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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

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

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

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the plague comes - pastoral compassion in centuries past

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Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:…I was sick, and ye visited me:… (Matthew 25:34-36)

As cases of Coronavirus appear in China and the epidemic begins to spread around the world, concerns arise about not only physical health but also how to minister to those in need. It is an age-old question. Ministers have often asked themselves whether it is better to flee to safety or risk exposure to contagion for the spiritual well-being of those who are suffering.

There have been many plagues, many epidemics in human history, and there are many stories of compassion to the suffering. The 1665-1666 Great (bubonic) Plague of London, which killed an estimated 100,000 people in a period of 18 months, is one striking example. The event which inspired English Presbyterian Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) also inspired the ministry of English Presbyterian Thomas Vincent, highlighted in the 1993 play by Anthony Clarvoe The Living, in which Vincent was a main character and his compassion for the sick, with whom he stayed at great risk to himself (seven members of his own household died during the epidemic). Vincent later wrote God’s Terrible Voice in the City (1667), as a call for men to turn to God in repentance. Vincent’s The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ (1677) also contains a description of the plague and his ministry during the pestilence. It was for the love of Christ and Christ’s flock that he stayed during the plague ministered to those in need.

I Preach'd, as never sure to Preach again,
And as a dying man to dying Men! — Richard Baxter, Poetical Fragments Heart-Imployment with God and it Self

Jonathan Edwards, among his first acts as President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), preached a New Year’s Sermon in 1758 on Jer. 28:16 ("This year thou shalt die"), while Princeton, New Jersey was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. He later received an inoculation, which led to his death two months later. (His predecessor, Aaron Burr, Sr., and successor, Samuel Davies, and his own son, Jonathan Edwards, Jr. all preached on the same text in the same year in which they died.)

…time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance. We know that it is very short, but we know not how short. — Jonathan Edwards, “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It”

Ashbel Green, who wrote the heartfelt A Pastoral Letter, From a Minister in the Country, To Those of His Flock of Who Remained in the City of Philadelphia During the Pestilence of 1798 (1799), encouraged his flock during a yellow fever epidemic not to assemble for public worship. He lost a dear friend to the disease, John Blair Smith, in 1799, and his concern was to protect his flock as a shepherd. The pestilence visited Philadelphia several times while he ministered there and in surrounding parts. His diary entry for November 6, 1802, records this joyful note: “Thanks to God who has preserved us all from the pestilence, shown us many favours, and returned us again to our home. O let us live to his praise; I hope this day I have had some freedom at the throne of grace.”

If ever I preached with fervour, like a dying man to a dying man, it was during the time of this calamity. — Ashbel Green’s autobiography, p. 280

George Dodd Armstrong, author of The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856), made the decision to stay and serve his suffering flock during the 1855 epidemic. Barry Waugh writes:

The first cases of yellow fever occurred about mid July 1855 in Portsmouth and the source of the contagion was believed to be a steamer from the island of St. Thomas. The citizens of Norfolk were concerned that the fever would be transmitted across the Elizabeth River to infect its citizens. Their fears were confirmed in short order when cases were diagnosed in Norfolk. As the severity of the epidemic in both cities unfolded, Rev. Armstrong struggled with whether or not a minister should remain in the city or flee with the others seeking safety. He decided to stay with his family and he would pay a price for his decision. However, his decision to stay rested upon the providence and sovereignty of God.

For myself, I can say that, in the prospect of the possible spread of the fever throughout our city, I have no anxious thought. The pestilence, when raging in its most terrible violence, and when man stands appalled before it, is yet ever under God’s control, and can claim no victims but such as are given it (p. 29).

Another pastor who confronted the challenges of a yellow fever epidemic was Benjamin Morgan Palmer in New Orleans. Douglas Kelly writes in Preachers With Power: Four Stalwarts of the South, pp. 99-100:

This central motivation of Palmer’s life [a desire “to see the healing hand of the Good Shepherd laid upon the multitudes for whom he felt responsible”] is illustrated in self-sacrificial actions during perilous circumstances in both New Orleans and Columbia. In 1858 the pestilence of yellow fever struck New Orleans, and large numbers of people left the city. While this included many pastors who abandoned their flock, Dr Palmer remained in order to visit the sick and dying, and in the words of his biographer, ‘to offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give…’ During that year, some 4,858 people in that city died of the fever and Palmer not only visited his own people, but others, particularly those who had no pastor. Indeed, it was his custom, while on his beneficent rounds, ministering to his own people, to enter every house on the way which displayed the sign of fever within; to make his way quietly to the sick room, utter a prayer, offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give, and then as quietly to leave.’

Twenty years later, in 1878, Palmer was equally faithful and active in visiting those who were once again struck down by another outbreak of yellow fever. Increasing age had not affected his activity in the least. He wrote to his sister, Mrs Edgeworth Byrd, the following report on his pastoral work at that time: ‘You will form some idea of the trial, when I state that during three months, I paid each day from thirty to fifty visits, praying at the bedside of the sick, comforting the bereaved, and burying the dead; and that, too, without intermitting the worship of the Sabbath or even the prayer meeting in the week.’ Such actions prompted a famous Jewish rabbi of New Orleans to observe, ‘It was thus that Palmer got the heart as well as the ear of New Orleans. Men could not resist one who gave himself to such ministry as this.’

In the Selected Writings of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, edited by C.N. Wilborn with selections made by Caleb Cangelosi (who suggested the very topic of today’s blog post), there is an article which he published in the Southwestern Presbyterian (April 1, 1869) titled “Never Too Late,” which gives a sample of his ministerial endeavors during the epidemic of 1867. A man on his death-bed was converted by means of the prayers and earnest supplications of Palmer thus affirming an old maxim found in Matthew Henry’s commentary: “While there is life there is hope.”

In all of these scenes of pastoral ministry, the love of Christ constrained these men to do what they could to help those in need, often at great risk to themselves. We are not all called to such circumstances, but we are all called to such love. And we are called further to pray for the suffering around the world. May these examples from history stir us up to greater compassion for the sake of Christ.

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The Works of and about Daniel Baker

Daniel Baker (1791-1857) was one of the great Presbyterian evangelists of the first half of the 19th century. Originally from Liberty County, Georgia, and the famous Midway Church, Baker studied for the ministry under the Rev. William Hill in Winchester, Virginia. After pastoring churches in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Kentucky, and Alabama, the Lord called him to leave the United States and move to the Republic of Texas in 1839 (Texas became a state in the Union in 1845). After preaching throughout east and south Texas, he pastored for a time in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He eventually returned to Texas, and became the pastor of First Presbyterian Galveston in 1848. He was instrumental in starting Austin College in Huntsville, TX (the college moved to Sherman, TX, in 1876). You can read more of Baker's life and work in the memoir written by his son William Munford Baker (a book published by the Banner of Truth under the title, Making Many Glad: The Life and Labours of Daniel Baker). You will also find Daniel Baker's works on the Log College Press website, including two volume of revival sermons and a book on the sacraments, here. Read of this man of God who loved to preach Christ in settled situations and on the frontiers! 

John Holt Rice, the Preacher

William Maxwell (1784-1857), president of Hampden-Sydney College, had this to say about John Holt Rice (1777-1831):

"He had judgment, strong and discriminating, to seize his subject by the right handle, and set it before you in its proper point of view. He had knowledge, ample and various, to inform, and learning, beyond that of almost any one of his contemporaries, to enlighten you; and, what was of great importance, he was the master of it, and not its slave. He was, therefore, always instructive without being ever pedantic, and gave you the light of the lamp without its smell. At the same time, he was always strictly and purely evangelical, and, of course, remarkably practical. His style of preaching, indeed, naturally partook of the character of his personal religion, to which we have already adverted. Accordingly, he could not, or would not separate Faith and Duty for a moment from each other, in his public ministrations, any more than in his private conduct" (An Oration Commemorative of the late John Holt Rice, D. D.)

E. P. Rogers (FPC Augusta's Pastor in 1850) on the Doctrine of Election

Ebenezer Platt Rogers (1817-1881) was at various times a Congregationalist, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed pastor. His Presbyterian service was rendered at the esteemed First Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Georgia, from 1847-1854. While there he preached and subsequently published in one volume three discourses on the doctrine of election, entitled The Doctrine of Election: Stated, Defended, and Applied (it can be found here). Fellow Southerner Thomas Smyth penned the introduction to this work, which makes it doubly valuable. Rogers' presentation is short (approximately 100 pages), and as the title indicates, covers the statement and Scripture proof of the doctrine of election, objections to the doctrine of election, and the use and glory of the doctrine of election. If someone you know is wrestling with this Biblical truth, consider printing off this PDF and working through it with them. 

John Lafayette Girardeau on the Church's Responsibility to Foreign Missions

In May of 1868, some three years after the end of the Civil War, John Lafayette Girardeau was called upon to address the Society of Missionary Inquiry at Columbia Theological Seminary. The Presbyterian Church in the United States (the Southern Presbyterian Church) had recently seen a resurgence in interest in foreign missions, and Girardeau wanted to strike while the iron was hot. The text of this discourse was printed in the August 1868 edition of The Missionary, and presents us with a stirring call to consider the obligation upon the church to bring the gospel to the nations who have not yet heard it. 

Girardeau writes out of his particular context, and so explores the Southern Presbyterian Church's relative lack of foreign missionary involvement in the antebellum period, as well as the changes that the Civil War had brought, and the opportunities that were then before the church by God's almighty providence. His convictions about the gospel are clear: "That the heathen, as constituents of the federal head of the race, are involved in the guilt of his first sin; that they are voluntary transgressors of natural law indelibly impressed upon the conscience of mankind; that they perish under the operation of the penalty of that violated institute though it be not reduced to a written form; that their condition is one of misery, ruin, and death; that their only hope of eternal salvation lies in their knowledge of the gospel of Christ; that the Church as the constituted trustee of that gospel is imperatively bound by her Master's last command, by the laws of her being and the very instincts of her nature, to preach to them a crucified and risen Saviour as their light in darkness, their deliverance from sin, and their redemption from woe..." Likewise, his belief in the necessity of foreign missions is settled: "A selfish Church would be a contradiction in terms, a monster drinking from her own breast the milk which was intended to nourish the dying children of want."

Girardeau's address captures a vital aspect of the ministry of the church, at a significant time in the life of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. It is relevant both as a historical document, and for its ongoing encouragement to those engaged in foreign missions on a variety of levels. Tolle lege! 

Thomas Smyth on Affliction and the Comfort of God

"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God," Paul declared to the saints in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (Acts 14:22). Thus for the Christian, as for Christ, the cross comes before the crown. Yet our heavenly Father sustains and comforts us in the midst of our suffering, and through our suffering He refines us for an eternity with Himself. These truths are the theme of several of Thomas Smyth's shorter writings, found in Volume 10 of his Complete Works: 

• Council and Comfort for Afflicted Believers
• God Comforts us to Make us Comforters
• Solace for Bereaved Parents
• God Glorified and Christian Obedience Perfected in the Prostration and Suffering of Believers
• Heaven

Smyth, the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, from 1834 until nearly his death in 1873, endured a life of tragedy - chronic illness, debilitating headaches, paralysis, shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, the death of two infant children to scarlet fever, and the list could go on. Yet this shepherd knew the word of God, and sought to apply it to himself and to his sheep. Avail yourself of the experiential wisdom of this 19th-century American Presbyterian today. 

Samuel Leslie Morris' Works on Home Missions and Presbyterianism

Samuel Leslie Morris was born on December 25, 1854, in Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, South Carolina. He came from robust Scotch-Irish stock that were committed Presbyterians. After graduating from Erskine College at the age of 18, he entered Columbia Theological Seminary. He pastored churches in Walhalla, South Carolina; Macon, Georgia; and Atlanta, Georgia. His first call in Walhalla was for an annual salary of $300. Two small country churches promised another $300, and he wrote, "I now had an income of $600 a year -- not equal to that of Vanderbilt or Astor; but it gave me the temerity to take unto myself a wife. As one of my church officers had borrowed all of my 'savings,' something less than $100, I went to the town bank and secured a small loan to buy a wedding suit and bring home my bride. I was accordingly formally married October 23, 1877, to Ella M. Brice, only child of Christopher S. Brice, Sr., of New Hope Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation near Woodward, S.C." (quoted here).

Morris is best known, however, for his work as Secretary of Home Missions for the Southern Presbyterian Church. He wrote several books on the mission effort of the Presbyterian Church to America, including At Our Own Door, The Task that Challenges, and Christianizing Christendom (find these works here). These volumes provide an insightful look at the state of the missionary heart of Presbyterians, as well as the vision and strategies they employed at the beginning of the 20th century. Morris also wrote a well-known book that could easily have been used as a text for Inquirers' Classes, Presbyterianism: Its Principles and Practice. The table of contents is as follows: 

1. Presbyterianism - A System
2. Presbyterianism in History
3. Presbyterianism and Calvinism
4. Presbyterianism and Church Polity
5. Presbyterianism and the Sacraments (the Lord's Supper)
6. Presbyterianism and the Sacraments (Baptism)
7. Presbyterianism and the Covenant (Infant Church Membership)
8. Presbyterianism in Action
9. Presbyterianism and Catholicity
10. Presbyterianism and Missions

Spend some time perusing Morris' works, and be instructed and spurred on in your heart for the gospel going forth to the lost through the church of Jesus Christ.

William Plumer on the Sabbath Day

Have you ever considered the irony that many who plant Ten Commandment signs in their front yards today reject the fourth commandment as binding upon Christians under the new covenant? As you rejoice in this Lord's Day, be encouraged by the challenging, persuasive, and promissory words of William Swan Plumer: 

"He, who loves God's word and worship, he, who delights in prayer and praise, loves the day devoted to the study of Scripture, and the service of Jehovah. Among the thousands of religious biographies now before the world, is there one which shows that any heart loved the other precepts of the Decalogue and disregarded this?

It is generally agreed that Christ came to enlarge, not to curtail the privileges of his people, and espe­cially of the poor and afflicted, many of whom are not the masters of their own time. But if he abolished the Sabbath, he cut off the pious poor from one of their dearest privileges, one no less necessary to re­lieve their heavy hearts than to refresh their toil-worn bodies. 

The Scriptures contain many precious promises to those who reverently keep this day, and take pleasure in its appropriate duties. Isa. 56:1-7, and 58:14; Jer. 17:21-26. To such God will give, in his house and within his walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. He will give them an ever­lasting name, that shall not be cut off. He will make them joyful in his house of prayer, and will accept all their sacrifices; and blessings like those which came upon Jacob shall fall upon them." -- The Law of God, page 299

Do You Have These American Presbyterian General Assembly Digests?

The General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church were held this week. At some point in the near future the minutes of these assemblies will be approved, and then in the more distant future a digest of these minutes, and the minutes of other years' assemblies, will be compiled for historical record and easy reference. Digests are a great blessing for the historian and the church government wonk, and some are available on the Log College Press website. 

Several Digests were published in the first half of the 19th century, but Samuel Baird's Digest (published in 1856) is the most well known. It covers all the way back to the beginning of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Digests were also published in 1859, 1861, 1873, 1886, 1898, and 1907. None of these are currently on our site. We do have the 1923 Digest compiled by Lewis Seymour Mudge for the Northern Presbyterian Church, as well as W. A. Alexander's Digest of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (the Southern Presbyterian Church) in 1888, covering the years 1861-1888. 

These books will not be interesting even to all who love Presbyterianism, or even all who love General Assembly. But for the handful of individuals who enjoy reading Assembly minutes, we hope you find access to these documents useful.

19th-20th Century Black Presbyterians

Yesterday, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) elected its first African-American Moderator, Dr. Irwyn Ince (who, coincidentally, also wrote the Foreword to our upcoming book, Meditations on Preaching, by Francis Grimke - available for Pre-Order on Amazon here!). In his Moderator's Address, Dr. Ince mentioned the impact that discovering African-American Presbyterian fathers in the faith had on his spiritual development and his love for the PCA. How easy it is to be unaware, or forget, that there have been Black Presbyterian pastors from the earliest days of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America! Many of these fathers and their published works are on the Log College Press website:

Matthew Anderson
Titus Basfield
William Thomas Catto
John Chavis
John Gloucester
Henry Highland Garnet
Francis James Grimke
James William Charles Pennington
William Henry Sheppard
Theodore Sedgwick Wright

We don't have all the published works of these men on our site yet, so if you know of some books or sermons or articles that we can upload to our site, please contact us! Likewise, let us know of other African-American Presbyterians from the 18th through the early 20th centuries, so we can put them on our website as well. God has been at work through the history of our country, even through long seasons of pain and oppression, to build His church (even the Presbyterian church) from all ethnicities. May He continue to do as He writes our history in this generation.

The Complete Works of Thomas Smyth

One of the goals of Log College Press is to collect as many of the writings of 18th and 19th century American Presbyterians as possible in digital form. Thanks to websites such as Archive.org and Google Books, and participating libraries, this job of collecting and arranging is much easier than it would have been ten years ago. Now, what one formerly could only access in a physical library, is available on any screen in your possession.

Such is particularly the case of the ten-volume set of The Complete Works of Thomas Smyth, since only a limited number of copies of this set were published, and most went to libraries. Smyth, a native of Belfast, Ireland, came to America to study at Princeton Seminary in 1829. Upon graduating, he filled the pulpit of Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, SC. In 1834, he was installed as the pastor of the church, remaining in that charge until his death in 1873. His works were published nearly forty years later, which speaks to the lingering impact of his ministry - yet he is all but forgotten today. A prolific author (and buyer of books - at one point his library numbered approximately 20,000 volumes!), he wrote on all manner of topics. You can peruse the contents of each volume under the titles pages here. I especially recommend the articles in Volume 7 on Missions, a primary focus of Smyth's ministry at Second Presbyterian Church. (Also interesting is Smyth's 1850 introduction to Ebenezer Platt Rogers' The Doctrine of Election Stated, Defended and Applied, recently found and posted.) 

Note that Dr. Barry Waugh has produced a valuable guide to understanding the contents of the full 10-volume set of Thomas Smyth's Works, which can be accessed here. 

May the Lord use the easy access and increased knowledge of the writings of early American Presbyterians to build up His church in our own day! 

The Works of David Calhoun in the Log College Press Bookstore

Dr. David Calhoun has been one of the most prolific historians of American Presbyterianism over the past several decades, and in the Log College Press Bookstore you can find eight of his books on that topic.

Calhoun wrote the 50th Anniversary history of his own Covenant Theological Seminary (By His Grace, For His Glory). Three titles explore the history of the most famous 19th-century seminaries: Princeton Seminary (a two-volume set) and Our Southern Zion (about Columbia Theological Seminary). Three titles are histories of individual churches: The Glory of the Lord Risen Upon It (First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC), Cloud of Witnesses (First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, GA), and Splendor of Grace (Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, GA). Finally, he wrote on the life and works of William Childs Robinson, a 20th-century seminary professor who upheld the evangelical and Reformed faith in the face of the rising tide of liberalism (Pleading for a Reformation Vision).

Surely our readers own some, if not most, of these volumes - complete your collection by visiting our Bookstore today!

The Dissertations and Theses Page of Log College Press

Log College Press exists to collect and reprint the writings of and about American Presbyterians from the 18th and 19th centuries. That "about" aspect is found in our Bookstore (perhaps the largest curated list of books about Presbyterian history on the internet), and now on the newest page of the Log College Press website, the Dissertations and Theses page. On this page you will find an ever-increasing collection of the writings of PhD and ThM students who focused their studies on American Presbyterianism. As many of these dissertations and theses as we can get access to, we will make them available for you. We want to become the one-stop shop for all things American Presbyterianism, and this new page is a definite step in that direction. 

Currently, we have five papers posted:

1. A History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, by Nancy Elizabeth Clark;
2. Benjamin Morgan Palmer: Southern Presbyterian Divine, by Christopher Duncan;
3. Gilbert Tennent: An Analysis of His Evangelistic Ministry, Methods, and Message During the Great Awakening, by Cheryl Ann Rickards;
4. The History of a Confessional Sentence, by Barry Waugh; and
5. Direct and Immediate? The 19th Century Southern Presbyterian Controversy Regarding God's Call to the Ministry, my just-completed ThM thesis.

A special request: if you have written a dissertation or thesis on American Presbyterianism, please contact us if you would like us to post it for all to read. We hope this page becomes a frequently accessed stop on the LCP website. Happy reading!

William Henry Foote's Sketches of North Carolina and Virginia

You don't have to live in North Carolina or Virginia to be curious about the founding and progress of the Presbyterian churches in these states. To read accounts of God's work from the perspective of a pre-Civil War minister of the gospel, check out the writings of William Henry Foote (1794-1869). He was a native of Connecticut who pastored in North Carolina and Virginia. In the 1840s and 1850s he wrote historical sketches of the most significant events and personalities from those two states, and toward the end of his life he wrote a volume on the French Huguenots. Without his books, there is much we would not remember about early Presbyterian history.

[This post was originally published on July 5, 2017.]

John Lafayette Girardeau's Short Address to the Inquirer

In the 1860 Catechism he wrote for the African-Americans seeking admission to the church he pastored in Charleston, South Carolina, John Lafayette Girardeau included a short address to the inquirer, "in the hope that the truths contained in the Catechism may be enforced in the form of direct exhortation." The beauty and power of these gospel words depict the heart of this evangelistic pastor, and challenge the modern church's lack of evangelistic zeal and its truncated gospel. Use these words in your preaching; include them in your personal evangelism; share them with the lost in as many forms as you can come up with.  

My Friend, are you inquiring about the salvation of your never-dying soul? You are right. You cannot live here very long. You must soon die, and pass into eternity; and if that one soul, which God has given you, be lost, your all is lost. Will you listen to some affectionate advice on this all-important subject?

First, then, consider how great a sinner you are in God’s sight. You have broken His Law, that holy, just and righteous Law which angels and all good beings reverence and obey. You have wickedly trampled under foot all the commands of God’s Law, and you know full well that you have not had the shadow of an excuse for so doing. That Law says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” You have sinned, and you, therefore, deserve to die. Consider, too, how you have abused God’s great goodness and mercy to you. Ever since you were born God has been blessing you. He has given you clothing, food and shelter, and has mercifully provided for all your wants. Above all, He so loved sinners that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for them; and you have also despised this His amazing mercy, and refused to take God’s crucified Son as your Savior and your Lord. Think, too, how far short you have come of God’s glory in all things. You have not loved Him nor obeyed Him in any degree as He requires. You are a great sinner in God’s sight. Your sins are exceedingly offensive and abominable to Him, your Maker and your Judge. If He should cut you down and send you to hell, there to suffer forever and ever, He would treat you just as you deserve. O my friend, pray earnestly to God that He would convince you of your sins, by His Holy Spirit. Pray to Him to open your eyes that you may see your awful danger. Pray to Him to show you your great and manifold sins. Pray to Him to make you deeply feel your need of Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and hell.

You cannot save yourself. You have no goodness to recommend you to God’s favor. You are vile and wicked in the sight of a holy God. You have no righteousness. “All your righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” They cannot cover you in the day of God’s wrath. You cannot obey the Law in your own strength, for you have broken it already and its awful curse is now resting on your soul. Nothing that you can do can lift that curse from your soul. It threatens to sink you down into the bottomless pit. No works that you can do can save you. “By the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” If you pray in your own strength, that will not save you. If you try to serve God, in your own strength, that will not save you. Pray that God would show you that you are “miserable and poor and blind and naked;” that you are “dead in trespasses and sins;” and that unless He have mercy upon you, and save you, you must be lost and undone forever and ever.

Are you, then, shut up to final despair? Is there no hope for you? Hear, O sinner, what God has done to save us. He is full of pity, love and mercy, to poor, guilty, wretched sinners. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Yes, Jesus Christ, God’s well-beloved Son, saw us in our sinfulness and misery, and touched with heavenly pity for us, He came down to this world to save us. Jesus took the place of sinners. Jesus suffered, and bled, and died for sinners, that He might deliver them from the dreadful curse of the Law. He died and rose again from the dead, and now ever liveth in heaven to intercede for sinners.

Do you ask, now, what you must do to be saved? This blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for sinners, graciously invites you to come to Him, that you may have everlasting life. Listen to His sweet invitation to sinners! “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Do you want rest from the burden of your sins? Go to Jesus and He will give you rest. Do you want to be happy? Hear what He says: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Be not afraid to venture your soul upon Him. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Think not, because you are a great sinner, that He will not receive you. Hear what Jesus says: “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” The first thing, then, for you to do, is to go to the Lord Jesus, and believe in Him. When the Jews asked Christ what they must do, He answered, “This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent.” When the jailor asked Paul and Silas when he must do to be saved, the Apostle told him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Go, then, O sinner, to Jesus Christ the Savior, and go just as you are. Stay not in the vain hope that you can make yourself any better than you now are. You cannot prepare yourself to go to Christ. The greater your sins are, the greater is your need of Christ. He “came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” Carry all your sins to Him. Lay them all on Him. “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” You have nothing but sins to give to Him, and He is willing to take them, and, in exchange, to give you His finished righteousness. What you want is mercy. Plead with God, for Christ’s sake, to have mercy upon you, to wash you in the atoning blood of Jesus, and to pardon all your sins. Trust alone in the righteousness of Christ. You have none of your own. Beseech God to accept you as righteous in His sight for the sake of His dear Son Jesus Christ. Do this, and being justified by faith, you shall have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And, sinner, go to Jesus at once. Do not suppose that it is your duty to spend a long time in seeking pardoning mercy, before you ought to expect to find it. God has made it your duty to believe in Christ now. And suppose you die before you find Christ as your Savior, of what good will your seeking be to you? Your life is uncertain. Tomorrow you may die; and if you die out of Christ, you will be lost forever. Be in earnest. Press your case in prayer before God. Plead as for your life that He would not enable you to believe in Christ, and to lay hold upon Him as He is freely offered in the Gospel. If God should please to keep you waiting some time before He gives you an answer of peace, be not discouraged. Draw nearer to Christ, and cry, “Lord, help me;” and never cease to cry for mercy, until God, for Jesus’ sake, pardons your sins and converts your soul.

And should God in infinite mercy be pleased to hear your prayer, and speak pardon to your soul, oh think of your crucified Savior, and think of your sins that nailed Him to the tree, until your heart melts into penitence at His feet. Plead with Him for strength to enable you to give up all your sins, and to do all His commands. And as you went to Jesus, at first, a poor, worthless, helpless sinner, so continue to go to Him every day and hour of your life. Trust in Christ, love Christ, live for Christ; and when you come to die, Christ will be with you, and give you the victory over death. Your body will sleep in Jesus till the glorious resurrection morning; and your happy, ransomed soul will go at once to be with Jesus, and to sing His praise forever and ever. Thus, to you, to live will be Christ, and to die will be gain.

McGill's Church Government and Peck's Notes on Ecclesiology

Log College Press exists in part to preserve a digital archive of American Presbyterian works from the 18th and 19th century, and to propagate the knowledge of these works to the general public. These works have generally been forgotten by 21st century Presbyterians, and it is our hope that just as Puritan literature has enjoyed a revival over the past sixty years through Banner of Truth and other publishers, so Log College Press might serve to restore knowledge of the Presbyterian fathers from America.

To that end, if you are interested in studying the topic of Ecclesiology, I commend to you two works written toward the end of the 19th century, one by a Northerner, and one by a Southerner. A book we have highlighted previously, Alexander Taggert McGill's Church Government (written in 1888), compiled the lectures on the topic he gave at Princeton Theological Seminary. McGill had been called in 1854 to become the Professor of Pastoral Theology, Church Government, and Homiletics, and held this position for over forty years. Soon after McGill's book was published, Thomas Ephraim Peck wrote Notes on Ecclesiology (1892). McGill's book is much longer than Peck's (560 pages as compared to 212), and while both traverse similar terrain in the topic, Peck includes sections on church power and the relationship between the church and the state (specifically, church power as contrasted with civil power) that make his volume unique in its presentation. Both books are worth the time and effort spent to work through them. 

Thomas Smyth's Charge to the People at the Installation of Pastors Thornwell and Mullally

In 1860, James Henley Thornwell and Francis P. Mullally were installed as co-pastors of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. John Lafayette Girardeau preached the sermon and Thomas Smyth gave the charges to the pastors and to the people. You can find these addresses in Volume 6 of Smyth's Complete Works here. The following is Smyth's charge to the congregation:

The very first thing I would impress upon you is, that in this eventful scene you are not spectators merely, but participants — not merely eye-witnesses to an interesting pageant, but partners to a solemn compact. The relations and responsibilities now constituted are mutual, and cannot be separated. Have these Brethren now become your pastors? — you have become their people. Are they under obligation to preach, to reprove, to rebuke, to make known God's will and your duty? — you are bound to hear, to obey, and to perform. Are they, in conscious impotence, to undertake a work

Which well might fill an angel’s heart,
And filled a Saviour's hands? —

they are to be strengthened with all might, obtained through your prayers on their behalf. Are they to give themselves wholly to the things which pertain to your spiritual welfare? — you are to provide all things needful for their temporal comforts; to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake; to count them worthy of an adequate and honorable maintenance; and to consider it a small thing to impart freely of your carnal things in return for their spiritual gifts.

You perceive, therefore, Brethren, that the solemnities of this occasion involve you not less than those who are set over you in the Lord. For weal or for woe you are now joined together. The relations and the responsibilities are mutual. You must be helpers or hinderers of each other’s prosperity and progress. Like priest like people, is not more true than like people like priest. It is in the power of any people to paralyze or to put life and energy into their pastor, and to make him not only a lovely song and as one that playeth well on an instrument, but the power of God and the wisdom of God, to the salvation of souls. And for all that they might do and ought to do, they must give account when they shall stand confronted at the bar of Him who judgeth righteous judgment.

May you so live and labour together as that this account shall be given with joy, and not with grief. Yours, I have said, is a model pulpit. May you be a model people. Model preaching will demand model practice, model piety, liberality and zealous devotion to every good cause. I congratulate you. Brethren, upon the present occasion and your future prospects. I rejoice with you in your joy. I remember your kindness to my youth, and your appreciation of my early ministrations, when you so cordially invited me to live and labour among you. Allow me, with all my heart, to pray that peace may be within your walls, and prosperity within your borders. May you go forward prospering and to prosper — a city set on a hill, a burning and a shining light, provoking all around you to love and liberality. May strength go out of this Zion, and may you arise and shine the glory of the Lord having arisen upon you.

This occasion must now close, but we who are now assembled must meet in review all the issues of this rehearsal. Oh, my friends, realize and lay to heart that hastening hour. Pray, oh, pray earnestly, that when pastors and people shall meet face to face, at that awful tribunal, instead of mutual upbraidings and reproaches — you accusing them of unfaithfulness or negligence, and they accusing you of coldness, formality, and refusal to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty — you may be able to congratulate each other; you blessing God for them as helpers of your faith, and they presenting you to God as their joy and crown of rejoicing.

Moses Drury Hoge on the Relation of the Westminster Standards to Foreign Missions

 On the Log College Press Compilations page, you will find the Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897, a wonderful collection of essays about the formation and theology of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. One of the important articles in that book was written by Moses Drury Hoge, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, entitled "Relation of the Westminster Standards to Foreign Missions." Hoge examines some of the historical reasons why the churches who adopted the Standards were not as possessed of a missionary spirit as they ought to have been; the missionary vision of the Standards; and the ministries of Alexander Duff, missionary to India, and John Leighton Wilson, missionary to western Africa. All who love to see the gospel go forth will be encouraged by Hoge's reflection.

Here's an important slice from Hoge on how the Westminster Standards ground missions in the biblical doctrine of the church: "The true theory of missions is one that clearly recognizes the fact that the great head of the church has not only committed to it the truths necessary to salvation, but has provided it with the government, the laws, the offices, and the equipment for building up the kingdom of God and extending its conquests through the world. This is in accordance with the spirit and teaching of the Westminster Standards, in proof of which we need only quote their noble testimony: "Unto this catholic, visible church Christ has given the ministry, the oracles and ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life and to the end of the world; and this he doth by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, made effectual thereto." Thus are the scattered sheep ''gathered" from the North and the South, the East and the West, into the safe and happy fold of the Good Shepherd. By its divine constitution the church is, therefore, qualified to secure all the spiritual ends for which it was instituted, and is in itself a missionary society of which every communicant is a member; and as each one has a recognized place in it because of its representative form of government, this very fact is calculated to enlist the sympathies, to deepen the sense of responsibility, and to stimulate to the most earnest, practical activity on the part of every member of the great household of faith."

May those who live under the teaching of the Westminster Standards be impelled more and more to bring the gospel to the nations!

Samuel Miller's Definition of Presbyterianism

"Presbyterians believe, that Christ has made all ministers who are authorized to dispense the word and sacraments, perfectly equal in official rank and power: that in every Church the immediate exercise of ecclesiastical power is deposited, not with the whole mass of the people, but with a body of their representatives, styled Elders; and that the whole visible Church Catholic, so far as their denomination is concerned, is not only one in name, but so united by a series of assemblies of these representatives, acting in the name, and by the authority of the whole, as to bind the whole body together as one Church, walking by the same principles of faith and order, and voluntarily, yet authoritatively governed by the same system of rule and regulation...That is a Presbyterian Church, in which the Presbytery is the radical and leading judicatory; in which Teaching and Ruling Presbyters or Elders, have committed to them the watch and care of the whole flock; in which all ministers of the word and sacraments are equal; in which Ruling Elders, as the representatives of the people, form a part of all ecclesiastical assemblies, and partake, in all authoritative acts, equally with the Teaching Elders; and in which, by a series of judicatories, rising one above another, each individual church is under the watch and care of its appropriate judicatory, and the whole body, by a system of review and control, is bound together as one homogeneous community. Wherever this system is found in operation in the Church of God, there is Presbyterianism." 

-- Samuel Miller, Presbyterianism (Lord willing, a future publication of Log College Press!)