What's New at Log College Press? - December 20, 2022

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At the close of 2022, Log College Press is staying very active as we continue to expand the site and make accessible even more literature from early American Presbyterians.

Last month, in November 2022, we added 582 new works to the site. There are currently over 17,000 free works available at LCP. Today we are highlighting some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • Two works by Thomas Cleland, A Familiar Dialogue Between Calvinus and Arminius (1805, 1830); and The Socini-Arian Detected: A Series of Letters to Barton W. Stone, on Some Important Subjects of Theological Discussion, Referred to in His "Address" to the Christian Churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio (1815);

  • Abraham Brooks Van Zandt, God's Voice to the Nation: A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of Zachary Taylor, President of the United States (1850);

  • Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (1955); and Christianity and Barthianism (1962);

  • John Murray, The Reformed Faith and Modern Substitutes (1935-1936); and The Application of Redemption (1952-1954) [a series of many articles which served as the basis for his 1955 book Redemption Accomplished and Applied];

  • Geerhardus Vos, A Song of the Nativity (1924, 1972) [a Christmas poem]; and

  • early sermons by Francis James Grimké, Our Duty to the Poor — How We Observed It on Christmas (1881); Wendell Phillips: A Sermon Delivered Sunday, Feb. 24, 1884, at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. (1884); Our Future as a People (1890), each of which was contributed by a reader.

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

Also, be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including John Holmes Agnew: The Lord Loves the Gates of Zion; B.B. Warfield on Theological Study as a Religious Exercise and on What it Means to Glorify and Enjoy God; William H. Green on How the Child of God May Rightly Undergo Frowning Providences; John Murray: To the Calvinist Who Once Struggled With the Arminian Idea of Free Will; E.C. Wines: Christ is the Fountain of the Promises; James Gallaher on the Difference Between Calvinism and Fatalism; William S. Plumer's Suggested Guidelines for Making Family Worship More Profitable; Elizabeth Prentiss on Dying Grace; and T. De Witt Talmage: The Sabbath a Taste of Heaven.

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.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. There is a lot to explore, and many Presbyterian voices from the past to hear. We look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for Log College Press in 2023. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends, and best wishes to you in the New Year!

Fourth of July Celebration at Log College Press

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If your cause is just — you may look with confidence to the Lord and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. — John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men: A Sermon, Preached at Princeton, on the 17th of May, 1776. Being the General Fast Appointed by the Congress Through the United Colonies (1777)

It was five years ago today that Log College Press was founded on July 4, 2017. (See what this site looked like early on [as of January 19, 2018] via the Wayback Machine here.) Thanks to the support and encouragement of our dear readers, we have come a long way since then.

We have now published 7 books, and 10 booklets. Log College Press now has over 15,000 works by over 1,900 authors available to read on the site.

On this date in past years we have highlighted men who served the cause of civil and religious liberty, as well as books by our authors which celebrate the cause.

This year we take note of our authors which share a birthday with Log College Press and the United States of America:

At Log College Press we have much cause to celebrate, and we give thanks to God for the labors of godly men and women who have gone before in service to the cause of Christ and freedom. We also recognize how far this country has fallen from its ideal as epitomized in John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” (1630).

Our national sins are great. It was in 1778 that Jacob Green famously said: “Can it be believed that a people contending for liberty should, at the same time, be promoting and supporting slavery?” And it was in 1832 that James R. Willson pointed out our great need as a nation to acknowledge our dependence upon and submission to God, and to kiss Son specifically, alluding to Ps. 2:12 and quoting Ps. 9:17, when took note of the great omission by our Constitutional Founding Fathers who chose not to honor God in our national charter: “Was it a mere omission? Did the convention that framed the constitution forget to name the living God? Was this an omission in some moment of national phrenzy, when the nation forgot God? That, indeed, were a great sin. God says, ‘the nations that forget God, shall be turned into hell’” (Prince Messiah).

Though far from where we as a nation ought to be, yet there is cause for remembrance of and thanksgiving for the blessings of the past as well as the mercies of today. As William B. Sprague once said, “LET THE DAY BE OBSERVED, BUT LET IT BE OBSERVED RELIGIOUSLY” (Religious Celebration of Independence: A Discourse Delivered at Northampton, on the Fourth of July, 1827 (1827)). That is to say, with respect to this civil holiday (as distinct from a religious holy day), we ought to celebrate its noblest ideals, exemplified in America’s fight for freedom and independence, with proper solemnities, in an appropriate Christian manner, but in humble acknowledgment of how far we as a people have still to go, by the grace of God, to arrive at those ideals.

To understand civil and religious freedom aright, we believe it is important to study God’s Word first, but not to neglect the study of history as well. Primary sources from the past are a valuable tool in promoting reformation and revival in the present. Our topical page on Church and State is one particular relevant resource. We thank our readers for their interest in and support of this project by Log College Press to make accessible what Presbyterians who have gone before had to say on this and other important matters. To God be the glory, as we we celebrate another Independence Day, and a birthday besides.

Log College Press and the Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James Bradley's Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Pastors' Wives who were Prolific Writers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

American Independence and Presbyterians

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Log College Press began officially on July 4, 2017. We identify this date not only with the origin of LCP, but of course also with the founding of the United States of America, when the Declaration of Independence was promulgated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776.

In 2018, we wished our readers a Happy Independence Day; in 2019, we spoke of “Freedom’s Cost’; in 2020, the theme was “Presbyterians and the Revolution”; and today we highlight Fourth of July orations and sermons by some noted Presbyterians.

It was customary for many Presbyterians to commemorate American Independence with speeches and sermons. Here we bring to your attention a representative sample of some specimens of Presbyterian Independence oratory.

  • Samuel Clark Aiken (1827) - Speaking to the Sunday School Societies in Utica, New York, on the 51st anniversary of American Independence, Rev. Aiken of the need for nations who have been greatly blessed to maintain religion in its public and private spheres, and of the role that Sunday Schools play in this.

  • Diarca Howe Allen (1861) - Rev. Allen’s discourse, published in 1862, focused on the centennial of Lebanon, New Hampshire in the context of a celebration of national independence.

  • Nathan Sidney Smith Beman (1841) - Rev. Beman’s discourse was titled The Western Continent. Looking both the past and the future, he spoke of national blessings which should continue to expand westward.

  • Elias Boudinot IV (1793) - Speaking to the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of New Jersey on the 17th anniversary of American Independence, Rev. Boudinot called upon his hearers, with a direct preceding message to President George Washington, to strive to maintain the ideals for which American patriots had fought: “The obligations of mankind to these worthy characters increase in proportion to the importance of the blessings purchased by their labors.” He also advocated for increased rights for women.

  • Frederick Thomas Brown (1865) - Speaking on the first Fourth of July following the War Between the States, Rev. Brown argued that this was an important moment for the country in which he prayed that our nation would become stronger and more unified.

  • Hooper Cumming (1817, 1821, 1824) - Rev. Cumming, in his short life, delivered a number of Fourth of July orations, some of which are found on his page. In each, he stirs up his hearers to appreciate our national blessings, and to strive to maintain godly ideals.

  • Daniel Dana (1814) - Delivered in the midst of the War of 1812, Rev. Dana reminded his audience that God is concerned with national affairs. He highlighted God’s providence not only with respect to America but also with respect to the affairs of Europe.

  • Ezra Stiles Ely (1827) - Rev. Ely preached a Fourth of July sermon (published in 1828) — based on the concluding verses of Psalm 2 — on The Duty of Christian Freemen to Elect Christian Rulers. According to Ely, the Lord Jesus Christ is the rightful sovereign of all lands.

  • Timothy Flint (1815) - Speaking on the first Fourth of July after the War of 1812 ended, Rev. Flint called to mind the troubles that the nation had endured, but with thankfulness for the mercies of God in seeing the country through.

  • Ralph Randolph Gurley (1825) - Rev. Gurley spoke in Washington, D.C. of a religious celebration of national blessings; yet, he also addressed the fact that slavery continued to be a stain on our national honor, and of efforts to colonize Western Africa with freed slaves.

  • Symmes Cleves Henry (1824) - In this oration delivered before the Society of Cincinnati of the State of New Jersey, Rev. Henry spoke of the ideals represented by the historical events commemorated on the 48th anniversary of American Independence.

  • William Linn (1791) - Rev. Linn’s sermon, preached in New York, was based on Ps. 16:6: “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” He recounted many of the blessings that God’s favor had granted to a young nation.

  • John McKnight (1794) - Rev. McKnight’s Fourth of July sermon, preached in New York City, was titled God the Author of Promotion and based on Ps. 75:6-9. In the context of celebrating the birth of the American nation, he reminds his hearers that it is God who raises up and casts down.

  • Samuel Miller (1793, 1795) - Among the earliest published sermons of Rev. Miller were two Fourth of July messages preached in New York City. The first was titled Christianity the Grand Source and Surest Basis for Political Liberty.

  • Eliphalet Nott (1801) - On the 25th anniversary of American Independence, Rev. Nott spoke of The Providence of God towards American Israel.

  • George Potts (1826) - It was on the same day that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died that Rev. Potts, speaking in Philadelphia, commemorated the 50th anniversary of American Independence.

  • Horace Southworth Pratt (1828) - Preaching in Fryeburg, Maine Rev. Pratt spoke of the nature of freedom and liberty Biblically understood.

  • Nathaniel Scudder Prime (1825) - Rev. Prime’s sermon highlighted a critical defect in our national freedom from tyranny: The Year of Jubilee; But Not to Africans: A Discourse, Delivered July 4th, 1825, Being the 49th Anniversary of American Independence.

  • David Ramsay (1778) - Speaking to an audience in Charleston, South Carolina on the 2nd anniversary of American Independence, Dr. Ramsay encouraged his hearers to consider the advantages of liberty in the midst of a war that was far from over. He would go on to record the history of the American War of Independence.

  • Henry Ruffner (1856) - Addressing his fellow Virginians in 1856 (before West Virginia seceded), Rev. Ruffner spoke of the necessity of maintaining the Federal Union: “United we stand, divided we fall.”

  • William McKendree Scott (1851) - In time-honored fashion, Rev. Scott spoke to his fellow citizens at a “barbacue” held in Danville, Kentucky to commemorate our national independence.

  • Isaac Nathan Shannon (1852) - Rev. Shannon, preaching in New Brunswick, New Jersey, highlighted the providence of God in the history of the American nation.

  • William Buell Sprague (1827, 1830) - Rev. Sprague preached on the 51st and 54th anniversaries of American Independence, calling for religious celebration of this momentous event in our history, and reminding his congregation that “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 144:15).

  • Joseph Sweetman (1810) - Rev. Sweetman preached on religion as the foundation for national prosperity at Charlton, New York.

  • Joseph Farrand Tuttle (1876) - Speaking on the centennial of American Independence, Rev. Tuttle recalled the efforts and sacrifices of the revolutionary forefathers of Morris County, New Jersey.

  • William Spotswood White (1840) - Rev. White preached on 4th of July Reminiscences and Reflections: A Sermon in Charlottesville, Virginia, also on Ps. 144:15. Acknowledging the political agitations that were convulsing the land at the time, he spoke of the providential guidance and blessing that America has received and for which we should give thanks.

It is worth taking time to brush off the dust, so to speak, on these historical orations and sermons and consider what our American Presbyterian forefathers had to say about independence, liberty, national blessings, and the need for further reformation, and freedom for all.

Happy Independence Day to our readers from Log College Press!

Journeys of a Church Historian: On the trail of William A. Scott

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Over the past few years, this writer has visited the birthplace of Samuel Davies, many of the churches he founded, the repository of his personal Bible with handwritten annotations, the college of which he served as President, and the site of his burial place, among other locations associated with his journey through this mortal life.

He is a favorite theologian of this writer, and so, it was with a sense of empathy that I recently read about Clifford M. Drury’s journey to trace the steps of a beloved minister, William Anderson Scott. The extract below comes Drury’s 1967 biography titled William Andrew Scott: “No Ordinary Man” [see our secondary sources page], pp. 339-343.

Dr. Morton H. Smith once wrote a review of this volume in which he states:

Dr. Clifford M. Drury who for twenty-five years occupied the California Chair of Church History in San Francisco Theological Seminary, has given us a most interesting biography of Dr. William Anderson Scott. Anyone who takes the time to read this volume will [agree] with Dr. Frederick Cropp who introduces it by saying, “Dr. William Anderson Scott, whose life spanned seventy-two years of the nineteenth century, 1813-1885, walked into my life in the pages of this book. Dr. Drury has made him live again, a century later.”

And as the reader hears Dr. Drury below tell the story of his personal experience in re-tracing the steps of a most fascinating figure in American Presbyterian church history, one will take of how history became alive for him, and as Dr. Smith and Dr. Cropp note, alive for the modern reader as well.

On top of the hill on the campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California, is cut stone castle-like building whose gray walls and round tower are covered with ivy. On a certain morning during the last week of September 1919, a new student at the seminary stood before this building. After reading the inscription over the arched entrance, he asked: “Why is this called Scott Library Hall?” He was told: “After Dr. William Anderson Scott who founded this seminary in San Francisco about fifty years ago. This building was erected as a memorial to him.” I was that new student and that was the first time I had ever heard of Dr. Scott.

Since Dr. Scott had died in 1895, there were still living in 1919 a number of people who remembered him. Among them was Arthur W. Foster, a prominent Marin County business man, a trustee of the seminary, and since he had married Louisiana Scott, he was also a son-in-law of the founder. In 1889 Foster had given the seventeen-acre campus in San Anselmo to the Seminary. He was a frequent campus visitor when I was a student and I have vivid memories of his portly figure usually clad in a Prince Albert coat. His silk hat and gold-headed cane made him an impressive figure in my eyes. Mrs. Foster, who often accompanied her husband to the campus, laid the cornerstone of the library building dedicated to the memory of her father on October 17, 1891. There were others whom I came to know who also had memories of the unusual person whose biography I have undertaken to write.

After my graduation from the seminary in 1922, I served for more than fifteen years in several pastorates and then returned to my alma mater in 1938 as a member of the faculty. As Professor of Church History, it was both my duty and my pleasure to delve into the history of Christianity on the Pacific Coast. One day in the basement of Scott Hall I came across three large chests filled with Dr. Scott’s manuscripts. The contents of these chests had previously been damaged by water as the result of a fire in the Foster home. Water poured upon the fire had settled in the basement and had innundated the chests. After the water had drained away, the contents of the chests gradually dried out, but most of the papers were damaged beyond use. After the lapse of many years, the chests were sent to the seminary and stored in the basement of Scott Hall where I found them. Among the papers still readable was Scott’s diary for 1836, several important addresses, some early sermons, and many lectures.

Then came World War II. After serving for five years as a chaplain in the United States Navy, I returned to the campus in 1946 and returned to my attention to Dr. Scott with the hope of some day writing his biography. I began a systematic examination of the large collection of Scott papers which members of the family had given to Bancroft Library, University of California, in Berkeley. This collection contains about nine hundred letters which Scott received or wrote during the years 1832-85; diaries, journals, and record books; hundreds of newspaper clippings dealing largely with controversies in which he was involved; pictures and many other exceedingly rich in detail. No one had ever made a serious study of this bonanza of biographical data.

During the years that followed, sometimes by visits and again by correspondence, I probed into historical collections and libraries scattered throughout the nation for further information about Dr. Scott’s life and work. In the library of the State University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge, important material was located which dealt with the Clay controversy of 1844-47. Original Scott letters were located in the Library of Congress, the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, in Princeton Theological Seminary, and in Huntington Library, San Marion, California. The extensive collection of original records of various Presbyterian judicatories on the Pacific Coast, on deposit at San Francisco Theological Seminary, contains a wealth of information dealing with Dr. Scott’s activities in California during the years 1854-85. I also had access to the original records of the two Presbyterian churches he founded in San Francisco, Calvary and St. John’s. Added to these were the original records of the seminary of which he was the chief founder.

Among the important sources of California church history owned by the seminary is the editor’s file of the Pacific for the years under review. This was a New School Presbyterian and Congregational weekly founded in San Francisco in August 1851. The seminary also has the only complete file extant of the Occident, a Presbyterian weekly published in San Francisco 1868-1900. I compiled a page by page index of the Pacific from 1851-69 and of the complete file of the Occident. These indices, consisting of thousands of cards, provided by the magic key which unlocked the hidden historical treasures of these important California church periodicals. The columns of the Pacific for the years of Dr. Scott’s first residence in San Francisco, 1856-61, reveal the unpleasant story of ecclesiastical jealousies within Presbyterian and Congregational circles which contributed much to the series of unhappy events connected with Dr. Scott’s ministry in Calvary Church. Much light is thrown upon the vigilante movement in San Francisco, which Dr. Scott had the courage to oppose, and also upon the conflicting emotions and prejudices which stirred California in the events leading up to the Civil War.

After Dr. Scott was forced to leave California in 1861, he and his family spent two years in France and England. In the spring of 1956, I had opportunity to examine some original ecclesiastical records of the Presbyterian Church of England on deposit in its Historical Society in London. Some information was found therein regarding Dr. Scott’s work in London and Birmingham. After returning to the United States in the summer of 1863, Dr. Scott served as pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York City for six years. The original records were located in the library of Union Theological Seminary in that city.

Added to all that could be gleaned from such manuscript and published materials relating to this long neglected but important churchman, were the personal memories and family traditions. Perhaps the last individual to have personal recollections of both Dr. and Mrs. Scott, was Mrs. Mary F. Kuechler, a granddaughter, of Ross, California. She passed away on May 16, 1965. Stories about Dr. Scott are associated with a number of family heirlooms owned by several of his descendants.

In 1960, having completed some other projects which had priority, I began writing the preliminary sketches of this biography. I soon realized that a personal visit to the scenes connected with Dr. Scott’s youth and to the various parishes he served before going to California was essential. In order to make such an investigation, the seminary granted me sabbatic leave beginning January 1, 1962. The American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia made a grant of $600 for expenses connected with the basic research. On February 26th my wife and I left by automobile for a tour of the South which lasted ten weeks. We visited Dr. Scott’s parishes at Opelousas and New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent two years, 1834-36, in the former and twelve years, 1842-1854, in the latter. In New Orleans, he came to the fulness of his powers as a pulpit orator, and from here in 1858 Dr. Scott was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., the highest honor within the power of his church to bestow.

We then visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he had a two-year ministry, 1840-42. From there we proceeded to Montreat, North Carolina, where I had opportunity of consulting Presbyterian judicatory records and periodicals for the years immediately preceding the Civil War. Also at Montreat were the original records of the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans covering the period that Dr. Scott served as pastor.

From Montreat we drove into eastern Tennessee, first visiting Winchester where Scott, as a young newly-wedded minister, served as principal of female academy and pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church from 1836-38. From there we went to Nashville, passing within a few miles of his birthplace in Marshall County without then knowing its exact location. Scott served as principal of a female academy in Nashville from 1838-40 and also as stated supply of two small country churches. He alternated on week ends going to the Hermitage Church where General Andrew Jackson lived and to Harpeth. Each church was ten or twelve miles distant from Nashville but in different directions. In both places I found the original buildings still standing and had access to the original sessional records. The Scott Collection in Bancroft Library contains some letters from General Jackson to Scott. At Nashville I located the other half of the correspondence, the letters from Scott to Jackson.

We then drove to McKenzie, Tennessee, where the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary is located. Scott began his ministry in the Cumberland Church and did not transfer to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., until 1838. As a Cumberland Presbyterian circuit rider, when only eighteen years old, he spent a year on a circuit which included some thirty communities in northwestern Tennessee. McKenzie lies about in the center of that circuit. With Scott’s 1830 diary before me and with the help of Dr. Thomas Campbell, president of the seminary, we were able to locate many of the communities listed.

All along the way as we followed Scott’s trail, we found new material and much local color, sometimes in the most unexpected places. We met with a generous response from all to whom we turned for help, librarians, pastors, local historians, and just common folk who, when they heard of her quest, cooperated in many ways.

After returning to our home in San Rafael, California, in May 1962, I was able by correspondence to clear up many unsolved questions. By this means the place of Scott’s birth in Marshall County and the grave of his mother near Raleigh were located. Bit by bit, like the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle which had been scattered through 150 years and over half of the continent, the important facts relating to the life and work of Dr. Scott were assembled. Gradually a clearer picture of the boy, the student, the itinerant backwoods preacher, the educator, the orator, the author, and the churchman emerged.

As I sat before my typewriter writing this life of “no ordinary man,” I have had the feeling that Dr. Scott has been looking over my shoulder. Although the portrayal is designed to give a sympathetic interpretation of his life, yet I have not hesitated to record what appear to be personal weaknesses and errors of judgment. Dr. Scott himself would have been the first to deny any claim to perfection. The artist needs both light and shadow to sharpen the outlines of his picture. Most church members today would agree with his stand against the compulsory reading of the Protestant version of the Bible in public schools and with his opposition to the Vigilance Committee’s unlawful activities in San Francisco. They would disapprove, no doubt, his attitude toward slavery and his support of the Southern rebellion against the federal government. Dr. Scott was a Southerner by birth, education, and sympathies. He lived during those critical years preceding the Civil War when the Presbyterian Church was forging its philosophy of the relationship of the church to social issues in the hot fires of sectional controversy. Partly because of the leading role that Scott played in the national affairs of his denomination, he inevitably became a central figure in these discussions.
…
The story of William Anderson Scott is a vivid commentary on his time. His deep opposition to the Vigilance Committee, for instance, throws much light upon the lawlessness existing in San Francisco in the mid 1850s. In the events surrounding the second hanging of Dr. Scott in effigy before his church on Sunday morning, September 23, 1861, we see how deeply the issues which precipitated the Civil War stirred the citizens of San Francisco. Scott’s close connection with the national leaders of the Presbyterian Church had a direct bearing upon the unfortunate division which split the Old School Assembly of 1861 into the northern and southern branches. Here is a hitherto unexplored chapter in American Presbyterian history.

To recapitulate, the great wealth of source material including nearly nine hundred letters, diaries, journals, books, pamphlets, ecclesiastical records, hundreds of articles in religious and secular periodicals, sermon and lecture notes, together with family memories and personal observations has made this book possible. Herein we can become acquainted not only with what Dr. Scott did and what he said, but also with many of his inner thoughts and feelings. As we move with him through the years, we come to appreciate his problems and share with him his sacrifices and his sufferings. We enter into his dreams and aspirations and rejoice in his accomplishments. When the full story is told, we are amazed to see how one who emerged from such an unpromising backwoods environment, handicapped by a crippled foot, and with such a limited formal education, should have been able to do such.

The journey of a church historian to learn about his subject shows that the past is not dead, but very much alive, which is what we at Log College Press also believe. Get to know Clifford Merrill Drury and William Anderson Scott, among many others associated with American Presbyterianism, at Log College Press.

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

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

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

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

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

Meroh, A Native African

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Underground Railroad at Log College Press

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alexander McLeod was born almost 250 years ago today

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"Ministers are living books, and books are dead ministers; and yet though dead, they speak. When you cannot hear the one, you may read the other." — Matthew Poole 

On June 12, 1774, in the Isle of Mull, Scotland, Alexander McLeod was born. He came to the United States as a young man in 1792, and would go on to become one of the leaders not only of his own denomination, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, but was well-respected as a leading voice among all branches of American Presbyterianism.

His pastoral ministry, where he served at Coldenham, New York and in New York City, lasted from 1801 until his death on February 17, 1833, which was mourned by many. He was instrumental in confirming the RPCNA’s early institutional opposition to slavery. McLeod also contributed to the founding of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, among many other endeavors on behalf of both the kingdom of God and the common good, which have had a lasting influence that endures today.

McLeod played a role in the founding of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary beginning as early as 1807 (Robert M. Copeland, Spare No Exertions: 175 Years of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, pp. 19, 23). McLeod was additionally involved in the establishment of the American Colonization Society; with Samuel Miller he furthered the work of the New York Bible Society; with John Stanford he worked to establish the New York Society for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb; and with Philip Milledoler he helped to organize the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews. He was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1809 at Middlebury College, Vermont. In 1812, he was unanimously elected to serve as Professor of Mathematics (replacing his first cousin, John Maclean, Sr., in that capacity) and as Vice-President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), but he respectfully declined this invitation in order to serve his flock. In the midst of his regular preaching duties, he was also a prolific writer, publishing many works and contributing to many periodicals.

From his famous Ecclesiastical Catechism, he writes concerning the present disunity of the Church:

Seeing there are many distinct denominations of Christians, what is their duty toward one another?

To form one church of societies retaining their peculiar habits and prejudices, would only produce confusion, or substitute a base neutrality for Christian zeal It is the duty of every denomination to reform abuses, and endeavour, after conformity to the plan of church order appointed by Christ, that the Catholic Church may attain to the unity of the Spirit, and become visibly connected in the bond of peace.

In 2019, Log College Press republished one of McLeod’s major works, Messiah, Governor of the Nations of the Earth. Today, we remember that he was born almost 250 years ago and yet his voice still speaks to our generation.

Freedom For All

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Jacob Green once famously declared in a 1778 sermon delivered in the midst of America’s War of Independence: “Can it be believed that a people contending for liberty should, at the same time, be promoting and supporting slavery?” Not all American Presbyterians have shared his sentiment at all times, and few issues historically have divided the Presbyterian Church like the issue of slavery; but generally speaking, a review of the early deliverances of the Presbyterian Church in this country — including the Reformed Presbyterian of North America (RPCNA) in 1800 which barred membership to slaveholders — reveals a stand against slavery and in favor of freedom for all.

An overture by a committee of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia made this memorable statement in 1787:

The Creator of the world having made of one flesh all the children of men, it becomes them as members of the same family, to consult and promote each other's happiness. It is more especially the duty of those who maintain the rights of humanity, and who acknowledge and teach the obligations of Christianity, to use such means as are in their power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every part of the human race.

The final approved version of the 1787 Synodical statement was worded differently - encouraging religious education and supporting the eventual abolition of slavery. This final 1787 statement was republished by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) in 1793. The following year, and for over two decades afterwards, an explanatory clause on the sin of man-stealing in connection with Question 142 (on the Eighth Commandment) in the Westminster Larger Catechism was published along with the Constitution of the PCUSA. For more details on this chapter in early American Presbyterian church history, see the relevant appendix in George Bourne’s Picture of Slavery in the United States of America, and Charles Hodge’s The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, as well as this earlier Log College Press blog post about Bourne and RPCNA pastor Alexander McLeod regarding man-stealing. Also, the deliverances of Synod and the General Assembly on this subject may be consulted at our Minutes page.

Meanwhile, the profound and Biblical simplicity of the original 1787 statement on freedom for all remains worthy of remembrance. Even 155 years after ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the struggle for freedom for all in America and around the world continues in some respects, and as God “hath made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26), we need not ask, as the lawyer did in Luke 10, “Who is my neighbor?” - not only is all mankind our neighbor, but especially the oppressed and those in need, such as the one to whom the Good Samaritan rendered aid. May the words of a committee in 1787 ring in the ears of Christians today, which call us to “use such means as are in [our] power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every part of the human race.”

The Government of God Over Nations: James W.C. Pennington

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The sovereignty of God over all nations was a Biblical doctrine of great comfort and practical value to the fugitive blacksmith-turned-Presbyterian minister, James W.C. Pennington (1807-1870). In 1856, he preached a sermon based on Psalm 22:28.

“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and He is the Governor among the nations.”

In the text from our Saviour’s own lips the subject is completed in every point of view. God the Father is not only declared to be Lord of Heaven and earth, but certain acts are ascribed to Him which indicate the effectiveness of His sovereignty over all nations.

Pennington teaches us from this text that the principle of God’s sovereignty over all the nations is one of great importance:

That God administers a supreme, holy, just, and all-powerful government over all the nations of the earth, including all creatures and things, both animate and inanimate, is a truth of profound interest to the Christian.

Further, Pennington takes a position that is rarely heard today from the pulpit: God is the ruler of not only individuals, but also nations.

Nations, as moral persons, are amenable to God as our moral Governor….The same God who is governor over nations, is also governor over individuals.

Thus, as the moral Governor of the universe, we may look to him to right wrongs, and to comfort the oppressed.

But to all this we may add the declaration in the text: — He is the governor among the nations.” He governs all the nations. His eye is in all places beholding the evil and the good. His ear hears and understands every language an speech beneath the sun. His superintending hand is in all national matters. He has to do with the Throne, and with the Chair of State, the Bench, the Bar, and the Jury Box.— The hearts of all men are in His hands and he turns them as the rivers of water are turned. The minds of all men are in His hands. He can control the thinking powers. He can communicate His own mind unto men. He can fasten conviction upon the souls of men.

In all his operations as our moral governor He has in view the best welfare of nations.

These truths comforted and animated the Hebrews under bondage in Egypt, slaves such as Pennington in the United States, and should be a source of comfort and strength to all Christians everywhere in all times. No matter what wrongs seem to prevail for a time, the God who truly governs among the kingdoms of the earth will hear the cry of the oppressed, and will cause justice to roll down like a river (Amos 5:24) as well as leaves to bring healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).

An Address to President Lincoln

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In the autumn of 1862 (after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, and before it took effect on January 1, 1863), two Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) ministers met privately with President Abraham Lincoln to discuss some particular priority goals that they wished the Lincoln administration to achieve. The Oval Office has rarely heard such a speech reminiscent of Psalm 2.

The address below to President Lincoln was authored and presented by James Renwick Wilson Sloane and Alexander McLeod Milligan (brothers-in-law as well as brothers in the Lord).

TO HIS EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES

We visit you, Mr. President, as the representatives of the Reformed Presbyterian, or, as it is frequently termed, "Scotch Covenanter," Church, — a Church whose sacrifices and sufferings in the cause of civil and religious liberty are a part of the world's history, and to which we are indebted, no less than to the Puritans, for those inestimable privileges so largely enjoyed in the free States of this Union, and which, true to its high lineage and ancient spirit, does not hold within its pale a single Secessionist, or sympathizer with rebellion, in these United States.

Our Church has unanimously declared, by the voice of her highest court, that the world has never seen a conflict in which right was more clearly wholly upon the one side, and wrong upon the other, than in the present struggle of this Government with this slaveholders' rebellion. She has also unanimously declared her determination to assist the Government by all lawful means in her power in its conflict with this atrocious conspiracy, until it be utterly overthrown and annihilated.

Profoundly impressed with the immense importance of the issues involved in this contest, and with the solemn responsibilities which rest upon the Chief Magistrate in this time of the nation's peril, our brethren have commissioned us to come and address you words of sympathy and encouragement, also to express to you views which, in their judgment, have an important bearing upon the present condition of affairs in our beloved country; to congratulate you on what has already been accomplished in crushing rebellion, and to exhort you to persevere in the work, until it has been finally completed.

Entertaining no shadow of doubt as to the entire justice of the cause in which the nation is embarked, we nevertheless consider the war a just judgment of Almighty God for the sin of rejecting his authority, and enslaving our fellow-men, and are firmly persuaded that his wrath will not be appeased, and that no permanent peace will be attained, until his authority be recognized, and the abomination that maketh desolate utterly extirpated.

As an anti-slavery church of the most radical school, believing slavery to be a heinous and aggravated sin both against God and man, and to be placed in the same category with piracy, murder, adultery, and theft, it is our solemn conviction that God by his Word and Providence is calling the nation to immediate, unconditional, and universal emancipation. We hear his voice in these thunders of war saying to us, "Let my people go." Nevertheless, we have hailed with delighted satisfaction the several steps which you have taken in the direction of emancipation. Especially do we rejoice in your late proclamation, declaring your purpose to free the slaves in the rebel States on the first day of January, 1863, an act which, when carried out, will give the death-blow to rebellion, strike the fetters from millions of bondmen, and will secure for its author a place high among the wisest of rulers and the noblest benefactors of the race. Permit us, then, Mr. President, most respectfully yet most earnestly, to urge upon you the importance of enforcing that proclamation to the utmost extent of that power with which you are vested. Let it be placed on the highest grounds of Christian justice and philanthropy; let it be declared to be an act of national repentance for long complicity with the guilt of slavery. Permit nothing to tarnish the glory of the act, or rob it of its sublime moral significance and grandeur, and it cannot fail to meet a hearty response in the conscience of the nation, and to secure infinite blessings to our distracted country. Let not the declaration of the immortal Burke in this instance be verified: "Good works are commonly left in a rude and imperfect state through the tame circumspection with which a timid prudence so frequently enervates beneficence. In doing good we are cold, languid, and sluggish, and of all things afraid of being too much in the right." We urge you by every consideration drawn from the Word of God and the present condition of our bleeding country, not to be moved from the path of duty, on which you have so auspiciously entered, either by the threats or blandishments of the enemies of human progress, nor to permit this great act to lose its power through the fears of its timid friends.

There is another point which we esteem of prominent importance, and to which we wish briefly to call your attention. The Constitution of the United States contains no acknowledgment of the authority of God, of his Christ, or of his law as contained in the Holy Scriptures. This we deeply deplore, as wholly inconsistent with all claim to be considered a Christian nation, or to enjoy the protection and favor of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is above all earthly rulers. He is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is the one Mediator between God and man, through whom alone either nations or individuals can secure the favor of the Most High God, who is saying to us in these judgments, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings! be instructed, O ye judges of the earth! serve the Lord with fear. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that trust in him. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted."

This time appears to us most opportune for calling the nation to a recognition of the name and authority of God, to the claims of him who will overturn, overturn, and overturn, until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. We indulge the hope, Mr. President, that you have been called, with your ardent love of liberty, your profound moral convictions manifested in your sabbath proclamation, and in your frequent declarations of dependence upon Divine Providence, to your present position of honor and influence, to free our beloved country from the curse of slavery, and secure for it the favor of the great Ruler of the universe. Shall we not now set the world an example of a Christian State governed, not by the principles of mere political expediency, but acting under a sense of accountability to God, and in obedience to those laws of immutable morality which are binding alike upon nations and individuals?

We pray that you may be directed in your responsible position by divine wisdom, that God may throw over you the shield of his protection, that we may soon see rebellion crushed, its cause removed, and our land become Immanuel's land.

Another Covenanter minister, Thomas Sproull, reminisced shortly after Lincoln’s assassination about the president’s response to this powerful appeal:

Some time last winter two men connected with the Reformed Presbyterian Church were in Washington City, and called at the President’s house. While in the room that is always open to visitors, the President came in, and got into a conversation with them, in the course of which mention was made,of the Covenanters. The name seemed to arrest his attention, and he remarked: “I know something about these people — they want the Constitution amended by putting slavery out of it, and by putting a recognition of God in it.” To this they assented, and he proceeded to speak in kind and earnest terms of the brethren who had been with him urging the amendments. He added that they had obtained one object of their mission during his first term in office, and he hoped they would obtain the other before the end of his second term.

What Samuel Stanhope Smith had to say about Phillis Wheatley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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