator. Some have even gone so far as to refer to Hodge as being the so-called, “Pride of Princeton,” and this not without good reason [1]. Having studied theology at Princeton Seminary and graduating in 1819, Hodge was soon called to be the third professor at the seminary along with Presbyterian luminaries such as Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller. There, Hodge began what would become more than 50 years of educating and preparing men for Christian ministry. During his theological career, Hodge produced a variety of works including his popular The Way of Life, numerous articles for The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, his three-volume systematic theology, and much more. Due to his theological vigor, Hodge is recognized by many as being one of the most important American Presbyterian theologians of the nineteenth century.

However, it ought not merely be Hodge’s academic prowess which awards him this status, but also the quality of person he was. I contend that Hodge is worth spending hours reading, not only because of his intellectual brilliance, but also because of the man himself. Hence, this article is the first of many exploring the personal life of Charles Hodge. In studying Hodge’s personal life, readers will find what kind of man God had raised up to teach subsequent generations of pastors and theologians. Prayerfully, a study concerning Hodge’s personal life will demonstrate to a greater degree the value of Hodge’s theological ministry at Princeton Seminary. 

To begin this study, it is necessary to begin at the end, after Hodge had gone to be with the Lord. The following is a testimonial concerning the life and work of Hodge printed in the National Repository, a Methodist magazine. The editor’s words set the stage for understanding better Charles Hodge, the man:

Timothy Dwight, Nathaniel Emmons, Samuel Hopkins, Edwards A. Park, Moses Stuart, Nathaniel W. Taylor, Albert Barnes, the Alexanders, Francis Wayland, Tayler Lewis, Bishop McIlvaine, Bangs, Fisk, McClintock, Whedon, Bledsoe, Dr. True, whose loss we have just been called on to mourn also, and a hundred others have shed lustre on the American name since the era of independence opened; but none of these can, in grandeur of achievement, compare with Charles Hodge, who recently died at Princeton, an octogenarian. He was not only par excellence the Calvinistic theologian of America, but the Nestor of all American theology, and though we differ widely with him in many things, we yet accept this master mind and beautifully adorned life as the grandest result of our Christian intellectual development. He produced many valuable writings, but above all stands his ‘Systematic Theology,’ a work which has only begun its influence in moulding the religious thought of the English-speaking world. We could wish that its fallacy of dependence on the Calvinistic theology were not one of its faults. But what is this slight failing compared to the masterful leading of a thousand, lost in speculation, from the labyrinth of doubt and despair to the haven of heavenly faith and angelic security? We may say of this now sainted man, ‘With all thy faults we love thee still.’ Princeton has lost its greatest ornament, the Presbyterian Church its most precious gem, the American Church her greatest earth-born luminary [2].

[1] See the insightful biography of Charles Hodge written by W. Andrew Hoffecker, Charles Hodge: The Pride of Princeton (2011, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing).
[2] A.A. Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge D.D. LL.D. (1880), pp. 585-586.

Judith G. Perkins: The Flower of Persia

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Although we have previously highlighted the letter of 10 year-old A.A. Hodge and his younger sister Mary Elizabeth to the “heathen” of India, both went on to live full lives on earth to the glory of God. Today we highlight a young lady who lived her full life on earth to the ripe age of twelve years old.

Judith Grant Perkins was the daughter of Justin and Charlotte Perkins, missionaries to Persia, the fourth of seven children in the family. Her biography was primarily authored by Joseph Gallup Cochran: The Persian Flower: A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of Oroomiah, Persia (1853). Judith was born on August 8, 1840 at Urmia, Persia (now Iran).

She visited America once as a child. The story of that journey is found in Justin Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia, Among the Nestorian Christians (1843). But otherwise, she lived in Persia the rest of her life.

Judith was a precocious girl, who learned to read and write very well (her biography includes a number of letters that she wrote, and Log College Press has one letter in her own hand — written at the age of eight — which shows her excellent penmanship). She was interested in music, an avid reader (one of the last books she read — out loud to her mother — was Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and she assisted her father in his translation labors. She had a heart for advancing the gospel in other parts of the world, even thinking of one day laboring in China as a missionary.

Judith's interest in the cause of missions, was of early growth. When quite a small child, she often spoke of becoming a missionary, and was then particularly interested in China, as a prospective field of labor. And to the last, she always seemed to assume, that she should be a missionary somewhere, if her life were spared. Reading the memoirs of female missionaries, as the memoir of Harriet Newell, and that of Mrs. Dwight and Mrs. Grant, and of Mrs. Van Lennep, and others, served to quicken that desire, and strengthen that impression; and her circumstances on missionary ground, naturally kept the subject fresh before her mind. She said to some of the older Nestorian girls of the seminary, the last time she ever saw them, and only four days before her death, "I hope, after I return from Erzroom, to study very hard, and afterward go to America, and attend school awhile there, and then return and be a missionary here; or, I would prefer to go and labor where there are no missionaries."

In an important sense, Judith had long been a missionary helper. She ever manifested a very deep interest in all the departments of the good work among the Nestorians, and sought to aid in its progress in every way in her power. She had sat patiently many an hour, and assisted her father in adjusting the verses of the translation of the Bible according to the English version; reading the latter verse by verse; and she seldom seemed happier than when aiding him in that great work, which she longed to see accomplished. During the last year of her life, she assisted her mother in teaching a few Nestorian females connected with the Sabbath school, and .eagerly engaged in the loved employment.

Perkins, Judith Grant photo 2 smaller.jpg

It was while traveling with her family that she was stricken with illness. While lingering like the fragile flower she was, her father later recounted a conversation with Judith that reveals her inner spirit.

Once when I asked her, 'Dear Judith, is Jesus precious to you?' ‘O yes,' she replied; 'I have just had a view of Him; O how lovely!' What a balm was that reply to our writhing hearts! At another time, I inquired, 'Dear Judith, have you a desire to get well?' She replied, 'O, yes, papa, if it be God's will.' 'Why, dear Judith?' I inquired. '‘That I may do good,' she answered. ‘And if it is His will to take you now to Himself, are you not satisfied?' I inquired. 'O yes, papa; His will be done,' was her reply.

Towards the end, her father records a prayer that she uttered:

About this time, her papa and mamma kneeled over her and prayed in succession. She remained silent a few moments after we closed; and then, without any suggestion from us, uttered the following short prayer, slowly and distinctly, and evidently from the depths of her soul — 'O Lord, accept me; if it be thy will, make me well again; if not, oh let me not murmur.' We responded an audible amen.

She died of cholera on September 4, 1852 at the age of twelve, and was buried at the American Mission Graveyard outside of Urmia, where it is reported of the 60 or so individuals interred there, around 40 are children.

Her witness to the grace of Jesus Christ, who worked in her and through her, touched the lives of those who knew her, and many others who have read her life story over the years. We remember her as a flower who grew in Persia, and was transplanted to a more a beautiful garden above.

Recent Additions to Log College Press -- January 28, 2021

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

As we approach 10,000 separate works available to read for free online at Log College Press, we wish to keep our readers apprised of some recently-added highlights.

  • Caleb Cook Baldwin (1820-1911) and his wife Harriet Fairchild Baldwin (1826-1896) were American Presbyterian missionaries to China. Together they served Chinese Christians for almost five decades, and translated much of the Bible into the Fuzhou (Foochow) dialect. Mrs. Baldwin’s poems were published posthumously, and her pencil sketches are a joy to behold.

  • John Armor Bingham (1815-1900) was a friend of Titus Basfield (whose correspondence was destroyed sadly in the 1990s). He is known to history as a lawyer who participated in the trial of the conspirators involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, and as the primary author of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • Alexander Latimer Blackford (1829-1890) was an American Presbyterian missionary and the first moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

  • Amos Dresser (1812-1904) was a Presbyterian minister, abolitionist and pacifist. He was once publicly beaten in Tennessee for carrying abolitionist literature and advocating their contents, a story recounted in his famous Narrative.

  • Edward Payson Durant (1831-1892) was a ruling elder to whom A.A. Hodge gives credit for inspiring Hodge to write his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith.

  • Mary Augusta McConnell Palmer (1822-1888) was the wife of Benjamin Morgan Palmer.

  • Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith (1817-1898) was the wife and biographer of Henry Boynton Smith. She is also known for her hymn translations, including that of I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art, attributed sometimes to John Calvin (this attribution is disputed).

  • Lewis French Stearns (1847-1892) was the son of Jonathan French Stearns. Lewis served as a professor at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, and was greatly mourned when he died in his early 50s.

  • Hermann Warszawiak (1865-1921) was a born a Polish Jew, but after his conversion to Christ, his heart was set on missions to the Jews who lived in New York City.

  • Loyal Young (1806-1890) and Watson Johnston Young (1838-1919) were father and son Presbyterian ministers. Samuel Hall Young, the famous missionary to Alaska, was another son of Loyal Young. Loyal’s commentary on Ecclesiastes was a noteworthy contribution to Biblical exegesis. Both Loyal and Watson were poets as well.

  • Many additional writings by Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater, Albert Barnes, Francis Landey Patton, Henry Boynton Smith, and others have been added in recent weeks as well.

As always, we are grateful for the suggestions of our readers for people and works to add to the site. And as Log College Press continues to grow, keep checking back to see what’s new. Tolle lege!

An Honorable Princeton Roll Call

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Among the addresses delivered at the 1912 Centennial celebration for Princeton Theological Seminary was one given by William Lenoard McEwan titled “Princeton in the Work of the Pastorate.” In this message highlighting the contributions of Princeton-educated men to the work of the ministry, he includes a roll call of names that are also highlighted here at Log College Press. Today’s post is an extract from that address with links to pages for these men so that the 21st century reader may better acquaint themselves with their lives and labors. It is just a partial snapshot — Princeton has contributed much, much more — but it is a way to recognize some important but often-neglected names from American Presbyterian history.

Indeed if there were time to revive the memories of those who are familiar with the great movements that are written in our history, the reading of the names of the men whose influence has been great in the time of crisis or through long years of service would be sufficient— James W. Alexander, John C. Backus, for forty-eight years in Baltimore; J. Trumbull Backus, for forty-one years in Schenectady, N.Y.; George D. Baker, for a score of years in Philadelphia; Albert Barnes, forty years in Philadelphia; Charles C. Beatty, for sixty years in Steubenville, Ohio; William Blackburn; Henry A. Boardman, for forty-seven years in Philadelphia; Rob't J. Breckinridge of Kentucky; James H. Brookes of St. Louis; T. W. Chambers, nearly half a century in New York City; William C. Cattell, Joseph Christmas, founder of the American Church in Montreal; Bishop T. M. Clark; Richard F. Cleveland (father of a president of the United States); Theodore L. Cuyler, for thirty years in Brooklyn; Doak of Tennessee; J. T. Duryea, Philemon H. Fowler, Sam'l W. Fisher, P. D. Gurley of Washington, D.C; Leroy J. Halsey, A. A. Hodge, C. W. Hodge, E. B. Hodge, F. B. Hodge, William H. Hornblower, William Henry Green, Charles K. Imbrie, pastor, secretary and editor; Sheldon Jackson, Bishop John Johns, M. W. Jacobus, S. H. Kellogg, John M. Krebs, of New York; John C. Lowrie, Willis Lord, Bishop A. N. Littlejohn, J.M. Ludlow, Erskine Mason, Bishop C. B. Mcllvaine, David Magie, George W. Musgrave, Thomas Murphy, N.G. Parke, R. M. Patterson, W. S. Plumer, S. I. Prime, William M. Paxton, George T. Purves, Nathan L. Rice, Rendall of Lincoln, David H. Riddle, Stuart Robinson, Charles S. Robinson, W. D. Snodgrass, William A. Scott, W. B. Sprague, J. G. Symmes, E. P. Swift, H. J. Van Dyke, C. Van Rensselaer, Charles Wadsworth.

In this one packed paragraph, the names are easily passed over but each one represents a part of the story of the Lord’s kingdom work in this country and in the world by means of “an able and faithful ministry” (to use Samuel Miller’s words) as taught at Princeton. We are thankful for these men and take note of them here at Log College Press, also intending to add more as we are able. To God be the glory for these faithful witnesses.

Recent Additions to Log College Press -- October 13, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

We are always busy adding to the Log College Press website, but we don’t always announce what’s new. Today’s post highlights some recent additions to the site that are worth special notice.

  • Archibald Alexander and Samuel Davies Alexander, Dr. Alexander’s Sketch of Dr. Robert Smith (1855) - This biographical sketch by Archibald Alexander was among papers received by his son S.D. Alexander, and later submitted for publication in The Presbyterian. We also added Life Sketches From Scottish History, or, Brief Biographies of the Scottish Presbyterian Worthies (1855) by S.D. Alexander, which is a wonderful collection of biographical sketches.

  • Donaldina MacKenzie Cameron (1869-1968), The Story of Wong So (1925); and Ming Quong Home (1925). She was a New Zealand-born Presbyterian missionary who worked in San Francisco to help Chinese women escape from slavery and sex trafficking.

  • Anne James Carter (1834-1908), Recollections of the Early History of the Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg, VA (1906) — This fascinating, brief and rare work was recently acquired, scanned and uploaded to LCP. It was written by a church member on her 72nd birthday and gives an account of the early ministers of the church, including Samuel B. Wilson, A.A. Hodge, and much more.

  • Isabella Marshall Graham (1742-1814), The Power of Faith: Exemplified in the Life and Writings of the Late Mrs. Isabella Graham, of New-York (1816); and The Unpublished Letters and Correspondence of Mrs. Isabella Graham, From the Year 1767 to 1814; Exhibiting Her Religious Character in the Different Relations of Life (1838). She was a member of John Witherspoon’s church in Scotland, before coming to America and beginning a life of philanthropy to help others in need.

  • Andrew Patton Happer (1818-1894), A Professorship of Missionary Instruction in Our Theological Seminaries (1876); Is the Shang-Ti of the Chinese Classics the Same Being as Jehovah of the Sacred Scriptures? (1877); A Visit to Peking, With Some Notice of the Imperial Worship at the Altars of Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon and the Gods of the Grain and the Land (1879); The Missionary Enterprise: Its Success in Other Lands the Assurance of Its Success in China (1880); The State Religion of China (1881); The Population of China (1883); What Shall Be Done With Converts Who Have More Than One Wife? (1883); The Number of Buddhists in the World (1883); A Retrospect (1884); and Influence of the College in the Civilization of the World: A Sermon (1894). He was a Presbyterian missionary in China for 40 years. 

  • David Raymond Taggart (1880-1958), Science and the Flu (1919); The Faith of Abraham Lincoln (1943); and A Catechism For Covenanter Children (n.d). Taggart was a Reformed Presbyterian minister. His 1919 article concerns the Spanish Flu pandemic, and in it he writes: “Would it not be the part of wisdom, and the ultimate conclusion of science, that instead of closing the churches first, as the nonessential gathering of the people, that they should be made the exception, and considered one of the essentials for the health of the community.”

  • Isaac Malek Yonan (1871-1941), Persia, Its Religions and Mission Work (1894); Persian Women: A Sketch of Woman’s Life From the Cradle to the Grave, and Missionary Work Among Them, With Illustrations (1898); The Armenian Church (1898-1899); and March 27, 1917 Letter (1917). Yonan was a Persian-born Presbyterian pastor who studied under T.D. Witherspoon.

  • Nez Perce Presbyterian Mission, Idaho — Robert Williams (1846-1896), Gospel Hymns in the Nez Perce Language (1897). He was the first Nez Perce ever ordained as a Presbyterian minister. James Hayes (1857-1928), Gospel Hymns in the Nez Perce Language (1897). He was a Nez Perce Presbyterian minister. Kate Christine McBeth (1832-1915), Gospel Hymns in the Nez Perce Language (1897); and The Nez Perces Since Lewis and Clark (1908). Susan Law McBeth (1830-1893), Diary entries from 1858 and 1860. These sisters were missionaries to the Nez Perce in Idaho. Henry Harmon Spalding (1803-1874) also contributed to the making of Gospel Hymns in the Nez Perce Language (1897).

Many more authors and works have been added in recent weeks, but these may serve to whet the reader’s appetite. Church history and biography is so rich with fascinating accounts of servants of the Most High King, and their contributions to the work of the kingdom. These authors — who were pastors, missionaries, and regular church members — all lived remarkable lives and have remarkable things to tell. Take a look at these new additions, and keep checking back for more.

Political Dissent by Early American Covenanters

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

“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).

Charles Hodge: He cares for the sparrows

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them (Matt. 6:26).

Charles Hodge, in an autobiographical reminiscence about his childhood, teaches us how we all ought to live if we would but remember that God cares for the birds of the air, and even more so for His beloved children.

Our early training was religious. Our mother was a Christian. She took us regularly to church, and carefully drilled us in the Westminster Catechism, which we recited on stated occasions to Dr. Ashbel Green, our pastor. There has never been anything remarkable in my religious experience, unless it be that it began very early. I think that in my childhood I came nearer to conforming to the apostle's injunction: "Pray without ceasing," than in any other period of my life. As far back as I can remember, I had the habit of thanking God for everything I received, and asking him for everything I wanted. If I lost a book, or any of my playthings, I prayed that I might find it. I prayed walking along the streets, in school and out of school, whether playing or studying. I did not do this in obedience to any prescribed rule. It seemed natural. I thought of God as an everywhere-present Being, full of kindness and love, who would not be offended if children talked to him. I knew he cared for sparrows. I was as cheerful and happy as the birds, and acted as they did. There was little more in my prayers and praises than in the worship rendered by the fowls of the air (A.A. Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge D.D. LL.D., p. 13).

Get to know Nathaniel S. McFetridge

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Having benefited over the years from a little book titled Calvinism in History — Loraine Boettner spoke highly of it in his own classic The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination — by Nathaniel Smyth McFetridge, this writer had little information at first about the author and was curious for more. From a combination of sources, we have gleaned details about this fascinating Presbyterian minister who died quite young.

Wayne Sparkman at the PCA Historical Center wrote a biographical sketch, which provides very helpful information, including a partial bibliography. Other information has been assembled from ecclesiastical and genealogical records and publications from colleges with which he was associated. There is much more that we wish we had — for example, a photograph, and a few more of his known published writings. But we have discovered where he was laid to rest, among other details of interest. It is hoped that we will learn more over time, but below are some fresh brush strokes which will attempt to paint in some measure the picture of his life, and to supplement material that Dr. Sparkman has previously published.

McFetridge was born in Ardina, Dunboe Parish, County Derry, Northern Ireland on August 4, 1842. His family came to America when he was but a child, and they settled in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. He studied at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and retained ties to the school after he graduated in 1864. It was in that year that his prize-winning essay on the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was published. He split the Fowler Prize with another student (who won $20, while he won $10) for his introductory study of the great classic. Recently, this writer obtained a copy and uploaded pictures of the text for readers who may wish to read young McFetridge’s insights into Chaucer.

Our author tells us in the preface to Calvinism in History that he benefited greatly in his later studies at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh under A.A. Hodge, which he regarded as one of the greatest blessings of his life. McFetridge graduated from seminary in 1867 and was ordained into the ministry by the Presbytery of Erie (PCUSA) soon after, being installed the following year as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Oil City, Pennsylvania. Married in 1868 to Jane Sutton, the McFetridges had four daughters and one son. He wrote to the Lafayette Monthly in March 1872 that he contemplated leaving the Oil City pastorate, but was persuaded to stay. In 1874, however, he transferred his credentials to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, North and became pastor of the Wakefield Presbyterian Church of Germantown, a neighborhood in northwestern Philadelphia. Dr. William C. Cattell, President of Lafayette College, gave the charge to the pastor on December 10, 1874.

Regarding his ties to Lafayette, it was reported in the July 1, 1871 Lafayette Monthly that Rev. McFetridge read a poem of his own composition titled “Peace” and offered the closing prayer at Alumni Society meeting held the day before commencement exercises. A hymn composed by McFetridge was published in January 1873 Lafayette Monthly titled “Jesus is Born.” The same periodical reported on January 1, 1879 that McFetridge presided over an alumni dinner, “with a quiet dignity and grace becoming the occasion, and introduced the speakers in a very happy manner,” with Dr. Cattell sitting at his right hand. In 1879, after the death of William Adamson, who served on the Lafayette Board of Trustees, Rev. McFetridge delivered a commemorative sermon. The February 1, 1880 Lafayette Journal informed its readers that McFetridge was recently elected to fill the vacant seat on the Board of Trustees, and also mentions that in 1878 he delivered the annual sermon before the Brainerd Society and the Christian Brotherhood.

In February 1881, McFetridge was seriously injured in a train accident, an event alluded to in the July 1, 1881 Lafayette Journal’s description of commencement exercises at which he was asked to speak but declined due to his injuries. He was spoken of as the man “whom steam engines can not crush.” He did pronounce the benediction at an oratorical contest as reported in the March 1, 1883 Lafayette Journal. The December 1883 Lafayette College Journal published a dispatch by McFetridge which reported on the departure from New York of Dr. Cattell and his family on board the steamship SS Servia bound for Liverpool, England. The warmth of his affection for Lafayette’s President is most apparent in his praise of the man. McFetridge’s Calvinism in History — which originated in lectures delivered at Wakefield Presbyterian Church in 1881 and which was published in 1882 — is dedicated to Cattell.

On the occasion of Martin Luther’s four hundredth birthday, in 1883, at the Presbyterian Church in Abington, Pennsylvania, Rev. McFetridge, along with Robert Ellis Thompson, gave an address in commemoration of “The Dear Man of God: Doctor Martin Luther of Blessed Memory.”

After eleven years at Wakefield, McFetridge resigned from his pastorate (due to his impaired health, we are told by Francis B. Reeves in his historical sketch of Wakefield Presbyterian Church) and was elected in early 1885 to fill the position of chair of Greek, Anglo-Saxon and Modern Languages at Macalester College in Minnesota, and had joined the faculty there by the autumn of that year.

An 1887 memorial tribute by Macalester College informed its readers that after a brief but much beloved tenure, Rev. McFetridge entered into glory on December 3, 1886 at the age of 44. It is thought that the injuries suffered from the train accident several years before they took their final toll on his body. Although he died in St. Paul, Minnesota, he was buried at the Shenango Valley Cemetery in Greenville, Pennsylvania, where his wife and at least two daughters were later laid to rest as well. A memorial window at Wakfield Presbyterian Church was given by his wife (where also artwork by a Japanese student who once lived with the McFetridges was presented). As described by his colleagues at Macalester, he was an inspiration as a teacher, minister of the gospel and friend:

As members of the Faculty, we were strangers when we met; but very soon our departed brother won the esteem and confidence of us all. No less did he win that of the students. As a professor, he was scholarly. careful and diligent in his work. He had the aptitude for teaching in a high degree. He exacted careful and diligent work from the students. Though a constant sufferer, he did not spare himself, and he had small patience with idleness and inattention on the part of any in his classes. When he led the college in morning prayers, his confessions of human frailty and sin, and his pleadings with our Heavenly Father for grace and strength to bear us through the duties of the day, were peculiarly touching.

As a member of the Faculty, he was prudent in counsel, firm in the maintenance of right, faithful to the best interests of the College, and courteous to his brethren.

As a preacher, he was remarkably clear in exposition and impressive in manner. He delighted especially in commending the love, the patience and the faithfulness of Christ, and was never happier than when so engaged.

He was a man of sprightly temperament, of genial and kindly disposition. His intellect was fine, his culture high, his views broad, and his spirit catholic. He was eminently patient in suffering and we who never saw him free from it, know how his brightness and hopefulness and faithfulness in the midst of it, enforced the lesson of Christian joy in submission to the Father's will, with "patient continuance in well-doing," upon all about him.

The writings of Nathaniel S. McFetridge that we have assembled thus far are available to read at his page here. His enduring Calvinism in History is there to read, along with a few other writings referenced above. We hope to add more eventually. From these and other materials we have gleaned that he was a well-respected, indeed beloved, pastor, teacher, friend and family man. Although details of his life are fewer than we would wish, we have sketched some aspects which reveal him to be a poet, a correspondent, a loyal college alumni, and a scholar. He was a man of humility too, and who looked to Christ in the midst of his personal physical suffering; and all of these qualities are evident in his writings and in the testimonials about him by others. He was a candle that burned brightly and briefly, yet the illumination of his life and legacy continues to shine.

Friday Fun from Log College Press

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

For a little Friday fun, we are sharing some interesting facts about select authors at Log College Press. It is intended as a revealing, even light-hearted, look at some curious and interesting facets of the group of writers that constitutes this assembly of Presbyterian writers.

We begin with some current stats of interest:

  • Who is the most prolific author on Log College Press? - B.B. Warfield (currently there are 253 works by Warfield on LCP)

  • Who is the oldest author on Log College Press? - Arthur Judson Brown (died at the age of 106)

  • Who is the youngest author on Log College Press? - Archibald Johnston (died at the age of 25) - although we also have a published letter by A.A. Hodge written when he was 10 years old.

  • In what year was the earliest Log College Press author born? - Robert Hunt was born c. 1568.

  • In what year did the most recent Log College Press author enter glory? - Ernest Trice Thompson died in 1985.*

  • Who was the most well-traveled author on Log College Press? - Pioneer missionary John Cuthbertson traveled an estimated 70,000 miles during his 40-year career.

  • How many African-American authors are on Log College Press? - 40

  • How many authors on Log College Press were formerly slaves? - 18

  • How many Native-American authors are on Log College Press? - 5

  • How many female authors are on Log College Press? - 16

  • How many authors were U.S. Presidents? - 3

And then we have some more subjective matters.

  • What is the most amusing title found on Log College Press? - Do Not Marry a Fop by William B. Sprague

  • Who was the most “dashing” author on Log College Press? - Chauncey Webster wore the top hat very well.

Chauncey Webster

Chauncey Webster

Let us know what else you would like to know about the authors found at Log College Press. We welcome suggestions for additions to the site as well. Meanwhile, have a great Friday!

*Part of the criteria to be an author featured on Log College Press is that the author must be born prior to 1900.

American Presbyterians in Europe

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

St. Augustine, when he speaks of the great advantages of travelling, says, that the world is a great book, and none study this book so much as a traveller. They that never stir from home read only one page of this book. -- John Feltham, The English Enchiridion (1799)

Like many today who might be itching to travel again, American Presbyterians in the 19th century also sought the benefits of a long voyage, and Europe was one particular favorite destination. Among the life experiences of authors found at Log College Press, trips to Europe are a recurring theme, and our Travelogue page highlights this.

The letters, journals, books and poetry that resulted from such trips are a valuable historical record of life on one side of the pond as viewed through the eyes of residents from the other side. In today’s post, we take a closer look at these memorials of their experiences.

  • James Waddel Alexander — J.W. Alexander traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland on a six-month tour of Europe in 1851. He met Adolphe Monod in Paris. Later, in 1857, he returned to Europe and met Charles H. Spurgeon in England, and Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, while also visiting France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. His reports on these travel experiences are recorded in Forty Years' Familiar Letters, and also in James W. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons from the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander.

  • Joseph Addison Alexander — J.A. Alexander spent a year in Europe (1833-1834). Time was spent in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. From diary extracts given in H.C. Alexander’s The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, we learn many fascinating details about the people he met, and the poems he wrote, inspired by his European travels.

  • Henry Martyn Baird — Baird spent much of his childhood in France and Switzerland, and then after graduating from the University of New York, lived in Greece and Italy during 1851-1853, and studied at the University of Athens. Besides his many written studies of the French Huguenots, he authored Modern Greece: A Narrative of a Residence and Travels in that Country (1856).

  • Robert Baird — Baird visited Europe many times as recorded in H.M. Baird’s biography The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D. (1866). Baird himself wrote about his travels in Visits to Northern Europe (1841) and Old Sights With New Eyes (1854). His travels also enabled him to write with personal knowledge about Protestantism in Italy.

  • John Henry Barrows — Barrows’ world travels, detailed in A World Pilgrimage (1897), included England, France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

  • Robert Jefferson Breckinridge — R.J. Breckinridge was appointed by the PCUSA General Assembly to serve as its representative in Europe, leading to a trip to England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. His travels are detailed in Memoranda of Foreign Travel (1839 and, in 2 vols., 1845).

  • George Barrell Cheever — Cheever’s journey though the French-Swiss Alps is recorded in Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau Alp (1848).

  • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler’s travels through England, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Greece, and the Czech Republic, are recorded in From the Nile to Norway and Homeward (1881).

  • George Duffield IV — Duffield’s travels were published in the Magazine of Travel during 1857, and later republished in Travels in the Two Hemispheres; or, Gleanings of a European Tour (1858).

  • Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet traveled to Europe in 1851, including England, Ireland Scotland and Germany. His speeches from some of those locations are found here.

  • Stephen Henry Gloucester — Gloucester, pastor of the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, visited England and Scotland in 1847-1848. The record of his trip, and letters which he wrote home, can be found in Robert Jones, Fifty years in the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church (1894).

  • Charles Hodge — From 1826 to 1828, Hodge traveled to Europe, studying in Paris and and wrote a handwritten journal of his experiences (primarily in Germany) available to read here. See also A.A. Hodge’s The Life of Charles Hodge for more on these travels, including letters written to home.

  • Alexander McLeod — McLeod visited England and Scotland in 1830. His experiences are recounted in Samuel Brown Wylie’s Memoir of Alexander McLeod (1855). Wylie’s own trip to Europe in 1802-1803 is also discussed in this volume.

  • James Clement Moffat — Moffat recounts his experiences in the summer of 1872 in Song and Scenery; or, A Summer Ramble in Scotland (1874).

  • Walter William Moore — Moore recounts his experiences in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in A Year in Europe (1904, 1905).

  • James W.C. Pennington — The “Fugitive Blacksmith’s” s travels to England, Scotland and Germany are detailed in Christopher L. Webber, American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. He was the first African-American in Europe to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

  • Samuel Irenaeus Prime — Prime’s travels were recorded in Travels in Europe and the East: A Year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, 2 vols. (1855, 1856).

  • Joel Edson Rockwell — Rockwell’s journey through France, Germany, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland is chronicled in Scenes and Impressions Abroad (1860).

  • William Buell Sprague — Sprague writes in the preface to his Visits to European Celebrities (1855), “In 1828, and again in 1836, I had the privilege of passing a few months on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. In both visits, especially the latter, I was more interested to see men than things; and I not only made the acquaintance, so far as I could, of distinguished individuals as they came in my way, but sometimes made circuitous routes in order to secure to myself this gratification.” See also his Letters From Europe, in 1828 (1828).

  • Thomas De Witt Talmage — A world traveller, Talmage wrote Great Britain Through American Spectacles (1885); From the Pyramids to the Acropolis: Sacred Places Seen Through Biblical Spectacles (1892); and The Earth Girdled: The World as Seen To-Day (1896).

These are some of the men at Log College Press who spent time in Europe, and their writings often tell us about life abroad, and often inspired them in various ways, just as travels inspire us. It is human nature to want to travel, and if we are limited in our ability to do so at present, we can at least turn to others who have done so and be inspired by them.

A.A. Hodge's Table Talks on the Lord's Day

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

From the Table Talks of A.A. Hodge, today we glean some extracts having to do with the Lord’s Day, or Christian Sabbath. He has written more extensively on this topic in other locations, such as this treatise on The Day Changed and the Sabbath Preserved, but these bite-sized extracts are also worthy of consideration.

The Essence of the Sabbath.

That a regular portion of time, appointed by God, to be observed by all men, should be set apart for rest and the worship of God,—this is the essence of the Sabbath ; that one-seventh of time should be so set apart is, relatively to this, the accident. It is, however, the case that one-seventh of time has been positively set apart by God for a Sabbath, and a particular one-seventh of time. The choice has not been left to us.

Duration and Extent of the Sabbath Law.

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," is as much a moral law as "Thou shalt not steal" — the law founded on the relations of property. Its duration and extent are determined by the character of the institution and the abiding reason for it; and also by Scripture, in the New Testament portion of which its permanence is incidentally recognised, though there is no specific re-establishment of it, any more than of infant church membership.

The Lord’s Day and the Sabbath the Same.

Our "Lord's Day" and the Jewish "Sabbath" are not different in essence. Both are days of rest and festival, not of gloom. The essence of the Sabbath could not be changed without changing the nature of man. But the accidents of it may be changed by competent authority, and were actually changed by the college of Apostles, for a sufficient reason.

The Change of Day.

The stream of Sabbath observance on the seventh day of the week came right down to the time of the Apostles; it took a bend at that point; and it has come right on ever after. Only they could have altered it; the authority of no other would have wrought such an universal change in the Christian world. The adequate reason for the change was, the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and the new creation it secured. The competent authority was that of the Apostles, and no other. (The trouble with the hierarchical bishops now is, that they are all Apostles, though they have not seen the Lord — not a soul of them!)

A Virtual Tour of Princeton Cemetery

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

William H. Foote once wrote of Moses Hoge (Sketches of Virginia, Second Series, p. 373):

He also visited Princeton College, which, in 1810, had conferred on him, in company with his friend, Mr. [Archibald] Alexander, the degree of S.T.D.; and passed a few days with Dr. Alexander. A cold easterly rain was falling the whole time of his visit. He examined thoroughly the condition of the two institutions, the College and the Seminary, with reference to the two in Prince Edward. He rejoiced in the extended influence of his friend Alexander, and [Samuel] Miller the co-laborer. He could not refrain from a visit to the grave-yard to meditate by the tombs of [Aaron] Burr, [Sr. and Jr.]; [Jonathan] Edwards, [Samuel] Davies, [John] Witherspoon, and [Samuel Stanhope] Smith. As he tarried in that hallowed spot, the bleak wind pierced his diseased frame, and hastened his descent into the valley of death. His heart was elevated as he went from grave to grave, and read the epitaphs of these Presidents of College and teachers of Theology; and his body under the cold rain was chilled in preparation for his own resting in the silent tomb. The conversations of Hoge and Alexander those few days, had there been a hand to record them, laying open the hearts, as by a daguerrotype, of men of such exalted pure principle, so unselfish and so unlike the mass of men - what simplicity of thought, benevolence in feeling, and elevation of piety! -- but there was no man to pen what all men would have been glad to read. Mr. Hoge took his seat in the Assembly - but his fever returned upon him, of a typhus case, and by means of the cold caught in Princeton, became too deeply seated for medicine to remove. He bowed his head meekly to the will of the Head of the Church, and fell asleep in Jesus, on the [5th] of July."

Of the Alexander family, A.A. Hodge once said (Henry Carrington Alexander, The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, Vol. 2, p. 583):

Of this one great family, A. A. Hodge once said, “I never go to Princeton without visiting the graves of the Alexanders – father and sons – and I never think of them without having my poor staggering faith in God and in regenerated humanity strengthened. Let us uncover our heads and thank God for them.”

Princeton Cemetery is comparable to Westminster Abbey or Bunhill Fields, where so many godly saints are buried - John F. Hageman described it as "the Westminster Abbey of the United States." The number of Log College Press authors who have been laid to rest here is numerous; included are Archibald Alexander, James W. Alexander, Joseph A. Alexander, Aaron Burr, Sr., Samuel Davies, A.A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, Samuel Miller, B.B. Warfield, John Witherspoon, and so many more.

For those who are unable to visit Princeton Cemetery in person, or who wish to revisit the cemetery virtually, take a tour of this special place online here. See where the past Presidents of Princeton (including Jonathan Edwards, Sr.) are buried, along with a President and Vice-President of the United States, and many other luminaries with Princeton connections. This writer has spent many hours touring the grounds, including a visit to the grave of Charles Hodge on the 140th anniversary of his entering into glory. We can all be thankful for the technology to be able to revisit Princeton Cemetery, especially in a time of isolation.

Three kinds of grace, according to Gilbert Tennent

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

What is grace? Archibald Alexander in his Pocket Dictionary (1829, 1831) defines it as “free favour, unmerited kindness.” Gilbert Tennent in his 1743 sermon on this attribute of God — from his series on the chief end of man, reprinted also in Archibald Alexander’s compilation of Sermons of the Log College, edited by Samuel Davies Alexander — also speaks of it as “undeserved kindness.” Tennent elaborates that grace is both a divine attribute of God, and the gift of God towards others — and that God’s grace extends to “ail Creatures, even to the noblest Angels.”

The fact that God’s grace — unmerited favor — extends to all creatures suggests that not all creatures are beneficiaries of what is known as “saving grace.” Thus, distinctions must be made in the types of grace that God extends to His creatures. These distinct types of the grace of God are discussed in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, A.A. Hodge, Robert L. Dabney, W.G.T. Shedd, Geerhardus Vos and many other notable American theologians, all of whom properly distinguish between saving and common grace.

But to return to Gilbert Tennent’s sermon on grace, let us hear what this son of the founder of the Log College taught in 1743.

…Grace is Three-fold, viz., Universal, common, and saving. And

1st. Universal Grace is that, whereby Jehovah dispenses natural Things upon all his Creatures, and hence he is call’d the Saviour of all Men. 1 Tim. iv.10. And is said to preserve Man and Beast. Psa. xxxvi.6. He causes his Sun to rise upon the Fields of the Evil and the Good, and sends his Rain upon the Just and the Unjust: He gives to Man Life, Health, Strength, and all the Supports he enjoys therein, all which being undeserv’d, may be call’d Grace; but according to the Usage of Scripture and Antiquity, they seldom and less properly bear that Name.

2dly. Common Grace consists in the Communication of moral good Things upon Men promiscuously, whether they be good or bad, elect or not elect, just as natural Wisdom and Prudence, and all the Train of moral Vertues, in which even some Pagans have excell’d. And to these we may add, all outward religious Priviledges and Means of Grace; together with those transient Effects which are sometimes produced, by them upon the Unregenerate, such as some of Illumination, and Stirrings of religious Affection. In a Word all those common operations of the Holy Spirit, which are not follow’d by a habitual and saving Change, must be ascrib’d hereto. Of these mention is made Heb. vi.4-6. and also in the Parable of the Sower, Mat. xiii.20-21. But he that received the Seed into Stony Places, the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with Joy receiveth it, yet hath he not Root in himself, but dureth for a while, for when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth, because of the Word, by and by he is offended. But

3dly. Saving Grace is that undue or undeserved Love of God, whereby he confers upon the Elect only, saving Benefits, of his own meer good Pleasure.

Thus, according to Tennent, the disposition of God towards all of his creatures is gracious, leading him to extend unmerited favor in some measure unto all, although saving grace is reserved for the elect only. The knowledge of God’s grace — in all its manifestations — is a mighty incentive to humility:

…methinks the Doctrine of Free Grace should powerfully induce us to Humility, Seeing that it is God only, who has made us to differ from others, and that we have nothing but what we have receiv'd. We are his Debtors, for all we have in Hand or Hope. The Nature of Grace supposes the Object, upon whom it is vouchsafed, unworthy of it. A continued humbling Sense of this, would as much conduce to our Benefit, as Ornament.

The sovereign and free grace of God, which flows from His very nature, will naturally bring low the pride of man and exalt the goodness of God. Consider this word from Tennent — the whole sermon is found in his Twenty-Three Sermons on Man's Chief End (1744) and in Alexander’s Sermons of the Log College (1855) — and may we then praise Him as the Psalmist does who said: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Ps. 103:8).