“Socrates died like a man, but Jesus Christ died like a God!”

James Waddel (1739–1805) was known as "the Blind Preacher" of Virginia. He stands within the first rank of the best orators ever produced by Virginia, or indeed the United States, alongside Samuel Davies and Patrick Henry. He was the father-in-law of Archibald Alexander and the grandfather of James Waddel Alexander, his biographer, who is also named for him. 

There is a famous account of his oratory told in an essay by William Wirt which appears in The Letters of the British Spy (1803) and has been republished in J.W. Alexander's biographical memoir, McGuffey's Reader, and elsewhere. Wirt's telling of the story may be embellished, but the legend of James Waddel's sermon on one particular Sabbath day is based on fact, and was published during Waddel's lifetime. If you, dear reader, will bear with the length of the following story, your patience will be rewarded.

Photos by R. Andrew Myers.

It was one Sunday, as I travelled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous, old, wooden house, in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in travelling through these states, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship. 

Devotion alone should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess, that curiosity, to hear the preacher of such a wilderness, was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance, he was a tall and very spare old man; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shrivelled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of a palsy; and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. 

The first emotions which touched my breast, were those of mingled pity and veneration. But ah! sacred God! how soon were all my feelings changed! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees, than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the sacrament; and his subject, of course, was the passion of our Saviour. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times: I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that in the wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos, than I had ever before witnessed. 

As he descended from the pulpit, to distribute the mystic symbols, there was a peculiar, a more than human solemnity in his air and manner which made my blood run cold, and my whole frame shiver.  

He then drew a picture of the sufferings of our Saviour; his trial before Pilate; his ascent up Calvary; his crucifixion, and his death. I knew the whole history; but never, until then, had I heard the circumstances so selected, so arranged, so coloured! It was all new: and I seemed to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deliberate, that his voice trembled on every syllable; and every heart in the assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases had that force of description that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews: the staring, frightful distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet; my soul kindled with a flame of indignation; and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively clinched. 

But when he came to touch on the patience, the forgiving meekness of our Saviour: when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in tears to heaven; his voice breathing to God, a soft and gentle prayer of pardon on his enemies, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' — the voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew fainter and fainter, until his utterance being entirely obstructed by the force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into aloud and irrepressible flood of grief. The effect is inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the congregation. 

It was some time before the tumult had subsided, so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual, but fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for the situation of the preacher. For I could not conceive, how he would be able to let his audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. But — no; the descent was as beautiful and sublime, as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic. 

The first sentence, with which he broke the awful silence, was a quotation from Rousseau, 'Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ, like a God!' I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the  discourse. Never before, did I completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on delivery. You are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher; his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian and Milton, and associating with his performance, the melancholy grandeur of their geniuses; you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling melody; you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the congregation were raised; and then, the few minutes of portentous, death-like silence which reigned throughout the house; the preacher removing his white handkerchief from his aged face, (even yet wet from the recent torrent of his tears,) and slowly stretching forth the palsied hand which holds it, begins the sentence, 'Socrates died like a philosopher' — then pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both clasped together, with warmth and energy to his breast, lifting his 'sightless balls' to heaven, and pouring his whole soul into his tremulous voice — 'but Jesus Christ — like a God!' If he had been indeed and in truth an angel of light, the effect could scarcely have been more divine. 

Whatever I had been able to conceive of the sublimity of Massillon, or the force of Bourdaloue, had fallen far short of the power which I felt from the delivery of this simple sentence. The blood, which just before had rushed in a hurricane upon my brain, and, in the violence and agony of my feelings, had held my whole system in suspense, now ran back into my heart, with a sensation which I cannot describe — a kind of shuddering delicious horror! The paroxysm of blended pity and indignation, to which I had been transported, subsided into the deepest self-abasement, humility and adoration. I had just been lacerated and dissolved by sympathy, for our Saviour as a fellow creature; but now, with fear and trembling, I adored him as — 'a God!' 

If this description gives you the impression, that this incomparable minister had any thing of shallow, theatrical trick in his manner, it does him great injustice. I have never seen, in any other orator, such a union of simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude or an accent, to which he does not seem forced, by the sentiment which he is expressing. His mind is too serious, too earnest, too solicitous, and, at the same time, too dignified, to stoop to artifice. Although as far removed from ostentation as a man can be, yet it is clear from the train, the style and substance of his thoughts, that he is, not only a very polite scholar, but a man of extensive and profound erudition. I was forcibly struck with a short, yet beautiful character which he drew of our learned and amiable countryman, Sir Robert Boyle: he spoke of him, as if 'his noble mind had, even before death, divested herself of all influence from his frail tabernacle of flesh;' and called him, in his peculiarly emphatic and impressive manner, 'a pure intelligence: the link between men and angels.'

This man has been before my imagination almost ever since. A thousand times, as I rode along, I dropped the reins of my bridle, stretched forth my hand, and tried to imitate his quotation from Rousseau; a thousand times I abandoned the attempt in despair, and felt persuaded that his peculiar manner and power arose from an energy of soul, which nature could give, but which no human being could justly copy. In short, he seems to be altogether a being of a former age, or of a totally different nature from the rest of men. As I recall, at this moment, several of his awfully striking attitudes, the chilling tide, with which my blood begins to pour along my arteries, reminds me of the emotions produced by the first sight of Gray's introductory picture of his bard: 

On a rock, whose haughty brow,

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Robed in the sable garb of wo,

With haggard eyes the poet stood;

(Loose his beard and hoary hair

Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air:)

And with a poet's hand and prophet's fire.

Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. 

Guess my surprise, when, on my arrival at Richmond, and mentioning the name of this man, I found not one person who had never before heard of James Waddell!! Is it not strange, that such a genius as this, so accomplished a scholar, so divine an orator, should be permitted to languish and die in obscurity, within eighty miles of the metropolis of Virginia?

Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

The "Blind Preacher" of Virginia who was seemingly unknown in the capital of Virginia in his day will long be remembered all over the world for this particular sermon and its powerful effect on his audience. It will be forever to his credit that he pointed his hearers to Christ, and that they were thus moved to adore him as very God.

More by Samuel Miller on Creeds and Confessions

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It was earlier this year that Log College Press announced the publication of a new edition of Samuel Miller on The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions, a bicentennial tribute (originally published in 1824) to a classic work on an important topic. Meanwhile, we have been reviewing some recently digitized materials, which include The Watchman of the South (edited by William Swan Plumer and The Presbyterian (beginning in 1831, and edited by James Waddel Alexander in 1832-1833). Among the many interesting materials we have located in the pages of these journals is a 5-part series of articles by Samuel Miller titled “Creeds and Confessions” that appeared in first in The Watchman of the South (August-September 1838) and was republished in The Presbyterian (September-October 1838). Written in the midst of the church that split the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) between the Old School and the New School, Miller brings his earlier-published arguments in favor of the imperative both to have sound creeds and confessions, and to maintain an appropriate standard of subscription to the same to bear on the questions that were being discussed with great fervency at the time.

The third article in the series is of particular interest because it examines the question of departures from the orthodox creed in an ecclesiastical context. Appeals to higher judicatories, and review of lower court rulings by the supreme judicatory are addressed by Miller, along with — by way of example — the question of secession in the American political context. The fifth and final article Miller delves into the specifics of what sort of level of confessional subscription is required to achieve its desired purpose of maintaining a defense of the truth, as the church is called to do, while balancing the individual consciences of some who might have scruples about “lesser” points of doctrine addressed in the creed.

Throughout this series Miller writes as a “teacher and watchman on the walls of Zion” who is concerned to protect the body of Christ from dangerous error. He assures the reader that the points he is making in his case for creeds and standards of subscription are just what he has taught for two and a half decades prior at Princeton Theological Seminary — that is, they are no new teachings, but rather he is standing on solid precedent. The historical examples of prior ecclesiastical bodies such as the Council of Nicaea and the Westminster Assembly and their efforts to fence out Arianism and Arminianism are discussed in some measure and referenced to show why confessional boundaries are needed.

Both sets of articles are now available on Log College Press to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society and can be found on the Early Access page. They are presented to the reader in raw form, which means that the title page of each issue precedes the article in question, and there is much contemporary material around Miller’s articles that may also interest the reader who appreciates the historical context of the day (for example, there is discussion of a New School convention held in Farmville, Virginia, including a letter by George Addison Baxter regarding his assessment of that convention).

These articles have never been republished since 1838 to the best of our knowledge and therefore will be of interest both to readers who appreciate the careful and sound theological scholarship of Samuel Miller, and those who share his concern and passion for the church as the repository of Biblical truth. Tolle lege!

Communion Seasons and Tokens in Early American Presbyterianism

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What has been like a revelation to me in my research was, finding out the extensive use of Tokens in the United States. All the early Presbyterian churches appear to have used them. — Robert Shiells, The Story of the Token as Belonging to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1891), p. 150

Colonial American Presbyterianism, utilizing the Westminster Directory of Presbyterian Worship until 1788, relied much on Scottish Presbyterian traditions which included both communion seasons and tokens. These important features of simple Presbyterian worship were also associated with notable revivals, including both the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. “The communion seasons in Virginia, as wherever the Presbyterian Church was planted, were seasons of revival.” (Mary McWhorter Tenney, Communion Tokens: Their Origin, History, and Use (1936), p. 87). Leigh Eric Schmidt writes:

With the transplantation of Presbyterianism to the American colonies came Old World ways of organizing worship and devotion. The sacramental occasion, as one of the most prominent features of the evangelical Presbyterian tradition, was soon re-created in America. In New England, for example, enclaves of Presbyterian immigrants almost immediately staged sacramental occasions fully reminiscent of Scotland and Ulster….

In the middle colonies, where Presbyterian immigration was much heavier than in New England, sacramental occasions were proportionally larger and more pronounced. The communion seasons — prevalent, powerful, and well attended — figured prominently in the religious life of the Presbyterian immigrants throughout the region [Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period (1989), pp. 53-54].

Julius Melton also notes this important feature of early American Presbyterian worship as well as its transatlantic nature:

One especially prominent aspect of the Presbyterian’s worship experience in the colonies was the “sacramental season.” This was the practice, inherited from Scotland, of placing the infrequent celebrations of the Lord’s Supper within a series of services — days of fasting, sermons, examination of communicants and singing for which crowds would gather from an entire region. After dwelling at length on their sins and Christ’s work of salvation, Presbyterian drew near to receive the sacrament with great awe [Melton, Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787 (1967, 2001), p. 16].

The Great Awakening was at least in part built on the foundation of sacramental seasons of revival. This was true for the Tennents (William, Sr., William Jr., Gilbert, and John included), some of whom contributed to a famous collection of Sermons on Sacramental Occasions by Divers Ministers (1739).

Gilbert Tennent was born into a family of Scots living in Ulster, in the northeast of Ireland. By the close of the seventeenth century, Ulster had become an enclave of dissenting Presbyterians, rebels against both the English crown and the Anglican Church, who were forced by the government to settle there. These dissenters kept alive the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of field communion, or sacramental occasions, a distinctive practice that helped to maintain ties to their heritage [Kimberly Bracken Long, The Eucharistic Theology of the American Holy Fairs (2011), pp. 83-84].

Gilbert Tennent wrote in 1744 of revival that took place in his congregation at New Brunswick, New Jersey:

I may further observe, that frequently at Sacramental Seasons in New-Brunswick, there have been signal Displays of the divine Power and Presence: divers have been convinced of Sin by the Sermons then preached, some converted, and many much affected with the Love of God in JESUS CHRIST. O the sweet Meltings that I have often seen on such Occasions among many! New-Brunswick did then look like a Field the Lord had blessed: It was like a little Jerusalem, to which the scattered Tribes with eager haste repaired at Sacramental Solemnities; and there they fed on the Fatness of God’s House, and drunk of the River of his Pleasures [Thomas Prince, ed., The Christian History (1745), p. 294].

Neshaminy, Pennsylvania was the site of a sacramental occasion in June 1745 where David Brainerd assisted Charles Beatty administer the bread and the wine to “three or four thousand” in attendance which Brainerd described as a “sweet melting season.” Brainerd went on during the following year to build on this experience, along with counsel from those who commissioned his missionary labors — the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge — to host his own sacramental seasons among the Native Americans to whom he ministered.

Brainerd followed the Scottish pattern basically to the letter: Friday was “set apart for solemn Fasting and Prayer”; Saturday was given over to further preparations and exhortations; Sunday brought the Lord’s Supper and more sermons; Monday concluded “the Sacramental Solemnity” with praise, thanksgiving, and calls for sustained moral discipline….This sacramental season proved to be among the most satisfying events in Brainerd’s life; indeed, the “sweet Union, Harmony and endearing Love” he experienced there was “the most lively Emblem of the heavenly World, I had ever seen” [Schmidt, Holy Fairs, p. 55].

Brainerd spoke similarly of a sacramental occasion that he participated in at Freehold, New Jersey just a couple of months later (June 1746) which was hosted by William Tennent, Jr., describing it as “a season of comfort to the godly, and of awakening to some souls” (ibid., p. 56). These sacramental seasons are a running theme throughout his ministry, especially to the Native Americans. Yet, as Schmidt notes, “No one, as far as I know, has ever taken stock of Brainerd’s sacramental revivals and seen just how thoroughly Presbyterian in this matter he had become” (ibid., p. 235).

The first Covenanter communion in America took place at the “Junkin Tent” in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1752, and was administered by John Cuthbertson. This was also the first instance of the use of communion tokens in America. It bore the simple abbreviation “L.S.” for “Lord’s Supper” on one side only. These tokens were used to signify admittance to the Lord’s Table.

Commemorative 1752 communion token (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

In colonial Virginia, even before the arrival of Samuel Davies, a sacramental occasion was held by William Tennent, Jr. and Samuel Blair, where it was reported that “The Assembly was large, and the Novelty of the Mode of Administration did peculiarly engage their Attention….It appeared as one of the Days of Heaven to some of us; and we could hardly help wishing we could with Joshua have delayed the Revolutions of the Heavens to prolong it” [Samuel Davies, The State of Religion Among the Protestant Dissenters in Virginia (1751), p. 17]. A few years later, a paper communion token was used by Samuel Davies in Hanover County, Virginia. Note the sacramental poem written by Davies himself.

Samuel Davies’ communion token held at the William Smith Morton Library, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond Virginia (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

John Todd, John Wright, Robert Henry, John Brown and John Craig were among other Virginia Presbyterian evangelists who observed sacramental occasions and found them to be “special outpourings of the spirit” (John Wright, January 20, 1757 Letter found in John Gillies, Historical Collections (1845 ed.), p. 520). David Rice, who grew up under the ministry of Samuel Davies and John Todd, also helped to bring the practice of sacramental seasons to Kentucky.

The importance of communion gatherings in Davies's practice and Rice's conversion reveals that both men stood in the long tradition of Presbyterian sacramental seasons dating back to seventeenth-century Scotland. From the beginning, these "holy fairs" were protracted religious celebrations, sometimes attracting thousands of participants, which included not only the celebration of the sacrament but also fervent preaching. Such seasons were centers of religious renewal and revival, and the practice was continued by many Presbyterians in North America. In particular, this tradition can be traced through the family history of the Tennents, the Log College and its offshoots, the work of Samuel Davies, and Rice himself, who conducted similar communion seasons throughout his ministry. These gatherings would continue to be central to religious life on the frontier, though they would also become centers of controversy as the frontier context and new religious trends took the communion seasons in new directions [Andrew M. McGinnis, “Between Enthusiasm and Stoicism: David Rice and Moderate Revivalism in Virginia and Kentucky,” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 172-173].

Robert B. Davidson notes that communion seasons and tokens were part of the Kentucky Revival:

The sacramental meetings, or sacraments, as they were called, were held at long intervals, when several ministers attended and took part; tokens were distributed; a long Action Sermon preached; the tables duly fenced; a succession of tables served; a fresh minister assigned to each table, and a fresh exhortation to each company; and when the communicants were numerous, (many coming from a distance,) the services were protracted till sunset, and became extremely tedious and fatiguing [Davidson, History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky (1847), pp. 103-104].

James McGready was a pioneer Kentucky evangelist who seemed to be most in heaven while on earth at the communion table. Hear how he speaks in “The Believer Embracing Christ”:

The believer sometimes meets with Christ and embraces him in the arms of faith when he is seated at a communion table, then by faith, he sees a mangled, bleeding, dying, rising, triumphant Jesus, heading his own table, and feasting his blood-bought children with the bread of life and the milk and honey of Canaan [McGready, The Posthumous Works of the Reverend and Pious James M’Gready (1831), pp. 134-135].

As colonial Presbyterianism became less oriented towards traditional Scottish worship and more distinctly American, communion seasons and communion tokens began to fade away from the 19th century mainline American Presbyterian experience, and even, more slowly so, from the experience of Reformed (Covenanter) and Associate Reformed Presbyterians. John M. Mason was among those who argued for more frequent communion, and in this he was followed by James W. Alexander (see The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper [1840]), and others, until the communion season was no longer found to be the norm in the American Presbyterian experience.

THE LORD’S SUPPER. This sacrament, although celebrated infrequently, was still probably the high point in the worship experience of an Old School Presbyterian, as diaries and autobiographies of the period indicate. The high value placed upon the Communion is seen also in the effort that was made to bring about more frequency in its celebration and to separate it from the cumbersome appendages of the sacramental season. This idea had been advanced by the revisers of the Directory [of Public Worship] in 1787, but was overruled by the 1788 synod. A harbinger of change was the decision by a New York congregation of the Associate Reformed Presbytery to “discontinue the custom of observing a fast day before, and thanksgiving day after, the administration of the Lord’s Supper.” This change, which prompted much discussion in that Presbyterian denomination, had been promoted by the New York pastor John Mitchell Mason, author in 1798 of the book Letters on Frequent Communion [Melton, Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787, pp. 39-40].

Nevertheless, to hold a communion token in one’s hands is to hearken back to that bygone era when sacramental seasons marked perhaps the pinnacle of an Old School American Presbyterian’s spiritual pilgrimage on earth. If one listens closely, one might almost hear the faint sounds of a psalm sung, “Perhaps Dundee’s wild-warbling measures rise, / Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name; / Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame” (Robert Burns, A Cotters’ Saturday Night).

Planted on the hillside here the ‘Banner of Blue,’
And worshipped God in simple form as Presbyterians do.
Upon this very ground was heard the voice of prayer,
And ancient Psalm to solemn tune they sang. —
’Do good in thy good pleasure, Lord, unto our Zion here;
The walls of our Jerusalem establish Thou and rear.’
Thus prayer and praise were made to God,
Nor dread of any foe
Dismayed our fathers in their work
So many years ago.
— Paraphrase of William McCombs, Two Hundred Years Ago (1842) in Mary McWhorter Tenney, Communion Tokens: Their Origin, History, and Use (1936), p. 59

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

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Dear Friends,

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some highlights at the Recent Additions page:

• Charles Hodge, The Intuitions and Views of Future Punishment (1878) — This is one the last published articles by Dr. Hodge.

• Several early published poems by James Waddel Alexander dating from 1824 to 1827.

• James Power Smith, Quit You Like Men: Sermon Preached at the Virginia Military Institute, June 24th, 1906 (1906) — A contribution from a kind supporter of our work.

• John Witherspoon’s 9-volume set of Works (1815);

• Articles and reviews by Samuel Garfield Craig, Ernest T, Thompson, A.A. Hodge, George T. Purves, Andrew W. Blackwood, and many more.

• A thesis paper by Nancy Lynn Taylor Sorrells, “I Mourn in Bitterness Over the State of Things”: Francis McFarland’s Community at War, 1860-1866 (1995).

On the Log College Review:

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

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

Some Reflections by James W. Alexander on His Father

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Among the “Homiletical” and “Miscellaneous Paragraphs” found in James W. Alexander’s posthumously-published Thoughts on Preaching (1861), one may discern a number of interesting reflections on his father, Archibald Alexander. He had previously authored the standard biography of his father, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1854). These reflections, however, were collected separately from James’ private journals by his brother, Samuel D. Alexander, in the preparation of Thoughts on Preaching, and they reveal the deep appreciation he had of father — his pastoral genius, his personal counsel and his spiritual gifts.

§ 7. On Composing Sermons. — Notes on Conversations with J.A.A. — My father says a man should not begin with making a plan. Should not wait until he is in the vein. Begin, however you feel; and write until you get into the vein — however long it be. 'Tis thus men do in mining. Yon may throw away all the beginnings. Men who write with ease think best pen in hand. This applies to sermons, and also to books. It might be well to write a sermon currente calamo, and then begin again and write afresh (not copying, or even looking at the other, but), using all the lights struck out in the former exercise [pp. 3-4].

More generally still, avoid all that brings the speaker's personality before the hearer. A better model than our honoured father, in this, there could not be [p. 25].

In delivery, learn to know when to dwell on a point; let the enlargement be, not where you determined in your closet it should be; but where you feel the spring flowing as you speak — let it gush. Let contemplation have place while you speak.

For this, pauses are all important. Thus Rob. Hall preached. Thus my beloved honoured father, above all men I ever heard; his eye kindled, his face was radiant; he forgot the people; and as he was rapt in contemplation, he thought aloud.

…The best written discourse of my father is no more to his best preaching, than a black candle is to a burning flame [pp. 28-29].

I perceive my father was right, when he advised me to write my first draught current calamo, without any plan, with absolute abandon; giving free scope in every direction whenever a vein was struck, and reserving the particulars for the copy [p. 30].

§ 66. My Father. — My dear and honoured father has some excellencies as a writer, which I did not value at a proper rate when I was younger. He goes always for the thought rather than the word; and is never led along by the bait of fine language or the course of figures. I am led to think that a man must early in life make his election between these two kinds of writing, and that I have fallen into the inferior one: though I am regarded among my friends as a simple writer.

Another remarkable quality of my father, is his going for truth and reason, rather than for authority. This is the more remarkable, as he has been one of the greatest and most miscellaneous readers I ever knew; has had the most extensive knowledge of books, and the most wonderful memory of their contents, so that I have often known him to give a clear account of works which he had not seen for forty years; and yet how seldom does he make citation! The train of his thoughts is all his own, with a thorough digestion in his own mind, and reference of all things to their principles. Hence he is original in the best sense; which superficial readers would not admit, because his style had no salient points, or overbold expressions.

I attribute this in some degree to the fact that almost every day of his life, known to me, it was his habit to sit alone, in silence, generally in the twilight, or musing over the fire, in deep and seemingly pleasurable thought. At such times he was doubtless maturing those trains of reasoning, which he brought out in his discourses; and this may account for his extraordinary readiness at almost any time, to rise in extemporaneous address [p. 55].

Dr. [John M.] Mason used to say that all his theology was from [John] Owen on the Hebrews, and my father often remarked, that with all Owen’s power, erudition, and originality, he never deviated in his theology into any thing eccentric or hazardous [p. 501].

My father used to say one should read “Owen’s Spiritual Mindedness” once a year. I add his “Forgiveness of Sin;” and his “Mortification of Sin” [p. 502]

My father used to say to me: Think long and deeply on your subject, and as if nobody had ever investigated it before. I did not then know what he meant. One of the chief uses of writing sermons is, that it keeps one a-thinking. Then pen seems to recall the thoughts. Some cannot think without it; which is bad — very bad. This is all a matter of habit. The greatest other use of writing is, that the matter is preserved. For I will not include correctness, and polish of style, &c., which can be fully obtained by the other method [p. 514].

One can picture the father and the son, the mentor and the pupil, at the fireside, sharing contemplative moments, or wisdom acquired from experience. It is mentioned more than once in James’ biography of his father how students would learn from the teacher at the fireside and in his study. These personal recollections and reflections speak volumes about both men, and of lessons learned by the son. We are grateful for the fact that these private journal entries were collected and published after the author’s passing. These fireside reflections from the pen of Archibald Alexander’s son shine brilliantly indeed.

Introducing the Century Club at Log College Press

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Among the nearly 2,000 authors found at Log College Press there are at least three centenarians (Arthur Judson Brown [1856-1963, 106]; William Rankin III [1810-1912, 102]; and George Summey [1853-1954, 101]), as well as at least three authors who were 99 years old when they entered into their eternal rest (Littleton Purnell Bowen, David Caldwell, and Maria Fearing). But the Log College Press Century Club which we are introducing today has to do with something a little different.

To be a member of this club, there must be at least 100 works by (and sometimes about) the author on their particular pages. At this point in time, there are 27 such individuals in the LCP Century Club, as follows:

• Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield - 560

• Charles Hodge - 203

• Thomas DeWitt Talmage - 201

• Theodore Ledyard Cuyler - 201

• William Buell Sprague - 192

• Archibald Alexander - 186

• James Waddel Alexander - 183

• Philip Schaff - 179

• Samuel Miller - 170

• Geerhardus Vos - 169

• John Holt Rice - 158

• James McCosh - 136

• John Gresham Machen - 136

• Robert Lewis Dabney - 135

• Joseph Addison Alexander - 124

• Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr. - 123

• Julia McNair Wright - 114

• James Russell Miller - 112

• William Swan Plumer - 110

• Robert Dick Wilson - 107

• Robert Elliott Speer - 105

• Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater - 104

• Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune ("Marion Harland") - 102

• Ebenezer Pemberton - 102

• Albert Barnes - 101

• Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902) - 101

• Ethelbert Dudley Warfield - 100

There are some other prolific writers who we anticipate may join this club at some point in the future, such as Isabella Macdonald Alden, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Finley Milligan Foster, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge and Cleland Boyd McAfee, to name a few. As the Lord gives us strength and ability, we continue to add works by these and many other writers. We still have our work cut out for us, especially, for example, with respect to T.L. Cuyler, who penned over 4,000 separate published articles. Meanwhile, if viewed as a snapshot of our most prolific authors, the LCP Century Club invites readers to explore a representative cross-section of early American Presbyterianism. We hope you will take this opportunity to see what’s available among these prolific writers’ pages (as well as those not-so-prolific), and to enjoy a visit to the past, which we trust will be a blessing to you in the present.

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Samuel Davies' Communion Tokens

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The practice of employing communion tokens represents a chapter of church history well worth studying. Their use predates the Reformation by many centuries, but it was in the Protestant Reformation that usage of communion tokens really became part of Reformed church history. Walter L. Lingle, in his introduction to Mary McWhorter Tenney’s classic study of Communion Tokens (1936) [not yet available on Log College Press], writes of the significance of communion tokens.

The Communion token stood for something. It was usually a small piece of metal which served as a ticket of admission to the Communion table. As the Communion season approached preparatory services were held. The people were examined by the ministers and elders as to their knowledge of the way of life and as to their way of living. Only those who were approved receive the tokens and only those who had tokens could approach the Communion table. People took their religion seriously in those days.

Mrs. Tenney writes of the origin of this practice in the early church and traces its reappearance in the Reformation to Geneva, Switzerland in 1560 where John Calvin and Pierre Viret helped to bring back the custom as a way of keeping the Lord’s Supper from being profaned by the scandalous and the profane (p. 17).

Used throughout Europe, especially in Scotland, the custom of employing communion tokens was transplanted to America as Protestants migrated there, particularly in the 18th century. In 1747, Presbyterians in Virginia were small in numbers but scattered throughout the center of the British and Anglican colony. The labors of Francis Makemie on the Eastern Shore a half century previously had born fruit, but when Samuel Davies was sent by the Presbytery of New Castle (Delaware) that year as a missionary to Virginia, at that time very spiritually dry, he was used by the Lord as part of a Great Awakening which was then spreading over the land. Davies would ultimately help to organize seven churches in five counties with very little in the way of additional manpower. (We have written previously of how Davies had to ride on horseback over a wide parish and once got lost in the woods.)

George Pilcher writes that “a prominent facet of Davies’ pastoral work [was] his use of tokens….Virginia Presbyterians adhered to this [Protestant] practice closely, identifying it with the process of catechetical instruction.” He goes on to say (Samuel Davies: Apostle of Dissent in Colonial Virginia, p. 93) that

In using tokens, Davies was following the established customs of Scottish Presbyterianism and apparently was trying to make his practice conform to this claim of being a member of the Church of Scotland. But instead of using the Presbyterians’ traditional small stamped metal disks, the New Light minister distributed engraved cards that allowed him to present longer inscriptions or passages of his own poetry pertinent to the event, such as:

Do this says Christ ‘till Time shall end,
In Memory of your dying Friend.
Meet at my Table and Record
The Love of Your departed Lord.

The cards also were probably less expensive than metal disks, although they were made from steel engravings, which no doubt had to come from England. Davies placed a high value on these cards and exercised painstaking care in their preparation.

Samuel Davies’ paper communion token used at the Polegreen Church, Hanover, Virginia. Source: Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Union Seminary, Richmond, Virginia.

The story is told in James W. Alexander, The Life of Archibald Alexander, pp. 180-181, of how Mr. and Mrs. John Morton, members of the Anglican Church, were moved to attend an “action sermon” preached by Davies, whereupon, in the middle of the service, Mr. Morton called on Rev. Davies to admit him to the sacrament, and after further examination by the minister, Mr. Morton was given a communion token and allowed to participate.

The communion tokens employed by Davies were part of an historic tradition that was in widespread use in his day among Presbyterians, but they were remarkable in that they were made of paper rather than metal and also in their use of sacramental poetry by Davies himself.*

They represent a special facet of a bygone Protestant and Presbyterian tradition which illustrates how seriously the duty of fencing the table was taken and what a privilege it is to being admitted to the table of the Lord. As we look back on this bit of church history, consider how important these little paper tokens were to Davies and his flock of Virginia Presbyterians as emblems of Christ’s love to them, which made them precious indeed.

* “A Token For the Sacrament” appears in Richard Beale Davis, ed., Collected Poems of Samuel Davies, 1723-1761 (1968), p. 157.

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Archibald Alexander's 250th Birthday

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Today marks the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Archibald Alexander, one of America’s most notable theologians, born near Lexington, Virginia, on Friday, April 17, 1772. His son and biographer, James W. Alexander, records the location of his entrance to this world in Archibald’s own words (written in 1839):

The house in which I was born was built of square logs, as were most of the houses at that time. The place is rough, and is near a little mountain stream, called the South River, which, after joining the North River, falls into the James River, just above its entrance into the mountains. Nearly opposite to the place, Irish Creek, a bold stream from a gorge of the mountain, falls into the South River. This my birthplace was at that time in Augusta County, which was unlimited to the west; it is now in Rockbridge County, and is about seven miles from Lexington, in an eastern direction.

Sherman Isbell adds this bit of information:

William's son Archibald was born on his grandfather's land on South River, nearly opposite the mouth of Irish Creek. Just north of Irish Creek, a private bridge on the left crosses to the west side of the South River. Dr. Archibald Alexander was born in a log house on the west side of the river, on April 17, 1772. An historical plaque to mark the area where Dr. Alexander was born was set up about 1958, but has been repeatedly washed out by local flooding, and until recently was stored in the basement of the Rockbridge Historical Society's Campbell House at 101 East Washington Street in Lexington. We have received a report that the plaque has now been mounted on a rock by Dr. Horace Douty at the intersection of Irish Creek and South River Road, not far from its previous location.

From a log cabin on the farm owned by his father, William Alexander, Archibald went on serve the kingdom of God as a missionary, a pastor, a college president, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and as the first theological professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, not to mention as a husband and a father. He was a man of eminent piety, diligent in his labors, and fruitful in his service.

Although we commemorate his earthly birth on this date, which we consider a tribute to this man of God, yet he would say that it is regeneration, that is, the new birth of the soul by the power of the Holy Spirit, that ought to be of the greatest concern to every individual in this world: “There is no more important event which occurs in our world than the new birth of an immortal soul” (A. Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience, p. 53).

For more biographical information concerning the life of Archibald Alexander, consider the following resources at Log College Press:

• James W. Alexander, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1854) [see also Samuel K. Talmage’s book review of the same here];

• Joseph A. Alexander, The Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1852);

• John DeWitt, Archibald Alexander's Preparation for His Professorship (1905);

• John A. Mackay, Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) (1963); and

• William B. Sprague, Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1858).

The semiquincentennial of Archibald Alexander’s birth falls on the Lord’s Day this year, and we give glory to God for the remembrance of his most excellent of divines, who called Alexander to the ministry and caused him to leave a lasting spiritual legacy that endures. May his life of faithful service to the King of kings inspire many even in our day and beyond to dedicate themselves to the work of the kingdom for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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A 19th Century Example of Paying it Forward

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Writing for the October 1870 issue of Our Monthly magazine, Edwin B. Raffensperger wrote a brief Reminiscence of Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. Having read over James W. Alexander’s biography of Archibald Alexander, he took special note of a remark on p. 605:

During his illness he dictated a paper to be taken around for subscription toward the relief of a young man whose studies had been interrupted by disease.

Raffensperberger, who himself graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1852, informed his readers that the paper referred to had been in his possession for the last 19 years. It was considered “a valuable memento of Princeton,” where he was a student at the time certain events transpired.

A fellow student from Ohio one day fell dangerously ill. Despite the advice and counsel of “eminent medical men in Philadelphia and New York,” this young student, a man of great promise we are told, lay near death’s door. At the house where he was staying, he was cared for by a brother and sister, the latter of whom would go on to marry one of the doctors who came to visit. The sick student’s illness included symptoms of spasms and feats of incredible strength (though unable to rise or walk, he could crush an apple in his bare hand).

Concern for this young man and whether he would live spread throughout the Princeton community. At the same time Archibald Alexander lay on his deathbed. One day a messenger came to Raffensperger with a request to approach the bedside of Alexander. Raffensperger tells of their conversation:

I found him very feeble. In a few touching words he expressed his deep sympathy for the poor student and regretted his inability to call and see him during the two years of his sickness. “I have asked my daughter,” said he, “to prepare a subscription paper, and the members of my family have contributed $19.00, which you will find inclosed with the paper. Will you take it and call upon the citizens and students to increase it to $50.00, and then pay half to the brother and sister who have taken such good care of him, and the other half to the student?”

I expressed my willingness to carry out his wish, but inquired whether he would restrict the sum to $50.00, as I hoped, with such a start, to raise much more. He took my hand and said, “Take the paper. Raise all you can and God bless you.”

It was a few days later that Alexander entered into his eternal rest. After Alexander was interred at Princeton Cemetery, a grand total of $300.00 was raised on behalf of the sick student and the brother and sister. Raffensperger continues:

Hear now the conclusion of the whole matter.

Contrary to all our plans for the funeral, that patient recovered, entered the ministry and has for years been laboring successfully in the West He is now one of the jolliest Doctors of Divinity in the reunited Church.

One wonders the name of this jolly minister from Ohio. Perhaps one of our readers will have an idea? In any case, this concern on Alexander’s deathbed for a poor student was an inspiration and a blessing to others, and the little-known story is worth of remembrance.

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Remembering Theodore L. Cuyler on His 200th Birthday

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Theodore Ledyard Cuyler was born two hundred years ago today in Aurora, New York on January 10, 1822. He was a graduate of Princeton University (1841) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1846). He served as pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York from 1860 to 1890.

In his ministerial career and lifetime he published many books, and around 4.000 articles in the press. It is has been said that he was the “Dean of the American Pulpit.” He was a world-traveler, and was friends with many notable leaders of the church and society, including Charles H. Spurgeon, William Adams, Eliakim Littell, Richard S. Storrs, Samuel H. Cox, Henry W. Beecher, Archibald Alexander, James W. Alexander, Joseph A. Alexander, Charles G. Finney, Benjamin M. Palmer, James McCosh, Horatius Bonar, Dwight L. Moody, President Benjamin Harrison, President Abraham Lincoln, William Gladstone, Thomas Guthrie, Thomas Binney, Albert Barnes, William B. Sprague, Stephen H. Tyng, and others, many of whom he wrote about in his autobiography, Recollections of a Long Life (1902).

He was noted for inviting the first woman to preach from an American Presbyterian pulpit — Sarah Smiley, a Quaker, in 1872 — while at the same time publicly opposing women's suffrage (see his 1894 pamphlet, “Shall Women Be Burdened With the Ballot?”). Cuyler was also a Unionist, an abolitionist, and a teetotaler.

Source: The American Monthly Review of Reviews, Vol. 25 (Feb. 1902), p. 153.

Perhaps most significantly, Rev. Cuyler lost two infant children, as well as a 22 year-old daughter, and in the midst of his grief, he wrote God’s Light on Dark Clouds (1882), and other books and articles which spoke words of comfort to his readers. Many would say that the experiences he endured gave fruit to a spiritual comfort that only one who had walked through the valley of the shadow of death could comprehend and convey to others.

He died of bronchitis on February 26, 1909, in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 88, and is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.

Two centuries after his birth, we remember Rev. Cuyler with great appreciation, and invite our readers to explore his works which are available to read at Log College Press. A very prolific writer, we are still adding his works to the site, but there is much of great value to read even now. Though his name was often in the press of his day, he was a most humble minister of the gospel. A park in Brooklyn is named after him but he declined the erection of a statue in his honor. He once said, "A genuine revival means trimming of personal lamps." When remembering Cuyler, we give glory to the God who called him to the ministry, and we note that Cuyler’s legacy points us, even now, to Beulah-Land.

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A Reformation Day Remembrance

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To commemorate what is arguably the greatest event in church history since Pentecost, Log College Press wishes to highlight select works by early American Presbyterians which relate to the 504th anniversary of the Reformation:

• Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) — The Doctrine of Original Sin as Held by the Church, Both Before and After the Reformation (1830) and Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms (1836) — These articles speak to important issues and moments related to the Protestant Reformation.

• James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859) — Martin Luther Incognito (1836) and The Reformation in Hungary and Transylvania (1837) — The second article covers an important but less well-known aspect of the Reformation; the first is a translation from Philip Konrad Marheineke’s History of the German Reformation dealing with the period between Luther’s appearance at the Diet of Worms and his return to the Castle Wartburg.

• Henry Martyn Baird (1832-1906) — Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605 (1899) – The classic biography of the French Reformer Theodore Beza, who became Geneva’s spiritual leader after the death of John Calvin.

• William Maxwell Blackburn (1828-1898) — Aonio Paleario and His Friends, With a Revised Edition of "The Benefits of Christ's Death" (1866) — This is an interesting work which contains both a biography of the Italian Reformer, Paleario, and an edited version of the great Italian spiritual classic that was long attributed to him (modern scholarship now attributes authorship of “The Benefit of Christ” to Benedetto Fontanini, also known as Benedetto da Mantova (1495-1556)). — William Farel, and the Story of the Swiss Reform (1867) — A fascinating look at the life of the Swiss Reformer, William Farel, who with his friend John Calvin, so influenced Geneva and the world. —Ulrich Zwingli (1868) — The life of another great Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli.

• Ezra Hall Gillett (1823-1875) —The Life and Times of John Huss (1864) — This is a good introduction to the Bohemian (Czech) proto-Reformer, John Huss.

• Joel Tyler Headley (1813-1897) — Luther and Cromwell (1850) — Two famous Reformers and the parallels in their stories.

• Thomas Cary Johnson (1859-1936) — John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation (1900) — An important biography of the great French Reformer and spiritual leader of Geneva, John Calvin. — Martin Luther: Who Was He, That the World Should Remember Him From Time to Time With Praise to God? (1909-1910) - A valuable sketch of the great Reformer.

• Frederick William Loetscher, Sr. (1875-1966) — Luther and the Problem of Authority in Religion Parts 1-2 (1917) — Loetscher addresses (on the 400th anniversary of the Reformation) a fundamental issue with which the Reformers wrestled.

• William Carlos Martyn (1841-1917) — The Life and Times of Martin Luther (1866) — A great 19th century biography of the German Reformer. —The Dutch Reformation (1868) – A good overview of the Reformation in the Netherlands.

• John William Mears (1825-1881) — The Beggars of Holland and the Grandees of Spain: A History of the Reformation in the Netherlands, From A.D. 1200 to 1578 (1867) — This is another comprehensive look at the Dutch Reformation, and in particular, what lead up to it.

• Samuel Miller (1769-1850) — Introductory Essay to Charles de Viller's An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation (1833) — As Miller writes, “The Reformation from Popery is a theme which can never grow old.”

• Thomas Ephraim Peck (1822-1893) — Martin Luther (1895) — This biographical lecture about the great Reformer was originally delivered in 1872, and is here found in Vol. 1 of Peck’s Miscellanies.

• Richard Clark Reed (1851-1925) — Calvin’s Contribution to the Reformation (1909) — This was Reed’s part in the Southern Presbyterian Church’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth.

• William Childs Robinson (1897-1982) — The Reformation: A Rediscovery of Grace (1962) — Valuable alumni lectures delivered at Columbia Theological Seminary on various aspects of the Reformation.

• Robert Fleming Sample (1829-1905) — Beacon-Lights of the Reformation; or, Romanism and the Reformers (1889) — The story of the long combat against Romanism.

• David Schley Schaff (1852-1941) — Martin Luther and John Calvin, Church Reformers (1917) — Written for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, the younger Schaff highlights the two great Reformers.

• Philip Schaff (1819-1893) — Calvin’s Life and Labors (1875) — The elder Schaff looks at the life and legacy of the French Reformer. — History of the Christian Church, Vol. 6 (1888, 1904) and History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (1892) — These volumes cover the history of the German and Swiss Reformation.

• Thomas Smyth (1808-1873) - Calvin and His Enemies: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin (1856) — An important memoir of one the greatest Reformers, which covers challenging aspects of his life and career, including the case of Servetus.

• Joseph Ross Stevenson (1866-1939) — The Reformation: A Revival of Religion (1917) — A reminder of what reformation means.

• Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) — Review of Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1931) — A fresh look at a classic of Christian literature.

• B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) — John Calvin: The Man and His Work (1909) — Warfield’s homage to the French Reformer on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Calvin’s birth. — The Ninety-Five Theses in Their Theological Significance  (1917) — Originally published in The Princeton Theological Review in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, this is a fascinating study of the document by Martin Luther that launched the Reformation on October 31, 1517. — The Theology of the Reformation (1917) — Warfield looks at the key doctrines that figured in the thinking of Martin Luther. — Review of four works by D. Hay Fleming: The Story of the Scottish Covenants (1905); The Scottish Reformation (1905); The Reformation in Scotland (1910); and The Last Days of John Knox (1914) — An appreciation of the writings of a great Reformation scholar.

• Robert Alexander Webb (1856-1919) — The Reformation and the Lord’s Supper (1917) — Webb looks at a crucial aspect of worship that was important to the Reformation.

• Julia McNair Wright (1840-1903) — Her series of biographies for young people published in 1870 includes sketches of George Wishart, John Knox, Martin Luther, Queen Margaret, John Calvin, Renée, William Tyndale, Richard Baxter, John Huss and Gaspard de Coligni.

We have much reason to be thankful for the men and women both of the 16th centuries and those more recent who all contributed to the cause of Reformation in their own ways. From Log College Press, we wish you a Happy Reformation Day, and happy reading!

Note: This blog post was originally published on October 31, 2017, and has been edited and expanded.

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The Impact of John Flavel on American Presbyterians

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Robert Murray M’Cheyne once recounted a memorable story about the lasting impact of a sermon by John Flavel, the 17th century English Puritan (Serm. XXXVI, “God Let None of His Words Fall to the Ground,” in The Works of Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne: Complete in One Volume, 1874 ed., pp. 221-222):

The excellent John Flavel was minister of Dartmouth, in England. One day he preached from these words: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.” The discourse was unusually solemn — particularly the explanation of the curse. At the conclusion, when Mr. Flavel rose to pronounce the blessing, he paused, and said: “How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loves not the Lord Jesus is anathema maranatha?” The solemnity of this address deeply affected the audience. In the congregation was a lad named Luke Short, about fifteen years old, a native of Dartmouth. Shortly after he went to sea, and sailed to America, where he passed the rest of his life. His life was lengthened far beyond the usual term. When a hundred years old, he was able to work on his farm, and his mind was not at all impaired. He had lived all this time in carelessness and sin; he was a sinner a hundred years old, and ready to die accursed. One day, as he sat in his field, he busied himself in reflecting on his past life. He thought of the days of his youth. His memory fixed on Mr. Flavel’s sermon, a considerable part of which he remembered. The earnestness of the minister — the truths spoken — the effect on the people — all came fresh to his mind. He felt that he had not loved the Lord Jesus; he feared the dreadful anathema; he was deeply convinced of sin — was brought to the blood of sprinkling. He lived to his one hundred and sixteenth year, giving every evidence of being born again. Ah! how faithful God is to his word. He did let none of his words fall to the ground.

Besides this remarkable example, the legacy of John Flavel’s ministry has deeply affected many around the world — such as John Brown of Haddington and Charles Spurgeon — including American Presbyterians. On this side of the pond, a number of Flavel’s works were republished in the 19th century by the American Tract Society and the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and also noted Philadelphia publisher William S. Young.

• Samuel Davies — When Davies wrote to Rev. Joseph Bellamy in 1751, a letter published as The State of Religion Among the Protestant Dissenters in Virginia, he listed the “experimental” divines whose methods of conversion he followed, and among them he included Flavel - who wrote The Method of Grace. See Joseph C. Harrod, Theology and Spirituality in the Works of Samuel Davies, pp. 88, 92-95 for more discussion of Flavel’s influence on Davies.

• Archibald Alexander — In The Life of Archibald Alexander, we read autobiographical accounts by Archibald, and the remarks of his son and biographer, James W. Alexander. Archibald wrote of the time he served as a tutor in Virginia at the Posey Plantation. Books by Flavel were placed in his hand by a Baptist lady named Mrs. Tyler. She loved Flavel and this exposure to his writings would lead Archibald to explore his Presbyterian beliefs and views on conversion. Archibald went on to say, “My services as a reader were frequently in requisition, not only to save the eyes of old Mrs. Tyler, but on Sundays for the benefit of the whole family. On one of these Sabbath evenings, I was requested to read out of Flavel. The part on which I had been regularly engaged was the 'Method of Grace;' but now, by some means, I was led to select one of the sermons on Revelation iii. 20, "Behold I stand at the door and knock," &c. The discourse was upon the patience, forbearance and kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ to impenitent and obstinate sinners. As I proceeded to read aloud, the truth took effect on my feelings, and every word I read seemed applicable to my own case. Before I finished the discourse, these emotions became too strong for restraint, and my voice began to falter. I laid down the book, rose hastily, and went out with a full heart, and hastened to my place of retirement. No sooner had I reached the spot than I dropped upon my knees, and attempted to pour out my feelings in prayer; but I had not continued many minutes in this exercise before I was overwhelmed with a flood of joy. It was transport such as I had never known before, and seldom since. I have no recollection of any distinct views of Christ; but I was filled with a sense of the goodness and mercy of God ; and this joy was accompanied with a full assurance that my state was happy, and that if I was then to die, I should go to heaven. This ecstacy was too high to be lasting, but as it subsided, my feelings were calm and happy. It soon occurred to me that possibly I had experienced the change called the new birth.” Archibald further stated that “I began to love the truth, and to seek after it, as for hid treasure. To John Flavel I certainly owe more than to any uninspired writer.”

• Samuel Miller — An 1847 letter to Chancellor James Kent, found in The Life of Samuel Miller, Vol. 2, p. 492 gives evidence of the high regard that Miller had for Flavel: “I take for granted that, in whatever degree your attention may have been heretofore directed to theological reading, that degree will be, hereafter, rather increased than diminished. Under this impression, permit me to say, that there are few writings that I have found more pleasant and edifying to myself, than the works of the late John Newton, of London, and of Thomas Scott, the commentator. I can also cordially recommend the two works by John Flavel, the old Puritan divine, of England, viz., his "Fountain of Life Opened," and his "Method of Grace;" both of which have been lately published, in an improved form, by the American Tract Society. Dr. Stone knows them all well, and will, I have no doubt, add his testimony to their value. True, you will not find in these volumes any thing new. They aim at exhibiting and recommending those great elementary truths of the Gospel with which you have been familiar from your earliest years; which your venerated parents and grandparents loved and rejoiced in; and which the truly pious of all Protestant denominations scarcely know how enough to value and circulate.”

• James W. Alexander — In Alexander’s posthumously-published Thoughts on Preaching, we may see how highly James, like his father, valued Flavel. There are a number of references to Flavel, but we particularly take note of this: “How could I have postponed to this place [pp. 129-130] dear JOHN FLAVEL? No one needs to be told how pious, how faithful, how tender, how rich, how full of unction, are his works. In no writer have the highest truths of religion been more remarkably brought down to the lowest capacity; yet with no sinking of the doctrine, and with a perpetual sparkle and zest, belonging to the most generous liquor. It has always been a wonder to me, how Flavel could maintain such simplicity and naïveté, and such childlike and almost frolicksome grace, amidst the multiform studies which he pursued. I can account for it only by his having been constantly among the people, in actual duty as a pastor. Opening one of his volumes, at random, I find quotations, often in Greek and Latin, and in the order here annexed, from Cicero, Pope Adrian, Plato, Chrysostom, Horace, Ovid, Luther, Bernard, Claudian, Menander, and Petronius. His residence at Dartmouth would afford a multitude of pastoral instances, if this were our present subject.”

• Jonathan Cross — In his autobiographical Five Years in the Alleghenies, the famous colporteur wrote that he read Flavel and Thomas Boston from the ages of ten to thirteen which brought him to a deep state of conviction over his sinfulness and his need for Christ.

• Thomas Murphy — Among the best books recommended for a minister’s library by Murphy in Pastoral Theology includes, in the area of practical piety, “Flavel’s Keeping the Heart,” and, among the “Great Puritan Writers,” “Flavel’s works — highly recommended.”

• Wayne Sparkman — The Director of the PCA Historical Center is a good friend to us at Log College Press. He, too, has been influenced by John Flavel. Barry Waugh quotes him in Westminster Lives: Eight Decades of Alumni in Ministry, 1929-2009, p. 56, regarding this influence: “Some years ago I read John Flavel’s work The Mystery of Providence. Flavel’s message has stuck with me and undergirds much of how I approach the work of the PCA Historical Center. Writing during a time of intense persecution, Flavel was eager to impress upon his congregation the realization that God is at work in the lives of His people, accomplishing His purposes and demonstrating His love. In that truth, that our lives have been truly changed by the reality of Christ our Savior, rests the basis of why the life of every Christian is important. Each life lived by faith is a testimony to the grace of God. Obviously, we cannot preserve the story of every saint, but it is important that we try to preserve something of the life-testimony of those who may have been used more strategically in the advance of God’s kingdom. Thus, the purpose of the PCA Historical Center is to preserve and promote the story of the Presbyterian Church in America and its predecessor denominations, as well as the people who make up those groups and related ministries. We preserve these things precisely because men and women were truly changed by a very real Savior. [We preserve these things because each in some way bears testimony to the reality of the gospel.]”

We take note of this great Puritan preacher because of the powerful impact he has had on so many. We prize Flavel for his heart for God, his remarkable ability to convey the Gospel in terms that all can understand, his tender compassion on both saints and sinners, and for his labors on behalf of the kingdom of God as well as the hardships he endured after being ejected from his pulpit for the gospel’s sake. The word that he preached gives powerful testimony to the fact that God’s Word goes forth to accomplish his will. It was Flavel who testified of the Word of God thus, “The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.” Consider these witnesses, and how a non-conformist English Puritan minister from the 17th century has left his mark on American Presbyterianism.

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An unpublished religious novel by Archibald Alexander

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This post is about a work by Archibald Alexander that was never published. We aim to explore what is known about the manuscript. What is perhaps most interesting and intriguing about it is the genre: a religious novel.

As Michael J. Paulus, Jr. writes (“Archibald Alexander and the Use of Books: Theological Education and Print Culture in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter 2011), p. 645):

Another interesting project that Alexander worked on in Virginia was a religious novel titled Eudocia. The project is interesting because American novels were rare — only twenty-five appeared in the first decade of the nineteenth century — and American Calvinists were often suspicious of the genre.

Archibald’s son, and biographer, James W. Alexander, introduces us to the project (The Life of Archibald Alexander, p. 290):

A literary project of Mr. Alexander, which he had entertained before leaving Virginia, was matter of much entertainment in his little circle of intimates. He had begun, and perhaps had completed, a work of fiction, answering exactly to what has since been called the religious novel. It was entitled "Eudocia," and purported to be the history of a young lady of wealth and beauty, who is led through various changes and degrees, from giddy ignorance to piety and peace. The plot was engaging; there was a thread of romantic but pure love, running through the whole; it abounded in graphic description and lively dialogue. Some of the scenes were eminently pathetic; and Mr. [Conrad] Speece was known to burst into tears, when it was read aloud. The whole was made subservient to the inculcation of evangelical truth. The author finally determined to suppress it. The manuscript was not destroyed, but the delay — beyond the nonum prematur in annum — resulted in the destruction of more than one half. What remains would fill a good duodecimo.

Rev. Speece had this to say in a letter dated August 15, 1808 to Alexander:

I am delighted with the prospect of seeing your sweet Eudocia presented to the public. Before I received your letter I had resolved to write to you soon, principally to entreat that the door which confined her might be opened, that she might walk forth for the entertainment and edification of the world. I hope the humorous and satirical parts of the work will be retained. They will be useful in themselves, and will render the book alluring to a larger number of readers. And though I should not like to differ in a point of taste from Mrs. Alexander, allow me to put in a word in behalf of the dream, or dreams, which you read to me from the manuscript. Dreaming is indeed a delicate subject, both in philosophy and religion. But we believe that God does sometimes speak to men, 'in dreams and visions of the night’ to fasten important instruction upon their hearts.

John Holt Rice, another friend and confidant of Alexander, wrote to him regarding the novel on January 28, 1810 (at which time Alexander was serving as pastor of the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia):

Three days ago I finished the perusal of ‘Coelebs’ [Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1809) by Hannah More]. Miss Lightfoot Carrington, who is now in Richmond, met with it there, and sent it to me. I had often laughed at her for spending so much time in reading novels. When she got Coelebs, 'Here,' says she, 'is a novel at last which I know that Mr. Rice will be pleased with;' and accordingly despatched it to Charlotte, I read it with more pleasure than any thing of the author's writing. It delighted me; I trust it improved me too. It put me much in mind of a certain Miss Eudocia, whom I have been longing to see for some time past. The rage for novels is so great that I have long wished to see that species of writing converted to a better purpose. Miss Hannah More has very completely answered my wishes, and has, by the way, obtained that credit with the religious world which I think in all reason belonged to you. If you differ with me on this point, we will discuss it after we shall have talked over this new-fashioned school affair and other matters; which I hope to do in May next. At that time Mr. Speece and I hope to be with you, and then — ! I give you notice that Mr. Speece will come with his pockets loaded with money, in the full spirit of trade. I know that he intends to make some grand speculation, for he has within the year past sold nearly two hundred dollars' worth of books, with a view of taking the money to Philadelphia.

Now the question may be asked, Who was Eudocia? It is possible that the protagonist was Aelia Eudocia (c. 401-460 AD), a young lady from a wealthy background who became a Byzantine Empress, and an accomplished Christian poet. It is not known to this writer whether the partial manuscript by Alexander survives. If so, it would be worthy of study. A work of historical fiction about her life and faith would certainly food for thought. One can wonder at the possibility of a religious novel published Archibald Alexander. His intimate circle of friends very much appreciated the work. As it is, we can only imagine.

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John Holt Rice: "I have more books than I can read"

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What and where my relish for books, which I may be hungry for? Lord, Because I shall see thee, or serve thee, the more for the reading of them. – Cotton Mather

Not long after Archibald Alexander’s inauguration as the first Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, he made a significant addition to his collection of books with the acquisition of a private library that belonged to a Dutch Reformed minister. Hughes Oliphant Old tells us that

At one point he was able to buy the private library of a learned Dutch theologian, the Reverend Mr. John van Harlingen. This provided him with many of the classics of Reformed theology from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as editions of the Church Fathers (The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 6, p. 233).

After hearing of this acquisition, his friend John Holt Rice wrote to him on November 4, 1813 to commend his purchase.

I could not help exclaiming when I heard of the fine library you had purchased, "O fortunatum!" but I could hardly add, "equidem hand invideo" But why should I repine? I have more books than I can read.

This is recorded in J.W. Alexander’s Life of Archibald Alexander, p. 353, but the full letter by Rice is found here.

Rice describes what the Japanese refer to as Tsundoku, having more books than one can read. We have previously made mention of this concept. If one is to err, it may be best to err on the side of having more books than one can read, than on the other side. But nevertheless, it is fascinating to read about the libraries and book purchases of godly men who have gone before. And, of course, it is best to read all that we can to the glory of God!

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Log College Press Remembers Thomas Chalmers

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Who is Thomas Chalmers, and what was his significance to 19th century American Presbyterianism?

Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was a Scottish Presbyterian churchman and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland, founded after the 1843 “Disruption.” A man of many interests and gifts, he contributed much to the church and the community in which he served. He is known for his eloquent sermons, his voluminous and edifying theological writings, and for his “West Port Experiment” in Edinburgh (1844-1847). He died on May 31, 1847.

J.W. Alexander highly commended the sermons of Thomas Chalmers and Samuel Davies (Letters, Vol. 1, p. 74).

Charles A. Aiken, in his 1879 Tribute to Charles Hodge, wrote that

It was my high privilege to spend with Dr. Chalmers the last evening but one of his life, Saturday, May 28, 1847. At sunrise on the ensuing Monday, the cry rang through Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers is dead! Not to go into the details of that memorable interview, let it suffice to say, as bearing upon the passage in the text, that I have never received a more cordial and hearty greeting than that with which, taking both my hands in his own, he welcomed me to Morning-side. He had returned from London only the day before, and spoke of himself as being in unusually good health. All the benevolence of his character came out in his genial smile. His courtesy, his affability, the tones of his voice, the graciousness and even warmth of his whole manner, as he talked with me of grave questions with which the Free Church Assembly, then in session, was likely to be agitated, and the kindliness with which, on my rising to leave, he pressed an invitation for us (the ladies of my party had remained at the hotel that evening) to breakfast with him, first on Tuesday and then on Monday morning — all this made a lasting impression upon me so grateful and so vivid that I cannot at all take in that disparaging estimate of his own social nature which I have quoted from his "Sabbath Readings."

While Chalmers lived, and after his death, American Presbyterians wrote often to him and of him. Below are just some of the writings available on Log College Press that concern Chalmers directly.

• Archibald Alexander, The Works of Doctor Chalmers (1841) and Chalmers’ Mental and Moral Philosophy (1848);

• J.W. Alexander, The Works of Doctor Chalmers (1841) and Chalmers on Education and Ecclesiastical Economy (1842) [“Chalmers’s experiential preaching and active social philanthropy were of special interest to Alexander in the urban ministry settings where he labored.” — James M. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons From the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander, p. 296, note 46];

• Charles Hodge, An Earnest Appeal to the Free Church of Scotland, on the Subject of Economics (1847);

• Clarence E.N. Macartney, Thomas Chalmers (1919);

• James McCosh, A Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Chalmers, By a Former Pupil (1847);

• Alexander McLeod, Review of Thomas Chalmers on Astronomy (1817) and Review of Two Sermons by Thomas Chalmers (1818);

• James C. Moffat, Life of Thomas Chalmers (1853)';

• John Holt Rice, August 14, 1819 Letter to Thomas Chalmers (1819, 1835);

• Thomas Smyth, The Character of the Late Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. and the Lessons of His Life From Personal Recollections (1847-1848) in Vol. 3 of Smyth’s Works (1908); and

• William B. Sprague, On the Life and Death of Thomas Chalmers (1847).

Some notable American Presbyterians were, presumably, named for the great Scottish churchman, such as John Thomas Chalmers and Thomas Chalmers Vinson.

Respect was directed both ways across the Atlantic. According to William B. Sprague, Chalmers thought of Samuel Miller’s 1831 essay on The Warrant, Nature, and Duties of the Office of the Ruling Elder as “the very best work that has been given to the church on that subject.” (A Discourse Commemorative of the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D. (1850), p. 29). (An extract from Miller’s February 28, 1831 letter to Chalmers may be read in The Life of Samuel Miller, Vol. 2, p. 167.)

Chalmers was beloved by both Scottish and American Presbyterians, and many others. We remember him today as we recall his entrance into glory nearly two centuries ago. Read more about him, starting with Moffat’s Life of Chalmers, and the tributes to him by James McCosh, Thomas Smyth and William B. Sprague.

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The Princeton Magazine - An Alexander Family Project

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On March 5, 1850, James W. Alexander wrote to his old friend and long-time correspondent John Hall to tell him about a new publishing venture.

My brother William is about to set up “the Princeton Magazine;” pp. 48, monthly. Of course we shall all help. It will not exclude scientific, classical, crudite, sportive, or Jersey articles. Probably a number out three weeks hence. “Princeton in 1801,” will open it, a reminiscence of my father.

James was referring to William Cowper Alexander’s editorial work on a publication that lasted just one year, but led to a tremendous outpouring of fascinating literature by the Alexander family.

Henry C. Alexander, in his biography of Joseph Addison Alexander, Vol. 2, p. 682, speaks of the family venture thus:

The Magazine was written by members of the family (principally by J.W.A.) with occasional articles by an outsider. The volume contained one hundred and twelve articles. Eighty-three articles were written in the family. To these may be added sixty-one notices of new books. These notices were almost exclusively from the pen of the editor.

John Hall adds that this one volume was treasury of valuable literary output by the family.

Twelve numbers of this magazine appeared in 1850, after which it was discontinued. The brothers James and Addison made it the repository of many of their desultory effusions….In a letter to the editor of these Letters, from the late Mr. Walsh, (Paris, Nov. 12, 1850,) that eminent scholar wrote — “The promise of the youth of the brothers Alexander seems to have been fulfilled. The Magazine abounds with matter which I read with keen relish.” — Forty Years’ Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D.D., Vol. 2, p. 112.

Samuel D. Alexander notes the family contributors to The Princeton Magazine in his Catalogue of the Writings of the Alexander Family, but only as to their names, not their specific writings. The articles and book notices by the Alexanders (Archibald, James, Addison and William) are varied and include poetry by Addison, social commentary by James, reminiscences by Archibald and much more. Attribution of these writings largely comes from John Hall and Henry C. Alexander. Sometimes authorship can be ascertained from the nom-de-plumes chosen by the authors, such as “C.Q.” for “Charles Quill,” a favorite pseudonym of James. Many of these “essays, dialogues, satirical squibs, bits of Latin criticism, popular philosophy,” etc. (H.C.A.), showing the wit and humor, knowledge of the world and of Scripture, and the keen intellect of brilliant writers have been added to the respective author pages at Log College Press, including the full volume of the magazine at William C. Alexander’s page. The magazine represents a slice of Princetoniana well worth diving into, and though it only lasted for one year, constitutes a treasury of Alexander family literature that is remarkable in its diversity of topic and quality of writing.

1850 was a very productive year for the Alexanders, and now that these articles are being added to Log College Press, we hope you will see what a treasure The Princeton Magazine of that year was.

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J.W. Alexander on Thankful Review following the Lord's Supper

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Q. 175. What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord’s supper?

A. The duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, is seriously to consider how they have behaved themselves therein, and with what success; if they find quickening and comfort, to bless God for it, beg the continuance of it, watch against relapses, fulfill their vows, and encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordinance: but if they find no present benefit, more exactly to review their preparation to, and carriage at, the sacrament; in both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due time: but, if they see they have failed in either, they are to be humbled, and to attend upon it afterwards with more care and diligence. — Westminster Larger Catechism

A wonderful little handbook or manual for those seeking to rightly observe the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is Plain Words to a Young Communicant (1854) by James W. Alexander (republished in 2000 by Banner Truth under the title Remember Him).

In the space of 85 brief chapters (80 in the Banner of Truth edition), Alexander addresses preparation for the Table, whether doubters can approach the table, self-examination, retrospect following communion, and many various aspects of the Christian Walk, including meditation, prayer, Sabbath-keeping, church attendance, and other means of grace and sanctification. Under the heading “Questions Before the Communion,” he has borrowed from a work by Ashbel Green titled Questions and Counsel for Young Converts (1831) [attributed erroneously by Banner of Truth to William Henry Green]. These questions are helpful to young believers (and old) in ascertaining the state of the soul before God.

There is one chapter especially worth highlighting for those who have just recently partaken of the sacrament: Thankful Review.

Through the tender mercies of our God, the cases are numerous, in which the young communicant retires from the Table of the Lord, strengthened and encouraged. The cardinal truth of Christianity has been set before his thoughts and become incorporated with his faith. He has seen Jesus [John 12:21]. His views of the infinite freedom of salvation have been made more clear. The evidences of his acceptance with God have become brighter. He is more disposed than ever before, to yield himself as a sacrifice, soul, body, and spirit, which is his reasonable service [Rom. 12:1]. Where any part of this is true, you have new cause for gratitude. It is “the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit” (Isa. 48:17). Now is the time, to bless him for this grace, and to beg the continuance of it. Now is the time to set a watch against relapses, and to carry into effect the vows which you have made at the Lord’s Table. Henceforth, you will look for the recurrence of this sacrament with a lively expectation, founded on experience.

If you are preparing to partake of the Lord’s Supper or have just partaken, this devotional manual is a good aid to right observance. Read J.W. Alexander’s handbook for communicants in full here.

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The Natural Bridge of Virginia: An American Wonder

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

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

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

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

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

THE NATURAL BRIDGE

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

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

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

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

September 13th, 1813.

David Johnson, The Natural Bridge (1860)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Protestant Reformation in the Writings of 19th Century American Presbyterians

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To commemorate what is arguably the greatest event in church history since Pentecost, Log College Press wishes to highlight select works by early American Presbyterians which relate to the 503rd anniversary of the Reformation:

• Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) — The Doctrine of Original Sin as Held by the Church, Both Before and After the Reformation (1830) and Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms (1836) — These articles speak to important issues and moments related to the Protestant Reformation.

• James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859) — Martin Luther Incognito (1836) and The Reformation in Hungary and Transylvania (1837) — The second article covers an important but less well-known aspect of the Reformation; the first is a translation from Philip Konrad Marheineke’s History of the German Reformation dealing with the period between Luther’s appearance at the Diet of Worms and his return to the Castle Wartburg.

• Henry Martyn Baird (1832-1906) — Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605 (1899) – The classic biography of the French Reformer Theodore Beza, who became Geneva’s spiritual leader after the death of John Calvin.

• William Maxwell Blackburn (1828-1898) — Aonio Paleario and His Friends, With a Revised Edition of "The Benefits of Christ's Death" (1866) — This is an interesting work which contains both a biography of the Italian Reformer, Paleario, and an edited version of the great Italian spiritual classic that was long attributed to him (modern scholarship now attributes authorship of “The Benefit of Christ” to Benedetto Fontanini, also known as Benedetto da Mantova (1495-1556)). — William Farel, and the Story of the Swiss Reform (1867) — A fascinating look at the life of the Swiss Reformer, William Farel, who with his friend John Calvin, so influenced Geneva and the world. —Ulrich Zwingli (1868) — The life of another great Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli.

• Ezra Hall Gillett (1823-1875) —The Life and Times of John Huss (1864) — This is a good introduction to the Bohemian (Czech) proto-Reformer, John Huss.

• Thomas Cary Johnson (1859-1936) — John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation (1900) — An important biography of the great French Reformer and spiritual leader of Geneva, John Calvin. — Martin Luther: Who Was He, That the World Should Remember Him From Time to Time With Praise to God? (1909-1910) - A valuable sketch of the great Reformer.

• Frederick William Loetscher, Sr. (1875-1966) — Luther and the Problem of Authority in Religion Parts 1-2 (1917) — Loetscher addresses (on the 400th anniversary of the Reformation) a fundamental issue with which the Reformers wrestled.

• William Carlos Martyn (1841-1917) — The Life and Times of Martin Luther (1866) — A great 19th century biography of the German Reformer. —The Dutch Reformation (1868) – A good overview of the Reformation in the Netherlands.

• John William Mears (1825-1881) — The Beggars of Holland and the Grandees of Spain: A History of the Reformation in the Netherlands, From A.D. 1200 to 1578 (1867) — This is another comprehensive look at the Dutch Reformation, and in particular, what lead up to it.

• Samuel Miller (1769-1850) — Introductory Essay to Charles de Viller's An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation (1833) — As Miller writes, “The Reformation from Popery is a theme which can never grow old.”

• Thomas Ephraim Peck (1822-1893) — Martin Luther (1895) — This biographical lecture about the great Reformer was originally delivered in 1872, and is here found in Vol. 1 of Peck’s Miscellanies.

• Richard Clark Reed (1851-1925) — Calvin’s Contribution to the Reformation (1909) — This was Reed’s part in the Southern Presbyterian Church’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth.

• David Schley Schaff (1852-1941) — Martin Luther and John Calvin, Church Reformers (1917) — Written for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, the younger Schaff highlights the two great Reformers.

• Philip Schaff (1819-1893) — Calvin’s Life and Labors (1875) — The elder Schaff looks at the life and legacy of the French Reformer. — History of the Christian Church, Vol. 6 (1888, 1904) and History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (1892) — These volumes cover the history of the German and Swiss Reformation.

• Thomas Smyth (1808-1873) - Calvin and His Enemies: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin (1856) — An important memoir of one the greatest Reformers, which covers challenging aspects of his life and career, including the case of Servetus.

• Joseph Ross Stevenson (1866-1939) — The Reformation: A Revival of Religion (1917) — A reminder of what reformation means.

• B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) — John Calvin: The Man and His Work (1909) — Warfield’s homage to the French Reformer on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Calvin’s birth. — The Ninety-Five Theses in Their Theological Significance  (1917) — Originally published in The Princeton Theological Review in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, this is a fascinating study of the document by Martin Luther that launched the Reformation on October 31, 1517. — The Theology of the Reformation (1917) — Warfield looks at the key doctrines that figured in the thinking of Martin Luther.

• Robert Alexander Webb (1856-1919) — The Reformation and the Lord’s Supper (1917) — Webb looks at a crucial aspect of worship that was important to the Reformation.

• Julia McNair Wright (1840-1903) — Her series of biographies for young people published in 1870 includes sketches of George Wishart, John Knox, Martin Luther, Queen Margaret, John Calvin, Renée, William Tyndale, Richard Baxter, John Huss and Gaspard de Coligni.

We have much reason to be thankful for the men and women both of the 16th centuries and those more recent who all contributed to the cause of Reformation in their own ways. From Log College Press, we wish you a Happy Reformation Day, and happy reading!

Note: This blog post was originally published on October 31, 2017, and has been edited and expanded.

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Reading in Moderation: Thoughts of J.W. Alexander

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At Log College Press, we love books! We read them, study them, upload them and publish them. As Christians, we are “people of the Book.” With Charles Spurgeon, we exclaim, “Visit many good books, but live in the Bible!” and “Paul cries, ‘Bring the books’ — join in the cry.” With Cotton Mather, we exclaim, “To the Man of Leisure, as well as to the Minister, it is an Advice of Wisdom, Give thyself unto Reading. Good BOOKS of all sorts, may Employ your Leisure, and Enrich you with Treasures more valuable, than those, which the way and Work of your Callings would have purchased. Let the baneful Thoughts of Idleness be chased out of our Minds. But then also, Let Some Thoughts on that Subject, What Good may I do? come into them.” and “What and where my Relish for BOOKS, which I may be hungry for? LORD, Because I shall see THEE, or serve THEE, the more for the Reading of them.”

Yet, all things in moderation. There is a time and a season for this and for that (Eccl. 3). Even after reading, one should meditate and reflect and practice what is learned. Sleep is needed too. And fellowship with the saints. J.W. Alexander, an author of many books, who taught that the Bible should be read daily, reinforces this point in his journal, as noted in Thoughts on Preaching, pp. 437-438:

§ 22. Books and Solitude. — Much may be learned without books. To read always is not the way to be wise. The knowledge of those who are not bookworms has a certain air of health and robustness. I never deal with books all day without being the worse for it. Living teachers are better than dead. There is magic in the voice of living wisdom. Iron sharpeneth iron. Part of every day should be spent in society. Learning is discipline; but the heart must be disciplined as well as the head; and only by intercourse with our fellows can the affections be disciplined. Bookishness implies solitude; and solitude is apt to produce ill weeds: melancholy, selfishness, moroseness, suspicion, and fear. To go abroad is, therefore, a Christian duty. I never went from my books to spend an hour with a friend, however humble, without receiving benefit. I never left the solitary contemplation of a subject in order to compare notes on it with a friend, without finding my ideas clarified. Ennui is not common where men properly mingle the contemplative with the active life. The natural and proper time for going abroad is the evening. Such intercourse should be encouraged in one's own house as well as out of it. Solitary study breeds inhospitality: we do not like to be interrupted. Every one, however wearisome as a guest, should be made welcome, and entertained cordially. Women surpass men in the performance of these household duties; chiefly because they are all given to habits of solitary study. The life which Christ lived among men is a pattern of what intercourse should be for the good of society. I have a notion that the multiplication of books in our day, which threatens to overleap all bounds, will, in the first instance, produce great evils, and will afterwards lead men back to look on oral communication as a method of diffusing knowledge which the press has unduly superseded; and that this will some day break on the world with the freshness of a new discovery.

We continue to add books to Log College Press every day. There is much to glean from the past, and we encourage reading by making thousands of books available for free, and by republishing especially worthy volumes from time to time. But we also affirm what J.W. Alexander said, “I never went from my books to spend an hour with a friend, however humble, without receiving benefit.” Read godly books, and take time for the other things that matter too. Give God the glory in all!

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