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BX 8935 .T56 1903 Thompson, Charles Lemuel

1839-1924. The Presbyterians

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THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BUILDING, JAMAICA, L. I.

'The Story of the Churches

The Presbyterians

By

CHARLES LEMUEL THOMPSON, D. D.

Secretary of the Board of Hotne Missions of the Presby- terian Church in the U. S. A,

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NEW YORK: THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 33-37 East Seventeenth St., Union Sq. North

Copyright, 1903,

By

The Baker & Taylor Co.

Published^ February ^ igoj

Preface

There are many histories of the Presby- terian Church in this country. It has, how- ever, been thought that there was still room for one which should put the story into a few brief chapters presenting only the main out- line of events and giving them a popular rather than an ecclesiastical setting. Neither the limitations of space nor the purpose of the writer has allowed discussions of polity or doctrine.

This is therefore a record of the life and work of the Church given in its most essen- tial features. As such it is commended to those of any communion who would know what share Presbyterians have had in the progress of Christianity in our country.

Publishers' Note

The aim of this series is to furnish a uniform set of church histories, brief but complete, and designed to instruct the average church member in the origin, development, and his- tory of the various denominations. Many church histories have been issued for all de- nominations, but they have usually been volumes of such size as to discourage any but students of church history. Each vol- ume of this series, all of which will be written by leading historians of the various denominations, will not only interest the members of the denomination about which it is written, but will prove interesting to members of other denominations as well who wish to learn something of their fellow workers. The volumes will be bound uni- formly, and when the series is complete will make a most valuable history of the Chris- tian church.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Presbyterian Origins 9

II. Laying Foundations 34

III. Opening of a New Century 48

IV. The Division of 1741 60

V. Missionaries and Patriots 81

VI. Over the Mountains 104

VII. An Era of Missions 119

VIII. The Old North West 151

IX. The Division of 1837 173

X. The Civil War and its Results . . . .198

XI. Reunion 212

XII. Heresy Trials 227

XIII. Confessional Changes 238

XIV. The Presbyterian Church To-day . . 262

The Presbyterians

CHAPTER I

PRESBYTERIAN ORIGINS

The story of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America requires that there should be some definition of Pres- byterianism and some word of its history in the old world that prepared for its coming to the new. As a form of doctrine and worship Presbyterianism is to be traced to the personality and the teachings of John Calvin. As to its essential principles, how- ever, it may be traced to Christ and his apostles. It aims to recover and apply the principles of Christian life announced by Christ and the doctrines formulated by his 9

lo The Presbyterians

apostles. An attempt has sometimes been made to trace a continuous line of Presby- terian history from the apostolic period to the organization of the Church in the time of the Swiss Reformation. Such an at- tempt, like that of tracing an unbroken apostolic succession, is accompanied with great difficulties. It is not necessary. Un- doubtedly there were among the Walden- sians and others those who before the Ref- ormation were endeavoring to keep alive the fires of Christian life on obscure altars in the valleys of Italy and among the Alps. God has never left himself without the seed of a true Israel in the earthN But Presby- terianism as an organized form of church life is to date from the time of the Reforma- tion.

What now are the historic lines by which it came to this country ? What principles characteristically Presbyterian can we trace in our national beginnings ? Every nation has its own personality. That personality

Presbyterian Origins ii

is the outcome of certain ruling ideas. Our country is peculiar in tracing its origin not to any one people of Europe. The line of its history is not, therefore, a single line, and is not to be traced as you might trace the strong current of a river. It is the resultant of the combined life of half a dozen Euro- pean nations. The problem, therefore, of finding out what are the ruling principles that have entered into the formation of this republic is not a simple but a complex one. At the same time the facts stand out so clearly in our own history and are so dis- tinctly marked as that history is traced back to the lands whence it came, that it is not difficult to mark the national characteristics across the ocean that have determined this last born of great nations.

In a general way, historians are in the habit of saying that the chief factors of national life have come to us from England, Scotland, France, Ireland and Holland. As the fingers come to the wrist, these nations

12 The Presbyterians

have come to a certain solidarity in our own country. It is necessary, therefore, to in- quire what are the essential truth elements of these respective nations. Of what ideas of truth, tolerance, education and liberty were they respectively the exponents when the great Reformation that quickened all Europe from the Orkneys to the Tiber had done its work, and the historian had had time to look about over the countries which it had influenced ? Certain leading truths so developed and new to the world are called Reformation Truths. Some of them had existed ages before, were an in- heritance from Roman law and primitive Christianity, but had been swept away or covered up by the general flood of igno- rance and oppression. Now with the lustre of new ideas, fresh born from heaven, they emerged to gladden the world. Following these ideas in their historic development one can follow the doctrines of personal liberty, rights of conscience, human brother-

Presbyterian Origins 13

hood, and free government, springing up in Scotland and Holland and France almost simultaneously, toward one sourceful foun- tain; for it requires no profound or pro- longed study of historic tendencies to dis- cover that emigrants from Scotland, and the Netherlands, and England, and France, drank their first drafts of intellectual and spiritual liberty in the new-born republic of the city of Geneva.

Greene, in his history of the English peo- ple, recognizes truly the genesis of the new life of Europe, and of the Reformation when he says, ** As a vast and consecrated democracy it stood in contrast with the whole social and political framework of the European nations. Grave as we may count the faults of Calvinism, alien as its temper may be in many ways from the temper of the modern world, it is in Calvinism that the modern world strikes its roots, for it was Calvinism that first revealed the worth and dignity of man. Called of God and heir of

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14 The Presbyterians

heaven, the trader at his counter and the digger of the field suddenly rose into equal- ity with the noble and the king."

Motley says: "To the Calvinists, more than to any other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England and America are due." Hume says: *' It was to the Puritans that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution." Of the Scotch clergy, Buckle testifies: ''To these men England and Scotland owe a debt they can never pay." Our great historian, Ban- croft, says: "He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American Independence."

Democratic government, free institutions, free schools, popular education, are the nerve ideas traceable to Geneva and John Calvin. The marks of their origin are dis- tinctly upon them. They go down from that elevation to Holland, Spain and Eng- land, and so to the United States by way of

Presbyterian Origins 15

Southampton and Delfthaven and London- derry and Havre.

That this tendency may be clear in our minds and our obligation to that centre may be distinctly recognized, let us notice how these nerve ideas reappear successively in the lands whence our fathers came. It will illustrate how through

" The ages one increasing purpose runs ; And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns."

Nv The most potent form of Presbyterianism that came to this country came from Scot- jand. As early as the sixth century Co- lumba, a native of Ireland, organized the Church of the Culdees in Scotland. For centuries they were witnesses of the truth, bearing often the persecutions of the Catho- lic domination. The Scotch Reformation was only a revival of the primitive Chris- tianity which the Scotch had practiced for centuries. It had been buried by Romish

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l6 The Presbyterians

power but at the first touch of the Refor- mation it sprang to life. The first bond to bind together those who had received the new truths was "The First Covenant" signed in Edinburgh December 3d, 1557. After many struggles the party of reform conquered and in 1560 Parliament abolished Roman Catholic worship, adopted a Con- fession of Faith conformed to the Reformed churches on the continent, appointed min- isters in eight principal cities and superin- tendents for other districts. In December of that year the first General Assembly was constituted. John Knox was the leader in these movements. He had sat at the feet of Calvin and became the most illustrious exponent of Calvinism in Scot- land. At last, after long conflict between the nobles and the people, and the king and the people, in 1592 Knox and his great as- sociate, Andrew Melville, secured the com- plete recognition of the Calvinistic faith and the Presbyterian form of Government as

Presbyterian Origins 17

the established religion of Scotland. James I, however, soon tried to force the Episcopal polity, which was complaisant toward his ambitions, on his Scottish sub- jects. In this he was followed by his suc- cessors Charles I, Charles II, and James II. Bloody persecutions followed. Martyrdoms uncounted added new glory to Scottish history. The revolt against the Stuart tyranny spread through the two kingdoms. After enduring for a short time the cruel and imbecile reign of James II the people in 1688 rose in their might and hurling him from his throne gave the crown to William and Mary who restored civil and religious liberty.

But during the persecutions of the pre- ceding years multitudes of the Scotch peo- ple fled from their homes and found a ref- uge in Ireland. For a while they found tol- eration. But when Wentworth was made the head of the Irish government, rules of strict conformity to the Established

l8 The Presbyterians

Church were enforced. Presbyterian min- isters who refused to conform were driven into exile. In 1642 Ireland had need of a Scottish army to help put down the rebel- lion. Again Presbyterianism obtained a footing and the first Presbytery was formed / in Ulster on the tenth of June, 1642.

The immigration from Scotland now increased. Thus the Scotch and Irish Churches, though not originally united were one in that both grew out of persecution, had similar struggles and triumphs.

Meantime, the dynasty of the Stuarts was making life intolerable for all lovers of liberty. Presbyterians, while allowed the exercise of their worship and of their church government, were excluded from office; were required to have marriages solemnized by English ministers and otherwise were ill-treated. This, together with the troubles between the people and their Irish land- lords, brought many of them to America, depleted the Ulster colony and strengthened

Presbyterian Origins 19

that Scotch-Irish element of the Presbyterian Church in this country on which its strength has so largely depended. The Scotch and Irish set their faces toward the new world as offering an asylum for the oppressed. So all through the second century of our country a large and very important part of our immigration consisted of Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. They settled largely in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary- land and Virginia. \ Another stream came from France. Thev were the Huguenots, the party which in France represented the principles of the Reformation. Calvin began to preach the new doctrines in the University of Paris as early as 1533. They rapidly took hold of the people. Protestantism grew apace. Attempts to check it by persecution only fanned its flames. Not only the common people but men of rank and influence joined its standards. Catherine tried to crush it by force. And in vain. Then

20 The Presbyterians

she tried treachery; and the massacre of St. Bartholomew — the most awful butch- ery on record — followed on August 24th, 1572, when Admiral Coligny and 5,000 Huguenots were mercilessly slain in the streets of Paris. In sixty days through- out France it is estimated that 70,000 per- sons lost their lives. It is said that when Philip II of Spain heard it, he laughed for the first and only time in his hfe and that Rome, when the tidings came, was delirious with joy. War after war succeeded until Henry IV, originally a Protestant but later a Catholic for political reasons, on April 15th, 1599, issued the Edict of Nantes guarantee- ing religious protection to the Protestants. With the exception of a few towns, they were allowed to worship in their own way throughout the kingdom. They were al- lowed to hold office. Their poor and sick were to be admitted to hospitals and their ministers were to be supported by the state. With the accession, however, of

Presbyterian Origins 21

Louis XIII the Edict of Toleration was prac- ^ tically disregarded. Richelieu, who had been called into the councils of Louis, de- termined to crush the Huguenots whose destruction he regarded as essential to the power of France. On the accession of Louis XIV the Protestants were for a time "^ protected, but on the death of Louis XIV and of Cardinal Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu, the free exercise of religion was once more in jeopardy. Things went from bad to worse.

On October 23d, 1685, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes. The Protestant religion was prohibited. Even private worship was forbidden. Protestant pastors were to re- move from the kingdom within fifteen days; all Protestant schools were closed.

There was nothing left now for the de- voted friends of the Reformation but to leave the country they loved. Sismondi computed that the total number of those who emigrated was between three and four

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22 The Presbyterians

hundred thousand. A like number had perished in prison, on the scaffold, at the galleys and in their attempts to escape. It is impossible to say how large were the colonies that came to the United States, but they were settled at an early day in New York, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas. The French language was used in preach- ing in Boston till the close of the eighteenth century and Huguenot services were cele- brated in French and English as late as 1772. The Huguenot church in Charleston, South Carolina, has retained in its primitive purity the old Calvinistic liturgy of its fore- fathers. "These pious fugitives have be- come public blessings throughout the world and have increased in Germany, Holland, and England the elements of power, prosperity, and Christian develop- ment. In our land, too, they helped to lay the firm corner-stones of the great republic whose glory they most justly share." A not unimportant contribution to the

Presbyterian Origins 23

Presbyterian history of our country came from England. The Pilgrims went to Hol- land in 1608, — the year after the first Prot- estant colony came to Virginia. After twelve years at Leyden they came to Ply- mouth and formed the first Christian set- tlement in New England. A few years later another Puritan element came directly from England and constituted the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony. In August, 1629, a church was organized with the Rev. Samuel Skelton as pastor, Francis Higginson as teacher, and Mr. Houghton as elder.

The difference between the Puritans who came to this country directly from England and the Pilgrims who came by way of Hol- land is expressed in the words said to have been uttered by Mr. Higginson on leaving England: "We will not say, as the Separa- tists were wont to say at their leaving Eng- land, Farewell, Babylon! Farewell, Rome! But we will say, Farewell, dear England! Farewell, the church of God in England,

24 The Presbyterians

and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to New England as Separatists from the Church of England; though we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it; but we go to practice the positive part of church reformation and propagate the gospel in America" (Cotton Mather, Mag- nalia, I, p. ^62] H. M. Dexter, Congrega- tionalism, p. 414).

It probably is historically true that the chief obligation of New England is not to the few Pilgrims who settled the Plymouth colony (though those 100 souls undoubt- edly gave a stamp which never was effaced from colonial history) but to the Puritans who at the English Revolution in large numbers came to our shores and formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They com- prised the very best elements of English society. The 20,000 who, with Hooker, Winthrop and Mather between 1630 and 1640 settled New England, gave us the dis- tinctive type of Puritan life which, with all

Presbyterian Origins 25

its faults, has been one of the grandest ever impressed on a young nation, and the source of much of the intellectual and moral power which made New England eminent in colonizing energy, all the way to the western prairies. But this superb ideal of a universal Christian kingdom on earth was dreamed long before by the great Genevese reformer in his ** Institutes of Religion."

It is evident that there was among the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony a strong tendency to Presbyterian polity. While the churches were organized on an independent basis they usually had one or more elders associated with the minister in the government of the congregation. Dr. Briggs in his " American Presbyterianism " mentions the following prominent ministers as holding to the Presbyterian form of gov- ernment: "Thomas Parker and James Noyes of Newbury, Mass., John Eliot the Apostle to the Indians, Peter Hobart of

26 The Presbyterians

Hingham, and John Young and Richard Denton of Long Island." Indeed through- out the Massachusetts Bay Colony the local congregations were as a rule formed on the Genevan model, — they were independent of ecclesiastical control outside of them- selves but their own governing body was a bench of elders. A compromise as to gov- ernment was made necessary by circum- stances. A congregationalized Presbyteri- anism spread throughout New England. As the years went on, however, Independency gained ground by immigration from Eng- land and the Presbyterian element largely emigrated to New York and New Jersey.

This statement of origins would not be complete without a recognition of the Dutch element in our population. They were essentially Presbyterian. They im- bibed their ideas of civil and religious lib- erty from Geneva— fought for it behind the sheltering dikes of Holland and then when a new theatre for its development appeared

Presbyterian Origins 27

on this side of the water took their share in transplanting those ideas to a more con- genial climate. It is true the Dutch were not driven hither by storms of persecution as was the case with the English, Scotch, Irish and French. Coming freely by per- ception of the advantages the new world offered, they maintained on these shores, as did the other colonies, the principles en- deared to them by battles and martyrdom.

It is thus apparent that Presbyterianism in this country is the resultant of national forces, diverse in their character and yet one in their great moulding principles. These principles are the Reformation doc- trines expounded by Calvin and filtrated through English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch and French history and coming to unity in the Presbyterian life of America.

Mr. Herbert Spencer has said, " It may, I think, be reasonably held that both because of its size and the heterogeneity of its com- ponents, the American nation will be a long

28 The Presbyterians

time in evolving its ultimate form, but that its ultimate form will be high. One result is, I think, tolerably clear. From biological truths it is to be inferred that the eventual mixture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race, forming the population, will produce a more powerful type of man than has hitherto existed, and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing modification needful for com- plete social life."

We may expect therefore that the Pres- byterianism of the United States will be both plastic and powerful representing the best type of the great Reformation doc- trines.

As one of the results of this evolution the polity of the Presbyterian Church has been developed more fully in this country than in any other. Of course the essential prin- ciples of that polity are everywhere the same, viz., the representative church gov- ernment and the parity of the ministry.

Presbyterian Origins 29

It is distinguished from Independency by the former characteristic and from every form of Episcopacy by the latter. Its gov- ernment by representatives allies it to our republican form of government.

The constitution of the Presbyterian Church rests upon essentially the same principles as that of the State, and it re- mains to-day, without essential change, the basis of all our legislation. Rising from it are our representative church courts in direct connection with the people and at the summit is our Supreme Court guarding the rights of individuals and the stability of church government.

It is not necessary to insist, as is some- times done, that the nation copied the Presbyterian Church in deciding its consti- tution and government. It is enough to say that the two conventions, meeting at the same time in the same city and with some identity in membership, doubtless mutually influenced each other and that the

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30 The Presbyterians

two forms of government then announced are identical in depending upon popular representation as the essential basis of leg- islation. The Presbyterian Church, holding the ecclesiastical equality of all ministers, unites them and ruling elders, the direct representatives of the people, in all her church courts.

Beginning with the individual church the first court is the church session, made up of the elders of the church and the minister of the congregation. To them is commit- ted all spiritual rule and authority. Above the session of the individual church is the Presbytery, composed of the ministers and one ruling elder from all the churches within a given district. Appeal can be taken from any action of the session to the Presbytery. Above the Presbytery is the Synod, which in this country usually em- braces a state and which is composed either of the ministers and representatives of each church session or now in the larger

Presbyterian Origins 31

synods by delegates chosen by the Presby- tery in some given ratio. Appeal may be taken from any action of Presbytery to the Synod. The final court of the Presbyterian Church in this country is the General As- sembly, which consists of representatives in equal proportion of ministers and elders chosen by the Presbyteries.

j^is to dgctxine : The Presbyterian Church lays its supreme stress upon the Augus- tinian doctrine of divine sovereignty and free grace. Consequently Calvin in his " Institutes of Religion " — the work which may be regarded as the fountain head of Calvinism — magnifies the doctrines of ef- fectual calling, divine adoption and divine grace. It was opposed on the one hand to the Lutheran doctrines of consubstantiation by which divine grace was closely tied to the sacraments, the Presbyterian Church maintaining that salvation is not dependent upon any external rites or ceremonies but wholly and only on the unmerited grace of

32 The Presbyterians

God. It was opposed on the other hand to Arminianism which made salvation to de- pend upon the free will and choice of men, the Presbyterian Church holding that the choice unto salvation is of God while yet man is left entirely free in the acceptance of the offers of salvation. ^Sv The standards of doctrine in the Presby- terian Church are the Westminster Confes- sion of Faith and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms. They are to be received by ministers and elders as containing the sys- tem of doctrine taught in the Holy Scrip- tures. They are not imposed upon private members of the church. Of them only faith in Christ and a purpose to live a Chris- tian life is required.

The part played by Presbyterians in the subsequent development of the Presby- terian polity will appear in the following chapters. It was to be expected from their origin that they would be fighters for free- dom. Their first fight was for the inde-

Presbyterian Origins 33

pendence of the colonies. Their second fight was against the wilderness, to subju- gate it by the force of Christian civihzation. This has been the battle of a century, dur- ing which the standards first planted in New England snows or the solitudes of southern palmettos have been pressed on- ward at the front of the pioneer advance until crossing mountains and plains and mountains again they were erected among the palm groves of California, and in the snows of Alaska, to claim our country for Christ. The story of this advancing cause will be the burden of these brief pages.

CHAPTER II

LAYING FOUNDATIONS

The Presbyterian Church was fortunate in the men who first impressed themselves on the unformed communities of the new world. The early settlements in New Eng- land were largely Calvinistic in theology and divided as to polity between Independ- ents and Presbyterians.

In 1620 the Mayflower brought the Pil- grims who constituted the Plymouth Colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony coming five years later was Presbyterian. It was sup- ported by the Presbyterians of England. N^ The first church in this colony was organ- ized in 1629.

The Puritan spirit was a spirit of refor- mation and missions. Unhappy theological distinctions at an early period vexed and 34

Laying Foundations 35

ultimately divided the Church; but the be- ginnings were those of a missionary pur- pose— single — devoted — self-sacrificing.

In no one personality of those early leaders is this missionary spirit so manifest as in the life and work of John Eliot— ''the Apostle to the Indians." After a residence of several years at Roxbury, during which time he devoted himself to acquiring the Indian language, in October, 1646, he began his ministry among the Indians living along the banks of the Charles River.

England and Scotland took a lively in- terest in his mission. Nearly twenty years before the beginning of his labors the char- ter granted the Presbyterian Colony of Massachusetts Bay declared that to "win and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Chris- tian faith was in the royal intention and the adventurers' free profession the principal end of this plantation."

36 The Presbyterians

However far the American people have strayed from this sublime purpose in their subsequent relations with the natives, it is refreshing to recall that the first aim of that colony which so impressed itself on the subsequent history of New England was to establish the gospel not only among the colonists but as well and chiefly among the natives. That this aim was strongly sup- ported in the mother country is evident in the organization, by authority of Parliament in 1649 of the "Society for the propagation of the gospel in New England." The charter of all subsequent missionary opera- tions in our country may be read in the words in which this society was authorized "to receive and dispose of monies in such manner as shall best and principally con- duce to the preaching and propagating of the gospel among the natives and for the maintenance of schools and nurseries of learning for the education of the children of the natives." A collection taken in England

Laying Foundations 37

and Wales for this great undertaking re- sulted in about ;£i2,ooo. This sum, so large for those times, is proof of a foreign missionary spirit centuries before the mod- ern organization of the cause. The Pres- byterian Church in England was so steady a contributor to the missions of Eliot on the mainland and Mayhew and others on Mar- tha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Isles, that by 1689 the work among the Indians showed six churches and twenty-four preachers. Many of these were natives who had been trained and ordained by Eliot. The churches organized by Eliot had a bench of ruling elders, and Presby- teries were constituted "for advice and consultation only," a compromise with the Congregational polity made necessary by the circumstances. V Presbyterianism came to New York first by way of New England. Disputes con- cerning baptism and other non-essentials, growing so violent as to result in persecu-

38 The Presbyterians

tion, drove out of New England some of her best men to find homes and service elsewhere. Among these was the Rev. Francis Doughty — the first Presbyterian minister of New York City. Silenced for non-conformity in England he emigrated to the new world and settled at Taunton, Mass., in 1637. After establishing a church there his views on infant baptism brought such persecution upon him that he was ob- liged to flee the country. He found a refuge on Long Island, with the purpose of establishing there a Presbyterian colony. Indian wars broke up the colony and \Doughty escaped to Manhattan Island where he ministered for five years as the pastor of a congregation which later be- came the First Presbyterian church. A con- flict with the Dutch Governor made it necessary for him to leave the city. He found a home in Maryland where he labored until his death, a faithful and honored preacher of the gospel. Dr. Charles A

Laying Foundations 39

Briggs calls him ''the Apostle of Presby- terianism in America." '* He preached here and there to little flocks which were subse- quently gathered into the Presbyterian Church when it was organized into Presby- teries and Synods. Driven from one place by intolerance and persecution he fled to another. He carried on his Master's work in spite of difficulties of every kind." Un- compromising men were needed for those days. Doughty was one of them.

Richard Denton was the second Presby- terian minister to preach in New York City. He too was a New Englander. Coming from England in 1630 he setled first at Wethersfield, Conn., and later at Stamford. In 1644, with a portion of his flock he crossed the sound to Hempstead, L. I. He preached there and in New York until 1658 when he returned to England. He seems to have occupied the building in which the Dutch congregation worshipped and to have continued the labors of his predeces-

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40 The Presbyterians

sor, Francis Doughty. He was recognized • as a Presbyterian by the Dutch pastors of the city who said of him that he was, **an honest, pious and learned man."

But the man who has the honor of laying the foundations of organized Presbyterian- ism in this country is J^rancis Makemie — an Irishman from Donegal County, Ireland, who after a brief missionary tour in the Barbadoes came to the eastern shore of Maryland and organized the Presbyterian church of Snow Hill in 1684. It is worth mentioning that in those days of the intol- erance of the English Church, the Presby- terian Church began its existence in a colony founded by Lord Baltimore, a Ro- man Catholic nobleman! Makemie was the man for the time. Resolute, grave, self-sacrificing, and utterly devoted to giv- ing the gospel to as many communities as he could reach — he journeyed in restless and perilous adventure from the Carolinas to New York, gathering together "the poor

Laying Foundations 41

desolate people "" wherever opportunity of- fered and preaching to them with the zeal of an apostle the gospel which came to many in their isolation like a strain of half- forgotten music. Everywhere he found welcome. His hardships were continuous, but nothing daunted him. " In labors more abundant" might be written of him as of Paul. He not only itinerated from one of the colonies to the other, but he crossed the ocean and pleaded with ministers and people in London for men and money with which to respond to the calls of the wilder- ness-swallowed people of the new world. He not only labored and journeyed, he also suffered for the cause he loved. In New York he was thrown into prison for preaching without license and, though the imprisonment was shown to be illegal, he and his associate Hampton, after six weeks in jail, were obliged to pay a bill of costs amounting to more than eighty-three pounds.

42 The Presbyterians

Thus far no Presbytery had been organ- ized. There were scattered Presbyterian churches all the way from Boston to Vir- ginia, but they were isolated flocks, Pres- byterian in their origin and sympathies and modeled after the polity of the Church in that they had ruling elders, but by neces- sity of the situation they were separate and independent churches. The name of Makemie is connected with the organiza- tion of the Church in this country in that he was the Moderator of the first Pres- bytery, which convened in Philadelphia in 1705.

Some kind of informal Presbyterial Con- ference must have been held in Philadel- phia in 1701, when it appears Jedediah Andrews was ordained to the ministry. But not until four years later was there a regular organization. The first pages of the minutes of that meeting are lost. The preceding year Makemie had gone to Eng- land in search of help. The London minis-

Laying Foundations 43

ters responded to his appeal and furnished funds to sustain missionaries. Two men answered the call and John Hampton, an Irishman, and George McNish, a Scotchman, accompanied Makemie on his return. These three,, with Jedediah Andrews, John Wil- son, Nathaniel Taylor and Samuel Davies constituted the first Presbytery. The cos- mopolitan character of American Presby- terianism is foreshadowed in the personnel of that Presbytery. Scotch-Irish, Scotch and Irish ministers united with New Eng- land Puritans in the organization. It was less an ecclesiastical than a missionary organization. Pressed by their isolation and need of mutual encouragement this first Presbytery was as Makemie described it chiefly a ''meeting of ministers for min- isterial exercise to consult the most proper measures for advancing religion and propa- gating Christianity." All the correspond- ence of the Presbytery with kindred bodies in New England and Europe breathes the

44 The Presbyterians

same spirit of devotion to the souls of men. A letter to Connecticut ministers written in 1708, declares the object of the formation of the Presbytery to have been "for the furthering and promoting the true interests of religion and godliness." In a letter the next year to Sir Edmund Har- rison, an eminent dissenter in London, they say: " It is a sore distress and trouble to us that we are not able to comply with the desires of sundry places crying unto us for ministers to deal forth the word of life unto them." These appeals for help were not in vain. Liberal responses came from the mother country. The churches grew and were strengthened and new stations were occupied. And yet how feeble were those beginnings. Only a large faith could have seen in them ground for encouragement. In 1 7 10, in a letter to the Presbytery of Dublin they confess and deplore their weakness. *' In Virginia there was but one congregation, in Maryland four, in Penn-

Laying Foundations 45

sylvania five and in the Jerseys two, with some places in New York."

From the beginning of the eighteenth century the growth of the Presbytery was steady and rapid. Ministers from Ireland and Scotland came in increasing numbers. On Long Island several churches had been organized, chiefly by Puritan ministers from New England. These churches were some- times called Independent, sometimes Pres- byterian. As a rule they had one or more elders and were therefore Presbyterian in their tendencies — though a complete organ- ization was at that time impossible. The churches had to adapt themselves to cir- cumstances and the ''feeble folk" were evidently more intent on the propagation of the gospel than on ecclesiastical forms. These developed according to their environ- ment, but the living germ was faith in the gospel and a burning zeal to have it prevail.

The question often discussed as to the nationalities most represented in the Church

46 The Presbyterians

of that time is not easy of settlement on account of defective records. That the English Revolution had sent to us many Dissenters from England, Scotland and Ire- land cannot be doubted. This is specially true of those who landed in Virginia, Mary- land and Pennsylvania. There were also a number of Scotch Presbyterians settled over Congregational churches in New England. Many Puritan and English ministers had gone south from Massachusetts and Con- necticut and settled in Virginia and the Carolinas. Among the Scotchmen listed in the Presbytery of Philadelphia we find the names of McNish, Boyd, Anderson, Gil- lespie and Witherspoon. Ministers from London were Lawson and McGill. From Ireland came Makemie, Hampton, Henry and Orr; while from New England came Andrews, Wilson, Taylor, Smith, Wade, Morgan and Pomroy. But whatever the national origins and whatever types of Presbyterianism they represented (if in

Laying Foundations 47

those days there could be said to be any types) the stress of common necessities and zeal for a common service bound them in most fraternal ties. In view of the divi- sions which were soon to follow, one lin-| gers with satisfaction and pride over harJ monies of early Colonial Church life— har- monies undisturbed by rivalries of place or doctrine. The differences between them had been large enough if they had given time to think upon them. But these differ- ences were forgotten in the pressure of the great work that was upon them. Their poverty precluded pride and their weakness forbade division. The new century there- fore opened with a small company of ear- nest souls — scattered — imperfectly organ- ized— surrounded by dangers — hampered by weakness, but burning in their zeal and triumphant in their faith over all the obstacles that blocked their path.

CHAPTER III

OPENING OF A NEW CENTURY

In the early years of the eighteenth cen- tury the Church grew apace. The one Presbytery no longer sufficed. The need for a division of Presbytery was less in its size than in its wide dispersion which ren- dered attendance on its meetings both diffi- cult and burdensome. Moreover there were now many churches in New England and Long Island which were independent less by conviction than necessity. They would gladly be Presbyterian if there were a chance. Mr. McNish who had been Ma- kemie's colaborer in Maryland had removed to Jamaica, L. 1. He was desirous of secur- ing a Presbyterial organization on Long Island. He and Pomroy of Newtown were

advised '*to use their best endeavors with 48

Opening of a New Century 49

the neighboring brethren that are settled there which as yet join not with us " to unite in the erection of a Presbytery. Thus was formed the Presbytery of Long Island. The remaining members and churches of the Presbytery were organized into the Presbyteries of Philadelphia, New Castle and Snow Hill. So in a single decade the little Presbytery of Philadelphia had grown into a Synod. The Presbyteries then organized were of course small and feeble, but they constituted local centres that gathered to themselves the strength of the churches in their bounds and thus provided for the more rapid increase and the better organization of the denomina- tion.

One cannot look back on these early days without a feeling of just pride. The men who at that time represented Presbyterian- ism were not indeed without the weak- nesses inherent in human nature, but they were heroes in a service of rare self-denial

^o The Presbyterians

and devotion. In poverty, isolation, ob- scurity and often in great physical perils they were true to the loftiest aims of the gospel and toiled under its best inspirations. They were not consumed by denomina- tional ambition but by the zeal of God's house and kingdom. The scant records which remain of their proceedings breathe a supreme desire to have the wilderness lit by gospel light and organized into Christian institutions.

Only by the dominance of such a spirit could have been secured the harmony which up to this time marked the councils of men of such diverse origin and training. The men from New England wrought in perfect accord with those from Scotland, Ireland and Wales. That there had been great differences between them — both of doctrine and government — if they had stopped to inquire, might be judged from the schools whence they had come. But they were solidified by common dangers

Opening of a New Century 51

and pressed too sorely by common necessi- ties to give attention to minor differences. They were soldiers at the heat of the con- flict. It was no time to differentiate. In the light of subsequent history one might almost wish that the pressure of hard times had never been Hfted.

A glance at the component parts of the four Presbyteries constituting the first Synod will reveal the cosmopolitan charac- ter of early Presbyterianism. The Congre- gational influence and tendency were strong in the Long Island Presbytery. There were only four churches of Presbyterian order connected with it at its organization in 1717, namely, Jamaica, Newtown, Setauket and Southampton. The membership was chiefly from New England. One or two of the churches had no ruling elders until years after the formation of the Presbytery. Other churches on the island, composed of Congregational elements, gradually came into the Presbytery. Presbyterianism there

52 The Presbyterians

was an evolution from Congregational ante- cedents.

The Presbytery of Philadelphia was made up of two pastors from New England, two from Wales, one from Scotland and one from Ireland. The Newcastle Presbytery was wholly Scotch and Scotch-Irish and that of Snow Hill, having only three mem- bers, consisted likewise of foreign min- isters.

The Church thus made up of various elements grew in strength with the growth of the colonies. So far it had made no progress in the city of New York, though Presbyterian ministers had preached there for longer or shorter periods. The reason for its failure was in the opposition of the Episcopal Church. So long as Lord Corn- berry remained governor of the colony there could be no hope of religious toler- ation. Every effort to gather the Presby- terians of Manhattan Island into a perma- nent congregation was thwarted until dis-

Opening of a New Century 53

sensions sprang up in the Episcopal Church. Lord Cornberry's disgraceful administration came to a close in 17 14. Relieved thus of civic disfavor and of the aggressive spirit of Episcopacy which had sought by govern- mental aid to close all but "the Estab- lished " churches, the Presbyterians who had been meeting quietly in private houses, determined in 17 16 to organize a church. They called the Rev. James Anderson from New Castle, Del. He was favorably re- ceived. The infant congregation had no building for worship but was allowed to occupy the Town Hall, where regular serv- ices were maintained for about three years. Meantime the handful of Presbyterians were busily engaged in raising funds for an edi- fice of their own. Their appeals for help were heeded. Scotland and Connecticut responded generously and in 1719 on a lot in Wall Street the First Presbyterian Church was erected. All efforts to secure a charter for the

54 The Presbyterians

church were thwarted by the opposition of Trinity Church which was still claiming to be the Church of New York. The pastor and a few members of the church held the property in fee simple until 1730, when, there being no probability of securing a charter, it was transferred to the Church of Scotland and held by that church till 1766.

The imperious spirit of Anderson finally divided the church, and Jonathan Edwards for a while ministered to those who had withdrawn. In 1726 Anderson resigned and Ebenezer Pemberton — a man '*of po- lite breeding," pure morals and warm de- votion succeeded to the pastorate and healed the divisions. His ministry, lasting for thirty years, was one of great fruitfulness.

A number of very able men at this time came to leadership in the church. Jona- than Dickinson, a graduate of Yale College united with the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 17 1 7. He had previously for a number of years labored at Elizabethtown and in the

Opening of a New Century 55

regions round about. In many respects he was the leading spirit of the times and had more share than any other man in shaping the American Presbyterian Church. By endowments and acquirements he was fitted for leadership. A well disciplined mind, splendid poise of judgment, firmness, tempered with moderation and consider- ation, and a lofty and single Christian pur- pose, combined to fit him for the times into which he had come. The heterogeneous elements of Presbyterian life in colonial days needed a masterly organizing spirit. Dickinson's was that spirit and his name and influence are interwoven with all the subsequent history of the church. ^ The most commanding family in that early history is that of the Jennents. Will- iam Tennent was an Irishman, educated in Scotland and an ordained minister of the Church of Ireland. He came to America as a dissenter and after giving reasons for dis- sent from Episcopacy he was received by

56 The Presbyterians

the Synod of Philadelphia in 1718. He be- gan his ministry in East Chester, New York; two years later he moved to Ne- ^^ shaminy, Pa., where, founding the Log College, he became the father of Presby- terian education. The little college soon became in fact a theological seminary. From it went forth numbers of young men sound in faith and burning with the mis- sionary zeal they had caught from their great teacher. The Log College has become Princeton University and the spirit of Chris- tian education born within those lowly walls reappears and flourishes in hundreds of Christian schools all over the country. Tennent's sons, John, William, Gilbert and Charles, represented the revival element of the Colonial Church. Full of a zeal for souls which was inspired, — or at least increased — by the wonderful preaching and personal influence of Whitefield, they went with fiery steps on evangelistic tours through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and

Opening of a New Century 57

everywhere aroused churches from the formalism into which they were sinking. Their methods drew toward them first the suspicions and afterward the protests of their conservative brethren. Antagonisms developed which later culminated in the division of 1741. Other names, worthy to be mentioned as important factors in church life and work at this time, are Moses Dick- inson, a brother of Jonathan, Joseph Lamb, a graduate of Yale College, John Orme and Robert Laing from England, Thomas Evans from Wales, and Thomas Craighead whom Cotton Mather designated as "a man of singular piety, meekness, humility and in- dustry in the work of God."

During this period (171 7 to 1729) the Synod increased from fifteen to nearly thirty members. It was largely by immi- gration from Ireland. The Irish of Ulster, oppressed by the Established Church, turned to America as the land of freedom to worship God. Some of these immigrants

58 The Presbyterians

went into New England and gave a Pres- byterian stamp to Massachusetts and Con- necticut which can still be read in their history. But most of them went into the middle colonies. Pennsylvania specially had a reputation for toleration and thither were directed the footsteps of many Irish- men fleeing the persecution of their Island. These newcomers, both in Pennsylvania and Virginia, pressed out to the frontier and among the Alleghany Mountains formed an American Ulster larger and richer than that they had abandoned. \ Allusion has been made to the missionary temper of early Presbyterianism. It took an organized form at this time. The growth of the colonies and so the need of more churches rested as a constant burden on the Presbyterian pioneers. Their ap- peals to the mother country were frequent and urgent. James Anderson was specially active in seeking such help. As early as 1716 he wrote to the Synod of Glasgow

Opening of a New Century 59

pleading for one Sabbath collection an- nually for missionary uses in the new world. He wrote again and again insisting that the moral and spiritual conditions in the colonies were such as to threaten the direst evils unless the gospel could do its work among them. At last his voice was heeded. At the meeting of Synod in 1717 a " Fund for Pious Uses " was founded and was thence regularly replenished by gen- erous gifts from Scotland. In 17 19 the Synod appointed a committee to " consider the fund," and their sense of the impor- tance of doing something for Presbyterian- ism in the Metropolis is evidenced by the fact that they recommended that "a tenth part of the neat produce of the Glasgow collection be given to the Presbyterian con- gregation of New York toward the support of the gospel among them."

CHAPTER IV

THE DIVISION OF 1 74 1

I A NEW chapter in Presbyterian history opens with the year 1729. Up to this time

( no theological tests had ever been required. Theological questions had been subordi- nated to the strenuous struggle for exist- ence. The ministers, whether they came from New England or the old world, were sound in the faith but they were not troubled by any necessity for avouching their orthodoxy. It was accepted. It has sometimes been surmised that the lost pages of the first meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia contained some statement of doctrine or form of subscription. There is nothing, however, on which to base this opinion. Indeed it was not till 1698 that anything was known of subscription in the

Irish Church and Makemie had then been 60

The Division of 1741 61

for several years away from Ireland. At that time, and for many years thereafter, subscription to the Confession of Faith was not so much a test of orthodoxy in the Church as a guarantee to the government that those who claimed its toleration were sound in the faith and fit to be tolerated. In 1705, the very year of the organization of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, the Irish Synod, to vindicate its character to the gov- ernment, reenacted a law requiring that all candidates for ordination should subscribe to the Westminster standards. This worked well till 1714 when a demand arose among some for a form of doctrine more simple and concise than the Confession of Faith. It was a demand for a short creed from people who accepted the confession but desired it put in plainer language. The Synod, however, adhered to the confession while allowing a brief substituted statement wherever desired by the state. But troubles were coming upon the Irish

62 The Presbyterians

church. In a society called "the Belfast Society," and organized by Presbyterian ministers for mutual improvement, senti- ments so radical, and so manifestly at vari- ance with the doctrines of the church as to create alarm, were freely expressed. This defection from the faith was aggravated by reports of similar trouble on the continent as well as in England. Arian and Unitarian sentiments were being openly avowed. The Synod took the alarm. An effort to preserve unity by compromise intensified the difficulty by dividing the ranks of the orthodox. An effort for harmony by de- claring that the non-subscribers be "per- mitted to subscribe the confession," was by them rejected and when they proposed what would be agreeable to them, it was so remote from what the Irish church had ever required, that the subscribers, who were in a clear majority, divided the church by de- claring that the attitude of the minority put it out of their power to maintain ministeriaP

The Division of 1741 63

communion with them in church judicato- ries as formerly, " consistent with the dis- charge of our ministerial office and the peace of our own consciences."

About this time the immigration to the colonies from Ireland became large. The consequences were feared by the church in this country. Many of those displeased with the action of Synod would doubtless come over. Besides, the feeble churches here needed the sympathy and help of their brethren on the other side. Their sound- ness must be above suspicion. Hence the need in the judgment of many of a clear declaration. It is thought that the Presby- tery of New Castle took the lead in this movement for subscription. This is likely for the leading spirit of that Presbytery (the Rev. Thomas Craighead) was the brother of the Rev. Robert Craighead, the moderator of the Irish Synod and the man who headed the Irish movement for adher- ence to historic standards.

64 The Presbyterians

An effort looking to the adoption of standards was first made in Synod in 1727. But it was so strenuously opposed by New England men and others that the overture was laid on the table. It remained there till the following year when it was again considered and again postponed as too im- portant a measure to be hastily enacted. In 1729 it was referred to a committee con- sisting of the wisest men in the body. Dick- inson, Andrews and Pierson represented those who feared the measure as hostile to freedom; while Thomson, Craighead and Anderson stood for those who felt that the safety of the church required that the in- trants to the ministry should declare their doctrine in no uncertain terms. As is usual in such discussions neither party secured all it desired. This doubtless was well. The New England element was too much afraid of legislation. The other side would have overlegislated. So a compromise resulted 1 which has been the banner under which the

The Division of 1741 65

Presbyterian Church in this country has marched to its best victories. This docu- ment is so important that we give it in full.

^ Adopting Act.

"Although the Synod do not claim or pretend to any authority of imposing our faith upon other men's consciences, but do profess our just dissatisfaction with, and abhorrence of, such impositions, and do utterly disclaim all legislative power and authority in the church, being willing to receive one another as Christ has received us to the glory of God, and admit to fel- lowship in sacred ordinances all such as we have ground to believe Christ will at last admit to the Kingdom of Heaven, yet we are undoubtedly obliged to take care that the faith once delivered to the saints be kept pure and uncorrupt among us and so handed down to our posterity. And do, therefore, agree that all the ministers of this Synod or that shall hereafter be admitted

66 The Presbyterians

into this Synod, shall declare their agree- ment in, and approbation of, the Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Cate- chisms of the Assembly of Divines at West- minster, as being in all the essential and necessary articles good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine, and do also adopt the said confession and catechisms as the confession of our faith. And we do also agree that all the Presby- teries within our bounds shall always take care not to admit any candidate of the min- istry into the exercise of the sacred func- tions, but what declares his agreement in opinion with all the essential and necessary articles of said confession, either by sub- scribing the said Confession of Faith and catechism, or by a verbal declaration of their assent thereto, as such minister or candidate shall think best. And in case any minister of this Synod, or any candidate for the ministry, shall have any scruple with respect to any article or articles of said

The Division of 1741 67

confession or catechisms, he shall, at the time of his making said declaration, declare his sentiments to the Presbytery or Synod who shall, notwithstanding, admit him to the exercise of the ministry within our bounds, and to ministerial communion, if the Synod or Presbytery shall judge his scruple or mistake to be only about articles not essential and necessary in doctrine, worship, or government. But if the Synod or Presbytery shall judge such ministers or candidates erroneous in essential and neces- sary articles of faith, the Synod or Presby- tery shall declare them uncapable of com- munion with them. And the Synod do solemnly agree that none of us will traduce or use any opprobrious terms of those that differ from us in these extra-essential and not-necessary points of doctrine, but treat them with the same friendship, kindness, and brotherly love, as if they had not dif- fered from us in such sentiments." For several years following the adoption

68 The Presbyterians

of the Act of 1729 the Church had marked prosperity. In a decade nearly forty names were added to the roll of ministers. The churches grew in numbers and strength. The missionary spirit was strong and active. New settlements were supplied with the gospel, new regions were explored. s^ But events soon began to shape toward the ecclesiastical troubles which in ^1741 divided the Synod. The discussions raged not wholly around doctrinal questions but around those of vital religion. The men who figured most conspicuously were the Tennents. William Tennent by sheer force of character and conviction early became a leader in the young church. Devoted at once to spiritual religion and to education he established the Log College about 1726. It soon became a fountain of blessing to the regions around. A theological seminary, it trained candidates for the ministry and so impressed them with the spirit of its founder that they went abroad burning and

The Division of 1741 69

shining lights in the darkness. William Tennent's sons, all ministers, were scarce inferior to their father in evangelistic fervor. Gilbert especially, when yet a young man, sprang to leadership. As a preacher he was bold, intense and spiritual; as a leader in the Church he had no superior; not always wise in methods — sometimes arrogant in manner — stern as an old prophet — he had the zeal and consecration of an apostle.

It is likely that at this time the Church had lapsed far into formalism. There was no lack of vigor and aggression in the life of the Church, but it lacked the spiritual vitality on which alone a Church can thrive. The Tennents saw and deplored this condi- tion. They did more. They resisted it. Everywhere with uncompromising preach- ing and in a spirit like that of Whitefield, whose tones were beginning to be heard among the colonies, the Tennents sum- moned the Church to a deeper religious life. In 1734 Gilbert Tennent overtured the

70 The Presbyterians

Synod to a greater care in the examination of candidates for the ministry, not along doctrinal lines but along those of personal acquaintance with God. The overture — tender and searching— was adopted by the Synod. But a few years later he was so dissatisfied with the views of a candidate for the ministry and the action of Synod that in exasperation he attacked the ortho- doxy of that body and charged it with in- difference to the interests of vital godliness. He was further incensed by action which seemed to discredit his father's college in that it required that candidates for the min- istry should be examined not only by Pres- bytery but by the Synod as well.

The aggressive spirit of the Tennents, even though they were aggressive in the interests of godliness, was sure to waken opposition. This was headed by a brother Irishman, Robert Cross. He had preached for awhile af Jamaica, L. I., but went to Philadelphia as the colleague of Andrews in

The Division of 1741 71

the First Church in 1737. He had decided opinions about the revival matters which under the influence of Whitefield and the Tennents were becoming prominent and potent. He openly antagonized the great English evangelist; who indeed retorted by declaring that Cross had preached his con- gregation away.

A battle was thus joined between those who had adhered rigidly to ecclesiastical order and those who claimed freedom from such restraints. On the side of the Ten- nents were Samuel Blair, an Irish graduate of the Log College, a man of learning and piety and pastor of the church at Faggs Manor, Pa., and Alexander Craighead of Up- per Octorara, Pa. — a revivalist of great power. These three conducted evangelistic campaigns throughout all that region in en- tire disregard of the rule of Synod that no minister should preach within the bounds of any Presbytery without license of the Synod or its commission.

72 The Presbyterians

With Robert Cross, in resistance of what he regarded as irregular methods, sided John Thomson, the author of the overture which resulted in the Adopting Act; Fran- cis AHson the finest scholar in the Old Side ranks; Cathcart of Brandy wine; Boyd of Octorara and others.

Although before the division the lines came to be drawn close about the question of a verbal or a freer subscription, this ques- tion was not at the bottom of the causes which led to the division. Both parties ac- cepted the Westminster standards— both were true to the Adopting Act. It was rather a question between a formalism which main- tained the letter of ecclesiastical law in the interest of the demands of orthodoxy, and a liberalism which demanded freedom from the letter to subserve what it regarded as the requirement of vital religion.

There was a middle party — Dickinson of Elizabethtown, N. J., Pemberton of New York, Pierson of Woodbridge, N. J., Gil-

The Division of 1741 73

lespie and Hutchinson of New Castle, Pa., and others — friends of the Tennents who shared their revival spirit. But they were strenuous in their insistence on ecclesiastical order. Had they all been present at the critical time and acted together they could doubtless have harmonized the conflicting elements— at least to the extent of prevent- ing a rupture.

Meantime the immigration increased. Conservative members of Synod feared the increasing influence of men coming among them who had become tainted with the radicalism of the liberal party in Ireland. Some new guards must be stationed at the entrance to the ministry. The terms of the Adopting Act were not sufficiently explicit; — "essential and necessary articles " was a phrase which left every man free to decide for himself what was essential and neces- sary. Hence arose a demand for stricter terms; even to the extreme of requiring an acceptance of the verbal theory of subscrip-

74 The Presbyterians

tion. Thus: In 1730 the New Castle Pres- bytery required verbal subscription to the standards and two years later the Presby- tery of Donegal, the daughter of New Castle, followed its example. In both cases the action was in violation of the terms of the Adopting Act. The new side justly enough contended that such subscription would in effect annul the Adopting Act and thus destroy instead of cementing the bonds of union.

So the breach grew wider. The Synod took decisive action to protect the purity and orthodoxy of ministers and churches. An overture was adopted providing that, in view of the dangers of an incursion of min- isters from Ireland who might not be sound in the faith, no minister should be received from abroad till he had given an opportu- nity to know his character by having preached six months within the Synod's bounds and that no student should be re- ceived under care of the Presbytery till he

The Division of 1741 75

had given opportunity to know his parts and his behavior.

In 1738 another step aggravating to the liberal party was taken by the Presbytery of . Lewes, urging the appointment of a com- ^ mittee of Synod to examine candidates and give them a certificate. The New Bruns- wick Presbytery, in full sympathy with the views of the Tennents, regarded the action with special disfavor. It was a reflection on the Log College. That such a young and local institution should not be highly esteemed by graduates of European uni- versities was not remarkable, but with other actions of Synod and Presbyteries it put one more strain on bonds which were already tense almost to breaking. In resistance of the Synod's rule the Presbytery of New Brunswick licensed John Rowland and sent him to a vacancy in the Presbytery of Phila- delphia. The Synod condemned this high handed action of New Brunswick. The same year the Synod still further offended

76 The Presbyterians

the Tennents and their friends by appointing a committee to take steps toward the erec- tion of a seminary of learning. The com- mittee consisted of representative men, — Dickinson and Pemberton of New England; Anderson, a Scotchman and Cross an Irish- man. The time had undoubtedly come when such a step was necessary but the utter ignoring of the little college was not calculated to promote peace.

The presence in the country of White- field in 1740 was a great blessing to vital religion but it incidentally hastened the di- vision of the Synod. Wherever the great preacher went a fire of enthusiasm was kindled. In country places thousands from all the region round about hung on his burning words. In Philadelphia ten thou- sand people heard his farewell sermon. Congregations were divided. To some his was as the voice of an apostle calling the church from deadness to life. To others his ministry was a disturbing element. He

The Division of 1741 77

rode roughly over all synodical rules, claim- ing the right to preach anywhere, at any time, without regard to church order.

The Presbyteries of New York and New Brunswick had regarded his course with approval; thus arousing afresh the suspi- cions of the Old Side who saw in these signs an evidence that the Church was drifting from her moorings. When the Synod met in 1740 the times were turbu- lent. The first question to the front was that which Whitefield's itinerations had invited; should ministers be allowed to preach within the bounds of Presbyteries without permission ? After a sharp debate the Synod was obliged to reconsider its previous action. The popular feeling in favor of Whitefield and the Tennents was so abundant and manifest that an attempt to keep the Presbyteries to strict adherence to the Synod's rule was found impossible. Intinerant preaching was therefore sanc- tioned and the Synod contented itself with

yS The Presbyterians

warning the churches against the dangers of ''divisions in the congregations."

But divisions were coming, not in the congregations only but in the Synod itself. Although the Synod adopted a paper sol- emnly admonishing ministers to approve themselves to God in all their service and to consider the weight of charges which had been made against them, scarcely had the body adjourned when divisions and aliena- tions were manifest on every hand. On both sides a censorious spirit reigned. The Old Side attacked the New Side as lawless and defiant. The New Side retorted charg- ing a lack of true religion on their brethren. When the Synod of 1741 met it became promptly evident that only the wisest and most conciliatory policy could prevent a rupture. But mediators were not found. The Presbytery of New York, which had somewhat held aloof from the struggle, was absent to a man. So the Synod con- vened in a state of mind ready for extreme

The Division of 1741 79

measures. They came quickly enough. The Old Side brought in a protest against those sitting in Synod who had not adopted the standards in an ipsissima verba sub- scription. Certain Presbyteries had so adopted them and the demand was now made that this literal subscription should be erected into a Synodical rule. They further charged upon the brethren of the New Side many irregularities which made union with the obnoxious brethren ** monstrously absurd." When the protest was read a scene of indescribable confusion ensued. Some who had not seen it came forward and signed it on the spot. The New Brunswick men claimed the right to be heard. Andrews, the moderator, to whom the protest came as a surprise, left the chair. The spectators in the galleries, sym- pathizing with the New Side demanded that the protestors be expelled. Amid great confusion the roll was called. The New Brunswick men were in the minority.

8o The Presbyterians

They left the Church followed by the pop- ulace.^ Thus the Church was divided. Dr. Hodge says, **It is plain from this state- ment that not even the forms of an eccle- siastical, much less of a judicial, proceeding were observed at this crisis. There was no motion, no vote, not even a presiding officer in the chair. It was a disorderly rupture." Passion ruled the hour with its usual re- sults. One hour of a conciliatory spirit on both sides had, saved the friction and aliena- tion of years.

CHAPTER V

MISSIONARIES AND PATRIOTS

\ The history of the next few years was one of repeated efforts at compromise. On both sides an earnest desire for reunion had developed. The Presbytery of New York tried to act as a mediator between the Synod and the excluded Presbyteries. Their sym- pathies were with the New Side and while they could not approve some of the high- handed actions of their New Brunswick brethren, they entered a protest in the Synod of 1742, against the illegal manner in which the New Brunswick brethren had been excluded. They also protested against the action of that Synod in declining to consider the legality of the action of the previous year; and also against the reflec- tions which Synod had cast on the revival 81

82 The Presbyterians

work as carried on by the evangelists. No attention was paid to these representations of the Presbytery of New York.

Again the following year an effort was made to induce the Synod to reconsider its action. The overture was again rejected. Two years passed without further effort to- ward peace. Then the New York Presby- tery asked for a Committee of Conference with a view to harmonizing differences. The Conference was held but the Synod in substance reaffirmed all previous action. Meantime the spread of the revival, the preaching all the way from Virginia to Bos- ton of evangelists who ignored all Synod- ical rules, tended to deepen the lines which had already been drawn. There was no longer any talk of reunion and in Septem- ber 1745, the Synod of New York was formally erected — the New Brunswick party and the Presbyteries of New York and of New Castle meeting at Elizabethtown for that purpose. In its personnel it was a

Missionaries and Patriots 83

strong body from the start. There were Dickinson, Pemberton, Pierson and Burr from New York; from New Brunswick were the Tennents, Robert Treat, Charles Beatty and others whose evangelistic labors had abounded far and near, while from New Castle, besides Charles Tennent were Samuel Finley — later a president of Prince- ton— and Samuel and John Blair, famous in the subsequent history of the Church.

From the first the New Side gained on the Old Side in numbers and strength. This is easily accounted for. The Old Side had depended for growth largely on immi- gration from the old world. That had de- cidedly fallen off. Those who came from Scotland mostly favored the New Side. More ministers came from New England. They as a rule adhered to the views of the New York brethren. Princeton also was beginning to send out graduates who were in sympathy with the New Brunswick men. The trend of the accessions to both Synods

84 The Presbyterians

from 1745 to the reunion in 1758 is indi- cated by the statement that twelve were from Scotland, nine from Ireland, three from England, nine from New York and the Middle States, while nearly thirty were from New England.

With the incoming of new elements to both Synods there was developed an in- creasing desire for a union of the two. That of New York from 1745 to 1749 made repeated proposals which, jealously re- garded at first, became more and more ap- pealing to the men on the other side. Of course the protest by which New Bruns- wick had been cut off remained as the great obstacle. The Philadelphia Synod refused to rescind it. Finally, however, a way out was discovered without repudiat- ing its own action. A declaration was made that the protest was the action of in- dividuals and not of the organic body and so need not be rescinded.

A more formidable obstacle was in the

Missionaries and Patriots 85

debate concerning subscription. The Old Side had demanded hteral subscription. The New Side adhered to the language of the Adopting Act and insisted only on sub- scription to essentials. To them the atti- tude of the Old Side seemed like lifting the Confession to a level with the Word of God and to this they would not for a moment consent.

- In 1754-5 the two Synods were in such friendly conference that the way for union seemed to be prepared and in 1757 it was agreed that the two Synods should the fol- lowing year meet in the same place. The Synod of New York therefore met in Phila- delphia in 1758 where the other Synod was already in session. The membership of the Philadelphia Synod had been reduced to twenty-two. The New York Synod num- bered seventy. The plan of union which a commission from the two bodies had pre- viously matured was unanimously adopted. It affirmed again the standards of the

86 The Presbyterians

Church and urged ministers to preach and teach according to the form of sound words and to avoid and oppose all errors; it dis- avowed as a Synodical act the Protest of 1741 which had caused the division; it pro- tected the rights of Presbyteries by requir- ing Presbyterial authority for those who would labor in its bounds; it favored re- vivals of religion, while giving freedom for differences of opinion as to particular facts, and finally it was agreed "that all former differences and disputes are laid aside and buried." vThus a division of sixteen years' duration was happily ended by concessions without compromise, by a reaffirming of Presbyterian doctrine and polity which made the Church stronger than ever. The new body was organized as the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. \,^^ From this union dates another period of prosperity. As nearly as can be ascertained there were at this time ninety-eight minis- ters, about 200 churches, with 10,000 mem-

Missionaries and Patriots 87

bers. These numbers rapidly increased. New Presbyteries were organized. New regions were explored. The tide of emi- gration had already crossed the Blue Ridge, where in poverty and danger Presbyterian communities were settled and were free from the petty persecutions which the Church of England and the Government inflicted on those along the sea-board. In 1755 in Virginia the Presbytery of Hanover was constituted. Out of its vast territory were organized in 1785 the Presbytery of Abingdon and in 1786 the Presbytery of Lexington and Transylvania. The second Presbytery of Philadelphia had been formed in 1762; Carlisle, Pa., 1765; Lancaster, Pa., 1765; Redstone, Pa., 1781. In New York churches organized as Congregational in Connecticut and others as Presbyterian in New York were organized into the Dutchess County Presbytery in 1766. In 1770 the Presbytery of Hanover had so increased in numbers that the churches belonging to it

88 The Presbyterians

in North Carolina were formed into the Presbytery of Orange.

The Church now awaked to great mis- sionary activity. The minutes of the Synod every year make record of strenuous en- deavors to advance the kingdom in the new and needy fields. The country to the south was rapidly opening for settlement. The stamp of an earnest and aggressive Presby- terianism was early put on Virginia by Samuel Davies and other pioneer preachers. And though that state was settled largely by cavaliers there were some English Pres- byterians among them and some Huguenot settlements on the James River. There were also Huguenot settlements in South Carolina antedating the landing of the Pil- grims on Plymouth Rock. But by the middle of the eighteenth century both North and South Carolina were filling up with a fine class of people who called for missionaries. The call was heeded to the limited extent of the power of the still

Missionaries and Patriots 89

struggling Church. Where unable to fur- nish a permanent supply the Synod directed that students and licentiates should labor for a few months in the most destitute regions. And the ablest and busiest min- isters frequently left their important charges for months of itinerating up and down the wilderness. \ Missionary work among the Indians was a feature of the years following reunion. In 1759 John Brainard who had been one of the earliest and most successful mission- aries to the Indians reentered the Indian service and took charge of the mission on the reservation in southern New Jersey. The Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge continued its aid. In 1763 Mr. Samuel ^^corn, who by help of this society had been engaged for a few years in work among the Oneidas, visited Great Britain to secure assistance for the enlargement of the Indian mission and, as the first Indian preacher who had appeared

go The Presbyterians

there, aroused such interest that a fund of $50,000 was raised for this object. This was an immense sum for those times.

In 1766 Charles Beatty and George Duf- field, leaders of splendid gifts and deep consecration, went as missionaries to the frontier provinces. They pushed into the Ohio wilderness and visited the Indians on the Muskingum — 130 miles beyond Fort Pitt. They found the Indians ready to re- ceive the gospel. The Synod was so much impressed by their report that steps were taken looking to the establishing of perma- nent work, but by reason of inadequate re- sources the project was necessarily for the time being abandoned.

In 1768 "the Synod taking under consid- eration the deplorable condition of the In- dian tribes — the natives of this land — who sit in heathenish darkness and are perishing for lack of knowledge " — appointed a com- mittee to prepare a plan for missions among them. The Synod had previously ordered

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a missionary collection in all the churches. This was to secure laborers among the In- dians and also to *' relieve the unhappy lot of many in various parts of our land who are brought up in ignorance; who on ac- count of their poverty and scattered habita- tions are unable without some assistance to support the gospel ministry among them."

\, Thus — a generation before any organized home mission work was undertaken — the missionary spirit breathed in the councils and actions of the struggling Church. The projects however were checked by intrigues of the French, the frequent hostile attitude of the Indians, and finally by the approach of the War of the Revolution.

\ The germs of the theological seminary also appear as early as 1768. On August 17th of that year the famous Dr. John Witherspoon was inaugurated president of the College of New Jersey. A man of great influence in Scotland, his coming to America was an immense gain not only to

92 The Presbyterians

Presbyterianism of which he became one of the most illustrious leaders, but to the cause of the country for whose liberty he was a most eloquent advocate. He was appointed professor of divinity as well as president of the college and also gave in- struction in Hebrew to the young men looking forward to the ministry. At this time many young men were so looking for- ward but were hindered from procuring the necessary preparatory education by the poverty with which most of them had to contend. The Synod therefore addressed itself to meet this need, and in 1771 a scheme was proposed "for supporting young men of piety and parts at learning for the work of the ministry so that our numerous vacancies may be supplied with preachers of the gospel." Each vacant con- gregation was to pay two pounds annually into a common fund, and every minister was to pay one pound, and all who were willing were to have opportunity to make

Missionaries and Patriots 93

an annual subscription. Students who had received aid were to preach for one year after licensure in the vacancies within the Presbytery. This was the beginning of the ^Board of Education.

The results of missionary work along the frontiers had made evident the need of re- ligious literature. In 1772 collections were asked for this purpose. The books most desired were, in addition to the Bible — The Westminster Confession and Cate- chisms, Doddridge's ''Rise and Progress," Alleine's "Alarm," Watts' "Songs for Children," and "A Compassionate Address to the Christian World." Committees were appointed in New York and Philadelphia to receive and disburse the fund, and each was authorized to draw on the treasurer of Synod for a sum not to exceed twenty pounds. This was the beginning of the Board of Publication.

In 1774 Ezra Stiles and Samuel Hopkins proposed to the Synod the sending of two;

94 The Presbyterians

natives to Africa to do foreign missionary work on the dark continent. There were two negroes in the College of New Jersey who were preparing for such a mission, and it was hoped the young Synod might under- take to send them. The Synod expressed its approval of the plan and its willingness to concur. An appeal for cooperation was also sent to the society in Scotland. The consummation of this noble project was prevented by the outbreak of the war. But the consideration of it by American and Scotch Presbyterians shows that the cause of foreign missions was already pressing on the heart of the Church. Thus before the Revolution the foundations of organized home and foreign missions, of education and publication had been laid in the coun- sels and purposes of the Church.

The war for the freedom of the colonies was now fast approaching. Presbyterians took a strong hand in the conflict. They were the earliest to take action looking to-

Missionaries and Patriots 95

ward independence. In Virginia the Pres- byterians had long struggled for their rights against the claims and aggressions of the Church of England. So they were pre- pared, ahead of all others, to take definite action for civil as well as religious liberty. Thus the Scotch-Irish met in council Jan- uary 20th, 1775, at Abingdon, and addressed the delegates of Virginia in these words:

"We explored our uncultivated wilder- ness, bordering on many nations of sav- ages, and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but these savages; but even to these remote regions the hand of power hath pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property with which God, na- ture, and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are willing to contribute all in our power, if applied to constitutionally, but cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to a venal British Parliament or a corrupt ministry. We are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender

96 The Presbyterians

any of our inestimable privileges to any power upon earth but at the expense of our lives. These are our real though un- polished sentiments of liberty and loyalty and in them we are resolved to live and die " (Bancroft, in 1. c. IV., p. 100).

The Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg County, N. C, in convention in May,'*i775, took still stronger ground in the famous Mecklen- burg Declaration. It was an advance copy of the Declaration of Independence, as its closing words plainly show:

'•Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of a right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Con- gress; to the maintenance of which we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation and our lives, our fortunes and our most sacred honor " (W. P. Breed, Presbyterians and the Revolution).

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Archibald Alexander, a Presbyterian elder, was the presiding officer of this convention — Ephraim Brevard another elder and a graduate of Princeton was the secretary. Its membership was almost entirely Presby- terian. Mr. Bancroft therefore said justly: "The first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New Eng- land nor the Dutch of New York nor the planters of Virginia but from the Scotch- Irish Presbyterians."

Referring to those Presbyterians of the valleys and mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, Washington declared that if all his plans became overturned and but a single standard was left he would plant it upon the Blue Ridge, and making that his Thermopylae would rally around him the patriots of the valley and there lay the foun- dations of a new republic.

Indeed the Scotch and Scotch-Irish were the very sinew of the movement for Inde-

98 The Presbyterians

pendence. To New Jersey the Scotch gave her war governor, William Livingstone; and to Virginia, Patrick Henry, who as Jefferson once said to Webster " was before us all in maintaining the spirit of the revo- lution." They gave to the army such men as Knox, Sullivan and Stark of New Eng- land; Clinton from New York; Gen. Robert Montgomery who fell at Quebec; brave Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point; Col. John Eager Howard of Maryland, who saved the day at the battle of Cowpens; and Col. William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain. The Declaration of In- dependence in the state department at Washington is in the handwriting of a Scotchman, Charles Thomson, the secre- tary of Congress. It is said to have been first printed by Thomas Dunlap, another Scotch-Irishman, while a third fellow- countryman, Captain John Nixon, was the first to read it to the people. So are justi- fied the words of Theodore Roosevelt:

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**The backwoodsmen were Americans by birth and parentage and of mixed race; but the dominant strain in their blood was that of the Presbyterian Irish— the Scotch- Irish as they were often called. Full credit has been awarded the Roundhead and the Cavalier for their leadership in our history; nor have we been altogether blind to the deeds of the Hollander and the Huguenot; but it is doubtful if we have wholly realized the importance of the part played by that stern and virile people, the Irish whose preachers taught the creed of Knox and Calvin. These Irish representatives of the Covenanters were in the west almost what the Puritans were in the northeast, and more than the Cavaliers were in the south. Mingled with the descendants of many other races, they nevertheless formed the kernel of the distinctively and intensely American stock who were the pioneers of our people in their march westward, the vanguard of the army of fighting settlers

100 The Presbyterians

who with axe and rifle won their way from the AUeghanies to the Rio Grande and the Pacific."'

During the war only two Presbyterian ministers went over to the British. One of these was deposed from the ministry — the other was suspended. Dr. Inglis, the Tory rector of Trinity Church, wrote in 1776, "I do not know one Presbyterian minister nor have I been able after strict inquiry to hear of any who did not by preaching and every effort in their power promote all the efforts of the Continental Congress, how- ever extravagant." Nor were Presbyterian elders less active and faithful. From a careful statement by Dr. Thomas Smythe it appears that General Morgan, the com- mander at Cowpens, and General Pickens who made the plan of the battle were both Presbyterian elders. At King's Mountain Colonel Campbell, Col. James Williams, Colonel Cleaveland, Colonel Shelby, Col- onel Sevier, were all Presbyterian elders

Missionaries and Patriots loi

and the body of their troops was Presby- terian.

It is not strange therefore that a Church with such a record should have had much influence in shaping the national Constitu- tion, even as it was first in recognizing and aiding the cause of freedom. The Conven- tion for the adoption of the national consti- tution was in session in Philadelphia at the time that the first General Assembly met there. Some members of the Assembly were members of the Convention. ^^ John Witherspoon was a leading and guiding spirit in both. And while it is as easy as unwise to try to trace an exact paral- lel between the national and the Pres- byterian constitutions we have seen that there is in their respective series of courts enough at least to remind us that they sprang from similar conditions and were formed by men who had just stood side by side in a great struggle for constitutional liberty. ** The ecclesiastical pohty of the

lo2 The Presbyterians

Presbyterian Churches influenced the gov- ernment of the state and the government of the American Presbyterian Churches was in no slight degree assimilated to the civil government of the country " (Briggs' American Presbyterianism, p. 354).

How thoroughly loyal to the cause of liberty was the Presbyterian Church is evi- dent from the action of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia at the close of the war.

"We cannot help congratulating you on the general and almost universal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind. This has been visible in their conduct, and has been confessed by the complaints and re- sentment of the common enemy. Such a circumstance ought not only to afford us satisfaction on the review as bringing credit to the body in general, but to in- crease our gratitude to God, for the happy issue of the war. Had it been unsuccess-

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ful, we must have drunk deeply of the cup of suffering. Our burnt and wasted churches, and our plundered dwellings, in such places as fell under the power of our adversaries, are but an earnest of what we must have suffered had they finally pre- vailed. The Synod, therefore, request you to render thanks to Almighty God, for all his mercies, spiritual and temporal, and in a particular manner for establishing the Independence of the United States of America."

CHAPTER VI

OVER THE MOUNTAINS

Before the Revolutionary War Presbyte-

rianism had made considerable progress in

the South and West. The Carolinas were

early settled by a sturdy Scotch-Irish and

Huguenot stock, as stated in the foregoing

chapter. As early as 1658 a small company

of emigrants of Presbyterian antecedents

had settled around Cape Fear. Little is

known of their history save that they lived

in poverty and great hardships. In 1729

Scotch immigrants were attracted to the

same region. Soon after this the interests

of vital religion in all that region were

greatly strengthened by the visit and

preaching of Whitefield. It was, however,

many years before the scattered colonies 104

* Over the Mountains 105

secured the stated means of grace. Not till after the middle of the century did a mis- sionary come to live among them. This missionary was James Campbell, from Pennsylvania, who preached for years with true pioneer spirit to the settlements along the Cape Fear River.

Attention was now called to the spiritual destitution of the Carolinas and more mis- sionaries were sent out from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Hugh McAden, a graduate of Nassau Hall, came in 1755 and for ten years evangelized among the scattered settlers from Virginia to South Carolina. He was the means of planting a number of churches and securing other ministers. Al- exander Craighead, a warm friend of Whitefield and an earnest though somewhat eccentric preacher and a daring explorer, pushed on to the western frontiers of Vir- ginia. Exposed to countless perils of the wilderness and of savages he courageously kept his way. Later we find him in west-

io6 The Presbyterians

ern North Carolina — the first missionary of a region so famous alike in religion and patriotic movements. Here his ministry closed, but not till he had sowed seeds of truth which afterward in battles of the Revolution bore the fruit of Christian pa- triotism. Henry Patillo is another name worthy to be starred in the history of the Carolinas. For thirty-six years he preached with apostolic fervor and like the great apostle supported himself largely by the labors of his own hands. He became dis- tinguished alike in the councils of Church and State. He was a member of the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina and was chairman of the Committee on ''Na- tional Federation." A large and generous nature, with boundless capacity for self- sacrifice, originality of genius and unusual intellectual powers, his name will ever be associated with the state to which he gave such long and notable service. During the latter half of the century the

Over the Mountains 107

immigration to the Carolinas was numerous and of a good type. Again it was largely Scotch and hish. More missionaries were called for. The Synod of New York and Philadelphia was not unmindful of the claims of the rapidly developing region. Many of the best men of the Synod visited those states on longer or shorter missionary tours. William Tennent, Jr., Nathan Her, George Duffield, Alexander McWhorter and many others gathered congregations and organized churches. The need of Presby- terial organization becoming apparent, a petition was presented to the Presbytery of Hanover in Virginia asking that a Presby- tery be constituted in the Carolinas. In 1770 seven ministers and the churches under their care were set off as the Presby- tery of Orange and comprising the states of North and South Carolina.

Among the early ministers of the new Presbytery, several Pennsylvanians are worthy of special mention. The first min-

lo8 The Presbyterians

ister ordained by the Presbytery was Thomas Reese, a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate of Princeton. His pastorate in South Carolina was eminently success- ful. He was a distinguished scholar.

A man more famous was James Hall who was licensed in 1776, and who during a long ministry had much to do with shap- ing the religious history of the Carolinas. He was a native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and of Scotch-Irish descent. He was trained for the ministry by Dr. Witherspoon. After graduation he returned to North Caro- lina and gave himself with boundless en- thusiasm to the pioneer work. From every side came calls for his services. Frequent revivals blessed his labors. For forty years he was a burning and shining light — a power for righteousness through a wide region of country.

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle was another native of the Quaker State, who during a fruitful ministry of thirty-five years found

Over the Mountains 109

time to establish and conduct a classical school. This educational work was recog- nized as in the new conditions an essential part of the pastor's labors and many paro- chial schools thus begun grew in later years into academies and colleges.

Under the labors of the men now named and many others of similar devotion the Church grew and extended. The Presby- tery of Orange reached into Tennessee. With the columns of emigration over the mountains and down the valleys of western North Carolina went Charles Cummins, Hezekiah Balch, Samuel Houston and kin- dred spirits giving the stamp of Christian truth and life to the new communities rap- idly forming along the French Broad and the Tennessee Rivers.

Speaking of the settlement of the South- west, Mr. Roosevelt in the ''Winning of the West," says:

''The way in which the southern part of our western country— that is, all the land

110 The Presbyterians

south of the Ohio, and from thence on to the Rio Grande and the Pacific — was won and settled, stands quite alone. . . . The Southwest, including therein what was once called simply the West, and afterward the Middle West, was won by the people themselves, acting as individuals or as groups of individuals, who hewed out their own fortunes in advance of any govern- mental action. . . .

"All of our territory lying beyond the Alleghanies, north and south, was first won for us by the southwesterners, fight- ing for their own land. The northern part was afterward filled up by the thrifty, vigorous men of the Northeast, whose sons became the real rulers as well as the pre- servers of the Union; but these settlements of northerners were rendered possible only by the deeds of the nation as a whole. They entered on land that the southerners had won, and they were kept there by the strong arm of the Federal Government;

Over the Mountains 1 1 1

whereas the southerners owed most of their victories only to themselves."

About the same time another line of emi- gration moved westward across the state of Pennsylvania and over the Alleghany Mountains. Up to 1762 France had claimed the entire country west of the mountains. In that year, however, by treaty England came into peaceable possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River. Set- tlers were attracted to the unexplored wilderness. In a few years thousands had made their homes among the Indian tribes in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Most of these were Presbyterian. An appeal came to the Synod ''that mis- sionaries might be sent to the distressed frontier inhabitants, report their distress, learn what new congregations were form- ing, what was necessary to promote the spread of the gospel among them and dis- cover what opportunities there might be of missionary work among the Indian tribes."

1 1 2 The Presbyterians

Two missionaries were appointed— Charles Beatty and John Brainerd, but the breaking out of a terrible Indian war incited by the French, who while keeping their treaty in letter broke it in spirit, put an end for the time to all missionary work. The follow- ing year, however, (1776) the Indians hav- ing been driven into Ohio, the mission was undertaken and Mr. Beatty and Mr. Duf- field crossed the Alleghanies and after hold- ing services at Fort Pitt they pushed on among savages — whether hostile or friendly they knew not — till they came to the Mus- kingum "one hundred and thirty miles be- yond Fort Pitt." They found the Indians disposed to listen to their message and plans were made to send additional mis- sionaries the following year. For some reason these plans were not carried out. But the knowledge obtained on this tour stimulated the Church to earnest efforts to establish permanent missions over the mountains. Thence until the Revolution-

Over the Mountains 113

ary War annual visits were made to the frontier settlements. The people were found in circumstances of poverty and distress. The fear of savages haunted them continually and not without cause. Their way of living was only a little better than that of the Indians by whom they were surrounded and threatened. The his- tory of the **01d Redstone Presbytery" tells how in "nine cases out of ten a blanket or coverlet served as a substitute for a great coat in winter weather — how deer-skin was a substitute for cloth for men and boys — how in their food potatoes and pumpkins served for bread and bear's oil for butter — how the furniture of the rude log cabin was little in advance of that of the wigwam. But beneath this coarse ex- terior," the record goes on to say, "beat hearts as true to the cause of freedom, in- telligence, morals and religion as any in the world." The first Presbytery organized west of

1 14 The Presbyterians

^ the Alleghanies was the Presbytery of Red- stone. It had a remarkable personality and did a remarkable work. With the increas- ing companies of pioneers who before and during the war went across the mountains, went an illustrious little band of mission- aries. The first settled minister was James Powers— a graduate of Princeton and a li- centiate of the New Castle Presbytery. He began his missionary labors in Virginia, but in 1774 he crossed the mountains and spent the summer in tours among the inhabitants scattered along the Youghiogheny and Alle- gheny Rivers. In 1776 he took his family to the field of his labors and for several years lived the perilous and self-sacrificing life of an itinerant preacher. In 1779 he became pastor of the Sewickley and Mount Pleasant congregations. His influence was extensive and powerful.

One of the bravest and most famous of all pioneers was the Rev. John McMillan who went to western Pennsylvania in 1776. He

Over the Mountains 115

too was a Princeton graduate. It is prob- able no one of all the early missionaries ex- erted an influence so commanding and widespread, or did so much foundation- building as this humble and godly minister. When he came to the cabin that was to be his home he found it without floor, roof or chimney. He had neither bedstead, table, chairs, stool nor bucket. Two boxes served for a table and two kegs for seats. His family frequently had no bread for weeks; potatoes and pumpkins served in- stead. In addition their lives were full of dangers. The Indians were around them on every side and were constantly being in- cited by the. French to make depredations on the settlers. In such circumstances this courageous missionary lived the early years of his ministry and did a work which was to tell on the centuries to come. When he left the east his instructor and friend Dr. Robert Smith, urged him **to look out some pious young men and educate them

1 i6 The Presbyterians

for the ministry." He therefore devoted a portion of his time to the training of young men who afterward became his co-presby- ters in the first western Presbytery. Can- onsburg Academy, afterward Jefferson Col- lege, was the outgrowth of his labors and plans. But he was more than an educator. He was a preacher of such pungency and power that revivals were of frequent oc- currence and churches were organized and strengthened on every hand.

Others soon came to his help. One of these was Thaddeus Dod, of Newark, N. J. After a brief ministry in Virginia and Mary- land, he moved over the mountains and soon began forming congregations. In 1 781 he put up a log academy. He was specially fitted to be a teacher. In 1789 he was called to take charge of Washington Academy which in 1806 developed into Washington College. A man of fine cul- ture, of classical taste and poetic imagina- tion, he was beloved by all who knew him.

Over the Mountains 117

and for sixteen years was the honored in- strument in laying broad and deep founda- tions of education and religion.

Another to join the pioneer band in 1779 was Joseph Smith. He was called to the united congregations of Buffalo and Cross Creek, and for many years his ministry was almost a continuous revival. To a mind well trained he added an unction and elo- quence of manner that made him one of the most effective preachers of his generation. " He would often rise to an almost super- natural and unearthly grandeur completely extinguishing in his hearers all conscious- ness of time and place" (Old Redstone, p. 67).

Like the other pioneer missionaries he made the training of young men for the ministry a prime concern. Having no building for school purposes, with his wife's consent he turned the family kitchen into a schoolhouse and taught a Latin school from which several eminent minis-

ii8 The Presbyterians

ters graduated. Connected with this school was an education society, for here the women of neighboring congregations as- sembled to make clothing for the young men who were pursuing their studies.

Out of such strenuous conditions grew the first Presbytery among the mountains in 1 78 1. It consisted of the ministers named and was increased during the next year by James Dunlap, also a Princeton man, and John Clark from the Presbytery of New Castle. The men who thus laid the foundations beyond the Alleghanies account for the virile character that has ever marked the churches of that region. They were providentially fitted for their place and time, and nobly did they fill up the meas- ure of an opportunity whose greatness ap- peared only in subsequent generations.

CHAPTER VII

AN ERA OF MISSIONS

During the Revolutionary War the churches suffered severely, both in prop- erty and life. In many places church work was wholly interrupted. Congregations were scattered. Ministers were driven away or silenced. About fifty Presbyterian church buildings were destroyed. Thus while the Church kept her faith with her country and made a record for patriotic de- votion that adds new lustre to her annals it was at the cost which war always entails. But at the end of the great conflict there was everywhere a revival of church life. The people gathered joyfully once more around the altars whence they had been

driven and that period of progress began 119

120 The Presbyterians

which makes the nineteenth century illus- trious as an era of Christian triumph. Mis- sionaries pushed to the frontiers. New settlements were founded from the forests of central New York to the pine groves of the Carolinas.

So rapid had been the extension that as early as 1785 the question of the union of the several Synods in a General Assembly was earnestly considered. A bond of union between the widely scattered Synods was an increasing necessity. To meet this necessity the sixteen Presbyteries were re- arranged and grouped in four Synods, viz., New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia and the Carolinas. There were at this time 177 ministers and 431 churches.

The first General Assembly met in Phila- delphia in 1789. Dr. Witherspoon preached the opening sermon and Dr. John Rodgers of New York was chosen Moderator. The first congress of the United States was then in session in New York. In harmony with

An Era of Missions 12 1

the patriotic spirit which the Presbyterian Church had manifested during the war one of the first acts of the General Assembly was to issue an address to Washington. Dr. Witherspoon prepared it. Digni(ied, patriotic and Christian it may well serve as a model of the attitude of the Church to- ward the nation. After referring to his military career and his unselfish surrender to the popular will in again assuming public responsibility it says: ** But we derive a presage even more flattering from the piety of your character. Public virtue is the most certain means of public felicity, and religion is the surest basis of virtue. We therefore esteem it a peculiar happiness to behold in our chief magistrate a steady, uniform, avowed friend of the Christian religion; who has commenced his administration in rational and exalted sentiments of piety, and who in his private conduct adorns the doctrines of the gospel of Christ, and, on the most public and solemn occasions, de-

122 The Presbyterians

voutly acknowledges the government of Divine Providence.

"The example of distinguished charac- ters will ever possess a powerful and ex- tensive influence on the public mind; and when we see in such a conspicuous station the amiable example of piety to God, of benevolence to men, and of a pure and virtuous patriotism, we naturally hope that it will diffuse its influence, and that, even- tually, the most happy consequences will result from it. To the force of imitation we will endeavor to add the wholesome in- structions of religion. We shall consider ourselves as doing an acceptable service to God, in our profession, when we contribute to render men sober, honest, and indus- trious citizens and the obedient subjects of a lawful government. In these pious labors we hope to imitate the most worthy of our brethren of other Christian denominations, and to be imitated by them; assured that if we can, by mutual and generous emulation,

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promote truth and virtue, we shall render a great and important service to the republic, shall receive encouragement from every wise and good citizen, and above all, meet the approbation of our Divine Master.

" We pray Almighty God to have you al- ways in his holy keeping. May he prolong your valuable life, an ornament and a bless- ing to your country, and at last bestow on you the glorious reward of a faithful servant."

Washington's reply was worthy of him and of the occasion. Expressing his satis- faction over the approbation of his conduct, he adds: "While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven as the source of all public and private blessings, I will observe, that the general prevalence of piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and confirming the happiness of our country. While all men within our

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territories are protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of their con- sciences, it is rationally to be expected from them in return that they will all be emulous of evincing the sincerity of their prof essions by the innocence of their lives and the benevolence of their actions. For no man who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can pos- sibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society."

The Church was now fully organized for its ^real ^ork, and'. to it addressed itself as if with some conception of the vastness of its undertaking. The cause of missions therefore was its early and constant care. It realized that in a new country, rapidly expanding its borders, the mission of the Church is missions. The first Committee on Bills and Overtures recommended: "That the state of the frontier settlements should be taken into consideration and mis- sionaries should be sent to them." An an-

I

An Era of Missions 125

nual collection was also ordered in all the churches "for defraying the necessary ex- penses of the missions."

At the next meeting of the Assembly a committee was appointed "to prepare cer- tain directions necessary for the missionaries of the Assembly in fulfilling the design of their mission and to specify the compensa- tion that it would be proper to make for their services." The work was beginning to take shape. The same year Nathan Her and Joseph Hart were appointed missionaries to the frontier. They reported to the next Assembly that they had spent three months in the business assigned them beginning at Middletown and going as far as theOneidas and Cayugas in central New York. In Pennsylvania they itinerated in the Lacka- wanna valley, visiting the settlements at Pittston, Wilkesbarre and Lackawanna. They reported a great increase of popu- lation in central New York and recom- mended that a missionary be sent to that

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region, "in order tliat the hopes of the pioneers may be raised, the ignorant may be instructed and that the foundation of gospel principles may be laid in this exten- sive and growing country in such a manner that discipline may be exercised regularly therein."

The Assembly in 1794 adopted a circular addressed to the inhabitants visited by the missionaries. It lays stress on the duty of maintaining friendly and cooperative rela- tions with other denominations. It is in these words: "As our aim has not been to proselyte from other communions to our own denomination we have charged our missionaries to avoid all doubtful disputa- tions, to abstain from unfriendly censures or reflections on other religious persuasions and adhering strictly to the great doctrines of our holy religion which influence the heart and life in the ways of godliness to follow after the things that make for peace and general edification."

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The Church is thus on record at the be- ginning of her career in this country as favoring brotherly relations with all Chris- tians of whatever name. In this connection it is interesting to observe the close rela- tions early established and long maintained between the General Assembly and the General Association of Connecticut. The Rev. Methuselah Baldwin was in 1799 directed to spend three months or more in the vicinity of Onondago, "in connection with Mr. Williston, a missionary from the General Association of Connecticut."

The missionary relations of the Presby- terian and Congregational churches, took definite shape in 1801 when regulations promotive of harmony and cooperation were adopted by the Assembly. Mission- aries are enjoined **to promote a spirit of accommodation between those inhabitants of the new settlements who hold the Pres- byterian and those who hold the Congrega- tional form of Church Government," This

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action was the first draft of **The Plan of Union " which went into effect soon after and which continued for more than a gen- eration as a happy arrangement for advanc- ing the gospel in the rapidly developing parts of the country. It provided in brief that Congregational churches might settle Presbyterian ministers and the reverse, and that if a congregation consisted partly of Congregationalists and partly of Presbyte- rians this fact should be no obstacle to their uniting in one Church and settling a min- ister, and that in such case a standing com- mittee of the communicants should be the spiritual leaders of the congregation.

The nineteenth century opened on gen- eral demoralization and abounding infidel- ity. Dueling was common, drunkenness on public occasions prevalent, atheistical clubs were formed among students. In 1798 the General Assembly said: **We perceive with pain and fearful apprehen- sion a general dereliction of religious prin-

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ciple and practice among our fellow-citi- zens, a visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws and institutions of religion and an abounding infidelity which tends to atheism itself." To meet this sad condition God imbued his Church won- derfully with the spirit of missions and re- vivals.

How thoroughly the Church had at this time a true missionary spirit was illustrated by an action of the Assembly of 1800, when among objects named for special considera- tion were, *'The gospelizing of the Indians on the frontiers of our country, the instruc- tion of negroes, the poor and those who are destitute of the means of grace in vari- ous parts of this extensive country." In view of the fact that there was not a suffi- cient number of ministers to meet the needs of these classes an order of men under the character of catechists was provided from among men of piety and good sense but without a liberal education who might "in-

Nv

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struct the Indians, the black people and other persons unacquainted with the prin- ciples of our holy religion."

The same Assembly took steps to raise a permanent fund for missionary work. It was recommended that money contributed for missions should be regarded as a capital stock to be invested in secure and perma- nent funds for missionary purposes; ''that the proceeds of it should be employed in propagating the Gospel among the Indians, in instructing the black people and purchas- ing pious books to be distributed among the poor or in maintaining, when the As- sembly shall think themselves competent to the object, theological schools and for such other pious and benevolent purposes as may hereafter be deemed expedient." A very broad scheme of beneficence in which may readily be found the germ of the full ecclesi- astical machinery so soon to be developed.

The fully organized home mission work of the Church dates fronV 1802. In view of

An Era of Missions 131

the increasing demand for missionaries along the western spreading frontier it was agreed that there should be a ''Standing Committee on Missions " consisting of four clergymen and three laymen whose duty it should be to collect information relative to missions, to designate places where mission- aries should be employed, to nominate suit- able persons to the Assembly, and generally to transact the missionary business of the Church." This committee had practically the powers of a missionary board. It pur- sued its work vigorously — north, west and south. How close to the border was the missionary field at that time is illustrated by the fact that the missionaries sent out that year went to Norfolk, Va., to the city of Washington, to the Genesee and Sparta in Ontario County in New York. But there was also an out-reaching to the adventur- ous pioneers who had buried themselves in the western wilderness as is manifest from the fact that some of the missionaries were

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sent as far as the "Mississippi Territory." A few years later the interesting statement is made "that Mr. James Hoge a licentiate of the Presbytery of Lexington shall serve as a missionary for six months in the state of Ohio and the Natchez district," — a pretty large commission for one lone young man, but it marks the beginning of a service that was to tell mightily on the regeneration of Ohio and "the regions beyond."

Long before this organized work, indeed as early as 1777, the Rev. Samuel Doak organized the first Presbyterian Church at Salem, Tenn., and established Washing- ton College, the first college south of the Alleghanies. "He came from New Jersey and had been educated in Princeton. Pos- sessed of the vigorous energy that marks the true pioneer spirit, he determined to cast in his lot with the frontier folk. He walked through Maryland and Virginia, driving before him an old * flee-bitten gray ' horse, loaded with a sackful of books;

An Era of Missions 133

crossed the Alleghanies, and came down along blazed trails to the Holston settle- ments. The hardy people among whom he took up his abode were able to appreci- ate his learning and religion as much as they admired his adventurous and indom- itable temper; and the stern, hard, God- fearing man became a most powerful in- fluence for good throughout the whole formative period of the southwest" (" The Winning of the West ").

The westward movement had become so decided by 1806 that missionaries were sent to the ''Indiana Territory" and to the Cherokee Indians of Tennessee. The Rev. Gideon Blackburn^ destined to become one of the home missionary heroes of the south- west, was employed for two months for missionary service among those Indians and a fund of §500 was appropriated for an Indian school founded by him. Another name to be associated with that of Black- burn in the early religious life of Tennessee

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is that of the Rev. John Doak. He had his first commission in 1812 in these quaint words: "A missionary for six weeks com- mencing his route at Fincastle and proceed- ing thence on missionary ground to Greene- ville in East Tennessee."

A general revival of missionary interest characterized the opening years of the new century. The Synod of Pittsburg was or- ganized in 1802 — primarily as a missionary body, assuming the name of "The Western Missionary Society." Its great aim was to Christianize the Indians and to supply Gospel privileges to the settlers now filling up the Ohio Territory.

The newly formed Synod of Kentucky in 1803 appealed to the Assembly for help, declaring that the missionary field on their frontier was so "extensive and promising that the Synod find themselves inadequate to the demand." The Synod of the Caro- linas was similarly exercised. It strug- gled bravely on until in 1812 the amount

An Era of Missions 135

of mission work so far exceeded their ability that it was resigned to the care of the Assembly. The growth of the country and the missionary spirit is illustrated by the fact that in 1803 the number of mission- aries sent out by the Assembly was only five; in 1807 it had risen to fifteen; had grown to forty in 181 1 and to over fifty in 1814 exclusive of those sent out by Synods and Presbyteries.

As often in the history of the Church, so now the advance in missions was explained by general and powerful revivals of re- ligion. The movement began in Kentucky and, marred though it was by many ex- travagances and much fanaticism, it af- fected mightily and for good the religious life of the times. The people gathered from large districts of country, brought with them their tents and provisions and remained for days or weeks engaged almost continuously in religious exercises. Thus originated the camp meetings which have

136 The Presbyterians

been so conspicuous a phase of evangel- istic effort. The revivals continued for several years. In 1801 the movement had spread up and down the rivers wherever there were settlements and the subject of religion was the one theme — not for discus- sion but for action. The scene at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, is illustrative of many. It is said to have been awful be- yond description. It was estimated that twenty thousand people had gathered. Seven ministers would be preaching at once to as many congregations. The tides of emotion were uncontrollable. Hundreds would fall at a sentence and cry for mercy. The shouts and cries sometimes stopped the preacher. "At one time," a spectator writing of the scene says, "\ saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens. My hair rose upon my head,

An Era of Missions 137

my whole frame trembled, the blood ran cold in my veins and I fled for the woods." This was not the testimony of an enthu- siast but one who said he "would not have fallen to the ground for the whole state of Kentucky."

The extreme form of this great revival, involving fanaticism, doctrinal vagaries and physical manifestations, was confined largely to Kentucky, but the spirit of it went abroad through the nation. It spread north and east. Its fires began to light up western and central New York, were pres- ently felt in western Pennsylvania and went over the mountains into Virginia and the Carolinas. The revival spirit continued for a full decade. Everywhere churches were quickened, dead churches brought to life again and often whole communities trans- formed. There were excesses indeed which brought reactions. The Assembly at times felt called on to sound a note of warning against false doctrines and extravagant

138 The Presbyterians

methods. But these things were but as eddies along the banks. The great current moved on with strength and blessing. In four years, from 1809 to 18 13, the member- ship of the church had increased nearly twenty-five per cent.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was an indirect result of the powerful revival in Kentucky. It came about through a de- mand for an increase in the number of ministers to meet the new opportunities which the revival spirit had opened through- out the southern mountains. The church could not furnish the needed supply of edu- cated men. Uneducated men were pressed into the service. They were zealous but often ill-balanced. Excesses in methods and unsoundness in doctrine appeared on every side. The Synod of Kentucky ap- pealed to the Assembly for counsel. The Synod however was divided as to the best course to pursue. So was the Assembly. On the one hand was a desire to maintain

An Era of Missions 139

strict ecclesiastical procedure, while at the same time favoring the revival. On the other hand, was the imperative need of more preachers and the desire to subordi- nate education and orthodoxy to the urgent demands which the revivals had made. The discussions in Synod and Assembly went on with increasing heat from 1804 to 181 4.

In addition to the question of allowing the ordination of uneducated men arose the question of a strict or lax adoption of the Confession — many of those strenuous for the new methods claiming that the Confes- sion tended to "fatalism." The Presby- tery of Cumberland was the storm centre. In 1805 the Synod severely criticized the actions of that Presbytery and appointed a commission to confer with it touching the matters at issue between them. The com- mission rendered a decision adverse to the Presbytery, charging it with receiving young men for the ministry "not only illiterate but erroneous in sentiment."

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During the next four years there was a continuous revival. The Presbytery's com- plaint became more acute. All efforts at reconciliation failed. In 1806 the Synod formally dissolved the Cumberland Presby- tery. For a few years there was corre- spondence between the Assembly and the dissolved Presbytery — but without avail. In February, 18 10, the independent Cumber- land Presbytery was organized. This was the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In three years and a half the Presbytery had grown to three Presbyteries which constituted the Cumberland Synod. Since then it has had continuous growth and is now a thoroughly organized denomi- nation with 118 presbyteries, 2,944 congre- gations, 1,595 rninisters, and is not only doing its own work in the southern states but is carrying on a large home and foreign mission work.

In the southern states there has been formed a Colored Cumberland Presbyterian

An Era of Missions 141

Church, but the number of ministers and church members is small.

Theologically the Cumberland Church is a modified Calvinism, retaining the prin- cipal elements of the Calvinistic system but rejecting such doctrines as a limited atone- ment and special grace. The fraternity be- tween the Presbyterian and the Cumberland Churches is illustrated by the correspond- ence between their Assemblies and by their frequent cooperation on mission fields. \/ About this time the slavery question which was ultimately to divide the Church again came fully to the front. It had claimed the attention of the Synod of New York and Pennsylvania as early as 1787. That Synod adopted a paper strongly advo- cating the education of slaves for their own sakes and for the good of the state and urged such " prudent methods as would procure eventually the final abolition of slavery." But in 181 5 the subject began to assume menacing proportions. The Synod

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of Ohio asked for a deliverance on the buy- ing and selling of slaves. Certain elders who had scruples about owning slaves also petitioned the Assembly. The report adopted was a strong anti-slavery docu- ment. It expressed regret over the exist- ence of slavery in the United States, urged the duty of educating slaves and cherished the hope of emancipation. The report further declared the buying and selling of slaves "inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel."

The period now under consideration, viz., from 1802 to 18 16, was one of progress by enthusiasm and organization. Therefore notwithstanding the deleterious influences resulting from the war and the agitations and divisions incident to the revival fanati- cism in Kentucky, the growth of the Church during this period was both rapid and sub- stantial. In the east there were organized local and general societies for the distribu- tion of the Bible and the circulation of re-

An Era of Missions 143

ligious literature. Missionary societies were also increased. In New England the Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut Home Mission- ary Societies developed much activity and the latter by union with the Committee on Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church penetrated western New York and Ohio. In Pittsburg the western Missionary So- ciety pushed its work among the settlers in the Old Northwest and to the Indians. In 1810 a Sabbath school was established in New Brunswick, N. J., "for the gratuitous instruction of poor children in morals and re- ligious truth." So important was this step regarded that the Assembly of 181 1 made grateful mention of the significant fact.

The roll of churches now grew fast. In 1801 there were four Synods with twenty- eight Presbyteries and not more than 225 ministers, with perhaps 450 churches. The fact that the churches outnumbered the ministers as two to one indicates the great missionary activity of the time. By 181 5

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the numbers had about doubled. There were then forty-one Presbyteries, 520 min- isters, 851 churches. But great as was the missionary entiiusiasm and abundant as was the fruit, the growth of the country sur- passed the capacity of the Church to over- take the spiritual destitutions. Virginia at this time had nearly a million people and only forty Presbyterian ministers among them. Indeed in the great westward move- ment all of the south had been much neg- lected. Many of the strongest men from Virginia and the Carolinas went over the mountains. Kentucky and Tennessee at- tracted a multitude of settlers. The popu- lation of the former state had risen to 400,- 000 with ninety-one Presbyterian churches. Tennessee with a population of nearly 300,- 000 had seventy-nine Presbyterian churches. It had two colleges — one at Maryville, the other in Green County— at each of which there were students preparing for the min- istry. Here also was organized thus early

An Era of Missions 145

an independent missionary society. As one went farther west tlie destitution be- came greater. Indiana Territory with 25,000 people had only one Presbyterian minister and Illinois with 13,000 had not one.

In some of this western and southern region there were a good many itinerant Methodist and Baptist missionaries. The revival of the preceding years had brought many to leave the plow or the shop and to begin preaching without any preparation other than that of zeal for the cause. That they did good in those rude conditions and among rude people need not be questioned but they were poorly qualified to lay the foundations of Christianity in a new country. However the West continued to grow and much at the expense of the East. Maryland, Delaware and Virginia declined in the vigor and number of their churches. In January, 1810, Dr. John H. Rice of Vir- ginia wrote to Dr. Archibald Alexander as

146 The Presbyterians

follows: "I think the state of religion in this country worse by some degrees than when you left it. Presbyterian congrega- tions are decreasing every year and appear as if they would dwindle to nothing." The same was true of some parts of eastern and central Pennsylvania. The process so dis- astrously apparent to-day of the decline of rural eastern communities had already begun.

Meantime the westward march went on. The ordinance of 1787 opening up the cen- tral west and assuring it a stable and free government was having full effect. The Church did her best to keep up with the moving columns of emigration but suffered for lack of means and men. Only a few thousand dollars a year was available for missionary purposes. The missionary sala- ries were absurdly small. Thirty-three dollars per month, later raised to forty dol- lars, was the salary paid men like Jedediah Chapman and James Hoge. The scarcity

An Era of Missions 147

of properly trained men also forbade a strong advance. In 1805, Dr. Ashbel Green overtured the General Assembly in these urgent words: "Give us ministers, such is the cry of the missionary region. Give us ministers is the importunate entreaty of our numerous and increasing vacancies. Give I us ministers is the demand of many large and important congregations in our most • populous cities and towns."

This appeal resulted immediately in a I direction to the Presbyteries to seek out young men fitted by gifts and piety and to ■ help them onward to the ministry. An ap- peal was also made for funds to aid in their support. The trustees of the'College of New Jersey offered generous provision for the support and instruction of theological stu- dents. They might study at Princeton " at the moderate charge of a dollar a week for board and enjoy the assistance of the presi- dent and professor of theology without any fee for instruction." This was the begin-

\

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ning of Princeton Theological Seminary. Two years later^Dr. Alexander broached the idea of such a seminary in the General Assembly. The next year Dr. Ashbel Green brought in an overture on the subject and in 1810 steps were taken which two years later resulted in the organization of the seminary and its location at Princeton. The first year Dr. Archibald Alexander was the only Professor. The next year Dr. Samuel Miller of New York was made pro- fessor of church history and government. In 1814, there were twenty-four students in attendance. The progress of the institution was rapid and in 1817, the first edifice — still standing — was erected.

There were giants in those days: Dr. Gardiner Spring of New York was just en- tering on his long and eminent career; Dr. John B. Romeyn of the same city, whose eloquence at times was as the rush of an irresistible torrent; Dr. Eliphalet Nott, president of Union College, eminent as an

An Era of Missions ^49

executive, scholar and orator; Ashbel Green, president of the College of New Jersey, a courtly gentleman of the old school, sagacious, clear-headed and far-see- ing, who laid educational foundations to tell mightily on subsequent generations; Archi- bald Alexander the model pastor, preacher and professor, permitted during a whole generation to shape the lives and think- ing of hundreds of ministers. In the West was John McMillan, patriarch of old Redstone Presbytery and founder of Can- onsburg Academy and Jefferson College, strong, brave, impetuous and commanding in his influence; Matthew Brown, Presi- dent of Washington College, eccentric — of lofty character and impassioned elo- quence; James Hughes, a pioneer pastor and at the same time an erudite scholar and finally president of Miami University. In the south were such men as Moses Hoge, president of Hampden-Sidney College; John H. Rice of Richmond, of lovely spirit

150 The Presbyterians

and ardent piety and a practical wisdom ; David Caldwell, the pioneer preacher of the Carolinas. These and many others like them builded well for the Presbyterian Church in most trying times and deserve to be had in everlasting remembrance.

CHAPTER VIII

THE OLD NORTHWEST

The progress of the Church in the West in the first quarter of the century is shown by the following landmarks.

Before the passage of the ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory portions of the territory along the Ohio had been carefully surveyed. In March, 1786, the Northeast Ohio Land Company was formed. Its object was to promote settle- ments in the new territory. One hundred settlers were to set out for "the Northeast" — for the land of promise. Transportation was to be free and each man was provided with tools for work and weapons for de- fense. They left Hartford, Conn., January ist, 1788— only forty-seven persons. They crossed the mountains on the line followed 151

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by Braddock's army. It was April before they reached the Youghiogheny River. They drifted down to Fort Pitt in a boat fitly named the Mayflower — the second May- flower of our national history. Thence down "The Beautiful River," till on the seventh of April they made land at the mouth ^of the Muskingum, and founded the town ol^Marietta — one of the first headquarters of civilization and education in the west. Of this brave little company Washington said, "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." Washington's proph- ecy was justified. From that colony radiated influences which have told mightily on the education and regeneration of the west. Indian wars for a time checked the

The Old Northwest 153

colony's growth but at the beginning of the century it had become a place of such im- portance that ships were built at its wharves to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi. The fertile regions of the two Miamis in the southwestern part of the state now began to attract settlers. Cincinnati had been laid out in 1789. In 1790 ''Father Rice" from Kentucky, organized the First Presby- terian Church. They had obtained land for a building but were too poor to erect one. So they converted it into a graveyard! In 1791 James Kemper came to them as a supply. Their first audience-room was a circle of logs on the lot at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets. Here under the canopy in justified alarm on account of In- dian raids they worshipped God with a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other. In 1792 a log church was built — the timber for the building being taken from the lot on which it was erected. In 1800 Cincinnati had only 750 inhabitants. Dr. Joshua L.

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Wilson, a man of power and large capacity for leadership came to the church in 1808. Thenceforward the growth of church and city was rapid. In a decade many churches were formed along the valleys of the Miami and indeed the whole state became a scene of pioneer activity.

The northern part of Ohio was the last to be developed. The Western Reserve was laid out by a colony from Connecticut and was first called "New Connecticut." Ac- cess to this region was diificult. There were no rivers to facilitate transportation. The march through the woods of the Em- pire State was both difficult and dangerous. And while a large number of the settlers of the Reserve were from New England, very many came from western Pennsylvania. The missionary enterprise of that region sent many ministers through the forests of eastern and northern Ohio. So by 1808 fifteen or twenty churches had been organ- ized and the people were calling for schools

The Old Northwest 155

and churches. Rev. Abraham Scott wrote in 1809, "People in general here profess a desire for the gospel. They appear in some measure to dread the consequences of being without it, and that both in respect to themselves and their posterity." The first Presbytery of the Reserve in loyalty to Con- necticut was called the Presbytery of Hart- ford. It was erected by the Synod of Pittsburg in 1808.

The Synod of Ohio when erected in 18 14 consisted of three Presbyteries — all of them small. Fifteen years later there were fif- teen Presbyteries. The ministers had in- creased from forty-four to two hundred and sixteen. The congregations from one hun- dred and fifteen to three hundred and sixty. The growth on the Western Reserve was especially large. In fourteen years (from 1 8 16 to 1830) seventy-five churches were organized in that district alone. The peo- ple came chiefly from western New York and New England. Nevertheless, though

156 The Presbyterians

the church grew rapidly the destitutions were very great. Many places had scarce one religious service in a year. In 1819 Rev. Mr. Cowles wrote, ''Throughout the extensive bounds of this Synod there is a general cry, 'give us ministers' but we have them not."

Cleveland was settled at the very begin- ning of the century but for the first decade made little progress. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 made emigration easy and thenceforth the Western Reserve grew rapidly. The First Church was organized in 1820. Ten years later there were only three or four male members in town and the total membership was less than forty. But six years later the church had grown to 200 members and another church was or- ganized.

A survey of statistics in 1831 indicates how rapid had been the growth of Presby- terianism in Ohio. In Cincinnati Presby- tery there were 3, 194 church members; in

The Old Northwest 157

Steubenville, 2,228; in Hartford, 2,921; in Columbus, 1,636; in Chillicothe, 2,098, and in the state a total of 26,506. Twenty-five years before the state was an almost un- broken wilderness.

Ohio and the Northwest generally received its great impulse toward education which has ever distinguished it from the ordinance of 1787 which wisely declared "that relig- ion, morality and knowledge being neces- sary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of edu- cation shall be forever encouraged." In the article for the sale of western lands it was provided that "No. 16 of every township shall be reserved for the maintenance of public schools within the township." The western states generally availed themselves fully of this provision and thus grew up in the west a public school system which is at once the pride and bulwark of the nation. Schools of higher grade and colleges soon followed. Marietta College dates back al-

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most to the founding of the town. The Territorial Legislature took early steps for building a university. Athens, fitly named, furnished its location. It did not, however, attain to the dignity of a college until 181 5.

In southwestern Ohio, the ''College Township " was first set apart a few miles above Cincinnati but in 1803 Congress changed the location to a point west of the Great Miami River. The commissioners chosen for the purpose located it at Oxford in Butler County and it was named Miami University. It has since then graduated many of the leading public men of the nation.

In 1826 Western Reserve College was es- tablished at Hudson. It has recently been moved to Cleveland and merged in Adel- bert University.

^>j Oberlin College stands as a typical Ameri- can Christian college. It has been notable for its evangelistic and missionary spirit and for certain philanthropic and reformatory

The Old Northwest 159

ideals which have made it specially in- fluential in giving moral tone and character to the state.

The devotion to education which thus early characterized Ohio marked the other four states of the " Old Northwest." Chris- tian education was their watchword and in them scores of Christian academies and colleges have put a Christian stamp on new communities. In all this movement the Presbyterian Church has taken a leading place and has vindicated her historic devo- tion to learning. In Indiana such colleges as Hanover and Wabash; in Illinois such as Illinois, Monmouth and Knox Colleges and Lake Forest and Blackburn Universities have enabled the intelligence to keep step with the progress of the state. In Wiscon- sin such colleges as Carroll, Beloit and Ripon have laid foundation for learning and culture. \ This period was also one of revivals and church unions. The revival spirit noted in

i6o The Presbyterians

the previous chapter continued with fewer excesses and showing more substantial gains. This was especially true in the North and the West. Thus across the Em- pire State and into Ohio, Indiana and other states there was a procession of hardy pioneers from New England and eastern New York. The plan of union now in full operation brought them easily into fellow- ship with Presbyterian churches. Revivals continued in central and western New York and in Ohio and among the moun- tains of East Tennessee. Everywhere the churches were strengthened and increased. In 1816 forty-three Presbyteries were re- ported. In ten years the number was doubled. In 18 16 there were 540 ministers; in 1826, 1,140; while the churches had in- creased from 920 to over 2,000. The growth in church membership was even more marked — having risen from less than 40,000 in 1 8 16 to over 122,000, an increase in ten years of over 300 per cent. As to

The Old Northwest 161

numbers this was the most fruitful decade in the history of the Church.

Aside from the wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit which characterized that era many influences combined to favor the ac- tivity of the Church. The development of the West came over the Church as at once a romance and an opportunity. In a decade the columns of emigration had reached the Mississippi River. The missionaries who visited the camps and settlements in western forests and on western prairies gave reports of immorality and degradation that thrilled and saddened the heart of the Church. She heard the call to the evangelization of the country as that of a bugle blown for wars. A few itinerant missionaries, it was realized, were wholly incompetent even to measure — much less to equal— the religious needs of the West. It began to dawn on the Church that a campaign must be organized on the success of which the future of the Republic would largely depend. The battle

i62 The Presbyterians

for civil liberty, the echoes of which were still in the air, must be supplemented by another fight to save the land from the thralldom of ignorance and sin. So there came over the Church of every name a spirit of organization for home and foreign mis- sions and Christian work of every kind.

The Board of Home Missions which had hitherto been a Standing Committee of the Assembly was organized in May,'^i8i6, and located in the city of New York. Its powers were so enlarged that the whole work of home missions was committed to it, subject to review and approval at the meetings of the Assembly. A proposition was made to unite the work of foreign missions with that of the Home Board. It was, however, deemed expedient to keep separate these two great agencies of mis- sions, each having its own great sphere and taxing to the full the powers of executive officers. There was also at this time a movement to unite the Presbyterian and

The Old Northwest 163

the Reformed Dutch and Associate Re- formed Churches in foreign mission work. This union was accomplished in 1817 and resulted in the " United Foreign Missionary Society." Its foreign mission work was, however, confined almost exclusively to the American Indians and its support came mainly from the Presbyterian Church.

Another organization that had the hearty support of the Presbyterian Church was that of the American Bible Society organ- ized in 1 8 16. The cause of tract distribu- tion also received favorable attention. The Church was thus broadening out along many lines of missionary activity. The spirit of cooperation in mission work is illustrated by the pastoral letter of the As- sembly of 181 7 which says: "Embrace every opportunity to the extent of the ability which God has given you to form and vigorously to support missionary as- sociations, Bible Societies, plans for the distribution of religious tracts and exertions

164 The Presbyterians

for extending the benefits of knowledge and especially spiritual knowledge to all ages and classes of persons around you. . . . We are persuaded that all those periods and Churches which have been favored with special revivals of religion have been also distinguished by visible union and concert in prayer."

In these days of Christian federation churches may well take lesson from the principles announced by the Presbyterian Church at the beginning of the last century when it declared: ''That differences of opinion acknowledged on all hands to be of a minor class may and ought to be tolerated among those who are agreed in great and leading views of Divine truth is a principle on which the godly have so long and so generally acted that it seems unnecessary at the present day to seek arguments for its support. Our fathers in early periods of the history of our Church had their peculiarities and diversities of

The Old Northwest 165

opinion which yet however did not pre- vent them from loving one another and cordially acting together." (Gillett, Vol. 2, pp. 218, 219).

The increasing western development at this time forced to the front anew the ques- tion of ministerial supply. Western New York and eastern Ohio called loudly for men. The Presbytery of Niagara had twenty-six congregations but to minister to them it had only four pastors. Genesee with nineteen congregations had but two ministers. In Erie Presbytery there were twenty-one congregations without a stated ministry. Farther west and south the situ- ation was worse. West Tennessee had only fourteen ministers to a population of 300,000. In Missouri and Mississippi con- ditions were still harder. The Assembly of 1825 therefore sounded a note of alarm and called on the Church to "consider very seriously the case of the destitute parts of our country and especially of the many

l66 The Presbyterians

thousands of families in the new states in the West and in the South which are grow- ing up almost entirely destitute of the preaching of the Gospel and of all re- ligious instruction." They thus appealed for money to enable the Board of Home Missions to send out missionaries.

But a new and more serious difficulty had already emerged when it was impossible to find men prepared to go. This fact led to the formation of the Board of Education in ^ 1819. Colleges were now being established in various parts of the country. ^ Princeton was attracting many students. Washing- ton and Jefferson Colleges in Western Pennsylvania were meeting the intellectual needs beyond the mountains. Union and Hamilton Colleges had been established in central New York and were prospering. The development of theological training in this period was remarkable. Never in so short a time in the history of the Church did so many theological institutions spring

The Old Northwest 167

into being. It marked a complete change in ministerial education. The old days when the pastor was the seminary, the Greek and Hebrew Testaments were the library and an earnest young man was the class were followed by times of more scholastic training of associated students under associated instructors. This doubt- less was a gain in scholarship — a gain also in contact with men of different types of thought. That it involved some loss of pastoral experience and of close fellowship with a master mind cannot be questioned. On the whole, however, the gain out- matches the loss.

The decade from 1825 to 1835 was char- acterized by an increase of organization. The spirit of evangelization, the result of the great revivals of the first two decades of the century, now sought to body forth its endeavors in organized form.

Auburn Seminary was founded by the Synod of Geneva in 1820, to meet the de-

i68 The Presbyterians

mands of the growing Empire State. It has ever had a scholarly and devoted faculty and has trained many of the leading minis- ters of the Church. The Western Semi- nary at Allegheny, Pa., opened its doors for students from western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, in 1826. In 1828, the Synod of Virginia founded^Union Seminary at Hampden-Sidney and the same year the seminary at Columbia was opened by the Synod of South Carolina. At ^Mary ville, Tenn., Isaac Anderson, a great teacher and preacher, began an institution which was at once academy, college and theological seminary. The need of a theological semi- nary farther west now began to be felt. The Lane brothers, members of the Baptist Church had made the offer of funds to their own denomination to found such an insti- tution at Cincinnati. The Baptist Society to whom it was offered not being able to ' avail themselves of it, the generous donors gave it to the Presbyterian Church and it

The Old Northwest 169

became the foundation of Lane Seminary. In 1828, an association was formed "for establishing a seminary of learning, the principal object of which shall be to edu- cate pious young men for the gospel min- istry." The school was at first both clas- sical and theological, but in 1834 it became an exclusively theological institution. Dr. Lyman Beecher, Dr. Calvin E. Stowe and Dr. T. J. Riggs were among its earliest teachers. When Dr. Beecher left New England to undertake the work of theolog- ical education in the then far west he gave his estimate of its importance in these words: **To plant Christianity in the west is as grand an undertaking as it was to plant it in the Roman Empire, with un- speakably greater permanence and power." How history has justified that opinion!

In 1829, Indiana and Illinois rapidly filling up the need of a seminary farther west than Ohio pressed on the attention of the Church. Steps were taken by the Synod

lyo The Presbyterians

of Indiana to found a theological institution in connection with Hanover Academy. The following year the seminary was organized and Dr. John Matthews was elected its first professor. It was removed to New Albany in 1840 and later was merged in the Theo- logical Seminary of the Northwest at Chicago. Meantime the needs of the southern states were partially supplied by the Theological Department of Maryville College in eastern Tennessee. It was cen- tral to a population of two millions of peo- ple— large numbers of whom were desti- tute of all religious privileges. It may illus- trate the simplicity and heroism of the times to state that students were so diligent in working for their own support that in a single year 1,200 bushels of corn were credited to their labor and that by this means the expense of the institution for their board was reduced to one dollar per month. The passion for education ex- tended far out among the western settle-

The Old Northwest 171

ments. In Western Tennessee Nashville College opened its doors (with a theological department) in 1825, and the Presbytery of Mississippi laid the foundations of Oakland College. In 1826, Union Theological Semi- nary in Virginia, which had been in opera- tion for several years, was received under the care of the General Assembly and Dr. John H. Rice was appointed a professor.

By the increase in the number of candi- dates for the ministry the need of educa- tional societies became apparent. In 1819 the Presbyterian Board of Education was established. Before that local and volun- tary societies had sprung up in New Eng- land. One had been formed in Boston in 181 5 called "The American Educational Society" and still earlier one had been or- ganized in Vermont. Small societies de- signed to help students had sprung up in many places. They became auxiliary to the Presbyterian Educational Society or to the American Educational Society, which

172 The Presbyterians

two societies were united in 1827. So rapid was the increase in the number of ministerial candidates that whereas in 1827 there were only thirty-five under the So- ciety's care two years later there were over two hundred.

/ In 1826 there was also a union of the ; New York Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for .Foreign Missions. The latter organization — though not connected with the General Assembly — was already receiving large con- tributions from the Presbyterian Church. And as two societies for foreign missions were not needed it was judged best — though not without a good deal of opposi- tion—that the work of foreign missions should be conducted by the American Board. The growth of voluntary societies was one cause of the division which oc- curred a few years later.

CHAPTER IX

THE DIVISION OF 1 837

We come to an unfruitful period of the history of the Church. The second quarter of the century was marked by debates, dis- sensions and division. The Reformed Presbyterian Synod was the first of the Presbyterian bodies to be divided. It con- sisted of Covenanters or Reformed Presby- terians, who early in the eighteenth century had settled in Pennsylvania. They grew very slowly in numbers. In 1798 the Re- formed Presbytery of the United States of America was formed in Philadelphia. The Synod consisting of three Presbyteries was organized in 1809. From the first, there were in the Church two parties, caused by their relation to the American government. In 1800 a law was enacted that no slave 173

174 The Presbyterians

holder should be a communicant — a position always maintained. The question whether this could be called a Christian government drew the line between conservatives and liberals in the Church. After prolonged debates in Presbyteries and Synod, the dif- ferences of opinion as to the extent to which Christians might participate in mat- ters of state being irreconcilable, the Church was divided in 1833. The conservative majority proceeded to enforce its principles. Members of the church were not allowed to vote, hold office or sit on juries. The divorce between the Church and the po- litical system must be complete. The mi- nority was known by the name of the General Synod of the Reformed Presby- terian Church. It is popularly known as the New Light Covenanting Church and, while adhering to its distinctive principles, it allows its members to discharge civic duties. The next body to feel the strain of eccle-

The Division of 1837 175

siastical and theological thought was the Presbyterian Church. Up to this time the strenuous pioneer conditions had kept the Church measurably free from theological strife. There had of course always been those differences of thought which tempera- ment and environment accentuate. But for the most part they were not much regarded in church councils and had no effect other than to cause here and there a ripple on the surface of church life. But we come now to the beginning of serious differences which soon went deeper than the surface. Dr. Samuel Hopkins of Newport, R. I., was a man of acumen, originality and power. His theological influence was scarcely less than that of Jonathan Edwards. His views ^ differed from those of the accepted theology | of the day, in that he denied the imputa- tion of Adam's sin and the righteousness of Christ and held that all true holiness con- sisted in bevenolence and all sin, in self- ishness. These ideas soon had a large

176 The Presbyterians

following in New England and in other parts of the country. They were held by Samuel Whelpley, Gardiner Spring, Samuel Hanson Cox of New York, and others. They were strongly resisted by the Synod of Pennsylvania. The discussions concern- ing them invaded the General Assembly. But after a time when Hopkins and others who gave them currency had passed away they faded from public attention, though still more or less widely held by individuals in the Church.

But New England now supplied another storm centre. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, Professor of Theology in Yale College, ad- vanced improvements in Calvinism which were thought to imperil the system. The following year a young preacher in Mor- ristown, N. J., by the name of Albert Barnes declared himself in substantial agree- ment with Dr. Taylor. He was called to Philadelphia and there was much opposi- tion to his installation as pastor of the First

The Division of 1837 177

Church. The matter went from Presbytery to Synod, which body, condemning his views, urged him to retract and meantime suspended him from the functions of the ministry. He refused to retract. The case went to the Assembly which, while ex- pressing disapproval of particular passages, declared the Presbytery should have been satisfied with Mr. Barnes' disavowals. \^ The storm was now on — Philadelphia and New York shared about equally in its rigor. Dr. Green, Dr. Junkin and Mr. McCalla were lined up as the leaders of strict interpretation of the Confession. Dr. Skinner, Dr. Potts and Mr. Barnes repre- sented the liberal views. Rev. James W. Alexander in gentle sarcasm suggested ** Philadelphia" be changed to ''Misadel- phia," and Dr. Rice of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia pleaded that **the Church is not to be purified by controversy but by holy love." Visiting the north in 1830 he said sadly, ** Everything is cold and

178 The Presbyterians

dead except the spirit of controversy. In Philadelphia and New York things are in a dismal condition."

At about this time Dr. Lyman Beecher was called to a professorship at Lane Semi- nary, Cincinnati. He had not been long in his chair when charges of heresy were pre- ferred against him by Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, pastor of the First Church of Cincinnati. He was charged with holding Arminian doctrines at variance with the Confession of Faith in respect to original sin, total de- pravity and free agency. In June, 1835, the Presbytery met for the trial of the case. It was a notable occasion. Both the prose- cutor and the defendant were men of mark. Dr. Wilson had for many years been a leader in the West — a man of dauntless courage and intellectual power — but of an aggressive temper that often weakened his cause in debate. Dr. Beecher had long been the guardian of orthodoxy against Unitarianism in New England. The trial

The Division of 1837 179

extended through several days and resulted in the vindication of Beecher. Dr. Wilson appealed to the Synod with the same result. The case was carried to the Assembly but was never presented before that body. The reason never was clearly known. Some said that Dr. Wilson was persuaded by his friends that he had gone far enough. Others— that on the way to the Assembly a rogue stole his coat containing his papers and that he was therefore without ammuni- tion to carry on the battle.

The agitation now became general

throughout the Church. On the one hand

I fears of New England theology increased

i and in Presbyteries and Synods a stricter

•adherence to the standards was urged. On

the other hand complaints were loud that

the terms, by which the reunion of the

Synods of New York and Philadelphia was

affected, were being violated and new

bonds were being put on the liberty of the

Church.

l8o The Presbyterians

The troubles were increased by a protest called ** The Western Memorial" which was presented to the Assembly in 1834. It was signed by eighteen ministers and ninety-nine elders and drew a dark picture of doctrinal defection and consequent danger. It reflected on the action of pre- vious Assemblies charging them with "avoiding a prompt discharge of their con- stitutional duties." It also denounced the Plan of Union, claiming that many who bore the Presbyterian name adopted the Standards each according to his own mind and that many had been ordained to the Presbyterian ministry before they knew what Presbyterianism was; voluntary as- sociations were, also discredited and the Home Missionary Society was declared to be subversive of the Presbyterian system. The answer of the Assembly was of course unsatisfactory. It refused to abrogate the Plan of Union and to reflect on the action of preceding Assemblies and generally op-

The Division of 1837 181

posed itself to the high church views of the Memorialists.

The minority now drew up a remarkable paper called ''The Act and Testimony." It affirmed in yet stronger language the statements of the Memorial. It declared church courts recreant to their duty in up- holding the doctrines of the Church; that Synods and Assemblies were ''made the- atres for the open display of humiliating scenes of human passion and weakness," and called upon church courts to purge the church of heresies and asked church officers and Assemblies believing in the principles stated to give them their public adherence. This was in effect a call for a division of the Church. A convention to ratify "The Act and Testimony " was called to meet in Pittsburg previous to the meeting of the Assembly of 1835 to adopt such measures as should be "best suited to restore the prostrate Standards." Thirty-seven min- isters and twenty-seven elders signed this

l82 The Presbyterians

call. The leaders in this movement were Dr. Joshua L. Wilson of Cincinnati, Dr. R. J. Breckenridge of Kentucky, and Drs. Green and George Junkin and James Latta of Pennsylvania. N^ The Princeton Review set itself against these extreme measures. It called them equivalent to ** recommendations to re- nounce the allegiance of the Church"; that they were ''extra constitutional and revo- lutionary and to be opposed." It truly de- clared ''division is the end to which this enterprise leads and to which, we doubt not, it aims." The Review undoubtedly represented the views of a large proportion of the Church.

The convention which had been called met in Pittsburg in May, 1835; forty-one Presbyteries were represented and minori- ties from thirteen more. A list of griev- ances in line with "The Act and Testi- mony " was drawn up and presented to the Assembly. It portrayed the condition of

The Division of 1837 183

the Church in dark colors and urged the annulhng of the "Plan of Union" to the operation of which it traced the troubles that were affecting the Church. The alarms which had been sounded were bearing fruit. The Assembly proved to be in sym- pathy with the Memorialists and while not going the full length of the grievances that were presented nevertheless condemned the "elective affinity" principle of constituting church courts and pronounced against the "Plan of Union." It did not, however, favor an entire break with the New Eng- land churches and it refused to prohibit the work of voluntary societies like the Educa- tional and the Home Missionary Societies.

The Memorialists felt, now that the As- sembly was back of them, they could go further. The Synod of Philadelphia re- sumed the prosecution of Mr. Barnes and suspended him from the ministry. He ap- pealed to the Assembly of 1836 when again the scale turned and his friends were in the

184 The Presbyterians

majority and his appeal against the Synod was sustained.

The defeated party prepared at once to line up their forces for the next meeting of the Assembly. Confidential circulars were sent out to all who were supposed to be in sympathy with them and a convention was called to meet in Philadelphia just before the Assembly 0^1837. In a pamphlet issued to prepare the way for action it was openly avowed, " In some way or other these men must be separated from us." The Prince- ton Review still pleaded for peace and union and exposed the folly of division. But in vain. There was a good deal of division of sentiment over the discussions of the con- vention which was attended by about one hundred ministers and elders, but there was general agreement on the necessity for drastic measures to purge the Church of the errors and defections which were creeping in upon her. The memorial to the Assembly was in substance the same as that of the pre-

The Division of 1837 185

ceding year: the "Plan of Union" must cease; voluntary societies could no longer be countenanced; churches and Presbyteries not organized on Presbyterian principles must no longer be recognized; every minis- ter entering a Presbytery, no matter what his standing in another Presbytery, must be examined. These and similar requirements were laid before the Assembly which met in Philadelphia on the i8th of May, 1837. Dr. John Witherspoon opened the Assembly ^ with a sermon pleading for peace. But the Ibattle royal was soon on. The two parties ?were led with great ability. On the con- servative side were Plumer, Breckenridge, Junkin and Greene. On the other side were Beman, Porter, DufField, Dickinson and others. The vote for moderator, electing Dr. David Elliott, foreshadowed the result. The first action taken May 22d was that regarding the ''Plan of Union." The assent of the other party to it (the General Assembly of Connecticut)

i86 The Presbyterians

was not even considered. In vain its friends pleaded the good it had effected in giving churches to new communities. It was re- garded as inimical to sound doctrine and Presbyterian order. Dr. Alexander and others admitted its past value, but thought in changed and more settled conditions it was no longer needed. It was declared "unnatural and unconstitutional," and was therefore abrogated.

On motion of Mr. Plumer the Assembly next, after prolonged debate and by a re- duced majority, adopted a resolution sum- moning inferior judicatories, which com- mon fame charged with irregularities, to the bar of the next Assembly.

An effort was next made for a voluntary division of the Church and a committee from representatives of both parties was appointed to mature a plan for bringing it about. The committee ^was unable to agree.

The next step was the offering of a reso-

The Division of 1837 187

lution, also by Mr. Plumer, exscinding the Western Reserve Synod whicli had been formed on the basis of the "Plan of Union." After an acrimonious debate the resolution was adopted by a vote of 132 to 105 and the Synod of the Western Reserve was de- clared to be no longer a part of the Presby- terian Church. After that the steps were easily and swiftly taken. The Home Mis- sionary Society, the American Educational Society, and all their branches were pro- nounced injurious to the Church, and churches were recommended to cease all cooperation with them. The following day the Synods of Utica, Geneva and Genesee were similarly exscinded. This action was accompanied by a direction to ministers and churches within the bounds of these Synods who were really Presbyterian to apply for admission to the nearest Presbytery. The third Presbytery of Philadelphia, to which Mr. Barnes belonged and which had stood by him in his various trials, was also dis-

l88 The Presbyterians

solved. Thus was the division accomplished which for a generation was to be the occa- sion of strife among brethren.

Other measures, directly or indirectly connected with the disputes which resulted in the division, followed as a matter of course. On an impartial review after two generations have given perspective for an unbiased examination of the conditions which forced the division, it is evident that while the " Plan of Union " was not known to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church and therefore introduced a foreign element which might at anytime cause irri- tation and suspicion, yet the summary abro- gation of it "by the vote of a majority" and the exscinding at the same time by a mere resolution of four Synods was an ex- tra constitutional act which might justly be feared to imperil the standing and rights of other Synods in the future.

The questions such fears would raise might have been trusted to secure a recon-

The Division of 1837 189

sideration of the Assembly's high-handed action at some time not far away when the passions of party should have had some chance to cool — had not another question now come into the ecclesiastical arena which made the separation final. That question >vas the question of slavery. This has played so large a part in the history of the Presbyterian Church even to the present time that a brief review of it is important. The earliest action on the subject in 1787 has already been noted. But Banquo's ghost was destined to a continued reappearance. In 1818 the matter of the sale of a Christian slave was brought before the Assembly. That body took prompt and positive action. It declared: "We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another as a gross violation of the most sacred and precious rights of human nature and as utterly inconsistent with the law of God." And after depicting the evils of slavery the document concludes by declar-

/

190 The Presbyterians

ing it to be the duty of Christians "to use their honest, earnest and unwearied endeav- ors to correct the error of former times and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our holy religion and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom and if possible throughout the world." Nothing stronger or more comprehensive could well be written.

This remained the attitude of the Church until 1837. The question now assumed new proportions. The discussions in the South were intense and continuous. Some ministers left the South and moved to Ohio because unable longer to countenance slav- ery. The antislavery sentiment of Ken- tucky grew stronger under the influence of such leaders as ''Father Rice." It is a remarkable fact that from 1825 to 1837 there were more antislavery societies in the South than in the North. It is said there were forty-one in North Carolina and twenty-three in Tennessee and many others

The Division of 1837 191

in Virginia and Kentucky. They were founded chiefly by a Quaker — Benjamin Lundy. In 1833 the subject was discussed for two days in the Synod of Kentucky and when Synod adjourned without taking action, Dr. Breckenridge rose and declared, "Since God has forsaken the Synod of Kentucky, Robert J. Breckenridge will for- sake it too." The following year, how- ever, strong action was taken denouncing the system as one that was demoralizing to blacks and whites and calculated to draw down the vengeance of heaven.

But this advanced public sentiment was not general in the South. Meantime a rad- ical antislavery crusade was being pushed in the North. Inflammatory publications were flung abroad. A reaction was inevi- table and came swiftly. The southern states stiffened their slave laws. It was the last desperate effort of the "peculiar institu- tion" to maintain its power. As the centre o( the antislavery movement was in New

192 The Presbyterians

England, those who favored the New Eng- land theology were easily classed as aboli- tion fanatics. While the cleavage between Old and New School by no means indicated the division of sentiment in regard to slav- ery, yet it was probably true that the strong- est feeling was among those who favored free ecclesiastical methods and voluntary societies. So at least the people in the South believed. The result was that as the antislavery feeling rose in the North it de- clined in the South.

The years following the division in 1837 were years of strife and consequent aliena- tion. In 1838, after an ineffectual attempt of the exscinded Synods to secure recogni- tion as a constituent part of the General Assembly, a separate organization was effected in the First Presbyterian church of Philadelphia and the Assembly subsequently known as the New School was constituted. The acts of the Assembly of 1837 were re- pealed; the Home Missionary Society and

The Division of 1837 193

the Educational Society were endorsed and commended to the churches; the act by which the four Synods had been declared no longer a part of the Presbyterian Church was pronounced ** utterly at variance with the constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and there- fore inoperative and void."

To determine questions of ecclesiastical rights and property, suit was brought against the Old Assembly by the New in the Supreme Court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. The verdict was in favor of the New School. An appeal to the Supreme Court in banc resulted in an order for a new trial — which however never was had. Each Church retained the property within its bounds. The lines of division now ran through all parts of the Church. In Kentucky there was long debate and only a small company of ministers and, at the first, only one church united with the New School Assembly. In Missouri an independ-

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The Lh\iNUi oi 1837 iy5

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194 The Presbyterians

ent Synod was formed which, however, after a few years joined the New School Assembly. The Synods of Michigan and Tennessee adhered to the New School Assembly from the first. The Synod of Indiana, divided easily on a principle of elective affinity. In Ohio the New School Assembly was formed by fifty-five mem- bers who had withdrawn from the Old School Assembly. In New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states, the division was recognized as an accom- plished fact and the minority on which- ever side it might be withdrew and formed a new body. All thought of reunion was now given up and the two bodies ad- dressed themselves with energy to their re- spective tasks.

But the years immediately preceding and following division were years of lessened power. The activity which in the early decades of the century had been expended on missionary lines was now put into

The Division of 1837 I95

ecclesiastical debate and action. After the division churches as well as Synods and Presbyteries were rent asunder. Weak churches were formed by small bands seceding from the parent organization and alienations created which a generation would not remove.

The two denominations (for such they had now become) went on with their work but not without difficulty in adjusting themselves to their new conditions. Thus the New Assembly soon found itself in trouble in its missionary and educational work because of its alliance with Congrega- tional churches and methods. The Home Missionary Society was governed by rules which made it far easier for Congregational churches to avail themselves of its aid than for Presbyterian churches. The Church had given her missionary money to the Home Missionary Society. Much of it went to build up Congregational churches. After years of fruitless conference in 1852 the

196 The Presbyterians

Assembly appointed the Church Extension Committee into whose hands the home mission work gradually drifted. So that in 1 86 1 the Assembly formally assumed the responsibility of conducting home mission work within its bounds.

The necessity of a society for ministerial education also pressed on the Church and in 1856 such a society was appointed by the Assembly and located in New York. About the same time a publication com- mittee was constituted to ''publish such works of an evangelical character as may be profitable to the Church."

The Old School branch of the Church did not need reorganization. Well equipped with the machinery for aggressive work it made rapid progress. The South and Southwest presented inviting missionary fields which were energetically occupied. The opening West and Northwest also furnished fruitful fields for church exten- sion. Its Board of Foreign Missions grew

The Division of 1837 197

in strength and reached to foreign lands in many directions. It would have been for both branches of the Church a time of signal prosperity but for a storm of vast proportions long heralded and now be- ginning to envelope the entire nation. This storm's effect on the life and work of the Church will occupy the pages of the next chapter.

CHAPTER X

THE CIVIL WAR AND ITS RESULTS

From 1840 the antislavery sentiment of the country developed rapidly. At the same time the struggle of slavery to maintain its position was intense to desperation. As early as 1837 a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, because he dared to publish articles against slavery, was set upon by a mob at Alton, III., and slain. Another Presbyterian, James G. Birnie, of Alabama, emancipated his slaves, and coming North to give his life to the cause, became in 1840 and 1844 the first antislavery candidate for President. Dr. David Nelson, another southern abolitionist, narrowly escaped mob violence because of his bold declarations as to the sinfulness of slavery.

The Rev. Albert Barnes was one of the

most courageous and, because of his mod- 198

The Civil War and Its Results 199

eration, one of the most influential of the antislavery men of the times. He de- nounced the spirit and methods of many of the abolitionists while at the same time un- sparingly denouncing the system. He was, however, bolder than many of his brethren. The Assemblies following the division felt the effect of the inflamed state of the South. As already quoted, the Church had in 1818 put herself on record without wavering as the foe of a system which it declared a "blot on our holy religion." But it was not again affirmed by either Assembly until after the War had broken out. Some of the southern church courts flatly contradicted it. The Presbytery of Harmony, S. C, re- solved in 1836, "that the existence of slavery is not opposed to the will of God." The Synod of Virginia said, "The General Assembly had no right to declare that rela- tion sinful which Christ and his apostles teach to be consistent with the most unques- tionable piety." Thus, while the churches

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from a mistaken policy became silent, the evils of slavery grew to such proportions as to challenge the condemnation of Christians all over the world. The New School As- sembly was the more positive in its declara- tions and in 1853 called on the churches un- der its care in the South to make report of what had been done to purge the Church of this great evil. One of its Presbyteries, that of Lexington in Kentucky, replied that its ministers and members were slave holders by choice and on principle. The Assembly had no alternative but to condemn a state- ment so out of harmony with the history of the Church and as a consequence the entire contingent of the Assembly in the South withdrew. Six Synods and twenty-one Presbyteries formed the united Synod of the Presbyterian Church. They sought admis- sion to the Old School Assembly, but only on condition that that Assembly disapprove of the exscinding act of 1837. This the As- sembly refused to do.

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The Old School Assembly in order to pre- serve the unity of the Church declined some- what from the strenuous position it had taken in 1818 to an attitude of condemna- tion of certain evils connected with slavery. It no longer attacked the institution itself. Indeed it could not have done so and have kept the southern churches. The result of its compromises, however, as of compro- mises generally was that it lost its hold somewhat on both sections of the country. The South was offended to have action taken like that of 1845 condemning the slave laws of some of the states; or that of 1849 in which the Assembly refused to countenance the ** traffic in slaves for the sake of gain." On the other hand a continually increasing number in the northern states were not con- tent with the mild and, as they regarded it, tampering action of the Church. In illustra- tion, in 1849 the Presbytery of Chillicothe in Ohio asked the Assembly to declare slavery a sin and to enjoin the lower courts to make

202 The Presbyterians

it a ground of church discipline. The As- sembly voted that it was "inexpedient or improper for it to attempt or propose meas- ures of emancipation." Thus the Church with the nation was drifting toward a rock. Feelings were becoming intense — lines were sharply drawn. The irrepressible conflict was on. Though the Church maintained its unity until the breaking out of the Civil War the years immediately preceding were times of acrimonious debate in church courts and of anxiety, suspicion and aliena- tion between the churches north and south. At last the storm broke. Compromises in state and Church were at an end. On the seventeenth of April, 1861, the first gun was fired on Ft. Sumpter. The appeal was removed from the forum to the field. The Old School Assembly met in Philadelphia one month after the attack on Sumpter. Eight states had already seceded. It was not possible to keep the national question out of church courts. The border states

The Civil War and Its Results 203

were hesitating. It is said Lincoln desired the General Assembly to give an expression of loyalty to the general government that would strengthen the hands of the adminis- tration in its efforts to prevent the secession of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mis- souri. A few commissioners were present from states already in the Confederacy. They made every effort to prevent action in the hope that the bonds which held the Church together might survive the sunder- ing of national ties. They were not with- out friends in the North who sympathized with this hope. They were for the most part the leading spirits of the Assembly. There was, however, one leader who in this crisis came forward to champion the cause of the majority in carrying the Assembly to an expression of loyalty to the Union. That man was Gardiner Spring, the venerable pastor of the Brick Church in New York. By temperament and conviction he was a conservative. An antislavery man, he had

204 The Presbyterians

been pronounced in his condemnation of abolitionists. He had joined other con- servatives in an appeal to ministers of the South, after South Carolina had seceded, inviting to united prayer that war might yet be averted. But when secession was an accomplished fact with characteristic courage he led in the movement for a quick declaration of loyalty. After various prop- ositions had failed he offered the famous "Spring Resolutions." They committed the Church to ** obligations to promote and perpetuate— so far as in us lies — the integ- rity of these United States and to strengthen, uphold and encourage the Federal Govern- ment in the exercise of all its functions under our noble constitution and to this constitution in all its provisions, require- ments and principles we profess our un- abated loyalty." After two days of debate it was referred to a committee of nine who reported by a majority of eight to one that no action was necessary. Dr. William C.

The Civil War and Its Results 205

Anderson of San Francisco stood alone on that committee for prompt and decided ac- tion. He reported the resolutions to the Assembly and urged their adoption. The Assembly adopted them by a vote of one hundred and fifty-six to sixty-six. The passions of the time may be judged by the fact that these resolutions were criti- cized as feeble and indecisive. But their restrained dignity was of far more help to the government than any violent out- burst could possibly have been. More than any other public declaration of the day it was influential in holding the border states to the Union. -^Dr. Charles Hodge and fifty-seven others entered protest against this action — not from any lack of loyalty to the government — but solely because they believed it beyond the province of an ec- clesiastical court to decide in a disputed political question. That question was whether states had a right under the con- stitution peaceably to secede. That question

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was left undecided in 1789 when the con- stitution was adopted on purpose that some states, which were hesitating to enter the national compact, might be encouraged to do so with a possible door for peaceable withdrawal open to them. Why then should a church court decide on that ques- tion ? This was the contention of the prot- estants and from their point of view it had logical cogency. But all such academic considerations were brushed aside by an Assembly sitting at the very time when the peaceful nation suddenly became an armed camp and which could not help catching the patriotic fire which swept over the land. The going out of the southern churches followed as a matter of course. A conven- tion was held in Augusta, Ga., in August, 1 86 1, at which commissioners from ten Synods embracing forty-seven Presbyteries constituted the first General Assembly of "The Presbyterian Church in the Confed- erate States of America." Dr. Benjamin M,

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Palmer of New Orleans who was an advo- cate of secession from the first was fitly | chosen moderator. It was frequently said at the time that the Spring Resolutions cut the ties between northern and southern As- semblies. This was not true. The War brought on the division of every Protestant body. The attitude of the Southern As- sembly was manifest when at its first meet- ing it declared: "It is desirable that each nation should have a separate and inde- pendent Church and the Presbyteries of the Confederate states need no apology for bowing to the decree of Providence which in withdrawing their country from the gov- ernment of the United States has at the same time determined that they should withdraw from the Church of their fathers." The vital relation of slavery and secession alike in Church and state is illustrated by the action of the Southern Assembly in 1864 in which they say, "The long con- tinued agitations of our adversaries have

2o8 The Presbyterians

wrought within us a deeper conviction of the divine appointment of domestic servi- tude and have led to a clearer comprehen- sion of the duty we owe to the African race. We hesitate not to affirm that it is the peculiar mission of the Southern Church to conserve the institution of slavery and to make it a blessing to both master and slave."

In 1864 the Southern Church received the United Synod which had seceded from the New School Church on account of its "political deliverances."

The work of the Presbyterian churches north and south was of course much hin- dered by the War— more however in the South than in the North. At the close of the war the Southern Church changed its corporate title to that of " The Presbyterian Church in the United States."

The Church which had lost so heavily was now however strengthened by acces- sions from the border states. It was in

The Civil War and Its Results 209

these states that the result of the War ] brought the most trouble to the churches. Dr. Samuel R. Wilson, in 1865, drafted a "Declaration and Testimony" protesting against all the deliverances of the Old School Assembly during and in relation to the war and against the decisions of the two preceding Assemblies on slavery and loyalty. Fifty-four ministers and one hun- dred and seventy-three ruling elders, chiefly in the border states, signed this document. It became the occasion for disputes and divisions running through years. The As- sembly of 1866 condemned the document as "a slander on the Church, schismatical in character and aims"; called its signers to the bar of the next Assembly ; excluded them meantime from all church courts, and declared any Presbytery dissolved that should enroll them in its membership. This heroic action was called "The Gurley Order " and passed the Assembly by a vote of one hundred and ninety-six to thirty-

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seven. If there had been hopes of com- promise and harmony this ended them. The Synods of Kentucky and Missouri were cut off from the Assembly and suits for church property on the one side or the other were promptly instituted. As was to be expected, the courts of the state decided against the Assembly. Carried to the su- preme court of the United States the de- cision was reversed and the property went into the hands of the General Assembly.

It cannot be doubted that party passions gave an unjustifiable rigor to the acts both of Synod and General Assembly in the years following the war. Allowance was not made for differences in point of view and divisions were caused which a gentler and more judicial temper would probably have avoided. The breach between Pres- byteries and Assembly in Kentucky was made final in 1868 when they united with the Southern Assembly. The Synod of Missouri maintained an independent posi-

The Civil War and Its Results 21 1

tion till 1874 when it too joined the South- ern Church. Other accessions to that Church were the Associate Reformed Pres- bytery of Alabama in 1867 and of Kentucky in 1870.

CHAPTER XI

REUNION

No sooner had the War made separation between northern and southern Presbyteri- ans final and complete than there appeared among the churches of the North a desire for closer fellowship. Indeed during the War several attempts at union were made by the Old and New School Assemblies.

In 1862 on suggestion of the Old School Assembly a friendly interchange of com- missioners was arranged between them. The next step came in 1864 when the Old School body proposed a conference looking to reunion. In 1866, both Assemblies were in session in St. Louis. The general desire for reunion was expressed by the fact that many Presbyterians from both bodies had taken steps in that direction. The Old

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School Assembly in session in the Second Presbyterian church proposed to the New School, which was meeting in the First church, a joint committee of nine ministers and six ruling elders from each body to discuss the question of union. In this pro- posal the Assembly voiced an "earnest de- sire for reunion at the earliest time con- sistent with agreement in doctrine, order and polity on the basis of our common standards and the prevalence of mutual love and confidence." To this proposal the New School gave unanimous assent. The report of this committee in 1867 recom- mended "reunion on the doctrinal and ecclesiastical basis of the common Stand- ards," the Confession of Faith to be re- ceived "in its fair historical sense." Dr. Hodge attacked this plan in The Princeton, Review declaring that the New School church did not accept all the doctrines of the Calvinistic system. r Pending the debate on the plan proposed

214 ^^^ Presbyterians

at the call of the Reformed Presbyterian General Synod and through the influence of the broad-minded George H. Stuart a con- vention of all Presbyterian churches was called to consider the question of a union not merely of Old and New School but of all the various branches of the Presbyterian family. It was held in the First Reformed Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, No- vember 8, 1867. Delegates were present from all the Presbyterian bodies. The deliberations which were characterized by the utmost harmony crystallized in the adoption of a proposition that "in the United Church the Westminster Confession of Faith should be received and adopted as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scripture." While this convention made little progress toward the end for which it was called it served to clear the air. When the New School delegates adopted this declaration almost unanimously the objections to a reunion which many Old

Reunion 215

School men had felt were sensibly weak- ened. But as the sentiment in favor of the main object grew in intensity throughout both Churches the difficulties in the way of actual union seemed to increase. Debate went on. One proposition after another was presented only to be discarded or with- drawn. The Assemblies of 1869 met in New York. During the year preceding there had been much debate and criticism, often sharp and unfriendly. There was less reunion enthusiasm and the end for which so many earnest souls were longing seemed in imminent jeopardy. But Provi- dence was guiding. From the very first meeting the question of reunion constantly recurred. A new committee of conference was appointed. To it was referred the report of the Joint Committee and all pre- vious actions. No stronger committee could have been named. On the part of the Old School were Drs. Musgrave, Hall, Atwater, Lord and Wilson with ruling elders Drake,

2l6 The Presbyterians

Francis, Carter, Grier and Day. On the New School side were Drs. Adams, Stearns, Patterson, Fisher, and Shaw with elders Strong, Haines, Dodge, Ferrand and Knight. This committee, steering clear of all tech- nical statements and explanations proposed reunion on the basis of the Standards alone, "each recognizing the other as a sound and orthodox body according to the principles of the Confession common to both." The right basis was struck. Mutual confidence must be the corner-stone of that building. This simple plan was heartily adopted, — unanimously by the New School and by a vote of two hundred and eighty-five to nine in the Old School body. The votes in the Presbyteries confirming this action were in about the same proportion. Both bodies were so sure of favorable action on the overtures sent down to the Presbyteries that they agreed both Assemblies should meet in Pittsburg in November to consider /S the result,— the Old School Assembly in the

Reunion 217

First church — the New School in the Third church. A canvass of votes showed that the Old School Presbyteries had declared for reunion with but three dissenting votes. In the New School body the vote was unanimous. At ten o'clock on Friday morning, November I2thyi869, each As- sembly notified the other of the action of the Presbyteries. Each body formally de- clared the Basis of Union of binding force and voted its own dissolution calling the United Assembly to meet in the First church of Philadelphia in 1870. But an adjournment could not be had without an expression of the joy that filled all hearts. The exercises attending these meetings were of the most impressive character. After the business had been transacted the two bodies met in front of the First church and marched up Sixth Avenue in a body to the Third church where a great ratification meeting was held. As the head of the column led by the two moderators, Drs.

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Jacobus and Fowler arm in arm, entered the noble edifice, the great waiting audience sprang to its feet and broke forth in the doxology —

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow."

The two moderators made appropriate ad- dresses and then clasped hands. Dr. David Elliot, who was moderator at the time of the division in 1837, was on the platform. Dr. Jacobus in the metaphor of a marriage, ad- dressing the venerable Dr. Elliot said, "If there be any person present who knows of any just and sufficient reason why these parties may not be lawfully united let him speak or ever after hold his peace." Dr. Elliot replied, "I know of none." George H. Stuart, an enthusiastic spectator, ex- claimed, "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder." Dr. Jacobus added, "In the name of God, Amen." " Amens" arose all over the house, and so amid signals of joy and tears of rejoicing

Reunion 219

the work was done.^Thus after thirty yearsA of division the Church which never should;] have divided was most happily united. '

The United Assembly met in 1870 in Albert Barnes' church in Philadelphia. Thirty-four Synods were constituted. The machinery of the Church was speedily re- arranged. The New School body had found in the years of division that volun- tary societies in which different denomina- tions were allied were not the most effective forms of church progress. They readily consented to the organization of Boards under the control of the Assembly. They withdrew from the American Board, divid- ing the mission fields with that noble agency and united in the support of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions with headquarters in New York. The Boards of Home Missions and Publication were consolidated and the former located in New York — the latter in Philadelphia.

One of the measures provided for by the

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reunion was a memorial Thanksgiving Fund for the enlargement of the work of the Church. Under the enthusiastic leadership of the secretary of this fund, Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, it amounted to 17,607,491. N^ Thus the Church entered on an era of expansion. The times were favorable for it. A practical spirit took possession of the Church. Theological discussions were largely retired. The religious needs of the world at home and abroad loomed up large and commanding. The main question now before the Church was what could she do to meet the rnoral and spiritual demands of the times. The result was a great revival of practical Christianity. It found expres- sion in new organizations and in the new spirit with which approved organizations were pushed. \^ Home missions engaged the attention of the Church as perhaps never before. There was not more missionary enthusiasm than at the beginning of the century when the

Reunion 22 1

West was first opened to emigration. But to the enthusiasm was added a capacity un- known before. The Board of Home Mis- sions which had long been an effective agency now put forth new power. Dr. Henry Kendall at the reunion was made Secretary of the United Board. Dr. Cyrus Dickson was associated with him. They nobly supplemented each other. Dr. Kendall was a man with large views and the grasp of a statesman. Dr. Dickson was an orator with rare power to arouse the Church to her duty. Together they carried on a great campaign. Wherever new communities gathered there the Presbyterian missionary was on hand to preach the gospel and establish Christian institutions.

The two decades following reunion wit- nessed a tremendous westward movement. New cities sprang up as by magic, from the lakes to the mountains. New states put forth commercial and political power. The glory of those decades was in the fact that

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the Christian Church kept pace with the national growth and the Presbyterian Church by her enterprise and devotion honored the best periods of her history. Thus in 1869 nine young men from one of the seminaries consecrated themselves to the work of home missions. They found their field in Kansas and were called "The Kansas Band^' The Synod of Kansas was the result^f their labors. The man who was the guide and bishop of these young men and of a hundred others who within the next twenty years went into Kansas was the Rev. Timothy Hill, D. D., a pioneer and missionary superintendent of rare tact, devotion and power. Nearly three hundred churches organized by him or through his influence in Kansas and the Indian Territory are his monument. He was one of many. Men like Daniel Baker of Texas, Henry Little of Indiana, A. T. Norton of Illinois, B. G. Riley, Matthew Fox and others of Wisconsin, and David C.

Reunion 223

Lyon of Minnesota, laid foundations on which generations to come will build for the strength and glory of the Church.

All the other benevolent agencies of the Church were pressed with vigor. In foreign missions there was notable advance. A new impetus was given to the purpose to preach the gospel to every creature and the daring thought began to come over the Church that it was possible to sound the glad tidings to all the people of the earth within a single generation. New stations were opened in many lands and new enthu- siasm was aroused throughout the Church at home.

Presbyteries were now^ beginning to plan for a world campaign in which all branches of the Church might unite. Soon after the reunion of the Old and New School Churches a movement was inaugurated by Dr. James McCosh, President of Princeton College, to secure more intimate and co- operative relations among Presbyterians of

224 The Presbyterians

every name and in every country. It was in 1876 that the ''Alliance of the Reformed Churches throughout the world holding the Presbyterian system " was formed. "The objects of the Alliance are chiefly the crea- tion of a spirit of fraternity among brethren of like mind and the advancement of the great cause of missions." It holds quadren- nial meetings which are called "General Councils," having only advisory powers. It embraces about sixty divisions of the great Reformed family. By it all branches of the Church are brought into communica- tion with one another. While so far little more than friendly interchanges of thought have marked the conventions, it is hoped that at some time not far away they may be the means of more closely federating the families of the Presbyterian Church for or- ganized and joint endeavors in missionary work if not for actual ecclesiastical union. That it has already stimulated a desire for closer bonds between the divided members

Reunion 225

of the Presbyterian household cannot be doubted.

At different times committees of northern and southern churches have been in confer- ence in regard to a union. That which oc- casioned the division was however too fully in memory to allow of any decisive prog- ress. When the Centennial Assembly of the Northern Church met in May, 1888, the Southern Assembly went from Baltimore to Philadelphia to join in the celebration and give eloquent expression to feelings of fra- ternity and good- will, '-^ut nothing more came of it. And as indicating some reac- tion from the brotherly interchanges of other years the Southern Assembly of 1894 refused to appoint a committee to confer again on the question of a reunion of the two Assemblies. There the matter rests for the present. TheNorthern Assembly has repeatedly manifested its willingness to unite with the Southern Church on the basis of the Standards common to both and in

226 The Presbyterians

brotherly oblivion of the past. The South- ern Assembly, however, has not yet been convinced of the orthodoxy of their breth- ren. On that account, and perhaps also be- cause of unrepealed action by the Northern Church during and in regard to the War, they are of the opinion that the two bodies must work out their separate destiny and with good-will toward each other do their individual work. But time is a great healer. The real causes of the division have passed away. These two great bodies belong to- gether historically and by their message and their mission. They will yet be reunited. There will also be other unions with smaller Presbyterian bodies and there will yet be a National Presbyterian Church.

CHAPTER XII

HERESY TRIALS

The Presbyterian Church is a theological Church. It has a definite creed — loyalty to which it exacts from all its office bearers.! That creed is expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and\ Shorter Catechisms. This does not mean- that every minister or ruling elder is to sub- scribe to every statement in these Standards but that he accepts the system of doctrine therein taught. The Reunion of Old and New School Churches was effected on the basis of these Standards alone. The period since the reunion has been marked by a number of ecclesiastical trials to test the orthodoxy of Presbyterian ministers. The first of these was the trial in 1874 of Prof. David Swing, pastor of the Fourth Presby- terian Church of Chicago on charges pre- 227

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f erred by Rev. Francis L. Patton, D. D., at that time professor in the Theological Semi- nary of the Northwest. Professor Swing had a poetic mind, not accustomed to log- ical statements but to pictorial presentations of truth. Dr. Patton thought he detected in certain of Professor Swing's sermons doctrines inconsistent with the Confession of Faith. Especially did he regard the pro- fessor as unsound in his views of the divin- ity of Christ. He therefore brought charges against him before the Presbytery of Chicago. After a trial lasting six weeks and conducted with signal ability both by the prosecutor and by Dr. George C. Noyes, counsel for the accused, Professor Swing was acquitted. An appeal to Synod fol- lowed, but a trial there was obviated by the withdrawal of the Professor from the Pres- byterian Church. The unhappy effects of the trial, in the strained feelings between brethren which it induced, remained for decades.

Heresy Trials 229

In the last decade of the nineteenth cen- tury the Higher Criticism entered as a factor in the history of the Presbyterian Church. The term is used to designate the literary criticism of the Bible by which from in- ternal and external evidence an effort is made to fix the date, authorship, place and purpose of the various writings of the Bible and also to determine their relation to each other. The Higher Criticism is of Dutch and German origin and has unhappily been often used to discredit in part or in whole the books which it examines. While there is a rationalistic school of higher critics who use this method to assail the supernatural, there is nothing in the method itself inconsistent with evangelical views and purpose. All depends on the spirit in which it is pursued and the extent to which it is carried.

It first attracted prominent attention in the Presbyterian Church in connection with the induction of Prof. Charles A. Briggs, D. D.,\| into the chair of "Biblical Theology" in

230 The Presbyterians

Union Theological Seminary in New York. Professor Briggs had long been professor of the Hebrew and Cognate languages in which he had distinguished himself as a pro- found scholar and an enthusiastic teacher. When therefore Dr. Charles Butler endowed the new professorship and named Doctor Briggs as incumbent the Church expected large results in Old Testament investiga- tion. In his inaugural address the professor announced with additional emphasis the views he had been known to hold, at the same time maintaining there was nothing in them inconsistent with his ordination vows as a Presbyterian minister. In neither the methods nor conclusions of his critical studies had he taken any position that was not loyal to the Bible and the Confession of Faith. The matter of the address was taken up by the Presbytery of New York and in October, 1891, the Presbytery required the professor to answer charges tabled against him by a prosecuting committee. The

Heresy Trials 231

Presbytery dismissed the case ** without approving of the positions stated in his in- augural address," but earnestly desiring the peace and quiet of the Church. From this decision the prosecuting committee ap- pealed to the General Assembly. Thirty- four members also took steps to bring the case before the Synod of New York by complaint. The Assembly of 1892 without waiting the issue of the complaint by the Synod of New York sustained the appeal of the prosecuting committee. The case was remanded to the Presbytery for trial on its merits. The trial occurred in November, 1892. There were four main charges — the chief ones being (first) that the accused denied the inerrancy of the Bible even in the original documents, and (second) that he regarded the Scriptures, the Reason and the Church as of coordinate authority. In his response he squarely denied the charge, asserting that while the Church and the Reason were authorities they were not in-

232 The Presbyterians

fallible and that ''the Scripture was the only infallible rule of faith and practice."

The Presbytery again acquitted him on all the charges, though this time by a re- duced majority. A second appeal to the Assembly was had by the prosecution on the ground of exceptions to the conduct of the trial in Presbytery and also on the wrongfulness of the verdict. The discus- sions had by this time so agitated the Church that special efforts were made in every Presbytery to secure commissioners on the line of this one question. So much alarm had been excited lest the foundations should be imperilled that the choice of dele- gates to the Assembly resulted in a body of unusual conservatism. The Assembly met in Washington and "the Briggs trial" over- shadowed every other question. The judi- cial committee by a divided vote recom- mended entertaining the appeal and the trial proceeded. After both parties had been fully heard and also members of the

Heresy Trials 233

Presbytery and of the Assembly the vote was taken and resulted in conviction by a vote of 379 to 1 16. A committee waited on Professor Briggs to ask him to retract. His reply was what was to have been expected. He maintained his loyalty to the Scriptures and the Standards of the Presbyterian Church and had therefore nothing to re- tract. He was then suspended "from the office of a minister in the Presbyterian Church until such time as he shall give satisfactory evidence of repentance to the General Assembly for the violation by him of his ordination vow."

Dr. Briggs soon thereafter gave relief to the Church and closed farther discussion of his case by taking orders in the Protes- tant Episcopal Church. He retains his chair in Union Theological Seminary.

Another trial for heresy at about the same time was that of Prof. Henry Preserved Smith of Lane Theological Seminary. In 1 89 1 a paper read by him before the minis-

234 The Presbyterians

terial association of Cincinnati became a sub- ject of heated controversy in the Presbytery. It was not, however, till eighteen months later that the Presbytery took judicial notice of the alleged errors and entered on trial. The question at issue was similar to that in the case of Dr. Briggs, viz., the inerrancy of the original manuscript of the Scriptures. Doctor Smith was found guilty and sus- pended from the ministry — until he should renounce the errors alleged against him.

The Professor appealed to the Synod of Ohio which sustained the lower court. The case then went to the General Assembly. It was the year following that in which the main issue had been decided in regard to Professor Briggs. There was therefore only one thing for the Assembly to do. It con- firmed the sentence of the Synod and Pres- bytery— not however until after a confer- ence with him in the hope that explanations or concessions would modify the action of the Assembly. A much better spirit ruled

Heresy Trials 235

the court than that which appeared in the trial of Dr. Briggs, due in part to a feeling already coming over the Church that trials for heresy were of doubtful value for pre- serving the peace of the Church, but per- haps even more to the gracious, brotherly and modest demeanor of the accused which won high regard for him even from those who entirely differed from him.

The case of Prof. A. C. McGifYert of Union Theological Seminary claimed a good deal of attention from the General Assembly between 1898 and 1900. The Professor had published a volume entitled " Christianity in the Apostolic Age " in which positions were taken which in the judgment of many con- travened certain essential doctrines of the Confession of Faith. The attention of the Assembly was called to alleged errors in this book by an overture from the Presby- tery of Pittsburg. The Assembly disap- proved of the utterances of Dr. McGiffert, but as the Church needed peace and rest, in

236 The Presbyterians

a spirit of kindness it asked him to recon- sider the questionable views published by him and if he could not conform them to the Standards of the Church peaceably to withdraw from the Presbyterian ministry. To this action the Professor made reply the following year declaring that the spirit and purpose of his book had been seriously mis- apprehended. He repudiated the false con- structions that had been placed upon it and affirmed again that as to all vital and essen- tial matters he believed his views to be in accord with the faith of the Presbyterian Church and of evangelical Christendom. To this declaration the Assembly replied by re- peating its condemnation of the statements of the book while not questioning the sin- cerity of Dr. McGiffert, and put forth a declaration of doctrines on the inerrancy of Holy Scripture, the institution of the Lord's Supper by the Saviour and justification by faith alone; these being the particular doc- trines which it was believed the volume un-

Heresy Trials 237

der consideration had denied. The Assem- bly also referred the whole matter of the teachings of the Professor to the Presbytery of New York (of which he was a member) for such action as it might deem necessary. Dr. McGiffert, however, in the interest of the peace of the Church and his own peace of mind gave notice to the Presbytery of New York of his withdrawal from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church and asked that his name be stricken from the roll. The Presbytery properly concluded its duty in the matter ended. Dr. G. W. F. Birch, however, appealed to the Assembly of 1900 against the judgment of the Presby- tery. The Assembly judged that it had no authority over a minister who had left the Church and so dismissed the appeal.

CHAPTER XIII

^ CONFESSIONAL CHANGES

Ecclesiastical trials were symptomatic of theological unrest which finally de- manded some adjustment of theological standards to new conditions of thought and life. There came slowly but steadily ; over the Church a feeling that the West- I minster Confession of Faith no longer \ adequately expressed the convictions of Presbyterians. It was framed in a day of controversy and its affirmations were directed against what were at the time regarded as the peculiar dangers to which the faith of the Church was exposed. They were a rationalistic form of Arminian- ism and Roman Catholicism. So the emphasis of the Confession was on the sovereignty of God as against the assump- 238

Confessional Changes 239

tions of the latter and on free grace and election as against the former. But with the shifting of the lines of Christian thought there came to be felt the need of a change of emphasis. The errors seen and provided against by the Westminster divines are no longer the only or the chief. It is no longer a question of the sovereignty of God. The skeptical attacks of this age inspired by science go deeper and assail the divine existence.

Furthermore the Church has come to an era of a dawning human brotherhood which requires as its correlative the father- hood and love of God. It has entered on an active campaign to bring the world to the knowledge and obedience of the truth as it is in Christ and it needs therefore in its doctrinal symbols statements regarding missions which are wholly wanting in the Confession of Faith because, when it was framed, missions did not occupy the thought of the Church. For these and other rea-

240 The Presbyterians

sons there has come over the mind of the Church on both sides of the Atlantic a feel- ing that something must be done — not to discredit the historic faith — but to put it into terminology that expresses the present attitude and activity of the Church.

The Church in Great Britain was the first to take action. The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland took the lead. As far back as 1879 it adopted "A Declaratory Act " in which it explained the sense in which the Confession should be under- stood. Ten years later the English Presby- terian Church promulgated a New Creed in twenty-four articles as a summary of the Westminster Confession to which Church officers might give assent at their ordina- tion.

About the same time the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was overtured by the Presbytery of Philadelphia to ap- point a committee to revise the proof texts

Confessional Changes 241

which had accompanied the Shorter Cate- chism as Biblical proof of its positions. The Assembly recognized the fact that in many instances the texts cited did not prove the propositions to which they re- ferred, and ordered a revision of texts which was promptly and acceptably done. This, however, was but the entering wedge. As the Church was thus directed to a fresh study of the Standards it became more and more convinced that the difficulties were not wholly nor chiefly with the proof-texts but with the structure of the Standards which, while in the main beyond criticism as the noblest statement of Christian doc- trine that had ever been given to the world, yet were on the theological side an over- statement of the doctrine of election and related doctrines and on the practical side deficient in ethical and wholly wanting in missionary affirmations.

To the Assembly which met in New York City in ''1889 fifteen Presbyteries sent

242 The Presbyterians

overtures asking for some change. In response the Assembly unanimously re- solved to overture two questions to the Presbyteries. " ist. Do you desire a re- vision of the Confession of Faith. 2d. If so, in what respect and to what extent .f*"

In the discussions of the year it was maintained by those who were opposed to all revision that the constitution of the Church required that the Presbyteries should propose any alterations that were to be made and that therefore the Assembly had no right of original action. A sufficient answer to this contention, however, was the reply that the Assembly had proposed no action but had simply asked the Presby- teries whether they had any to propose. The discussions in Presbyteries and in pub- lic print were earnest and long continued. It was no longer a question of Old School or New. Many of the Old School leaders were leaders also for revision. Dr. James McCosh and Dr. J. T. Duffield of Princeton

Confessional Changes 243

College, Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Dr. Henry C. McCook, all Old School men, were as decidedly for revision as were such New School men as Dr. Howard Crosby, Dr. Herrick Johnson, Dr. Philip Schaff and others. On the other side were some of the strongest men in the Church. Dr. W. G. T. Shedd of Union Seminary, Drs. Green, Warfield and C. W. Hodge of Princeton, Dr. John DeWitt at that time in McCormick Seminary, Dr. John Hall and Dr. Francis L. Patton.

So general was the interest in the ques- tion that the Assembly of 1900 had before it answers from all the Presbyteries except four mission Presbyteries in Asia. Seven Presbyteries — four of them on foreign mis- sionary ground — refused to vote. Sixty- eight answered that no revision was de- sired. One hundred and thirty-four desired relief in some form. As was to be ex- pected from the general nature of the ques- tions submitted there was great diversity in

244 '^^^ Presbyterians

the form of replies. A large number specified particular forms of revision. Ninety-three Presbyteries asked for a fuller statement of the love of God for the world. Nearly all expressed a desire for a restate- ment of the section regarding the salvation of those who die in infancy.

After such a response from the Church there was only one thing for the Assembly to do. It appointed a committee on Re- vision. It was wisely chosen. While a majority were in favor of revision the op- ponents of it had strong and generous rep- resentation. In 1891 this committee re- ported progress and asked that the proposed amendments be sent to the Presbyteries for criticism and suggestion. This was done and so the discussions were continued for another year. It was, however, well. Time and argument cleared the air. It gradually became apparent that nobody wanted any- thing revolutionary. The historic creed of the Presbyterian Church was not to be sur-

Confessional Changes 245

rendered. On the other hand every day made it clearer that the Church demanded some change in formulas which no longer fully expressed its mind. 1

The Assembly of '1892 received the full J and final report of the committee and| twenty-eight overtures embodying Revision' were sent down to the Presbyteries for their action. Among the changes sug- gested were the work of God's Spirit on the hearts of the unregenerate; the omis- sion of the statement about the unalterable number of the elect; leaving open the ques- tion of time in the interpretation of the days of creation; the possible salvation of heathen who had never heard the preached word; the salvation of all infants dying in infancy, and the omission of the declaration that the Pope was the Anti-Christ. The omission of the doctrine of preterition asked for by over a hundred Presbyteries was not granted and was said to be a con- cession to the extreme conservatives in

246 The Presbyterians

order to secure a unanimous report. If so, it failed in its object for six members of the committee recorded their dissent.

The discussion which followed in the Presbyteries made it evident that the pro- posed Revision was not wholly satisfactory. Its compromises failed to get the approval of the conservatives. It was not definite enough on some points to please the lib- erals. There was also a growing sentiment in favor of leaving the Confession as it was and doing what the English Church had done, — adopt a new creed which should not supplant but should interpret the Stand- ards. The result was that the proposed Revision failed of adoption. One hundred and forty-seven affirmative votes were needed. Only four of the submitted prop- ositions received as many as one hundred and fourteen. A singular feature of the voting was in the fact that thirty-one Pres- byteries which in 1890 had voted for Re- vision changed front and voted against it.

Confessional Changes 247

They had not of course changed in their desire for confessional modifications. Rather a doubt came over the mind of the Church whether a time of so much eccle- siastical agitation was best fitted for secur- ing such changes.

The trend of the mind of the Church was indicated in the next Assembly when over sixty Presbyteries memoralized for a new and shorter creed. The Assembly however put the memorials aside deeming further agitation at that time as unwise and unde- sirable. Time demonstrated that there was advantage in ceasing for awhile all eccle- siastical consideration of the important sub- ject. But the discussions did not cease. The Church was finding her thought. It was the settling time, always necessary be- fore crystallization can take place. The Church had now been advised by definite action of the vast majority of the Presby- teries that some revision was desired. The Confession had been challenged as to some

248 The Presbyterians

of its most emphatic statements and the pause that followed the action of 1892, so far from indicating acquiescence in the old forms, was only a time for deepening the current that set toward new doctrinal state- ments and giving them final direction.

Nothing further looking toward confes- sional changes was attempted until 1900. In 1893 indeed a committee was appointed to prepare a consensus creed which would be acceptable not only to the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America but it was hoped also to other bodies on both sides of the Atlantic. The committee was continued for some time but nothing came of its deliberations. But meantime the sentiment of the Church was moving, if silently, yet cogently, toward revision. It appeared in Presbyterial discussions and in articles in the religious press. Relief was being demanded. The Assembly of 1900 was importuned by no less than thirty- seven Presbyteries for some sort of credal

Confessional Changes 249

revision. Some of thiem asked for revision; some for a new creed which should be supplementary to the Confession, and still others for a new creed which should be a substitute. In response to such a general demand definite action must be taken. Moreover, the time for such action was opportune. It was a time of theological peace so far as attacks on the Confession were concerned. It was a good time to in- quire in a calm and judicial way what form of relief should be granted to the anxious and burdened mind of the Church. The Assembly therefore appointed a committee of fifteen — eight ministers and seven elders "to consider the whole matter of a restate- ment of the doctrines most surely believed among us and which are substantially em- bodied in our Confession of Faith." The committee was enjoined to seek light from every available source and to report to the next Assembly what specific action if any should be taken.

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To the Assembly of 1901 the committee reported progress, was enlarged and con- tinued to report fully and finally in 1902. That Assembly met in the Fifth Avenue Church of New York City and on the twenty-second of May the committee on revision presented its report. It consisted of two parts. The first was textual revi- sion of the Confession of Faith by modifi- cation and additional and declaratory state- ments. It was embodied in eleven overtures to be in constitutional form submitted to the Presbyteries for their adoption. The amendments related to the decrees of God, the salvation of all dying in infancy, the good works of the unregenerate, and Christ as the only head of the Church. Two ad- ditional chapters were presented — one a fuller statement of the person and work of the Holy Spirit and another on the love of God and missions.

But the most important work of the com- mittee and that which was hailed with spe-

Confessional Changes 251

cial satisfaction by the Assembly was the "Brief Statement of the Reformed Faith." It had been prepared with a view to its be- ing employed to give information and a better understanding of Presbyterian doc- trine and not with a view to its becoming a substitute for or an alternative of the Con- fession of Faith. It was not to be merely a condensation of catechisms and Confession but a compendium which should bring out more plainly the evangelical aspects of the faith and be imbued with a devotional spirit. It was hoped that this "Brief State- ment" would find general acceptance when presented to the Assembly but no one was prepared for the practical unanimity and devout enthusiasm with which it was adopted. Conservatives and liberals vied with each other in praise of its form and spirit and in desire to adopt it as a worthy, and for practical purposes sufficient, expres- sion of the truth as held by the Presbyterian Church. It is as follows:

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Article I. — Of God. We believe in the ever-living God, who is a Spirit and the Father of our Spirits; in- finite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being and perfections; the Lord Almighty, most just in all his ways, most glorious in holiness, unsearchable in wisdom and plenteous in mercy, full of love and com- passion, and abundant in goodness and truth. We worship him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one Godhead, one in substance and equal in power and glory.

Article II.— Of Revelation. We believe that God is revealed in nature, in history, and in the heart of man; that he has made gracious and clearer revelations of himself to men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit; and that Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person. We grate-

Confessional Changes 253

fully receive the Holy Scriptures, given" by inspiration to be the faithful record of God's gracious revelations and the sure witness to Christ, as the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and life.

Article III.— Of the Eternal Purpose.

We believe that the eternal, wise, holy, and loving purpose of God embraces all events, so that while the freedom of man is not taken away nor is God the author of sin, yet in his providence he makes all things work together in the fulfilment of his sovereign design and the manifestation of his glory; wherefore, humbly acknowl- edging the mystery of this truth, we trust in his protecting care and set our hearts to do his will.

Article IV.— Of the Creation. We believe that God is the creator, up- holder, and governor of all things; that he is above all his works and in them all; and that he made man in his own image, meet

254 'T^^ Presbyterians

for fellowship with him, free and able to choose between good and evil, and forever responsible to his Maker and Lord.

Article V.— Of the Sin of Man. We believe that our first parents, being tempted, chose evil, and so fell away from God and came under the power of sin, the penalty of which is eternal death; and we confess that, by reason of this disobedi- ence, we and all men are born with a sin- ful nature, that we have broken God's law, and that no man can be saved but by his grace.

Article VI.— Of the Grace of God.

We believe that God, out of his great love for the world, has given his only be- gotten Son to be the Saviour of sinners, and in the gospel freely offers his all- sufficient salvation to all men. And we praise him for the unspeakable grace wherein he has provided a way of eternal life for all mankind.

Confessional Changes 255

Article VII. — Of Election. We believe that God, from the beginning, in his own good pleasure, gave to his Son a people, an innumerable multitude, chosen in Christ unto holiness, service and salva- tion; we believe that all who come to years of discretion can receive this salvation only through faith and repentance; and we be- lieve that all who die in infancy, and all others given by the Father to the Son who are beyond the reach of the outward means of grace, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when and where and how he pleases.

Article VIII.— Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, who being the Eternal Son of God, for us men and for our salvation became truly man, being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, with- out sin; unto us he has revealed the Father,

256 The Presbyterians

by his Word and Spirit making known the perfect will of God; for us he fulfilled all righteousness and satisfied eternal justice, offering himself a perfect sacrifice upon the cross to take away the sin of the world; for us he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he ever intercedes for us; in our hearts, joined to him by faith, he abides forever as the indwelling Christ; over us, and over all for us, he rules; wherefore, unto him we render love, obedi- ence, and adoration as our Prophet, Priest, and King forever.

Article IX.— Of Faith and Repentance. We believe that God pardons our sins and accepts us as righteous, solely on the ground of the perfect obedience and sacri- fice of Christ, received by faith alone; and that this saving faith is always accom- panied by repentance, wherein we confess and forsake our sins with full purpose of, and endeavor after, a new obedience to God.

Confessional Changes 257

Article X. — Of the Holy Spirit We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who moves everywhere upon the hearts of men, to restrain them from evil and to incite them unto good, and whom the Father is ever willing to give unto all who ask him. We believe that he has spoken by holy men of God in making known his truth to men for their salvation; that, through our exalted Saviour, he was sent forth in power to convict the world of sin, to enlighten men's minds in the knowl- edge of Christ, and to persuade and enable them to obey the call of the gospel; and that he abides with the Church, dwelling in every believer as the spirit of truth, of holi- ness, and of comfort.

Article XI. — Of the New Birth and the New Life.

We believe that the Holy Spirit only is the author and source of the new birth; we rejoice in the new life, wherein he is given

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unto us as the seal of sonship in Christ, and keeps loving fellowship with us, helps us in our infirmities, purges us from our faults, and ever continues his transforming work in us until we are perfected in the likeness of Christ, in the glory of the life to come.

Article XII.— Of the Resurrection and THE Life to Come.

We believe that in the life to come the spirits of the just, at death made free from sin, enjoy immediate communion with God and the vision of his glory; and we con- fidently look for the general resurrection in the last day, when the bodies of those who sleep in Christ shall be fashioned in the likeness of the glorious body of their Lord, with whom they shall live and reign forever.

Article Xlll. — Of the Law of God. We believe that the law of God, revealed in the Ten Commandments, and more

Confessional Changes 259

clearly disclosed in the words of Christ, is forever established in truth and equity, so that no human work shall abide except it be built on this foundation. We believe that God requires of every man to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God; and that only through this harmony with the will of God shall be fulfilled that brotherhood of man wherein the kingdom of God is to be made manifest.

Article XIV.— Of the Church and the Sacraments.

We believe in the Holy Catholic Church of which Christ is the only Head. We be- lieve that the Church Invisible consists of all the redeemed, and that the Church Visible embraces all who profess the true religion together with their children. We receive to our communion all who confess and obey Christ as their divine Lord and Saviour, and we hold fellowship with all believers in him.

26o The Presbyterians

We receive the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, alone divinely es- tablished and committed to the Church, together with the Word, as means of grace; made effectual only by the Holy Spirit, and always to be used by Christians with prayer and praise to God.

Article XV. — Of the Last Judgment.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again in glorious majesty to judge the world and to make a final separation be- tween the righteous and the wicked. The wicked shall receive the eternal award of their sins, and the Lord will manifest the glory of his mercy in the salvation of his people and their entrance upon the full en- joyment of eternal life.

Article XVI. — Of Christian Service and

THE Final Triumph.

We believe that it is our duty, as servants

and friends of Christ, to do good unto all

men, to maintain the public and private

Confessional Changes 261

worship of God, to hallow the Lord's Day, to preserve the sanctity of the family, to uphold the just authority of the State, and so to live in all honesty, purity, and charity that our lives shall testify of Christ. We joyfully receive the word of Christ, bidding his people go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and declare unto them that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and that he will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We confidently trust that by his power and grace all his enemies and ours shall be finally overcome, and the kingdoms of this world shall be made the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. In this faith we abide; in this service we labor; and in this hope we pray,

Even so, come. Lord Jesus.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TO-DAY

Thfiee words describe the Presbyterian Church of to-day. It is a'/ Conservative Church, a^'Missionary Church and an Irenic^f^ Church. Along these lines its life is now developing.

Though there have been marked theolog- ical changes, yet as the result of them all the Presbyterian Church is still conservative. That with other Churches it has made prog- ress in its interpretations of truth goes almost without saying. The Westminster Standards no longer fully measure the con- tents of its faith. It still holds to them but it has overflowed them. It is a Calvinistic Church but the terminology in which that system was presented two centuries and a

half ago no longer satisfies either the 262

Presbyterian Church To-day 263

scholarship or the life of the Church. Hence the discussions on Revision running through two decades and hence the conclu- sions reached in the Revision and the new statement of doctrine given in the preceding chapter. By them it appears the system remains but it is expressed in forms better suited to the demands of this age and more perfectly uttering the Church's last thought concerning the character of God and its own duty.

While thus the Presbyterian Church con- tinues to be conservative, it realizes that the armor that is centuries old is not best fitted for the present campaign and that new weapons of thought must be forged to meet the new enemies that march against the tfUTfi. The enemies against which the Westminster Standards aimed their doc- trinal statements have not indeed wholly disappeared— the divine right of kings and the assumptions of the Papacy are still in the field. But there are more deadly foes

264 The Presbyterians

to evangelistic religion than these. The line of battle has shifted. Questions of the divine existence, the possibility of revela- tion, the development of man without a Creator and the uncertainty of any future at all— these and kindred problems confront the Church. And it may therefore well be argued that not only should the Church stand by statements already accepted but it should make further statements of truth to meet new conditions. While therefore for the present the Church contents itself with a moderate revision and a brief creed ex- pressed in general terms it is likely that the spirit of inquiry which has resulted in pres- ent changes will require further progress and additional statements. And all this may be without surrendering the historic position of conservatism which has ever characterized the Presbyterian Church.

The present theological attitude of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America applies substantially to the other

Presbyterian Church To-day 265

divisions of the Church in this country. Thus the United Presbyterian Church, strongly Calvinistic and accepting the West- minster Standards as its own, supplements them by what is called a ''Testimony of the Church" which explains, amplifies and applies the Standards to present conditions of Church and country. One of the articles of this "Testimony" relates to Psalmody. The psalms of David were given by inspira- tion, this Church declares, for use in public worship. Being inspired they are better for purposes of worship than any unin- spired hymnology can possibly be. The United Presbyterian Church therefore con- fines itself to the psalms for its expressions of praise. In the early history of the Church the Scottish version sometimes called " Rouse's " was used exclusively. A new version, however, has now been made, approved by the General Assembly, and is commonly used by the Church. A com- mittee of Reformed Churches in this coun-

266 The Presbyterians

try is now engaged in preparing a new metrical version of the Psalms which it is hoped may be a common bond binding still closer together the various branches of the Presbyterian family.

The Covenanter or Reformed Church uses only the Westminster Standards as its ex- pression of doctrine. It has, however, a number of peculiar rules, as close Commun- ion, opposition to secret societies and re- fusal to allow its members to discharge civic duties because the government has not formally recognized its responsibility to the divine government of Jesus Christ.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church also adopts the Confession of Faith but only after many changes and amendments. It occupies a middle ground between the extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism.

The Presbyterian Church of the United States (South) has made no revision of Westminster Standards, accepting them as a full and sufficient statement of doctrine.

Presbyterian Church To-day 267

They organized as a separate Church on the question of the spirituality of the Church and this doctrine they regard as vital, though extracts might be taken from action of their General Assembly in which they too ex- pressed themselves on national affairs. This Church whenever possible separates the col- ored people into Presbyteries and Synods of their own — not it is claimed on any "color line" theory, but because it believes it best for colored and white that they should be ecclesiastically separate. This much then briefly as to the present theological attitude of the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in this country. / Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the Presbyterian Church of to-day is its rnissionary character. In preceding chap- ters it is shown that the Church has always given its best energies to the extension of Christian influences and institutions. But during the past few decades the idea of world-wide evangelization has taken firm

268 The Presbyterians

hold and plans thorough and far-reach- ing have been made to accomplish this end. The Presbyterian Church conducts its missionary and philanthropic work chiefly through eight Boards to whose organization reference has already been made.

The first of these, the Board of Home Missions, was organized in 1802 and has had a large share in the religious development of the country. Figures can give but the faint- est idea of the power of this great Board as it has gone with the advancing pioneer line across all the parallels of our country. But they suggest more than they can tell. Since its organization about 75,000 commissions have been issued to missionaries — each one representing as a rule a year of service. The amount expended on this branch of Christian work in our country has been about $24,000,000. It was estimated by Dr. Henry Kendall that nine-tenths of all Presbyterian churches have had a missionary

Presbyterian Church To-day 269

origin and been directly or indirectly founded by this Board.

At the present time the work extends from Alaska to Cuba and Porto Rico. Many of the eastern states conduct their own home mission work, but the Board of Home Missions in its last report names 1,350 missionaries with 490 mission school teachers working in forty states and terri- tories.

The importance of this work for the re- generation of our own country becomes manifest when we consider the elements which it comprises. Our immigration now reaches nearly a million a year and by far the larger part comes from European peo- ples who are strangers to the ideals — civil or religious — which so far have ruled our land. Italians, Poles, Hungarians, Slavs and kindred races from southern and eastern Europe increase the unhealthful and perilous congestion of great cities and add explosives of discontent and anarchism to the popula-

270 The Presbyterians

tions of mining communities and logging camps.

Alien peoples in the West increase our dangers — the chief est of these being the ter- rible Mormon system, which controlling several states and territories reaches across the land in missionary adventure and threat- ens to get political control of the country. The mission field of southern mountains must not be forgotten. There is no more important missionary duty than that of re- building the Christian character of original Americans. And the three million moun- taineers of the South are such Americans — having special claims on Christian effort alike by their inheritance, their patriotic service and their undoubted capacity.

Then there are 250,000 aboriginal Amer- icans in the United States. They have long constituted a governmental problem. The solution of it is through the school and the Church. Some of the most interesting and encouraging chapters of recent missionary

Presbyterian Church To-day 271

history are those which recount the labors of Presbyterian missionaries among the In- dians. That the Indians are capable of re- ceiving Christian truth and living Christian lives the story of the transformation of the Sioux, Nez Perces, Pimas and Papagoes abundantly testifies.

The work of home missions could not be prosecuted with the vigor and success which in late years have specially character- ized it if the Board had not had the power- ful auxiliary called at its organization in 1878 "The Woman's Executive Commit- tee" but now known as ''The Woman's Board of Home Missions." The degraded condition of what are called "our excep- tional populations " — the Indians, Mexicans, Mormons and Alaskans — especially of the women and children, appealed powerfully to the Church to do more for them than could be done under the charter of the Board of Home Missions. They needed mission schools. Dr. Sheldon Jackson first

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prominently brought this subject to the at- tention of the Church in the columns of The Rocky Mountain Presbyterian. The women of the Church responded to these appeals and organized to undertake the sup- port of this work. It had a feeble begin- ning—the first year only $3,138 being raised, but it has grown so rapidly that in 1902 there were 490 missionaries and teach- ers, and 145 mission schools under its care with 10,036 pupils, $^12,62^ bemg ex- pended in their support. The Board has acquired property in chapels, schoolhouses, manses and teacher's homes of the aggre- gate value of $875,640. Forced by circum- stances the work has led upward toward higher educational institutions. There are now in successful operation twelve schools in which academic work is done — also one college, one collegiate institute and one normal collegiate institute. These all save one have grown out of little mission schools.

Presbyterian Church To-day 273

Considering this mission field with its vital present and its commanding future the Church will do well to act on the word of Professor Phelps when he said, "Spiritual strategy demands that the evangelization of this country should be kept ahead of every other movement for the conversion of the world."

The work of the Board of Foreign Mis- sions is looming large before the thought and conscience of the Church. The move- ment began at the ** Haystack Prayer Meet- ing" at Williams College in 1806. That was the germ of the American Board or- ganized in 1 8 10, which for so many years led the foreign missionary work of the churches of this country. From 181 1 until 1837, the Presbyterian Church availed itself of this great agency for carrying the gospel to the heathen world. In the latter year the Board of Foreign Missions of the Pres- byterian Church in the United States of America was organized, absorbing the

274 The Presbyterians

Western Foreign Missionary Society, which had been organized in Pittsburg in 1831. In its first report in 1838 it had fifteen mis- sionaries with twenty-three assistants and its total receipts were $45,498. Its growth was rapid. After the division the New School Branch continued its alliance with the American Board. At the Reunion in 1870 the whole foreign missionary work of the Church fell into the hands of the Board of Foreign Missions. The vast extent of it may be inferred from the statistics given to the General Assembly of 1902. It has sta- tions in Africa, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Persia, Philippine Islands, Siam, Laos, South and Central America and Syria. There are 121 principal stations and more than 1,200 outstations, with a total force of American missionaries (men and women) of 749 and 1,882 native helpers. There are 610 organized churches, with 44,443 com- municants. There are over 26,000 pupils in mission schools. There are thirty-three

Presbyterian Church To-day 275

hospitals and fifty-one dispensaries, hav- ing treated 289,363 patients. The money received for this work in 1902 was $1,086,341.

As in home missions, so in foreign, the consecrated and organized work of the women of the Church counts largely to- ward the great result. There are seven woman's boards located in different parts of the country auxiliary to the Board of For- eign Missions. They have no share in the administration but through their societies furnish information, arouse interest and gather funds. Their receipts in 1902 were $370,479.

The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work has a twofold function. It was primarily organized to provide good literature for the Church. Presbyterians are readers. Early in the his- tory of the Church in this country various ways were devised for meeting the general craving for good books. In many of the

276 The Presbyterians

Presbyteries, circulating libraries on a small scale were provided, from which ministers and others might draw. In some cases churches provided a manse furnished with a library. These projects were however in- sufficient to meet the growing demand for the circulation of good books. The Amer- ican Bible Society was organized in 1816, and the General Assembly at once expressed its pleasure that such a society had been formed and commended it to the confidence of the churches. While thus the printing of Bibles has been left to the Bible Society the Church felt increasingly the need of pro- viding suitable religious reading for its peo- ple. During the division both Old and New School engaged in this work. At the Re- union the two branches consolidated their publishing business in the Presbyterian Board of Publication. It is a business en- terprise and successful in a business way. But in 1887 a new department was created for the purpose of organizing Sunday-

Presbyterian Church To-day 277

schools and supplying them with suitable literature. This is a distinctively mission- ary agency and appeals to the Church for its support. It issues lesson helps for all grades of pupils and for teachers. It carries on its Sabbath-school missionary work in thirty-one states and territories and had in 1902, ninety-seven missionaries who organ- ized 773 Sabbath-schools and reorganized 338, making a total of 1,1 11 schools, with an aggregate membership of 35,944 schol- ars. It reports a total of churches grow- ing out of these mission schools since the department was created of 1,094 of which number 651 are Presbyterian and 443 are churches of other denominations.

The Board of Church Erection is closely affiliated with that of Home Missions. Church buildings represent the permanent element in Christian missions. When a building is erected the Church becomes an institution. The need of suitable housing for pioneer congregations early pressed on

278 The Presbyterians

the heart of the Church. As early as 1775 the church in Salem, Mass., having been burned, the Presbytery of Boston and the Synod of Massachusetts issued an appeal for help. On the organization of the Board of Home Missions in 1816 the matter of church building was pressed on the atten- tion of the General Assembly as a necessary part of home missions. The Assembly urged special collections for this object. Committees were appointed to have special care of this part of mission work and to keep it before the Church. The Old School Assembly of 1844 gave the Board of Home Missions specific instructions in regard to the management of this department. In 1855 the Board of Church Erection of the Old School branch was established in St. Louis on the principle that it should be near to the churches to be aided. The New School had a "Committee of Church Ex- tension " and located it in Philadelphia. At the Reunion both Boards were merged in

Presbyterian Church To-day 279

the present Board of Church Erection and located in New York.

In 1902 this Board reported receipts aggregating $193,275. Appropriations as grants or loans had been made to 259 churches in the sum of $205,269 — the largest sum so appropriated in any one year in the history of the Board. It is distrib- uted in forty-one states and territories in- cluding Porto Rico.

Another agency which takes part in the general home mission work of the Church is the Board for Freedmen. The duty of the Church to the colored people has al- ways been recognized — North and South. The result of the Civil War suddenly threw upon the Christian Church the weightiest responsibility for the education and salva- tion of these people, for they were no longer slaves but fellow-citizens of the re- public. They must be fitted for their place. During, as well as after the War, Christian people were realizing the importance of

28o The Presbyterians

speedy action. The churches in the South could do little. They had many problems on hand and they were poor. To some ex- tent also doubtless the change of the negro's status took away their interest in his future. In 1865 in both Old and New School As- semblies the welfare of the Freedmen was considered and committees appointed to inaugurate missions among them. At the Reunion in 1870 the whole work was put into the hands of a Board with headquarters at Pittsburg. This Board has had a fruitful history. It has sent out missionaries, es- tablished schools and commissioned teach- ers for them and, into regions so destitute or scattered in population as to render regu- lar church work inexpedient, it has sent Bible readers and evangelists. It has over 200 missionaries under commission and en- rolled last year 353 churches with a mem- bership of 21,341. The entire number of workers including Bible readers and teach- ers is 421. It has about eighty schools —

Presbyterian Church To-day 281

one of which, Biddle University, gives a full college course and has besides a theo- logical department which in 1902 reported a faculty of four professors and twelve students.

The Presbyterian Church insists on high qualifications for its ministers. From thej first she has striven for educational oppor- tunities for her people. Before the public school system was in operation parochial schools were established wherever possible. It early became evident that an educated ministry would require special attention to providing educational institutions. Prince- ton College grew out of this conviction. The line of Presbyterian Colleges now stretching across the continent had in every case a similar origin. In addition to schools however it was soon apparent that in many cases young men of piety and promise who were looking forward to the ministry would need help to enable them to take the long and expensive training which the Church

282 The Presbyterians

required of her ministers. Hence arose the demand for a Board of Education. The first plan looking to this end dates back as far as 1771. It was not however until 1819 that the Assembly established a general Board. Its object was to seek suitable candidates for the ministry and to help them when necessary in their preparation for their work.

During the past few years there has been a marked decline in the number of candi- dates for the ministry. It is largely caused by the prizes which business offers to capa- ble men. But, whatever the cause, it be- hooves a Church that would keep pace with the enlarging fields for Christian serv- ice to press upon educated Christian young men the opportunities which the times offer to those who have consecration enough to meet them.

Another Board made necessary by the same demand for thoroughly trained men for the ministry is "The Board of Aid for

Presbyterian Church To-day 283

Colleges and Academies." For a number of years the conviction had been growing that the Church needed a special agency to plant and foster institutions of learning which should be decidedly Christian in character. This conviction led to the or- ganization of the Board in 1883. Through its influence many academies and colleges have been founded throughout all the west- ern region. During the year 1901-2 the income of this Board was |2i2,ooo which has been expended in appropriations to twenty-two colleges and academies.

The Presbyterian Church not only helps to prepare men for its service; it takes care of them when their working days are over. In the early history of the Church special funds were sporadically provided for the support of aged ministers. A plan of min- isterial life insurance was begun as early as 1755. It was then called **The Widow's Fund." Its constitution has been amended and it is now known as the Presbyterian

284 The Presbyterians

Ministers' Fund, and does a safe ministerial insurance business.

But in 1849 the Assembly set apart a fund to be distributed by the trustees of the As- sembly *'in aiding disabled ministers and the widows and orphans of deceased min- isters." In 1876 this fund was put in charge of a Board known as "The Board of Min- isterial Relief." The scope of its work was enlarged when in 1889 the Assembly directed the Board to include in the list of those hav- ing claims on its funds "such female mis- sionaries and lay missionaries as may have become disabled in the service of the Church." Its invested funds now amount to 11,215,526. In the year 1902 it had on its roll 367 ministers, 473 widows and thirty-six orphan families. It also has a number of "Homes" where those entitled to its care find a resting-place in declining years.

Besides these Boards the Assembly has two important committees. The Perma-

Presbyterian Church To-day 285

nent Committee on Temperance, established in 1881 seeks to promote temperance reform and to quicken the Church, by circulating literature and by action of Church courts, to an appreciation of the evils of intemperance and the need of measures for the suppres- sion of the liquor traffic.

The committee on Systematic Beneficence constituted was in 1879. It aims to educate the Church in regular systematic and propor- tionate giving. Its work is of the utmost importance. Questions of finance in connec- tion with the work of the Church would be easily and quickly solved if such giving were the universal rule.

The other divisions of the Church have similar organizations for the extension of their work. The Presbyterian Church in the United States (South) prefers how- ever to style its missionary agencies "Com- mittees of the Assembly" rather than Boards. The women are organized for mission work also in the Presbyterian

286 The Presbyterians

Church in the United States as well as in the Cumberland, in the Reformed Church in America, the Reformed Church in the United States and the Synod of the Re- formed Presbyterian Church.

The Presbyterian Church is not only thus well equipped in its own machinery but it supplies its full share of the gifts necessary to carry on the philanthropic work that is outside of denominational lines. Thus its gifts to the Bible Society and Tract Society are large and increasing. It is actively identified with Young Men's Christian As- sociations and Young Women's Christian Associations. It helps freely in matters of civic reform. Recently there has been organized a National Federation of Churches which aims to secure cooperation among all churches for the betterment of society. This Federation has no better friend than the Presbyterian Church. It is also the banner Church in the number of societies of Christian Endeavor in its communion.

Presbyterian Church To-day 287

Thus while staunchly loyal to all that has made the historic glory of the denomination it is catholic in both its sympathies and its deeds, striving with all saints to bring into this world the kingdom ''which is Right- eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."

While the Presbyterian Church has ever been positive in its statements of adherence to the Truth as God has given it to see the Truth, it has also sought not only to ''livei peaceably with all men " but also to cooper-/ ate with all good people in all the work for which churches are organized. It has been a leader in all interdenominational move-' ments. During the last decade the Gen- eral Assembly has had a "Committee on Comity and Cooperation" whose duty it was to seek closer fellowship with other religious bodies especially on missionary ground and so to economize and concen- trate all Christian forces for the advance- ment of the Kingdom of Christ. The

288 The Presbyterians

Assembly has also repeatedly required its missionary Boards to administer their af- fairs with reference to the rights of other denominations and as far as possible in co- operation with them.

There is at the present time a marked tendency toward the union of affiliated bodies ; and this tendency has the sym- pathy and help of the Presbyterian Church. "The Alliance of Reformed Churches" it is hoped will strengthen this tendency and ultimately bring about the organic union of some at least of the branches of the great Presbyterian family. Six of these branches have already united in a plan of cooperation on home mission fields by which they agree that no church or mission shall be estab- lished in small communities where the field is fully occupied by any other branch of the Church. And, broader than this, the Presbyterian Church rejoices in the success of every evangelical Church and has been directed by her highest church court to

Presbyterian Church To-day 289

further first the common interests of the Kingdom of Christ and push her own work in subjection to that larger idea.

We have come to a time not of theolog- ical rest, for the vital questions of religion were never more earnestly debated than now — but to a time of increasing brother- hood, of mutual charity and of faith in the coming of the Kingdom by the federated work of all the Churches of Christ. For this brotherhood and charity and faith the Presbyterian Church of to-day stands. She has not weakened in her proclamation of Truth, nor in her devotion to the form of it which has been her historic glory. She believes with all her might in the principles announced by John Calvin and which on two continents have been the inspiration for civil and religious freedom. She re- joices in her mission to avow, defend and extend those principles. But she longs for "the unity of the faith in the bonds of love" and for that victory of Christianity

290 The Presbyterians

which will come fully only when all de- nominational banners gather around the banner that is Love in the marred hand of him who rides gloriously to his Kingdom. Thus may she ever keep her faith with her past and her loyalty to her Master.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, by Charles Hodge, D. D.

American Presbyterianism, by Charles Augustus Briggs, D. D.

Annals of the American Pulpit, by William B. Sprague, D. D.

Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, by Alfred Nevin, D. D.

Presbyterians, by George P. Hays, D. D.

American Church History, (Volume 6) Robert Ellis , Thompson, D. D.

History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, by Ezra H, Gillette, D. D.

Presbyterians and the Revolution, by Willlam P. Breed, D. D.

History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, by Rankin W. Glasgow, D. D.

History of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South, by Robert Lath an, D. D.

History of the Cumberland Church, by B. W. McDoN- nald, D. D., LL. D.

291

292 Bibliography

Centennial Historical Discourses, by Alexander T. Magill, D. D., and others.

Historical Discourses on Presbyterians and the Revolu- tion, by William P. Breed, D. D.

A History of the New School, by Samuel J. Baird D. D.

Historical Contributions, by Cortland Van Rens. selaer, D. D.

Presbyterian Reunion and Memorial Volume.

Index

Abingdon, Va., 95.

Presbytery of, 87. Act and Testimony, The, 181, 182. Adams, William, 216. Adelbert University, 158. Adopting Act, 65-67, 72, 73, 74, 85. Alabama, 198, 211. Alexander, Archibald, 97, 145, 148, 149.

James W., 177. Alison, Francis, 72,

Alleghany Mountains, 58, 100, no, in, 112, 118, 133. Allegheny, 114, 168.

Alliance of Reformed Churches, 224, 288. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,

172, 219. American Bible Society, 163, 286.

organized, 276. American Educational Society, 187, 193. American Independence, origin, 14. American Tract Society, 286. Anderson, Isaac, 168.

James, 53.

Wm. C, 205, Andrews, Jedediah, 42, 43, 46, 70, 79. Arianism, 62.

Arminianism, 32, 178, 338, 266. Athens, Ohio, 158. Atwater, L. H., 215.

293

294 Index

Auburn Theological Seminary, 167. Augusta, Ga., 206. Baker, Daniel, 222. Balch, Hezekiah, 109. Baldwin, Rev. Methuselah, 127. Baltimore, Lord, 40.

Md., 225. Bancroft, 14, 97. Baptism of infants, 38. Baptists, 145, 168. Barbadoes, 40.

Barnes, Albert, 176, 177, 183, 187, I98, 219. Beatty, Charles, 90, 112. Beecher, Lyman, 169, 178. Belfast, 62. Beloit College, 159. Beman, 185.

Bibliography, 24, 25, 37, 38, 80, 98, 102, 109, 117, 133. Birch, George W. F., 237. Birnie, James G., 198. Blackburn, Gideon, 133.

University, 159. Blair, John, 83.

Samuel, 71, 83. Boston, 22, 82, Blue Ridge, The, 87, 97.

Board of Aid for Colleges and Academies, 283. Board of Church Erection, growth, 279.

organization, 277, 278. Board of Education, 92, 93, 166, 171.

early beginning, 118.

organized, 282. Board of Foreign Missions, 94, 219.

growth, 274.

organization, 273. Board for Freedmen, 279, 281. Board of Home Missions, 219, 221.

growth, 268-273.

organization, 162, 268.

Index 295

Board of Publication and Sabbath-School \York, 93, 219.

growth, 275-277.

organization, 275, Board of Ministerial Relief, 284. Brainard, John, 89, 1 12. Brandy wine, 72.

Breckenridge, Robt. J., 182, 185, 191. Brevard, Ephraim, 97.

" Brief Statement of the Reformed Faith," 1902, 251-261. Briggs, Charles A., 229, 233, 234, 235. Brown, Matthew, 149. Buffalo, 117. Butler, Charles, 230. Caldwell, David, 150. Calvin, John, 9, 14, 16, 19, 31, 99. Calvinism, 13, 213. Calvinists, 14, 266, Campbell, Colonel Wm., 98, ICX), Cannonsburg, 116. Canonsburg Academy, 149. Carlisle, 108.

Presbytery of, 87. Carolinas, The, 22, 40, 46, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 143,

ISO- Synod of, 120, 134.

Carroll College, 159.

Carter, Robert, 216.

Catechism, 32.

Charles River, 35.

Charleston, S. C, 22.

Chicago, 170, 227, 228. Presbytery of, 228.

Chillicothe, Ohio, 157. Presbytery of, 201.

Clinton, Gen., 98.

Church Courts, 29.

Church Extension Committee, 196.

Cincinnati, 178, 182, 233, 234. beginnings, 153, 154.

296

Index

Clark, John, 1 1 8. Cleaveland, Col., 100. Cleveland, 158.

beginnings, 156. Coligny, Admiral, 20.

Confession of Faith, 61, 85, 93, 139, 214, 216, 238, 240, 251-261.

Revision, 239, 242, 251.

(Ref.), Adopted by Parliament, 16. Congregationalism, 26, 46.

in Connecticut, 87, 127.

in Long Island, 51. Congregational Churches, 87, 195. Colonial period, 47, 56. Columbus, Ohio, 157. Columba, 15.

Comity, 127, 128, 164, 287. Connecticut, 44, 46, 53, 58, 151, 154, I5S» '8$.

Congregationalism in, 87, 127. Constitution, English, 14. Consubstantiation, 31. Continental Congress, 100. Cornbury, Lord, 53. Covenanters, 99, 173.

Covenanter Church, (Reformed Church), 266. Cowpens, 100. Cox, Samuel Hanson, 176. Craighead, 64.

Alexander, 105.

Robert, 63.

Thomas, 63. Crosby, Howard, 243. Cross, Robert, 70, 72. Cross Creek, 117. Culdees, 15. Cumberland, Presbytery of, 1 39.

Presbyterians, 138, 140, 141, 266.

Presbyterians, (colored), 140. Cummins, Chas., 109.

Index 297

Cuyler, Theodore L., 243.

Davies, Samuel, 43, 88.

Day, Henry, 216.

Declaration of Independence, 98, lOI.

Declaration and Testimony, 209.

Delaware, 19, 53, 145.

Delfthaven, 15.

Denton, Richard, 26, 39.

De Witt, John, 243.

Dickinson, 185.

Jonathan, 54, 55, 57, 64, 72, 76, 83. Moses, 57. Dickson, Cyrus, 221. Dissenters, 26. Division of 1741, 57, 68, 71, 76, 77-80, 86.

of 1837, 175, 176, 181, 182, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 192. Doak, John, 133. Samuel, 132. Dodd, Thaddeus, 116. Doddridge, Philip, 93. Dodge, William E., 216. Donegal, Ireland, 40. Presbytery of, 74. Doty, Francis, 38. Drake, Charles D., 215. Dublin, Presbytery of, 44. Duffield, Geo,, 90, 107, 112, 185. Duffield, J. T., 242. Dunlap, James, 118.

Thos., 98. Dutch, The, 26, 27, 39, 97. New York Governor, 38. pastors, 39. Dutchess County, Presbytery of, 87. East Chester, N. Y., 56. Edict of Nantes, 20.

revocation of, 21. Edict of Paris, 19.

298

Index

Edict of Toleration, 21. Edinburgh, 16. Educators, 149. Education, 56.

classical schools, 109, 116, 117, 167.

early colleges, 144, 152, 158, 159, 166.

importance of, 169.

popular, 14. Edwards, Jonathan, 54, 175. Ellinwood, F. F,, 220. Elliot, David, 185, 218. Eliot, John, 25-35, 37. Elizabeth Isles, 37. Elizabeth town, 54, 72, 82.

England, 11, 13, 14, 18, 22, 23, 26, 27, 35, 37, 39, 42, 46, 57, 84.

American claims, iii.

Church of, 24, 87, 95. English Presbyterians, 88, 99.

Church, intolerance of, 40.

Monarchs, 20.

Presbyterians in America, 34.

Revolution, 46, Episcopal Church, 52, 53, 54, 100. Erie Canal, 156. Erie, Presbytery of, 165. Established Church of England, 17.

Scotland, 17. Europe, 43, European origins, ii. Evangelists, 71, 75, 76, 81, 82. Evans, Thos. 57. Faggs Manor, 71. Federation of Churches, 164.

National, 286, 289. Farrand, J. S., 216. Fincastle, 134. Finley, Samuel, 83. Fisher, Samuel W., 216.

Index 299

Foreign Missions, 162, 163.

Board of, 94, 219, 273, 274. Fowler, P. H., 218. Fox, Matthew, 222. France, ii, 13, 19, 20, 21, 27. France, American claims, ill. Francis, W. M., 216. Freedom, 14. Free government, 13. Free Will, 32.

French and Indian War, II2, 1 15. French Language, 22. Ft, Pitt, 90, 112, 152. Ft. Sumpter, 202. General Assembly, loi, 137, 138, 142.

Centennial 1888, 225.

first meeting, 120.

Reunion, (1869), 217,

on Revision, (1889), 242.

on Revision, (1900), 243. General Synod, Reform d Presbyterian, 214. Genesee, 165.

Synod of, 187. Geneva, 14, 26.

Synod of, 167, 187. Georgia, Augusta, 206. Germany, 22. Gillespie, 46, 72. Government, democratic, 14. Great Britain, 89, 97.

Green, Ashbel, 147, 148, 149, 177, 182, 185. Green's History of English people, 13. Green, Wm. Henry, 243. Greenville, Tenn., 134. Grier, J. €., 216. Gurley Order, The, 209. Hall, James, 108.

John, 243. Hamilton College, 166,

300 Index

Hampden-Sidney, i68.

College, 149. Hampton, 41, 43, 46. Hanover Academy, 170,

College, 159.

Presbytery of, 87, 107. Harmony, Presbytery of, 199. Harrison, Sir Edmund, 44. Hart, Joseph, 125. Hartford, Ohio, 157.

Presbytery of, 155, Havre, 15.

Hempstead, L, I,, 39, Henry, Patrick, 98. Her, Nathan, 107, 125. Heresy, 181, 227, 228, 230, 235, 236.

trials, 177, 178, 179, 183, 184, 238. Professor Briggs, 231-233. Professor Smith, 233. Professor Swing, 227. " Higher Criticism," The, 229. Higginson, Francis, 23. Hill, Timothy, 222. Hobart, Peter, 25. Hodge, C. W., 243.

Charles, 205. Hoge, James, 132.

Moses, 149, Holland, 11, 13, 14, 22, 23, 26, 99. Holston, 133.

Home Missionary Society, 187, 192, 195. Hopkins, Samuel, 93, 175, 176, Houston, Sam'l, 109. Howard, Colonel Jno. Eager, 98. Hudson, Ohio, 158. Hughes, James, 149, Huguenots, 19, 20, 88, 99, 104.

Services, 22. Illinois, 159, 169, 194, 198, 222.

Index 30 1

Illinois College, 159.

Indiana, 133, 145, 159, 160, 169, 222.

Synod of, 170, 194. Indians, 91, 112.

Cayugas, 125.

Cherokee, 133.

Oneidas, 89, 125.

Missions to, 35, 37, 89, 90, ill, 112, 134, 143, 162. Indian Territory, 222. Ireland, ii, 15, 17, 27, 40, 45, 46, 50, 52, 60, 61, 84.

Church of, 55-57-

immigration from, 63. Irish Landlords, 18.

Presbyterians in America, 43, 76, 107. Institutions, free, 14. Institutes of religion, 31. Jamaica, 48, 51, 70, James River, 88. Jefferson College, 116, 149, 166.

Thomas, 98. Johnson, Herrick, 243. Junkin, George, 182, 185. Kansas, 222.

«• Kansas Band," The, 222. Kansas, Synod of, 222. Kemper, James, 154. Kendall, Henry, 221.

Kentucky, 135, 137, 138, 142, 143, 190, 191, 193, 200, 203, 210, 211.

Synod of, 134, 138, 191, 210. King's Mountain, 98, 100. Knox College, 159.

John, 16, 98, 99. Knoxville, 143. Lackawanna, 125. Laing, Robert, 57. Lake Forest University, 159. Lamb, Joseph, 57. Massachusetts, 46, 58.

302 Index

Lancaster, Presbytery of, 87.

Lane Theological Seminary, 168, 169, 178, 233.

Latta, James, 182.

Lewes, Presbytery of, 75.

Lexington, Presbytery of, 87, 200.

Leyden, 23.

Little, Henry, 222.

Liturgy, Calvinistic, 22.

Livingston, \Vm. 98.

Log College, 56, 68, 71, 75.

London, 41, 42, 44, 46.

Londonderry, 15.

Long Island, 26, 38, 45, 48.

Presbytery of, 49, 51. Lord, Willis, 215. Louis XIII, 21. Louis XIV, 21. Lovejoy, Elijah P., 198. Lundy, Benjamin, 191. Lutheran Doctrines, 31. Lyon, David C, 223. McAden, Hugh, 105. McCook, Henry C, 243, McCormick Theological Seminary, 243. McCorkle, Sam'l Eusebius, 108. McCosh, James, 223, 242. McGiffert, A. C, 235, 236, 237. McMillan, John, 114, 149. McNish, Geo., 43, 46, 48. McWhorter, Alex., 107. Makemie, Francis, 40, 42, 43, 46, 48. Manhattan Island, 38. Marietta, Ohio, 152.

College, 157. Martha's Vineyard, 37.

Maryland, 19, 22, 38, 40, 44, 46, 48, 116, 132, 145, 203. Maryville, Tenn., 168.

College, Theological department, 170. Massachusetts Bay Colony, 23, 24, 25, 26, ^2> 35-

Index 303

Mather, Cotton, 24, 57.

Matthews, John, 170,

Mayflower, 33.

Mazarin, Cardinal, 21.

Mecklenburg Declaration, 96, 97.

Melville, Andrew, 16,

Memorial Fund, 1 870, 220.

Methodist Missionaries, 145.

Miami University, 149, 158.

Michigan, Synod of, 194.

Middle States, 84.

Middletown, 125.

Miller, Samuel, 148.

Ministry, candidates for, 70, 74, 75, 89, 92, 93, 116, 144,

147, 170, 171, 196, 222, 281. Minnesota, 223.

Missionaries' commissions, 132-134. Missionary activity, 88, 89.

contributions to new world, 36, 37, 59, 89.

needs, 129, 147, 156, 161, 166, 196, 220, 221, 269-272,

organization, 90, 91, 124, 125, 126, 130, 131, 134, 143, 145, 162.

societies, 36, 43, 58, 59. Mississippi, 132, 165.

Presbytery of, 17 1.

River, 153. Missouri, 165, 193, 203.

Synod of, 210, Monmouth College, 159. Montgomery, Robt., 98. Mount Pleasant, 1 14. Morgan, Gen'l, 100. Morristown, 176. Muskingum, 90, 112, 152.

Nashville College, Theological Department, 171. Natchez, 132. Negroes, 94, 208. Nelson, David, 198.

304

Index

Neshaminy, 56.

Netherlands, 13.

Newark, N. J., 116.

New Castle, Presbytery of, 49-52, 63, 74, 82, 83, 1 14, 1 18.

New Brunswick, N. J., 143.

Presbytery of, 75, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84. . New England, 23, 24, 25, 26, 33, 36, 43, 45, 46, 48, 50-

52, 58-60, 64, 76, 83, 84, 97, 98, 143, 154, 160,

169, 171, 176, 178, 179, 183, 192. New Jersey, 45, 56, 89, 98, 132, 194.

Synod of, 120. New Light Covenanting Church, 174. New Orleans, 207. Newport, R. I., 175, Newtown, 48, 51. New York, 22, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 52, 56, 72, 83, 84, 87,

97, 98, 120, 121, 125, 131, 143, 148, 160, 165, 166,

168, 177, 178, 194, 203, 219, 230, 241, New York Missionary Society, 172. New York, Presbytery of, 77, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84, 230,

237- New York and Philadelphia, Synod of, 102, 107, 141. New York, Synod of, 85, 120, 179. Niagara, Presbytery of, 165. Nixon, Capt. John, 98. Non-Conformists, 18. Norfolk, Va., 131. Norton, A, T., 222, North Carolina, 88, 97, 106, 109, 190. Nott, Eliphalet, 148, Noyes, George C, 228.

James, 25. Oakland College, 171. Oberlin University, 158. Occom, Sam'l, 89. Octorara, Pa., 72. Ohio, 90, no, III, 112, 132, 134, 143, 154, 156, 158,

159, 160, 165, 168, 194, 201, Ohio River, 153.

Index 305

Ohio, Synod of, 142, 155, 234.

Old Northwest, the, 151, 157, 159.

Onondago, 127,

Orange, Presbytery of, 88, 107.

Orme, John, 57.

Orthodoxy, 60, 62, 72.

Oxford, Ohio, 158.

Pacific Ocean, 100, no.

Palmer, Benj. M, 207.

Parker, Thomas, 25.

Parliament, 36.

Adoption of Reformed Confession of Faith, 16.

abolition of Romish worship, 16. Patton, Francis L,, 228, 243.

Ebenezer, 54, 72, 76, 83. Pennsylvania, 19, 44, 45, 46, 56, 58, 105, 107, 108, in, 125, 146, 154, 166, 168, 182, 194.

Synod of, 176. Persecution, 41, 87.

Philadelphia, 42, 70,76, loi, 176, 177, 178, 185,214, 217, 219, 225.

Presbytery of, 46, 49, 54, 61, 75, 87, 187, 240.

Synod of, 76, 77, 78, 79, 84, 85, 120, 179, 183. Pickens, Gen'l, 100. Pilgrims, 23, 24, 34, 88.

Pioneers, 88, 90, 99, 105, 106, 108, 109, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118, 131, 132, 133, 150, 154, 161.

Salaries of, 146. Pittsburg, 143, 182, 216, 217.

Presbytery of, 235.

Synod of, 134, 155. Pittston, 125.

Plan of Union, The, 127, 189, 183, 18$, 187, 188. Plumer, William S., 185, 186, 187. Plymouth, 23, 24, 88.

Colony, 33. Powers, James, 1 14. Presbyterian Church Constitution, 29.

doctrine, 9, 31, 86.

3o6

Index

Presbyterian Church, English, 37, 240.

Form of Government (compared with national government), 29.

New School, 192, 193, 194, 196, 200, 213, 214, 216, 217, 219, 245.

Scotch, 240.

South, 200, 206, 208, 210, 211, 212, 225, 226, 266.

South (new school), 208.

Requirement for membership, 32. Presbyterianism, American personnel, 43, 46.

distinguished from Episcopacy, 29.

distinguished from Independency, 29.

development, 32.

essential principles, 9.

government, 29, 30.

national origins, 46.

persecution, 37, 38.

polity, 25, 28, 32, 86, 102.

in America, 18, 32.

Cosmopolitan character in early period, 43, 51,

55- English, The, 34. Evolution from Congregational Antecedents,

^. 51-87.

First General Assembly, 16.

First Presbytery, 18. First Synod, 51.

growth, 45, 57, 68, 84, 86, 87, 109, 120, 135, 137, 142, 143, 146, 151, 153, 155, 157, 160, 161, 165, 167, 220, 221, 222, 223.

historic lines, 10.

in eighteenth century, 48. In 1902, 262-290.

Irish, The, 43, 76, 107.

Leaders, 92.

Middle Colonies, 58.

New England, 45.

in America, New York, 53.

organization, 10, 39, 42, 45, 220, 267.

Index 307

Presbyterianism in America, resultant of diverse national forces, 27.

in England, new creed (1889), 240.

in Ireland, 61, 62, 63.

in Scotland, 16.

** Declaratory Act," 240. Presbyterian Ministers' Fund, 2S3.

Presbyterians in the Revolution, 94, 95, 97, lOO, loi, 102, 103, 106, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124.

New York and New Jersey, 26, 37.

mission work, 33.

in Asia, 243. Presbytery of Abingdon, 87.

of Carlisle, 87.

of Chicago, 228,

of Chillicothe, 201.

of Cumberland, 139.

of New Brunswick, 75, 77, 79, 82, 8$, 84.

of New Castle, 49, 52, 63, 82, 83, 114, 118.

of Donegal, 74.

of Dutchess County, 87.

of Erie, 165.

of Hanover, 87, 107.

of Harmony, 199.

of Hartford, 155.

of Lancaster, 87.

of Lewes, 75.

of Lexington, 87, 200.

of Long Island, 49, 51.

of Mississippi, 171.

of New York, 77, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84, 230, 237.

of Niagara, 165.

of Orange, 88-107.

of Philadelphia, 46, 49, 54, 61, 75, 87, 187, 240.

of Pittsburg, 235.

of Redstone, 87, 113, 1 14, 149.

of Snow Hill, 49.

of Transylvania. 87.

3o8

Index

Princeton, 56, 83, 91, 94,97. I05» 108, 114, 115, 118,

132, 149, 166, 223, 242, 281. Princeton Theological Seminary, 147, 148, 243. Princeton Review, 182, 213. Protestant Episcopal Church, 233. Protestantism, growth of, 19. Psalms, 266.

Rouse's Version, 265. Puritans, 14, 23, 25, 43, 45, 46, 97, 99. Quakers, 191. Quebec, 98.

Redstone, Presbytery of, 87, 113, 114, 149. Reese, Thos., 108. Reformation, 10, ii, 12, 19, 21, 27, Reformed Church, (Covenanter Church), 266. Reformed Presbyterian, Gen'l Synod, 214.

Synod of, 173, 174. Reunion, (1758), 81, 84, 85.

(1869), 212, 213, 215, 217, 218, 223, 227, Revivals, 71-76, 81, 82, 86, 135, 136, 137, 139, 159,

164. Revision, 244, 263. Revolutionary War, 91, 94, 104, 106. Rice, John H., 145, 149, 154, 171, 177, 190. Richelieu, Cardinal, 21. Richmond, Va., 149. Riggs, T. J., 169. Riley, B. G., 222. Rio Grande, 100, iio. Ripon College, 159. Rodgers, John, 120. Roman Catholicism, 20, 40, 238. Roman Catholic persecutions, 15.

worship abolished by Parliament, 16. Roman law, 12. Romaine, John B., 148. Roosevelt, Theo., 98, 109, 132, 133. Rowland, John, 75. Roxbury, Mass., 35.

Index 309

Sacraments, 31.

San Francisco, 205.

Schaff, Phillip, 243.

Schools, Free, 14.

Scotch Presbyterians in America, 43, 52, 76, 97, 98, 107,

Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in America, 18, 19, 43, 52,

95» 96, 97» 98. 99, 104, 108. Scotch monarchs, 18.

Reformation, 15. Scotland, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 27, 35, 45, 46, 50, 52, 53. 55. 83, 84, 89, 91, 94-

church of, 54.

" The First Covenant," 16. Scott, Abraham, 155. Secession, 202, 204, 207. Separatists, 23, 24. Setauket, L. I., 51. Sevier, Col., 100. Sewickley, 114. Shaw, James B,, 2l6. Shedd, W. G. T., 243. Shelby, Col., 100. Skelton, Samuel, 23. Slavery, 142, 189, 190, 191, 192, 196, 198, 199, 20O,

201, 202, 203, 205, 207, 208, 209. Smythe, Thomas, 100. Smith, Joseph, 117.

Henry, Preserved, 233, 234.

Robert, 115. Snow Hill, 40, 52.

Presbytery of, 49. South, The, 104. South Carolina, 88, 204.

Synod of, 168. Southampton, England, 15.

L. L,5i. Southwest, The, 109. Spain, 14, 20. Spencer, Herbert, 27.

310 Index

Spring, Gardiner, 148, 176, 203.

Resolutions, 204, 207, Stamford, Conn., 39,

Standards, 32, 61, 63, 64, 65-67, 72, 85, 86, 93, 216, 227, 230, 231, 233, 235, 236, 238, 240, 244, 251-261, 262, 264, 265. 266.

Brief Statement, (17 14), 61. (1902), 251-261.

discussions, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181.

revision, 241, 242, 245-251, 262.

General Assembly vote, 243. Stark, Col., 98. St. Bartholomew, 20. Stearns, Jonathan F., 216. Steubenville, Ohio, 157. Stiles, Ezra, 93. Stony Point, 98. Stowe, Calvin E., 169. Strong, William, 216. Stuart, George H., 214, 218. Sullivan, Col., 98. Swing, David, 227, 228.

Systematic Beneficence, Assembly's Committee, 285. Synod of the Carolinas, 120, 134.

of Genesee, 187.

of Geneva, 167, 187.

of Indiana, 170, 194.

of Kansas, 222.

of Kentucky, 134, 138, 191, 2IO.

of Michigan, 194.

of Missouri, 210.

of New Jersey, 120.

of New York, 85, 120, 179.

of New York and Philadelphia, I02, 107, 141.

of Ohio, 142, 155, 234.

of Pennsylvania, 176.

of Philadelphia, 76, 77, 78, 79, 84, 85, 120, 179, 183.

of Pittsburg, 134, 155.

Index 311

Synod of Reformed Presbyterians, 173, 174,

of South Carolina, 168.

of Tennessee, 194.

of Virginia, 120, 168, 199.

of Western Reserve, 187. Taunton, Mass., 38. Taylor, Nathaniel, 43, 46, 176. Temperance Assembly's Committee, 285. Tennents, The, 55, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 83,

107. Tennessee, 109, 132, 133, 134, 143, 160, 165, 170, 171- 190, 203.

Synod of, 194. Texas, 222.

Theological seminaries, 56, 68, 91. Theological Seminary, Columbia, 168.

of the Northwest, 170, 228. Theology, Calvinistic, 33.

discussions, 60. Thomson, Chas., 98.

John, 72. Transylvania, Presbytery of, 87. Treat, Robert, 83. Ulster, 18, 57. Unitarianism, 62, 178. United Foreign Missionary Society, 163. United Presbyterian Church, 265. Union College, 148, 166. Union Theological Seminary, (N. Y.), 230, 233, 235,

243.

(Va.), 168, 171, 177. Van Dyke, Henry J., 243.

Virginia, 19, 22, 23, 44, 46, 56, 58, 82, 87, 88, 95, 97, 98, 105, 107, 114, 116. 132, 143, 145, 191.

Synod of, 120, 168, 199. Wabash College, 159. Wales, 37, 50, 52, 57. Waldensians, 10. Warfield, Benjamin B., 243.

312 Index

Washington College, ii6, 132, 149, 166. Washington, D. C, 98, 131. George, 97, I2i, 152.

Watts, Isaac, 93.

Wayne, Gen'l Anthony, 98.

Webster, Daniel, 98.

Western Memorial, The, 180.

Western Missionary Society, The, 134, 143.

Western Reserve, The, 154, 155, 156.

College, 158.

Synod of, 187. Western Theological Seminary, 168. Westminster Confession of Faith, 32. Whelpley, Sam'l, 176.

Whitefield, George, 56, 68, 71, 76, 77, 104. Wilkesbarre, Pa., 125. Williams, Col, James, 100. Wilson, John, 43, 46.

Joshua L., 154, 178, 182.

Samuel R., 209. Wisconsin, 159, 222.

Witherspoon, John, 46, 91, loi, 108, 185. Woman's Missionary organizations, Cumberland Pres- byterian Church, 286.

Presbyterian Church, (South), 285,

Presbyterian Home Missions, 271, 272.

Presbyterian Foreign Missions, 275.

Reformed Church in America, 286.

Reformed Church in United States, 286. Winthrop, Gov., 24. Yale College, 54, 57, 176. Youghiogheny River, The, 1 14, 152. Young, John, 25.

Young Men's Christian Association, 286. Young Women's Christian Association, 286.

II

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