Matthew Anderson's Rules For Success in the Ministry

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Matthew Anderson was born on this day in history, January 25, 1845, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. A fifth-generation Presbyterian raised in a devout Christian home and taught the catechism. Determined to succeed in his education in order to best serve the Lord, Anderson studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating there in 1874. He began his preparation for the ministry at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh before transferring to the Princeton Theological Seminary, where, after his arrival, he first mistaken as a manual laborer, rather than a student. Anderson graduated in 1877, becoming one of the first African-American students to live on campus and graduate from the seminary at Princeton.

He went to lead a very successful ministry at the Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where he also founded the Berean Savings Association and the Berean Institute to help African-Americans learn job skills and achieve financial success.

In his autobiographical Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro (1897), pp. 186-188, Anderson is careful to ascribe all of his success in the ministry to the good hand of God upon him, and to certain rules that he followed in his pastoral career. Here is the list of rules that guided Matthew Anderson’s ministry:

First. Never to undertake anything without first having studied it in all its different phases, with the Spirit's guidance, and after seeing it in all its relations, and there be given a reasonable assurance of success to undertake it.

Second. After having carefully considered the subject and convinced that the work in question should be undertaken, not to allow any adverse influences whatever to divert us from our purpose.

Third. In presenting the work to others, never exaggerate it with the hope of gaining friends, or money, to assist in carrying it on, but to show it in its true light, even though the truth for the time being would tend to prejudice against the work.

Fourth. When convinced that the work is needed, and that it is the will of Providence that we should undertake it, to make use of all the means at our command temporal, intellectual and spiritual, to secure its success.

Fifth. In all our labors to keep clearly before us not only the present, but the future wants of the people and to work accordingly, even though the people themselves do not see that they are needing such work.

Sixth. That we be guided and regulated by the great and immortal principles of divine truth, rather than by sentiment, which knows no creed, race or color, and which regards all men alike redeemed by one common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. That while by the accidents of birth and the unholy sentiment of the country, our labors are confined principally to the people of the colored race, we should nevertheless regard ourselves, ministers of Christ, as embracing a wider sphere of labor, since in God's sight there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but all related by ties of consanguinity, having sprung from common parents.

Seventh. That we ever hold sacred the great cardinal truths of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and make them the guiding star of our life work in all of our dealings toward our fellowmen.

Eighth. That we be perfectly frank and honest in all our work, never to misrepresent it for the sake of gain, take advantage of the ignorant, but at all times try and carry out the principles of the golden rule.

Ninth. That we fear no man, nor call any man master, but be kindly affectioned towards all men, and under no circumstances to allow an insult to pass unresented which was intended to belittle our manhood, not because of ourselves personally, but because of the race with which we are identified, and which to stigmatize would be the real object of the insult.

Tenth. That we listen to the criticisms and advice of friends, and acknowledge our failures and faults, and be ever ready to apologize to others for injuries done them by us.

These ten rules, though unwritten, embrace the principles which have regulated us in all our work up to the present time, and to which we attribute whatever success may have attended our labors.

In this list, we see a man careful to seek God’s leading, scrupulous to avoid or properly respond to personal conflicts or racial prejudice that would tend to undermine his ministry, and deeply impressed by the value of following the Golden Rule in all his actions and words. Though his social situation is not exactly that of Philadelphia in the 21st century, there is much to be learned from his approach to the pastoral ministry today. Great things can be accomplished for God by first walking in humble reliance upon His Spirit. We thus remember Matthew Anderson, born on this day in history 178 years ago.

Eyewitnesses to History

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One fascinating feature found within the writings of early American Presbyterians is the window some authors have given us to key moments in history. Amidst the doctrinal and devotional literature are records and observations, speeches, sermons, diary entries, letters and more that tell future generations, including ours, what it is like to be present at some of the most momentous historical events in the annals of America and the world.

  • One of the earliest Presbyterians in America was Alexander Whitaker, a chaplain who arrived at the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1611, and who ministered to the Indian princess Pocahontas. He reported in a June 18, 1614 letter to his cousin William Gouge, later a Westminster Divine, concerning both her conversion to Christianity and her marriage to John Rolfe: “But that which is best, one Pocahuntas or what Matoa the daughter of Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreete English Gentleman Master Rolfe, and that after she had openly renounced her Country Idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptised; which thing Sir Thomas Dale had laboured a long time to ground in her.”

This portrait of The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman (1840), which shows Alexander Whitaker administering the sacrament, hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, District of Columbia.

  • Reportedly, among the 56 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, twelve were Presbyterians, including Richard Stockton and John Witherspoon, the only clergyman present. Witherspoon also had a hand at another historical moment - the signing of the Articles of Confederation.

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence (Witherspoon signed it on August 2, 1776).

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1781 Articles of Confederation (New Jersey delegates signed the document on November 26, 1778).

  • Samuel Miller (then known as “Sammy”) was a young witness to history having been present at the State House in Philadelphia (Independence Hall) at the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He watched as George Washington, and many other founding fathers, some of whom were friends of his father, John Miller, entered and departed while the work of preparing the US Constitution was going on. He was also a student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789 while the first General Assembly of the PCUSA was meeting and working to revise the standards of the church. Miller’s friend — and later, colleague — John Rodgers played an important role at that Assembly (Miller was Rodgers’ biographer). He also developed close ties at this time to Ashbel Green, whose advice and counsel to young Miller would prove important as he entered upon his theological studies.

Junius Brutus Steams, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention (1856)

  • One of the most amazing meteor showers recorded in history took place in during the night and early morning of November 12-13, 1833. There were many who witnessed the Leonid meteor storm in which between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors fell each hour, one of whom was David Talmage, the father of Thomas De Witt Talmage, who later told his father’s story in a sermon.

Engraving of the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower by Adolf Vollmy (1889), based on the painting by Karl Jauslin.

  • Albert Williams, who founded the First Presbyterian Church of San Francisco, California, wrote about the series of fires that plagued the city in 1851 in A Pioneer Pastorate (1879): “So frequent and periodical were these fires, that they came to be regarded in the light of permanent institutions. Fears of a recurrence of the dread evil, in view of the past, were not long in waiting for fulfilment. On the anniversary of the fire of the 4th of May, 1850, came another on the 4th of May, 1851, the fifth general fire. The city was appalled by these repeated calamities. And more, it began to be a confirmed conviction that they were not accidental, but incendiary. On the 22d of June, 1851, the sixth, and, happily the last general fire, and severest of all, occurred. The fact that the point of the beginning of this fire was in a locality quite destitute of water facilities, with other attending circumstances, left hardly a remaining doubt of its incendiary character.”

Depiction of the June 22, 1851 San Francisco Fire.

  • The summer of 1855 was devastating to the city of Norfolk, Virginia. George D. Armstrong, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, endured the epidemic of yellow fever that decimated the city. He stayed during the outbreak to minister to the sick, often serving them for over 15 hours per day, but lost his wife, one daughter, a nephew and a sister-in-law to the disease. He wrote The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856).

Market Square, Norfolk, Virginia.

  • The War Between the States saw Presbyterians on both sides of the conflict. Robert L. Dabney, Stonewall Jackson’s chief of staff and biographer, wrote What I Saw of the Battle of Chickahominy (1872) concerning the June 27, 1862 conflict also known as the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Hanover County, Virginia. Later that year, on the same day as the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, Maryland) [September 17, 1862], a terrible tragedy took place in at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, now a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Three consecutive explosions rocked the facility and 78 people were killed along with 150 injured, making it the worst civilian and industrial accident of the war. Presbyterian minister Richard Lea was at his church one block away, who immediately rushed over to render aid. Eleven days later, he preached a Sermon Commemorative of the Great Explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal. Before the war ended, Henry Highland Garnet made history in Washington, D.C. by becoming the first African-American to address the House of Representatives on February 12, 1865. His sermon called for the death of slavery and freedom for all American citizens.

Henry Highland Garnet preaching to Congress.

Thomas De Witt Talmage had a very successful ministry at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. But the congregation was challenged by the occasions when their building was destroyed by fire, not once, but three times — in 1872, 1889, and 1894. After the third conflagration, Talmage retired from that pastorate. As he began a trip around the world, he wrote to his friends: “Our church has again been halted by a sword of flame. The destruction of the first Brooklyn Tabernacle was a mystery. The destruction of the second a greater profound. This third calamity we adjourn to the Judgment Day for explanation. The home of a vast multitude of souls, it has become a heap of ashes. Whether it will ever rise again is a prophecy we will not undertake. God rules and reigns and makes no mistake. He has his way with churches as with individuals. One thing is certain; the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle will continue to preach as long as life and health last. We have no anxieties about a place to preach in. But woe is unto us if we preach not the Gospel! We ask for the prayers of all good people for the pastor and people of Brooklyn Tabernacle.”

Brooklyn Tabernacle after the fire.

  • On May 31, 1889, after days of heavy rain, the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania burst leading to the deaths of over 2,000 people. David J. Beale was one of the survivors and his account of the tragedy is gripping: Through the Johnstown Flood (1890).

Debris from the Johnstown Flood.

  • At 5:12 am local time on April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco was rocked by one of the deadliest earthquakes ever to strike the United States. Over 3,000 people were killed and 80% of the city was destroyed. Among those affected were the Chinese girls who were being cared for at the Occidental Board of Foreign Missions after having been rescued from involuntary servitude. Superintendent Donaldina Cameron was able to, shepherd those girls to the premises of the San Francisco Theological Seminary after the earthquake. Edward A. Wicher, a professor at the seminary, wrote an appeal for emergency funds to help the suffering, which Cameron co-signed. Cameron later wrote of the blessings that God wrought in the midst of that tragedy: “‘As the night brings out the stars’ so through the shadow of disaster there shines for the Chinese Rescue Home the unfailing light of God's love and peace, and we are happy.”

The Occidental Board of Foreign Missions Headquarters after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

  • From 1915 to 1917, approximately 1 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman forces. The Armenian Genocide was documented in part by American missionaries, such as as William Ambrose Shedd and his wife Mary Lewis Shedd, Mary A. Schauffler Labaree Platt, author of The War Journal of a Missionary in Persia (1915), and Frederick G. Coan, author of Yesterdays in Persia and Kurdistan (1939). Rev. Shedd: “It lies with us to see that the blood shed and the suffering endured are not in vain. May God grant and may we who know so well the wrongs that have been borne, so labor that the cause of these wrongs be removed. That will be done when Christ rules in the hearts of those who profess His name and is acknowledged by all, not merely as a great prophet but as the Saviour for Whose coming prophecy prepared the way, Who is the fulfillment of revelation, and in Whom human destiny will find its goal.”

Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916.

  • Wilson P. Mills was an American missionary who served also in a diplomatic capacity during the 1937-1938 “Rape of Nanjing,” a massacre by Japanese soldiers that resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 40,000-300,000 civilians in occupied Nanjing, China. His efforts to help arrange a truce are described in letters to his wife dated January 22/24 and January 31, 1938. The story of his eyewitness account of the Japanese occupation of the city and the reign of terror that existed is told sequentially in letters from January to March 1938. For his role in protecting the 250,000 citizens of the Nanjing Safety Zone, Mills received the Order of the Green Jade, the highest honor given to Westerners by the Chinese government.

Scene from the Nanjing Massacre.

Examples of eyewitnesses to history among American Presbyterian could be greatly multiplied. So many of them have left us a valuable record of some of the most momentous events in our history, “all [of which] have a common place in the great scheme of Providence” (Henry A. Boardman, God's Providence in Accidents (1855).

Log College Press and the Movies

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For those who enjoy the cinema, there are some interesting ties between American Presbyterians on Log College Press and the movies.

  • The 2003 film Gods and Generals, which tells the story of the War Between the States largely from the points of one military officer from the North and one from the South, features Stephen Lang who played Stonewall Jackson (Presbyterian deacon) and Martin Clark as Dr. George Junkin (Presbyterian minister, and Jackson’s father-in-law).

  • Francis J. Grimké and Matthew Anderson once had occasion to watch a film together - D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The movie is famous for its positive portrayal of the Klu Klux Klan, which Grimké noted in his review. He vehemently critiqued the film for its apparent effort to excite racial prejudice against African-Americans.

  • J.G. Machen was a Charlie Chaplin fan, according to D.G. Hart, who commented, writing in Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America, pp. 164, 207:

The final issue that split fundamentalist and traditionalist Presbyterians concerned personal morality. In [James Oliver] Buswell's estimation this was the proverbial straw that would break the camel's back. Those in the church who sided with him, Buswell wrote (in what turned out to be his last letter to Machen), were concerned about reports that Westminster students used liquor in their rooms "with the approval of some members of the faculty." The use of alcohol, even in the celebration of the sacrament, he added, was "far more likely" to divide the church than "any question of eschatology." Buswell and other fundamentalists in the church were also "shocked" by leaders of the new denomination who defended "the products of Hollywood," a "useless,...waste of energy." Machen never responded to Buswell but his opposition to Prohibition provides a clue to his views on alcohol. In addition to opposing the expanded powers of the federal government that the Eighteenth Amendment granted, Machen also thought the Bible allowed moderate use of alcohol. This was also the position of the majority of faculty at Westminster who came from ethnic churches were the idea of total abstinence with American evangelicalism was foreign. As for Buswell's reference to Hollywood, Machen did enjoy going to the movies and commented favorably on Charlie Chaplin but did not make any remarks about film in his published writings.10

10. Buswell to Machen, December 4, 1936, MA. On Machen's fondness for movies, see, for example, his letters to his mother, May 14, 1913, March 11 and August 23, 1914, MA.

These are a few of the curious and fascinating connections between Hollywood and American Presbyterianism to be found at Log College Press. As we say here, even in regards to culture:

THE PAST IS NOT DEAD. 
PRIMARY SOURCES ARE NOT INACCESSIBLE.
18TH-19TH CENTURY AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS ARE NOT IRRELEVANT.

James Bradley's Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave

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The story of James Bradley has many curiosities, unanswered questions and fascinating details. Born around 1810 in Guinea, Africa, he was enslaved at a very young age and transported to the United States via Charleston, South Carolina, before he was purchased by a Mr. Bradley of Kentucky (whose last name he assumed), before the family moved to the Arkansas Territory.

There the Mr. Bradley passed away, but James continued to toil in servitude. Although he had not been taught of God, he longed for liberty, and began the laborious effort — by working at night to make horse collars, and by means of growing tobacco and selling pigs — to purchase his own freedom, which after eight years, he accomplished in 1833 for the sum of just under $700. In his own words, he tells of where he went next as a free man.

As soon as I was free, I started for a free State. When I arrived in Cincinnati, I heard of Lane Seminary, about two miles out of the city. I had for years been praying to God that my dark mind might see the light of knowledge. I asked for admission into the Seminary. They pitied me, and granted my request, though I knew nothing of the studies which were required for admission. I am so ignorant, that I suppose it will take me two years to get up with the lowest class in the institution. But in all respects I am treated just as kindly, and as much like a brother by the students, as if my skin were as white, and my education as good as their own. Thanks to the Lord, prejudice against color does not exist in Lane Seminary! If my life is spared, I shall probably spend several years here, and prepare to preach the gospel.

Bradley’s Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave, published in 1834, reveals a man who, in the Lord’s providence, despite many obstacles, managed to learn how to read and write, became knowledgeable of his need for a Savior, and with a longing for liberty, achieved his personal goal of emancipation from slavery and sought rather to serve the Lord.

Bradley’s admission to a Presbyterian seminary in 1834, came just a few years after Theodore S. Wright, a free African-American, graduated from Princeton in 1828, and later was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. It was in 1837 that Titus Basfield graduated from the Canonsburg Theological Seminary of the Associate Presbyterian Church and went on to serve as a minister in that denomination. Sadly, events transpired at Lane which would derail Bradley’s aspirations to pursue the gospel ministry.

In 1834, a series of debates were held among students and faculty concerning the appropriateness of immediate abolition of slavery, and the question of the work of the American Colonization Society, which aimed to send free blacks to Africa, to build the new nation of Liberia. Although the general sentiment of opposition to slavery was held by many at Lane, these were controversial matters which raised tensions at the seminary and in the surrounding area, which were magnified by nationwide newspaper coverage. Many notable people were present, including Lyman Beecher, President of the seminary; Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor, and his future wife, Harriet Beecher; John Rankin; and others. James Bradley spoke at these debates, and he was the only black person and only former slave to do so; although some slaves, owned by Southern students, were also present at the debates. He recounted the oppression he experienced, and answered objections to immediate abolition, such as the concern that slaves would be unable to care for themselves.

In a March 10, 1834 letter, fellow student Henry B. Stanton recount Bradley’s role at the Lane Debates:

James Bradley, the emancipated slave above alluded to, addressed us nearly two hours; and I wish his speech could have been heard by every opponent of immediate emancipation, to wit: first, that “it would be unsafe to the community;” second, that “the condition of the emancipated negroes would be worse than it now is; that they are incompetent to provide for themselves; that they would become paupers and vagrants, and would rather steal than work for wages.” This shrewd and intelligent black, cut up these white objections by the roots, and withered and scorched them under the sun of sarcastic argumentation, for nearly an hour, to which the assembly responded in repeated and spontaneous roars of laughter, which were heartily joined in by both Colonizationists and Abolitionists. Do not understand me as saying, that his speech was devoid of argument. No it contained sound logic, enforced by apt illustrations. I wish the slanderers of negro intellect could have witnessed this unpremeditated effort. I will give you a sketch of this man's history. He was stolen from Africa when an infant, and sold into slavery. His master, who resided in Arkansas, died, leaving him to his widow. He was then about eighteen years of age. For some years, he managed the plantation for his mistress. Finally, he purchased his time by the year, and began to earn money to buy his freedom. After five years of toil, having paid his owners $655, besides supporting himself during the time, he received his “free papers,” and emigrated to a free State with more than $200 in his pocket. Every cent of this money, $855, he earned by labour and trading. He is now a beloved and respected member of this institution. Now, Mr. Editor, can slaves take care of themselves if emancipated? I answer the question in the language employed by brother Bradley, on the above occasion. “They have to take care of, and support themselves now, and their master, and his family into the bargain; and this being so, it would be strange if they could not provide for themselves, when disencumbered from this load.”

Bradley acquitted himself admirably at the debates, but the seminary trustees were soon moved to ban further discussion of these controversial issues. Local threats of violence against abolitionists were a great concern. Unable to abide by these restrictions, the so-called “Lane Rebels” resigned from the school en masse in October 1834, publishing A Statement of the Reasons Which Induced the Students of Lane Seminary, to Dissolve their Connection with that Institution, signed by 51 persons, including James Bradley.

Bradley moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied at the Sheffield Manual Labor Institute. But after 1837 nothing further is known of Bradley, except that he assisted in the liberation of other slaves possibly via the Underground Railroad. He never became a gospel minister. We do not even have a picture of the man or a physical description, although a statue was erected in his honor at Covington, Kentucky in 1988. Bradley was portrayed by Jaylen Marks in the 2019 docudrama Sons & Daughters of Thunder.

Although he was lost to history, in that the final chapters of his life are unknown, he is remembered still, as a passionate advocate of freedom for all, and the autobiographical account of his emancipation is a brief but stirring read. Read more about and by James Bradley here.

Some Pastors' Wives who were Prolific Writers

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The Child’s Story Bible [by Catherine Vos] was such a success that it sold more copies than all Geerhardus’s books combined. — Danny E. Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian, p. 273

When we think of the most prolific or best-selling writers on Log College Press, names like B.B. Warfield, Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller may come to mind. But some of the most prolific writers were often pastors’ wives, and, in some cases, as writers, out-sold their husbands. It is worth taking notes of some of their names and stories.

  • Isabella Macdonald Alden — The wife of Rev. Gustavus Rosenberg Alden, Mrs. Alden was the author of over 200 books, most written under the pen name “Pansy” (a childhood nickname), and contributed as a journalist and editor as well. Her literary fame was world-wide and she received much fan mail, responding to each letter individually. Rev. Francis E. Clark once said, “Probably no writer of stories for young people has been so popular or had so wide an audience as Mrs. G. R. Alden, whose pen-name, ‘Pansy,’ is known wherever English books are read.”

  • Charlotte Forten Grimké — Both before and after her 1878 marriage to Rev. Francis James Grimké, Charlotte was a poet, diarist and author of articles and essays. Her contribution to African-American literature is still greatly appreciated today.

  • Elizabeth Payson Prentiss — Mrs. Prentiss, author of Stepping Heavenward, was the wife of Rev. George Lewis Prentiss, author of her biography. Elizabeth wrote dozens of books, as well as poetry and hymns. Stepping Heavenward sold over 200,000 copies in the 19th century, and since a 1992 reprint was issued, at least another 100,000 copies have been sold.

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe — The wife of Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe, Harriet is best known as the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But she also wrote around 30 novels, plus articles and letters. She was a celebrity to many, infamous to others, but her writings were an important factor in the momentous events of 1861. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold over 2 million copies worldwide by 1857 (5 years after its publication) and to date it has been translated into 70 languages.

  • Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune — Mrs. Terhune, wife of Rev. Edward Payson Terhune, was known by her pen name, Marion Harland. She was the author of many novels, short stories, cookbooks, books on etiquette and more. She gave birth to six children, three of whom survived into adulthood - all three became successful writers as well. Her autobiography contains many fascinating insights into the Presbyterian circles in which she participated in Virginia, such as her remarks on the anti-slavery convictions of Mrs. Anne Rice, wife of Rev. John Holt Rice.

Other prolific female Presbyterian writers, married (whose spouses were not ministers) or unmarried, include:

  • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck — Mrs. Buck, daughter of a missionary, Rev. Absalom Sydenstricker, and the wife of agricultural missionary John Lossing Buck (until they divorced) and Richard J. Walsh, is well-known for her liberal convictions and for her role in the upheaval that led to Rev. J. Gresham Machen’s departure from the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Her 1931 novel The Good Earth won her a Pulitzer Prize, and in 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of her writings on China.

  • Martha Farquaharson Finley — The author of the Elsie Dinsmore series and many more novels, Ms. Finley was a descendant of Samuel Finley and of Scottish Covenanters. Of the Elsie Dinsmore series, it has been said that it was “‘The most popular and longest running girl’s series of the 19th century,’ with the first volume selling nearly 300,000 copies in its first decade, going on to ‘sell more than 5 million copies in the 20th century.’”

  • Grace Livingston Hill — Niece of Isabella M. Alden, and daughter of Rev. Charles Montgomery Livingston and Mrs. Marcia B. Macdonald Livingston, she was a popular writer of over 100 books on her own, but also compiled the Pansies for Thoughts of her aunt, and they collaborated on other works as well.

  • Julia Lake Skinner Kellersberger — The wife of medical missionary Eugene Roland Kellersberger, both served the Presbyterian mission to the Belgian Congo. Mrs. Kellersberger wrote many books based on her experience, including a noted biography of Althea Maria Brown Edmiston.

  • Margaret Junkin Preston — Known as the “Poet Laureate of the Confederacy,” Mrs. Preston was the wife of Major John Thomas Lewis Preston, a professor of Latin at the Virginia Military Institute; the daughter of Rev. George Junkin; and the brother-in-law of Stonewall Jackson. Her literary productions were many, and she was a beloved poet of the South.

  • Julia McNair Wright — A very popular writer of books for children, including historical novels and introductions to science, and more, Mrs. Wright (wife of mathematician William James Wright), was a remarkable author, whose works were translated into many languages. Her The Complete Home: An Encyclopedia of Domestic Life and Affairs, Embracing all the Interests of the Household sold over 100,000 copies.

These brief notices show that there are a number of popular women Presbyterian writers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their bibliographies are lengthy, their legacies in some cases enduring to the present day, and their impact has been culturally significant. The work of adding all of their published writings is ongoing and in some cases far from complete at the present. We hope to make much more progress with each of these writers. The corpus of their literary productions is a real treasure.

Justice Harlan's Dissent: "Our Constitution is color-blind."

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On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which affirmed the doctrine of “separate but equal” in favor of the state of Louisiana’s right to maintain racially segregated public transportation systems. The vote was 7-1 and the lone dissenter was Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan.

Justice Harlan was also a ruling elder and a Sunday School teacher at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Wallace Radcliffe presided over the justice’s funeral when he passed away in 1911. Harlan’s dissent (recently added to Log College Press) contains some memorable words that reflect his conviction that disparate treatment of citizens by the government based on race was unjust.

But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. It is, therefore, to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a State to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.

Lady Justice and her blindfold.

Lady Justice and her blindfold.

Although he failed to persuade his colleagues in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that “separate but equal” public education was unconstitutional, thus essentially rendering Plessy v. Ferguson a dead letter.

The principle that he stood for was an outworking of his religious beliefs. James W. Gordon wrote in “Religion and the First Justice Harlan: A Case Study in Late Nineteenth-Century Presbyterian Constitutionalism” Marquette Law Review Vol. 85, No. 2 (2001):

The first Justice John Marshall Harlan was a deeply religious man. As a devout and life-long "Old School" Presbyterian, Harlan's religious convictions shaped his style as a judge. They also provided him with a concrete standard against which to measure the "rightness" or "wrongness" of the world he saw around him, a standard he often consciously or unconsciously applied in his public life.

Justice Harlan also opposed tolerating polygamy in U.S. territories, siding with the majority in Reynolds v. United States (1879) and in Davis v. Beason (1890), and again opposed racial segregation as the lone dissenter in Berea College v. Kentucky (1908).

Certainly it is the case that the U.S. Constitution has deficiencies which not only include a failure to acknowledge God or Jesus Christ as the fountain of its authority, but also its original acceptance of slavery and the Three-Fifths Compromise in which slaves were reckoned as less than a person for census purposes. But Justice Harlan was a man of principle regarding Christian civil ethics, particularly with respect to the idea that race should not be a factor in how the government treats one citizen in contrast to another. “Our Constitution is color-blind,” said Justice Harlan.

John Moorhead: Pastor of Boston's Church of the Presbyterian Strangers

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In the midst of the great Puritan Migration to New England (1620-1640), some Scotch-Irish assembled a congregation in Boston, Massachusetts which was known as the ‘Church of the Presbyterian Strangers.’ Its first pastor was the Rev. John Moorhead (1703-1773). He was born in Newton, near Belfast, in County Down, Ireland (Ulster), and educated in Edinburgh, before arriving in Massachusetts.

All accounts indicate that he was a very pious minister, who engaged in family visitation, catechism, and a faithful ministry of the Word. He left a deep impression among his flock and others, and has been noted in various studies of New England Presbyterianism.

It was not until 1730 that a Presbyterian Church was organized in Boston. Under the leadership of the Reverend John Moorhead a congregation known as “The Church of the Presbyterian Strangers” was organized and met in a “converted barn” owned by John Little on Long Lane. In 1735 title to the property was conveyed to the congregation for use by the Presbyterian Society forever “and for no other use, intention, or purpose whatever.” This “converted barn” served the congregation until 1744 when a new edifice was erected. It was in this building in 1788 that action was taken to make Massachusetts a state, in commemoration of which the name Long Lane was changed to Federal Street and the meeting house came to be known as Federal Street Church.

The congregation flourished and by the time their new building was erected numbered more than 250. Mr. Moorhead served the group until his death in December, 1773, following which the church was supplied by itinerant ministers [including David McClure] until 1783 when the Reverend Robert Annan was called to be pastor. Internal strife and opposition from the Puritan oligarchy finally led Mr. Annan to resign in 1786 after which the group voted themselves into a Congregational Society and after 1803 when William Ellery Channing became pastor, they joined the Unitarian fold. Relocating and erecting a new building in 1860 this group became the Arlington Street Church. In similar fashion one by one most of the seventy fairly well established Presbyterian churches of eighteenth century New England went over to other denominations. — Charles N. Pickell, Presbyterianism in New England: The Story of a Mission, pp. 6-7

A memoir of Moorhead written in 1807 says this of the early days of that congregation:

This little colony of Christians, for some time, carried on the public worship of God in a barn, which stood on the lot which they had purchased. In this humble temple, with uplifted hearts and voices, they worshipped and honoured Him, who, for our salvation, condescended to be born in a stable.

This same biographer highlights an important aspect of Moorhead’s ministry - family visitation.

Once or twice in the year, Mr. Moorhead visited all the families of his congregation, in town and country; (one of the Elders, in rotation, accompanying him,) for the purpose of religious instruction. On these occasions, he addressed the heads of families with freedom and affection, and inquired into their spiritual state, catechised and exhorted the children and servants, and concluded his visit with prayer. In this last solemn act, (which he always performed on his knees, at home and in the houses of his people), he used earnestly to pray for the family, and the spiritual circumstances of each member, as they respectively needed.

In addition to this labour of family visitations, he also convened, twice in the year, the families, according to the districts, at the meeting-house, when he conversed with the heads of families, asking them questions, on some of the most important doctrines of the gospel, agreeably to the Westminster confession of faith; and catechised the children and youth.

A young parishioner of Rev. Moorhead, David McClure, who briefly ministered to the flock in Boston after Moorhead’s death, wrote in his journal about this feature of the ministry at the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers.

We had the special advantage of a religious education & government in early life. Our parents gave us the best school education that their circumstances would allow. The children who could walk were obliged to attend public worship on the Sabbath, & spend the interval in learning the Shorter & the Larger Westminster Catechisms, & committing to memory some portion of the Scriptures. My mother commonly heard us repeat the catechisms on Sunday evenings. My parents departed with the supporting hope of salvation through the glorious Redeemer. In her expiring moments my mother gave her blessing & her prayers to each of her children, in order. She had many friends who mourned her death. She was favored with a good degree of health & was very cheerful, active & laborious, in the arduous task of raising, with slender means, a large family. To the labours of our worthy minister the Rev. Mr. Moorhead, we were much indebted for early impressions of religious sentiments. His practice was frequently to catechize the Children & youth at the meeting House & at their homes & converse & pray with them. He also visited & catechized the heads of all the families in his congregation, statedly.

Moorhead is mentioned often in Alexander Blaikie’s History of Presbyterianism in New England (although under the spelling of “Moorehead”). Blaikie writes that Moorhead was ordained on March 30, 1730, and adds that

"This religious society was established by his pious zeal and assiduity."…He was the forty-sixth minister settled in Boston, and "soon after his induction he married Miss Sarah Parsons, an English lady, who survived him about one year."

André Le Mercier, the 37th minister settled in Boston, a French Huguenot Presbyterian, was a colleague of Moorhead’s at this time and is mentioned by Blaikie in this connection.

A letter from Rev. Moorhead [not yet available on Log College Press] was published in Glasgow, Scotland in 1741, which gives an account of conversions associated with the Great Awakening ministries of George Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent.

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley by Scipio Moorhead (1773). It is said to be “the first frontispiece depicting a woman writer in American history, and possibly the first ever portrait of an American woman in the act of writing.”

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley by Scipio Moorhead (1773). It is said to be “the first frontispiece depicting a woman writer in American history, and possibly the first ever portrait of an American woman in the act of writing.”

Moorhead was a slave owner. His slave, Scipio Moorhead, is famous in history for his artistic skill. His portrait of Phillis Wheatley appeared in her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). Wheatley wrote An Elegy to Miss Mary Moorhead, on the Death of Her Father, the Rev. Mr. John Moorhead in December 1773. Of him she wrote:

With humble Gratitude he render'd Praise,
To Him whose Spirit had inspir'd his Lays;
To Him whose Guidance gave his Words to flow,
Divine Instruction, and the Balm of Wo:
To you his Offspring, and his Church, be given,
A triple Portion of his Thirst for Heaven;
Such was the Prophet; we the Stroke deplore,
Which let's us hear his warning Voice no more.
But cease complaining, hush each murm'ring Tongue,
Pursue the Example which inspires my Song.
Let his Example in your Conduct shine;
Own the afflicting Providence, divine;
So shall bright Periods grace your joyful Days,
And heavenly Anthems swell your Songs of Praise.

The “Presbyterian Strangers” of Boston thought very highly of their pastor. In his funeral sermon [not yet available on Log College Press], by David McGregore, he was described as “an Israelite indeed.” He left an enduring legacy that is reflected in the lives of David McClure and others. Boston is not the city set upon a hill that it once was, although pockets of piety endure. But Moorhead is worthy of remembrance today as a pioneer of New England Presbyterianism.

The story of an Muslim African-American slave who converted to Christ: Omar ibn Said

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Omar ibn Said was born in 1770 in the West African kingdom of Futa Toro (modern-day Senegal). At the age of 27, he was sold into slavery, and ultimately arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, just before the United States banned the importation of slaves. After an attempted escape from his first master, he was eventually purchased by James Owen, who would go on to serve as North Carolina legislator and as President of the Wilmington & Raleigh Railroad. His brother John also served as Governor.

Owen helped Said learn English by obtaining for him a translation of the Koran. He then acquired for Said (with the assistance of John Louis Taylor, Chief Justice of North Carolina, and Francis Scott Key, composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner”) a Arabic translation of the Bible (which is currently held at the Davidson College Library Rare Book Room). It was on December 3, 1820 that Said was converted to Christianity. He soon joined the First Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

His 1831 autobiography, The Life of Oman ibn Said, is the only known native-language autobiography by a slave in America. It was written in Arabic and can be read at Log College Press, along with two English translations. It is a short work, and leaves many gaps in his life story, which Said was not inclined to fill over the course of his ninety-four span - “Omar was noted for being obscure and evasive when speaking about his life in Africa.”

Two accounts by notable Presbyterian ministers give great insight into the story of a man who has fascinated so many. William S. Plumer wrote of him for the New York Observer in 1863:

Meroh, A Native African

In the fall of 1826, I went to Wilmington, N.C., to preach a few Sabbaths in the Presbyterian Church. While there I was visited by a venerable man, a native of Africa. He came to the door of my rooms, entered, and approached me. I rose to receive him. He took my hand between both of his, and earnestly pressed it to his bosom. Our interview was not long, but I received very deep impressions of his moral worth.

I have met him once or twice since, but was commonly hindered from learning much respecting him, as he was much more inclined to hear then to speak — to ask questions than to answer them. Yet from him and from others I have learned the following things.

Meroh was born about the year 1770. If he is still living, as he was by my last advices, he is over ninety years of age. He was born on the banks of the Senegal river, in Eastern Africa. His tribe were the Foolahs. Their religion was Mahomedanism. Many of them had the Koran and read and wrote the Arabic language. I have now in my possession a letter written by Meroh in Arabic, bearing all the marks of expert penmanship.

I write his name Meroh. It was originally Umeroh. Some write it Moro; and some put it in the French form, Moreau. It is commonly pronounced as if spelled Moro.

Meroh’s father in Africa was a man of considerable wealth. He brought up his children delicately. Meroh’s fingers are rather effeminate. They are very well tapered. His whole person and gait bear marks of considerable refinement.

At about five years of age he lost his father, in one of those bloody wars that are almost constantly raging in Africa. Very soon thereafter he was taken by an uncle to the capital of the tribe. Here he learned and afterwards taught the Arabic, especially some prayers used by Mahomedans. He also learned some rules of Arithmetic, and many of the forms of business. When a young man he became a dealer in the merchandise of the country, chiefly consisting of cotton cloths. Some years since I saw in some newspaper an account of this man, which I believe to be quite correct. I make an extract: —

“While engaged in trade, some event occurred, which he is very reluctant to refer to, but which resulted in his being sold into slavery. He was brought down to the coast shipped for Africa, in company with only two who could speak the same language, and was landed at Charleston in 1807, just a year previous to the final abolition of the slave trade. He was soon sold to a citizen of Charleston, who treated him with great kindness, but who, unfortunately for Moreau, died in a short time. He was then sold to one who proved to be a harsh cruel master, exacting from him labor which he had not the strength to perform. From him Moreau found means to escape, and after wandering nearly over the State of South Carolina, was found near Fayetteville, in this State [North Carolina]. Here he was taken up as a runaway, and placed in the jail. Knowing nothing of the language as yet, he could not tell who he was, or where he was from, but finding some coals in the ashes, he filled the walls of his rooms with piteous petitions to be released, all written in the Arabic language. The strange characters, so elegantly and correctly written by a runaway slave, soon attracted attention, and many of the citizens of the town visited the jail to see him.

“Through the agency of Mr. Mumford, then sheriff of Cumberland county, the case of Moreau was brought to the notice of Gen. James Owen, of Bladen county, a gentleman well known throughout this Commonwealth, for his public services, and always known as a man of generous and humane impulses. He took Moreau out of jail, becoming security for his forthcoming, if called for, and carried him with him to his plantation in Bladen county. For a long time his wishes were baffled by the meanness and the cupidity of a man who had bought the runaway at a small price from his former master, until at last he was able to obtain legal possession of him, greatly to the joy of Moreau. Since then, for more than forty years, he was been a trusted and indulged servant.

“At the time of his purchase by General Owen, Moreau was a staunch Mahomedan, and, the first year at least, kept the fast of Rhamadan with great strictness. Through the kindness of some friends, an English translation of the Koran was procured for him, and read to him, often with portions of the Bible. Gradually he seemed to show more interest in the Sacred Scriptures, until he finally gave up his faith in Mahomet, and became a believer in Jesus Christ. He was baptized by Rev. Dr. [William Davis] Snodgrass, of the Presbyterian Church, in Fayetteville, and received into the church. Since that time he has been transferred to the Presbyterian church in Wilmington, of which he has long been a consistent and worthy member. There are few Sabbaths in the year in which he is absent from the house of God.

“Uncle Moreau is an Arabic scholar, reading the language with great facility, and translating it with ease. His pronunciation of the Arabic is remarkably fine. An eminent Virginia scholar said, not long since, that he read it more beautifully than any one he ever heard, save a distinguished savant of the University of Halle. His translations are somewhat imperfect, as he never mastered the English language, but they are often very striking. We remember once hearing him read and translate the twenty-third Psalm, and shall never forget the earnestness and fervor which shone in the old man’s countenance, as he read of the gown down into the dark valley, and using his own broken English, said, ‘Me no fear, Master’s with me there.’ There were signs in his countenance, and in his voice, that he knew not only the words, but felt the blessed power of the truth they contained.

“Moreau has never expressed any wish to return to Africa. Indeed, he has always manifested a great aversion to it when proposed, changing the subject as soon as possible. When Dr. Jonas King, now of Greece, returned to this country from the East, he was introduced in Fayetteville to Moreau. Gen. Own observed an evident reluctance on the part of the old man to converse with Dr. King. After some time he ascertained that the only reason of his reluctance was his fear that one who talked so well in Arabic might have been sent by his own countrymen to reclaim him, and carry him again over the sea. After his fears were removed, he conversed with Dr. King with great readiness and delight.

“He now regards his expatriation as a great Providential favor. ‘His coming to this country,’ as he remarked to the writer, ‘was all for good.’ Mahomedanism has been supplanted in his heart by the better faith in Christ Jesus, and in the midst of a Christian family, where he is kindly watched over, and in the midst of a church which honors him for his consistent piety, he is gradually going down to that dark valley, in which, his own firm hope is, that he will be supported and led by the hand of the Great Master, and from which he will emerge into the brightness of the perfect day.”

This pious man is supplied with a copy of the Arabic New Testament. He says the translation is not good. Yet with the aid of the English he has gained much knowledge of God’s Word. His appearance, at any time I have seen him, was striking and venerable. His moral and Christian character are excellent. No one who knew him well doubted that he was preparing for a better world. Perhaps he has already gone to the rest of the redeemed.

Omar had opportunities to return to Africa as a missionary but declined to do so on account of age and health considerations. He did seek to work with the American Colonization Society to promote the spread of the gospel in Africa in other ways. The Secretary of the ACS, R.R. Gurley, wrote about him thus in 1837:

In the respected family of General Owen, of Wilmington, I became acquainted with a native African, whose history and character are exceedingly interesting, and some sketches of whose life have been already published. I allude to Moro or Omora, a Foulah by birth, educated a Mahometan, and who, long after he came in slavery to this country, retained a devoted attachment to the faith of his fathers and deemed a copy of the Koran in Arabic (which language he reads and writes with facility) his richest treasure. About twenty years ago, while scarcely able to express his thoughts intelligibly on any subject in the English language, he fled from a severe master in South Carolina, and on his arrival at Fayetteville, was seized as a runaway slave, and thrown into jail. His peculiar appearance, inability to converse, and particularly the facility with which he was observed to write a strange language attracted much attention, and induced his present humane and Christian master to take him from prison and finally, at his earnest request, to become his purchaser. His gratitude was boundless, and his joy to be imagined only by him, who has himself been relieved from the iron that enters the soul. Since his residence with General Owen he has worn no bonds but those of gratitude and affection.

“Oh, ‘tis a Godlike privilege to save,
And he who scorns it is himself a slave.”

Being of a feeble constitution, Moro’s duties have been of the lightest kind, and he has been treated rather as a friend than a servant. The garden has been to him a place of recreation rather than a toil, and the concern is not that he should labor more but less. The anxious efforts made to instruct him in the doctrines and precepts of our Divine Religion, have not been in vain. He has thrown aside the bloodstained Koran and now worships at the feet of the Prince of Peace. The Bible, of which he has an Arabic copy, is his guide, his comforter, or as he expresses it, “his Life.” Far advanced in years, and very infirm, he is animated in conversation, and when he speaks of God or the affecting truths of the Scriptures, his swarthy features beam with devotion, and his eye is lit up with the hope of immortality. Some of the happiest hours of his life were spent in the society of the Rev. James King, during his last visit from Greece to the United States. With that gentleman he could converse and read the Scriptures in the Arabic language and feel the triumphs of the same all-conquering faith as he chanted with him the praises of the Christian’s God.

Moro is much interested in the plans and progress of the American Colonization Society. He thinks his age and infirmities forbid his return to his own country. His prayer is that the Foulahs and all other Mahomedans may receive the Gospel. When, more than a year ago, a man by the name of Paul, of the Foulah nation and able like himself to understand Arabic, was preparing to embark at New York for Liberia, Moro corresponded with him, and presented him with one of his two copies of the Bible in that language. Extracts from Moro’s letters are before me. In one of them he says “I hear you wish to go back to Africa; if you do go, hold fast to Jesus Christ’s law, and tell all the Brethren, that they may turn to Jesus before it is too late. The Missionaries who go that way to preach to sinners, pay attention to them, I beg you for Christ’s sake. They call all people, rich and poor, white and black, to come and drink of the waters of life freely, without money and without price. I have been in Africa; it is a dark part. I was a follower of Mahomet, went to church, prayed five times a day and did all Mahomet said I must: but the Lord is so good. He opened my way and brought me to this part of the world where I found the light. Jesus Christ is the light, all that believe in him shall be saved, all that believe not shall be lost. The Lord put religion in my heart about ten years ago. I joined the Presbyterian Church, and since that time I have minded Jesus’ laws. I turned away from Mahomet to follow Christ. I don’t ask for long life, for riches, or for great things in this world, all I ask is a seat at Jesus’ feet in Heaven. The Bible, which is the word of God, says sinners must be born again or they can never see God in peace. They must be changed by the Spirit of God. I loved and served the world a long time, but this did not make me happy. God opened my eyes to see the danger I was in. I was like one who stood by the road side and cried Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy; he heard me and did have mercy. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ I am an old sinner, but Jesus is an old Saviour; I am a great sinner, but Jesus is a great Saviour: thank God for it. — If you wish to be happy, lay aside Mahomet’s prayer and use the one which our blessed Saviour taught his disciples — our Father, &c.

In another letter to the same, he writes, “I have every reason to believe that you are a good man, and as such I love as I love myself. I have two Arabic Bibles, procured for me by my good Christian friends, and one of them I will send you the first opportunity; we ought now to wake up, for we have been asleep. God has been good to us in bringing us to this country and placing us in the hands of Christians. Let us now wake up and go to Christ, and he will give us light. God bless the American land! God bless the white people. They send out men every where to hold a crucified Saviour to the dying world. In this they are doing the Lord’s will. My lot is at last a delightful one. From one man to another I went until I fell into the hands of a pious man. He read the Bible for me until my eyes were opened, now I can see; thank God for it. I am dealt with as a child, not as a servant.”

These accounts provide to 21st century readers a look at life as it existed in Africa and in the Southern United States in the early 19th century with all its harshness and yet with the sweet savor of the gospel as it freed the souls of men, if not always their chains. Omar died in 1864 not having received his freedom legally, but the chains which bound his soul had been broken many years hence.

Besides the 19th century original and English manuscript translations of Omar’s remarkable autobiography, there is a 2011 critical English edition, edited by Ala Alryyes, available at our Secondary Sources page.

The life story of a man who was born an African Muslim in the 18th century, who was then sold into slavery and who later became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ in America is a tale that redounds to the glory of God!

The Underground Railroad at Log College Press

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James W.C. Pennington Entered Into Glory 150 Years Ago

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October 22 is a significant day in church history, especially for Log College Press.

  • English Puritan William Perkins died on October 22, 1602;

  • Dutch Puritan Herman Witsius died on October 22, 1708;

  • The College of New Jersey (Princeton) was granted a charter on October 22, 1746;

  • American Presbyterian Archibald Alexander died on October 22, 1851; and

  • American Presbyterian William Swan Plumer died on October 22, 1880.

Today we take note of the death of African-American Presbyterian James W.C. Pennington, who died in Jacksonville, Florida on October 22, 1870 - 150 years ago today.

A former Maryland-born fugitive blacksmith slave who went on to become a Christian, a Presbyterian minister, author, lecturer, doctor of divinity, and eventually, after the War, a missionary to freedmen in South, Pennington always had a passion for God-given responsibilities and liberties. His own duty, as he saw it, was to preach the gospel, and to serve his fellow man, with a particular focus on the needs of his own race. Having experienced the burden of slavery and the fear of a fugitive, he knew that not only must the law in such matters be set right, but that all men made in the image of God must be raised up to reach their potential for good and faithful service to both God and man.

In his final days, he had been called by a Committee of Missions to Freedmen of the Northern Presbyterian Church to minister in Jacksonville, Florida. As told by Christopher L. Webber in American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists, Pennington wrote to his friend Gerrit Smith before taking up this last work of his life that “Duty calls me to go to the State of Florida and assist my brethren and others in that interesting field in the great cause of education and christian Reconstruction.” Working with J.C. Gibbs and others, one of Pennington’s last contributions to the Church was to help organize the Presbytery of East Florida. But after sending an optimistic report about the progress of his work in September 1870, Pennington passed away after a short illness the following month.

Woodlawn Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida was founded in 1870 and so it celebrates 150 years of ministry this year as well. As for Pennington, the place of his burial is not known, but his legacy certainly endures. A great pioneer for Christ, who labored much to preach and teach the gospel, we remember him on the anniversary of his anniversary of the day he ceased from his earthly labors and entered into his heavenly rest. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Introducing the Log College Annex

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At Log College Press, a lot has been happening. We have been growing so much lately that we have expanded beyond the main library of authors into a new Annex.

Log College Press now has an Annex to the Main Library.

Log College Press now has an Annex to the Main Library.

Some of the new authors found on the Annex include:

  • Charles Eugene Edwards (1860-1937) - He is the son of Jonathan Edwards (1817-1891), and the author of a devotional work, which has been republished in the 20th century as the Devotions and Prayers of John Calvin, its original title being Scripture Texts With Expositions and Sentence-Prayers From Calvin’s Commentaries on the Minor Prophets (1897);

  • Maria Fearing (1838-1937) - She was an African-American Presbyterian missionary from Alabama who served in the Congo for twenty years as a teacher and translator;

  • Amos Noë Freeman (1809-1893) - He was an African-American Presbyterian minister who co-authored (with Frederick Douglass and others) a famous 1853 address known as Claims of Our Common Cause;

  • Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) - He was the 23rd President of the United States, and a Presbyterian ruling elder, who had while in office an all-Presbyterian cabinet;

  • Beverly Tucker Lacy (1819-1900) - He served as chaplain to Stonewall Jackson;

  • Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) - He was an inventor and business who did much to support the Presbyterian Church, and who endowed what is known as McCormick Theological Seminary; and

  • Poon Chew Ng (1866-1931) - He was the first Chinese-American Presbyterian to minister on the American West Coast.

Also, on the Main Library, new additions include:

We invite you not only to browse and explore the Main Library and the Annex, but also to let us know if you have suggestions for further additions to Log College Press. As we continue to grow, build and expand, we hope that Log College Press, including the new Annex, will continue to be beneficial to our readers as a resource that taps into the deep well of wisdom that is to be found in early American Presbyterianism. We are also working to publish more volumes, and we will have more to say about this very soon, DV. Meanwhile, thanks to all our readers and those who have contributed in many ways to the work that we are doing. We are grateful to you. May the Lord bless His Church!

A monument engraved on hearts - remembering John F. Cook, Sr.

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A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. – Charles Spurgeon

In the autumn of 1859, an African-American Presbyterian minister, William Thomas Catto (1809-1869), addressed the crowd which had assembled at the dedication of a monument located at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The monument was erected in memory of another African-American Presbyterian minister, John Francis Cook, Sr. (1810-1855). Catto’s address was published in the Weekly Anglo-African (November 5, 1859). It is a powerful tribute to a man whose legacy, while not widely known today, nevertheless endures.

Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Cook was the founder of what is now the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. This is the same church which was later served by Henry Highland Garnet and Francis James Grimké. He was the first African-American Presbyterian to minister in the capital city of the United States. Born as a slave in 1810, his freedom was purchased by his aunt when he was 16 years old. He began to earn a living as a shoemaker, and as a messenger for the office of the U.S. Land Commissioner. He taught himself to read and write, but then (it is believed) later studied at the Smothers School in D.C. Later, he became headmaster of the same school, which he renamed Union Seminary. Cook associated himself with the Presbyterian Church, and with the support of John C. Smith, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of the District of Columbia in 1841, and helped to found the First Colored Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. that same year. Elected as pastor then, he was required to engage in further theological study, but in 1843 he was ordained and installed as pastor, and served that congregation until his death in 1855.

Catto, author of the first written history of the First African Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, was present in Washington, D.C., in 1859 to deliver the address when a monument was raised in Cook’s honor. His speech, which evidences great classical learning, is a memorable encomium in itself.

Through the personal efforts of Mrs. Rachel Kiger, at a cost of $160, this monument has been procured. Filled with an holy zeal she went forth in her ardent Christian love, determined to wrest from the treachery of memory and the possibility of oblivion the life and labors of him she valued in life, and mourned in death. Unaided and alone, like the good Samaritan, or like a Florence Nightingale, went forth on her mission of love, and finding a ready response from kindred hearts, we behold to-day the consummation of her labor, and may we not say in view of her success, “well done.” In the language of Scripture it may truthfully be said to the citizens of Washington, with no disparagement whatever, “that this man was born there,” and of Zion, “this man was born in her.” Here John [F.] Cook was born, here he lived, and here he died. Loved when living, regretted when dead, and his memory cherished though in his grave, for his usefulness and virtue.
…
This superstructure we this day raise we raise to the memory of a good man. May this monument remind us all to act well our parts in life, that when dead there may be left behind us such evidences as we see this day that in life we did something for God, something for humanity, and something for the world. May no hand dare deface it. Sacreligious would be the hand that would do it. And when any approach this spot, may they remember that around it clusters sacred and tender associations; and could I speak to that marble as its spire points heavenward, I would say to it, as you, my audience, now hear me, Thou marble monument, thou memorial of friendship, around thee stand friends of the departed; to-day, as ever, fond and friendly hearts around this spot in sympathy beat. We love this spot where friendship’s hand has placed thee Henceforth thou art the guide to show the stranger that here lies the body of John F. Cook. Here stand, thou sentinel, firm to thy post by night and day; and when the bleak, cold winds of winter blow and moan among these cypresses — when iceicles, like crystals, hang from sprig and branch, and nature is clad with its mantle of ice; or when the starry snow-flakes, beautifully pure and white, shall fall around this spot, driven by furious winds, sheeting the earth around in its drapery of white, and piling it in drifts around and around thy base, thy head from out the drifts yet lift, looking heavenward, and still proclaiming, “This is hallowed ground. It is here they have laid him; come see the place.” When winter’s winds, its frosts and snows, have passed away, and when sweet spring returns; when Nature’s God shall have dressed the earth in her garments of green; when from amid the foliage of these cypresses and oaks the feathered songsters of this grove are sweetly singing; when beautiful flowers, in their rich variety, planted by friendship’s hands over the graves of departed loved ones, are unfolding their beauties and blushing in the sunlight; when gentle zephyrs sigh softly through these trees, and all nature is alive and happy, stand thou here, and from thy place proclaim that he who slumbers here inhabits a fairer land than this. And when the playful, merry boy comes bounding along, or the little innocent, laughing girl, whose bright eye shows how lithe and happy is her life; or the maiden and youth leisurely sauntering here conversing of matters to come; or when the strong, sturdy man, or the grey-headed sire, or the aged and infirm, resort to this place— whilst all move along, each wending his way to some favorite spot — some spot cherished and dear —stand thou in thy place, thy head still towering heavenward, and proclaim to each passer, “This earth is not thy home; here you have no continuing city. Work out your salvation in fearing and in trembling, for the day of life waneth, and the night of death draweth nigh.”

We this day plant thee here on this consecrated spot, where lies the mortal remains of John F. Cook. Henceforth who that looks upon thee will remember him who, when living, was beloved by all who knew him best as a man—loved by God, whom he made his trust, and respected and loved by men, for whose best interests he labored.

We plant thee here to show the living that this life, when well spent, is not without its reward; that though, when living, we may be called to endure its ills, if faithful to the end, the good, the virtuous and the just will never consent to let the energies of a good man die, and recollections of them slumber with him in the grave. Stand thou here in summer and in winter, by night and day, in sunshine and in storm, as a memorial in honor of a good man, whose life was spent in honoring and glorifying his God and blessing his fellow men. And may the doings of this occasion so impress the living that each may strive to live the life of the righteous, that our last end may be like his.

With these powerful words echoing through time, it is sad to note that the cemetery where Cook’s mortal remains were laid to rest, where the monument was raised in his honor, and where his famous son, John F. Cook, Jr., was also buried, was relocated to Landover, Maryland in 1960. All those buried were moved without their tombstones, however; many of which were discovered by hikers along the Potomac River in Virginia in 2009, where they had apparently been unceremoniously dumped half a century before.

Columbian Harmony Cemetery historical marker.jpeg

Truly, it may be said, that the life of man is better etched in hearts than in marble. And in the case of John F. Cook, Sr., and so many others, this is proven to be true. We remember him today simply because he was a faithful servant of Christ who, after growing up in slavery, became a minister of the gospel, and labored to advance the kingdom of Christ in the nation’s capital. Francis J. Grimké described him in 1916 as “a man of God thoroughly consecrated to the work of preaching the Gospel and to the general uplift of his people” (“Anniversary Address on the Occasion of the Seventy Fifth Anniversary of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.” in The Works of Francis J. Grimké, Vol. 1, p. 539), and this is how we remember him too.

Far Above Rubies: A Devotional by Alexander R. Batchelor

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Alexander Ramsay Batchelor (1891-1955) was a (married) Southern Presbyterian with a deep, abiding concern for African-Americans. He authored Jacob’s Ladder: Negro Work of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1953) — available at our Secondary Sources page — which gives an account of home missions by the Southern Presbyterian Church directed towards the African-American community. This work he dedicated both to his wife and to the African-American ministers of his denomination with whom he co-labored “in Christ, in whom is no color line.” It also contains devotionals, one of which — concerning women — is given here today for our prayerful consideration.

Jacob's Ladder.jpg

Far Above Rubies

Read Proverbs 31:10-31

“Greet Priscilla and Aquilla, my helpers in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 16:3.

Women, like men, have great potentialities for good or evil. The Bible abounds in examples of women who were devout servants of God and helpers in every good cause.

In the New Testament, Paul repeatedly commends them as “helpers in Jesus Christ,” “servants of the church,” and as having bestowed “much labour” and provided succour to God’s servants. In the Old Testament, the value of a good woman is declared as being “far above rubies.”

In the New Testament account of the life of Christ and the growth of His Church, women were:

Last at the cross — Mark 15:47

First at the tomb — John 20:1

First to proclaim the resurrection - Matthew 28:8

First to preach to the Jews — Luke 2:37,38

In attendance at the first prayer meeting — Acts 1:14

First to greet Christian missionaries in Europe — Acts 16:13

First European convert — Acts 16:14

Back of most men of God is a godly mother. Billy Sunday used to say, “The first time the Devil turned pale was when mother’s love came into the heart of a woman.” Someone else has said, “If you save a man, you save an individual. If you save a woman, you will probably save a home.” No thoughtful person has ever underestimated the power of a consecrated woman. Her value is "far above rubies.”

Three African-American Covenanter Ministers: A Tribute

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

Johnston, Lewis photo.jpg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elliot, George Milton photo.jpg

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

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

Kingston, Solomon Ford photo.jpg

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

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

Smith concludes Kingston’s biographical sketch:

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

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

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

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

Fisher's Blind Milton

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Great art often begets more great art. Creation itself, that wonderful theater of God’s glory (a term used by John Calvin), of course, has inspired many scenic paintings. The poetry of the Bible has inspired poets for millennia. And the story of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden inspired John Milton to compose the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), which he did while blind, dictating the lines to a group of amanuenses, including his own daughters. This historical fact, in turn, has inspired a number of painters to capture that moment, including Mihály Munkácsy’s Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughters (1878).

Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to His Daughters.jpg

This remarkable visionary work of art in turn inspired African-American Presbyterian minister and poet Samuel Jackson Fisher. In his volume of poetry titled The Romance of Pittsburgh or Under Three Flags, and Other Poems, there is one composition which pays tribute to both Munkácsy and Milton. And that is today’s verse for consideration.

MILTON DICTATING PARADISE LOST AND HIS DAUGHTER
(Munkacsy's Picture)

Blind are his eyes, yet can his great soul gaze
Through the past ages to the far-off days;
He sits in darkness, 'mid the present world.
Yet sees God's throne, and Satan downward hurled.
His the rapt vision of man's blessedness.
Of wedded love, life's crown of happiness;
The toil so sweet, the life without a fear,
Days without weariness, and eyes without a tear.
And as he sings of that lost Paradise
His face illumed as glorious visions rise.
She who would pen this bright, celestial story
Forgets her task amid that vanished glory;
Listening to him whom thoughts divine inspire,
She dreams of Eden and the sword of fire.

Oh, happy eyes! though closed to this world's light,
Yet gaining thus the higher, heavenly sight.
Teach us the power, when in life's darkened room,
To look beyond the anguish and the gloom:
Like thee, to fill the soul with visions blest.
And seeing God, upon His Word to rest;
Help us to see, though joys be here denied,
The Paradise where hearts are satisfied

The last two lines echo as a meditation and a prayer for us today:

Help us to see, though joys be here denied,
The Paradise where hearts are satisfied

The vision of Blind Milton begat the vision Munkácsy, which begat the vision of Fisher. May we enter into that vision to behold, by faith in Jesus Christ, Paradise through this vale of tears.

S.J. Fisher: "Within is More!"

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Today’s post comes in the form of a meditation by African-American pastor and poet Samuel Jackson Fisher (1847-1928) found in The Romance of Pittsburgh or Under Three Flags, and Other Poems.

“Within is More!”

In famous Bruges — quaint old Flemish town —
On which the lofty belfry tower looks down,
There stands with fair and stately front a house
Whose legend ever must the thought arouse,
For this strange motto long it proudly bore,
Carved on its doorway beam: “Within is more;”
And he who reads it feels this cryptic word
His eager questioning has deeply stirred.

Yet may we not to this strange mystery
Find at our hand the long-sought key?
Fair is the front — without it charms the eye —
But home’s great charm and treasure inside lie.
No outside gaze can measure all the store
Of joys so hidden, for “Within is more.”

And so I love to think as to our eyes
The golden walls and domes of Heaven arise;
Tho’ fair is all now seen, and blest the view,
That still for us the ancient words are true.
And when in Love’s good time we pass the door,
Entranced we shall confess, “Within is more.”

James W.C. Pennington - The first African-American to receive a European doctorate of divinity

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Today marks a milestone worth remembering in American Presbyterian history: 170 years ago on December 19, 1849, James W.C. Pennington, the fugitive slave blacksmith who became a Presbyterian minister, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Heidelberg, Germany — thereby becoming the first African-American to receive this honor from a European university.

The story of this honorary degree is told by Herman E. Thomas in James W.C. Pennington: African American Churchman and Abolitionist (Studies in African American History and Culture and by Christopher L. Webber in American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists (2011). As Webber notes, the faculty told Pennington on that momentous occasion that “You are the first African who has received this dignity from a European university, and it is the University of Heidelberg that thus pronounces the universal brotherhood of humanity.”

Self-taught and able in Greek, Latin and German; author of the scholarly A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People (1841) (and later, the fascinating autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the History of James W.C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States (1850); and social activist as well as minister of the gospel; Pennington was a worthy selection by the faculty for this honor, although Pennington, with humility and grace, stated that he did not deserve this award but accepted it as a tribute to his race. What is particularly remarkable is that his academic attainments came through the extra effort required by being denied enrollment at Yale Divinity School, and though he was permitted to attend and audit classes, he was barred from speaking in class or borrowing library books. The hurdles he overcame both before and after he escaped from slavery in order to exercise his liberty and pursue his dreams are one thing; the freedom he found in Christ, as all Christians can testify, is even more profound.

“In 2011, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University established the James W.C. Pennington Award.” Source: University of Heidelberg (https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/forschung/pennington_en…

“In 2011, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University established the James W.C. Pennington Award.”
Source: University of Heidelberg (https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/forschung/pennington_en.html)

We pause today to remember and to reflect upon this milestone achievement by James W.C. Pennington and what it represents in the history of African-Americans, Presbyterians and the world.

African-American Presbyterians at Log College Press

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About a year ago, we invited our readers to take note of a growing number of African-American Presbyterian authors available to read and learn about here at Log College Press. These are some of the names that we highlighted last year.

  • Matthew Anderson (1845-1928) - In 1874, Anderson became the first black student to reside in the main seminary building. He became the pastor of Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and in 1897 he wrote Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro.

  • Titus Basfield (1806-1881) - A former slave from Virginia, he studied at Franklin College in Ohio under the Rev. John Walker and eventually became a minister in the Associate Presbyterian Church. He served as a missionary in Canada for time and struggled with adversity there. He wrote a remarkable autobiography in 1858 titled An Interesting History of the Life of the Rev. Titus Basfield, a Colored Minister in the Associate Presbyterian Church.

  • William Thomas Catto (1810-1869) - Catto served as minister at the First African Presbyterian in Philadelphia. His historical sketch of that church and its first minister (see below) is of great value.

  • John Chavis (1763-1838) - Chavis was born free in North Carolina, and was tutored by Henry Pattillo, studied at Liberty Hall Academy in Virginia, and eventually (on November 19, 1800) became the first black licensed Presbyterian minister in America. We have added a great deal of correspondence by him to Willie P. Mangum, who later served as a US Senator from North Carolina.

  • John Gloucester, Sr. (1776-1822) - Born as a slave, Gloucester was at one time owned by the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, a Presbyterian missionary to Cherokee Indians, who set him free and encouraged him to pursue the ministry. Gloucester became the first black ordained Presbyterian minister in America on April 30, 1810. He then founded the First African Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.

  • Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) - Having escaped from slavery in Maryland, Garnet grew up in New York, studying at the African Free School and the Oneida Theological Institute. An accident deprived him of the use of his right leg, the lower portion of which had to be amputated, which hindered with his studies. He went on to serve as pastor of the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York, and as pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. He was a leading abolitionist who at one time called for armed rebellion by slaves against their masters, and supported efforts for American blacks to colonize Africa. He was the first black minister to preach to Congress with a sermon to the US House of Representatives on February 12, 1865, and became the first high-ranking black federal official when he was appointed as Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia on June 30, 1881. He died in Liberia the following year.

  • Francis James Grimké (1850-1937) - Born a slave on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, Grimké was the son of a slave-owner of French Huguenot descent, and a slave of European and African descent. Francis and his brother Archibald gained their freedom after the War, and went on to study at Lincoln University, graduating there in 1870, and then Francis studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1878. He became the pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and was also a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His Meditations on Preaching is available here.

  • James William Charles Pennington (1807-1870) - Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Pennington escaped from slavery at the age of 18 and traveled north with the help of the Underground Railroad. Under the influence of the Rev. Samuel H. Cox, by the grace of God, Pennington was converted to Christ. He studied at Yale, and was eventually ordained to the ministry. He traveled much in Europe, and was the first person of African descent to be awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree by any European university at the University of Heidelberg in 1849. A leading black abolitionist of his day, he was opposed to African colonization efforts. His popular autobiographical account is titled The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the History of James W.C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States (1850).

  • William Henry Sheppard (1865-1927) - Born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia at Waynesboro, Sheppard studied at the Hampton Institute under Booker T. Washington, and at the Tuscaloosa Theological Institute (now Stillman College). He was ordained as a minister in the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) in 1888. After a brief stint as a pastor in Atlanta, he volunteered to serve as a pioneer missionary in the Congo Free State of Africa, where he would serve with Samuel N. Lapsley and William M. Morrison. With Morrison, Sheppard did much to expose the atrocities of the Belgians in the Congo. Both men were sued for libel against the Kasai Rubber Company, and both were acquitted. Mark Twain mentioned Sheppard by name and referred to Sheppard’s account of the atrocities in King Leopold's Soliloquy (1905). Sheppard’s collection of Kuba art remains on display today at Hampton University Museum. He also wrote poetry.

  • Theodore Sedgwick Wright (1797-1847) - Born free in Providence, Rhode Island, Wright was the first African-American to attend any US theological seminary (Princeton). He later wrote about the racism he experienced there. After graduating, he served as pastor of the First Colored Presbyterian Church in New York City for the rest of his life. He wrote for William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator, and co-edited Freedom’s Journal with Samuel Cornish (see below). He was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

In the past year, we have added more 19th-20th century African-American Presbyterians who are very much worth getting to know.

  • James Ralston Amos (1824-1864) - Amos, and his brother Thomas Henry, both graduated from what is now known as Lincoln University in Pennsylvania under the supervision of the Rev. John Dickey, and were ordained by the New Castle Presbytery in 1859 to serve as some of the first black American missionaries in Liberia.

  • Thomas Henry Amos (1826-1869)- See above. Cheryl Renée Gooch has written a valuable study of the lives of both brothers titled On Africa's Lands: The Forgotten Stories of Two Lincoln-Educated Missionaries in Liberia (2014).

  • Samuel Cornish (1795-1858) - Born free in Delaware, Cornish later founded the First Colored Presbyterian Church in New York City. He later served as the pastor at the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and Emmanuel Church in New York City. He co-edited Freedom’s Journal with Theodore S. Wright (see above), and with him was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

  • Samuel Jackson Fisher (1847-1928) - Born in Ohio, Fisher went on to study at Hamilton College, graduating in 1867, and at Auburn Theological Seminary (1870). He would later receive two doctorates in divinity. Ordained in 1870, he served as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Swissvale, Pennsylvania from 1870 to 1905. A leading African-American Presbyterian minister in his day, he also served as a long-time member of the faculty of Chatham University (then known as the Pennsylvania College for Women; served as President of the Presbyterian Board of Missions to the Freedmen; and who authored many articles, as well as a volume of poetry dedicated to his deceased wife: The Romance of Pittsburgh or Under Three Flags, and Other Poems.

  • William Henderson Franklin (1852-1935) - Franklin was a respected Presbyterian minister and educator who was both the founder and president of Swift College in Rogersville, Tennessee. He and his wife are buried on the campus. He was also the first moderator of the East Tennessee Synod.

  • James Newton Gloucester (1810-1890) - The son of John Gloucester, Sr., James also became a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist. He founded the Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York in 1849, and later in life also served as a physician.

  • Stephen Henry Gloucester (1802-1850) - The son of John Gloucester, Sr., Stephen also became a Presbyterian minister and was active on the Underground Railroad. He founded the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

  • Amos Herring (1793-1873) - Born as a slave in North Carolina, Herring moved to Augusta County, Virginia as a child, where he came under the ministry of the Old Stone (Presbyterian) Church. After gaining his freedom at the age of 26, he took his family and emigrated to Liberia in 1833 under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. He became pastor at the Presbyterian Mission in Monrovia and was esteemed so highly that in 1847 he served as a delegate to the 1847 Constitutional Convention, where he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In 1871, after the departure of the Liberian President, Herring was one of three men appointed to a executive committee which took charge of the government.

  • Joseph Winthrop Holley (1874-1958) - Born in South Carolina to former slaves, Holley studied at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In preparation for the ministry, he finished his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He served as pastor at the Washington Avenue Presbyterian Church in Macon, Georgia, and also founded the Albany (Georgia) Bible and Manual Training Institute (later known as Albany State University.

  • Lewis Johnston, Jr. - Born in Pennsylvania, Johnston was raised in the Covenanter (RPCNA) Church under the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Sproull. He served the Union army briefly, was educated at Geneva College, and at the Allegheny Theological Seminary, after which he was ordained sine titulo on October 14, 1874 — the first black minister ordained in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. He organized the RP church at Selma, Alabama, where he ministered alongside his father and ruling elder, Lewis Johnston, Sr. The younger Johnston also founded what was originally Geneva Academy, and later named Knox Academy in Selma.

  • Armistead Miller (1830-1865) - North Carolina-born as a slave, Miller was emancipated and went to Africa as a boy. He returned and was theologically trained at Ashmun Institute, Oxford, Pennsylvania. In 1859, he was ordained to the ministry by the New Castle Presbytery. He served as the pastor of the Mount Coffee Church in Liberia until his death in 1865.

  • James M. Priest (1819-1883) - Born a slave in Kentucky, Priest’s owner, Jane A. Meaux, educated and emancipated him, sending him to Africa to evaluate the condition of former slaves there. Upon his return, he received theological training and became a Presbyterian missionary. He emigrated to Liberia in 1843 under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. He served as Vice-President of Liberia from 1864 to 1868, and later, as a Justice on the Liberian Supreme Court.

  • William Drew Robeson I (1844-1918) - Born a slave in North Carolina, Robeson escaped at the age of 15 with the help of the Underground Railroad to freedom in Pennsylvania. He served the Union army as a laborer, and then studied at Lincoln University. He served as pastor of the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1880 to 1901. He was forced to resign, yet in his farewell sermon on January 27, 1901, he told his congregation without recriminations, "As I review the past, and think upon many scenes, my heart is full of love.... Do not be discouraged, do not think your past work is in vain." He and his wife are buried at Princeton Cemetery. He was the father of the famous artist and social activist Paul Robeson.

  • Betsey Stockton (1798-1865) - Stockton was born into slavery, and served the household of Ashbel Green, Presbyterian minister and later the president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He emancipated her around 1817 or 1818. In 1822, she traveled by ship to Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands) with Charles Samuel Stewart, where she was appointed to serve at Lahaina, Maui as the first single African-American female missionary from North America. Her missonary journal was reprinted by Ashbel Green in The Christian Advocate.

We intend to keep building on our efforts to illustrate the many contributions of 18th-20th century African-Americans to Presbyterianism. This is a rich heritage to be remembered and explored in the 21st century. We also intend to highlight later this week, DV, African-American Presbyterians contributions to the building of a new nation on a different continent. Stay tuned!

What Samuel Stanhope Smith had to say about Phillis Wheatley

(If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

While most famous for authoring the 1776 Declaration of Independence and its eloquent articulation of the principles of freedom for all, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson is also well known for his public position that African Americans were intellectually inferior to White Americans. He made his views known in Notes on Virginia (1785).

One example of this is his critique of the famous African American poet Phillis Wheatley. She composed a tribute to George Whitefield, thoughts on the Providence of God, and a poem about being brought to America from Africa, among other notable verses. But Thomas Jefferson only gave her credit for her sincere religious beliefs.

Religion indeed has produced a Phillis Whately; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism. The heroes of the Dunciad are to her, as Hercules to the author of that poem….I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind.

The reader will note Jefferson’s equivocal credit of authorship to her volume of poems (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773). It was actually necessary for local civil and religious authorities to investigate whether she, as an African American slave, had the ability to write the poems ascribed to her. They concluded that she indeed the poet that she claimed to be, and their written testimony was included by the publisher in the preface to her book. But questions about her ability to skillfully write poetry lingered in the minds of some - precisely because she was an African American.

In 1787, the first to refute this argument by Jefferson about the supposed intellectual inferiority of African Americans in general, and Phillis Wheatley specifically, was Samuel Stanhope Smith in his Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (2nd ed. 1810).

In 2019, it seems anachronistic to acknowledge not only Phillis Wheatley’s ability as a poet, but also the equality of African Americans with White Americans on an intellectual basis. But in 1787, it was noteworthy for Smith to publicly challenge Jefferson’s views.

These remarks upon the genius of the African negro appear to me to have so little foundation in true philosophy that few observations will be necessary to refute them…. The poems of Phillis Whately, a poor African slave, taught to read by the indulgent piety of her master, are spoken of with infinite contempt. But I will demand of Mr. Jefferson, or any other man who is acquainted with American planters, how many of those masters could have written poems equal to those of Phillis Whately?

Smith argued in his Essay for the doctrine of “[t]he unity of the human race, notwithstanding the diversity of colour, and form under which it appears in different portions of the globe.” In his view, differences between the peoples of different parts of the world should be understood as reflecting the conditions in which they lived. It should be understood by the modern reader of his Essay that Smith’s defense of the unity of all mankind regardless of skin color, though remarkable for its day, contains expressions which were dismissive of African culture.

Like Jefferson, Smith was a slaveholder. He was more moderate in his aim of gradual emancipation for slaves than his friend “Father” David Rice, who strived to ban slavery at the beginning of Kentucky’s statehood in 1792 — although Rice too was a slaveholder. Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia also advocated the colonization of Africa by freed slaves; Smith’s own ideas on the subject helped lead to the creation of the African Colonization Society in 1816 - a project that was controversial among white and black American Presbyterians and others.

Few American Presbyterians of that era were consistent in their principles and practices regarding opposition to slavery — George Bourne, and Alexander McLeod and the RPCNA were notable exceptions. Bourne, in his 1816 volume The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable, notes the contradiction represented by Samuel Stanhope Smith:

Dr. Smith exemplifies the difficulties, which a man must surmount, who endeavors to combine truth with error, and rectitude of principle with corruption of practice.

Yet, Smith’s defense of Phillis Wheatley was an important public statement of his position that African Americans are not “inferior” to whites. Wheatley, who was emancipated the same year that her poems were first published, once wrote a letter to Native American Presbyterian minister Samson Occom, in which she spoke of the universal love of freedom.

…in every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance; and by the Leave of our modern Egyptians I will assert, that the same Principle lives in us. God grant Deliverance in his own Way and Time, and get him honour upon all those whose Avarice impels them to countenance and help forward tile Calamities of their fellow Creatures. (Published in The Connecticut Gazette, March 11, 1774)

We may credit Samuel Stanhope Smith with defending the unity of mankind against the charge that African Americans were “inferior,” and using the example of Phillis Wheatley to demonstrate this, while yet decrying that this defense was ever needed, and also decrying Smith’s own inconsistencies regarding slavery.

What did a 19th century African-American think of Presbyterianism's relationship to African-Americans?

Matthew Anderson entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1874, and was the first black student to reside in the main seminary building. He became the pastor of Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA, and in 1897 he wrote Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro. As the 21st century church seeks gospel peace and harmony among various ethnicities, this book would be an interesting and important source from which to learn how our heritage has thought through these issues in years gone by.

In the preface to his work, Anderson remarks, "We have always thought, and we believe rightly, that the Presbyterian Church has an important mission to perform among the colored people of the United States. The doctrines held by the church are the best calculated to correct the peculiar faults of the Negro, his legacy from slavery, and thus give him that independence and decision of character necessary to enable him to act nobly and well his part as a man and a citizen of our great republic" (7-8). In spite of what from our vantage point could be viewed as a paternalistic tone from Anderson toward his own people, yet his conviction is sound: the Presbyterian Church does indeed have a great and important mission to perform among - and the doctrines of our church are best calculated to correct the faults of - white, black, brown and every other color of skin under the sun. 

Ed. note: This post was originally published on July 8, 2017, and has been only slightly edited.