LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
" -^ ' I 9004
L
THEOLOGICAL SEV.I^MRY
HISTORY
OF THE
Dn,
)oiaii(i msifieiiii iiiiireli,
By B. W. McDONNOLD, D.D., LL.D.
There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains-
the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon .-/>^«/,« l^^u, le.
Let us watch awhile the sowers,
Let us mark the tiny grain,
Scattered oft in doubt and trembling,
Sown in weakness or in pain.
—F-, R. H.
NASHVILLE, TENN.:
Board of Publicatiox of Cumberland Presbyterian Church
iSSS.
LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
Allfi I I 2004
J
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PREFACE.
At the suggestion of Dr. D. M. Harris, tlie Board of Pub-
lication of the Cumberland Presbyterian church contracted with
the writer for the preparation of this histor}-. The size of
the book was limited by the board before a line of it was
written. It was also understood between us that only the
minimum of time consistent with thoroughness was to be
allowed. Casting the horoscope of the book under these lim-
itations, there were found just three things to choose between.
The first was to end the volume where my own life became
a humble factor in our history, and where interested feelings
might prevent clear-sightedness. The second was to condense
our whole history, giving each event and actor a place. The
third was to make such selections from the whole field as
would furnish a volume of good reading for our people, and
illustrate our life and progress. The first method was not
acceptable to my counselors, either in the board or out of it.
The second method would have produced a book which no-
body would read. The third method involved the inevitable
complaints of all those who might be omitted, besides open-
ing other doors of complaints not found in the first method.
After many consultations the third method, with all its
inevitable complaints and inevitable omissions of good men
who deserve mention, was deliberately adopted, and the work
of gathering material from the whole field, and studying every
particle of this material so as to be able to make the best
(iii)
iv Preface.
selections, was undertaken. I had gone but a little wa}- in
this work before I discovered the utter impossibility of accom-
plishing it without more time than was at first proposed.
More was granted, but with the pressing demand that it be
made as brief as thoroughness permitted. My only fears on
that point are that it will be found by experts that I made
that time far too brief.
Under the same limitations the plan was formed about the
different States. It was to give the origin of the church in
each State, with as much fullness of detail as could well be
secured, extending the record only to the organization of tlie
first presbytery, closing that chapter with a rapid summary view
of the present condition of our church in that part of th.e
field. There were certain subjects belonging to 'all periods
to which special chapters were reserved, to be placed at tl:e
last of the book; and if they brought out any thing further
from the w^ork of our people in any particular State, at any
later period, all well; and if not, there would be no further
notice taken of that portion of the church.
The question of brief biographical sketches was also care-
fully weighed, and finally decided in the negative. To this
decision an exception was made in the case of those gener-
ally called the fathers of the church. If a biography formed
part of the very thread of the history which I was writing,
just so far was it also made a part of this volume. There
were placed in my hands some very interesting biographies
which contained no single item that could be used accord-
ing to my established programme of operations.
It was not so much to show how our church originated
a'i to show" what it has done since it originated that this
Preface. v
book was undertaken. In showing this, my best strength
has been put forth to the utmost. In that part of the work
I was fortunate in gathering materials. I reaped, also, the
fruit of past labors. The materials mostly relied on for this
part of the history were manuscripts. Of these my collection
was extensive. Among them were manuscripts from James
McGready, Finis Ewing, Samuel McAdow. Robert Bell, Rob-
ert Donnell, and Thomas Calhoun.
In 1845, while boarding at Calhoun's house, and often
meeting there various actors in the events out of which
our church originated, I commenced taking down from the
lips of these old men a full history of the origin and work
of our church. The statements from Callioun, McSpeddin,
Lowry, and Aston covered all the main points of our history
up to 1845. ^^^ spite of war and fire these memoranda have
been preserved, and were used in the preparation of this book.
The habit of collecting such memoranda, begun in my boy-
hood, has been kept up ever since, and the accumulation of
reliable materials in that way is now considerable.
At two different periods in my life I have been called
upon to travel over the church. In the last period of travels
I spent twelve years, visiting more than four fifths of the
entire denomination; and though neither of these extensive
tours had any reference to collecting materials for a history,
yet that old habit of keeping memoranda was all the time
unintentionally furnishing matter for such a work. So, too,
did that old habit furnish me the only existing records which
I can now fi. d of the proceedings of the conventions held by
our people in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1863, and in Selma,
Alabama, in 1864.
vi Preface.
There were placed in my hands for nse in the preparation
of this little vohnne sixty niannscript autobiographies, some
brief, and some extending to five hundred pages of foolscap.
Two of these were the lives of men who were arraigned be-
fore the commission of Kentucky vSynod. The original record
books of all our first judicatures have also been examined, and
the archives of old Cumberland College and of Cumberland Uni-
versity were consulted, as well as many other official records.
The literary remains in full of Richard Beard, Milton Bird,
David Lowry, and President Anderson, all very extensive, were
all explored. Parts of the literary remains of various others
were placed in my hands. Of this latter class I mention
James Smith, W. A. Scott, John W. Ogden, Finis Ewing, F.
R. Cossitt, Robert Donnell, H. A. Hunter, Isaac Shook, and
Herschel S. Porter. Dr. Beard's old letters date back to 1830,
and are from all the chief actors in our church from the be-
ginning. There are perhaps eight thousand of these letters,
and they discuss every important subject that has ever been
before our denomination. They will all be filed in the library
of Cumberland University.
The private diary of Dr. Beard has been of great ser\-ice
to me. Indeed, diaries are the most trustworthy of all man-
uscript authorities. There was a considerable number of these
placed in my hands. Most of them are to be returned to their
authors' families. Others, together Avith many manuscrij^ts, are
to be filed in the library of Cumberland University.
It required more than fifteen months' constant labor to ex-
plore all these authorities. Files of from one to fi\-e weekly
papers (and various monthlies) for a period of fifty-seven years
had to be examined. "The ninth ripening year" was not
Preface. vii
allowed me for all this work, but past studies rendered some
little compensation for this lack of time. Dr. Lindsley's labors
in collecting material also saved me much delay. The fruit
of his noble toil has been freely used in preparing this volume.
The generous assistance of many brethren was extended to
me in collecting material. The list of the names of those breth-
ren would be too long to give here, but God keeps all the
roll. He knows how generously some of them struggled to
help me; and he will not forget their labor of love.
The board secured the services of a very learned commit-
tee to revise the manuscript before it went to press, and they
had unlimited power not only to correct errors, but also to
strike out from the manuscript whatever they saw fit. They
corrected several minor errors, and there may be others which
neither I nor the committee detected. Those who have read
' ' The Biography of a Lie ' ' know how even an accumulation
of authorities may sometimes mislead a writer. I have de-
tected mistakes in authorities where mistakes seemed to be
impossible. It is by no means likely that I have detected all
in the authorities relied on for this volume.
It is proper here to state that, with my full consent, the
book editor made great changes, especially in certain parts of
the last two periods of the history. In this he had the as-
sistance of the able committee already mentioned. My history
of the sixth period was prepared in such haste that great
changes were no doubt needed.
And now to Him for whom every line of this book was
written, and to whom all its future destiny is committed, I
leave this volume to be used as His infinite wisdom may
determine.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
Before the work of editing this voliiiiie was begun, the Board
of Publication appointed a committee consisting of the Rev. J.
C. Provine, D.D., the Rev. ^I. B. DeWitt, D.D., the Rev. W. E.
Ward, D.D., and the Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., to assist the book
editor in this task. Several meetings were held, and some of the
chapters were read and discussed by the whole committee. But
this method required so much time, and such difficulty was ex-
perienced in securing a full and regular attendance at the meet-
ings, that it was arranged for the members of the committee sep-
arately to read the manuscript, indicating their suggestions, and
leaving the work of making changes to the book editor.
As the work progressed, and especially when the record of the
closing period of the history was reached, it seemed to the com-
mittee and to the editor necessary to give a somewhat fuller
account of certain events and certain departments of the church's
work than that found in the manuscript. Accordingly the editor
greatly extended the history of the relation of Cumberland Pres-
byterians to the Presbyterian Alliance, the history of city and
home missions since the war, and of the Trinidad, the Japan, and
the Mexican missions; of Waynesburg College, of the first efforts
of the church to establish schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio and
in the West, of the revision of the Confession of Faith, and of
several minor matters. As stated in the body of the work, Dr.
Harris made large additions to the sketch of Ivincoln University,
(ix)
X Preface.
and John M. Gaut, Esq., prepared the history of the Board of
Publication found in the forty-seventh chapter. The sketch of
Cane Hill College in the forty-sixth chapter was furnished by
the Rev. F. R. Earle, D.D., president of that institution. The
index at the close of the volume was prepared by the Rev. J. P.
Sprowls, D.D, All these changes and additions were made with
the cordial consent and approval of Dr. IMcDonnold.
The editor desires to acknowledge the valuable assistance he
has received from his colleague and co-laborer, Dr. Harris, and
the no less helpful suggestions of Dr. Provine and Dr. DeWitt.
By reason of the illness and death of Dr. Ward, the committee
was, except in the earlier stages of the work, deprived of the
counsel and suggestions which his literary attainments and wide
knowledge of our denominational history so well fitted him to
give.
In reading and re-reading this volume, first in manuscript and
afterward in the proof sheets, the editor has been more and more
impressed with its value as a most important contribution to our
denominational literature. By the simple naturalness and beauty
of his style, by apt illustrations and well-selected incidents. Dr.
McDonnold lias imparted to these pages a living interest and a
charm which it is believed will make their perusal a delight.
This book is sent forth to the church and to the world with the
confident hope that it will awaken, not only among our own
people but wherever it shall be read, new^ interest in the history
and doctrines and future work of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church.
J. M. Howard, Book Editor.
Nashville, January, 1888.
CONTENTS.
FIRST PERIOD.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL TO THE
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNCIL, 1796 TO 1S06.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
The country called Cumberland. Indian warfare. Anecdote of
Daviess and Donnelson. Pioneer women. Colonel Joe Brown.
Privations and hardships. Boating to New Orleans. Mail
facilities, 1-4
CHAPTER II.
LITERATURE AND RELIGION.
Education without books. The first school in Cumberland. Ten-
nessee's first "meeting-house." Charles Cummings. Ken-
tucky. Rice and Craighead. Formal worship. Unconverted
chiu'ch members and ministers. Richard King. Lifeless
preaching. Conversion of James McGready. His removal to
Kentucky, 5-9
CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT REVIVAL.
Fasting and prayer. McGready's covenant. Gaspei" River. Gen-
eral awakening. Muddy River. Sinners falling prostrate.
(xi)
xii Contents.
Origin of camp-meetings. Spread of the revival. Its origin
in McGready's churches. The " Cumberlands " not "New
Lights." Shouting. Tokens. "The Union," 10-19
CHAPTER IV.
THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT.
Testimony of David Rice, and of the Presbyterian General As-
sembly. George Baxter's testimony. David Nelson in the
" Western Sketch Book." James Gallagher. Methodist tes-
timony. Dr. Speer's history. Infidelity and the revival of
iSoo. Modern missionary progress and the revival, .... 20-26
CHAPTER V.
A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM.
The gift of the Holy Ghost the distinctive privilege of the new
dispensation. Finis Ewing's testimony. Anecdote of Ewing.
Mr. jMoody and "the power." Anecdotes of Donnell and Cal-
houn. Dr. Samuel Miller and H. F. Deiany. An ordination
incident. James B. Porter in a Presbyterian camp-meeting.
The sublime faith of our first preachers. Calhoun dealing
with disturbers. Solemn covenants. Remarkable answers to
prayer. Testimony of our first preachers, 27-38
CHAPTER VI.
OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL.
Opposition to AIcGrcady's work in North Carolina. Balch in Mc-
Gready's Kentucky churches. Violence. Hyper-Calvinism
logically anti-revival. " Old Side " objections to revival " meas-
lU'es." Camp-meetings and the " mourners' bench." Argu-
ments. An "orderlv" meeting. Misrepresentation. The
" Stoneites." An editor's mistake. "The jerks," , . . .39-47
COXTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND DIFFICULTY— MINISTERIAL EDUCATION.
Pressing need for more preachers. David Rice's advice. Ander-
son, Ewing, and King before the Transylvania Presbytery.
Anderson received as a " candidate." The General Assembly's
advice. The revival party's statement. Statement of James
Hutchhison, Esq. King as a lay exhorter. Anderson. Mc-
Lean. Porter. Chapman. Division of Transylvania Pres-
bytery, and formation of Cumljerland Presbytery. Ordination
of Anderson, Ewing, and King. The educational question
not the cause of division. Proofs. Efforts to secure education
for young men. Presbyterian testimony then and now. How
shall we evangelize the masses? 48-6:5
CHAPTER VIII .
THIRD DIFFICULTY— DOCTRINES— RESERVATIONS IN
ADOPTING THE BOOK.
Reservations in adopting the Confession. Meanings of "fatality."
Dr. Davidson's testimony. Two charges. Unsoundness of
doctrine the chief difficulty. Platform of union with South-
ern Presbyterians proposed in 1S67. "Elect infants," and the
Westminster Assembly. Dr. MacCrae, of Scotland. The West-
minster creed an incumbrance to revival preaching. Testimony
of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Schaff. Creeds and theodicies. Sig-
nificant incidents in the Belfast Council. The mission of
Cumberland Presbyterians, 66—76
CHAPTER IX. .
FOURTH DIFFICULTY— TRAMPLING ON A PRESBY-
TERY'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS BY A
SYNODICAL COMMISSION.
The two parties in Cumberland Presbytery. The Commission.
Statement of charges. The young men appealed to. For-
bidden to preach. This action pronounced unconstitutional
by the Presbyterian General Assembly. Bitterness of the peo-
ple against the Commission. Mr. Lyle, 77~Si
xiv Contents.
SECOND PERIOD.
FROM THE FORMATION OF THE COUNCIL TO THE OR-
GANIZATION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
iSo6 TO 1S29.
CHAPTER X.
TPIE NEW CHURCH.
The Council. Why the revival party did not appeal from the
Commission's decision. Cumberland Presbytery dissolved.
The Council's eftbrts for reconciliation. Lyle's tears. The
Assembly's final decision. The Council's last effort for recon-
ciliation. Gloomy outlook. Cumberland Presbytery re-organ-
ized. "The Cumberland schism " not a schism. Measures '
adopted by the new Presbytery. Rigid rules and discipline.
Strict Sabbath observance. Lack of regular pastorates. Meth-
ods of education and study. List of the ministers belonging
to the new presbytery, 82-
CHAPTER XL
FIRST AIMS— NECESSITY FOR A SYNOD— ITS ORGAN-
IZATION—SKETCHES OF ITS MEMBERS.
A separate denomination not at first aimed at. Formation of a
Synod. Presbyterial boundaries. Pen-and-ink sketch of the
members of the synod. McSpeddin. Harris. Philip AIc-
Donnold. William ISIcGee's anxiety about the new creed, . 93-97
CHAPTER XII.
THE CONFESSION OF FAITH — SYNOPSIS OF DOC-
TRINES—FULLER CONFESSION— A MEDIUM
SYSTEM— DIAGRAM.
Exceptions about fataHt\\ Outline statement of doctrine. Fuller
creed adopted. Exhibit of changes in the Westminster Con-
"1
Contents. xv
fessions. Additions. "The medium system." Diagram of
creeds. Conditions of communion, 98-108
CHAPTER XIII.
THE THREE PRESBYTERIES — OLD CUSTOMS NOW
DROPPED.
Three Presbyteries. Tokens. Col. Joe Brown's case. Fencing
the table. Elders in presbytery. Extended fields. Fast days.
A three-fold plan. Plans for securing and supporting itiner-
ants. Final failure of this system. Origin of the name, Cum-
berland Presbyterian. Presbyterial libraries. Preaching on a
call to the ministry. Demand for preachers ia new fields.
Catechising. Necessity for a school discussed. Prejudice
against statistics. Camp-meetings in neglected neighborhoods.
The doctrines preached, 109-119
CHAPTER XIV.
HISTORIC CHURCHES— PLANTING CHURCHES IN TEN-
NESSEE AND KENTUCKY.
Red River church, Kentucky. Gasper River. Beech church,
Tennessee. Big Spring. Thomas Calhoun's pastorate. Smyr-
na. New Hope. Mt. Moriah. Goshen. Origin of the Nash-
ville church, 120-127
CHAPTER XV.
EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS.
Proximity of the Indians. Qiiickening of the missionary spirit.
Indians at camp-meetings. Mission work by the presbyteries.
Mission of Samuel King and Robert Bell. Bell's Mission and
school, 1820. Indian customs. Traditions of the Tombigbee.
The first Board of Missions for the whole church. The
Russellville church, Kentucky. Details of Bell's missionary
work. Letter from an Indian chief. Mrs. Bell's diary. Re-
moval of the Indians, End of Bell's mission, 128-141
xvi Contents.
CHAPTER XVI.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF
EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE AND THE
KENTUCKY PURCHASE.
New fields. East Tennessee. McGready's letter to East Ten-
nessee Presbyterians. An ecclesiastical barrier. Calhoun and
Robert Donnell in East Tennessee (1815). Calhoun's tour
the next year. David Foster. The Rev. J. S. Guthrie. Other
laborers. The Rev. George Donnell. Organization of Knox-
villc Presbytery. Hardships. West Tennessee. John L. Dil-
lard and the Rev. James McDonnold first in this field (1820).
Richard Beard (1S31). Difficulties. Camp-meetings. Or-
ganization of Hopewell Presbytery. Jackson's Purchase,
Kentucky. B. H. Pearson's labors. Missionary work of
Logan Presbytery. M. H. Bone. Incidents. Church growth
in Kentucky, 142-154
CHAPTER XVII.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN ALABAMA.
A glance at the history of Alabama. Robert Bell sent to Hunt's
Spring. Calhoun. Robert Donnell. Other laborers. Circuits.
South Alabama. Efforts to form a presbytery. Labors of
William Moore, Samuel King, R. D. King and Daniel Patton.
Tombigbee Presbytery organized. Anecdote of R. D. King.
A sermon by William Moore. Alabama Presbytery. Rem-
iniscences. Hindrances, ^S5~^^3
CHAPTER XVIII.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN INDIANA AND ILLINOIS.
Indiana. William Harris' visit. Missionaries sent to Wabash and
Indiana. Hardships. Organization of Mt. Zion church.
Other congregations. Incidents. Illinois. First Cumberland
Presbyterian sermon in this territory. John Crawford. Inci-
dents. Green P. Rice. First Illinois camp-meeting. D. W.
Contents. xvii
McLin. Second camp-meeting. Chapman's missionary tour.
Sparse settlements. Hardships. Ilhnois Presbytery organ-
ized. Comparison of church growth in Indiana and Il-
linois, 164-17^
CHAPTER XIX.
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS,
1811-1829.
First Cumberland Presbyterian sermon in Missouri. Daniel Buie.
R. D. Morrow sent to Missouri. J. T. A. Henderson's boy-
hood home. Morrow's second trip to Missouri. McGee
Presbytery organized. Finis Ewing in Missouri. "School of
the Prophets." Labors of R. D. King and Reuben Burrow.
A home supply of preachers. Pioneer missionaries: Robert
Sloan, Archibald McCorkle, H. R. Smith, Frank M. Braly.
Anecdote of Braly. A. A. Young. Daniel Patton. Adventure
of William Blackwell. Arkansas. Emigration thither of the
Pyatts and Carnahans. John Carnahan's circuit. Ordination
of Carnahan. The first sacramental meeting in Arkansas. In-
cidents. An " intermediate " session of McGee Presbytery.
Labors of R. D. King and Reuben Burrow. Camp-meet
ings. Sickness. Return of Burrow and Kine to Missouri.
Arkansas Presbytery. Settlement of Cane Hill. The Buch-
anans. Cane Hill College. Bands of robbers. Guilford
Pylant, 175-200
CHAPTER XX.
THE COLLEGE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY— SUMMARY
OF WHAT HAD BEEN DONE.
Nee'd of a college recognized. Plan adojoted. Details. Dr.
C'ossltt. Expediency of oi"ganizing a General Assembly dis-
cussed, 1833. Reasons for delay. Last meeting of the Gen-
eral Synod. List of the presbyteries and original members.
Four synods formed. The synodlcal period, 201-206
2
xviii Contents.
THIRD PERIOD.
FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
TO THE REMOVAL OF CUMBERLAND COLLEGE,
1S29 TO 1S42.
CHAPTER XXI.
GENERAL SURVEY.
The transition period. State of the church. Changed times.
Progress. Mistakes. The college. Home missionary prog-
ress. Statistics. Revivals. Camp-meetings. Appeal cases.
Samuel King's tour among the churches. Temperance. Fra-
ternal intercourse v^-ith other churches. A theological school
demanded. Church growth. Change from missionaiy evan-
gelists to pastorates. New presbyteries and synods. Finan-
cial troubles, 207-213
CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIRST CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERLVN COLLEGE.
Outward and internal history. A manual labor institution. The
college located at Princeton, Ky. Buildings. Debts. Lease
of Barnett and Shelby. Cholera. Barnett's lease surrendered.
A stock company formed. Threats. Reviving hope, followed
by failure. The Assembly decides to select a new location.
Lebanon, Tenn., chosen. Report of the Commissioners. Pio-
test of the friends of Princeton. Resolution against the control
of pecuniary matters by the Assembly. Cumberland College
after "the removal." Internal history. A homespun costume
prescribed. Refectory and dormitories. Presidents. Pro-
fessoi's. Dr. Beard's administration. Dr. Azel Freeman.
Alumni, 214-22S
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CHURCH PAPER.
Origin of the Rcliglozis and Literary l7itclUgc}iccr. David Lowry.
The paper moved to Nashville. Sold to James Smith.
Contents. xix
Smith's multiplied labors. The paper becomes the Cutnber-
land Presbyterian. Hopeless indebtedness. T. C. Anderson,
assistant editor. Efforts to increase the circulation. Smith's
agreement with the Assembly. Editorial denunciations. No
General Assembly, 1S39. Convention at Nashville. Its action.
Smith's Ciitnberland Presbyterian at Springfield, Tenn. He
denounces the convention. Strife and division. Smith's col-
lege at Springfield. The Banner of Peace. Action of the
Assembly, 1840. Smith's subsequent course. Preachers who
have joined the Presbyterians, 229-241
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TRANSITION FROM MISSIONARY EVANGELISTS
TO PAID PASTORS.
Self-denying missionaries. Opposition to settled pastors. Pro-
posed abolition of pastorates, 1830. Action of West Tennes-
see Synod. Misconceptions. Pastors and evangelists. Cal-
houn's testimony. False ideas of " supporting the gospel."
Two anecdotes of Dr. A. J. Baird. Wrong training. Rob-
bing pastors. Meager pay of circuit riders. The credit sys-
tem. The scriptural method, 242-253
CHAPTER XXV.
THE CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA.
Bell's Mission. Bad character of settlers in the Indian country.
Anecdote of a slave trader. An Indian comment on the
Bankrupt Law. Removal of the Indians from Mississippi.
Rush of settlers. "Seizing the golden opportunity." Temp-
tations. Religious apostasy. Isaac Shook's testimony. For-
mation of Mississippi Presbytery. Shook's meetings at Co-
lumbus. Denominational progress in Mississippi. Mississippi
Synod organized. Presbyteries. Mississippi preachers. An-
ecdote of R. L. Ross. Louisiana. First congregation organ-
ized. Louisiana Presbytery, 253-262
XX Contents.
CHAPTER XXVI.
PLANTING THE CHUECH IN TEXAS.
American colonist in Texas. Sumner Bacon. Bacon in Texas.
Attacked by ruffians. First Texas camp-meeting. Bacon's
work. The Rev. Mr. Chase. Bacon's ordination. A. J. Mc-
Gown. San Jacinto. Texas Presbytery formed. Robert Tate.
Samuel W. Frazier. James McDonnold. Work of R. O.
Watkins. Other helpers. Darkness followed by revival.
Table of dates, 263-272
CHAPTER XXVII.
ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The Rev. Jacob Lindley. Visit of M. H. Bone and John W.
Ogden. Request of Presbyterians in Washington County,
Pa. Action of the Assembly. Arrival of the missionaries.
Morgan's account. Morgan's first sermon in Pennsylvania.
First meetings, and their results. Formation of the first Cum-
berland Presbyterian church in this State. The first camp-
meeting. An incident. Anecdote of Burrow and Donnell.
Bryan at Pittsburg. Formation of a presbytery. LeRoy
Woods' work. Jacob Lindley's testimony. The Carmichaels
church. Uniontown. Hopewell. J. T. A. Henderson.
Brownsville. Bryan at Meadville. Pittsburg. Anecdote of
Bryan. Death of Morgan. The Ufiion and Eva7igclist.
Pennsylvania Synod formed, 273-391
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN OHIO.
Visit of Bone and Ogden. Morgan's visit to Athens. His return.
Result of his labors. Morgan's Ohio Camp- meeting. Inci-
dents. Our first church in Ohio. Beverly. Mr. Lindley's
labors there. Senecaville. A circus incident. Cumberland,
Ohio. Lebanon. The Rev. F. G. Black's work. The Coving-
ton church. Our church in Ohio, 292-300
Contents, xxi
CHAPTER XXIX.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS.
Revival at Bowling Green, Kentucky. A Kentucky camp-meet-
ing. A sample church under the supply system. Anecdote of
Hugh B. Hill. "Stars falling." Beginnings of Cane Hill
College, Arkansas. Anecdotes of John Buchanan and T. C.
Anderson. Duelling condemned by the Missouri Synod.
Andrew Jackson and J. M. Berry. Conversion of an infidel
woman. Anecdote of R. D. King, 301-309
FOURTH PERIOD.
^ROM THE "REMOVAL" OF THE COLLEGE TO THE
ST. LOUIS ASSEMBLY, 1S42 TO 1S61.
CHAPTER XXX.
A GENERAL SURVEY.
Progress. Records of the General Synod and Assembly. Opening
sermon of the Assembly of 1843, by Milton Bird. No Assem-
bly in 1S44. The Assembly of 1845. Organization of the
Board of Missions. Work of this board. A Committee on
Publication. A new Publishing Committee, 1847. Its work
at Louisville. Transferred to Nashville 1858. Our Hymn-
book history. The Board of Church Extension. Fraternal
correspondence. Relations with the New School church.
With the Old School. Efforts to secure a history of the
chiu'ch. Fast days. A last message from Robert Donnell.
Colleges. New synods and presbyteries, 310-321
CHAPTER XXXr.
MISSIONS— 1843-1860.
Missions in the new Territories. City missions. David Lowry's
mission to the Winnebagoes. Cumberland Presbyterian mis-
xxii CONTKNTS.
slonaries under the American Board. David Lowry's visit to
the Choctaw country, 1S54. His report. R. W. Baker's work.
Armstrong Academy. Burney Academy. Faithfuhiess of
R. S. Bell and Mrs. Bell. Letters from Israel and George
Folsom. The Foreign work. Edmond Weir in Liberia. His
visit to America, 1S57. Discouragements. Other foreign
fields discussed. Candidates. J. C. Armstrong appointed
missionary to Turkey, 3-^-335
CHAPTER XXXII.
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN THE NORTH-WEST— IOWA
AND OTHER FIELDS.
David Lowry's work. Church organized in Joseph Howard's
house. J. G. White in Iowa. The first Iowa camp-meeting.
Iowa Presbytery formed. Neil Johnson's labor. Ruflianism.
David Lowry's missionary plan for the North -vv'est. J. C.
Armstrong's work in Iowa. A camp-meeting. Ahorse racer
converted. Waukon. P. H. Crider. A letter from Armstrong.
Organization of Colesburg Presbytery. Hardships and dan-
gers. Our meager Strength in Iowa. Other North-western
States, 33<^34i
CHAPTER XXXIII.
OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, 1S44-1S60.
Gold ana God's providence. Oregon. Difficulties in the way of
its colonization. Fur traders. The first settlers. First Cum-
berland Presbyterian colony in Oregon. J. E. Braly. Crossing
the plains. Whitman's Station massacre. Neil Johnson's
journey. Cholera on the plains. O-ther dangers. Our first
Oregon congregation. Oregon Presbytery. Efforts to estab-
lish a college. Jacob Gillespie. Self-sacrificing missionaries.
Presbyteries. Acquisition of California. Gold. Transient
settlements. Mixed population. An unfaithful missionary.
Others who were faithful. John E. Braly. Letter from T.
A. Ish. Cornelius Yager. Linvillc Dooley. Anecdote of E.
C. Latta. Orcjanization of California Presbytery. Mushroom
Contents. xxiii
churches. Mountain View church. J. M. Small at Napa
City. Pacific Presbytery. Cumberland College at Sonoma.
T. AI. Johnson and the Pacijic Observer. D. E. Bushneirs
testimony. Johnson, a peace-maker. P'ascinating opportu-
nities. Difficulties and advantages. Our California presby-
teries. Idaho, 343-356
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SUNDRY SMALL BEGINNINGS— NORTH CAROLINA,
. WEST VIRGINIA, GEORGIA, KANSAS.
Visit of Reuben Burrow and Robert Donnell to North Carolina.
Feeble beginnings abandoned. West Virginia. Our work in
Georgia. A. Templeton and Z. M. McGhee. A war anecdote.
Georgia Presbytery. The political struggle in Kansas. Letter
from an emigrant. Round Prairie church. Kansas Presbytery.
Leavenworth Presbytery. Missionaries. Presbyteries, . . 357-361
CHAPTER XXXV.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Concentration. Mushroom colleges. Theological school. Dis-
agreement. Theological School of Bethel College. Action
of the Assembly. Dr. Burrow's teachings. A living question.
Missions. Fear of centralization. Proposed consolidation of
newspapers. Arguments pro and con. Books. Crisman's
Origin and Doctrines. Dillard's Reply to Lewis A. Lowry.
Cossitt's Life and Times of Ewing. Anderson's Life of Don-
nell. Beard's Theology. Dr. Beard as a theologian. Contro-
versies. Dr. Burrow's departures from the traditional faith.
Decay of camp-meetings. Church trials. Profitless contro-
versies, 362-372
CHAPTER XXXVI.
SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS.
The Memphis church. Anecdote of Matthew PI. Bone and Hugh
B. Hill. Story of Benjamin Watson. Facts from P. G. Rea's
xxiv Contents.
History of New Lebanon Presbytery. Compensation of
preachers. Anecdote of James Johnson. An Indian's con-
version. A mother's Sunday-school. A discouraged teacher.
Anecdote of M. II. Bone and F. G. Black. Story of a stam-
mering preacher, 373~379
FIFTH PERIOD.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR TO THE
WARRENSBTJRG ASSEMBLY, iS6i TO 1870.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
TEN ASSEMBLIES, 1S61-1870.
Presbyteries, North and South. Location of church boards.
Representatives in the Assembly of 1861. Reports of boards.
Assembly of 1S62. Southern presbAteries unrepresented.
Temporary Committees on Missions and Publication. Re-or-
ganization of these committees in 1863. Removal of publish-
ing interests to Pittsburg. Assemblies of 1864 and 1865.
State of things in the South. The Chattanooga Convention.
Missionary committee. Convention at Selma, Ala. Letter
from Milton Bird. The Southern Observe?-. Alemphis Con-
vention. Assembly of 1866. A general fast day. Missionary
boards. Re-organization of the Board of Publication at
Nashville. Prop )sed Organic Union with Southern Presby-
terians. Conference of committees. Result. Proposed re-
vision of form of government. Consolidation of missionary
boards. Controversy about the plans of the Board of Mis-
sions. Action of the Assembly of 1870. Abolition of the
synod discussed. Church periodicals. New presbyteries, 3S0-390
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE WAR RECORD.
Assemblies and Conventions. Milton Bird's opening sermon, 1S61.
Resolutions. Resolutions adopted in 1862 and in 1863. Deliv-
Contents. xxv
erance of 1864. Protest. Action in 1S65. Position of South-
ern Cumberland Presbyterians. Tlie Chattanooga Convention.
DeHverance of the Assembl}^ of 1S66. Action of Pennsylvania
Synod. Of the Assembly at Memphis, 1S67. At Lincoln,
1S6S. Relations of Cumberland Presbvterians to slavery.
Finis Ewing's views. McAdow. Ephraim McLean. Robert
Donnell's prayer. Testimony of Dr. Beard's diary. Atypical
case. The Revivalist on slavery. Testimony of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian, 1S35. Changes wrought by political
agitation. Action of the Assemblies of 1S48 and 1851. Pres-
ent attitude of the church. Its Southern membership, , , 391-419
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PREACHING TO SOLDIERS.
Chaplains. Army missionaries. Methods of vrork by chaplains.
Their trying duties. Denominations forgotten. Work in the
Union armies. Labors of A. W. White and G. N. Mattox.
A. G. Osborne. H. H. Ashmore. Hiram A. Hunter. J. W.
Woods. S. Richards. The Southern army. Resolutions
adopted by Southern chaplains. Revival in Bragg's army.
Death of George L. Winchester. Cumberland Presbyterian
Committee on army missions. J. L. Cooper. Nightly serv-
ices during Johnston's retreat. A picket incident. Other
incidents. Hardships of Southern chaplains. ]M. B. DeWitt.
A. G. Burrow. Revival in the Southern armies, .... 430-431
CHAPTER XL.
COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS.
Order of things before the war. An illustrative case. Colored
people at camp-meetings. Colored preachers before the war.
The change wrought by the war. Conventions of colored
Cumberland Presbyterians at Henderson, Kentucky, and
Huntsville, Alabama. Action at Murfreesboro, May 1869.
A separate organization. A colored commissioner at the As-
sembly of 1870. Progress of colored Cumberland Presbyte-
rians. Their General Assembly. School at Bowling Green,
Kentucky. Our duty to the colored people. Letter of J. F.
Humphrey, 432-439
xxvi Contents.
CHAPTER XLI.
MISSIONS— 186(^1870.
Missions in towns and cilics. Itinerant missionaries. New Territories
entered. R. S. Bell's work among the Indians. Liberia and
Turkey. Gloomy letters from Edmond Weir. His second
visit to America. Abandonment of the Liberia mission. J.
C. Armstrong's mission to Turkey. His voyage to England.
Arrival at Constantinople. Greek Christians from Brusa
Troubles. Providential relief. Work done by Armstrong.
His illness and return to America, 440-447
SIXTH PERIOD.
FROM THE ASSEMBLY AT WARRENSBURG, MISSOURI, TO
THE ASSEMBLY AT COVINGTON, OHIO, 1S70 TO i8S7.
CHAPTER XLII.
SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES.
Growing spirit of unity. Quarterly collections. Day of prayer
for colleges. Need of ministers. Death of Milton Bird.
John Frizzcll elected stated clerk. Discussion of the revised
Form of Governnient. Proposition for organic union with
Northern Presbyterians. Proposed terms of union. Response
of the Presbyterian committee. Result. False ideas. Visit
of James Morrison and Fergus Ferguson. Anecdote of Fer-
guson. Corresponding delegates. Address of J. S. Hays of
the Northern Presbyterian church. Old School Presbyterian
delegates. Assembly at Jefferson, Texas. Other Assemblies.
General Superintendent of Sunday-schools. M. B. DeWitt
succeeded by J. H. W^irren. Address of Dr. E. D. Morris,
1879. Semi-centennial meeting. The Woman's Board. Its
work. A Woman's Board in 181S. Negotiations concerning
organic union with Evangelical Lutherans. Important meas-
ures adopted in 1881. Revised Confession of Faith approved,
1882. Vote of the presbyteries. T. C. Blake elected stated
clerk. John Frizzell the first elder moderator. The Assembly
Contents. xxvii
at Bentonville, Arkansas. Dancing condemned. Consolida-
tion of papers. Board of Ministerial Relief. New books.
History of the Presbyterian Alliance and the relations of
Cumberland Presbyterians with it. Death of Dr. A.J. Baird.
New synods and presbyteries. Statistics. Freedom from
proselyting, 44S-46S
CHAPTER XLIII.
MISSIONS.
Progress. City missions. Our work in St. Louis. Mission at
Little Rock, Ark. Kansas City, and Sedalia, Mo. Logansport,
Ind. Chattanooga, Tenn. Other missions. Successful ad-
ministration of the board's affairs. Importance of Home
Missions. Indian missions. Bethel Presbytery. Work among
the Cherokees. Foreign Missions. Action of the Assembly
1S70-1S73. Dr. S. T. Anderson sent to the Island of Trinidad.
History of his work. His return. J. B. and A. D. Hail ac-
cepted as candidates. The Japan mission. M. L. Gordon.
The Hail brothers. J. B. Hail in Osaka, Japan, 1S77. Beginning
work. A. D. Hail joins h's brother, October, 1S7S. The first
sermon. Interest in the work. Diinculties. A Sunday-school
organized. First baptism and communion service. Fruits at
home. The Woman's Board. Extending work. Denomina-
tional literature. Arrival of Misses Orr and Leavitt. "Denarii
boxes." "A woman's meeting." The Osaka church. Mis-
sionary conference, 1SS3. A great revival. Scattered member-
ship. Elders. Principles governing the work. Arrival of
Mrs. A. M. Drennan. The Wilmina School. Other labors of
Mrs. Drennan. Corca. Growing fruits. Organization of
congregations. Chin-ches built. A native council or pres-
byteiy. Work of Miss Orr. Arrival of Miss Duffield.
Wakayama. Miss Leavitt's work. Shingu. Schools. Jap-
anese young men in America. Arrival of G. E. Hudson and
wife and Miss Rena Rczncr, December, 1SS6. Members of
the mission. Benefits of denominational work. Co-operation
with other churches. The Mexican mission. Appointment
of the Rev. A. H. W^hatley. His preparatory visit to Mexico.
Aguas Calientes. Needs of the work. Plans of the board.
Conseciation of F. P. Lawyer. Dr. Bell's lectures. The
Missionary Record. General remarks, 469-50S
xxviii Contents.
CHAPTER XLIV.
CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY— 1S42-1SS7.
"Removal" of the college. R. L. Caruthers. Trustees. The
first faculty. A University charter. The buildings. Obliga-
tions to teachers. T. C. Anderson made president, 1845.
Free tuition to candidates for the ministr}-. Free boarding.
Endowment. J. M. McMurray's work. The law depart-
ment. Other departments. Higli grade of scholarship.
Extension of buildings. President Anderson's administration.
The theological department. Dr. Beard. The University
closed by the war. Buildings burned. '•^ Resurgain.''' Re-
opening of the school. Purchase of the Caruthers j^roperty.
Prejudice and ill-feeling. Dr. McDonnold's presidency. How
the work was sustained. Gifts to the University. "Camp
Blake." Preparatoiy schools. The life insurance plan. The
disaster it brought. Nathan Green made chancellor. Progress.
Buildings. Relation of the theological school to the Univer-
sity. Education of young women. List of members of the
faculty. The law school. Endowment. Duty of men of
wealth, 509-536
CHAPTER XLV.
WAYNESBURG COLLEGE — LINCOLN UNIVERSITY
TRINITY UNIVERSITY.
Three educational centers. Efforts to establish denominational
schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Action of Pennsylvania
Synod, 1838. Greene Academy. Madison College. Anecdote
of John Morgan. J. P. Weethee's work in Madison College.
Beverlv College. ]\Ir. Wecthee president. Expected results
not realized. Beginnings of Waynesburg College. The build-
ing. First graduates. Charter. Professors. Joshua Lough-
ran the first president. J- P- Weethee becomes jd resident.
DiiTicultics. Mr. Weethee's resignation. President pro tern,
and faculty. A. B. Miller made president. Dr. Miller's labors.
Mrs. Miller. Graduates. Teachers trained at Waynesburg.
A new building. Endo\vmcnt. Religious influence, ^"alue
of Wavnesburg College. Lincoln University. Early efforts
to found schools. Influence of j^ublic schools. Effect of the
Contents. xxix
civil war. Action of Indiana Synod. Commissioners ap-
pointed. Tlie scliool located at Lincoln. The charter. En-
dowment. The building. The first faculty. Dr. Freeman's
presidency. Dr. Bowdon his successor. Death of Dr. Bow-
don. Dr. McGlumphy made president. Law and theological
departments. Losses and difficulties. Resignation of Dr.
McGlumphy. Graduates. Standard of scholarship. Pro-
fessors. Trustees. Endowing agents. Work of the Univer-
sity. A new faculty. List of teachers and professors. Value
of property. Trinity University. Compromise for the sake
of concentration. Origin of Trinity University. Points com-
peting for the location. Tehuacana selected. Dr. Beeson
president. Opening of the school. Wild lands as en-
dowment. Buildings. The first catalogue. Dr. Beeson's res-
ignation. Death of Dr. McLesky, his successor. L. A. Johnson
elected president. Importance of Trinity University. E. B.
Crisman, endowing agent. Valuable work done by this institu-
tion. The scholarship halter, 527-^^4
CHAPTER XLVI.
OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
The spirit of education among Cumberland Presbyterians. Our
pioneer schools. Reports and resolutions adopted by the Gen-
eral Assembly. A graded system recommended. Warnin^-s
against the multiplication of schools. Number of schools in
1S49. In 1S56. List of colleges in 1860! Effect of the war.
McGee College. Greeneville Seminary for Young Ladies.
Greenwood Seminary. Union Female College. Cumberland
Female College. Bethel College. Cane Hill College. Ward's
Seminary. Spring Hill Institute. Loudon High vSchool.
Educational work in Missouri. Reflections on the evils of
cheap scholarships, S55~^7^
CHAPTER XLVII.
PUBLICATION, NEWSPAPERS, REVISION, AND TEM-
PERANCE.
Publication. Use of the prmtmg press The first edition of the
Confession Plan of Cumberland Collesre. Ewine's lectures.
XXX Contents.
Ilymn-book committee. Publishing Association. The Louis-
ville Board. Dr. Bird president, agent, and editor. Suc-
ceeded by Le Roy Woods. Jesse Anderson, Woods' suc-
cessor. Work dune at Louisville. Committee of Publication
at Nashville. W. S. Langdon, general agent. The board
chartered. Loans and donations. Work transferred to Pitts-
burg. S. T. Stewart, agent. Re-organization of the board at
Nashville. J. C. Provine, book editor and publishing agent.
W. E. Dunavvay, agent. T. C. Blake, financial agent. M. B.
DeWitt, financial agent and book editor. Purchase of the
Sunday-School Gem and Theological Medium. Consolidation of
church papers. Sunday-school publications. T. C. Blake,
business manager, 1874-78. J. M. Gaut, i878-'8o. T. M.
Hurst, iS8o-'86. Jno. D. Wilson, 18S6. Financial struggles.
Efforts to secure a church history. A digest. Hymn and
tune book. Dr. W^. E. Ward. List of members of the board.
Newspapers. Banner of Peace. Church papers in Pennsyl-
vania. Cumberland Presbyterian Pttlpit. The Ark. The
Texas Presbyterian. Texas Cutnbcrlattd Presbyterian.
Texas Observer. The Watchman and Evangelist. Papers
in Missouri and Illinois. The Ladies'' Pearl. The Pacijic
Observer. The Theological JMedium. Revision of the Con-
fession of Faith, 18:^3-1883. Faults of our first Confession.
Action in i8.';3. Committee on Revision, 1853. Its repoit dis-
cussed and rejected, 18:^4. Unsuccessful efforts to revise the
Form of Government, 1867-74. History of the new Confession
of Faith. Improvements and defects. John L. Dillard's testi-
mony. Temperance.' Action of Elk Presb}tery, 1S16. Po-
sition of church papers. Le Roy Woods in the Indiana
legislature, i8:;5. Temperance deliverances by the General
Assembly. David Lowry's testimony. Anecdote of J. M.
Berry, 577-^09
CHAPTER XLVIII.
NEW FIELDS— EVANGELISTS— PROGRESS— RE-
FLECTIONS.
Inadequate Home Mission funds. Organization of Rocky Mount-
ain Presbytery. Colorado. Colorado Springs. Pueblo, ^'isit
of J. Cal Littrell to New Mexico. Nebraska. Indian diffi-
Contents. xxxi
culties. Overland Express Comj^anies. R. S. Reed's account
of the work in Nebraska City and elsewhere. Another ac-
count. Formation of Nebraska Presbytery Nebraska statistics.
Washington Territory. H. W. Eagan at Walla Walla. A.
W. Sweeny's rccortl of the work. Statistics. Evangelists.
R. G. Pearson and Dixon C. Williams. Anecdote of R. J.
Sims. Our first evangelist. Lay evangelists. Evangelistic
work among the Choctaws. A. P. Stewart. An old preach-
er's estimate of Dixon C. Williams. Our denominational prog-
ress. Increase in numbers. Lack of candidates for the ministry.
"Heresy of the pocket." Regular pastors. Theological school.
Comparison with Presbyterians. John L. Dillard's view. De-
cline in spirituality. General reflections. The author's unre-
corded impressions. Cumberland Presbj'terian doctrine in the
Presbyterian church. The mission of our church. Our debt
to the Presbyterian church, 610-626
CHAPTER XLIX.
ANECDOTES.
Sources from which these anecdotes are derived. Anecdote of
Mrs. Samuel King. A timely arrival. A quarrel settled by a
song. Conquered by kindness. Through head and heart.
Tardiness cured. " The root of the matter." Anecdote of
R. D. Morrow. Ruling passion strong in death. Comfort
through faithfulness. Anecdote of F. M. Fincher. A Mis-
souri camp-meeting. A barn meeting. A trial and a triumph.
Another dancing incident. A war incident. A case of fast-
ing and prayer. A gainsayer converted. A band of rowdies
conquered. The key-stone of the arch. A Presbyterian elder
convinced. A Christmas party. Two cases contrasted. A
defeat changed to victory. A mother's prayers. A Jew con-
verted. L. C. Ransom's discipline. Presentiment of death, 637-644
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.
PAGE.
Portrait of Rev. Finis Ewing, Frontispiece.
Map, Facing i
Portraits of Rev. Thomas Calhoun, Rev. Robert
DONNEI.L, AND ReV. R. D. MoRROW, D.D., . . . . " 96
Portraits of Rev. F. R. Cossitt, D.D., Rev. A. M.
Bryan, D.D., and Rev. Milton Bird, D.D., ... " 241
Portraits of Rev. R. O. Watkins, Rev. Reuben
Burrow, D.D., and Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., ... " 36S
Portraits of Rev. Richard Beard, D.D., Rev. A. J.
Baird, D.D., AND Rev. S. G. Burney, D.D., ... " 464
Portrait of Rev. John Morgan in Silhouette ... " 529
(xxxii)
FIRST PERIOD.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
In the woodlands rang their axes,
Smoked their towns in all the valleys.
— Hiazvatha.
THE country called Cumberland on the accompanying map
lay partly in Tennessee and partly in Kentucky. Its south-
ern boundary was the dividing ridge between Cumberland and
Duck rivers, in Tennessee; its northern boundary was the Green
River, in Kentucky. When the Presbyterian church divided one
of its large presbyteries, assigning one portion thereof to Cumber-
land, it gave the name of the country to the new presbyteiy.
When this presbytery was engaged in exciting controversies with
Kentucky Synod about the revival of 1800, the people called the
revival party "Cumberland Presbyterians." When a new church
grew out of the revival party, the name which the people had
already given was neither repudiated nor formally adopted, but it
clung to the new organization. The map belongs to a period a
little earlier than the great revival of 1800. The shade lines
include the white settlements, while all the rest of Tennessee and
Kentucky was claimed by Indians.
There was constant warfare with these savages. No treaty
could bind them. To this day, Indians claim that a treaty with
their chiefs does not bind any one except the individuals who sign
the treaty. Lands bought from them were still claimed by those
who did not sign the deed — claimed and fought for, too. Hence,
all these white settlers were soldiers. Men carried guns with them
(0
2 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
to cliurcli. When two men met and stopped to talk, they stood
back to back, to watch both directions for the lurking Indian.
Men still wore hunting-shirts and moccasins. They still wore
a belt in which were carried a large knife and a hatchet.
Their skill with the rifle was unsurpassed, but they resen,-ed
their display of it for living heads. At a later day, when powder
and ball were not so precious, it is said they would throw up two
apples and put a hole through both of them, with one bullet, when
they crossed each other's path in the air.
There were men and women, too, in all the settlements, who
had been scalped by the Indians and left for dead, but had after-
ward got well, and lived to pay back the debt of blood.
Two such, who afterward were actors in the great revival, were
described to me by an aged member of their family long ago.
Their father was named Daviess, uncle of the Joe Daviess for whom
Daviess County (Kentucky) was named. He had built his house a
little distance from the fort which then stood at Gilmore's Lick, in
Kentucky. The Indians surprised him at night, and took his two
little children, son and daughter, prisoners. He escaped in his
night-clothes, and with his utmost speed ran to the fort.
Colonel Donnelson, of Cumberland, was then visiting the fort.
When he saw Daviess coming in his night clothing, he knew too
well what that meant. He sprang instantly to his rifle, calling on
the men in the fort to join him. Before Daviess had time to tell
the whole story, they were all in hot pursuit, Daviess still in his
robe de nuit. Donnelson knew that if the Indians discovered their
pursuers they would instantly kill the prisoners, so he and his com-
rades tried to slip up on them. The barking of a dog gave the
savages warning, and instantly they killed, as they supposed, and
scalped the two children. The baby girl was taken by the heels
and dashed against a sapling, her scalp was torn off, and the Indians
fled. Colonel Donnelson took off his own shirt, and bound up the
wounds of these children; and, though they suffered long, they
ultimately recovered. There were, at that day, many such people
among the sons of Cumberland and Kentucky.
All the women knew how to shoot, and not only knew how,
but most of them had put their knowledge to practical use in self-
Chapter I.] STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 3
defense. The memoir of Mrs. Margaret Hess, one of the early
Cumberland Presbyterians, who lived to great age, tells how her
mother and other ladies used their rifles in three different bloody
struggles against the Indians. Wounded women were no uncom-
njon thing in these settlements.
All the first generation of our preachers had been in the Indian
wars. People who had been prisoners among the Indians, and
afterward either escaped or were ransomed, entered into the generll
mass of material out of which the Cumberland Presbyterian church
grew. Colonel Joe Brown, who was a Cumberland Presbyterian
preacher, had for a whole year been a prisoner in the hands of the
Indians. Nor was the schooling of these pioneers confined to fight-
ing Indians. Privations and hardships helped to sharpen their wits.
The first generation of children were brought up without "store
goods." There were no shoes. All the people, men and women,
wore moccasins made of untanned hides. Dresses were made of
thread spun from buffalo wool for the filling, and the lint of the
wild nettle for the chain. ' There were no steamboats, or railroads,
or steam factories, then, in the world. As to these settlements on
the border, there were no stores, no mails, no good wagon roads,
only blazed pathways. All the books or other luxuries they owned
had been carried on pack-horses over the mountains, through the
wilderness. Salt was worth sixteen dollars per bushel. Iron was
equally dear. The country was nearly without trade or money.
There was no South then, to buy mules and hogs. That South
belonged, in part, to the Indians, and, in part, to the Spanish.
There were no white settlements in what is now West Tennessee.
The buffalo grazed quietly where Memphis now stands.
The only possibility for any trade at all was either by pack-
horses to Philadelphia, or by flatboats to New Orleans. The latter
avenue was not always open, whimsical Spaniards closing it some-
times, and always, when it was open, charging an enormous toll on
every flatboat. These flatboats could not be brought back. The
traders sold them for fuel, and walked back through the Indian
country. Forty years ago these old boatmen abounded both in
Tennessee and Kentucky, and the stories of their adventures held
' Life of Mrs. Hess.
4 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period I.
many a group of children listening around the happy hearth-stones
in these then peaceful and prosperous homes.
One incident, given in a manuscript history of the Presbyterian
church in East Tennessee," illustrates the mail facilities. Union
Presbytery was about issuing a circular letter to its churches, when
it received, for the first time, a copy of a circular letter issued by
the General Assembly on the same subject more than two years
before.
•This MS. was written by R. B. McMuIlen, D.D., and was loaned me by J. H.
Bryson, D.D., of Huntsville, Ala. It is a very valuable MS. What a pity we have
not a history of the Presbyterian church in the rest of the State !
Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION.
CHAPTER II.
LITERATURE AND RELIGION.
" By heaven, and not a master taught ! " — Pope.
" His passage lies across the brink
Of many a threatening wave,
And hell expects to see him sink,
But Jesus lives to save."
THERE have been highly educated men who could not read.
In times and countries where education in the schools was
impossible, strong native intellects learned from men, from events,
from nature. Daniel Boone wrote, "Cilled a bar," and perhaps
never in his life knew any better orthography ; but if a profound
knowledge of militar)'' strategy, if lightning-like grasp of resources
for military emergencies, if a far-seeing anticipation of the enemy's
movements, whether that enemy were Indian, French, or English,
if an intellect that never made a mistake in any of the myriad mil-
itary emergencies in which it was called to act, entitle a man to
rank high among thinkers, then very few of the sons of West Point
have ever been his equals.
This education without books, so common among a people who
had no possible chance of schooling in the regular way, is never
found at all in a country where schools are accessible to ever>'body.
The thriftless laziness which will not avail itself of all the resources
in reach, neither in old countries nor new ones, ever rises to the
rank of a thinker. All the first settlements in Kentucky and Ten-
nessee were foi a while without schools. Circumstances made
schools impossible. There were very few books. Among the
treasures packed on horseback through the wilderness was the
family Bible. It made the reading book. There were no novels.
A few families had a tear-blotted copy of the Sacred League and
Covenant, handed down for generations.
The first school in Cumberland was opened in Craighead's church,
6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
six miles from Nashville. It was called Spring Hill Academy, and
was taught by a Presbyterian minister.' Among its early pupils
were Finis Ewing, Samuel King, Samuel McSpeddin, and Robert
Bell, all of them Cumberland Presbyterian ministers at a later day.
There is, it is said, a stone situated in the three States of Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. A man seated on that
stone on Sabbath morning, June, 1773, might have seen below
him in the valley the first meeting-house ever erected on the soil of
Tennessee.^ That church was erected by that hardy and glorious
race, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The church was of logs, 40 by
80 feet. It was covered with clapboards. These Scotch-Irish set-
tlers had profound respect for the Sabbath. Peep into their cabins.
Every child is in its seat, reciting the catechism. This is that race
of whom the Irishman said, that when the potato crop failed "they
lived on the Shorter Catechism and the Sabbath. ' ' Peep into their
cabins later in the morning. The male members, and in some
cases the female members also, are taking down their rifles, prepar-
atory to starting to church.
One hundred and thirty-eight heads of families had united in
calling the Rev. Charles Cummings to come and settle among them
as their pastor. ^ He ministered to these same people thirty-nine
years. This man Cummings was the first man who ever preached
in what is now Tennessee. His first years in this wild frontier
were tracked with the blood of Indian battles. He fought often,
and had many narrow escapes.
Farther north, in Kentucky, the first preacher was also a Pres-
byterian. The father of "Tippecanoe Joe Daviess" went back to
his old home in Virginia after a preacher, and brought back with
him the Rev. David Rice. He gave Mr. Rice the hire of a negro
woman for two years, and helped build him a cabin. '» But it
appears from Dr. Davidson's histor>' that Rice received very poor
compensation for his services in after years.
' This minister was the Rev. Dr. Brooks. For reasons unknown to the writer
his name never appeared on the roll of the Kentucky Synod, in whose bounds he
lived.
= MS. History of Presbyterian church in East Tennessee, by Dr. McMullen.
3 Dr. McMullen's MS., p. 6.
* Memoir of Mrs. Hess.
Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 7
The Rev. Thomas B. Craighead was the first pastor who set-
tled in Cumberland; though his first steps were not cold before
the Rev. Benjamin Ogden, of the Methodist church, was proclaim-
inp- free salvation on the banks of the Cumberland River.
In this sketch of preachers and congregations my inquiries run
in Presbyterian channels, since our church was of Presbyterian par-
entage. It would be obiter dictum^ if I discussed other churches.
Orthodoxy, the catechism, a deathless attachment to principles
and to ecclesiastical rights, a holy horror of any innovations on the
traditional methods of work, singing Rouse's Psalms, and hearing
sermons three hours long on election, made up the religion of many
among the best citizens.
There seems to have been no great amount of dishonesty. The
Nashville jail was a log cabin, fourteen feet square. But after the
revolution, mainly through the influence of the French soldiers
who had aided us in that struggle, infidelity swept over all this
western frontier, and threatened for a while to carry all the popu-
lation. All the historians are agreed in their testimony to this vast
prevalence of infidelity. Some say nine tenths of the people were
infidels. The general lack of regular preaching, and the bad char-
acter of many who did preach, helped to sweep faith away from the
country. According to the testimony of the Rev. David Rice, the
first Presbyterian minister who settled in Kentucky,' and of the
Rev. Dr. Davidson, the historian of the Presbyterian church in that
State, most of the ministers of that church, in Rice's day, were bad
men. Drunkenness, wrangling, licentiousness, and heresy brought
the most of them to grief sooner or later. ^
The lives of unconverted preachers, elders, and members make
a woful chapter in the history- of this period. Of the church mem-
bers in this country who, after being in the church for years, finally
discovered their ruined condition, and made a profession of relig-
ion, there are several names whose prominence in our history justifies
their introduction here. They are Richard King, Elder Hutchin-
son, Robert Guthrie, Samuel McSpeddin, Finis Ewing, together
with their wives, and very many others.
The case of Richard King is interesting. He had been edu-
' Memoir of Mrs. Hess. * Davidson's Hist., pp. 103, 129, 130.
8 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period I.
cated for the miuistry. His father, Robert King, was an elder in
the Presbyterian church, and one of those who opposed the revival.
His brother, Samuel King, was he who made one of the three to
organize our first presbyter>'. Although "Rich" had been edu-
cated for the ministry, he would not preach; but poor Sam, who
had no education, when he felt that he was called of God to preach
the gospel, would pray, "O Lord, send Rich!"
Men picked out and educated for the ministry, and thrust into
the holy office without any conscious internal call to the work,
made one of the troubles between Old Side and New Side in 1741.
Dr. Charles Hodge's defense of Old Side views on this subject is a
chapter which his reputation could easily spare from his writings.
The Rev. Samuel McSpeddin's testimony about the kind of
preaching in the Presbyterian pulpits of that day is given at length
in Dr. Cossitt's Life of Ewing. The substance of it is that they
never said any thing to rouse the conscience; that they never dis-
cussed the new birth, or any conscious experience in grace; that
people who by any means became uneasy about their religious
state, and went to their pastors for help, were told that if they had
been baptized, and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God,
they need not trouble themselves about any conscious experience.
McSpeddin and Ewing both are specially severe on Craighead's
preaching. Nor are these strictures by Cumberland Presbyterians
any more severe than some occasionally found in Davidson's history
of his own church. One of Craighead's sayings, handed down by
tradition, was, ' ' I would not give this old handkerchief for all the
experimental religion in the world. ' '
A curious statement is made by the Rev. James McGready, who
was a Presbyterian minister in what is now Logan County, Ken-
tucky, about one of the preachers of his own presbytery. It is that
this preacher (the Rev. James Balch) in his sermons ridiculed the
doctrines of faith, of repentance, and of regeneration.' And
although this preacher was finally brought to trial ' for his her-
esies, it was not till he spent years traveling among the churches
' He had been tried and suspended before he came to Kentucky, and was restored
to the ministry by a different presbytery without the consent of his own presbytery.
He was a disturber of the peace wherever he Avent. — Dr. McMullen's MS.
Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 9
of Cumberland, where the great revival prevailed, and doing his
utmost to oppose the revival and check its progress. Nor were
his efforts without success in some places.
The Rev. James McGready had entered the ministry without
any religion. God led him to see his ruined condition, and he
sought and found conscious salvation. He was then in Pennsyl-
vania, but soon went to North Carolina. His preaching there was
as much changed as he was himself. It aroused the conscience; it
awakened unconverted church members; it was used of God to
promote precious revivals of religion. These revivals in North
Carolina were bitterly opposed by church members, and McGready
was fiercely persecuted, even to the extent of endangering his life.
There was also there, as there was at a later day in Cumberland, a
strong revival party which sympathized with him, and worked
heartily in his meetings.
A large number of McGready' s North Carolina neighbors moved
to Cumberland. Through their solicitations, in 1796, he changed
his field of labor, and took charge of these scattered sheep in the
wilderness. There were three small congregations to which he
ministered, whose only preaching before his arrival had been from
such men as Craighead and Balch. These churches were called
Red River, Gasper River, and Muddy River, located in what is
now Logan County, Kentucky. It was a strange contrast, these
dead preachers and McGready. The result of his introduction into
this mass of dead formalism belongs to the next chapter. His
churches were located in the country then called Cumberland, but
called at a later day the Cumberland and Green River Settlements.
"Cumberland" was partly in Kentucky, but when this history
opens the dividing line between the two States had not been run.
Tennessee's first capital was east of the mountains.
10 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT REVIVAL. i
Why should we crave a hallowed spot ?
An altar is in each man's cot.
— Wordszvorth.
WHAT share other churches had in the beginning and prog-
ress of that work of grace known as the revival of 1800, is
not here discussed. Our origin was in the revival in the Preshyie-
rian church. That revival had some very striking antecedents.
It began in 1797. The year preceding its beginning was marked
beyond all others for official calls to fasting and prayer by presby-
teries, synods, and General Assembly — fasting and prayer for the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Ohio Presbytery held a monthly
fast-day all through the year 1796, to pray for a revival. The
Synod of the Carolinas had appointed a synodical fast -day, in
which all its congregations were to pray for the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. A large number of the congregations in western
Pennsylvania had drawn up written covenants to pray for a revival.
Accounts of these covenants and their precious fruits were after-
ward published in the Western Missionary Magazine. It is an
item of interest to Cumberland Presbyterians that the very congre-
gations which afterward called for our preaching were among those
who joined in these solemn covenants to pray for a revival. The
General Assembly also appointed a fast-day to be obsen^ed in all its
churches — repentance, humiliation, and prayer for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit being specially mentioned. McGready drew up
a very solemn covenant for his congregations. Every Saturday
evening, every Sunday morning, and one whole Sabbath of each
month, for a year, were to be observed as a season of special prayer
' McGready, Hodge, Ewing, Calhoun, Smith, Speer, Foote, and others, are my
authorities for this chapter.
Chapter III.] ThE GrEAT REVIVAL. II
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Logan County, Kentucky,
and throughout the world. To this covenant he obtained the sig-
natures of his church members.
It was not to sensational evangelists, but to God's holy Spirit
that our spiritual ancestors in the Presbyterian church looked for
deliverance from the triumphant infidelity of the times. Nor did
they look in vain. In Gasper River congregation, at McGready's
regular sacramental meeting, in May, 1797, the grand work began.
All through the preceding year McGready's church members had
been coming to him about their spiritual condition. His preach-
ing had opened their eyes to the fact that they were resting on a
false hope. Finally, one of these — a lady — found the sure Rock,
and was so filled with God's Spirit that she could no longer sit
silent at home while so many of her friends were in the prison
from which she had just escaped. She immediately visited her
neighbors from house to house, and awakened among them a deep
interest about their souls.
The next year a more general awakening occurred. After a
solemn sacramental service in July, the profound claims of immor-
tality followed the people to their homes. Secular business was
forgotten, and men under deep conviction spent the days alone in
the woods, weeping and praying. Groups that met in the houses
talked of eternity, and wept together over their ruined condition.
Thus for weeks, while there was no public preaching, God's Spirit
was at work in the private houses. Godless church members talked
together about the startling discoveries which they had made of
their unconverted state.
In September, 1798, McGready held his sacramental meeting at
Muddy River. God's power was there also. All over the field to
which McGready ministered the home work became general. Sur-
passing any thing of the sort in all history was this revival without
preaching, without public meetings, without any high pressure
methods. The houses and the deep forests of Logan County rang
with the prayers of souls in distress. While so many awakened
souls were in solemn prayer, it is remarkable that deliverance was to
most of them delayed. One who lived among them at that time has
left his testimony, that in going from house to house all through
12 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
McGready's congregations he heard only one theme talked of. If
he came upon a group of old people, they were weeping and talk-
ing about their souls. If he encountered the young people, either
singly or in groups, they were in tears, and spoke only about their
souls' salvation.
The next year (1799) the interest was still deeper, especially in
Gasper congregation, but this year more of the burdened souls
found salvation. The sacramental meeting was a time of victory
to some. At this meeting began what was considered so strange
then, though it had often occurred in the revivals of former gener-
ations. Men under overwhelming convictions fell to the floor, and
though they were entirely conscious, as they afterward testified, yet
they remained prostrate and motionless for hours. When they rose,
it was with the shouts of victory on their tongues. This strange
exercise drew vast crowds to McGready's meetings. A family who
had recently moved to Kentucky from North Carolina heard of
these strange things, and heard, also, that a sacramental meeting
was soon to occur. Not having friends near the place of meeting,
they resolved to go in their wagons and camp beside them, as they
had done in their journey from North Carolina. This they did.
At the next sacramental meeting their example was followed by
several families, and most of the converts of that meeting were the
campers. This meeting was at Red River, in Kentucky. •
It is rather strange that mere conjectural accounts of the origin
of camp-meetings should be extensively published, when we have
the most reliable accounts from eye-witnesses. One of these
accounts was written at the time by Captain Wallace Estill, who
then lived in Kentucky, and was present at all these meetings.
While he gives the date of the meeting at Gasper, soon to be
described, he does not give the date of this Red River meeting,
though he speaks of it. There is some conflict of authorities about
the date of this meeting. The Rev. John McGee, of the Meth-
odist church, who was present, places it in 1799, and there is tradi-
tional confirmation of this date. Smith, Estill, and others place it
in 1800, with circumstantial confirmation.'
'John McGee's statements were written from memory, twenty years after the
events, and contain internal proofs of inaccuracy in other matters.
Chapter III.] ThE GrEAT REVIVAL. I3
This by some people, John McGee among them, is called the
first camp-meeting in Christendom. It was at least the forerunner
of the first camp - meeting, for the good results which McGready
saw follow this spontatieoiis camp - meeting caused him to publish
far and near that his sacramental meeting at Gasper, in July, 1800,
would be a camp-meeting. The public responded fully, and campers
with their wagons encircled all the place when, the meeting began.
This meeting at Gasper was the first meeting in Christendom that
was appointed and intended for a camp-meeting. Estill calls this
the first camp-meeting in Christendom. The grand revival flame
kindled Saturday, while some pious women were talking about
religion. It soon spread through all the gathered hosts. Among
those attending this meeting at Gasper were several members of
Shiloh church, Sumner County, Tennessee. The Rev. William
Hodge, their pastor, who was a fast friend of the revival, was also
present. At this meeting five of the regular members of Shiloh
congregation became convinced that they were in an unconverted
state, and, after a' bitter struggle, made a profession of religion.
The elder brother of the Rev. Samuel King was one of these five
members. The story of his conversion as told by the widow of the
Rev. J. M. McMurray, Mrs. Elizabeth McMurray, of Lebanon, Ten-
nessee, whose family were akin to the Kings, is here given. The
father of this Richard King (Robert King) was an elder in the
Shiloh congregation, and a Presbyterian after the straightest pat-
tern. Before this Gasper River meeting, some members of the
Shiloh church, while visiting one of McGready' s sacramental
meetings, had been converted, and had returned home shouting
the praises of God. Robert King said it was all "fox-fire." "I'll
send Rich; they can't fool Rich." It will be remembered that
' ' Rich ' ' was not only a member of the church, but had been edu-
cated for the ministry. It was to this grand meeting at Gasper,
in 1800, that Rich was sent. It was there that he discovered the
necessity of a change to which he had hitherto been a stranger. It
was there, too, that his soul was set at liberty.
When he and the other Shiloh people returned from Gasper and
met their friends, they rushed into their arms, shouting and telling
what wonderful things God had done for their souls. Fire in dry
14 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
stubble were these returned converts among their neighbors. The
private houses rang with the cries of poor sinners who were now
awakened to their ruined condition. Nor were their soul struggles
protracted to the extent that others had been the previous year in
McGready's field. Shouts of new converts were soon heard in
these pioneer cabins. A nephew of Richard King, a little boy,
was among those who were stricken down under deep conviction
when all these rejoicing converts returned from the Gasper meet-
ing. His friends sent for his grandfather, Robert King. Here was
a situation for the old elder. His neighbors carried away with
"fox-fire;" "Rich," whom he had relied on to ferret out the delu-
sion, now carried away with it like the rest; and worse still, he
himself sent for to play revivalist, and instruct a prostrate victim
of the delusion. He, the anti-revivalist, Robert King! He took
his lancet and his camphor, and went to the boy's relief, but a bet-
ter Physician had preceded him. On his arrival he found the boy
shouting the praises of God.
There were twenty conversions in the Shiloh neighborhood after
the return of "Rich" King before there was a single sermon
preached. Then they had a camp-meeting, and there were one
hundred conversions: this, too, in that sparsely settled region.
The first camp-meetings were without tents or other shelter
except the wagons. Later, people built double log-cabins, which
were still called tents, for their families and visitors. So far as
possible people cooked the provisions before they left home, and
they moved to camps expecting to remain during the meeting.
All who attended the camp-meeting were fed freely. Campers
would go out into the crowd and make a public invitation for all
to come and eat. The camps were supplied with straw, both on
the ground and on the bed scaffolds. One tent was used by the
ladies, and another by the gentlemen. A field of grain with a
stream of water in it was secured, and the horses of the visitors
were turned into it. A vast shelter covered with boards was built
and seated for a preaching place. This, too, had an ample supply
of clean straw for a floor. In the interv^als between public services
it was their universal custom to go alone, or in small groups, to
secret prayer in the adjacent forest. The north and south line
Chapter III.] ThE GrEAT REVIVAL. I5
divided the grounds for retirement and prayer, and gentlemen were
not allowed to go upon the ladies' grounds.
In all the early days, before railroads came along, these meet-
ings were not only as orderly as any other kind of meetings, but
they were generally seasons of unparalleled solemnity and une-
qualed moral grandeur. A Scotch traveler, who had seen most of
the countries of the world, has left his written testimony that he
had nowhere seen any thing to equal the moral grandeur of the
great camp-meeting. No correct idea of these early camp-meet-
ings can be formed from the so-called camp-meetings of modern
times. They belong to a different economy. I have seen both, and
I recognize in the modern one scarcely one single feature of those
early gatherings of a pioneer people to worship God.
Although Craighead opposed the revival, his elders did not; and
they determined to have a camp - meeting, and have some of the
revival preachers attend it. They did so, and a precious meeting
it proved to be; but the pastor gave it the cold shoulder.' This
meeting was at the church near Nashville, in which Dr. Brooks,
mentioned heretofore, was teaching a school.
Camp-meetings now became the order of the day. The Meth-
odists especially took them up, and had grand victories in many of
their meetings. Tennessee and Kentucky were transformed.
The dear old Beech church, in Sumner County, Tennessee, had
that staunch friend of the revival, the Rev. William McGee, for its
pastor. Its camp - meetings furnished surpassing displays of the
Holy Spirit's power.
God's Spirit used the distant visitors to these camp-meetings to
spread the revival, not only throughout Tennessee and Kentucky,
but many other States. Foote's History of North Carolina^ and his
History of Virginia give us thrilling accounts of revivals started in
these two States by people just returned fromMcGready's meetings.
Dr. Speer3 tells us of revivals similarly started in western Penn-
sylvania. The Rev. James Gallagher, of the Presbyterian church,
gives a most impressive account of its spread into East Tennessee.
' Several of his hard sayings on that occasion are preserved in the Kirkpatrick
MSS., and in others.
''Foote's North Carolina, pp. 64-73. 3 Speer, Rev., 1800, pp. 24,*43, 48, 84.
i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
He says its awful solemnity made people think the day of judg-
ment was at hand. '
An old claim, thoroughly refuted when first published,^ has been
recently revived. It is that the revival in McGready s churches was
due to the preaching of John McGee, a Methodist. The sole foun-
dation for this claim is that John McGee visited McGready's
churches in 1799, and preached in them. McGee himself says his
Jirsf visit to McGready's churches was in 1799.^
But the revival in McGready's churches began in 1797, before
McGee moved away from North Carolina, and, at the meeting which
McGee first visited, it was in full power before he ever took any
part.
No one denies that both Methodists and Baptists had grand re-
vivals about this period; but the claim that the particular revival
out of which our church sprang originated with the Methodists has
not the shadow of a foundation. The evidence on which the histo-
ry usually given by our church rests is all that could • be desired.
The testimony of the pastor and various other actors in these events,
all published right at the time, and in the midst of the people where
these events occurred, remained unchallenged for twenty years.
To this must be added the testimony of the several church judica-
tures in which these events became the theme of angry discussions.
Official records of presbytery, synod, and Assembly speak of the re-
vival which originated under McGready's preaching. Several offi-
cial circulars '^ sent out by the actors in these events give the same
history.
When the Rev. James Smith published his histor>', our General
Assembly appointed a committee of eleven persons, most of whom
had been eye witnesses of these great events, to examine into its
accuracy. Their report indorses the accuracy of this portion of
the history in every particular, s
'Western Sketch Book. ^ Revivalist, Feb. 13, 1S33.
3 There is good reason to beHeve tliat he was wrong in the date. He describes
events whicli seem to belong to the next j'ear. He wrote from memory long after
the events.
*See appendix to Life and Times of Ewing, Dr. Frizzell's semi-centennial pam-
phlet, and Revivalist, 1S32, for these circulars.
s Assembly Minutes, Vol. I., p. 117, et seq.
Chapter III.] ThE GrEAT REVIVAL. 1 7
Besides all this, John McGee set up no such claim. He knew
better. Even his letter to Douglass, out of which men tried, after
he was dead, to establish such a claim, itself disproves this claim.
There were precious revivals among Presbyterians before the Meth-
odist church was bom.
There is in my possession a manuscript autobiography of the
Rev. Robert Bell, He was present at all McGready's sacramental
meetings from 1797 to 1800. Among the things which occupy a
prominent place in this autobiography is the trouble he had over
the doctrine of reprobation. He was under deep conviction in 1799
and 1800, but feared he was not one of the elect. The doctrine
of a general atonement had never been preached in his hearing
prior to his conversion, September, 1800. So far is it from being
true that the doctrines preached in McGready's churches before
the revival were Methodist doctrines, that many of McGready's
people who regularly attended all his services, had never heard a
general atonement preached in their lives. Robert Bell read and
indorsed the Rev. James Smith's history of the great revival.
We have a brief account of this great revival written by the Rev.
Samuel McSpeddin. ' He was an eye-witness. He says the revival
began in Kentucky under McGready's preaching in 1797; that it
extended in 1800 to Tennessee, and was heartily welcomed by the
Methodists, who afterward became the chief agents for spreading
it over all of Tennessee. He says the first Methodist preachers to
aid in this revival work were John McGee, James Gwinn, and
Bishop Asbury. Afterward McKendree came to this field, and,
of course, entered heartily into the revival.
McSpeddin calls attention to the fact that there was a Cane
Ridge church in Tennessee, which had been confounded with the
Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, where the New Lights
originated; and this fact, perhaps, helped to create that long-lived
error which represents "New Lights" and " Cumberlands " as the
same. McSpeddin points out several other minor errors in the pub-
lished histories. He says, as do all the historians, that McGready
had revivals in North Carolina before he came to Kentucky; that
^ See McSpeddin's papers, filed in Cumberland University Library; also Baiitier
of Peace, September 8, and October 26, 1S53.
2
i8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
soon after his arrival in Kentucky (1796), revivals began under his
preaching there. He also' says: "McGready was the great instru-
ment, under God, of the commencement of the great revival,
called the revival of 1800."
]McSpeddin says that Shiloh and DeSha's, so often mentioned in
our early history as churches in Sumner County, Tennessee, were
one and the same, and that Dry Fork church, in the same county,
was composed of the revival party of both Hopewell and Shiloh.
[See Bafiner of Peace ^ No. 15, Vol. xii.]
There was a controversy between ' ' Uncle ' ' Joe Brown and
IMcSpeddin about the dates in ■McSpeddin's histor}', but the accu-
racy of these dates was thoroughly and triumphantly established
by McSpeddin and acknowledged by Brown. His dates make it
almost certain that John McGee's first visit to McGready' s meet-
ings was in 1800. One feature, however, of McGready' s meet-
ings at a later day was clearly due to IVIcGee, who ran through
the church shouting and telling the people to shout, until he suc-
ceeded in producing quite a tumult. The Presbyterians generally
condemned shouting, and this feature of McGready' s meetings,
after McGee's visits, was one of the grounds of their bitter com-
plaints. So it is probable that the "shouting," once so common,
now so rare, among Cumberland Presbyterians was of Methodist
parentage.
It is amusing to read the Rev. Dr. Fergus Ferguson's account
of the shouting by one of our good sisters at our General Assem-
bly in 1874, when he and Dr. Morrison were on their visit to
America.' It really seems, from his account, that he had never
heard any such thing before, and did not know what it was. I
wonder if the Methodists of Scotland never shout.
It was, perhaps, through the brothers, John and William Mc-
Gee — one a I^Iethodist and the other a Presbyterian — that what
was called "the union" was accomplished. Before that "union"
it was not at all customary for different denominations to commune
together at the Lord's table or work together in meetings — least
of all for Methodists and Presbyterians to commune together.
' From Glasgow to Springfield, by Fergus Ferguson, D.D.
Chapter III.] ThE GrEAT REVIVAL. I9
The history of ' ' tokens " ' is a strange one. Dr. Blackburn,
liberal and progressive as he was, refused to admit Joe Brown to
the communion table because Brov/n had communed with the
Cumberland Presbyterians. It was this which drove Brown out
of the Presbyterian church. "Fencing the table" was a more
rigid thing than any of our Baptist brethren now practice in their
*' close communion."
' ' The union ' ' formed in the time of the McGees was nothing
more than a written contract to commune together and hold meet-
ings together — union meetings.
' * ' An explanation of what " tokens " were and what " fencing the table " was will
be found in the another chapter.
20 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
CHAPTER IV.
THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT.
" He shall baptize you with the Holj Ghost and with fire."
NOT all so-called revivals are genuine. Was this one a gen-
uine work of God? The testimonies here introduced are
from that class of witnesses entitled to the greatest respect. They
are conclusive, if human testimony can be conclusive in such a
matter.
The Rev. David Rice, who visited McGready's churches during
the revival, preached a sermon before his synod in reference to this
wonderful work. This sermon was preached in 1803.' He says:
This revival has made its appearance in various places without any
extraordinary means to produce it
The revival appears to be granted in answer to prayer, and in con-
firmation of that gracious truth that God has " not said to the house of
Jacob, Seek ye me in vain," when he says he will be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them.
As far as I can see, there appears to be in the subjects of this work
a deep, heart humbling sense of the great unreasonableness, ahomina-
ble nature, pernicious effects, and deadly consequences of sin; and the
absolute unworthiness in the sinful creature of the smallest crumb of
mercy from the hand of a holy God Jesus Christ, and him cru-
cified, appears to be the ALL IN ALL to the subjects of this revival
and the creature nothing, and less than nothing.
They seem to have a very deep and affecting sense of the worth of
precious immortal souls, ardent love to them, and an agonizing con-
cern for their conviction, conversion, and complete salvation
Neighborhoods, noted for their vicious and profligate manners, are now
as much noted for their piety and good order.
Drunkards, profane swearers, liars, quarrelsome persons, etc., are
remarkably reformed A number of families who had lived
apparently without the fear of God, in folly and in vice, without any
' Quoted from Dr. Speer.
Chapter IV.] ThE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK. 21
religious instruction or any proper government, are now reduced to
order, and are daily joining in the worship of God, reading his word,
singing his praises, and offering up their supplications to a Throve of
Grace.
Parents who seemed formerly to have little or no regard for the
souls of their children, are now anxiously concerned for their salva-
tion, are pleading for them, and endeavoring to lead them to Christ
and train them up in the way of piety and virtue
The subjects of this work appear to be very sensible of the necessity
of sanctification as well as justification, and that without holiness no
man can see the Lord; to be greatly desirous that they and all that
name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity
Now, I have given you my reasons for concluding the ?7ior7iing is
come^ and that we are blessed with a real revival of the benign and
heaven-born religion of Jesus Christ, which demands our grateful
acknowledgements to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Five years later, when the revival preachers had been placed
under the interdict of a commission of synod, this same David
Rice again testifies : "That we had a revival of the spirit and pozv-
er of Christianity'^ among us, I did, do, and ever shall, believe
. . . but we sadly mismanaged it ; we have dashed it down and
broken it to pieces. ' '
How far the Presbyterian church suffered from its treatment of
the revival preachers, he and others of his comrades had begun
keenly to feel, and have left us clear testimony. Dr. Davidson tries
to lay the blame for this injury to the Presbyterian church, in Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, on the revival. Mr. Rice knew where to lay
it. He says, ' ' We have not acted as wise master-builders who have
no need to be ashamed."^
From the beginning of this work, in 1797, for a series of years
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church gave its testimo-
ny to the precious fruits of this revival. In 1803, it adds to its
former testimony many precious words about the revival in other
parts of the field and then notices our field as follows:
In many southern and western presbyteries revivals more extensive
and of a more extraordinary nature have taken place. It would be
easy for the Assembly to select some very remarkable instances of the
' Italics his. 'Bishop's Memoir of Rice, p. 367.
22 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
triumphs of divine grace which were exhibited before them in the course
of the very interesting narratives presented in the free conversation —
instances of tlie most mahgnant opposers of vital piety being convinced
and reconciled; of some learned, active, and conspicuous infidels be-
coming signal monuments of that grace which they once despised; and
various circumstances which display the holy efficacy of the gospel.
.... In the course of the last year, there is reason to believe that sev-
eral thousands within the bounds of the Presbyterian church have been
brought to embrace the gospel of Christ The Assembly con-
sider it worthy of particular attention, that most of the accounts of
revivals communicated to them stated that the institution of praying
societies, or special seasons of special prayer to God for the outpouring
of the Spirit, preceded the remarkable displays of divine grace with
which our land has been blessed. In most cases, preparatory to signal
eflTusions of the Holy Spirit, the pious have been stirred up to cry fer-
vently and importunately that God would appear to vindicate his own
cause. The Assembly see in this a confirmation of the word of God,
and an ample encouragement of the prayers and hopes of the pious for
future and more extensive manifestations of the divine power. And
they trust that the churches under their care, while they see cause of
abundant thankfulness for this dispensation, will also perceive that it
presents new motives to zeal and fervor in application to that throne of
grace from which every good and perfect gift cometh. The Assembly
also observe with great pleasure that the desire for spreading the gos-
pel among the blacks and among the savage tribes on our borders has
been rapidly increasing during the last year. The Assembly take
notice of this circumstance with the more satisfaction, as it not only
affords a pleasing presage of the spread of the gospel, but also furnishes
agreeable evidence of the genuineness and the benign tendency of that
spirit, which God has been pleased to pour out upon his people. On
the whole, the assembly can not but declare with joy and with most
cordial congratulations to the churches under their care, that the state
and prospects of vital religion in our country are more favorable and
encouraging than at any period within the last forty years.
There was a long letter written by the Rev, George Baxter to
Dr. A. Alexander, which I desire to introduce here. Dr. Baxter was
for many years President of Washington College, in Virginia. At
the time of his death he was Professor of Theology in the Union
Theological Seminary, Virginia. He wrote from Kentucky, Jan-
uary I, 1802. His statements, when published, were attacked by
the anti-revival party. He defended them. Dr. Davidson says if
Chapter IV.] ThE REVIVAI. A GENUINE WORK. 23
he had lived long enough he would have corrected some of his
statements. Well, it is not likely that he would have contradicted
his testimony to facts. He says:
I will just observe that the last summer is the fourth since the
revival commenced in those places, and that it has been more remark-
able than any of the preceding, not only for lively and fervent devo-
tion among Christians, but also for awakenings and conversions among
the careless; and it is worthy of notice that very few instances of
apostasy have hitherto appeared. As I was not myself in the Cum-
berland country, all I can say about it is from the testimony of others;
but I was uniformly told by those who had been there, that their relig-
ious assemblies were more solemn and the appearance of the work
much greater than what had been in Kentucky. Any enthusiastic
symptoms which might at first have attended the revival had greatly
subsided, while the serious concern and engagedness of the people
were visibly increased.
Dr. Baxter then gives us many strong statements .about the pre-
cious fruits of the revival in Kentucky, where he was then visiting.
He says : "In October I attended three sacraments ; at each there
were supposed to be between four and five thousand people, and
every thing was conducted with strict propriety." Dr. Baxter
takes up the charge of enthusiasm made against the revival and
denies it. He says:
Never have. I seen more genuine marks of that humility which ois-
claims the merits of its own duties, and looks to the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only way of acceptance with God. I was indeed highly pleased
to find that Christ was all in all in their relis'ion as well as in the relicf-
ion of the gospel. Christians in their highest attainments seemed more
sensible of their entire dependence upon divine grace, and it was truly
affecting to hear v/ith what agonizing anxiety awakened sinners
inquired for Christ as the only physician who could give them any
help. Those who call these things enthusiasm ought to tell us what
they understand by the spirit of Christianity. In fact, sir, this revival
operates as our Savior promised the Holy Spirit should when sent into
the world — it convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, a
strong confirmation, to my mind, both that the promise is divine and
that this is a remarkable fulfillment of it.
Again he says in the same letter:
I think the revival in Kentucky^ among the most extraordinary that
have ever visited the church of Christ, and, all things considered, pecul-
24 CUMBERIvAND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period I.
iarly adapted to the circumstances of that country. InlideHty was tri-
umphant and rchgion on the point of expiring. Something of an
extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of giddv
people, who were ready to conchide that Christianity was a fable and
futurity a dream. The revival has done it. It has confounded infidel-
ity and vice into silence, and brought numbers beyond calculation
under serious impressions.
Dr. Baxter, in a letter quoted in Davidson, p. i86, tells of the
wonderful reformation in morals and manners and the ofeneral
religious solemnity which the revival produced over all Kentucky,
He says, ' ' I found Kentucky the most moral place I had ever
seen. ' ' And this was in that same frontier where he tells us that
only four years before infidelity had been triumphant.
I am for the present excluding inside testimony. McGready and
Hodge were actors in the revival, but the Rev. Gideon Blackburn
ought to be accepted as good outside testimony. In 1804 he wrote
a long letter to a friend in Philadelphia, in which he describes
what he had seen of the revival, and defends it from the charges
made against it. He says:
I am constrained to say that I have discovered far less extravagance,
disorder, and irregularity than could be expected in so extraordinary
an awakening, especially when part of it took place among persons set-
tled in the back parts, and entirely destitute of the means of grace. If
crowded audiences, earnest praying, practical preaching, and animated
singing may be considered irregularity, if crying out for mercy, if
shoutino- glorv to God for salvation are disorderly, then there is some
disorder, but I presume not more than there was on the day of Pente-
cost.i
The Rev. David Nelson's testimony is given in the Western
Sketch Book. In speaking of the charge that the Kentucky revival
ran into Shakerism, he says:
When God has been pleased graciously to visit a people with the
quickening power of his Spirit, and many have been turned from sin
to holiness, and from Satan to God, is it not marvelous that good men
can be so deluded by the wiles of the great adversary as to become
evidently eager to impute all the wrong things that may appear in that
' From the Western Sketch Book, published in East Tennessee by the Rev.
James Gallagher, of the Presbyterian church.
Chapter IV.] ThE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK. 25
community for ten or twenty years afterward to the influence of the
revival? With as much propriety you might charge the apostasy of
Judas to the ministry of Jesus Christ.
It is true that one of the preachers who co-operated with Mc-
Gready afterward joined the Shakers. It is true, too, that one of
the apostles who traveled along with Jesus afterward sold his Mas-
ter. While one of the revival party did go at last to the Shakers,
it is true, also, that the wealthiest and most influential acquisition
which the Shakers of that day made in that community was an
anti-revival Presbyterian. It is true, also, that no Cumberland
Presbyterian joined them. But what does all that amount to?
The Shakers neither originated there, nor prospered in that field to
the extent they did in fields where the Presbyterian church had no
revival. Nor did any men stand firmer against these heresies than
the preachers who afterward composed the first presbytery of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church. The Rev. James Gallagher says
of these same heresies:
Certain it is that no men more regretted any departure from sound
doctrines than did these good men whose labors were so abundantly
blessed in that dispensation of the Holy Spirit by which the West, in
its infancy, was consecrated to the service of God. Nor do I believe
that now, after fifty years, there is in any part of the several evangelical
denominations more of that religion which God approves than in the
region visited by the revival of iSoo.
He also speaks of the Cumberland Presbyterians thus:
This body of Christian people began their organized existence dur-
ing that great divine visitation. ^ There are among them many strong
men: workmen that need not be ashamed. And their blessed Master
has been with them in every part of that wide field where they have
labored, and has made his gospel the power of God unto salvation to
many thousand believing souls. From my inmost soul I honor these
men, and will speak of it in the presence of the church of my God. . . .
I have no hesitation in declaring my belief that during the last forty
years no body of ministers in America or in the world have preached so
much good efficient preaching, and received such small compensation.
That church now stands before heaven and earth a monument of God's
great work in the revival of 1800.
' The revival of iSoo.
26 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i
Testimonies from Methodists about the revival could, of course,
be produced; but these here quoted are all of them from that
church in which the revival had such bitter opposition. It never
had any opposition from the Methodists. Bishop Asbury and
Bishop McKendree both visited the Presbyterian churches where
it first prevailed, and both gave it their hearty indorsement.
The history of this revival, by Dr. Speer, is published and
indorsed by the Presbyterian publishing board at Philadelphia, and
on the cover the board say, among other things of like import, that
their object in publishing the book is to "inspire the church to
efforts for another great 7^evival from on high." The whole book
is one of unqualified indorsement of the revival: and except one par-
agraph, is, I believe, a correct history. That the revival of 1800
quickened into new life all the enterprises of the Christian churches
is abundantly proved by this little book.
That revival in Tennessee and Kentucky, under God, rescued
those two States, and, through them, the West and South, from
French infidelity. Going out into a broader field, and studying
the fruits of the revival in its whole broad extent over America
and Europe, Dr. Speer shows that this work in the West was only
a part of a grand forward movement of the kingdom of our Savior
throughout the world.
Out of this grand movement sprang the Bible societies, the
missionary boards, the tract societies, which have so wonderfully
blessed the world. In a remarkable little book, by Dr. Rochester,
on Christian progress, he gives us a diagram of progress. In mis-
sions, the line which shows that progress runs nearly parallel with
the horizon till it reaches 1800, then it ascends at an angle of about
sixty degrees.
For such a time as this are we come into the kingdom.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 37
CHAPTER. V.
A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM.
" Have ye received the Holj Ghost since ye believed ?"
Awake, O spirit, that of old
Did'st fire the watchmen of the church's youth,
Who faced the foe, unshrinking, bold;
Who witnessed, day and niglit, the eternal truth;
Whose voices through the world are ringing still,
And bringing hosts to know and do thy will.
— Bogatzky.
'Evd'jar^adz dovajjicu i? 0(f)OU^. — Lzike xxiv. 49.
IT is a truth too often forgotten that the gift of the Holy Ghost
on the day of Pentecost was the beginning of what was hence-
forth to be the distinctive privilege of the new dispensation. The
Holy Spirit had always been in the w^orld, and every genuine
conversion had been his work; but the Paraclete was that Spirit in
a new office, and with new and abiding power on the believer.
The Old Testament saints had the Spirit in occasional manifesta-
tions. Some who live earnestly, and are true Christians, have only
these occasional or Old Testament gifts; but the Paraclete is an
abiding power. "He shall give you another Comforter, that he
may abide with you forever. " It is a precious gift to be specially
sought, as it was by the apostles after the ascension of Christ.
The object of this chapter is to show that the chief actors in
the revival of 1800 had this New Testament baptism of the Holy
Ghost. The first proof of this fact is found in the abiding nature
of their spirituality. They all advocated daily communion with
God as an attainable experience. In Finis Ewing's lecture on
sanctification he uses many strong expressions on this subject, and
adduces, as evidence of a low state of grace in some Christians, the
fact that "they are not expecting daily communion with God,
daily access to the throne, a daily or abiding witness that they are
born of God."
28 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
Besides advocating the theory, their works show plainly that
they had this abiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit with
them, and knew the fact, and were made fearless by it. The Rev.
H. A. Hunter, who knew them all, gave it as his opinion that the
chief difference between them and modern preachers lay in their
consciousness of God's abiding presence.
An anecdote of Ewing illustrates the truth that these men had
abiding spiritual power.' A gentleman went with some wicked
associates to hear Ewing preach. As he had never heard Ewing,
his comrades offered to bet him twenty dollars that he could not go
into the church and sit through the sermon without going to the
mourner's bench when Ewing made the inevitable call for mourn-
ers. He took the bet, sat through the sermon, resisted the call for
mourners, going, instead, out to his comrades, saying, "Gentle-
men, I have won the bet, but I want none of your money. From
this hour on, as long as I live, I shall not rest till I find salvation."
It was not long until he was among the happy converts, and he
long ornamented the church in which he cast his lot.
There is no part of Cumberland Presbyterian history of greater
practical importance than the subject of this chapter. The dan-
ger in modern times is that men will forget to seek this new
anointing from the Holy Spirit. Moody's testimony on this sub-
ject has been extensively published. "You lack the power^^''
the ladies said to him. He sought the power. God gave it to
him, and it abides with him. He said:
Eight years ago I was anxious for ministers and workers to see this
truth and seek for this power. I remember that dear man, Rev. James
Robertson, of Newington, telling me that when the work began in
Edinburgh he could only preach once a week. He was suffering from
heart disease. He prayed and the Spirit of God came upon him; he
seemed to be anointed for his burial. "And now," said he, "I have
preached eight times a week for a month, and enjoy better health than
for years gone."
I can myself go back almost twelve years, and remember two holy
women who used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see
them there. When I began to preach I could tell by the expression of
their faces that they were praying for me. At the close of the Sab-
' Conversations with Old Kentuckians.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 39
bath meeting they would say to me, " We have been praymg for you."
I said, "'Why don't you pray for the people?" They answered,
"You need the power." "I need the power!" I said to myself; "why
I thought I had power." I had a large Sabbath-school and the larg-
est congregation in Chicago. There were some conversions at the
time. I was, in a sense, satisfied. But right along these two godly
women kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about "anointing
for special service" set me to thinking. I asked them to come and
talk with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured out their
hearts that I might receive an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and
there came a great hunger into my soul. I did not know what it was.
I began to cry as I never did before. The hunger increased. I really
felt that I did not want to live any longer if I could not have this
power for service. Then came the Chicago fire. I was burnt out of
house and home at two o'clock in the morning. This did not so much
affect me; my heart was full of the yearning for divine power. I was
to go on a special mission to raise funds for the homeless, but my heart
was not in the work of begging. I could not appeal. I was crying
all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day in
the city of New York — O what a day! I can not describe it; I seldom
refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an
experience of which he never sjDoke for fourteen years. I can only say,
God then revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his
love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again.
I did not present any new truths. The sermons were not different,
and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back
where I was before that blessed experience if you would give me all
Glasgow — it would be as the small dust of the balance. I tell you it is
a sad day when a convert goes into the church, and that 's the last you
hear of him. If, however, you want this power for some selfish end —
as, for example, to gratify your own ambition — you will not get it.
"No flesh," says God, "shall glory in my presence." May he empty
us of self and fill us with his Spirit.
Brought in to be a live factor in the grand progress of Christ's
kingdom, the Cumberland Presbyterian church stands in wonder-
ful relations to God, Her first ministers were flaming fires. Wher-
ever they went there were revivals. When they stopped all night
at a private house or at wayside hotels, there were professions of
religion. They left homes and families and every earthly interest
to go and preach Jesus to perishing souls. My father gave me an
incident of Robert Donnell which illustrates the ever-abiding pres-
30 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period l
ence of God's Holy Spirit with these men. Father was traveling
in the South and stopped at a wayside inn. Soon after another
traveler put up at the same house. When the innkeeper proposed
to take his guests to bed one of them said, "If you have no objec-
tions, I should like to have prayers with your family before I go to
bed." The family were gathered. After the prayer the hotel
keeper and his wife were seen to be weeping. The traveler labored
with them that night till they both professed religion. The trav-
eler was the Rev. Robert Donnell.
Another incident is here given to illustrate the same abiding
presence of God's Holy Spirit with the preachers of that great
revival. Many years ago I was traveling in the mountains of Ten-
nessee. Passing by a large framed meeting-house, a gentleman
who lived in the neighborhood, and had fallen in with me on the
route, said to me: "That Church has a strange history. Late one
Saturday a stranger stopped at my father's to stay all night. After
supper he told my father that he never traveled on Sunday, and
would like to have religious services at his house on the Sabbath,
if there were no objections. Next morning the neighbors were
gathered in and the stranger preached. The very heavens came
down to earth. Men fell to the floor crying for mercy. Before
that stranger left the neighborhood the new converts were organ-
ized into a Cumberland Presbyterian church. That stranger was
the Rev. Thomas Calhoun. That church grew until it was able to
build the house of worship which we have just passed."
The next proof of this New Testament gift upon our fathers is
found in the extraordinary power of their preaching. It was not
learning or talents, but spiritual power. I have tried in vain to
obtain a copy of a letter published by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, of
Princeton, New Jersey, in regard to this power in the preaching of
H. F. Delany. The letter was often spoken of in my boyhood,
and my recollections of the case are indorsed by several persons
with whom I have compared notes, and the son of Delany ' among
them.
Dr. Miller had written some very bitter things against the Cum-
* Judge W. S. Delany, Columbus, Texas.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 3I
berland Presbyterians, being, as he afterward acknowledged,*
wholly misinformed about them. He was traveling west and
stopped over Sabbath, There was a Cumberland Presbyterian
camp-meeting in the neighborhood, and Dr. Miller went. The Rev.
H. F. Delany preached. Dr. Miller found his prejudices melting
away, until he was all overcome at last with the simplicity and
power of the gospel as Delany preached it. Dr. Miller wrote and
published a glowing account of the sermon, declaring his convic-
tion that the mighty power of God's Holy Spirit was on that
preacher.
An old brother who had known Robert Donnell well attended
the Chautauqua iVssembly. I asked him what he thought of
Chautauqua. His reply was: "If Robert Donnell could come
back to earth and preach at Chautauqua just one such sermon as I
have heard him preach at the camp-meetings it would set the
whole vast thing on fire, until only the cries of lost sinners and
the shouts of new converts could be heard."
At Cave Spring camp-ground, Overton County, Tennessee, the
Chapman presbytery was in session. Some ordinations were ap-
pointed for the Sabbath. The camp-meeting was unusually large.
Not only the shelter, but the whole lot was filled with people.
When the presbytery gathered around the candidates for the impo-
sition of hands, the congregation rose to their feet to see the cere-
mony. The prayer was offered by the Rev. Thomas Calhoun. His
pleading with God for the Holy Spirit's power to be given to
those young men impressed my boyish heart, as I listened, with
new and grand ideas of the divine mission of the gospel ministry.
Then the prayer shed a startling flash of light on a holy partner-
ship and union between a truly spiritual preacher and God. Then
came another flash sweeping out over the dark masses of fallen
men to whom God was sending the gospel. O the gospel! how
that prayer revealed and transformed it to my young eyes. The
prayer went on, and people standing near the preacher sank down
sobbing to the earth. The prayer went on, and others who stood
next sank in like manner to the ground. Burning sentences,
' See Revivalist, 1833.
32 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
thrilling with the power of God's Spirit, went up from the preach-
er's heart to God, and the next circle of by-standers sank to the
ground, sobbing and groaning. Finally, all under the shelter
were alike bowed to the earth. Still the thrilling prayer seemed
to gather more power. When at last it closed, not only under the
shelter, but out to the fence and all around, and back even in the
camps, men lay upon the ground weeping and pra}'ing.
Nobody rose when the amen was uttered. The remaining cer-
emonies were performed in choking, sobbing whispers. Then
there was a pause. O that pause! Then the old man, the grand
survivor of the revival preachers of 1800, uttered one little sen-
tence: "Ye called of God, to your work!" and, leading the way,
he and the other preachers went among the prostrate crowd, telling
the lost what to do to be saved.
Our venerable and beloved brother, the Rev. W. H. Baldridge,
who was a pupil first and afterw^ard a fellow-laborer of the Rev.
James B. Porter, gives me many precious facts about Porter's won-
derful spiritual power. Although Brother Baldridge heard all our
first preachers, being now eighty years old, he does not hesitate to
pronounce Porter the most powerful one among them. One of the
facts which he so kindly furnished me is as follows: The Rev.
James Bowman, of the Presbyterian church, resolved to hold a
camp-meeting in his congregation; but his brethren, in his pres-
bytery, were nearly all Old Side, and would have nothing to do
with camp-meetings. The few fa\'orable to the revival had other
engagements. Bowman could get no help. The ecclesiastical
authorities of the mother church had forbidden its people either
to recognize as ministers the preachers of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church, or to commune with its members.' Notwith-
standing this, Mr. Bowman invited James B. Porter to assist him
in his camp-meeting. This was a new departure. Porter agreed
to assist on two conditions. First, that he should be allowed to
preach his owni doctrines. Second, that there should be no tokens
used at the communion service, but all Christians be allowed to par-
ticipate. His conditions were accepted. While Porter preached
' This prohibition was revoked in 1825.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 33
(text, "Turn, ye prisoners of hope"), the mighty power of God
swept over the vast assembly. Sinners fell like men slain in bat-
tle. Going home was postponed one day after another. There
were one hundred and twenty-five professions. Fifteen of the con-
verts became ministers of the gospel.
Another proof that these spiritual heroes had this higher
baptism is found in their lofty faith. What a difference Pen-
tecost made in the faith of the apostles! The men of 1800 often
announced results beforehand, because God had given them assur-
ance in answer to their prayers. In Bird's life of Alexander Chap-
man, p. 178, is an incident illustrating this point. At Mount
Moriah, in Logan County, Kentucky, after hours spent in the woods
in solemn prayer, Chapman began his sermon with the words, ' ' You
shall all feel before I am done." The results vindicated his assur-
ance. Not only feeling, but many conversions there were there
that day.
There is an incident from Calhoun's ministry illustrating this
point. He was at a camp-meeting at Rock Spring camp-ground,
in Overton County, Tennessee. On Sabbath morning at breakfast
.some one told him that two desperate young men had bound them-
selves by a solemn oath to break up the meeting that day. Cal-
houn replied, ' ' We ' 11 see. ' ' Immediately after breakfast he went
to his usual retreat, the woods, and there remained in prayer till
time to commence the eleven o'clock sermon. Then he entered
the rustic pulpit and announced his text. Then he stated what had
been told him at breakfast, adding: "I am a preacher called and
sent from God. You shall this day see, and know, and acknowl-
edge that God is with me, and is able to give me the victory over
all the opposition of men and devils. ' ' At that moment the two
desperate young men before spoken of rose to their feet, and, with
loud oaths, began cursing the preacher and the meeting, and mov-
ing through the crowd with noisy efforts at disturbance, Calhoun
went on with his sermon. No human voice could keep his from
being heard. The piercing power of his sentences made people
forget all disturbances. That eagle eye of his held the eyes of
the congregation.. People were weeping. Hearts were lifted to
God in prayer. The poor, silly young men who were trying to
3
34 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
disturb the worship could not help hearing those wonderful sen-
tences. No one could hear them without feeling the burning fire
of God's Spirit which was in them. Presently one, then the other,
of these two would-be disturbers of God's worship fell, like Saul
of Tarsus, prostrate to the earth. They both were converted that
day, and one of them became a minister of the gospel, and died
proclaiming salvation to the lost. My parents were present at this
meeting and gave me the incident. I knew the men.
Another proof that the men of 1800 had this Paraclete bap-
tism is seen in their real, practical consecration to Christ, much
like the consecration after Pentecost. Solemn covenants of conse-
cration were written by some of them after their conversion, and
were carried out in such a manner as to show that they were in
earnest. From a long written covenant of consecration which was
entered into by Robert Donnell, I make a brief extract: "And
now, O Lord, I consecrate myself, .... my talents — whether
one or five — my time, influence, all to thee."
A few years afterward when his little daughter died, he was
absent in Alabama holding a camp-meeting. Writing to his wife,
on receiving this sad intelligence, he says: "But for my appoint-
ments to preach, I would set out immediately to see my dear,
afflicted wife. I have, however, given myself to the Lord to serve
in his vineyard, and am not at liberty, like men of the world, to
leave my Master's work." ' Ah! consecration was no empty sound
in such a life as that. [See Ezek. xxiv. 16, et scq.'\
Take one more case. When Samuel King was in his sixtieth
year the General Assembly asked him to make an evangelistic
tour among the feeble churches of the frontier. Without hesita-
tion he mounted his horse and made a grand tour through Ten-
nessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Missouri. He was absent from his family, on this tour, nearly two
vears. Do you say he did not love his family ? I answer that you
who say that do not know what real practical consecration to
Christ, the King, means.
I find that written covenants of consecration were the rule, their
'Lowry's Life of Donnell, pp. 43, 45.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 35
absence the exception. But this covenant is often made in words,
while the after life shows there was no real consecration in deeds.
The lives of all these heroes of 1800 show consecration in deeds.
When this higher baptism was given on the day of Pentecost,
there followed grander answers to prayer than the apostles had
ever known before. The men of 1800 had answers to prayer of
such a nature as to provoke incredulous smiles when described in
modern times.
About the year 18 14, the Rev. William Harris was very sick with
winter fever. It was thought he would die. The family stood
round him weeping. He turned his face to the wall and prayed.
At length he told his wife to cease weeping because the lyord had
given him the clear assurance that he should recover from that
sickness. He lived thirty years after that. The life-long friend
of Harris, the Rev. Alexander Chapman, having heard of this dan-
gerous illness of his fellow - laborer, called together the Little
Muddy congregation, of which he was pastor, and notified them
that the special object for which he had assembled them was that
they might join him in praying for the recovery of Harris. It
was at the same hour in which they were engaged in this prayer
that Harris announced to his wife that he was going to get well.'
Thirty years ago all this country abounded with similar tradi-
tions of wonderful answers to prayer.
The wife of the Rev. W. W. Hendricks, D.D., witnessed the
following incident and furnished me a written account thereof.
The Rev. Thomas Calhoun was preaching the funeral sermon of
the Rev. Robert Donnell. Vast crowds of people were present. A
heavy rain was seen to be approaching. People began to be rest-
less. Calhoun raised his hands to heaven and prayed God not to
allow the rain to disturb the solemn worship. Then, turning to
the congregation, he assured them that God would not allow the
rain to come upon their saddles. The cloud parted, and it rained
all around, hard and long, but none fell either on the camp-ground
or on the multitude of horses which stood with saddles on them in
the adjacent grove.
'Beard's Memoirs of the Rev. William Harris, p. 138.
36 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
Many years ago, some ladies, in Kentucky, who witnessed the
following incident, gave me, substantially, this history thereof.
There was a severe drouth. Chapman called his congregation
together to pray for rain. He lead the first prayer. At first the
prayer was very earnest pleading, then the prayer turned into
thanksgiving for the rain which God had assured him was com-
ing. It began raining abundantly that same day. O well, people
laugh at such things now, and they who laugh go without any
such answers to their prayers. Every one of our first preachers
has left 2is proof that he believed that God healed the sick in
answer to the prayer of faith. I am prepared to substantiate this
assertion, if need be. Dr. Beard, in noticing this faith of our
fathers, indorses and defends it. See biographical sketch of Har-
ris. He gives his testimony, too, to the facts which I have been
laboring to prove about this Paraclete power on the men of 1800.
Hear him:
The first generation of Cumberland Presbyterians were the most
intensely spiritual people that I have ever known. It is charged, I
know, that old men look back and magnify the past, while young men
look forward; but I can not be mistaken on this subject. Those people
lived nearer heaven than ordinary Christians do now."'
The earnest advocacy of this Paraclete baptism, as a distinct
blessing, after conversion, is found in many of the writings of our
fathers. The McAdow MSS. before me contain tw^o sermons
devoted specially to this subject. One of them argues the general
question; the other discusses the absolute necessity of this divine
baptism in order to ministerial success. Some points in Mr. Mc-
Adow's arguments will be here condensed. He says: The gift of
the Holy Ghost, in conviction and conversion, is not all its gifts.
This is shown by the Holy Spirit giving messages and prophecies
to unconverted men, like Balaam. It is shown by the gift of the
Spirit to King Saul, not for his own sake at all, but for the sake
of God's people over whom Saul was ruler. It is shown by the
gifts of mechanical skill to Bezaleel, that he might construct cun-
ningly the vessels of the sanctuary. It is shown by the gift of
wisdom to Solomon that he might govern God's people wiseh'. It
' Dr. Frizzell's semi-centennial pamphlet, pp. 57, 5S.
Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 37
is shown by all the special "ascension gifts" mentioned in the
New Testament — gifts suited to each special sphere of duty, in
which men had their special callings; gifts conferred after conver-
sion, fitting each recipient for some special service.
The other sermon takes the ground boldly, and argues it, that
after a truly converted man is called of God to preach the gospel,
and has received all the education which the schools can give, he
may still be destitute of this New Testament baptism, and he is
utterly unfit for his work in the gospel ministry until he does
receive this superadded gift of power from the Paraclete, specially
fitting him for the work of preaching the gospel. In this sermon
Mr. McAdow argues the perpetuity of the order to tarry at Jerusa-
lem till endued with the power from above. He insists that no
one should go out to the preacher's work until this baptism of
power has been conferred upon his soul. He shows that no amount
of learning or professional training can give this power. Even
the three years which the apostles spent traveling with Jesus failed
to furnish it. He says: "I have no doubt but that there are men
in our day who have received a genuine call to preach the gospel,
.... but have never yet received that unction of the Holy
Ghost." Again he says: "O that all our dear brethren who are
looking forward to the ministry would heed the admonition of
Christ to his disciples, and tarry at Jerusalem till they obtain this
seal of their commission ! ' '
The Rev. James Gallagher, a precious minister of the Presbyte-
rian church, who witnessed some of the scenes of the great revival,
discusses this very subject in "The Western Sketch Book," which
he edited. He gives wonderful descriptions of the special gifts of
prayer bestowed on some people. He insists that these were spe-
cial enduements of power from God's Spirit. He says, while dis-
cussing the "bodily exercises:" "Of the professors of religion who
were in this country when this revival began, perhaps one half
became the subjects of this bodily exercise. These were invariably
baptized with that spirit of prayer. The bodily exercises did not
continue long, but that marvelous power of prayer was lasting as
life."' He goes on to describe the wonderful transfonnations of
dull and formal and stupid church members by this baptism. He
38 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
says many, personally known to him through a period of thirty
years, whose prayers had always been cold and lifeless, when they
received that divine enduement of power, "would at once rise
above and beyond themselves — yea, above all I ever heard. This
extraordinary power in prayer continued with them through their
life." Again he says of this new power in prayer: "The man
who has been acquainted with that strain or manner of prayer will
know it in a moment whenever or wherever he may have the
opportunity to hear it again."
Dr. Bird, in his life of Chapman, page 350, says he "valued the
anointing of the Holy Spirit above every thing else. . . . Grace,
the anointing of the Holy Spirit, was every thing to him."
Every one of these men whom I heard preach in my boyhood
— Donnell, McSj^eddin, Barnett, Calhoun, Harris, George Donnell,
and many others of the next generation — laid special emphasis on
this baptism of power from the Holy Spirit- This they did in all
their preaching and their prayers.
Men try to apologize for the lack of this spiritual power now
by pleading that the preachers of 1800 had uneducated, primitive,
excitable people to preach to. Some of them cite the impulsive-
ness and inflammability of the colored race as a proof that the grand
results of 1800 were due to similar conditions, instead of a superior
spirituality. I ask, Was the Rev. Dr. Samuel IMiller ignorant
and excitable? Was the Rev. James Gallagher, of the Presbyte-
rian church, or the Rev. Dr. Bird, or the Rev. Dr. Beard, or the
Rev. Dr. H. A. Hunter, of our own church, ignorant and excitable?
No, no! Let us turn to the stronghold and seek the divine gift
for our own souls.
Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 39
CHAPTER VI.
OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL.
To see the blow, to feel the pain,
But render onlj' love again!
This spirit, not to earth is given;
One had it, but HE came from heaven.
— Henians.
T is hard to be impartially just in writing this chapter. There
is no doubt but that the manner in which the revival was man-
aged gave some just grounds for complaint; neither is there any-
ground to doubt that most of the complaints made were unde-
served. All genuine revivals are committed to human manage-
ment, and stir up both just and unjust complaints.
Before McGready came to Kentucky his revivals stirred up
opposition, even to the extent of threatening the preacher's life.
A letter written in blood was sent to him warning him to leave
the country.^
When, in his Kentucky field, the revival made its appearance,
the Rev. Mr. Balch, of McGready' s own presbytery, visited Mc-
Gready's churches for the special purpose of preaching against the
revival, and ridiculing what McGready had taught about faith,
repentance, and regeneration.'' Balch' s preaching caused a vast
amount of mischief. Nor did he stop with pulpit ministrations,
but also visited the converts from house to house ridiculing their
experience. 3 Nor was this preacher the only one who opposed
the revival. In the same field were four others who opposed it.
They were Craighead, Bowman, Templin, and Donnell. Balch
made the fifth; just half the Presbyterian preachers in that field.
Those who favored the revival and worked for it were McGready,
^ Smith's History, p. 563; Foote, p. 50.
'Smith, p. 567, et seq.; McGreadv's Posthumous Papers
3 See Mrs. Williamson's letters in Bird's Chapman.
40 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
Hodge, McGee, McAdow, and Rankin. The opposition was not
confined to the ministry. King, with his lancet and camphor,
going to minister to a soul seeking salvation, was only a sample
of what many a church member was.
Before any other question arose between the two parties this
one had split the churches asunder. The Muddy River church, in
Kentucky, divided, and the revival party formed a new church
called Liberty.
In 1801 ' the difficulty on this account in the Shiloh congrega-
tion, Sumner County, Tennessee, was brought before the presbytery.
It had, of course, occurred before that date. The same year the
revival part of Spring Creek church,^ in Wilson County, Tennessee,
having for a considerable time been locked out of the meeting-
house, withdrew and built them another house, which they called
Bethesda. This church still exists.
The Gasper church, 3 in Logan County, Kentucky, was closed
against the revival party, and for years they held their meetings
in the grove near the church. At a later day they built at Pilot
Knob, in Simpson County. Their meeting place was in the adja-
cent grove when the Commission met at the church. This ex-
plains what Dr. Davidson says about Mr. Rankin's addressing the
people in the grove while the Commission were at Gasper.
The Red River church,* in Logan County, Kentucky, was
locked against the revival party, and McGready stood on the door
steps and preached. One day while he or some other revival
preacher stood there gesticulating violently, a backward stroke
broke the lock, and the house was never locked against the revival
party afterward.
There were several cases in which this opposition to the revival
amounted to personal violence. The Calhoun MSS. give an
account of one man who used a stick to enforce his views. The
McAdow papers make several allusions to this personal violence.
So do the Kirkpatrick MSS. In this opposition infidels and
church members made common cause. A very wicked man saw
'Minutes of Transylvania Presbytery, iSoi; Revivalist^ April i6, 1S34.
-Lovvry's Life of Donnell, p. 26. 3 Bird's Chapman, p. 70.
* Conversations with Old People at Red River.
Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 4I
his wife go to the mourner's bench. In a rage he rushed to the
place and dragged her away, cursing the revival as he went.
While he was on his way to her horse a tree fell on him and killed
him. The corpse was brought back to the shelter, and then and
there IMcGready preached the poor sinner's funeral sermon. This
was at Shiloh.'
Opposition to revivals per se is an exotic plant in Presbyterian
gardens. Its importation began in the Established Church of
Scotland, when state authority thrust unconverted men into the
pastorates. We have already seen that unconverted preachers were
common in McGready's day, according to the judgment of their
contemporaries. Such men are generally opposed to revivals per
se. But a far better class of Presbyterians have always opposed
"revival measures." All honest hyper-Calvinists are logically
opposed to such things. A recent writer in The Southern Presby-
terian Quarterly^ in arguing against our modern revivals, puts
ultra-Calvinism in its legitimate expression when he says: "In the
conversion and sanctification of the elect, the Almighty appoints a
bound, and there is no margin for improvement A faithful
proclamation of the glad tidings is all the machiner>' that is needed
in the salvation of those who are ordained to eternal life."^ The
same writer declares his conviction that all the modern revivals
have been a disadvantage to the churches.
There were in 1800 many rigid notions among the churches
which seem strange to us now. Singing hymns instead of psalms
was one of McGready's offenses. The day for opposition to fire-
places or stoves in church was gone, but other things as unreason-
able still held sway among the descendants of the Covenanters.
Night meetings were considered scandalous. In the catalogue of
"new measures" which the "Old Side" party objected to, were
protracted meetings, night meetings, calling in other ministers to
aid in meetings, inquiry' meetings, propositions calling for action
of any kind, weeping in the pulpit, great fervor in exhortation,
itinerant preachers, evangelists both lay and clerical, singing hymns,
all noise — shouting, groaning, or crying out for mercy; to all of
'John McGee locates this incident incorrectly.
' Southern Quarterly, 1868, p. 155.
43 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
which was added another long list after camp-meetings and the
mourner's bench came into use. The Presbyterian church was
at first divided about half and half on these questions, but the Old
Side party to-day is everywhere in the minority. It counted the
heaviest pens of the church from 1740 to 1800. Some of Dr.
Samuel Miller's complaints against the revivals in which these
new measures were used are very severe/ but scarcely less so than
Dr. Charles Hodge's.-
There were in 1800 many ministers who believed the revival
genuine, but objected to many of the measures used, and objected
to such an extent that they were often classed with the anti-revival
party. David Rice was one of this class. It was new measures
which many good men conscientiously opposed. The revival
preachers of the Presbyterian church, all the better class of them,
admitted the necessity of caution in times of great popular excite-
ment, and acknowledged the worthlessness of man-made revivals;
but they said as God uses human beings in all genuine revivals, so
will there always be human imperfections accompanying them.
They illustrated the constants and the variables of Christianity by
the art of printing. The truth was a constant, printing a variable,
and not mentioned in Scripture; yet by its use the unchangeable
truth could be carried to many who could never see a copy of the
Bible by the old method. There is but one way of salvation, but
the agencies by which that way may be taught and impressed are
multiplying and improving every year.
The mourner's bench is one of the variables. The advocates
of new measures presented strong arguments in its favor, such
as these: It commits the sinner publicly to seeking salvation; it
touches the hearts of his comrades; it enlists the prayers of Chris-
tians for him; it mortifies his stubborn pride. But the mourner's
bench has been abused. Perhaps other methods are to take its place.
As for itinerant preaching it is willful blindness to call it a new
measure. Christ and his apostles used it, and the commission was
"go," not "stay."
The New Side showed that the revival on the day of Pentecost
' See his ninth letter to Presbyterians.
' See his History of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAI.. 43
was one of excitement and noise, so much so tliat men said the
apostles were drunk; and yet that great revival neither destroyed
nor hindered the ordinary services, but souls were ' ' daily added ' '
to the church after the meeting. There was new life in those
ordinary regular services. There was a consecration of men and
money to Jesus far beyond what the ordinary services produced.
Then they turned the tables on the objectors. They showed
what a routine of stagnation and death the ordinary services had
reached before every one of the great revival periods. Men were
taken into the church without conversion; unconverted men were
taken into the ministry; infidelity, too, crept in under this cloak
of lifeless forms; and vast multitudes were sweeping away to hell
under a godless ministry.
If Dr. Miller's ninth letter is appalling, the answers to it are
still more so. One of the writers (himself a Presbyterian)' asks:
"Are any of these able men who are writing against the way we
conduct our revivals themselves experts in revivals ? Did any sin-
gle one of them ever have a revival, either genuine or spurious,
under his ministry ? ' '
We are successful watch-makers. We have sent out thousands
of good time-pieces, none of them faultless, but all serviceable.
Up yonder in the college observatory is an able astronomer, and
he sets himself to writing against our watches, and denouncing
them for lack of that ideal perfection which, from his mathemat-
ical training, he sees in them. We ask him, Sir, did you ever
make a watch ?
There is a history by Dr. Robert Henderson, quoted in the
McMullin MS., which seems in place here. Dr. Blackburn was
holding a revival meeting on the New Side programme. Dr. Hen-
derson, who was Old Side, and had no patience with Dr. Black-
burn's meeting, was present. So he gathered a part of Dr.
Blackburn's congregation into another house, and held an orderly
meeting for them. Although some of Dr. Blackburn's most
excitable followers were present, yet there was no noise or confu-
sion of any sort at Dr. Henderson's meeting. It also comes out,
incidentally, that there were no conversions there.
'See New York Evangelist^ ^'^ZZ-
44 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
In 1852 an earnest Methodist was holding a revival meeting in
the church just opposite a great Catholic church in Philadelphia.
Day and night for a hundred days the meeting swept on like a
tempest. Finally the priest called on the Methodist preacher and
inquired if there was no way "to have a stop put to that nui-
sance." The answer was, "Nothing easier, sir; you just come
and preach in my pulpit and all the noise will stop." No doubt
Dr. Henderson could produce order out of Dr. Blackburn's excit-
able materials, but Dr. Blackburn had thousands of seals to his
ministry.
The reader will please look at the map. Kentucky Synod
took in both the Cumberland settlement and the upper Kentucky
settlement. A wilderness lay between them. None of "the Cum-
berland party" lived or preached in "upper Kentucky." Four
Presbyterian ministers in upper Kentucky preached some wild
doctrines, and used many strange methods at their meetings, all of
which the Cumberland party earnestly condemned. Years before
the "Cumberland schism" originated there was a schism in upper
Kentucky, and those engaged therein were called Stoneites, after
the name of their leader, the Rev. Barton W. Stone. The wild-
est and most wonderful of their meetings were at Cane Ridge, where
miracles, prophesies, and other such wonderful things were said to
take place. Afterward, when the Cumberland party sprang up in
"Cumberland," some of the Stoneite preachers came to that field,
but in every case "the revival party" of Cumberland Presbytery
refused to allow these Stoneites to preach in their meetings.
Ewing and others preached against the heresies of the Stoneites.
Yet for years, and even now, "the anti-revival party " of the mother
church holds up the Cane Ridge meetings and Stoneite theol-
ogy as samples of what the meetings and doctrines of Cumberland
Presbyterians are. Several writers who confounded McGready's
meetings and the Cumberland meetings of a later day with these
wild meetings in upper Kentucky, afterward discovered and cor-
rected their mistake. Others have promised to correct theirs
also. It is far more important to them than it is to us that they
should do so. "An outrage," says Cer\^antes, "injures him who
gives it, not him that receives it. ' '
Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAI,. 45
An illustration of these misrepresentations is seen in the pub-
lished letters of Dr. Samuel Miller. He had so often heard and
read the charge that the Stoneites, Shakers, and Cumberland Pres-
byterians were all branches of one tree, and all alike in their
revival meetings, that he repeated the charge in his publications.
He afterward published the following recantation; "I am now
convinced that in representing the 'New Lights' or 'Stoneites,'
the 'Shakers,' and the Cumberland Presbyterians as exfoliations
from the same disorderly body, and of about the same time, I wrote
under a misapprehension of the facts. ' ' ' Again, in the same let-
ter, he says: "Neither the Stoneites nor the Shakers ever made
constituent parts of that body. The Stoneites and Shakers, I am
now aware, were separated from the church several years anterior
to the departure of the Cumberland Presbyterians."
Another sample is taken from the Presbyterian^ i847' After
making some grave charges against us, the editor proceeds to
prove them, thus, quoting from the Assembly's digest:
But we will give a brief extract in their own words, as these Min-
utes are accessible but to a few. "When we withdrew," they say,
"we considered ourselves freed from all creeds but the Bible; and
since that time, by constant application to it, we are led further from
the idea of adopting creeds and confessions as standards, than we were
at first. We feel ourselves citizens of the world; God our common
Father; all men our brethren bv nature, and all Christians our brethren
in Christ. This principle of universal love to Christians gains ground
in our hearts in proportion as we get clear of particular attach-
ments to party. We therefore can not put ourselves in a situation
which would check the growth of so benign a temper, and make
us fio-ht under a party standard." Although these men had just denied
the faith, rent the church, and set up a party standard, yet, with this
high sounding language, they attempted to beguile the public, and said
to the assembly, "Let us pray for more of the uniting, cementing spirit,
and treat differences in lesser matters with Christian charity." They
were ready for a reunion, but only on the terms that the whole church
should give up its creed and descend to their level. Thus it was
upwards of forty years ago in our own church; let the church now, as
then, stand up for the maintenance and defense of its precious distinct-
ive doctrines.
^Revivalist, June iS, 1834. •
46 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
To which Milton Bird made the following reply, addressing
himself to the Presbyterian:
By referring to Davidson's late history of Presbyterianism in Ken-
tucky (pp. 197, 198, 300,), in connection with the Minutes from which
you quote, you will find that you have mistaken the "New Lights" for
the Cumberland Presbyterians. The two have no more fellowship
with each other than night and day. The "Separatists," or "New
Lights," to which these Minutes refer, soon disbanded without adopt-
ing any creed. Three of them joined the Shakers, two united again
with the Presbyterian church, and the sixth. Barton Stone, joined the
Campbellites.
Then the Presbyteriaii made the following statement:
A Correction. — We incidentally referred in some remarks on dis-
tinctive Presbyterianism, to the schism of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rians as illustrative of the views we were expressing, and quoted a doc-
ument found in the Minutes of the General Assembly, which we attrib-
uted to the members of this presbytery. In this we erred. The senti-
ments we quoted were chargeable to the "New Light Schism" in
Kentucky, and not to the Cumberland Presbyterians, who did not
come on the stage until several years afterward.
How carelessly that editor read the Minutes of his own Assem-
bly! There are still those who reiterate the old slander, perhaps
really believing it. Thus Dr. Speer (1872), in his little book
entitled "The Great Revival of 1800," represents "Cumberland-
ism" as originating out of the Cane Ridge furor, while he holds
up in contrast the more orderly meetings iit INIcGready's field in
lyOgan County.' Dr. Speer wrote me that he would make some
corrections when he published his next edition. It is not the pur-
pose of this history to expose and refute the unfounded and bitter
charges which the anti-revival party of that day made against the
revival, and afterward against the church which took its rise from
that revival. In most cases these bitter charges were never
indorsed by the bulk of the Presbyterian church. Their refutation
was given at the time. Let that siiffice.
One of the foci of fury where opposition to the revival rallied
was "the jerks." Of these strange matters a few words must be
written. In many countries, both in the Old World and the New,
' See pp. 38-40.
Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 47
and in many meetings, and especially Presbyterian meetings, not
only in 1800, but in previous revivals, these bodily exercises made
their appearance. Their first appearance in the revival of iSoo
was not in McGready's churches, but in Gideon Blackburn's, in
East Tennessee. The first person to have them in this western
field was the Rev. Dr. Doak, a graduate of Princeton, New Jersey,
and a thorough Presbyterian. These exercises have been investi-
gated scientifically and often. All parties agree that they were
involuntary. A curious story was current in my boyhood about a
Presbyterian minister who came into Tennessee and was preaching
against these bodily exercises, when he was himself seized with
them in the pulpit and violently jerked about.
Dr. Blackburn, Dr. Baxter, ]\IcGready, and Hodge, and a host
of others, all Presbyterians, and eye-witnesses, were fully per-
suaded that these strange manifestations were the direct work
>of God's Holy Spirit, sent to silence and convince the gainsayers
of that day. Others thought them only the result of ner\'0us
excitement. Dr. Blackburn quoted Scripture to show that they
were the legitimate work of the Holy Spirit. James Smith
("Scotch Smith," as our people called him) took the nervous
view of the matter. So did Dr. Charles Hodge and Dr. Davidson.
It is absolutely certain that these strange exercises made a deep
and solemn impression on those who witnessed them. Proofs are
in existence of the conversion of many an infidel through the
agency, under God, of these strange manifestations. Advocates
of the ner\-ous theory were put to practical confusion at Gasper
River at the first appearance of these wonders there. They plied
medical remedies to those who fell prostrate and lay like dead men.
The lancet was used to such an extent that the place was covered
with bleeding bodies like a battle-field,' but no good ever came
from this medical treatment; and no harm to life, limb, or reason
ever came from the mysterious exercises. Dr. Charles Hodge's
effort to connect these bodily exercises with nervous epidemics,
whose origin had no connection with religion, is, it seems to me, a
total failure.
' Hugh Kirkpatrick's MSS.
48 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND DIFFICULTY— MINISTERIAL EDUCATION.
" Shall we to men benighted,
The lamp of life deny?"
THERE was a vast field almost destitute of the means of grace.
Most of the settlers had been accustomed to church privileges
in their former homes, and were clamorous for them in their fron-
tier cabins. Those who attended the camp-meetings returned to
spread the religious interest in their neighborhoods. A sufficient
supply of preachers could not be secured. The case was one of
extreme urgency. The Rev. David Rice visited McGready's field,
"and being informed of the destitute state of most of the churches,
and the pressing demands for the means of grace, earnestly recom-
mended that they should choose from among the laity some men
who appeared to possess talents and a disposition to exercise their
gifts publicly to preach the gospel, although they might not have
acquired that degree of education required by the Book of Disci-
pline. This proposition was cordially approved by both preach-
ers and people What still more clearly convinced them of
the propriety of this measure was that in almost every congrega-
tion that had been blessed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
there were one or more intelligent and spiritual men whose gifts in
exhortation had already been honored by the Head of the church
in awakening and converting precious souls. Accordingly three
zealous, intelligent, and influential members of the church — viz.,
Alexander Anderson, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King — were
encouraged by the revival preachers to prepare written discourses
and to present themselves before the Transylvania Presbytery at its
session in 1801. All these persons had previously been under
serious impressions that it was their duty to devote themselves to
the ministry, but as they had not enjoyed the advantages of a
Chapter VII,] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 49
collegiate education, and were men of families and somewhat
advanced in life, they had been laboring under difficulties. At
the meeting of Transylvania Presbytery, in October, 1801, the
case of these brethren was brought before that body, from some of
whom they met with warm opposition. However, after a pro-
tracted discussion, it was agreed by the majority that they might
be permitted to read their discourses privately to Mr. Rice. ' ' '
They did so, and Rice reported favorably. They were then sent
out as exhorters to the vacant congregations, and instructed to
prepare written discourses for the next meeting of the presbytery.
In the spring of 1802 Anderson was received by a majority of
one vote as a regular candidate for the ministry, and the others by
a majority of one vote were retained in the category of catechists.
In the fall of 1802 they were all licensed to preach.
Here was the second ground of complaint. The question was
not then, nor is it now, about the great importance of a classical
education, but it was, and still is, whether after we have done our
utmost in educating men for the ministry, we may supplement the
supply by licensing judicious men of piety and promise to work
among the perishing, even when these men have not a collegiate
education. Inasmuch as there was opposition, Mr. Rice, by direc-
tion of the presbytery, addressed a letter to the General Assembly
on the subject. Here is the answer:^
A liberal education, though not absolutely essential, has been shown
to be highly important and useful, from reason and experience and the
prosperity of the Presbyterian and New England churches. But,
whatever might be the Assembly's opinion, the standards are explicit
on the subject. As to the apprehension of schism in consequence of
rigid views, the reply must be that the path of duty is the path of
safety, and events are to be committed to God. Parties formed under
such circumstances would be neither important nor permanent. Not-
withstanding, when the field is too extensive, catechists, like those of
primitive times, may be found useful assistants. But great caution
should be used in selecting prudent and sound men lest they run into
extravagance and pride. Their duties should be carefully defined and
subject to frequent inspection. They should not be considered stand-
* Quoted from Smith's History.
"Quoted from Cossitt's Life of Ewing, p. 346.
50 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
ing officers in the church, but, if possessed of uncommon talents, dili-
gent in study, and promising usefulness, they might in time purchase to
themselves a good degree^ and be admitted in regular course to the holy
ministry. [Italics mine.]
This advice of the General Assembly accords in every possible
particular with the views then taken by the revival party. On
those views they acted, and against them the other party planted
themselves. Every Cumberland Presbyterian would consent to
have all the licensures by Cumberland Presbytery tried by this
rule. So, too, may the licensures of Ewing, King, and Ander-
son by the Transylvania Presbytery be tried. Though not fully
up to the requirements in the classics, these three men were all
men of respectable attainments in scholarship. Ewing had con-
siderable classical knowledge. There were catechists sent out at a
later day who never expected to become regular ministers. As a
considerable number of these catechists were employed, it is not a
matter of surprise that a few of them disappointed the expectations
of the presbytery.
But, of all those whom the revival party licensed to preach,
there is not one single name which is not held in the profoundest
veneration to-day in all the field where they labored. Not one of
them left a reputation tarnished by heresy, apostasy, or defection
from the church and services of the Lord Jesus. They all died
with their armor on after a noble warfare. Such things can not be
said of those who constituted the other party of the Cumberland
Presbytery.
At a later day the revival party sent a history of their action at
this time to the General Assembly. An extract from that history
is here given. The histor}^ is too long to quote in full' but it is
all interesting, and is in perfect accord with the histor>' of the
revival given in this book, especially as to when, where, and how
the revival originated.
After describing the origin of the revival and its wonderful
spread over the whole country, they say:
Now, truly, the harvest was great and the laborers few. Unable to
'See Revivalist, May 14, 1S34. See also appendix A, in Life and Times of
Ewing.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 51
resist the pressing solicitations from every quarter for preaching, with
unutterable pleasure we went out, laboring day and night, until our
bodies were worn down, and after all we could not supply one third of
the places calling upon us for preaching. While thus engaged, and
while the gracious work was still going on, we observed what was very
remarkable, that in almost every neighborhood there was some one
who appeared to have uncommon gifts for exhortation and prayer, and
was zealously engaged in the exercises thereof, while the Lord wrought
by him to the conversion of many. Viewing the infant state of the
church in our country, the anxious desire for religious instruction, the
gifts, diligence, and success of those we have mentioned, and the
scriptural authority for exhortation, we were induced with almost
every member in the presbytery, to open a door for the licensure of
exhorters, well knowing it was a liberty that was, and would be
taken; and concluding if taken by presbyterial authority it might pre-
vent disorder and weakness. It was now agreed that any of those who
might be licensed, and who manifested extraordinary talents and pietv,
should be considered as candidates for the ministry; also, that for their
improvement they should have subjects appointed, on which they were
to be heard at our stated sessions of j^resbytery; that if, by their
improvement, piety, and usefulness, they purchased to themselves a
good degree, they might be set apart to the holy ministry. Accord-
ingly, several made application, who were examined on experimental
religion, and the motives inducing them to public exhortation. Those
we judged qualified were then licensed. The first were all men of
families, and somewhat advanced in years. Out they went, leaving
wives and children, houses and lands, for Christ's sake and the gospel;
suffering hunger, cold, and weariness, for weeks in succession, but the
Lord was with them and made them happy instruments in helping on
his work in the conversion of many. After a long trial of those men
in diflTerent parts of our country, there came forward to our presbytery
several petitions for their licensure to the ministry, signed by hundreds
of the most moral and religious characters where they had labored.
From our personal knowledge of those men's good talents, piety,
and usefulness; from the numerous warm petitions of the people at
large; from the example of many presbyteries; from the silence of
Scripture on literary accomplishments; from your own declaration in
answer to Mr. Rice's letter, viz.: "That human learning is not essential
to the ministry;" from the exception made in the Book of Discipline, in
extraordinary cases; we humbly conceived, that it would not be a trans-
gression either of the laws of God or the rules of the church, to license
men of such a description. We therefore did license them, and a few
Others at different times afterward; some of them with, and some with-
53 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
out, literary acquisitions; but all men of gifts, piety, and influence, hav-
ing spent years previous in exhortation, before they were admitted to
the ministry. Several vv^ere licensed to exhort, whose names are on
our Minutes, whom we never had a design of admitting to the minis-
try. Now th'e work of the Lord went on. Numbers of young and
promising congregations were formed So that in a few years
the wilds of our country echoed with the praises of the Lord. Savage
ignorance was changed into a knowledge of God and his dear Son;
and savage ferocity into the lamb-like spirit of Jesus."
James Hutchinson, Esq., of Montgomery County, Tennessee,
gave to Dr. Cossitt a statement which will illustrate the circum-
stances under which these men were first sent out. He says : '
We emigrated from Virginia in 1796, and settled where we now
live, in 1797. Both my Sarah and I had been religiously raised and
accustomed to read our Bible. Away from all our friends and in this
then solitary place, we felt that we needed an Almighty Protector. We
sought the one thing needful as for goodly pearls. In 1800 we trust
we both embraced that holy religion which has been our guide and
comfort up to the present hour. The country was filling up rapidly,
but there was no one to break to us the bread of life. O how we did
long to hear the blessed gospel preached! We joined with David
Beaty and Henry Anderson in a petition praying Transylvania Presby-
tery to send us a preacher. We were rejoicing in hope, but hungering
for the word of God. We were Presbyterians, so far as we under-
stood ourselves, and wanted to cast our lot with that people among
whom God was carrying on his glorious work. The field was wide,
the harvest plenteous, and the laborers few. A preacher could not
come to us. We wept, we mourned, w^e prayed; we could take no
denial. We petitioned again without success. Still we believed God
would hear and help us. We could not be discouraged, seeing that
God could, in answer to our prayers, incline the presbyters to favor us,
if only a little. No mortal man can conceive our anxieties unless he
has been placed in a like situation.
We could hear of other places within ten, twenty, thirty miles where
the people, like us, were petitioning for a preacher. Some of them
had attended the great meetings in Kentucky or higher up in Tennes-
see, and had returned glorifying God. We asked. Would not a God
of love take care of his own cause and feed his own flock? .... We
called to mind his precious promises and said, Surely he will.
There are two periods in my life which I never can forget while I
'Life and Times of Ewing, pp. 70-77.^
Chapter VIL] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 53
remember any thing. One is when I found the Lord precious; the
other is when, in answer to all our prayers, he sent his faithful servant
to minister to our spiritual necessities. I often call to mind, as if it
were but yesterday, the evening when a traveler, an entire stranger, as
I supposed, rode up to my log-cabin. This house, built of stone, was
not here then. His eyes were red with weeping, and the tears were
scarcely dried on his cheeks. He inquired for James Hutchinson. On
being informed that I was the man he seemed overjoyed. He said, " I
have so long traveled this Indian path without seeing a house that I
seriously feared it would be my lot to lie out this night and take my
chances with the wolves. I have cried and prayed the Lord, my
helper, .... and he has brought me to this hospitable home." I was
filled with surprise and joy. I saw he was a man of genteel appear-
ance, and, better still, his language savored of grace and piety. I had
seen but few religious persons since I professed, and I greatly rejoiced
that a pious traveler had done me the favor to call and spend a night
with me at my cabin in the wilderness He soon took occasion
to let me know his business in these parts, and that his name was Finis
Ewing " Sarah, Sarah," I called. She was out preparing sup-
per. Stepping to the door I said, "The preacher has come!" Sarah
came in shouting, while I was crying for joy. God had answered our
prayers and sent us a preacher!
When we had become a little composed, Mr. Ewing modestly
observed, "Do not mistake me, my friends; I am not a preacher, but
have been sent in the place of one. I am authorized publicly to exhort,
expound the Scriptures, and, according to my ability, give all needful
instructions, without the formalities of a sermon." Being mere babes
in Christ, we cared but little for the formalities of a sermon
We had long felt that we were in the midst of a people who were
living without hope and without God in the world, actually perishino-
for lack of knowledge. Without the gospel, without schools, and
almost without a Sabbath, we shuddered at the thought of raising our
children in such a state of society.
Mr. Hutchinson gathered in his neighbors and Ewing preached
and left another appointment. Hutchinson then accompanied him
to other destitute neighborhoods. He speaks in strong terms
about the great power of Ewing' s sermons at all these places.
As for the other lay exhorters, each in separate fields, the one
claiming attention next to Ewing is Samuel King. Like Ewing,
he had been taken into the church while still unconverted; and,
like Ewing, he had been truly converted afterward. Then he
54 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
iminediately began to exhort sinners. It is the general testi-
mony that his exhortations were greatly blessed. While he
had a circuit regularly appointed around which he traveled, he
seems often to have wandered beyond its bounds. From the very
first his heart yearned over the most destitute. Nor did he
stop with the white settlements. An incident of his work among
the Indians will be given here. It was furnished originally by
his son, Judge R. M. King. King was addressing, through an
interpreter, a large crowd of Choctaw Indians. The interpreter
became so powerfully convicted that he could proceed no further,
but like the sinners at McGready's meetings, he fell to the earth
and began to cry for mercy. The preacher knew not what to do.
He could speak none of their language, yet they were weeping all
around him. He knew, though, that God could understand him.
He fell to his knees and began to pray. While King prayed the
interpreter was converted. Then the preacher had a new tongue.
His sermon was blessed to the salvation of many souls before he left
the place. To the visits of King to the Choctaws can be traced
the conversion of our first native preachers among that people.^
But, returning to King's circuit, the indications are that it
reached the wildest and sparsest portions of the field. He swam
rivers; he slept often in the forest with his saddle-bags for a pil-
low; he preached under the trees, where there was no house of
worship. Thomas Calhoun testified that King was the first man
in all the West to take his stand against whisky.
All these men rode vast circuits on which they preached every
day, besides riding from twenty to fifty miles on horseback. Rid-
ing, too, when there were no bridges, ferrj^-boats, or even good
wagon roads. It took them four months to make one round
on these circuits. To many of the new settlers visited by them
these circuit appointments, once in four months, were their only
dependence for the gospel. Even the daring pioneers of Method-
ism had not then reached some of these regions.
Alexander Anderson had gifts, in some particulars, superior to
all the others.. One who knew him well gave a long written
statement to Dr. Beard ^ testifying to his spiritual power. Speak-
' Beard's King. 'Beard's Anderson.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 55
ing of his selection by the presbytery he says: "They knew their
man. They knew what he could do in prayer, exhortation, and
other religious exercises. Nor were they disappointed. ' ' He says
there were still living a few who remembered Anderson's sermons
and could repeat whole paragraphs of them, and still wept at the
mention of his name, after he had been in heaven fifty years. It is
reported of him that he foresaw the schism which was threatened
in his church, and prayed God that he might be taken home before
it came. His prayer was answered.
Colonel Joe Brown gives this incident, as related to him by the
father of the Rev. James B. Porter: "The Rev. Dr. Thomas Hall,
while on his way to Natchez, where he had been sent as a mission-
ary, stopped to rest a while in Sumner County, Tennessee. There
he heard about these lay exhorters. He expressed himself in
strong terms against the measure, and said he would see to it that
the Presbyterian church should not be disgraced by lay preaching.
That same night he attended a prayer-meeting at which Alexander
Anderson exhorted. Dr. Hall was amazed. He said that man
must preach. The Lord had some great work for him to do."
\S^Q^ Banner 0/ Peace ^ March 16, 1856.]
As for Ephraim McLean, he is not in the same category as the
others. While he was received as a candidate in 1802, he was not
willing to be placed on the list of exceptions to the educational
requirements. What little he lacked of coming up to those
requirements he believed he could make up by private study while
on the circuit. It is this that explains the omission of his name
in the passage quoted from Smith's history. But in all the list
there was no truer hero for Jesus than McLean, When he pro-
fessed religion he had a wife and four children, and was living in a
floorless cabin built of round poles. When he felt himself called
to preach the gospel, his heroic wife urged him on, both in his
preparation for the work of the ministry and in the discharge of
its sacred duties afterward. He went out on his circuits, year
after year, preaching to people where no other minister came. He
received no pay. His wife raised the wool, spun the thread,
wove the cloth, and made the clothing which he wore on his cir-
cuits. The anti-revival party sneered at his rough garments, but
56 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
they will not sneer in the day of judgment, when they see him
wearing a crown studded with many stars. His was not a long
career. He fell just after the new church was organized, but his
work lives on. He had two sons who were in the national Con-
gress afterward, one a Senator, He has a grandson now in the
ministry in our church, the Rev. E. G. McLean, of California.
Some idea of the way in which the revival spread, and how God
pointed out to the presbytery what men to select as evangelists,
may be received from the following incidents:
James B. Porter had educated himself for a physician. At Shi-
loli camp-meeting, in Sumner County, Tennessee, 1801, he found
the Savior. Soon after the meeting his mother took him with her
on a trip to South Carolina. At every house where they stopped
on their journey. Porter told about the wonderful grace of God to
his soul, and commended his Savior to the people. There were
conversions all along the journey. On the return trip Lorenzo
Dow had a public meeting in which he made Porter exhort, and
God greatly blessed the exhortation.
The case of Alexander Chapman is similar. Soon after his con-
version he went on a visit to his uncle in Virginia. On his arrival
he found the family about starting to their weekly prayer-meeting.
He accompanied them. After two or three prayers the way was
opened for any one to read, or pray, or make remarks. Chapman,
who had been brought up in the neighborhood, and whose profes-
sion of religion was unknown there, rose and gave an exhortation.
A revival began at once, and spread over the community until
more than one hundred persons professed faith in Christ. Among
these were several of his cousins, who lived many years to adorn
the profession which they had made. The Rev. Mr, Robinson, the
pastor in that community, gave his hearty indorsement ,to the
young man's zeal and usefulness.'
Owing to the great distance between the two settlements which
belonged to Transylvania Presbyter>^, the synod divided it, and cre-
ated the Cumberland Presbytery. This presbytery embraced all
the Green River and Cumberland settlements, and all that portion
of the synod in which those grave differences of opinion had
' Bird's Life of Chapman, p. 35.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 57
arisen, out of which, at last, "the Cumberland schism" sprang.
As the Transylvania Presbytery had received into membership a
Methodist by the name of Hawe, and as he resided in the bounds
assigned to Cumberland Presbytery, the revival party, by his aid,
had a majority of one. The new presbytery ordained Anderson,
Ewing, and King. That gave the revival party a decided majority.
Against all these measures in which men were employed as ex-
horters or preachers without a classical education, the anti-revival
party took a decided stand. Their protests in several instances
were entered on the Minutes of the presbytery ; but the revival party
were in the majority, and had things their own way for a season.
The synod, however, came at last to the relief of the minority.
This question about the Westminster standard of ministerial
education being made a sine qzia non for the pulpit, is a live ques-
tion yet. So, too, is the question about how to conduct revival
meetings. Three out of the four questions of that day are still
debated; though with a growing majority in all three in favor of
the views then taken by the revival party. On the fourth question
(the ecclesiastical one), all parties concede now that the founders
of our church were right.
While we believe the course pursued by the revival party was
wise and scriptural, we believe also that it has been abused by
many of our presbyteries since. Three errors have prevailed.
One, in overlooking "aptness to teach" and spirituality, which
neither education nor the lack of it can ever supply. Another is in
attributing the wonderful spiritual power of Calhoun and his asso-
ciates to their lack of education. If lack of collegiate education
gives this wonderful spiritual power, why is it that all the army of
uneducated ministers in our church, and in other churches, to-day
do not have it? The third error is in calling Ewing and Donnell
and their comrades uneducated men, and holding up their example
as an excuse for laziness and stupidity, as, alas! so many of our
presbyteries have done. True, these men were not graduates
of any college, and what scholarship they had was not obtained
according to regulation methods, but for all that they were edu-
cated men and profound thinkers. Their education came as Daniel
Boone's did. They availed themselves of all the facilities in their
58 CUMBERI^AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period I.
reach. They carried text-books in their saddle-bags and studied
at night. They studied men, and profoundly studied their English
Bibles. Most that colleges do for men is to teach them how to
think; tliese men had that lesson, no matter how they obtained it.
Between these men and the lazy boy of to-day who has it in his
power to secure a college education and will not do it, there is no
similarity at all, and their example is a rebuke rather than an apol-
ogy to all such.
Akin to this error of some of our own people is a slander from
some who do not understand us. ' ' They went out of the Pres-
byterian church because they were opposed to education," is a
threadbare slander still circulated. Many times utterly refuted,
this slander is still peddled out as the most effective way of injur-
ing our church. The real issue is not about the inestimable value
of education, but about the propriety of allowing exceptions to
the requirement of a classical education in cases of great pressure,
like those of Ewing and King, when clearly demonstrated use-
fulness on the part of the aspirant combines with a very great
demand for his special services on the part of the destitute.
Whether it was better to allow whole vast areas of destitute settle-
ments to remain without the gospel entirely, or to send them sound
teachers who loved souls and knew the way of salvation, though
they did not know either Latin or Greek — that was the question.
Neither the fathers of our church nor their sons failed to appre-
ciate an educated ministry'. It requires considerable grace patiently
to argue such a proposition at this late day, but I think God will
give me grace to do it.
Proof I. Ephraim McLean was one of the fathers of our church.
When he was ordered to prepare for ordination along with Ewing
and King, he said: "Give me a little more time and I shall be
able to come fully up to the standard. I am fully up now in
every- thing but Greek, and am working hard at that."' They
granted his request, but with the understanding that he should pur-
sue his studies on the circuit. This he diligently did. They cared
for souls, but they cared for scholarship too. McLean then had a
wife and six children, and was preaching without any compensa-
Incidents furnished by his son, Finis E. McLean.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 59
tion whatever. His wife and boys made their support on their
Kentucky farm, and his wife with her own hands spun the thread
and wove the cloth for his clothing. Our fathers thought it was
worth while to endure trials that the perishing multitudes might
have the gospel. Nor is this all in McLean's case. When his
boys were old enough to go off to school he discussed the case with
his noble wife, and fell upon a plan for their education. His wafe
took charge of the farm herself, and by heroic struggles and sacri-
fices supported the family and kept her boys at school and her hus-
band on the circuit. Was that husband opposed to education?
Proof 2. All the men who took part in the organization of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church left the strongest possible testi-
mony that they held a thorough education in the highest esteem.
Finis Ewing left his testimony in several forms. He spent
large sums of money in establishing a classical school near his
home in Kentucky, and that before the organization of our first
synod; and when this school was established he would have none
but thorough classical teachers in it. This was the first classical
school in all that portion of Kentucky.' Afterward he sent his
own son, who was then looking to the ministry, to college and
■gave him a thorough education. When he moved to Missouri he
set to work to establish a school for the classical and theological
education of the ministry in Missouri, and he filled his large
house full of young preachers going to school, to whom he gave
gratuitous boarding.
Still further, when our first college was proposed, and the prac-
ticability of establishing both a classical and theological college,
with ample endowment, was under discussion. Finis Ewing made
a speech in favor of the enterprise which Dr. Cossitt, a graduate of
a New England college, who heard it, pronounced the ablest of all
the pleas for an educated ministry that he had ever listened to.
To his dying day Dr. Cossitt maintained, and published, and reiter-
ated his declaration that he had heard no plea for an educated min-
istry equal to Ewing' s great speech. Ewing wrote for the col-
lege some of the ablest pleas I ever read. When I was president
of Cumberland University, and struggling hard to lift the institu-
' Incidents reported bj Hon. F. E. McLean.
6o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
tion up from the wreck where the civil war had left it, the most
telling appeal I made to our people in behalf of our college was
made by republishing some of Finis Ewing's pleas for old Cumber-
land College.
Samuel King traveled as agent for the endowment of our first
college. Thomas Calhoun had a son who entered the ministrj'.
He sent that son to college and afterward to a theological school.
He nearly all his life was aiding some young preacher to obtain a
college education.
Samuel McAdow was himself a graduate, but his infirm health
prevented his taking any very active share in any kind of work
after the organization of the new church.
Robert Donnell traveled as agent for our first college, at his
own expense, and published many earnest pleas for it. He deliv-
ered a course of lectures to the theological class at Lebanon, Ten-
nessee. He declared a thoroughly endowed theological school to
be a necessity of the church. He himself gave large sums to that
endowment. In discussing the necessity of a thoroughly endowed
college he says, in a letter published in the Banner of Peace^
^''Witlioitt it we can not prosper as a body.''''
All the first numbers of our church papers teem with earnest
articles from those men who planted the church, urging the impor-
tance of thorough education.
Proof 3. Early ecclesiastical action. The council formed by
the revival preachers before the organization of our first presbytery
addressed a letter to the General Assembly, in which they say:
' ' We never have embraced the idea of an unlearned ministry. The
peculiar state of our country and the extent of the revival reduced
us to the necessity of introducing more of that description than we
otherwise would. We sincerely esteem a learned and pious minis-
try, and hope the church will never be destitute of such an orna-
ment. ' ' ^
The first presbyter}'' of our church thought proper to place itself
on record also. The very first year of that presbytery's existence
it addressed a circular letter to the churches under its care, in
which it told those churches, and all the others concerned in the
' Smith's History, p. 624.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 6l
case, to have no fears of any laxness in educational requirements;
declaring its purpose to require a classical education in all cases
where that was practicable, and when, in exceptional cases and
emergencies that was dispensed with, in no case to dispense with
a thorough English education. '
Our first presbytery, the first year of its existence, commenced
raising money to educate its young preachers. It instructed those
who came as candidates, while still young enough to secure an
education, to go to school first. Philip McDonnold was a poor
boy, who had shown his eagerness for an education before he
applied to presbytery to be received as a candidate. Presbytery
determined to receive him and defray the expenses of his thorough
education, and it carried out this determination. This was the
first year of that presbytery's life and its first official act about edu-
cation. The official records of our first three presbyteries abound
in strong declarations of the great importance of an educated min-
istry, and declare it to be "absolutely necessary for us to have a
college of our own. ' '
A convention of delegates from the presbyteries met in 1822 to
consider the question of a college for the church. See Minutes of
Elk Presbyter}-^, and other minutes. Three years before we had a
General Assembly, those founders of our church, who traveled in
homespun clothing made by their wives, and carried text-books in
their saddle-bags while they went seeking the lost am.ong the
pioneer settlements, established, through the General Synod, a col-
lege for the education of young preachers. Our later work need
not now be mentioned.
A curious fact of history deserves now to be noticed. It is this:
During the first twenty years of our existence, what was called
' ' the anti-revival party ' ' of the mother church strenuously denied
that lack of classical education was one of the charges against us.*
Heresy and disorderly conduct in revival meetings were then asserted
to be the offenses. Our church had, at first, no theological litera-
ture, and it was an easy matter to make people who knew us not
'Dr. Frizzell's Semi-centennial Pamphlet, p. 14.
''See "The anonymous pamphlet of Kentucky Synod;" J. L. Wilson's letters
in The Standard, 1832; Religious and Literary Intelligencer, April 5, 1832, etc.
62 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
believe that we held horrible heresies. Not only were we charged
privately and publicly with the grossest heresies, but also with the
most abominable practices in our meetings. Good and true men
who lived where we were unknown believed these reports which
appeared in pamphlets and newspapers, and repeated them in dig-
nified volumes. The Rev. J. L. Wilson, D. D. , who was one of the
commission, and who never ceased to pursue and persecute "the
Cumberlands ' ' till he was called to his final account, wrote a long
article for his church paper in 1832, taking the same ground, and
declaring the statement in Buck's Theological Dictionar>' about the
educational issue to be a falsehood. David Lowr}', then editing
our church paper, replied to Dr. Wilson, and argued that education
was one of the issues. [See Religious and Literary Intelligencer^
April 5, 1832.]
How the winds do change! Now the cry is that the question
of ministerial education was the real cause of the schism, and the
doctrinal difference is ignored or denied altogether. Once we were
charged with denying the atonement, denying original sin, deny-
ing imputation,' and with various similar heresies. Now it is
asserted even by the New York Observer that practically, and in
our pulpits, "there is no difference." It would not be hard to
point out the reason for this shifting of the winds, but it would not
be edifying. No harm comes to us from these charges. The taunts
about education have done us good. Let us go on our way trying
to please God, and pay no attention to any misrepresentations
which men may make of us or our doctrines.
The main question stands to-day about where it did in 1800.
Many millions are perishing for lack of the gospel. It is a modem
thought, revived from New Testament examples, after a long sleep,
that the gospel is to be carried with the utmost zeal and speed to
every perishing human being. To shut it up in a select circle, and
deliver it officially from stately pulpits with learned illustrations
and elegant diction before cultivated audiences, may suit the tastes
of ambitious ecclesiastics; but there is a far more stirring \aew of
its solemn mission which is beginning to break in upon the vision
' See Dr. Wilson's charges quoted in Religious and Literary Intelligencer, Feb-
ruar_y and April, 1832. See also Pittsburgh Herald^ 1S35, fassim.
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 63
of modern churches. The appalling spectacle of a city on fire pre-
sents no such stirring appeals for sympathy and assistance as do
the millions of our fellow-men who are now perishing in their sins.
There is no time to lose. Our generation will be beyond the reach
of the gospel when we pass away.
God is dealing with the churches of this day. While lay evan-
gelism has been abused, it is manifest that God is in it. Educate?
Yes, to the utmost. Let all secure the best training possible.
When good men have spirituality and aptness to teach, and feel it
to be their duty to proclaim salvation to lost men, but have no
opportunity to secure a classical education — hold them back ?
No, never.
Who would blot out the record of Moody's work? Ah! even
Dr. McCosh, at staid old Princeton, gives Moody a hearty welcome
to those classic seats; and God uses Moody even there. Yes, and
uses him at the grand old colleges of England, too.
The Southern Presbyterian church, which has been so wonder-
fully conservative, is seriously considering the propriety of chang-
ing its standard on this subject. A standing committee has been
appointed to investigate the question. A long circular has been
sent out by one of that committee, ably advocating the change.
This circular shows that the ratio of increase in a hundred years
between the Presbyterian and Methodist churches is as 47 to 105 1.
It shows that "aptness to teach," which is a Bible qualification, is
not proved by the possession of a college diploma, which is not.
Indeed, there is no essential connection between the two. It shows
that the evangelization of the masses was not in the plans of the
Westminster Assembly.
The one great question which the awakened Christianity of to-
day has to settle is how best to evangelize the masses. This one
great work will require the diligent use of all the church's forces.
We have not a man or a woman to spare. In some sphere or other
all are to help. Men, women, and little children are all to share in
this activity for Jesus. God will lead each trusting soul, and indi-
cate to each one who is pliant in his hands just what work to do.
Consecrated workers in still' greater numbers, we trust, are coming
up to give heart and life, tongue and pen, to the service of the
64 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
King. Ecclesiastical courts may advise and help, they may pray
for and defend them ; they may and they will soon be forced to pro-
vide a place in their ecclesiastical macliiner>' for this uncanonical
army, which cares a thousand times more for souls than it does for
church canons and rubrics. The churches which refuse to do so
will go into the same category with the Jewish church after it
rejected its own Messiah.
One measure which is both scriptural and canonical needs to be
revived by all the presbyteries: that is the policy of licensing cat-
echists or exhorters. If that had been diligently followed, many
of the embarrassing questions of the present day would have been
forestalled. ♦
Another step will have to be taken. God in his providence has
sent us back to learn over again the teachings of his word about
woman's sphere in helping on the gospel.
When Mrs. Ranyard, unaided by any ecclesiastical recognition,
by the simple pra}'er of faith secures the necessary means and
employs two hundred Bible-women to labor all the time for Jesus
among the outcast portions of London ; and when God blesses these
labors to thousands of perishing souls, what church court would
dare come in with its ecclesiastical gag to stop these women's
mouths ?
When Elizabeth Clay, leaving her aristocratic home among the
high-churchmen of England, goes to heathen India, and year after
year makes a regular circuit of a thousand miles preaching Jesus
to the women of heathendom, and God uses her in leading many
to salvation who never heard the gospel from other lips, shall any
mitered churchman dare interpose his ecclesiastical gag, and say to
this devoted woman. Stop! this is not canonical?
One of the bitter complaints against the revival methods of
1800 was that women would "get happy," and even dare to exhort
sinners in church and in public. It was to one such exhortation
that the church and the country owes, under God, the conversion
of that holy servant of Jesus, the Rev. James B. Porter. Would
that we had more such women now.
What, in my estimation, is needed in ecclesiastical courts is to
provide for and lead this lay activity, and not sit still and be led
Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 65
and superseded by it. For lack of fatherly direction (not suppres-
sion), it has run into many hurtful errors, and may yet become
extensively mischievous ; while with proper direction it may yet be
the church's right arm of power. In saying this it is not intended
to reflect upon or set aside the regular ministry, but rather to stir
up their pure minds by way of remembrance.
5
66 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE THIRD DIFFICULTY — DOCTRINES — RESERVA-
TIONS IN ADOPTING THE BOOK.
The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life.
Neir mezzo del cammin.' — Dante.
THE young men, when licensed by the Cumberland Presby-
tery, made reservations in adopting the Confession of Faith.
They thought that a particular and limited atonement and uncon-
ditional election amounted to fatality. They were willing to take
the book "for substance," after precedents which could be cited in
great numbers, but they are of no value to us now. If the tradi-
tional system of Calvinism, without any modern liberalizing, is to
be maintained at all, then no reserv^ation in the adoption of the
book should be tolerated for one moment. Reservation is a leak
in the d)-kes of Holland. The whole vast sea of modern thought
presses on the barriers. ' ' If the book were not in existence, there
is no modern church which would ever produce it."^ The one
lingering hope is to hold the anchorage to "the time -honored
standards." How long that anchorage will hold time will reveal.
There are meanings to the word fatality which all know do not
attach to the Westminster Confession. There are others which
many people still think apply to that book. Webster defines fate
to mean, among other things, "A decree or word pronounced by
God;" "A fixed sentence by which the order of things is pre-
scribed;" ^''inevitable necessityy These are the popular and com-
mon ideas of what fatality means: the doctrine of inevitable neces-
sity. It carried the chief thinkers of the world once. Its reign
took in the purest and best men of another age; but ^'' Ilium fiiity
I quote here an illustration of the doctrine which our fathers
' In the middle of the track.
= Dr. James H. Brooks said this in substance, if not ipsisstmis verbis.
Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 67
called fatality. The quotation is from grand old John Bunyan.
"Is there ever a time in the life of a sinner, who is not one of the
elect, when it is possible for him to repent and be saved? To this
I answer emphatically, No."' This is the doctrine from which
modern thought shrinks shivering away. If this doctrine be not
in the Westminster Confession, then there are some very unfortu-
nate paragraphs in the book which greatly need to be changed.
Our fathers believed that no man is sent to hell without having
a chance to be saved. They preached the doctrine of a general
atonement, and the operation ot the Holy Spirit on all men.
And now I come to a vital part of this history. The one
supreme difficulty which could not be reconciled^ and which still
stands an insuperable obstacle to a reunion, is this doctrinal
difficulty.
Dr. Davidson, in his history of " the Cumberland schism,"^ says:
"It was not the want of classical learning, but nnsotindness in
doctrine^ the adoption of the Confession with reservations (charge
second, as already alluded to), that created the grand difficulty; and
the removal of this would have wonderfully facilitated the accom-
modation of the other."
Samuel Hodge was one of "the young men." His literary
qualifications were much lower than Ewing's or Anderson's, but
when he agreed to adopt the Confession without reservation, he
was taken back, and allowed to continue his ministry. All the
young men who were involved in this difficulty, after some delay,
made, an offer to the Transylvania Presbytery that they would yield
on all other points, and come back in a body, 3 if they might still
be allowed to make this reservation about fatality; and their offer
was rejected.
Two charges were brought officially against these preachers by
the commission of Kentucky Synod: (i) That they were illiterate;
(2) That they held erroneous doctrine. -* In the apology for their
proceedings, made by the members of Kentucky Synod to the Gen-
'This quotation is given from memory.
= Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 255. 3 Ibid., p. 256.
* Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 239, where the Min-
utes of the Commission are quoted. " Not only illiterate, but erroneous in senti-
ment," is the wording.
68 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
eral Assembly, they stated explicitly that unsoundness in doctrine
constituted the chief difficulty; and they deny that the lack of
classical education was the greatest difficulty.^
The General Assembly, in 1814, gave a deliverance about the
Cumberland Presbyterians, in which the following words were used:
' ' The grounds of their separation were that we would not relax
our discipline and surreiider important doctrines.'' [Italics mine.]
The members of the council, after the Assembly gave its final
decision against them in 1809, sent two commissioners to negotiate
with the synod for a reconciliation. The terms laid down by the
members of the synod, on which they were willing to be reconciled,
included an unconditional adoption of the Confession of Faith. 3
In 1811 there were three other ecclesiastical deliverances about
this doctrinal difficulty. The West Tennessee Presbytery and the
]\Iuhlenberg Presbytery (Presbyterian) undertook to secure a recon-
ciliation. First, they addressed, through an unofficial letter, some
inquiries to the General Assembly about what terms could be
accepted. The answer was, among other things, an unconditional
adoption of the book.'^
This doctrinal difficulty stands to-day the main barrier between
the Cumberland Presbyterians and the mother church. Proof of
this assertion can be found in the negotiations for organic union in
1866 and 1867 with the Southern church, and 1873 and 1874 with
the Northern church. In both of these negotiations (neither of
which originated officially with the Cumberland Presbyterians 5),
the Cumberland Presbyterian committees offered to surrender^ever}''
existing difference except the doctrinal one. I have all the docu-
ments before me, but need not make extracts now. In the plat-
form of union submitted by the Cumberland Presbyterian commit-
tee to the Southern church was a new creed, which contains about
as much Calvinism as we ever hear in Presbyterian pulpits in mod-
ern times, but that platform was not accepted. It went as far as it
is possible for us to go. That platform proposed to take the West-
' Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 255.
^Digest, p. 157. 3 Smith, pp. 635, 6S1.
''Baird's Digest, pp. 157, 645.
5 Presbyterian General Assembly Minutes (South), 1S66, p. 30. Presbyterian
General Assembly Minutes (North), 1873, p. 4S5.
Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 69
minster Confession entire, except the third, fifth, and eighth chap-
ters, for which it offered the following substitutes:
Chapter III. — Of God's eternal decrees.
Section i. God did from all eternity adopt the whole plan of his
creation and providence with a full knowledge of all the events which
would transpire therein, including the sins of men and angels. These
events he determined either to bring to pass by his own direct and abso-
lute agency, or to permit them to come to pass in view of the results
which his bounding and overruling providence would bring out of the
whole plan.
Section 2. According to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, he did from all eternity elect to salvation all true believers in
Jesus Christ. This election was perfectly definite as to the persons
elected, and also as to their number: and God did in like manner from
eternity reprobate to eternal perdition all that finally reject Jesus Christ,
and this reprobation was also definite as to person and number.
Section 3. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God,
before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal
and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his
will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of mere free
grace and love, all to the praise of his glorious grace.
Section 4. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he
by the eternal and most free pui'pose of his will, foreordained all the
means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in
Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in
Christ by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanc-
tified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation.
Section 5. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to
be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will
of God revealed in his word and yielding obedience thereunto, may
from a certainty of their vocation be assured of their eternal election;
so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration
of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that
sincerely obey the gospel.
We make the same references which are made in the Presbyterian
Confession of Faith, with the addition of i Peter i, 2, and Romans
viii. 29.
Chapter V. We offer the following modification for section fourth:
Section 4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite
goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it
extendeth itself not only to those acts which God absolutely decrees,
but also to those which he permits, joining with it a most wise and
70 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing them in a
manifold dispensation to his own holy ends.
Chapter VIII. We ofler the following as a substitute for section
eight:
Section 8. Although Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, accord-
ing to the Scriptures, yet the benefits of this death are savingly applied
to those only who are chosen unto life through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth; but to all those thus chosen these benefits are
so applied as to insure their eternal salvation.
We ofter the tenth chapter in the Cumberland Presbyterian Confes-
sion of Faith, instead of the tenth chapter in the Presbyterian Confes-
sion of Faith.
In chapter seventeen we offer this change in section second: substi-
tute for the phrase "not upon their own free will," the phrase "not
upon their own ability or merit."
Fmally, we propose to modify certain expressions in the Catechisms,
so as to make them correspond with the changes indicated in reference
to the Confession of Faith.
As far as possible the wording of the old book was retained,
even when it required some explanation to fit that wording into
the general scheme. The tenth chapter, on effectual calling, in
our book differs from the old in the meaning put on the word
"calling." Whether the hard places in the Westminster Confes-
sion be justly called fatality or not, they are too hard for us. We
believe the doctrine of grace, but we think it needs to be restated.
One fact most clearly pointing to this necessity is that there are
no Calvinists now of the type which composed the majority of the
Westminster Assembly. Leaving Supralapsarian and Infralapsa-
rian questions all out of the discussion, it is plain to all who study
the writings of the Westminster divines that many of them be-
lieved, as Calvin before them did, that there are infants in hell.
No modern Presbyterians believe any such a thing. No man dare
preach any such a doctrine now.
In the first draft of Westminster doctrines, the majority stated
their creed, "elect of infants." The liberal party objected. To
compromise matters, the statement was so modified that both par-
ties might claim it, but with a very decided advantage given to the
interpretation which the majority wished to put on the deliverance:
"Elect infants" are saved. So of other places. The creed is a
Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 7I
compromise, but always with an immense advantage given to the
views of that hyper- Calvinistic majority.
In modem times it is the hardest surviving type of rigid Cal-
vinists who insist on an unconditional adoption of the creed. The
liberal party insist on the phrase, ' ' for substance. ' ' Robert Shaw
had easy sailing in interpreting the book according to the hard old
traditional Calvinism. Dr. Morris and Dr. Schaff have a hard time
of it trying to fit the liberal system to the book. True, it can be
done; but the process by which it is done is itself objectionable.
A genuine Calvinist of the liberal school gave utterance to this
same view of the case while advocating before his presbytery a
change in some of the hard places in the book. This Calvinist
was the Rev. Dr. MacCrae, of the United Presbyterian church of
Scotland. His speech was made in 1876, and reported by the press.
He says:' "I am aware that every doctrine in the book can be
defended or explained away. But some of the casuistry employed
for this purpose is as discreditable as the doctrine it is used to
defend. For instance, the Confession says ' elect infants ' are saved.
The other side of the doctrine obviously is that non-elect infants
are cast into hell. This was not only, in former days, admitted
and preached, but within the memory of fathers and brethren in
this presbytery, one of the most eminent ministers of our church
was like to have been brought before the church courts for deny-
ing it."
When the Synod of Diospolis arraigned Pelagius for heresy, one
of the charges brought against him was that he taught that unbap-
tized infants dying in infancy are saved. It is vain to deny that
the world, including the Calvinists, has been drifting slowly away
from this and other hard doctrines since Pelagius.
Another proof that some of the hard expressions of the old
book need to be changed, is found in the outburst of protest
against it coming from real Calvinists whenever the spirit of evan-
gelism comes upon them. To quote all these protests would fill
many a volume. As Dr. Phelps (speaking of these stern doctrines)
says: "A preacher .... finds them to be incumbrances upon the
working power of the pulpit." Whenever his heart grows warm
' Qiioted frorij the Evangelical Repository, March, 1877.
72 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
with the gospel he begins to feel that something is wrong in the
creed. Thus Dr. Chalmers breaks forth:
The commission put into our hands is to go and preach the gospel
to every creature under heaven, and the announcement sounding forth
to all the world from heaven's vault was, Peace on earth, good-will to
men. There is no freezing limitation here, but a largeness and munifi-
cence of mercy, boundless as space, free and open as the expanse of
the firmament ! We hope, therefore, that the gospel, the real gospel,
is as unlike the views of some of its interpreters as creation in all its
boundless extent is unlike the paltry schemes of some wretched scho-
lastic of the middle ages. The middle age of science and civilization
is now terminated; but Christianity also had its middle age, and this,
perhaps, is not yet fully terminated. There is still a remainder of the
old spell, even the spell of human authority, and by which a certain
cramp or confinement is laid upon the genius of Christianity. We can
not doubt that the time of its complete emancipation is coming, ....
but meanwhile there is, as it were, a stricture upon it, ... . and by
virtue of which the largeness and liberality of Heaven's own purposes
have been made to descend in partial and scanty droppings through
the strainers of an artificial theology, instead of falling, as it ought, in
a universal shower upon the world.'
That stanch leader among modern Calvinists, Dr. Philip Schaff,
of Union Theological Seminary, says of the Westminster Confes-
sion: " Predestination to death and damnation .... ought never
to be put in the creed or Confession of the church, but should be
left to the theology of the school.'"' Again, he says of the sev-
enth section of the third chapter: "This seventh section is one
dark spot on the Confession, and mars its beauty and usefulness. ' ' ^
He has many other expressions showing that he holds the doctrine
of grace in much the same sense that Cumberland Presbyterians do.
Many conscientious men who hold about the same views which are
preached by men like Dr. SchafF are, nevertheless, too conscientious
to adopt the Westminster Confession. One of our men was talking
with a modern Calvinist, when the latter said to him, "Why, you
preach as much Calvinism as I do. You would have no difficulty
in our church. ' ' The answer was, ' ' O the ministry in your church
is like a bottle: there is room enough when you get in, but there
'Inst., Vol. II., ch. vi. * Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., p. 791.
3 Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., p. 792. Note.
Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 73
is such a narrow neck to pass through before you get in." Yes,
that is the trouble.
Cumberland Presbyterians believe pretty much the same doc-
trines that the liberal modern Calvinists preach, but they can not
get through the neck. They believe in total depravity. They
believe that man is utterly unable to come to Christ till he is
drawn by God's Spirit. They believe that all the initiative steps
toward salvation are from God. They believe that even infants
need regeneration. They believe the theory of justification by
faith alone. They believe in the imputed righteousness of
Christ. They believe that the Christian's legal standing is in
Jesus and not in works. They believe that God's overruling
providence extends to every thing, but is not the author of every
thing. They believe in the perseverance of the saints, but they
can not take that third chapter of the Westminster Confession.
They would have no difficulty in accepting the doctrinal decla-
ration ' of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, if it were
not for the book to which it is appended.
One trouble with all of us is that we want our creeds to be
theodicies. When man knows all that God knows then he may
write a theodicy, and not till then. As Dr. Schaff says, the West-
minster Confession attempts to give deliverances on matters that
ought never to go into a church creed. As Dr. Phelps says, that
book contains doctrines which we can not use in our work for
Jesus. While the Cumberland Presbyterians aimed at making a
working creed, it is a pity that they still exhibited some of the old
penchant for making a theodicy. In the main, though, theirs is a
creed for the pulpit and the mission.
A typical fact exceedingly significant, is found in the debates
of the Belfast council of Presbyterians about the admission of our
delegates. A precious Presbyterian missionary to the heathen was
the mover and the advocate of our admission. A Presbyterian
preacher who, it is said, has charge of no congregation — a scholas-
tic Calvinist — was the chief opponent to our admission. Both
he and Dr. Worden, of Philadelphia, in their remarks, betrayed
'Declaration of 1879. I have a copy in the handwriting of its author, sent me
by Dr. Ferguson, of Glasgow.
74 CUMBERI^AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period I.
the profoundest ignorance of the transactions of their own General
Assemblies, and provoked Dr. Morris, of Lane Seminary, to give
them a whack over the shoulders which was heard clear across the
Atlantic.
Workers, wherever we find them, who have their hearts set on
the salvation of lost men, extend to Cumberland Presbyterians the
most hearty co-operation. Even at a time when the ecclesiastical
bitterness which "the Cumberland schism" produced was still a
burning fire in Kentucky, the Presbyterian missionaries then in
Mississippi Territory passed resolutions inviting the Cumberland
Presbyterian church to send more preachers among them, and
indorsing those already there.' Yes, this is our place, our field,
our mission, beside those live workers who are struggling for
souls. God never called us to scholasticism. Writing theodicies
is not in our commission. Working for souls with all our
forces is.
Side by side with every man that loves Christ more than all
other things, to struggle for the evangelization of the world, is the
high calling which God has given to the Cumberland Presbyterian
church. With all our forces used, whether more or less learned;
with all our creed, practical and available for the pulpit, to take
our places in the solemn, thrilling struggle for those now perish-
ing, is the mission to which God calls us. If aught in our policy
or in our creed fits not into this mission, let it be abandoned. With
sweet confidence to go wherever there are lost men, and without
any "freezing limitations," to preach Christ, not theories about
him, not works, not doctrines, but a personal divine Deliverer
who will save all that accept and trust him — this is our first
mission.
Our second mission is also Christ — to preach him to the Chris-
tian; Christ dwelling in us; realized by faith, as the way of victory
over all evil habits, as the way of sanctification. To preach, not
works, not self, not some imparted power, not some second con-
version, not theories about sanctification, not growth, but that
"same Jesus" who dwells in us, trusted for victor}^ over sin's
power, just as he was trusted for victory over sin's penalty, and
^Revivalists April 17, 1S33.
Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES." 75
this also without any "freezing limitation" — this is our second
mission.
Our third mission is also Christ — to preach the indwelling God,
not some imparted thing, but Christ in us, realized by faith as
the way of all power for service, with no "freezing limitation."
Not human attainments, but Christ accepted and installed as King
within, and his presence realized by faith, and his promise, "I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee," clung to and believed in, in
spite of all failures, not on account of the dead covenant of works,
but on account of the everlasting covenant of grace — ah, this
made our first preachers a race of invincible heroes! In this work,
and with a faith like this, we can never make a failure.
In all three of these missions both the extremes between which
we steer our way present "freezing limitations," If works are to
be relied on in either of the three, then the limitation comes from
the rottenness, and imperfections, and uncertainties of all human
works. If the "unalterable necessity" of "unconditional" the-
ology be the iron fence that bounds our hopes, then the ' ' freezing
limitation" in all three of these missions comes from that iron
fence.
Our theology is belief in the boundless divinity of the
Redeemer, able, ready, and willing, in each of the three missions,
on the simple condition of trust and nothing else to give us the
victory. No preparation is necessary, no human scaffolding up to
salvation or other blessings, but Christ trusted just as we are. Our
starting point is not God's eternal and unrevealed decrees, nor
man's will nor man's powers, but Christ and his divine power, and
his dying love, and his unfailing promise?, and his gracious invi-
tations. This is the tried corner-stone of our system.
Christ is the truth as well as the way. A theological school
may cover a student all over with theories about Christ, and hide
a personal Savior from his eyes so as to send him out at last a mere
proclaimer of theories. Or it may be an institution conducted by
men who are themselves filled with all the fullness of God; who
not only know the power of the indwelling Savior, but have expe-
rience and success in leading others to that knowledge; and they
may lead their pupils on and up in the blessed experience of the
76 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
divine life till those pupils, when they go out into their life-work,
will be an army filled with divine power. The latter is the only
type of a theological school which will ever fit into the Cumber-
land Presbyterian system, or be in harmony with Cumberland
Presbyterian antecedents. F'rom all others may the good Lord
deliver us.
Chapter IX.] ThE COMMISSION. ']^
CHAPTER IX.
FOURTH DIFFICULTY— TRAMPLING ON A PRESBYTE-
RY'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS BY A SYNODICAL
COMMISSION.
In vain thej smite me; men but do
What God permits with different view;
To outward sight thej wield the rod,
But faith proclaims it all of God.
— Madame Guyon.
THE two parties in Cumberland Presbytery got further and
further apart. The ' ' anti-revival ' ' party was in a hopeless
minority in the presbytery, but it had a large majority in the Ken-
tucky Synod. In 1805 that synod appointed a commission of ten
ministers and six elders to meet at Gasper River meeting-house and
investigate the proceedings of Cumberland Presbytery and take
such action as the case required. This commission was composed
of all the men in the "anti-revival" party of the synod who had
rendered themselves most obnoxious to the other party. Whether
justly or not, the revival party believed that the work aimed at by
the commission was not the correction of abuses, but the suppres-
sion of the revival. All the preachers and probationers for the
ministry belonging to the revival party of Cumberland Presbytery
received a regular citation to appear before this commission. Most
of them obeyed. The commission met December 3, 1805.
I have before me a full copy of the proceedings of the commis-
sion, taken from the record book by Lowry and Smith, while they
were editing the church paper. The words of the charges are
these:
They did license a number of young men to preach the gospel, and
some of them they ordained to preach the gospel and administer ordi-
nances \x\. the church, contrary to the rules and regulations of the Pres-
byterian church in such cases made and provided; and, whereas, these
78 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
men have been required by said presbytery to adopt the said Confes-
sion of Faith and Discipline of said church no further than they beheve
it to be agreeable to the word of God, etc.
These charges are repeated, in substance, three times in the
records of the commission, and are, in substance, just what Dr.
Davidson makes them. The General Assembly paraphrased the
charges thus: "Licensing and ordaining a number of persons, not
possessing the qualifications required by our Book of Discipline
and without explicit adoption of our Confession of Faith."
No prosecutor was named. No specifications were made, but
on these general charges the commission required the Cumberland
Presbytery to submit all its probationers for the ministr}', and also
four of its ordained ministers, to the commission for re-examina-
tion. To this requirement the majority of the presbytery refused
to submit, claiming that the constitution of the church made the
presbytery the sole judge of the qualifications of its own probation-
ers, and that no other church court had a right to arraign and try
one of that presbytery's ordained ministers.' It was not a case of
appeal or of reference. No charges had ever been brought against
these four ordained ministers in their own presbytery. Neither the
synod nor its commission had any right to originate process of trial
in these cases.
The commission then appealed to "the young men," as the
accused were called, to come forward and submit to the examina-
tion. The young men asked leave to retire and pray for divine
direction. Their request was ridiculed,- but a telling speech by a
layman in favor of granting the request turned the current, and
they were allowed to retire. Each went alone to the woods for
silent prayer. Each returned alone. Each one separately declined
to submit. Then the commission forbade all of them to preach
by virtue of any authority received by them from Cumberland
Presbytery. Ewing and King, however, did not receive their
licensure from Cumberland Presbytery. Of course that fact was
forgotten by the commission. The other young men placed under
the interdict were numerous, including several mere catechists who
never aspired to the work of the ministry; but those whose names
» Discipline, ch. v. sec. 2.
Chapter IX.] ThE COMMISSION. 79
are of special interest to our people were Robert Guthrie, James
B. Porter, David Foster, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun,
Robert Bell, Ephraim McLean, Alexander Chapman, and William
Moore.
But the commission had no right to originate process against a
minister, nor to suspend or depose a minister. Its action was ille-
gal, unconstitutional, null, and void. Precedents away back in the
state church of Scotland are quoted, but there is not one of these
precedents that does not reek with the odors of state tyranny, over-
riding and subduing the lawful church courts. Riding commit-
tees, high courts of commission, and popery all go together.
There was a written constitution in the Presbyterian church in
America. No matter what was done in Scotland. No matter if
the Westminster Assembly itself did ordain men to preach. In
the constitution of the American Presbyterian church the sole and
exclusive right to ordain was placed, where the Bible places it, in
the hands of the presbytery. ' Nor is there one single word in all
the book giving that right to any other court.
As to trial of a preacher, the constitution fixes that beyond all
dispute. "Process against a gospel minister shall always be entered
before the presbytery of which he is a member." (Discipline,
ch. V. 2.)
What then is the synod's redress when a whole presbytery goes
wrong in its ordinations? It can dissolve that presbyter}^, and
attach its members to some other. ^
That intensely partisan history of the Presbyterian church in
Kentucky, written by Dr. Davidson, has this remarkable concession
about this commission: "Thus terminated one of the most inter-
esting and important convocations ever known in the American
church; without precedent^ and^ thus far^ without i?nitatio7i.'''*
[Italics mine.] It seems to be the accepted policy of the Presbyte-
rian church now to obey the constitution, and restrict the right to
originate process against a minister to his own presbytery. [See
McPherson's Hand Book, pp. 141, 144, 146.]
One significant fact is brought to light by Dr. Crisman's valua-
ble little book, "Origin and Doctrines," pp. jj^ 78, and that is that
* Form of Government, ch. x, sec. 8. » Ibid., ch. xi. sec. 4.
8o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i.
the very year in which the first presbytery of our church was organ-
ized, the General Assembly of the mother church pronounced the
assumptions of a synod to try a minister when there was no appeal
— that is, to originate process of trial against a minister — unconsti-
tutional. When asked the next year to reconsider the deliverance
of the preceding year on this subject, the Assembly declined to do
so, and adhered firmly to its former decision. [See Baird's Digest,
PP- 447, 448, 468.]
The General Assembly of 1807 disapproved this assumption of
authority by the commission of Kentucky Synod, and if it had not
been for the doctrinal trouble, an appeal to that Assembly would
have settled all the difficulty.
But no matter what the Assembly did or would have done, the
revival party stood on their constitutional rights when they refused
to submit to the commission's demands. In doing so they gave a
check to popish usurpations in the Presbyterian church so decided,
that there has been no effort since to repeat them in that particular
way.
Along with the traditions and written testimonies about this
meeting of the commission at Gasper River church, come up two
conflicting multitudes of angry voices, both, however, agreeing in
two things: First, that "the young men" who were arraigned
were prayerful, dignified, and firm. Second, that the chief mani-
festations of bitterness against the commission were made by the
people, and not by the revival preachers. To this Mr. Rankin,
who never joined the Cumberland Presbyterians, was the only
exception.
For the popular feeling it would be easy to find an apology.
The object of the commission was looked upon as one more effort
to put a stop to the great revival. It was put in the same category
with the visits to McGready's churches and McGready's members
in 1798 by Mr. Balch, who went from house to house and from
church to church, ridiculing the revival, and trying to embarrass
the young converts.
The place of meeting was unfortunate. The revival party had
been shut out of that meeting-house, and had established their
place of worship in the adjacent grove. Among the members of
Chapter IX.] ThE COMMISSION. 8l
the commission were men who had been the fiercest partisans
against the revival. Mr. Lyle, who had succeeded in winning pre-
eminence as an unscrupulous enemy of the revival, and who had
traveled among the revival churches, as they thought, ' ' in the capac-
ity of a spy, ' ' preached the opening sermon — if a harangue three
hours long against the measures of Cumberland Presbytery may be
called a sermon. Mr. Rankin, the most excitable of the revival
party, harangued the people on the other side of the question,
going for that purpose to the grove where the revival party had
established their place of worship.
The popular feeling of the neighborhood had been roused
against "Mr. Lyle and his commission" to such an extent, that
none of the people near the church out of which the revival party
had been locked, would open their houses to the commissioners.
Mr. Cameron, who had also won the title of "the spy," was present
with these commissioners. Joshua L. Wilson, who to the day of
his death pursued "the Cumberlands" with a malignity which
would have disgraced a Romish priest in the days of Martin Luther,
was also one of the commissioners. But Rice and other conserva-
tive men of the synod were not on the commission.
The revival party complained much of the haughty and dicta-
torial language used by the commission in all its demands upon
them. It often reminded them that they were no longer where
they were in a majority, and could have things their own way, but
were standing at the bar of their masters, arraigned for triah
Ah! well; we have had enough of that. God rules. The actors
in that scene have all long ago gone before a tribunal which never
makes any mistakes. One thing we do know. God still used the
revival party in leading poor sinners to their Savior.
SECOND PERIOD.
CHAPTER X.
THE NEW CHURCH.
Small, but a work divine,
Frail, but of force to withstand,
Year upon year, the shock
Of cataract seas that snap
The three-decker's oaken spine.
— Maud.
AFTER the commission had delivered its verdict, the revival
party organized themselves into a council. They agreed on
several things. First, that they would not cease preaching on
account of any interdict of the commission; second, that they
would refrain from official presbyterial action; third, that they
would try to keep the revival churches alive and foster the revival;
and finally, that they would labor for a reconciliation with the
synod and the Presbyterian church.
The revival party failed to appeal from the decision of the com-
mission, because they utterly repudiated its right of jurisdiction in
tr>'ing and silencing ordained ministers. The next meeting of the
synod put all chances of appeal in the prescribed fonn out of their
power, by dissolving the Cumberland Presbytery and remanding all
the parties and their complaints to Transylvania Presbytery. It is
plain that no appeal could have relieved the doctrinal difficulty,
though all the other difficulties might have been settled.
The council spent four years in a vain struggle for reconcilia-
tion. It was not God's will that any reconciliation should be
affected. The council sent a letter of remonstrance to the General
Assembly in 1807. The case was warmly debated. The Assembly
(82)
Chapter X.] ThE NEW ChuRCH. 83
sent two letters, one to the synod approving some of its actions,
but disapproving its assumption of right to originate trial against
a minister, and advising the synod to revise its action. The other
letter was to the members of the council, condemning their course
in rejecting the doctrine of fatality, but expressing sympathy in
other things.
The synod did revise its action, but it re-affirmed its decisions;
explaining, however, that its interdict against the ordained preach-
ers was not meant for suspension in the technical sense. '
Owing to the failure of the synod to send up its Minutes, the
case did not reach the Assembly again till 1809 — not in the regular
way, at least. The council, however, had a letter before the Assem-
bly of 1808. To this letter an unofficial answer was sent. It was
written by Dr. J. P. Wilson. It pronounced the commission uncon-
stitutional, and advised an appeal in the regular way.
In 1809 the Minutes of synod were sent up, accompanied by a let-
ter from the synod, and John Lyle, the bitter enemy of the revival
measures, was their bearer and defender. Lyle had, in a high de-
gree, the donum lachrymariim — the gift of tears — and in his speech
before the Assembly his weeping and his oratory carried the whole
house. Dr. Davidson's account of Lyle's speech represents it as
having completely turned the tide, so that the Assembly voted
unanimously for sustaining all the actions of the synod, in this
case, and added a vote of thanks to the synod for its fidelity. ^ Dr.
Davidson uses these words about Lyle's speech: "Bursting into
tears, he made a most impassioned appeal, and the Assembly were
so affected that their final judgment was very different from that to
which they had at first inclined," [History of church in Ken-
tucky, p. 119.] The case was now finally and hopelessly decided
against the revival party.
In August of the same year, 1809, the council decided to make
one final effort at reconciliation with the synod, and if that failed,
then to organize an independent presbytery. The council sub-
mitted to the synod its ultimatum, the chief point of which was that
those who chose to do so should be allowed to make the reservation
' Davidson, p. 248. Minutes of the Synod, Vol. I., pp. 140, 142.
'Davidson's History, p. 250.
84 CUMBERI^AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period II.
about fatality. To this the synod would not agree. The council
met in October, 1809, and heard the synod's decision. McGready
and Hodge being genuine Calvinists, withdrew and made terms for
themselves with the synod. This left the council with only four
ordained members — McGee, Ewing, King, and McAdow. McAdow
was in feeble health, and had not been meeting with the council.
The name of Rankin never appears on the rolls of the council at
all. He went off to the Shakers. McGee drew back from carrying
out the resolution to organize an independent presbytery. This
left them without the constitutional number. They adjourned
with the understanding that the solemn obligation into which they
had entered to form an independent presbytery should remain
in force till the next March, when, if a presbytery was not previ-
ously constituted, the council was to be disbanded.
Things looked gloomy. Ewing was willing to constitute with
only two ordained ministers. James B. Porter, a licentiate, exerted
himself to enlist a third. Ewing and King met together and went
to the house of Ephraim McLean to consult with him. McLean's
wife joined earnestly in the consultation.' This was the second
day of February, 18 10. The party remained till a late hour that
night at McLean's before reaching their decision, which was that
they would go next day to the Rev. Samuel McAdow' s house, in
Dickson County, Tennessee, and ask him to aid in ordaining
McLean. It was a long ride, but they were at McAdow' s before
night. McAdow hesitated. It was a grave step. He spent the
whole night in prayer over the case. Next morning his face was
all aglow with light. He said God had given him clear assurance
that the proposed step was approved of Heaven.
On the fourth of Februar>', 18 10, they organized, or reorgan-
ized, the Cumberland Presbytery, and ordained Ephraim McLean.
Years afterward, on his death-bed, Mr. McAdow spoke of that action,
and said that he had never since doubted the rectitude of their
course in organizing that presbytery, and believed it was done
under divine sanction and direction.
Against these three men no charges had ever been brought by
their own presbyter>^, which was the only ecclesiastical court to
» Incidents furnished by the Hon. F. E. McLean.
Chapter X.] ThE NEW ChURCH. 85
which the written constitution of the church gave the right to
originate process of trial against an ordained minister. The Ken-
tucky Synod itself, after the action of its commission had been
called in question by the General Assembly, explained that the
action of the commission was not meant for suspension in the tech-
nical sense of that word.
Dr. Ely, who held a high position in the Presbyterian church,
published a long article in the Philadelphian in regard to the Cum-
berland Presbyterians. In this article he uses the following words:
' ' Of these three men (Ewing, King, McAdow) it is admitted on all
hands that they were never deposed from the Christian ministry. ' '
This whole article is published in the Revivalist of May 14, 1834,
and brings to light the fact that the General Assembly sent a com-
mittee to the Kentucky Synod to remonstrate with that body about
the proceedings of its commission. Ah, well ! Lyles' tears set that
all right afterward.
After the organization of the new presbytery, a judicature of
the mother church proceeded to silence or depose these three
preachers, but these acts were as harmless as the bulls of the Pope
hurled at Luther, after Luther had renounced the Pope's authority.
As the new presbytery grew, circulars and other publications were
sent out warning the people that the new church had no right to
administer ordinances. This provoked a smile from some, and
drew forth from others a sharp reply. The reply held up in con-
trast the ordination of the first Presbyterians by Roman bishops,
with the ordination of Ewing, King, and McAdow by a regular
presbytery. It pointed to the fact that a large majority of the
Westminster Assembly divines got their ordination from a single
bishop. It contrasted the first presbytery of the mother church,
organized by Viret and Farel, with the organization of the Cum-
berland Presbytery. It called attention to the fact that neither of
these two men — Viret and Farel — had ever been authorized to
ordain^ but only to preachy when they proceeded to ordain Calvin.
The efforts to break down the young church by this mode of attack
utterly failed, and were soon abandoned.
I have used the language of Dr. Davidson in calling this "the
Cumberland schism," but this epithet is misleading. Only four
86 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
ministers came out of the mother church into ours at that time.
The first meeting of the new presbytery had no churches repre-
sented. The second meeting, regular, had just one. The third
meeting had none. The fourth meeting, after a year of wonderful
toil, had six. The fifth had eight. Several of these had been
organized by the new presbytery. By and by some more of the
churches, which had been with the revival party before the split,
cast in their lots with the new church, but never enough of them
to amount to a schism. The membership of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church to-day is, ninety per cent, of it, made up of con-
verts won from Satan's dominion, and not of proselytes won from
other churches. In the beginning it was an exceedingly little
church.
"The green tiny pine shrub shoots up from the moss,
The wren's foot would cover it, tripping across,
The beech-nut, down dropping, would crush it beneath;
But warmed by heaven's sunshine and fanned by its breath,
The seasons fly past and its head is on high.
And its thick branches challenge each mood of the sky."
Our concern now, and for the remainder of this history, is with
the work of the new church. The new Cumberland Presbyter}'
held four sessions the first year. At these four meetings it ordained
four men to preach the gospel. Besides these four, William
McGee came in. He had been with them in heart all the time.
Never was there greater activity and zeal than the new presbytery
manifested in tr}'-ing to carry the gospel to ever}'body within its
reach. Grand meetings were held; new churches were organized,
and missionaries were sent into the most destitute regions, even of
the mountain districts. Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley has rendered the
church good service by publishing all the Minutes of the Cumber-
land Presbytery, but ecclesiastical records can not be given here.
Some important actions of the new presbyter}' must suffice. One
of these was a last effort at reconciliation. Commissioners met for
the purpose, but they not only failed, but made the breach wider,
because our people refused to surrender their reservations about
fatality. Another matter worth mentioning was the purchase of a
circulating library by the presbytery for the benefit of its proba-
tioners. This was a policy long kept up in all the presbyteries.
Chapter X.] ThE New ChURCH. 87
Another was the temporary adjustment of the difficulties about
"the union" with the Methodists, mentioned in a former chapter.
Another, and a very important measure, was raising a fund for the
education of some of its candidates for the ministry.
There was in this presbytery, as there was in the other denom-
inations of that day, a mode of dealing with probationers for the
ministry which belongs now to the retumless past. The same feel-
ing which gave rise to college laws requiring a freshman when he
saw a senior approaching, to stand to one side, hat in hand, till the
senior passed, and which required freshmen to black the seniors'
boots, showed itself in all the treatment of boys, whether by
parents, school-teachers, or presbyters. To curb, to humble, to
train to physical endurance, and the endurance of wrongs and out-
rages, was considered an essential part of the discipline through
which a boy had to be taken. Authority was a tremendous thing
in those days. A presbyter was an autocrat among the probation-
ers, and woe be to that youth who, in presbytery or out of presby-
tery, disregarded that autocrat.
While this was the accepted rule in such matters, there were
men whose naturally kind hearts made them, in the eyes of their
stricter co-presbyters, grave defaulters in enforcing this system. I
fear they felt very guilty when they remembered their delinquen-
cies, but those delinquencies left a warm glow of hope and cour-
age in many a poor boy's heart. About the close of this presby-
terial period a new order of things came about. Men began to
break the old regimen. At a later day still, spirits as sweet as an
angel's, even in dealing with boys, were led by such genial souls
as John I,. Dillard, George Donnell, and James K. Lansden.
What a thrill of gratitude comes along with the recollection of
these blessed servants of God !
One more item about this first presbytery deserves commemora-
tion. All its preachers had a thorough Presbyterian training, and
were scarcely behind the Puritans themselves in their profound
regard for the Sabbath. The customs of their families in this
matter were regulated strictly by the Jewish law. No wood was
gathered or carried, much less cut, on the Sabbath. No visiting,
no pleasure-riding, no cooking, no strolling through the woods, no
88 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
whistling, no traveling, except to church, no conversation or read-
ing, except on religious subjects, was tolerated. If a child com-
mitted an offense worthy of stripes the penalty was delayed till
Monday morning. Stripes were not scarce in those days, except
on the Sabbath. An illustration of this Sabbath observance is
here given. In my boyhood I went to Thomas Calhoun's to
board. My training on Sabbath observance had been of the mod-
em character. Sabbath morning came, and, seated in "Aunt
Polly" Calhoun's room, I picked up a newspaper and went to
reading. Mrs. Calhoun stared at me a moment, and then said,
"That's a political newspaper, sir." I wondered why she told me
that. Did she think I had not sense enough to know what sort of
paper it was? I read on. Presently "Aunt Polly" raised her
glasses and, with an emphasis that frightened me, she said, "We
don't read political newspapers on Sunday, sir." O I knew then
why she told me what sort of paper it was. That was lesson num-
ber one in a Presbyterian Sabbath. I counted those lessons by the
hundred before my acquaintance with "Aunt Polly" closed. The
precious, sterling, kind hearted old Puritan that she was! She
used to put sugar in my sweet milk; she used to mend my clothes,
and fill a mother's place to me, but she would not let me do wrong.
I am thankful for that last item now more than for the sugar in
my sweet milk.
There was another candidate for the ministry boarding at Cal-
houn's, going to school. One Saturday he went visiting, stayed all
night, came to church next morning, and then came home. There
was nothing said that day, but Monday morning before breakfast
the Sabbath-breaker was called. The head of the household then
began to clear his skirts of the disobedience to God which one who
lived under his roof had been guilty of. That one had been away
from home on a visit on the morning of God's holy day, not only
sinning himself, but disturbing the Sabbath rest of others, and
setting an example of Sabbath-breaking, all the more dangerous
because a candidate for the ministry was its author. Worse still,
the Sabbath-breaker lived under the authority, as well as under
the roof-tree, of an old preacher, and might be supposed to repre-
sent the views and practices which that old preacher tolerated.
Chapter X.] ThE NEW ChURCH. 89
Turning to the oflfender with holy indignation, while those eagle
eyes blazed with Sinai's fires, he shot words like bullets at the poor
fellow till he quailed, and withered, and writhed like a tortured
martyr flayed alive. The offense was not repeated by that boarder
while he remained at Calhoun's house, although he was a mean
man and never came to any good. Calhoun knew him and was
intentionally severe.
From the nature of the case the little handful of preachers who
composed the presbytery could not settle down into permanent
pastorates. In this, as in the matter of education, they wisely
adapted their actions to their necessities. In both, that action has
since been unwisely urged as a precedent under circumstances
wholly different. In the true sense of the word pastor, there was
none in the church till many years later. All the ministers of the
second period were missionary evangelists. There is no grander
chapter in all church history than the record of these evangelistic
tours. Their circuits extended over vast fields, some of them five
hundred miles in diameter. They were usually sent in pairs, one
of the older men and one of the boys. They carried bell and
"hobble" for their horses; crackers, cheese, and a tin cup for them-
selves. To these were added blankets for a bed. If they found
lodgings in a house it usually had but one room and they slept on
their own blankets. In the morning the owner of the cabin would
take his gun and go out to hunt meat for breakfast. Yet in such
cabins they held grand meetings and organized churches which
stand to-day in the midst of wealthy communities. In many neigh-
borhoods the pioneer farmers were just planting their first crop.
Robert Donnell held a camp-meeting near where Huntsville,
Alabama, now stands, before any town was there. Timber grew
thick around the great spring, though the camp-meeting was not
at that, but at another spring a mile below. Calhoun and others
held a camp-meeting at the spring where the town of Monroe, Over-
ton County, Tennessee, was afterward built. None of these men
got much, if any, pay at first. They wore homespun clothing
made by their mothers or wives, and were at little expense. They
often swam the rivers, because there were no ferry-boats except on
the thoroughfares.
90 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period il
The ordained missionaries of the presbytery were King, Don-
nell, Calhoun, McSpeddin, Foster, McLin, Chapman, Harris, Kirk-
patrick, Bamett, Bell, and McLean, with large additions to the list
toward the close of this presbyterial period, A course of study
prescribed by presbytery was regularly kept up by the young men
on all these tours of evangelism. They recited to their seniors
as they rode along on their horses. This was the normal school of
science and divinity for the first Cumberland Presbyterians. While
it had its disadvantages, it generally made grand thinkers. Testi-
monies from the ablest alumni of the old colleges are in existence
showing with what a grasp of original thought these men took up
an investigation. A college president once sat down with Reuben
Burrow to investigate a Bible question. They had gone but a little
way in the investigation before the college man saw that he was in
the presence of his master. In vigor of original thought, in grasp,
and depth, and clearness of discernment, he could hold no hand
with Burrow. Dr, Anderson, of the Presbyterian church, warned
his friend, Dr. Blackburn, against entering into any controversy
with Finis Kwing, on the ground that Ewing would prove too hard
for him. He said Ewing had already given Blackburn a Braddock's
defeat, [See Life and Times of Ewing, p. 203.]
What heroism it required to enter the ministry under our first
presbytery! There were no pastorates, no salaries, no possibility
of earthly honors. To travel unpaid on horseback across wild
wastes to the homes of pioneers in the new settlements; to swim
rivers, and sleep on the bare ground; to go hungry and half clad;
to belong to a struggling little church whose doctrines and prac-
tices were diligently misrepresented, as they are even to this day;
to preach in floorless log-cabins, or gather the rough frontiersmen
in camps around some spring, and there labor day and night for a
week that poor lost men might be saved, and that our new territo-
ries might not all be given over to infidelity; and after all this, to
die in poverty at last, was the prospect before that generation of
our preachers. Thank God there were men equal to the occasion!
Brief biographical sketches of the ordained ministers of the new
presbytery, up to the time it was divided, are here given:
Samuel McAdow was bom in North Carolina, April 10, 1760,
Chapter X.] ThE NEW ChURCH. 9I
and was converted in 1771. He was a graduate of Mechlenburg
College; was married to Henrietta Wheatley, in 1788; licensed in
1797, by Orange Presbytery; ordained in 1798 or 1799. He moved
to Kentucky in 1799; aided in forming the new church in 18 10;
moved to Illinois in 1828; and died March 30, 1844.
Finis Ewing was bom in Virginia, in July, 1773; was married
January 19, 1793, to Peggy Davidson; was a candidate in 1801,
receiving licensure in 1802; was ordained in 1803. He assisted in
the organization of the new church in 18 10, and helped to make
the Confession of Faith in 1814; moved to Missouri in 1820; died
in 1841.
Samuel King was born in North Carolina, April 19, 1775; was
married to Ann Dixon in 1795; licensed in 1802, and ordained in
1804. He aided in forming the new church in 1810; moved to
Missouri in 1825; died in 1842.
Ephraim McLean was born June 26, 1768; married Elizabeth
Walton Byers, of Virginia; was a candidate in 1802; was licensed
in 1803, and ordained by the new Cumberland Presbytery in 1810.
He died January i, 18 13.
James Brown Porter was born February 26, 1779, in North Car-
olina, and was converted in 1801. He became a candidate in 1803;
was licensed in 1804, and ordained in 18 10. He was twice mar-
ried. He died in 1854.
William McGee was bom in North Carolina, in 1768. He was
licensed and ordained in North Carolina before 1796, at which time
he was sent West as a missionary. He joined the Cumberland
Presbytery in October, 18 10, and helped to form the Confession in
1814. He died in 1817.
Robert Bell was bom December 16, 1770. He married Grizzell
McCutcheon. He was licensed in 1804; was ordained in 18 10, and
was sent as a missionary to the Indians in 1820. He died October
9th, 1853.
Thomas Calhoun was born in North Carolina, May 31, 1782.
He became a candidate in 1803, and was married to Mary Johnson
in 1809. He received licensure in July, 1810, and was ordained in
181 1. He helped to make our Confession of Faith in 1814. He
died in 1855.
92 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
Hugh Kirkpatrick, the date of whose birth is not known, was
a licensed preacher at the time the commission met in 1805. He
was ordained in 1810. He died in 1864.
David Foster was born in North Carolina, May 4, 1780; was
licensed in 1805. He married Ann Beard in 1806; was ordained in
1810; moved to Illinois in 1827. He died in 1833.
William Harris was bom in 1772, and married Nancy High-
smith in 1797. He was a catechist in 1804, a candidate in 1810,
licensed in 1811, and ordained in 1812. He published our first
hymn book in 1824. He died in 1845.
William Barnettwas born April 24, 1785; was licensed in 1810,
and ordained in 1813. He was twice married. He died at a camp-
meeting in West Tennessee in 1828.'
Alexander Chapman was born in Pennsylvania, January 2, 1776.
He married Ann Dixon Carson in 1805; became a candidate in
1805; was licensed in 1811; ordained in 1813. He died in 1834.
David Wilson McLin was born December 24, 1 785. He became
a candidate in 1810, was licensed in 181 1, and married Nancy
Johnson Porter in 1812. He died in his adopted home in Illinois,
in 1836.
Robert Donnell was bom in North Carolina, in April, 1784.
(The family records were destroyed by the Indians.) He was a
candidate in 1806, was licensed in 1811, and ordained in 1813. He
helped to form the Confession of Faith in 18 14. He married Ann
E. Smith in 1817. His second wife was Clara W. Lindley, to whom
he was married in 1832. He died in 1855.
The licentiates under the care of the first presbytery were Philip
McDonnold, William Bumpass, Samuel McSpeddin, and Samuel
Donnell. The candidates were Robert Guthrie, John Bamett,
John Camahan, Elisha Price, Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, Robert
McCorkle, James Stewart, Kzekiel Cloyd, Francis McConnell, and
Elijah Cherry. A few others conversed with the presbyter}' about
their call to the ministry, and were advised to defer their decision.
Most of these came into the ministry after the presbytery was
divided, and after a melancholy period of doubt and struggle.
' Some authorities say he was carried home before he died.
Chapter XL] ThE GENERAL SyNOD. 93
CHAPTER XI.
FIRST AIMS— NECESSITY FOR A SYNOD— ITS ORGANI-
ZATION—SKETCHES OF ITS MEMBERS.
Man is higher than his dwelling-place;
He looks up and unfolds the wings of his soul.
— Jean Paul Richter.
"Thine arm hath led us on,
A way no more expected
Than when thy sheep passed through the deep,
By crystal walls protected."
IT is indicated clearly all through the records of the first presby-
tery that a separate denomination was not at first aimed at, but
only an independent presbytery of the Presbyterian church, with
reserved hopes that in some unforeseen manner the breach would
one day be healed. These hopes were not all given up even when
a synod was formed, as the preamble to the resolution establishing
a synod clearly indicates ; but the failure of all past efforts at recon-
ciliation, and the necessities of the great work committed to their
hands, required them to take one more step.
The Cumberland Presbytery, at the meeting held at Lebanon
church. Christian County, Kentucky, November 3, 1812, put on
record the fact that it had been struggling for a reunion with the
Presbyterian church, and that it still desired such reunion. [See
Minutes in the 'Theological Medium^ October, 1878, pp. 494, 495.]
The preamble to the resolution to form a synod is as follows:
Whereas, we, the Cumberland Presbytery, have made every reason-
able' effort to be reunited to the general Presbyterian church; and,
whereas, from the extent of our bounds, the local situation of our
members, their number, etc., it is inconvenient to do business in but
one presbytery; and, whereas, the constitution of a synod would be
desirable, and we trust of good consequences, in various respects, and
particularly as a tribunal having appellate jurisdiction; therefore,
resolved, etc.
94 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
The Elk and Logan presbyteries were formed. The Elk Pres-
bytery extended from the mouth of Duck River northward to Ten-
nessee Ridge, thence east to the Cumberland Mountains in Mid-
dle Tennessee. Its southern boundary was indefinite, but extended
as far as the white settlements, and followed up the advancing
wave of these settlements. Its first members were William
McGee, Samuel King, James B. Porter, Robert Bell, and Robert
Donnell. Its first meeting was at Mount Carmel, and William
McGee preached the opening sermon.
The IvOgan Presbytery was bounded on the south by the other
two presbyteries, but extended northward indefinitely. Ohio, Illi-
nois, and Indiana Territories were in its field, as were also Penn-
sylvania and New York. Its members were Finis Ewing, William
Harris, Alexander Chapman, and William Bamett. At the organ-
ization the sermon was preached by Ewing.
The Cumberland (Nashville) Presbytery was composed of the
following members: Thomas Calhoun, David Foster, D. W. McLin,
Hugh Kirkpatrick, William Bumpass, Samuel McSpeddin, and
Ezekiel Cloyd. The boimdaries of this presbytery were limited
only by the fields assigned to the Elk and the Logan. The first
synod was organized on the 5th day of October, 18 13, at the Beech
meeting-house, in Sumner County, Tennessee. There were sixteen
ordained ministers within its bounds. William McGee preached
the opening sermon.
There is a pen and ink sketch of the men who composed this
synod at its second meeting, when the Confession was adopted. It
was drawn by E. Curry, who was present at the meeting described:
The Rev. Samuel King was the moderator, and with modest step
advanced to the chair,' and with a solemnity and dignity of counte-
nance peculiar to himself, entered upon the duties of his station. Upon
the right sat Finis Ewing, with a keen eye, ready to scan every thing
that came before the synod. Near him sat Hugh Kirkpatrick, with a
heavy brow, prepared to define hard words and sentences. On his
right sat James B. Porter, with a pleasing countenance, as though he
was delighted that they were about to smite off the old shackles
On the left of the moderator sat Robert Donnell, writing resolutions to
^King was only temporarily in the chair; he was not moderator that session.
B. W. M.
Chapter XL] ' ThE GENERAL SyNOD. 95
offer to synod. Behind him was David Foster, with a critic's eye to
detect any error. In this group sat my favorite, Thomas Calhoun, who
once spoke terror to my heart and caused me to cry aloud for mercy.
Just in front sat Alexander Chapman, with a serene look and attentive
ear, that he might be prepared to give a judicious vote. A little back
lay Samuel Donnell, brother of Robert (in an advanced stage of con-
sumption), who seemed to be a sort of concordance to whom all
applied for scriptural proofs. Farther back in the house WiUiam
McGee was seen, tossing to and fro with deep thoughts and heavy
groans, soon to be vented in a powerful speech. A little in front sat
William Bumpass, a man of ready wit and good judgment, who always
had language to tell what he knew. In a corner of the aisle stood
William Barnett, about to deliver one of his thundering speeches,
which made the walls of the church reverberate with his loud, shrill
voice. Several more of the fathers of the church took part in the
deliberations of that synod.
We regret that Mr. Curry did not continue his picture. At
that meeting were William Harris, D. W. McLin, Robert Bell,
Samuel McSpeddin, Ezekiel Cloyd, and Philip McDonnold. These
men were "the fathers" of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
I often, in my boyhood, saw McSpeddin. He used to preach
at my father's house on his circuit in the mountains. "Uncle
Sam," everybody called him. He was a plain, earnest, honest,
good man, and a great favorite with the mountain people. His
favorite theme was experimental religion. I once heard Dr. Cos-
sitt beg him to leave his thoughts on that subject in writing for
posterity. "Uncle Sam" lived to great age and retained his
memory fresh to the last. It was customary with all our writers on
biography or history to go to McSpeddin for facts. Even his dates
were always found to be reliable. Several times they were ques-
tioned, but investigation proved them to be right. His youngest
son, Judge McSpeddin, of Center, Alabama, still lives.
I also knew William Harris. He presided in the examination
when I was received as a candidate for the ministry. Dr. Beard
has given us a beautiful biographical sketch of Harris; the most
interesting, I think, of all his biographical sketches. Harris has
sons and grandsons still living. One of his grandsons was a little
child, two and a half years old, when Father Harris died. The
dying man had this child brought to his bed, and laying his hands
96 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
upon his head poured forth a prayer of great earnestness for God's
blessings on the life of the boy. That grandson is now the senior
editor of the Cumber-land Presbyterian.
Philip McDonnold died before my day, but as his father, Red-
mond McDonnold, was my father's uncle; and as his mother and
younger brother, Barnett, long survived him, I used to hear his
wonderful career discussed very often. The family lived in what
was then called Stoglan's Valley, on the borders of what was
then Wayne County, Kentucky. I made many a visit to their
home, and the name of Philip was spoken with profoundest ven-
eration. By some strange freak the orthography of his name is
perverted into McDaniel, even in the published minutes of his
own presbytery. The McDaniels were another family and no kin
to the McDonnolds, but a noble preacher rose up among them at a
later day. I know that Dr. Beard tried to collect material for a
biography of Philip McDonnold, but as he never published the
biography, it may be that he failed to secure the necessary facts.
McDonnold was an extemporaneous orator and left no writ-
ings at all. The old people said that when he came from the
woods (which was the closet of prayer in those days) and went into
the pulpit, he v/as often as white as a sheet. When he began his
sermon, pouring down torrents of orator)- and of fire upon them,
there was but one way to resist, and that was to run as quick as
possible out of hearing. Wonderful things are related about the
effects of his oratory. People said he often made them feel as if
the day of judgment had already come. Many of our old people,
David Lowry among the number, insisted that the spiritual power
of Philip McDonnold' s oratory was never equaled on earth. He
married a daughter of General Robert Ewing, who was Finis
Ewing's oldest brother, and died in 1815, at the close of his
twenty -first year. His only son, Philip Monroe McDonnold,
entered the ministry, receiving licensure. He married, and then,
like his father, died, leaving only one child. After Philip ^IcDon-
nold's tongue had been dust for more than fifty years old men still
wept when some of his thrilling appeals to sinners were mentioned
in their presence.
Dr. Beard's Biographical Sketches give pen-pictures of most
Rev. Thomas Calhoun
Eng4 !jy J CHuftrU^.V.
Rev Robert Donne ll
Rev. R.D, Morrow. D.D.
Chapter XI.] ThE GENERAL SyNOD. 97
of the fathers of our church. There is need of a few additions.
In the sketch given by Mr. Curry of William McGee there is men-
tion made of his groaning and restlessness. McGee had a long,
hard struggle about doctrine. He rejected the stem features of
the Westminster Confession, but he could not frame another sys-
tem of theology which left out these objectionable teachings, and
at the same time avoided the opposite extreme. He declined to
aid in organizing the independent presbytery. He refrained a long
time from preaching. Alone in the woods he labored and prayed
over the system which was to take the place of the one he had
rejected. A little light dawned on him and he went then and
joined the independent presbytery. Still it was an unsettled ques-
tion what new creed would be adopted under the new conditions.
This was the pending question when McGee showed the anxiety
described by Mr. Curry. He helped to make the new creed and
voted for it. It was unanimously adopted. At last McGee' s
troubled heart had rest.
7
98 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CONFESSION OF FAITH— SYNOPSIS OF DOC-
TRINES—FULLER CONFESSION — A MEDIUM SYS-
TEM—DIAGRAM.
Not to know at large of things remote
From use, obscure, and subtile; but to know
That which before us lies in daily life.
Is the prime wisdom. What is more is fume,
Emptiness, or fond impertinence;
And renders us, in things that most concern,
Unpracticed, unprepared, and still to seek,
— Milton.
My banner — from my Master was it to me intrusted—
Before his throne must I lay it down at last.
I dare display it, because I have borne it faithfully.
— Schiller.
THE Cumberland Presbytery, before the organization of the
synod, had felt the need of a more definite creed. Its candi-
dates for the ministry all adopted the Westminster Confession,
with exceptions about fatality. This was too vague. At the very
last meeting of the presbytery before the organization of the
synod. Finis Ewing and Robert Donnell were appointed a commit-
tee to prepare a synopsis of doctrines. Their synopsis was reported
to the synod and unanimously adopted. The synod ordered this
outline statement of its doctrines to be published. It appeared
soon after in Buck's Theological Dictionary. It was as follows:
1. That Adam was made upright, pure, and free; that he was
necessarily under the moral law, which binds all intelligences; and
having transgressed it he was, consequently, with all his posterity,
exposed to eternal punishment and misery.
2. That Christ, the second Adam, represented just as many as the
first; consequently made an atonement for all, "which will be testified
in due time;" but that the benefit of that atonement will be received
only by the true believer.
Chapter XII.] ThE CONFESSION OF FaITH. 99
3. That all Adam's family are totally depraved, conceived in sin,
going astray from the womb, and all children of wrath; therefore must
be born again, justified, and sanctified, or they never can enter into
the kingdom of God.
4. That justification is by faith alone as the instrument; by the
merits of Christ's active and passive obedience, as the meritorious
cause; and by the operation of God's Spirit as the efficient or active
cause.
5. That as the sinner is justified on the account of Christ's right-
eousness being imputed to him, on the same account he will be enabled
to go on from one degree of grace to another, in a progressive life of
sanctification, until he is fit to be gathered to the garner of God, who
will certainly take to glory every man who is really justified; that is,
he, Christ, has become wisdom (light to convince), righteousness (to
justify), sanctification (to cleanse), and redemption (to glorify) to
every truly regenerated soul.
The sixth item asserts the traditional doctrine of the Trinity.
Then the synopsis states its dissent from the Westminster Confes-
sion as follows:
I. That there are no eternal reprobates. 2. That Christ died not
for a part only, but for all mankind. 3. That all infants dying in
infancy are saved through Christ and the sanctification of the Spirit.
4. That the operations of the Holy Spirit are co-extensive with the
atonement; that is, on the whole world, in such a manner as to leave
all without excuse.
After stating this dissent, our fathers then add :
As to the doctrines of election and reprobation, they think (with
many eminent and modest divines who have written on the subject)
they are mysterious. They are not well pleased with the application
that rigid Calvinlsts, or Arminians, make of them. They think the
truth of that, as well as many other points in divinity, lies between the
opposite extremes. They are confident, however, that those doctrines
should not, on the one hand, be so construed as to make any thing the
creature has done, or can do, at all meritorious in his salvation; or to
lay any ground to say, "Well done, I;" or to take the least degree of
the honor of our justification and perseverance from God's unmerited
grace and Christ's pure righteousness. On the other hand, they are
equally confident that those doctrines shou^ not be so construed as to
make God the author of sin, directly or indirectly, .... or to contra-
dict the sincerity of God's expostulation with sinners, and make his
loo Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
oath to have no meaning, when he swears he has no pleasure in their
death; or to resolve the whole character of the Deity into his sover-
eignty without a clue regard to all his other adorable attributes.'
On this platform of doctrine they (the fathers of our church)
dared spread their banner to the breeze; and we, their sons,
hope, through God's grace, to keep it flying till the grand mission
of the everlasting gospel is accomplished. This platfonn came
not from human schools. It owes no debt to ancient or modern
philosophy. In the great revival men who studied their English
Bibles while laboring for the salvation of souls, rejected the medi-
eval fatalism in that system to which their church adhered, and,
without being scholastic enough to attempt a theodicy, they con-
fined their creed to the plain middle of the track of revealed truth.
A cold scholastic logic applied to theology always terminates in
one or the other of two extremes. Grace and freedom are Jacob
and Esau struggling in the womb together. Logic destroys one
or the other and ends the struggle. Practical pulpit theology lets
both live, and lets the struggle go on, nor makes any effort at
reconciling things which, though both clearly revealed, are, in
appearance, irreconcilable. We have far more confidence in a S}-s-
tem of theology growing out of a revival, than in a system made
by scholastics writing in the midst of their books and aiming at
logical consistency.
The synod appointed a committee, consisting of William
McGee, Finis Ewing, Thomas Calhoun, and Robert Donnell, to
prepare a fuller creed. This committee worked first in two sec-
tions. They simply read over the Westminster Confession, item
by item, changing such expressions as did not suit them. Then
the two sections met and all went through the same process. By
order of the synod, all the churches were observing a day of fast-
ing and prayer for divine guidance to be given to the committee.
Thomas Calhoun gave the writer a history of their meetings.
They prayed much and had a clear assurance that divine direction
had been granted.
I have Robert Donnel^'s memoranda of the action of the synod
Smith, p. 646, et sea
Chapter XII.]
The Confession of Faith.
lOl
of 1814 on the proposed creed. Though there were some amend-
ments made by the synod, yet it is recorded by Donnell that the
vote on every item was unanimous. What the proposed creed was
before the synod's amendments we have no means now of know-
ing. Donnell' s memoranda state the action in words like these:
"Motion to strike out second clause carried unanimously."
The following exhibit of the principal changes made in the
Westminster Confession, which I cut from an article published by
Dr. C. H. Bell, will place the doctrinal status of our church before
the reader:
Confession of Faith of the
Presbyterian Church
(O. S.).
CHAPTER III.
Of God's Eternal Decrees.
God from all eternity did by the
most wise and holy counsel of his
own will, freely and unchangeably
ordain whatsoever comes to pass;
yet so as thereby neither is God
the author of sin, nor is violence
offered to the will of the creatures,
nor is liberty or contingency of
second causes taken away, but
rather established.
3. By the decree of God for the
manifestation of his glory some
men and angels are predestinated
unto everlasting life, and others
foreordained to everlasting death.
4. These angels and men thus
predestinated and foreordained are
particularly and unchangeably de-
signed; and their number is so
certain and definite that it can not
be either increased or diminished.
Confession of Faith of the
Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. (18 14.)
CHAPTER III.
Of GocTs Eternal Decrees.
God did by the most wise and
holy counsel of his own will, de-
termine to bring to pass what
should be for his own glory.
2. God has not decreed any
thing respecting his creature, man,
contrary to his revealed will or
written word; which declares his
sovereignty over all his creatures,
the ample provision he has made
for their salvation; his determina-
tion to punish the finally impeni-
tent with everlasting destruction,
and to save the true believer with
an everlasting salvation.
Section 3 omitted in Cumber-
land Presbyterian Confession.
Omitted.
I02
Cumberland Presjjyterian History. [Period ii.
6. As God hath appointed the
elect unto glory, so hath he, by the
eternal and most free purpose of
his will, foreordained all the means
thereunto. Wherefore they who
are elected being fallen in Adam
are redeemed by Christ, are effect-
ually called unto faith in Christ by
his spirit working in due season;
and justified, adopted, sanctified,
and kept by his power through
faith unto salvation. Neither are
any other redeemed by Christ ef-
fectually called, justified, adopted,
sanctified, and saved, but the elect
only.
7. The rest of mankind God was
pleased, according to the unsearch-
able counsel of his own will,
whereby he extendeth or with-
holdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for
the glory of his sovereign power
over his creatures, to pass by, and
to ordain them to dishonor and
wrath for their sin, to the praise of
his glorious justice.
CHAPTER VIII.
Christ the Mediator.
8. To all those for whom Christ
hath purchased redemption, he
doth certainly and effectually ap-
ply and communicate the same,
making intercession for them, and
revealing unto them, in and by the
word, the mysteries of salvation;
effectually persuading them by his
spirit to believe and obey. . . .
CHAPTER X.
Effectual Calling.
All those whom God hath pre-
destinated unto life, and those only,
he is pleased in his appointed
Omitted.
Omitted.
CHAPTER VIII.
Christ the Mediator.
8. Jesus Christ, by the grace of
God, has tasted death for every
man, and now makes intercession
for transgressors; by virtue of
which, the Holy Spirit is given to
convince of sin, and enable the
creature to believe and obey. . . .
CHAPTER X.
Effectual Calling:
All those whom God calls, and
who obey the call, and those only,
he is pleased by his word and
Chapter XII.J
The Confession of Faith.
103
and accepted lime effectually to
call, bj' his word and Spirit, out of
that state of sin and death in which
they are by nature, to grace and
salvation by Jesus Christ. . . .
3. Elect infants dying in infancy
are regenerated and saved by
Christ, through the Spirit, who
worketh when, and where, and
how he pleaseth. So also are all
other elect persons who are in-
capable of being outwardly called
by the ministry of the woi'd.
4. Others, not elected, although
they may be called by the ministry
of the word, and may have some
common operations of the Spirit,
yet they never truly come to Christ,
and therefore can not be saved, . . .
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the Perseverance of the Saints.
They whom God hath accepted
in his Beloved, effectually called
and sanctified by his Spirit, can
neither totally nor finally fall away
from the state of grace; but shall
certainly persevere therein to the
end, and be eternally saved.
2. This perseverance of the
saints depends, not upon their
own free will, but upon the im-
mutability of the decree of elec-
tion, flowing from the free and
unchangeable love of God the
Father; upon the efficacy of the
merit and intercession of Jesus
Christ; the abiding of the Spirit
and of the seed of God within
them; and the nature of the cov-
enant of grace; from all which
ariseth also the certainty and in-
fallibility thereof.
Spirit to bring out of that state of
sin and death in which they are by
nature, to grace and salvation by
Jesus Christ. . . .
3. All infants dying in infancy
are regenerated and saved by
Christ through the Spirit, who
worketh when, and where, and
how he pleaseth; so, also, are others
who have never had the exercise
of reason, and who are incapable
of being outwardly called by the
ministry of the word.
Omitted.
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the Perseverance of the Saints.
They whom God hath justified
and sanctified he will also glorify;
consequently the truly regenerated
soul will never totally nor finally
fall away from the state of grace,
but shall certainly persevere there-
in to the end, and be eternally saved.
2. This perseverance depends on
the unchangeable love and power
of God; the merits, advocacy, and
intercession of Jesus Christ; the
abiding of the Spirit and seed of
God within them; and the nature
of the covenant of grace; from all
which ariseth also the certainty
and infallibility thereof.
104 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
The great majority of the chapters in the Westminster Confes-
sioil were placed in the new creed without any change at all, the
changes here indicated being the only vital ones made. The Cat-
echism was also changed in the matter of decrees to correspond
with the views set forth in the new Confession. The chapters on
faith, repentance, depravity, and imputation, in the new book, are
the same substantially as in the old. The new Confession clearly
enunciates the truth that "God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life;" and that "the manifestation
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Through
Christ's atoning grace, and by the Spirit's aid, man can be saved.
What need have we of more metaphysics in our creed?
Besides these principal changes, the Confession of Faith of 1814
made some additions to the deliverances of the Westminster stand-
ards on the subject of sanctification, and about the gift or baptism
of the Holy Spirit. On the former, our fathers, after giving all
the thirteenth chapter of the old book, just as it stands, added the
following words: "Although the remains of depravity may con-
tinue to affect the true believer in this life, yet it is his duty and
privilege, through grace, to maintain a conscience void ot offense
toward God and toward men. ' '
Finis Ewing tells us, in substance, that the compilers ot our
Confession of Faith aimed at medium groimd on the sanctification
question. He was one of those compilers. They did not believe
that sanctification is all finished until the soul leaves the body;
neither did they believe that a life of sin is compatible with that
Christianity which has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
They believed that a Christian could and should maintain a con-
science void of offense, and so live free from condemnation.
While they retained as true the phrases about the remains of
depravity continuing to affect the believer as long as he remains in
the body, yet they feared these expressions might be abused so as
to "make provisions for the flesh," and they sought to guard
against this abuse by two very strong declarations. [Chap, xiii.,
sec, 4, and chap, xvii., sec. 3.]
It has been shown in a previous chapter that our fathers believed
Chapter XII.] ThE CONFESSION OF FaITH. 105
in an abiding baptism of the Holy Ghost as a distinct blessing after
conversion. They changed the wording of the seventeenth chapter
so as to give emphasis to this belief
The Westminster Confession reads (chap, xvii., sec. 3):
Nevertheless, they [Christians] may, through the temptations of
Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in
them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into
grievous sins, and for a time continue therein: whereby they incur
God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit; come to be deprived
of some measure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts hard-
ened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and
bring temporal judgments upon themselves.
The book adopted by our fathers reads (chap, xvii., sec. 3):
Although there are examples in the Old Testament of good men
having egregiously sinned, and some of them continuing for a time
therein, yet now, since life and immortality are brought clearer to light
in the gospel, and especially since the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the
day of Pentecost, we may not expect the true Christian to fall into such
gross sins. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan,
the world and the flesh, the neglect of the means of grace, fall into
sin, and incur God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit; come to be
deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, and have their
consciences wounded; but the real Christian can never rest satisfied
therein.
If the quotations from McAdow's sermons, in the chapter on the
Paraclete, are compared with this change in the Confession, the
reasons for the change will be understood. Of all the doctrines
held by our fathers, the one about this abiding baptism of the Holy
Ghost was most esteemed by them. Gradually it was allowed to
be crowded into the background, after our fathers went to their
rest. In nearly all our early judicatures of this period, strong res-
olutions are placed on record about the necessity of a godly life.
It is constantly affirmed by all our early writers that all Christians
should live in abiding communion with God. A state of full assur-
ance was insisted on in every protracted meeting which these men
held.
But enough of this digression. The Confession, studied as a
whole, interpreting the scraps and phrases by the general tenor of
io6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
the book, and not interpreting the whole tenor of the book by
these phrases, teaches "the medium system" — a medium between
the old time Calvinism and Arminianism.
It has been so often denied that there can be any medium
ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, that a few words on
that subject seem necessary. The assertion of impossibility is a
father's hat on a boy's head. Originally it was, "There is no
medium ground between fatality and freedom." If there can not
be a free volition with no antecedent cause outside of the fact that
there was a free actor, then fatality follows inevitably. The impos-
sibility, if it exists, applies to God's volitions as well as man's.
The claim to medium ground was not to a medium between fatality
and freedom, but a medium between the Calvinism of that day and
Arminianism.
An attempt is here made to exhibit the representative creeds
of Christendom, graded according to the amount of Calvinism or
Arminianism which they contain. You begin to read the diagram
in the middle. Each step upward is supposed to contain one shade
more of Calvinism, till it passes Calvinism into atheistic fatality.
Each step downward is supposed to be a step further away from
Calvinism. Up and down refer only to the page, and not to any
superiority in the creeds. From this diagram, if it be a true
exhibit, the justness of the claim to a medium position, which
the Cumberland Presbyterians set up, will be clearly seen. The
place assigned some of the creeds was determined by averaging,
some of their doctrines belonging to a higher grade and some to a
lower than the one assigned. The fact that the New School Pres-
byterians and the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland both
adopt the Westminster standards modifies their grading. Private
and individual systems give other shades not here noticed. The
pulpit theology of the New School Presbyterians was often far
more Arminian than the system held by Cumberland Presb}teri-
ans; so, too, is the theology of many a modem Congregationalist.
A large part of the Baptist churches hold about the same amount
of Calvinism that the Cumberland Presbyterians do. While many
reference books have been examined, Schaff and Hagenbach have
been relied on more than others.
s
3
Chapter XII.J ThE CONFESSION OF FaITH. IO7
DIAGRAM OF REPRESENTATIVE CREEDS.
9. Atheistic fatality.
8. Theistic fatality. God under fate.
7. Two-seed Baptists. Antinomians.
6. Supralapsarian Calvinists. Dort
5. Infralapsarian Calvinists. American Old School Presbyte-
rians.
4. New School Presbyterians.
3. The Savoy Declaration, 1658.
2. The United Presbyterians. Declaration of 1879.
I. The Baxter ians.
English Congregationalists, 1833,
Evangelical Free Church of Geneva,
Cumberland Presbyterians,
Reformed Episcopal church,
Free Italian church,
1. Lutherans.
2. Freewill Baptists.
3. Evangelical Union of Scotland.
4. Methodists.
5. Quakers, "orthodox," not "Hicksite.''
6. Campbellites.
7. Pelagians.
8. Socinians.
9. Atheistic freedom. No divine influence.
The range of our easy and hearty fellowship in work for the
Master's kingdom takes in all the grades from five above to five
below, and sometimes stretches over the sixth above and below.
The sixth below has two wholly different elements among its
membership, one class believing in experimental religion, the
presence and power of the Holy Ghost, and in revivals. With
them our people can co-operate in Christian work. The other
class we can not work with, and might do them injustice if we
tried to give their views. There are individual exceptions also in
the grades which we fellowship. Men of any grade who oppose
revivals can not work well with us, nor we with them.
io8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
As to communing at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we
put no barrier in the way, but refer the question to men's own
consciences. I have seen Unitarians communing with our people.
It is not our custom to require any test — church membership, bap-
tism, or any thing of the sort. If a man believes that he is a Chris-
tian and his own conscience is clear in coming to the Lord's table,
we invite him to come. This has always been our custom, and is
the obvious meaning of our standards. There have been a few
dissenting voices to this interpretation of the standards. These
insist on church membership, in some orthodox church, as essen-
tial. Baptism is, according to them, prerequisite to communion.
One thing can be clearly proved as a historical fact, and that is
that slowly but surely the doctrinal views of the Presbyterian
church, so far as the pulpit can be taken as their exponent, have
been drawing nearer and nearer, ever since 1814, to this medium
platform.
Chapter XIII.] ThE ThREE PrESBYTERIES. 109
CHAPTER XIII.
THE THREE PRESBYTERIES — OLD CUSTOMS NOW
DROPPED.
Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee. — Detit. viii. 3.
FROM the organization of the synod, in 1813, until the organ-
ization of McGee Presbytery, in 1819, there were just three
presbyteries. These had the whole world for their field. It may be
interesting to mention several customs which prevailed among them
then, and which have long since passed away. The old custom
among all Presbyterians of requiring tokens from communicants
was kept up a little while by our people, but, without any ecclesi-
astical repudiation, was gradually dropped. James B. Porter made
the first vigorous denunciation of the system. He had seen
Colonel Joe Brown driven by it out of the Presbyterian church,
and he ever afterward refused to use tokens. The token was a
little piece of metal like a trunk check, given by the session to a
church member on communion day. It was his pass to the Lord's
table when the sacrament was administered. The communicants
took their seats at a longttable. They always used real tables in
those days. Then one man, appointed for the purpose, went round
the table to see that all seated there had tokens. If any one there
seated had no token he was pointed out to those who distributed
the bread and wine, and they skipped him in their distribution.
For many years the mother church withheld tokens from those of
its members who had communed with " the Cumberlands, " as they
insisted on calling the members of the new church.
Colonel Joe Brown gave me, with his own lips, the history of
his case. He had communed with the Cumberland Presbyterians,
and his pastor ordered the session to refuse him a token. His sym-
pathies were already with the new church both on account of its
revivals and its doctrines. When the token was withheld, by
no Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
Gideon Blackburn's order, Colonel Brown then and there rose in
the great congregation and told them that the Cumberland Presby-
terians were God's people; that the attempt to bring them under
the oditan thcologicum would recoil on its authors; and that he, for
one, intended to cast his lot in with the church under whose minis-
try his children had been led to Jesus. While Mrs. Frances B.
Fogg's little biography of this hero of Nickajack is interesting, it
fails utterly to give the thrilling story of his life after his release
from Indian captivity. I myself once took down from Colonel
Brown's own lips full memoranda of his whole life, but the memo-
randa were destroyed with most of my library during the war. It
is hoped that some of Colonel Brown's family will yet preser\'e to
the church and the world a full account of his wonderful career.
What was called ' ' fencing ' ' the table in the days of our fathers
included this business of the tokens, and also the code of rules by
which the token was either given or withheld. The preacher who
publicly announced these rules, and presided in their application,
was said to "fence the table." "A fence for communion," "a
good fence for the Lord's table," was often published in church
papers — that is, a code of rules which ought to be applied in dis-
tributing tokens. I have heard old people regret the laxness of
discipline which took down the fence from the Lord's table.
Whether this removal was censurable or praiseworthy, our own
church was a prominent actor in its accomplishment.
All three of the presbyteries had a custom which lingered a
dozen years, and whose origin is hard to trace. A presbytery' was
composed of preachers, elders, and representatives. As in synod,
so also in presbytery, every preacher was expected to have his own
elder. Then the churches also were expected to send representa-
tives to presbytery, but as the distance was in some cases five hun-
dred miles, it was the custom of the remote churches to club
together and send one representative for several congregations.
There were instances where one man represented six congregations,
so that there was no superabundance of elders even when both
classes, the preachers' elders and the churches', were counted. In
the synod the churches had no representatives. The preachers and
their elders made the synod; but the preachers' elders were ap-
Chapter XIII.] ThE ThREE PRESBYTERIES. Ill
pointed by the cliurcli sessions in obedience to a requisition made
annually by the presbytery. For example: the Elk Presbyter)^, at
its spring' session, would designate what congregation should send
an elder with Robert Donnell, and the session of that church was
held responsible for the presence of said elder in the synod. The
utmost rigor was used at first to enforce this arrangement. The
elder appointed and failing to go, unless for good reasons, was to
have charges preferred against him. Such was the rule in all the
presbyteries.
All three of the presbyteries had vast fields to cultivate, and
those fields were continually expanding. The Nashville Presby-
tery, a few years after it began its separate presbyterial existence,
found the whole western end of Tennessee opened by the purchase
of the country from the Indians. But this expansion of that pres-
bytery was a little thing compared with the vast fields thrown open
on the frontiers of Logan and Elk presbyteries. In the case of the
latter, soon after its organization, South Alabama was opened to
American settlers, then Arkansas, then North-western Alabama,
then Missouri. At one session of this presbytery petitions for
preachers were received from five hundred pioneers in the new
settlements of Alabama alone, and also from vast numbers in Ar-
kansas and Missouri. Both Logan and Elk presbyteries tried to
evangelize Missouri. In the wide bounds of Logan Presbytery
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were opened to white settlements, and
the earnest petitions of emigrants begging for the gospel were part
of the stirring business coming up at every session.
In all three of the presbyteries fast-days were repeatedly ap-
pointed, and all the churches were urged to pray for more laborers
to be sent into the 'harvest. After these fast-days the presbyteries
invariably received large accessions to their number of candidates.
Yet the growth of the new settlements and the demands for the
gospel kept far ahead of this increase in the supply of ministers.
It was folly to talk about settling down into pastorates under these
circumstances. Men were called pastors, and they will be so desig-
nated in these pages. The name existed, but the reality had no
place in all the church till near the close of the second period in
this history. Thomas Calhoun is called pastor in the next chapter,
112 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
but he made frequent tours of evangelism which required six
months each. He attended camp-meetings for two or three months
every year, and he cultivated a large farm.
The plan which all the presbyteries fell upon was threefold.
All the vast fields under their care were districted, and itinerants
sent to each district. These itinerants established circuits of
preaching places, and made appointments for preaching ever}' day
in the week. This was generally missionary work, outside of all
organized congregations. If the missionary could collect enough
members to organize a church, he took their names, pledging them
to form a church as soon as an ordained preacher could be had to
organize them. The missionar}' was not usually an ordained min-
ister. This was the first branch of the system.
The second branch pertained to organized congregations. In
these the presbyter^' appointed sacramental meetings semi-annu-
ally, and designated the preachers who were to officiate. The fall
meetings were camp-meetings, as well as sacramental, and every
ordained preacher, no matter what his pastoral relations might be,
was required to attend these camp-meetings during the fall months,
and was also required to perform his part of that other work on the
circuits which unordained men could not do. The presbyter}^, at
every session, designated what portion of these duties fell to the lot
of each ordained minister, and each was held to rigid account for
his fidelity in the work assigned him.
The third branch of the system consisted of such features of
regular pastorates as could be made consistent with the two preced-
ing branches. In the orders of these presbyteries I find it no
uncommon thing for a so-called pastor of this period to be required,
in the course of a year, to attend as many as a dozen sacramental
meetings, distant from fifty to three hundred miles from his home;
and when called on to report at the next meeting of the presbyter}',
it was a rare thing for any one to report a failure. When failure
was reported, the reasons were investigated.
The chief question at every meeting of these presbyteries was
about the supply of itinerants And their support. These itinerants
were always called missionaries by the Logan Presbyter}^ but they
were frequently called circuit riders in the other presbyteries.
Chapter XIII.] ThE ThREE PRESBYTERIES. II3
Nashville Presbytery consumed one whole session in 1815 in
discussing plans for the support of itinerants. The Elk Presby-
tery came with shorter steps to decided measures. It required
every member of the church to pay one dollar to the itinerant fund. '
This action was taken in 1816, and for three years produced good
results. Afterward we find R. D. King and others traveling under
order of the presbytery six months on the frontier, without receiv-
ing a cent of pay. Nashville Presbytery tried several schemes.
The best one, perhaps, was a central board, with auxiliary societies
throughout the presbytery; but in two years' time this plan lost its
vitality, aud again the wail of "no circuit riders" made the meet-
ings of presbytery a Bochim. This whole system of machinery
broke down first in the Nashville Presbytery. It failed in all the
presbyteries before any other system was introduced.
The first crash of the falling fabric came at the fall meeting of
the Nashville Presbytery, in 1816. No itinerants could be secured,
whereupon the presbytery apportioned its field and its churches
among its ministers, requiring each one to supply the congrega-
tions assigned him as often as the circumstances permitted. The
fact that no itinerants could be secured was regarded by the presby-
tery with alarm. A fast-day was ordered in all the congregations,
and, after two years of mourning, the system had another brief
resuscitation, only to break down more hopelessly than ever. In
the new presbyteries organized from time to time, the original
scheme was invariably employed. It was a scheme for planting
churches, not for training them after they were planted.
This system of itinerant missionaries followed the system of
circuit riding among the Methodists in some particulars, but dif-
fered from it in many others. In theory it was voluntary, but
sometimes the pressure on a young man to induce him to take the
circuit was very great. With shame be it recorded that many a
dear boy has left his half-finished course of studies under this pres-
sure, and gone out "to ride the circuit." Many such, when old
men, left in writings, now in my possession, their bitter protests
against a policy which robbed them of their education and crippled
their life-work. Popular usage assigned to these itinerant mission-
aries the name which the Methodists used, but Logan Presbytery
8
114 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
refused to accept the name, and never used it in official records, A
part of the church accepted the name with cheerfuhiess, since it
was a true designation of the thing to which it was applied, and
since, moreover, it came to us all perfumed with grateful odors
from the fields of heroic toil for Jesus by Methodist itinerants.
The name Cumberland Presbyterian originated in a somewhat
similar manner. The whole of Middle Tennessee, so far as it was
settled, and some of Kentucky, was, in an early day, called Cum-
berland— not at first "the Cumberland country," but just Cumber-
land. The settlement in the eastern end of Tennessee was called
Watauga. These were germs for two new States, and not till
long after were they the eastern and middle portions of one State.
Cumberland included all of McGready's field. Here the great
revival, which was so bitterly opposed by some, began. Before
the Cumberland Presbytery ever existed, the two parties of Ken-
tucky S}'nod were designated by names which the people saw fit to
apply. One was ' ' the Cumberland party, ' ' which was also called
the levival party. When Transylvania Presbytery was divided,
and all that country which was called Cumberland assigned to a
new presbytery called Cumberland Presbytery, the epithet ' ' Cum-
berland Presbyterian" was already in popular use as designating
all that part of the Presbyterian church which favored the revival.
All this was years before the organization of our church. When
the church was organized in 1810, it adopted no denominational
name. There was no intention then of starting a new church. It
was an independent presbytery of Presbyterians, which still hoped
for restoration to its old status in the mother church. The people
called its adherents Cumberland Presbyterians. It was not till
1813 that the new church indirectly adopted the name which the
people had already given. Associated with all that was most
sacred while the new doctrines were costing men their ecclesias-
tical lives, and endeared on that account to such an extent that no
subsequent effort to shake it off could be tolerated by those who
knew and held sacred the traditions of our origin, the name
remains to this day what the people and God's providence made it.
It has been often mocked at, but, by God's grace, the church will
make it as dear one day to all who love true work for Jesus, as it
Chapter XIII.] ThE ThREE PrESBYTERIES. II5
is now to those whose ears still ring, when it is mentioned, with
the holy songs of the great revival and the fearless sermons of
those who first proclaimed a general atonement in Presbyterian
pulpits.
Another custom originating in the Cumberland Presbytery, and
kept up by its three successors for many years, was that of having
a presbyterial library whose books were exchanged at every meet-
ing of the presbytery. Each minister paid five dollars into the
library fund, and also solicited contributions from the wealthy for
the purchase of books, so that the library grew in a few years to a
considerable collection. A list of the books allowed each preacher
form part of the minutes of every presbyterial meeting. The
itinerant system failed first in the Nashville Presbytery; so did the
custom of having a presbyterial library. In 18 19 that presbytery-
sold out its books. Cities, dense populations, and schools super-
seded the itinerant library, as they did all the system with which it
stood connected.
Another custom was universal all through this period. At all
the camp-meetings there was at least one sermon preached on a call
to the ministry. The pressure on the presbyteries for more preach-
ers was perhaps greater than was ever before brought to bear on any
church judicatures since the days of the apostles. Several causes
co-operated to produce this pressure. The first was the constant
opening up of new territories to immigrants; for the period when
these presbyteries were the only ones in the church is precisely the
period when there was the grandest expansion of our national ter-
ritory. The second cause was the emigration of Cumberland Pres-
byterians from Kentucky and Tennessee to these new fields. Let
the population of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama,
and Mississippi be examined to-day, and a very large portion of the
people will be found to be descendants of Kentuckians and Ten-
nesseans. These two States were the birthplace of the new church.
Cumberland Presbyterian emigrants settled over all these vast
fields, and they all wrote back to the presbyteries begging for the
gospel. The point of special interest is that all that vast Western
and Southern field, which drew its population largely from Ten-
nessee and Kentucky, was opened to white settlers at a time when
ii6 CUMBERI.AND Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
the Cumberland Presbyterians of those two States were intensely
active in sending out missionaries.
Two facts apparently, but not really, inconsistent meet us here.
In all the older settlements where other denominations had estab-
lished churches, and in all large towns, where a settled pastor was
considered necessary to maintain the life of a congregation, our
first preachers showed great reluctance to organizing churches.
As a general rule, throughout this period, they absolutely refused,
even when pressed to do so, to organize Cumberland Presbyterian
congregations in such places. The other fact is, that in all the
wild frontier, in the sparsest and most destitute neighborhoods,
their readiness to organize churches, even where there seemed to be
very little hope of any permanent supply of preachers, amounted
to recklessness. The feeling that it was their duty to look first
after the souls of those who were least likely to be looked after by
others, no doubt prompted them to pursue this course.
Another custom was universal. Everj' regular minister was
required to assemble the congregations and examine them in the
catechism. All the licensed and ordained ministers were called
upon at every meeting of the presb}-ter}' to report whether they
had complied with this requirement, and there were very few cases
of failure. Copies of the catechism were in nearly every Cumber-
land Presbyterian household, and every child, as well as every adult
church member, was expected to study it. The old men who sur-
vived this custom mourned over its loss, and refused to be com-
forted, prophesying looseness and instability of doctrines as the
fruit of its abandonment. - In more than one case among the liter-
ary remains of the fathers which have been placed in my hands are
found large packages of our first catechism.
The subject of a school for their candidates was discussed by
each of the presbyteries. Then Nashville Presbytery (1822) asked
the others to meet its delegates in convention to consider the ques-
tion of a presbyterial school. This action was the forerunner of
the synod's determination, in 1824, to establish a school for the
whole church.
A prejudice existed all through this early period against statis-
tics. An order requiring statistical reports passed at one meeting
Chapter XIII.] ThK ThREE PRESBYTERIES. II7
of the synod, and was repealed at the next. At some of the ses-
sions of presbytery the missionaries would report the number of
conversions and accessions in their districts; but in most of the
records no mention of any numbers can be found either in the
reports of missionaries or reports of the Committee on the State
of Religion. Great and precious revivals, without the mention of
statistics, are reported at everj^ meeting of presbytery. The clear-
est index to the rate of growth is found in the organization of new
presbyteries. In sixteen years the three presbyteries grew to eigh-
teen, the least of which was as large as the Logan Presbytery at
its organization. It is true that the Committee on the State of
Religion, at each session of synod, did report the number of con-
versions for the year; but the fact that no system of gathering
statistics was in use by the presbyteries shows how incomplete
these synodical reports must have been.
Dr. Burrow was perhaps foremost among anti-statistical minis-
ters in our church. He entered the ministry' in the Elk Presby-
tery, and was one of the noblest specimens of the itinerant preacher
that any church ever had. He believed in reporting only to God.
He was afraid of all counting, all sounding of trumpets; and all
his life he advocated the "pay or no pay" rule about preaching;
and not only a'dvocated, but practiced it till his dying day. There
were several thousand converts at his meetings the last year of his
ministry.
Another custom in those days was to hold camp-meetings in
communities which contained not a single member of any church.
Not only were such communities found on all the frontier, but
there were many people also who had never heard a sermon in
their lives. If a few families of unconverted pioneers could be
persuaded to move to the place selected, and there entertain the
visitors, the camp-meeting was held. Nor was it a difficult thing
to find liberal-hearted men who would engage in this work.
Out of many examples I select one instance of the sort, described
by the venerable William Lynn, of Indiana, and published just be-
fore his departure to his crown and kingdom. This camp-meeting
was in Daviess County, Kentucky. There was not a single church
member in all the neighborhood; but men who were willing to
ii8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
camp and feed the multitudes were found, and the camp-meeting
was held. At that meeting those twin heroes of the cross, Chap-
man and Harris, were present, and also several probationers for the
ministry. The meeting was greatly blessed of God, and among
the converts were three men who afterward entered the ministry.
This was a camp-meeting held by those heroic missionaries who
are better known by the borrowed name of "circuit riders." But
much more remarkable cases are on record. In the tours of R. D.
King, Reuben Burrow, and Daniel Patton among the destitute set-
tlements, it was a common thing for them to persuade unconverted
men to establish a camp-ground. Indeed, there were fewer and
smaller obstacles to success among the rough men of the frontier,
where no churches of any denomination existed, than there were
where denominational prejudices were active. One thing is worthy
of special commemoration: these unconverted campers generally
v/ere converted to God in these meetings, and had abundant reasons
to rejoice that they had ever undertaken to camp. One dear lady
of this class said God had paid her back in her own conversion and
the conversion of thirteen members of her family.
In all this period and long afterward the preaching of our min-
isters belonged to a very thorough system. They believed the doc-
trine that man is spiritually dead. This, to them, was not merely
figurative, it was real. They taught that in his natural state there
is no element of spiritual life in man. As well talk of cultivating
a rose until you make it a bird, as talk of educating and training a
man up into spiritual life. In his natural state man is thoroughly
hostile to God and all spiritual good. Not only some of the imag-
inations of the thoughts of his heart are evil, but "every imagina-
tion." Not only that, but they are evil continually. These first
jDreachers probed deep, and generally roused opposition and anger
at first. Afterward the scales fell from the sinner's own eyes, until
he saw his depravity and condemnation, and then cries of alarm
and remorse broke forth from his lips.
Concerning the new birth their teaching was equally thorough.
Regeneration meant a new creation, not a mere training; not "let
the goat run with the sheep till it becomes a sheep;" but divine
creative power was first to make it a sheep, and then training was
Chapter XIII.l ThE ThREE PRESBYTERIES. II9
to follow. They were equally thorough in their belief in the doc-
trine of eternal future punishment, and they preached it everj^-
where. About the atoning blood — the precious blood of Christ —
their preaching was equally unambiguous and emphatic. They
taueht that our salvation rests on no mere moral influence and
example, but on a divine vicarious sacrifice. The moral theory
never had any place in the Cumberland Presbyterian system.
They believed and taught that the Christian's legal standing before
God is exclusively in Christ, and not at all in self — not partly in
Christ and partly in works, but all in Christ.
They were equally thorough in their belief of inspiration, even
ad verbiim. In regard to God's indwelling presence, concerning
his answers to the prayer of faith, and all similar matters, they
held to no shallow system. If a probationer for the ministry in
that day had taught any of the shallow systems of modern times
he would have been instantly thrown overboard. Yet they insisted
upon the necessity for good works, not as a procuring cause but as
a fruit of the new life. If the fruit were lacking it was because
the life was lacking. Works, out of love to Christ as the motive,
they preached with great success.
While I mention the preaching of these doctrines as a peculiar-
ity of our early pulpits, I do not mean to teach that our people
have repudiated these fundamental truths. I am quite sure they
have not; but I am also sure that these doctrines are not pressed in
the pulpits of this day as they were by the fathers. In my opinion
we lose by this change. Leave a vital doctrine long silent, and a
generation will grow up which will utterly reject it.
I20 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
CHAPTER XIV.
HISTORIC CHURCHES— PLANTING CHURCHES IN TEN-
NESSEE AND KENTUCKY.
If called like them to cope
In evil times with dark and evil porters,
O be their faith, their zeal, their courage ours!
— fr. H. Burleigh.
WHILE it is impossible, as a general thing, to give the his-
tory' of individual congregations, there are a few whose
prominence requires special notice. The churches which existed
before the revival, and afterward united with the Cumberland
Presbyterians, have necessarily been noticed in the histor}'- of the
revival. Of this class a few still exist as Cumberland Presbyterian
congregations. Red River church, in Kentucky, is a center of his-
toric interest. The old grave-yard, with dates which run back to
1730, is itself a history. Among these graves is that of the eldest
brother of the Rev. Finis Ewing — General Robert Ewing — bom
1760, a soldier in the revolutionary war, a member of the Kentucky
lep-islature, etc. One of his sons still lives in the neighborhood.
The grave of his daughter, Mary B., which is also there, has spe-
cial interest for Cumberland Presbyterians. Her first husband was
the Rev. Philip McDonnold. The parents of the Rev. A. M. Bryan
lived and died in this neighborhood. When their old house was
newly roofed, the old shingles were found to be pegged on. There
were no nails in the country when that house was built, and iron
was ten dollars a pound. Near this church the ruins of the old
fort which protected the pioneers from the Indians can still be
traced. It was called Mauldin's Station. Red River is still a
revival church. The old log house is superseded by one of mod-
em construction, but the old fire still burns on its altars. This
church is an exception, too, among the old churches, in another
Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 121
respect. It does not cling to the old programme of taking a
preacher's labors without pay.
The Beech church and Gasper River church are two more of
our historic congregations. Gasper was for a time abandoned, its
members going to Pilot Knob, but, since the war, it has been
ao;ain revived, and still works for Jesus. The dates and names on
the tombstones in its grave-yard form a precious record.
The Beech church' was organized in 1800. Its first house of
worship was a union meeting-house. The Rev. William McGee
was its first pastor. In 1810 this church joined the new denomina-
tion. After McGee died this congregation had no regular pastor,
but was supplied by Hugh Kirkpatrick and other itinerants. After
many years they built their present stone church near the site of the
union church, not being willing to leave the old grave-yard. In
1832 they organized their first Sunday-school, the Rev. John Beard
officiating. One hundred and twenty pupils were enrolled. An-
nual camp-meetings, great revivals, with many ministers rising up
from among the converts, make part of the history of the Beech
church.
When camp-meetings and itinerant supplies were given up, the
Beech church, in spite of its Pysbyterian origin, utterly failed to
adopt the new programme of settled pastors in the true sense. By
supplies and annual revival meetings it did, however, manage to
keep alive. Like all the churches which pursue this course, it is
sadly suffering, in spite of the "old fire" which is still there.
Of the churches planted by the revival party before the division,
there are several still in existence as Cumberland Presbyterian con-
gregations. Among these are Smyrna, Goshen, and Big Spring in
Tennessee, and Piney in Kentucky. There are several others, in
Alabama, and in other places, but I can mention only a few prom-
inent churches of this class.
Perhaps the most interesting of these is Big Spring, Wilson
County, Tennessee. In 1801 some of the revival party who lived
too far from Bethesda to attend regularly there, resolved to have
services at the Big Spring. They secured a monthly appointment
from the Rev. William Hodge. The next fall they held a camp-
^Revivalist, November 28, 1832. Hugh Kirkpatrick's sketch.
122 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
meeting on the original plan, without tents or cabins. ' This meet-
ing was not held on the spot now occupied by that church, but
just at the head of the great spring which gave its name to the
congregation. The reasons for moving the camp-ground years
afterward to a smaller spring in the same neighborhood are un-
known to the writer. In 1802 they built open sheds to camp under.
These sloped to the ground.^ When the Cumberland Presbyterian
church was organized, the Rev. Thomas Calhoun was called to be
pastor of this congregation. The word pastor must, however, be
understood in a modified sense. It was in 1810 that the final loca-
tion of a permanent encampment and the erection of a house of
worship took place. The site was then changed to its present
position.
When the father of the Rev. Thomas Calhoun had finished his
log-cabin, where the new camp-ground was located, he stuck his
sycamore handspike down in the ground, and it took root and grew
to a great tree which still stands. People used to go to the Big
Spring camp-meeting from neighborhoods a hundred miles distant.
Twenty of our most efficient ministers were converted at that
camp-ground. Its first camp-meetings were glorious visitations of
God's power, sending out all over the State an influence which will
live forever. All the Western States owe some of their noblest
church officers to the Big Spring camp-meetings. I have heard
many of the orators whom this nation and Europe loved to honor,
but, in my humble judgment, Calhoun surpassed them all. If
Moody has a special baptism of power for his peculiar work, in a
far higher sense did that baptism rest on Calhoun. Many a time
at old Big Spring camp-ground have the vast assemblies gathered
there felt and acknowledged that God spake to them through
human lips.
Thomas Calhoun lived near this church, and was pastor of this
and Smyrna congregations from the time of his ordination till the
close of his ministry — forty-five years. After his death, emigration
to Texas seriously crippled Big Spring. The Lone Star State has
drawn to its bosom nearly all the strength of many a Tennessee
congregation. When the people of Big Spring sold their homes,
'MSB. of Alec. Aston. »The Calhoun MSS.
Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 123
Baptists and others were the purchasers. Yet there have been great
revivals among our people there in more recent times, and there is a
respectable number of members now; but the very nearest of these
live two miles from the church. It has, at last, been agreed to
build a new house nearer the congregation. The old house of
cedar logs, and those raised seats, and that pulpit with its ' ' sound-
ing board," and its clerk's seat, will not be left intact.
The Smyrna church, in Jackson County, Tennessee, also has an
interesting history. In the private houses of two old men, William-
son and Sadler, meetings were held by Alexander Anderson, William
McGee, and Samuel King, in 1800. The next year a church was
organized, a spot selected for a camp-ground, and Thomas Calhoun,
then only a candidate, held a meeting on this spot. Colonel
Smith, the father of the Rev. Robert DonnelPs first wife, lived
there. People used to go a hundred miles to attend the Smyrna
camp-meetings.
Calhoun's life-work as a pastor was in Big Spring and Smyrna
congregations. All of Smith County and part of two other coun-
ties lay between his home and Smyrna church. A large part of
this distance was filled with dense canebrakes. When there was
snow, the high cane overhung the narrow path until it was diffi-
cult to travel on horseback. Yet he never missed his appointments.
Colonel Smith has left us a written statement about several of the
thrilling sermons preached there by Calhoun, and about the far-
reaching revivals which often resulted from the camp-meetings.
I clip from the Banner of Peace the following notice of another
historic church:
In 1799 a few persons, members of the Presbyterian church, mostly
from North Carolina, agreed to meet every Sabbath to read the Script-
ures and pray with and for each other. They afterward constituted the
Cumberland Presbyterian church which was organized at New Hope,
Wilson County, Tenn. Their names are William and Catherine Gray,
James and Margaret Stewart, Andrew and Elizabeth Bay, Alexander
and Jane Kirkpatrick, John and Ann Kirkpatrick, David and Rebecca
Kirkpatrick, Samuel and Sarah Motheral, Elias Morrison, Joseph Kirk-
patrick, and Margaret Motheral. "These all died in the faith." The
same year (1799) the Rev. William McGee preached the first sermon
in the bounds of this congregation. From this time until 1810 they
124 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
enjoyed occasional circuit jDreaching by Samuel King, Alexander
Anderson, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun, Alexander Chap-
man, James B. Porter, and David Foster — all of whom have joined the
sacramental host beyond death's stream, where parting is no more.
In the fall of iSio this congregation, afterward noted for camp-
meetings, held their first camp-meeting near the "Double Islands," on
Cumberland River. At this meeting they were much revived and
encouraged; so much so, that the next year (1811) they purchased a lot
of ground, erected camps, and held a second camp-meeting one mile
above their first encampment. The Rev. William McGee, who was
present, called this new camp-ground New Hope. Here, in 1S12, the
Rev. Hugh Kirkpatrick, with the names designated above, organized a
Cumberland Presbyterian church, and preached once a month till 1S16,
when he was succeeded by the Rev. John Provine, who preached
monthly until 1830. From this date to 1S43 they weie supplied with
preaching by the Rev. George Donnell and the Rev. John L. Dillard.
The former served four, the latter nine years. The Rev. M. S. Vaughan
then accepted the charge and preached until 1850, when he was fol-
lowed by the Rev. J. E. Davis, who continued two years.
In the fall of 18^3 the Rev. William D. Chadick was regularly in-
stalled pastor of this church by the late Rev. F. R. Cossitt, D.D., and
continued his labors till 1855, when the Rev. J. C. Bowderi supplied
the congregation one year.
The Rev. M. S. Vaughan again received a call to this congregation
and preached until 1S59, when he was succeeded b}' the Rev. William
A. Haynes, who served as pastor, with the exception of two or more
years during the late war, till the spring of 1866. The Rev. W. W. Sud-
darth succeeded Mr. Haynes, and labored till the fall of 1867, at which
time he received a call from Lebanon congregation, and the Rev. M. S,
Vaughan was called for the third time to New Hope.
From these facts, which I find in the church records, we learn that
New Hope has enjoyed the means of grace from i799» and an organ-
ized existence of fifty-six years' standing. During this time the church
held and supported fifty-three camp-meetings. At these meetings hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of sinners were brought to a knowledge of the
truth as it is in Jesus, and obtained through grace a good hope of a
happy immortality beyond time. Among these are many able ministers
of the gospel. Some of them have laid down the gospel trumpet for
glittering crowns in glory. Others, trembling under the effects of age
and hard service in their high vocation, are yet preaching Jesus to a
perishing world, each cheered on in his "labor of love" with this most
precious promise of his divine Master, "Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life." Felix H. Taylor, Clerk.
Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 125
The first church organized as a Cumberland Presbyterian church
was Mt. Moriah, in Giles County, Tennessee. The Rev. C. N.
Wood, lately gone to his reward, secured for me the historical
sketch of this congregation which is here used. He was converted
at one of the meetings at Mt. Moriah, and became a member of
that congregation. This church was organized in March, 1810, by
Rev. James B. Porter. A very full history of its work, written by
one of the elders, is before me. This congregation has had fifteen
"pastors." Mr. Porter served from 1810 till the death of his wife
in 1815, when he resumed the life of an itinerant preacher. There
was one year in Mr. Porter's pastorate of wonderful religious inter-
est. The camp-meeting was unusually successful. The people
carried the interest home with them. The earthquake (1812) filled
all the country with great solemnity. Mr. Porter knew how to fol-
low up these impressions, and the whole year round there were
conversions all through the neighborhood. The interest in the
private houses resembled that in the Gasper River neighborhood
fourteen years before.
Carson P. Reed served this congregation as pastor sixteen years.
After Reed came J. N. Edmiston who served three years. When
he resigned, the church fell upon the miserable expedient of itin-
erant supplies. One thing the session put on record in their his-
tory which deserves emphasis. The church, they say, did not
prosper under preaching from itinerants as it did under permanent
pastors.
The Rev. G. W. Mitchell became pastor of this church early in
the year 1867, and served until the close of 1871. During this
time the congregation enjoyed its greatest prosperity. The session
testifies that the whole membership was quickened into new life
and activity. This church has tested three systems: it has had
regular pastors, it has depended on the ministrations of itinerant
preachers, and at other times it has employed temporary supplies.
Its highest success has been attained under the labors of regular
pastors. During the five years in which the Rev. D. S. Boden-
hamer (now of Trinity University) served as pastor, there were
ninety-six accessions to the congregation. Twenty-two converts
of this church have become preachers. There are some noted
126 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
names on the list, such as N. P. Modrall, C. P. Reed, W. S. Bumey,
LeRoy Woods, C. N. Wood, all now gone to their reward, besides
a noble band who still labor for Jesus.
The venerable Joseph Brown, one of our old preachers, made
his home near this church, and was buried in its cemetery. When
he was nearly a hundred years old he would ask permission to
stand in the pulpit beside the preacher, in order to catch every
word. As his hearing was bad, he would hold his ear close up to
the preacher, and occasionally cry out "Glory to God! "
This congregation has now a large brick church, built in 1856,
and is in a prosperous condition. Its camp-meetings were kept up,
with one intermission, until 1853, when they gave place to pro-
tracted meetings.
Another one of our first churches is Goshen, in Franklin Coun-
ty, Tennessee, on the Boiling Fork of Elk River, near the Cum-
berland Mountains.' Its site is beautiful. Nearly all the first
settlers here were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. In 181 1 the Rev.
Samuel King and the Rev. William McGee persuaded the people
to hold a camp-meeting. A shed and camps were built, and King
and McGee held the meeting. There were hundreds of conver-
sions, and a Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized. An
incident of this meeting is characteristic of the times. King
preached on the Sabbath. As the sermon progressed the solem-
nity grew oppressive. The mighty power of God rested like sc
weight upon the people. Men almost held their breath. The
preacher felt it as well as the others. By and by the solemnity
grew so great that even the preacher's tongue was silent. He
stood a moment with looks of iniutterable awe, and then went
down from the pulpit and started to the woods. When he had
gone about a hundred yards, he turned abruptly back, and entered
the pulpit. There was no longer any look of awe, but a holy,
rapturous light on his face, and he resumed his sermon with a
thrilling power which swept ever}^ thing before it. From that day
on that congregation has been noted for its revivals. Several of
its converts have become ministers.
' The facts concerning this church were furnished by Dr. J. B. Cowan, of Tulla-
homa, Tennessee.
Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 127
In 1813 Robert Donnell began preaching in Nashville, Tennes-
see. Mr. Craighead v/as then in charge of a small church in Nash-
ville, and he exerted himself to keep the people from hearing the
new minister. At first neither preaching place nor hospitality was
extended to him. He preached in the court-house, and boarded at
the hotel. The court-house was afterward closed against him, but
the mayor offered him the city hall. After Donnell had filled a
few appointments in this hall, the mayor died, and the hall also
was closed against the preacher. So great was the opposition in
town, that he consented to move his appointment to the dwelling-
house of Mr. Castleman in the country. Here several distinguished
Tennesseans were converted. Donnell' s tour in East Tennessee,
described a little further on in this book, interrupted his Nashville
work. By and by he secured the assistance of the Rev. James B.
Porter, and held a protracted meeting in the court-house. He and
Porter lodged at the hotel, but when they once got a hearing, hos-
pitality was extended to them by various families. The preaching
in this meeting stirred all Nashville. Under one of Donnell' s ser-
mons Felix Grundy, an unconverted man, afterward United States
senator, sprung to his feet, seized his friend. Colonel Foster, also a
United States senator, by the hand, exclaiming, ' ' That is the truth,
Foster, every word of it, and it will stand at the day of judgment."
Donnell and Porter organized a church at this meeting, and raised
funds for a building.
128 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ir.
CHAPTER XV.
EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS.
Hark! from the West a voice is heard,
A voice beyond the mountain's side;
It breaks along the deep, dark wood
Where roams the savage in his pride.
A star appears, its cheering raj
Dawns on tlie red man's darksome way.
—6'. O. Wright.
THE house of Samuel McAdow, in which our first presbytery-
was organized, was not more than thirty miles from the
Indian territory. These Indians were still in their wild and savage
state. There were, it is true, a few exceptions, but only a few.
Most of these red men were as far away from civilization or Cliris-
tianity then as the naked sons of the forest who first greeted Colum-
bus over three centuries earlier. Some of the Mississippi Indians
of that day wore no clothing, and kept up all the habits of savage
life. There is a testimony of great significance from the Presbyte-
rian General Assembly to the effect that the revival of 1800 produced
new interest in the evangelization of the red man and the negro.
The facts abundantly sustain this testimony. Gideon Blackburn
belonged to the revival party in East Tennessee. He planted a
mission among the Cherokees, and devoted years of toil to that
interest. None of the anti-revival party of that day ever became
missionaries.
In Thomas Calhoun's first evangelistic tours he entered the
newly settled portions of Tennessee before the whites raised their
first crop, and before the Indians ceased to roam over the countr}-.
He and others held a camp-meeting at the spring where after^vard
Monroe, the county town of Overton County, Tennessee, was built.
Roving bands of Cherokee Indians attended the meeting. One of
these became greatly impressed, and there are reasons to believe he
Chapter XV.] EaRLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 129
was there converted. He went home and named an Indian town
after Calhoun. This was before the organization of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church. In talking to Calhoun about these early
days, I once expressed some surprise at his frequent mention of
Indians attending his meetings. His reply was, "Why, the In-
dian line was just over here on Duck River."
In Calhoun's and Donnell's tour in East Tennessee (1815) they
held two protracted meetings for the Indians. One of these was at
Pumpkin Town, and there was deep interest manifested by the
hearers. The Rev. James Stewart also preached to the Indians
before the existence of our first missionary board.
All three of the presbyteries which composed our first synod
began early experimenting on plans for missionary work in their
own vast bounds. Missionaries were sent to our new territories as
fast as these territories were opened, but societies formed with a
special view to work among the Indians and the heathen originated
in 18 18, and were organized in all three of the presbyteries in the
spring of that year. The missionary impulse in the three presby-
teries was simultaneous, and the indications are that it started with
Samuel King, James Stewart, and Robert Bell. All of these men
belonged to the Elk Presbytery. A constitution ' for a ladies' mis-
sionary society was drawn up by Robert Bell, and submitted in
March, 18 18, to the congregations of Elk Presbytery; and that plan
is the same one on which the missionary societies in all three of
the presbyteries were organized. This points to Elk rather than
Logan Presbytery^ as the first to move in this work. But its pri-
ority, if it existed, was one of only a few days at most, for the 9th
of Aprils of that year was the birthday of the ladies' society in
Russellville, Kentucky. One thing can be fairly claimed by the
Elk Presbytery: its missionary board (there was a central board for
the presbytery) was the first to send missionaries to the Indians.
In October, 1818, the Elk missionary board sent Samuel King and
William Moore to a work which lay along the borders of the Indian
country on the Tombigbee River.* When these two men returned,
'The Bell papers. "This honor has been claimed for Logan Presbytery.
^Mcdiutn, 1846, p. 326.
* Minutes of Elk Presbytery, Vol. I., p. 40. ' .
9
130 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
in the spring of 1819, and reported to their presbytery,' they made a
strong appeal in behalf of the red men, representing them as eager
to hear the gospel, and to have a missionary school located among
them. The language of this appeal would indicate that the schools
under the American Board in Mississippi were not yet in existence.
The missionary board of Elk Presbytery =" then sent Samuel King
and Robert Bell, in the fall of 1819, to travel as evangelists among
the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. On their return Mr. King
brought a young Indian convert with him, intending to educate
him for the ministry. He kept this boy at his own house, and sent
him to school.
These missionaries made arrangements in the Choctaw Nation
to secure a location and money for a missionary school, but their
plans were thwarted. Then the missionary society of Elk Presby-
tery sent Mr. Bell to establish a school in the w^hite settlements
close enough to the border for the Indians to patronize it. Accord-
ingly in May, 1820, Mr. Bell opened a school on the east side of the
Tombigbee River, nearly opposite the dividing line between the
Chickasaws and the Choctaws. He taught here only four weeks,
when the missionary board of Elk Presbytery directed him to move
the school into the Chickasaw Nation, the board having sent men
thither to negotiate a treaty for that purpose.
The Chickasaw Nation had never been at war with our people.
It had just sold out to the whites all that portion of Tennessee and
Kentucky lying between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi,
a delta far better known in early times for David Crockett's bear
hunts than for its cotton. The Chickasaws, so long the near neigh-
bors of Tennesseans, were still neighbors to the white people farther
south. Only the Tombigbee River (Indian name Itomba Igoba) lay
between them and the white settlements.
The Chickasaws of Mississippi, at the time our first mission
was opened, were in advance of other Indians. Many of them had
built cabins to live in. These were plastered tight with mud.
The door was in the back part of the hut. There was no floor but
the ground, and the cabin had but one room. The dead were
» Minutes of Elk Presbjterj, Vol. I., p. 45. 'Ibid., p. 49.
Chapter XV.] EARI.Y MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 13I
buried in the cabin under the bed. The corpse was doubled up
before it was buried, and the vault, after receiving the mortal re-
mains, was closely plastered over with mud. When the body was
buried the squaws present took down their hair and wore it dishev-
elled around their faces for one whole moon. During sickness they
had what was called a sick dance. They laid the sick out wrapped
in blankets, and danced around them. Some of these Indians
raised patches of com and sweet potatoes; only a few raised cot-
ton. [See Ladies' Pearly November, i860, p. 76.]
The traditions of the Tombigbee River surpass in thrilling in-
terest those of the Mississippi. At no spot do more of those tra-
ditions center than at Cotton Gin Port. Here at an early day the
United States government established a cotton gin among the
Indians to induce them to engage in the cultivation of cotton.
Levi Colbert, the most enlightened of all the Chickasaw chiefs,
moved to the neighborhood and devoted himself to persuading
his people to raise cotton, he himself setting the example. Here
at Cotton Gin the United States government had a post-office.
The country on the eastern side of the Tombigbee, in Robert
Bell's day, belonged to the white people, and some families lived
there, the father of Dr. C. H. Bell among them. Cotton Gin Port
as early as 1800 began to be a shipping point for emigrants to the
Tensas and other new countries. Canoes lashed together and cov-
ered with a floor of cane made the boats. The wreck ' of one such
boat at night, just below Cotton Gin, furnishes one of those thrill-
ing traditions of the Tombigbee of which there are so many; but
this tradition is eclipsed in interest by the more recent one of the
burning of the Eliza Battle, and the fearful loss of life on that bitter
night in March, 1858. A beloved Cumberland Presbyterian min-
ister, A. M. Newman, was among those who perished when that
steamboat was burned. Many of the passengers escaped on cotton
bales. A gentleman who was on the boat gave me an account of
that catastrophe. Newman threw a bale of cotton into the river
and placed his wife and child upon it, and then leaped in him-
self without any cotton bale. Mrs. Newman and daughter were
» Picket's Alabama, Vol. I., pp. 187-189.
132 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
taken up by my infonnant and saved, but Newman perished in the
waves.
When Robert Bell's two comrades (the commissioners of Elk
Presbytery) arrived at Cotton Gin Port, they went to Levi Colbert's
house. Bell had preached in that house on his former visit. Col-
bert was eager for the establishment of the school, and to have it
located near him. He assembled the king and chiefs of the Nation
at his house, where the three commissioners of the Board of j\Iis-
sions of Elk Presbytery entered into tre*aty with them. The com-
missioners promised instruction in mechanic arts and agriculture,
as well as in the literary course. They promised, also, within the
limits of their ability, to teach, board, and clothe the indigent
gratuitously. The chiefs promised protection, and the free use of
land for cultivation. This treaty was signed the nth of Septem-
ber, 1820, the names of the white commissioners standing on the
right and those of the king and chiefs on the left. The names
affixed to this agreement are: Robert Bell, Samuel King, and
James Stewart, for the mission. On the part of the Indians the
names are: Shako Tookey, king of the Nation; Tisho Mingo,
Appa Suntubba, Samuel Sealy, William McGalba, James Colbert,
and Levi Colbert, chiefs.
Three miles below Cotton Gin Port, at the base of the bluff,
were some springs of pure water. This spot was selected for the
school. It is seven miles from what is now the town of x-^berdeen,
Mississippi.
At the same time that the Elk Presbyter^' was taking these
steps for an Indian mission, it was also urging upon the General
Synod the propriety of having a board of missions for the whole
church. Elk Presbytery was not alone in this view of the case.
In the fall of 1819, at the meeting of the synod, it was resolved to
have one central board, and to make all the others tributary. The
arrangement made was certainly novel. The ladies' missionar\'
society of Logan Presbytery, without ceasing to be a presbyterial
society, was also made the general society of the church, and all
the ministers of the church were appointed trustees. Robert Don-
nell, of Elk Presbyter}^ became the president of the general board
at Russell ville, and Bell's mission was turned over to this board.
Chapter XV.] KaRLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. I33
The antecedents of the Russellville board deserve a passing
notice. In September, 181 7, H. A. Hunter, of Russellville, Ken-
tucky, professed religion at Liberty church, near Russellville. His
mother also became concerned about her soul. The young con-
vert, Hunter, with one other Christian to aid him, began a weekly
prayer-meeting in his father's ball-room. This was with the con-
sent of his parents. Then the Rev. Finis Ewing and the Rev.
William Barnett' came and held a meeting in that ball-room.
There was no meeting-house then in the place. The town had
been nick-named "The Devil's Camp-ground." This meeting in
the ball-room was greatly blessed. The whole town was revolu-
tionized, and several of the converts entered the holy ministry. At
the close of the meeting Finis Ewing organized a ladies' mission-
ary society in that same ball-room.^ By request of the ladies of
this society, the Logan Presbytery ^ became its board of directors.
After the action in 18 19, consolidating the missionary work of the
church, this society had two boards of directors. As the society of
Logan Presbytery it had the ministers of that presbytery for one of
these boards; as the general missionary society of the church it had
all the preachers in the church for the other. Cumberland Presby-
terians had no chartered board of missions until 1845. Men even
opposed chartered boards as savoring of Church and State.
It was under this curiously organized society that Mr. Bell's
mission was placed soon after the school began. The site chosen
for Bell's mission was in a beautiful country; but in the early set-
tlements there was a good deal of sickness. Bell and his wife
opened their school in the fall of 1820, in Levi Colbert's house,
which he generously tendered for that purpose.
Robert Bell was one of "the young men" (licentiates) arraigned
before the commissioners in 1805. A memorial for his ordination
was pending when his presbytery was dissolved. His heroic wife
belonged to the McCutcheon family of Logan County. Bell pro-
fessed religion at McGready's meeting, September, 1800. When
he felt himself called to preach he commenced a thorough classical
' Dr. Cossitt's Life and Times of Ewing, p. 253.
^Medium, 1846, p. 326.
Minutes of Logan Presbytery, May, 1818.
134 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
course of study; but under the heavy pressure of calls from the des-
titute regions, and by the advice of the old preachers, he abandoned
his studies and took the circuit. In his later writings he expresses
his profound conviction, based on a life-time of close observation,
that it would have been better for him to have completed the re-
quired course of study. Bell's manuscript autobiography is thor-
oughly interesting. He was living in Logan County, Kentucky,
when McGready's great meetings began. He attended every one
of them. His account of the commission and the council is also
deeply interesting.
Robert Bell was the grandfather of the Rev. Dr. C. H. Bell, so
well known in the church as general superintendent of missions.
The father of Dr. C. H. Bell superintended the erection of tempo-
rary buildings on the site chosen for the mission, while Robert Bell
and his wife taught temporarily in Colbert's house. In four weeks
these temporary buildings were ready, and the school was moved
into them.
In 1823 the Rev. John C. Smith and his wife were sent to assist
in the mission. With a variable amount of hired help a tan-yard
was built, a farm cleared and fenced, and a blacksmith shop and a
saddler's shop established. Much of the manual labor was done
by the missionary himself With a family of thirty boarders, Mrs.
Bell often had less, never more, than two assistants in the cooking
and washing departments, though she generally had some ladies to
aid her in the work of teaching the girls to spin and weave.
Government aid, under a general regulation of the United
States, was secured for Bell's mission. The United States was
aiding schools, under certain restrictions, in all the Indian tribes
within our domains. Often, however, rivalry sprung up in the
struggles of different churches to secure this aid. It was thus our
first bargain for a school among the Choctaws was lost, and thus
other far darker wrongs blackened the annals of our Indian schools
in the North-west. Mr. Bell's mission secured government aid to
the amount of about three hundred dollars per annum. This is
the average, for there was an unaccountable irregularity both in
the government aid and also in the contributions sent by the mis-
sionary board. The latter amounted, in 1824, to over a thousand
Chapter XV.] EaRLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. I35
dollars, but sunk to $272 in 1826, and to $142 in 1830. Until the
last two years of the mission's life, during which no help was sent,
the annual receipts from both these sources ranged between $367,
the lowest, up to $1,494, the highest. The average, omitting the
two years just mentioned, was $640. Out of this Mr. Bell paid all
his assistants, and boarded, taught, and clothed gratuitously an
average of twenty indigent students annually. His chief reliance
for support was on his farm, which the students helped him to cul-
tivate. There were also ten or twelve students who paid their own
way. The assistant teachers were often changed. I find half a
dozen persons mentioned at one time or another as assistants, who
had grown weary of the hardships and the poverty, and left the
institution; but Mr. Bell could not be driven away by hardships.
If his meat gave out he mounted his horse, rode back to Tennes-
see, and begged hogs from his old acquaintances, and drove them
himself to the mission. If the money gave out, he drew on
his own little estate, hoping perhaps to be repaid, but if he had
such hope, he had to wait till he got to heaven for its fulfillment.
If his teachers left him, he put his son and daughter in their
places, and doubled his own labors until other help could be had.
He was farmer, preacher, traveling agent, government agent, with
orders to collect information in philology, Indian archaeology, In-
dian traditions, and to report in detail on the ornithology, zoolog>',
and all the other "ologies" of the land he lived in.
It was hard enough to struggle as he had to do, without hav-
ing burdens of heart-ache superadded by opposition from ministers
of his own church. One of the dark backgrounds to every beauti-
ful picture of the Cumberland Presbyterian ministry is the element
of opposition to foreign missions which has always been found
among the preachers. It is never opposition to foreign missions
per se^ but opposition on the plea of some fancied inexpediency.
This element has never been very large, but it exists even to-day
in all its mischievous power. It is no native growth. Its fitting
home is with the Antinomians.
At the close of the late civil war, while the South was still a
smoking ruin and the people impoverished, the General Assembly
of the Southern Presbyterian church had one man who raised the
136 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period II.
question of expediency in regard to foreign missions. Then there
rose in his place a man who still wore his army suit because too
poor to buy any other, and uttered a sentence which deserves to
be written in gold. He said: "To debate whether we shall now
undertake missions to the heathen is to debate whether we shall
now do what the Lord Jesus told us to do." There was not
another voice raised in that Assembly against the expediency of
foreign missions.
A suggestive history showing how a strong man was cured of his
opposition to Bell's mission is found in a letter written by the Rev.
Thomas Calhoun. This man was the Rev. William Barnett. The
missionary society fell upon the expedient of sendingliim to inspect
the mission for them, and report its condition. He accepted the
appointment, and made his tour of inspection. Mr. Bell showed
him all the exercises of the school, and had the children sing for
him. This completely won him, and from that day onward the
mission had no warmer friend than William Barnett. It would be
well if all opposers of foreign missions could be brought into con-
tact with those who are now laboring among the heathen, and see
the fruit of missionary work. There were at least half a dozen
cases of opposition to Bell's mission cured by visiting the insti-
tution. Opposition to missions, by good men, only needs to have
the light shine on it, and it dies.
There is another interesting case. The Rev. William Moore,
who was one of the first advocates of a mission school, removed,
before Bell's school was established, to South Alabama, where at
that time we had no organized churches. A few families of Cum-
berland Presbyterian immigrants were scattered in the vast whirl-
pool of new settlers from different countries, like Virgil's wrecked
Trojans in the boiling waves of the ocean.' He wrote to Mr. Bell
that he could do nothing in that new field for the mission. ]\Ir.
Bell made a vigorous presentation of the laws of success in home
work, and their relations to a faithful discharge of our duties to the
heathen; and Mr. Moore became a regular contributor himself, and
collected money also from that pioneer people for Bell's mission.
Among Mr. Bell's papers are letters from nearly all the minis-
' " Rari nantes in gurgite vasto."
Chapter XV.] EaRLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. I37
ters who belonged to the synod at that day. Bell's correspondence
with the Hon. John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, is in these files.
A copy of a letter from the Indian chief, Levi Colbert, is here
given :
Chickasaw Nation, September 25, 1S23.
Friend and Brother of the Cumberland Missionary Board:
I suppose you wish to know what the people of this Nation think
of your missionary school, and what encouragement they seem disposed
to give it. They talk favorably of the school, and are well satisfied
with the manner in which it has been conducted. They wish it to be
continued and carried into full operation, so that our poor people who
are not able to board their children can have them educated. The
more wealthy part of our Nation will give some assistance. ... I have
talked to the chiefs in council two or three times, and have met but little
opposition. . . . We want our Nation to be enlightened, and to under-
stand that gospel which you missionaries preach, and we wish all our
good friends among the white people to pray for us.
I am your sincere friend,
Levi Colbert.
Mr. Bell, like all our first preachers, considered camp-meetings
an indispensable part of the church machinery. We are not sur-
prised, therefore, at finding annual camp-meetings at the mission
mentioned in these records. Among the names of men who assisted
in these meetings I find Alexander Chapman, David Foster, James
S. Guthrie, James Stewart, and William Barnett. At one of the
camp-meetings held at Bell's Mission Station was a convert whose
name afterward became a household word in West Tennessee. I
mean the Rev. Israel S. Pickens. He and his wife had been em-
ployed to assist in the establishment. Several of the Pickens fam-
ily had, from time to time, been employed as assistants in some of
the many departments of work about the mission, and thus it came
about that Israel Pickens was at one of the camp-meetings.
Some extracts from Mrs. Bell's diary will now be given. The
first is for 1823:
June II. — Mr. Blair left us this morning on his way to Florence,
after supplies for the use of the school.
June 14. — Received a letter from the sub-agency of this Nation in-
forming us that the United States government had appropriated the
sum of four hundred dollars for this institution this year, for the pay-
138 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
ment of the tuition of poor children; also informing us that five hun-
dred dollars had been sent us last year, of which we never before heard.
This was owing to the absence of the agent. We humbly trust that
this assistance, when obtained, will enable us to bring a number more
of these poor destitute heathen to a knowledge of the gospel.
June 15. — Mr. Smith, with most of the mission family, crossed the
river to preach to the white people, just on the margin of a Christian
land, where we had the inestimable privilege of worshiping God
along with a respectable congregation.
It must have been sweet, after so long a time spent with unciv-
ilized heathen, to meet a congregation of at least nominal Chris-
tians; but Mrs. Bell and the mission family were just as eager to
attend meetings among the red men.
She says, in another place:
Mr. Smith preached at Cotton Gin Port to-day, from Matt. xvi. 26.
There was a good audience, and they gave uncommonly good attention.
Two of our scholars left the station to-day without leave, or any known
cause. We suppose they have gone home to see their friends. They
have been but a short time in school, and were greatly attached to their
old habits.
June 20. — Attended to our weekly examination, which was satisfac-
tory. The exercise in vocal music made us hope for the day when
Indian congregations, instead of engaging in war songs and supersti-
tious dances, will join in singing the songs of Zion.
June 21. — Received a letter from Mr. Bell, dated Limestone County,
Alabama. He is well, and has encouraging success in raising funds for
the mission.
Thus often did the missionary have to leave his work and go
out to raise funds.
June 22. — For lack of an interpreter, Mr. Smith was prevented from
filling his appointment to-day at Mr. James Wolf's, three miles distant.
Complaint about the great difficulty in securing regular and
persevering attendance comes up in all Mr. Bell's reports, as it does
in all the accounts which I ever saw of schools for Indians. The
wild, free sons of the forest will not be bound down to hard study.
They can learn well enough while they are at it, but the)' will not
stick to their task. Of the twenty Indians sent to Cumberland
University during my connection with that institution, only one
was graduated and he only in the scientific course.
Chapter XV.] EARI.Y MISSIONS TO THK INDIANS. I39
June 26. — Mr. Smith saw four white men on their way to see a
dance among the Indians. These white men were all drinking, and
some of them were already drunk. It is bad enough for white people
to encourage the superstitious dances of the Indians, but to carry drunk-
enness among them is too bad. It is this which makes the chief obstacle
to the success of missions.
July 16. — We were visited to-day by Colonel G , who has been
bitterly opposed to our mission. The children read and sang for him.
He is completely won over. O that all our people who oppose the
mission would make us a visit!
The mission boarded, taught, and clothed the pupils. Over
half of these were charged no fees at all, they being too poor to
pay. By order of the board the free list was limited to twenty.
The school usually numbered thirty-five. A touching case is given
in Mrs. Bell's diary of two bright Indian children below the regu-
lation age, who were brought to the school by their parents. They
were very poor. The school was overtaxed and oppressed by the
number of beneficiary pupils, which was already two more than
the board's limit. But these naked children of the forest were
specially bright, and Mrs. Bell determined to take them.
The hardships and sufferings of these missionaries were equal
to any borne by missionaries to distant heathen lands. Often the
money sent the mission was so greatly under par that it was diffi-
cult to use it. Mr. Bell, besides all his other labors, cultivated a
considerable farm, and in this way helped to keep the establish-
ment from starving. Many of the Indians who paid either all or
part of their boarding, paid in cattle, and the supply of milk was
largely depended on as a means of support. The contributions
from the churches were a curious medley. Cotton cloth was a
chief item. Raw cotton, beeves, socks, flax cloth, and jeans v/ere
also among the contributions.
At different times persons sent by the missionary board to visit
the mission made stirring reports of the hardships and privations
suffered by the missionaries. At no time was there a sufficient
supply of either money, clothing, or provisions sent to them. The
Rev. David Foster and the Rev. James S. Guthrie, after a visit to
this mission, wrote to the board as follows:
Mr. and Mrs. Bell have more labor of different kinds than their
140 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
strength can stand, and unless they have in future some assistance their
days must be shortened.
An extract from Mrs. Bell's journal will show how painful it
was to the missionaries to reject the applications of the destitute:
January 4, 1S23. — Mr. Pitchland has visited us again this day, solic-
iting us to take under our care another little son, .... but we were
obliged to turn him oft'; and, with hearts full of regret, we informed
him that we were obliged to circumscribe our wishes for want of funds
to furnish the necessary support.
It was the custom of Mr. Bell and his assistants, one of whom
was always a preacher, to go out into the Indian country and
preach. Levi Colbert, the chief already mentioned, opened his
house on such occasions as a preaching place.
Regular quarterly reports of the work done by this mission
were sent to the missionary board. The average number taught
per session was about thirty-five. The programme for daily duties
in the mission was reported to the board. It was as follows:
At daylight the trumpet is blown, the signal for all to rise. In half
an hour it is blown again, the signal for family worship, which all,
black, white, and red, are to attend in the dining-room. After worship
Mr. Bell and the boys go to the farm and Mrs. Bell and the girls to
spinning and w^eaving. At eight o'clock comes breakfast: then come
school hours till twelve; then an hour's interval for dinner and rest;
school again from one till four; then labor in field and loom till six;
then supper and worship. All the students share alike in the manual
labor, which amounts, in summer, to four hours daily.
Manual labor schools for white people as well as for Indians had
jtist come into fashion.
Two or three years before the purchase of this countr}- from the
Indians its cession to the whites was agitated to an extent that
seriously interfered with the mission. Then came the startling
tidings that the chiefs had signed a treaty with the United States
government agreeing to vacate all the soil of Mississippi. Although
the promised exodus from the State dragged its reluctant fulfill-
ment through many bitter years, yet even the prospect of a treaty
two years before its ratification terminated all aid for the mission,
both from government and church.
Mr. Bell tried for two years to carry on the school without aid,
Chapter XV.] EaRLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. I4I
relying on the farm, tuition fees, and his own private funds for
support; but the excitement among the Indians over the sale of
their country, and the clamor of government agents who were
struggling to remove the Indians, made it absolutely necessary to
close the mission. Mr. Bell's final settlement with the board was
made in 1832, but he remained in the same country the rest of his
days, preaching to the white people. The fruits of this mission
are abundant to-day among the Indians of the West, as well as
among the redeemed in glory. As the second period of this his-
tory extends only to 1829, ^^^ further discussion of the church's
work among the Indians belongs to a later chapter. A noble bio-
graphical sketch of Mr. Bell has been published by Dr. Beard, to
which sketch the reader is referred. It is evident, however, that
Dr. Beard never saw Mr. Bell's autobiography. It is in manuscript
and will be placed in the Cumberland University library. It de-
serves to be published.
142 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
CHAPTER XVI.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF
EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE AND THE KENTUCKY
PURCHASE.
Far off on the desert mountains
To wandering souls it came,
That sound of a tender message,
That pleading in Christ's name;
It followed the sorrowful path thej trod.
Till the wandering spirits were turned to God.
—A. A.
IN the very States where the church originated there were new
fields opened to white settlers after the church was organized.
These were the Hiwassee Purchase, in East Tennessee, all of what
is now called West Tennessee, and all that portion of Kentucky
lying west of the Tennessee River. All of East Tennessee up to
1815 was unbroken soil, so far as our people were concerned. Long
before our evangelists went to this field pressing demands for the
revival preachers to visit East Tennessee had been made. Early
in 1800 visitors to the camp-meetings had carried the revival spirit
over the mountains and spread it among the churches. Opposition
arose there, as it did in McGready'3 field. The ministry- were
divided there too on the revival question. The doctrine of a gen-
eral atonement began to stir the Presbyterian churches there also.
The cr}' for more preachers rang through those mountains as it
had rung along the banks of the Cumberland. From Mr. McMul-
len's MS. we learn that all the presbyteries of East Tennessee were
stirred on the question, "Did Christ die for ever}-body?" The
revival awakened that question wherever it entered Presbyterian
communities. The cr>^ for more preachers also arose wherever the
revival went. This, while historically a fact, was also a logical
consequence. Itinerant preaching also followed wherever the
revival entered new settlements.
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 1 43
The outcry against disorder in church was raised by the Old
Side party in East Tennessee, as it had been in Cumberland. Dr.
Henderson led one party and Dr. Blackburn the other. But justice
to Dr. Henderson requires me to state that his opposition to the
revival never went to such extremes, nor resorted to such eccle-
siastical violence as characterized the anti-revival party in the Ken-
tucky Synod.
We have preserv^ed to us a letter of remonstrance written by
Mr. McGready to his Old *^ide brethren in East Tennessee. He
says:
Tell my brethren to let the Lord choose his own way of working;
to bid the Spirit of God welcome, even though he should choose to
work among them as he does among the Methodists. Tell them to be
more afraid of sinners being damned for want of religion, than of what
they call disorder when sinners cry out for mercy.
Before our church sent any evangelists into East Tennessee, an
ecclesiastical barrier was interposed between them and even the
revival party of that country. The Presbyterian church had for-
bidden its clergy recognizing as ministers any of the Cumberland
Presbyterian preachers, and had also forbidden its members com-
muning with the members of our church at the Lord's table.
Therefore our first missionaries there had to encounter the open
opposition of one party and the lack of co-operation from the
other. Our first evangelists in that field were Thomas Calhoun
and Robert Donnell. The published dates of this first mission to
East Tennessee are all wrong. I have before me Calhoun's writ-
ten history of it, and I also have Robert Donnell' s diary, kept
throughout that whole tour. That diary says: "Through the
mercy of God we met in McMinnville, Tennessee, the last day of
June, 1815, according to agreement. "
They began their meetings in Sequatchie Valley first, where
they had good success; and then they crossed the mountains to the
field which they had chosen. Their first work was at Washineton.
Then they went into the Hiwassee country, though Indians still
occupied large portions thereof. They next visited Morganton
and Maryville. They expected to preach in the Presbyterian
church at Maryville, as its pastor, Dr. Anderson, was one of the
144 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
revival party. They had sent their appointment to him, but the
ecclesiastical interdict was not to be trampled on. When they
entered the church, though a little in advance of the preaching
hour. Dr. Anderson was up preaching. At the close of his sermon
he called on Donnell to conclude. "Donnell gave an exhortation
which set the house on fire."' The soberest of Dr. Anderson's
members, and even his elders, went to shouting. The people rose
to their feet and crowded around Donnell, begging him to stay and
protract the meeting. Dr. Anderson took the evangelists home
with him to dinner. At the table he said, "The Methodists (!)
gave Mr. Donnell a very hearty welcome to-day." The evangel-
ists then left an appointment for a meeting to be held at the sem-
inary, and went to some of Dr. Blackburn's churches, where they
were kindly received. The doctrines they preached were indorsed
by Dr. Blackburn's members, and his congregations received some
valuable accessions. No effort was made to take advantage of his
courtesy by organizing a Cumberland Presbyterian church. Then
they returned to Maryville and held their meeting in the seminar^'.
Dr. Anderson not only attended that meeting, but followed them
to one they held in the country. At the country- meeting Don-
nell's sermons set the people to shouting, old Presbyterian elders
being the chief performers. Dr. Anderson caught the fire and
leaped over rigid boundaries for a moment, but, recollecting him-
self, he returned to the order required by his church. Thus the
evangelists went on through all of East Tennessee, helping to
build up the congregations of the revival party, but refusing in all
cases throughout that tour to organize any Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church. They held a meeting in a grove near Kingston,
and there Calhoun was taken sick. Thus ended this campaign.
The next year an unconverted man by the name of Miller came
all the way from East Tennessee to Smyrna church, Jackson
County, Tennessee, to beg Calhoun to make another visit to his
country. Calhoun gave him a long list of appointments. One
of these was at the Indian town named Calhoun. Another w^as at
the Indian agency, now Athens. In this trip Calhoun met with,
and preached to, W. C. McKaniy, who afterward became a ver>'
'The Calhoun papers.
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 145
efficient minister. All through East Tennessee the solitary evan-
gelist went, preaching where Miller had previously published his
appointments.
The next account we have of preaching in East Tennessee by
our people is in the records of Nashville Presbytery, spring of
1 8 18, in which David Foster is ordered to a regular circuit in East
Tennessee, to spend his whole time there till the next meeting of
the presbytery. He complied with the order. In 1821 J. S. Guth-
rie was sent to the Hiwassee circuit. It is to be regretted that we
have none of the details of these two tours of evangelism, but
what we know about the two noble evangelists leaves us no room to
doubt that their work in East Tennessee, as in all the other places
where they labored, was abundantly fruitful. The language used
by the presbytery in Foster's and Guthrie's appointment to this
field would indicate known and established circuits, on which
former missionaries had labored. It is quite likely that evangelists
were sent thither the next year after Calhoun's voluntary mission .
(18 16), or that such evangelists went voluntarily to that field, but
if this is so we have no record of the fact.
J. S. Guthrie was a "rough ashlar," just out of nature's quarr}^,
but he had an intellect full of native vigor, and was well versed in
Scripture and in the doctrines of his church. His work was
everywhere owned of God, and its results still abide. All the
numerous anecdotes about Guthrie have something ludicrous
mixed with an awful solemnity. He was continued in East Ten-
nessee till 1823.
The same year Robert Baker and Abner Lansden, two men
like minded, both sweet spirits, were sent to that country. In
1824 George Donnell and S. M. Aston were also sent thither, and
for many long years these two noble spirits preached Jesus in that
field. They were very unlike in many things, yet they were
deeply devoted to each other. We have a grand biography of
George Donnell, written by President T. C. Anderson. It would
be an effort "to paint the rose" should I try to add to that truth-
ful picture ; but we have no biography of his noble fellow-laborer.
S. M. Aston was a strong thinker, outspoken, independent, rather
blunt in his utterances, fearless, and fully persuaded that God was
10
146 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
with him. While Donnell could make the people weep and win
the enemies' hearts, Aston could wield strong arguments that would
convince the gainsayers. Abner W. Lansden was often sent to
this field. Once S. Y. Thomas was sent to assist in this work.
All these were then young men and not ordained. The anti-
revival party of the Presbyterian church mocked at their youth,
their homespun clothing, and their lack of classical education ; yet
these }'oung men gradually made their way, winning the hearts
and confidence of even the Old Side party.
One little sketch, taken from President Anderson's excellent
biography of George Donnell, is here given to illustrate how these
' ' boys ' ' overcame prej udice : '
You may have some idea of our meeting if you will fancy yourself
looking over the weeping congregation, and beholding here an Old
School man on his knees bending over four children, all come to years
of maturity, and all crying for mercy; and there an old gray-headed
sire, with streaming eyes, in great agony for a whole family of children;
and yonder a mother in Israel on her knees, bending over a husband
and four grown children, all unconverted.
The meeting here alluded to was held in the midst of an Old
Side community, and these parents were Old Side in their anteced-
ents. But their prejudices were swept away when all their chil-
dren found Jesus and salvation.
Many Presbyterians offered their private dwellings for these
missionaries to preach in. One case of this kind deserves special
notice. Thomas Gallagher was an elder in the Presbyterian church,
and had a son who was a faithful minister in that church. Yet
he, like many others, offered the use of his house to George Don-
nell for regular circuit appointments. Four of Mr. Gallagher's
children afterward claimed George Donnell as their spiritual father.
Thus the Lord compensated the old elder for his liberality to a
youthful missionary of a proscribed church.
There are many accounts of bitter prejudice against the mis-
sionaries among those belonging to the Old Side party in that day,
but it is a source of great comfort to know that no such prejudice
is to be encountered in that country now. In a long preaching
'Life of George Donnell, pp. 190, 191.
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 147
tour among the people of East Tennessee a few years ago, I met
nothing but kindness and co-operation from the ministry of the
Presbyterian church.
The first camp-meeting which our people held in East Tennes-
see was at Low's Ferry, in 1823. The second was at a spot long
ago endeared to a thousand hearts. This meeting was held in
1824, ^t Concord, in Knox County, by the missionaries, assisted
by two of the old men who came across the mountains for this pur-
pose. These old men were Thomas Calhoun and Samuel McSped-
din, and along with them came Robert Baker. The meeting was
a great victory, and laid the foundation for several churches.
In 1826 a curious spectacle greets us. The Lebanon Presbytery
crossed the mountains and held its meeting in a private house
belonging to Mr. Cowan, in Grassy Valley, East Tennessee. This
fact indicates the deep interest felt for that field, and will do so all
the more when we remember that "horseback" was the only
mode of travel.
The next year- (1827) Knoxville Presbytery was organized.
Its original members were George Donnell, S. M. Aston, Abner W.
Lansden, and William Smith. These four men were our minis-
ters in that field till about the close of this period, when another
noble band took their places.
It ought to bring a blush to the cheeks of East Tennesseins even
to this day to know how poorly all these early missionaries were
paid. That George Donnell should be laughed at for his home-
spun coat, worn out at the elbows, is no credit to our people,
especially when we remember how unspeakably precious the labors
of this man of God were. In a MS. history of the Presbyterian
church in East Tennessee I find the same kind of bitter com-
plaints. These early preachers were not paid. Great improve-
ment has been made in this respect, but there is room for vet
further progress. Nor is East Tennessee the only field needing
such improvement.
In Thomas Calhoun's manuscripts are several glimpses at the
hard life which pioneer preachers encountered in East Tennessee.
Once in his journey he stayed all night at the house of a preacher.
There were cracks or openings between the logs of the cabin
148 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
through, which the hogs passed in and out with uninterrupted free-
dom. Often his meals consisted of nothing but hominy. Bridges
and ferry-boats were a luxury reserved for the great thoroughfares
or for later times. Swimming rivers was a pastime whose attrac-
tions would meet small appreciation in our day.
In Hugh Kirkpatrick's manuscripts he speaks of his feet being
frost-bitten in one of his preaching tours. His meetings were
eminently successful. At a camp-meeting held by him in East
Tennessee there were two hundred conversions. In such a sparse
population that was a great number. He says of this meeting:
"We worked up all the material."
The country west of the Tennessee River was bought from
the Indians in 1819. It was settled very rapidly. Many Cum-
berland Presbyterians were among its pioneers. An anecdote of
the Rev. N. I. Hess, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who had
explored all of West Tennessee before it was bought from the
Indians, is here given. When the friends of the Mobile and Ohio
Railroad were making a canvass to secure subscriptions to its stock
they employed two orators, one a distinguished congressman and
the other Mr. Hess. At each barbecue Hess would tell some inci-
dent of his early travels and adventures in that very neighborhood
before the country belonged to white men, and would so adroitly
use it as to leave the congressman clear behind in popularity.
The congressman chafed at this and resolved on a remedy. He
detenuined to transfer their canvass to the other side of their field,
where, he supposed, the pioneer tours of Hess had not extended.
The plan was agreed to and a barbecue was prepared at a big
spring on the other side of the district. The congressman
spoke first, and being confident of victory he made a great effort.
When Hess arose his first sentence was, "Just forty years ago, in
company with two red men of the forest, I drank water out of that
spring;" and then, with more than his wonted felicity, he painted
the wonderful progress and grander destiny of West Tennessee.
The Nashville Presbytery established circuits in West Tennes-
see just as soon as that country was settled by white people. The
first itinerants sent thither were John L. Dillard and James INIcDon-
nold, and they began their work in 1820, less than a year after
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. I49
the purchase of the country from the Indians. In 182 1 Richard
Beard was sent, to the ' ' Forked Deer ' ' circuit. Dr. Beard, to his
dying day, loved to talk about his experience on this circuit.
There were no bridges. The country is flat and its water-courses
spread for miles over the bottoms in the rainy seasons. Some of
these bottoms are three miles wide, with sloughs at intervals over
all their extent. When the water covered all the bottom there
were stakes or blazed trees to indicate where the road was.
Between these stakes, in water often coming up to the horse's
sides, the missionary would make his way until a deep slough was
reached, into which he plunged without warning, and across which
the horse had to swim. Nor were water-courses the only difficulty.
There were quicksands. A crust over these would bear a horse
safely one time, and perhaps the next trip the crust would break,
and horse and rider would then be fortunate if they ever got out
alive. Besides all this, a large part of the pioneer population was
shaking with the ague. The missionaries shared in this affliction,
but were not thereby kept from filling their appointments.
Robert Baker, J. S. Guthrie, and J. W. Rea (1823) were also
sent by the Nashville Presbytery to this land of cypress knees and
quicksands. Thomas Calhoun made a brief tour through this
region on his own responsibility, and was so delighted with the
country that he determined to make it his home. He secured a
tract of land for this purpose, but finding his congregations arrayed
against his removal, he sold his West Tennessee land, and never
again tried to leave his first field of labor.
Camp-meetings came, of course. Other preachers besides Cal-
houn bought lands in this splendid cotton delta, and were not dis-
suaded from settling on them. At Robert Baker's camp-ground.
Old Shiloh, in Carroll County, David Crockett, the bear killer, would
sometimes attend the meetings, dressed in homespun shirt and
without any coat. This camp-ground could itself furnish ample
material for a volume. It has ever been famous for its precious
revivals. The name of Robert Baker is a household treasure in all
West Tennessee. Having known him well in my boyhood, I think
I could give an epitome of his biography in one sentence: He was
noted for sweetness of character, holiness of life, and a loving ear-
150 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
nestness in the pulpit which never failed to win the hearts. of his
hearers.
The Rev. S. Y. Thomas, of precious memory, was another pio-
neer in this field. At the old Yorkville camp-ground many were
converted under his ministry, and his name and memory are still
fresh in all that country. ,
The Rev. William Barnett was among the preachers who took
up their permanent abode in West Tennessee. He immediately
established a camp-ground and a church. From Dr. Beard's bio-
graphical sketches I extract an item about Harnett's preaching in
this country. He was at a camp -meeting at McLemoresville,
and the sermon here spoken of was on Monday. Dr. Beard was
present, and gives the description from his own observation. W^e
all know that Dr. Beard did not at any time make his statements
too strong. He says: "On Monday he preached on the subject of
the judgment. It was a sennon of great power. ... It was terrific.
The crowd trembled under the influence of its awful and over-
whelming appeals. Such appeals are seldom heard, and such im-
pressions are seldom made now. He closed with a great movement
in the congregation. Many were convicted and hopefully converted
that evening." By universal consent William Barnett was called
the Boanerges of the church.
In 1824 the order for the organization of the first presbytery in
that field was issued. It was called Hopewell, and still bears that
name. Its original members were William Barnett, Richard Beard,
Samuel Harris, and John C. Smith. The first meeting of this
presbytery was at McLemoresville, in Carroll County. West Ten-
nessee soon became one of the great strongholds of the church,
and remains so to this day.
What was called Jackson's Purchase in Kentucky now contains
seven counties of that State. This country and the Fwked Deer
region of Tennessee were opened to white settlers about the same
time. Cumberland Presbyterians in both Tennessee and Kentucky
seemed to feel some responsibility for the religious cultivation of
this field, but it was many years before our people in either of
these States assumed the sole oversight of this work. Lying in
Kentucky, it was separated from the circuits of our missionaries in
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 15I
that State by two great rivers, which flow only twelve miles apart.
The inconvenience this caused will be better understood when we
remember that the lower Tennessee River is too wide to swim,
many horses utterly failing to reach the farther shore when they
are made to try the dangerous experiment.
An illustration of the trouble a Kentucky missionary had on
account of these rivers is here recorded. The Rev, B. H. Pierson,
D.D., now of Arkansas, was one of the pioneer preachers in this
field. He is now (1886) in his eighty-third year. He says:'
We traveled with but little if any remuneration. . . . My circuit
was arranged so that I had to ferry the Cumberland four times each
round. Once I came to the bank of this stream without a cent. How
I would get over the river I knew not; but having to call on a brother
who lived close to the ferry, when I started from his house he, without
knowing the state of my finances, handed me a '"bit" — twelVe and a
half cents — remarking, "This will pay your ferrjage."
Still there were other ferriages to be paid, but the preacher went
on his way. He says: "I had the altar and the wood, but where
was the sacrifice ? ' ' God provided it. He preached that day, and
after the benediction was pronounced, and he was ready to set out
for the next ferry, a lady in shaking hands with him left a whole
dollar in his hands. With overflowing thankfulness of heart the
preacher went on his way, with money enough in his pocket to
pay eight ferriages. This was the amount received for a whole
year's labor.
Dr. Pierson says there were no meeting-houses in this region at
that day. All the preaching was done in private houses, or out
under the trees. He speaks of a two days' meeting in a private
house where there were seventeen conversions. In this year's work
in this new field Mr. Pierson had for his associate in missionary
labor the Rev. Adlai Boyd, of Kentucky.
I have been able to secure only very meager accounts of the
church's early work in Jackson's Purchase. This mention of Dr.
Pierson' s experience will have to suffice for a sample, and it is
doubtless a fair sample of what all our first missionaries in that
field could relate, were they still living.
' Dr. Crisman's " Our Old Men," p. 76.
152 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
The Logan Presbytery, when its territory included what are now
five States, could not cultivate all its field. It sent men to Indiana,
Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri, when, if a selfish localism had gov-
erned it, it might have employed every preacher it had in its home
field. Yet that noble presbytery, though it was sending so many
missionaries to the West, still struggled to build up the church in
Kentucky. The whole State was divided first into two districts,
and later into four. In each of these districts evangelists preached
every day in the week. The biograph)- of those evangelists would
include the whole history of our church. Chapman, Harris, Hun-
ter, Lowry, Bryan, Knight, Delany, Johnson, Philip McDonnold,
John and William Barnett, McLin, McDowell, Lynn, and many
others, were on the roll of evangelists sent out in that day. Stir-
ring accounts of their meetings come to us in great numbers.
In the later years of this second period the number of noble
workers in our Kentucky pulpits grew to such proportions as to
render it impracticable to give special individual descriptions.
Only sample incidents can be indulged.
The Rev. Matthew Houston Bone, began his career in Ken-
tucky. At one camp-meeting where he expected to have the
assistance of several older preachers, he being then only a licen-
tiate, he found himself to be the only preacher in attendance. He
spent nearly all the first night in prayer. His soul was distressed
not only about the overwhelming responsibility which had fallen
upon him, but he could decide on no text for the morrow's sermon.
However, a text on which he had no sermon was impressed on his
mind, and he accepted it as from the Lord. He preached next day
from this text with wonderful freedom and power. The whole vast
audience was deeply moved, and a work of grace began which re-
sulted in a great number of conversions.
"Scotch" Smith and Dr. Cossitt both entered the ministry in
our Kentucky pulpits during this period. One was a camp-meet-
ing preacher, the other made his grandest record in connection
with our educational enterprises.
The incident in the life of Mr. Bone just cited, is characteristic
of our early preachers. They believed not only that God guided
them in the selection of their texts, but they earnestly believed
Chapter XVI.] EaST AND WEST TENNESSEE. I53
that on some occasions he gave the whole sermon as well as the
text. An incident in point is given from the autobiography of the
Rev. H. A. Hunter. It was at a camp-meeting at Mt. Moriah, near
Russellville, Kentucky. Hunter was to preach, but could think
of no suitable text or sermon. He was just beginning his minis-
try, and had but few ready-made sermons. In those days the senior
minister who managed such matters often issued his orders to the
young preacher only a short time before he required him to begin
his sermon. Hunter, receiving orders thus, fled in dismay to the
woods. Falling prostrate there he poured out his complaints to
the Lord. There were only a few moments for prayer. The time
to preach came, but there was no light, no text, no sermon. He
rose and went to the pulpit. They sang a hymn, and while they
sang, text and sermon too were impressed on the young jDreacher's
mind. He rose and read, " Ye have said it is a vain thing to serve
God." He testifies that each successive sentence came like an in-
spiration, until, the sermon over, he "called for mourners," and
more came than could find room to kneel. That was at the nine
o'clock morning service. The usual second sermon had to be
omitted, and all the rest of that day was spent instructing and
praying for anxious souls. Many were made glad in Jesus that
day. Many cases in which the Holy Spirit did imdoubtedly guide
the minister in his arguments have occurred among the truly con-
secrated preachers of the Cross in all churches and all ages. These
cases have by no means been confined to ignorant and visionary
men ; but in instances coming within my own observation, men of
the profoundest scholarship and severest habits of study have been
led out beyond all their accustomed fields of research into aro-u-
ments and illustrations not their own — arguments whose divine
origin was abundantly vindicated afterward when the preacher dis-
covered their exact fitness to a state of things of which he was pro-
foundly ignorant at the time he delivered the sermon. The writer,
in his own experience, has seen and felt and known enough of this
truth fully to convince him of the fact of the Holy Spirit's pi;esence
and power in such cases.
The Rev. G. W. Reynolds, of Berdan, Illinois, describes a Ken-
tucky camp-meeting in which the Rev. Henry F. Delany set forth
154 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
in a sermon the contrast between the eternal future destiny of the
saved and the lost. The two worlds were so vividly painted that
they seemed to be right before the people. An awful sense of
their reality filled all hearts. The sermon closed, and the preacher
took his seat without "calling for mourners" or asking any one to
conclude the services. In silence and tears all sat for ten minutes,
when M. H. Bone rose to his feet and without uttering a word
walked slowly down from the pulpit and out to the woods. The
congregation followed his example. In the woods, that universal
resort for private prayer in those days, more than a thousand people
were soon prostrate before God. No dinner nor supper was eaten
that day. At night the praying multitude gathered at the place of
public worship, and the Holy Spirit was poured out in convert-
ing power to the salvation of great numbers. Mr. Reynolds thinks
that this was the meeting which the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller
attended when he got those impressions about Mr. Delany's
preaching which he described in the letter spoken of in a previous
chapter.
Mr. McGready's field of labor was in Logan County, Kentucky,
and the history of the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church in all the older portions of the State belongs to the first
period of this history. Two things conspired to prevent our
church from gaining that pre-eminence in this field which seemed
at first to be its heritage. One \vas the bitterness of the anti-
revival Presbyterians, and the other was the immense emigration
of Kentuckians to the new territories. In most cases these emi-
grants sold their Kentucky lands to Baptists from Virginia. The
Cumberland Presbyterians had no churches in Virginia, from which
State nearly all these land buyers came. Still the church grew in
Kentucky. Before the close of this second period, Cumberland
Presbyterians had three strong presbyteries in this State, all re-
markably like, their mother— old Logan Presbytery. They all
held special fast-days to pray for more ministers to be called into
the great harvest, and sent many of these ministers, when they
were called, to labor among the destitute in the new countries.
They also tried, so far as they could by the itinerant system, sup-
plemented by camp-meetings, to cultivate their home field.
Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. I55
CHAPTER XVII.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN ALABAMA.
Now the training, strange and lowly,
Unexplained and tedious now;
Afterward the service holy,
And the Master's "Enter thou." #
—F. R. H.
A GLANCE at the history of Alabama is necessary to a cor-
rect understanding of the church's work in that State.
The country was all claimed by Georgia under its original charter
from England. Several efforts were made by Georgia to place
colonies on this soil, but as the whole land was in the hands of
Indians and Spaniards, who also claimed the country, it generally
cost the Georgians their lives to settle there. Those who escaped
did so by promising allegiance to the Indians or the Spaniards.
Then the United States bought Georgia's claim to this countr}',
but Spaniards and Indians still had not only their claims, but also
what is called "nine points in the law" — possession, A territorial
government was however established, and all the country was called
Mississippi, and continued to be so designated till 181 7.
In 1805 the Indian claim to a small portion of what is now
Madison County, Alabama, was purchased, and settlements were
established and the Indians withdrawn in less than two years after-
ward. In 1813 the long-promised, long-delayed evacuation of
South Alabama by the Spanish was accomplished. In 1814 the
Creek claim to that portion of Alabama was extinguished, but hos-
tile Creeks still roamed over it and made it unsafe for Americans.
In 18 16 the country east of Cotton Gin Port, on the Tombigbee
River, was bought from the Chickasaw Indians. In 18 17 the first
Territorial legislature assembled, Alabama being then severed from
Mississippi. In that legislature there was but one senator. Some
of the counties represented had in their elections cast but ten votes.
156 Cumberland Presbyterian History [Period 11.
There were just three settlements of Americans in the Territory —
one centering at Mobile, one at Huntsville, and one on the Tom-
bigbee River. There were hostile Creek Indians, and a Creek war
on Alabama soil as late as 1836. The way to the American settle-
ments in South Alabama was open and free from danger only by
the sea, though Georgians and Carolinians sometimes took tlieir
chances and traveled along the land route from the east. Travel
from Tennessee and Kentucky was sometimes accomplished on
rafts down the Tombigbee, but there was very little emigration by
that dangerous route.
When the country about Huntsville was first settled, and before
the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, "the
council" sent Robert Bell to the new settlements around Hunt's
Spring. The next year, 1808, the council sent Thomas Calhoun
to the same field, and he preached in Hunt's house before that
house was finished. The next year (1809) the council sent Robert
Donnell to that field, and kept him there till the new denomination
was organized. It was a favorite field with him all his life. His
ashes rest in North Alabama. Our old churches all over that coun-
try were planted by him.
In 181 7 a family that had just arrived from South Carolina vis-
ited Donnell's camp-meeting at the Meridian church, and several
of its members were converted. One of these was a boy seventeen
years old, who from that day to this has been helping to preach
Jesus to the people of North Alabama. His name is A. J. Steele.
John Carnahan' and he rode the circuit together, in 1819, through
North Alabama, attending all of Donnell's camp-meetings. A
little later John Morgan and Albert Gibson "joined the band of
Alabama preachers. Then came other noble laborers, and North
Alabama bloomed like the garden of the Lord.
In John Morgan's diary he states that the distance around his
circuit was four hundred miles. From Steele's autobiography
(MS.) we learn that three new camp-grounds were established on
his circuit the first year. This was everywhere the order of
things. The young men, as soon as they were received as candi-
' Carnahan's home was then in Arkansas, but he was under the orders of Elk
Presbytery.
Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. 157
dates, were sent out as evangelists on circuits; and they went, too,
pay or no pay. The old men attended the camp-meetings, and
occasionally made tours of evangelism, but sustained also, in some
cases, the nominal relation of pastor to some congregations. This
relation, in many cases, was so loose, that any preacher of the church
living within reach of a congregation which had one of these
nominal pastors might, without asking the pastor's or the session's
consent, send an appointment for regular monthly preaching on
any unoccupied Sabbath. While all the work of the church was
devoted to planting congregations, the absurdity of such Presbyte-
rianism was not keenly felt. There came a time, however, when
it sent a wail of woe throughout the denomination.
The Elk Presbytery, in 1820, ordered two of its members to
establish a circuit in South Alabama, but for satisfactory reasons
they both failed to comply. In 1821 the General Synod appointed
certain preachers to go to South Alabama and organize a presby-
tery. There were candidates for the ministry who wanted to settle
in that field, and it was believed that a presbytery might soon
secure a local supply of ministers; but this attempt to form a pres-
bytery composed entirely of non-resident ministers was a failure.
A quorum never met. This, as will be seen elsewhere, was not
the only instance in which the church sent non-residents to such a
work.
In 1817, just one year from the time the country east of Cotton
Gin Port was purchased from the Indians, we find Cumberland
Presbyterian pioneers from that region petitioning Elk Presbytery
to send them a preacher. The presbytery requested Robert Don-
nell to go to their relief, but for satisfactory reasons he failed to do
so. The next year (1818) the ladies' missionary board of Elk
Presbytery sent Samuel King and William Moore to that field, and
to a portion of the Indian countr>' west of the Tombigbee. From
the autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King (son of the Rev. Samuel
King), there are indications that these two men labored more
among the Indians than among the white emigrants; but they
reported at the next meeting of presbytery that they had complied
with the instructions of the missionary board.
The manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King says:
158 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
In April, 1S21, I was ordered by the presbytery to form a circuit on
the south side of Tennessee River, in the counties of Morgan, Law-
rence, and FrankUn, in Alabama. I had to hunt my own preaching
places, and make my own appointments. The country was all newly
settled, having been lately purchased from the Indians. Here I found
many good Cumberland Presbyterians. I formed a circuit of four
weeks' extent, with regular daily appointments. I succeeded in getting
up three camp-meetings, one in Morgan County (then Cataco County).
Here I was assisted by the Rev. James Stewart, the Rev. James Moore,
and my father. . . . The results of those three camp-meetings were one
hundred and fifty professions. Besides these, there were a good many
professions at my circuit appointments. I never failed to reach my
appointments. I received in compensation from the people sixty dol-
lars. During all this time I was only a candidate.
In the fall of 182 1 Elk Presbytery ordered R. D. King, then a
licentiate, and Daniel Patton, then a candidate, to go to South Ala-
bama and form a circuit. They began their work on the head
waters of the Black Warrior. The Pleasant Valley, Jones Valley,
and farther south to Cahawba were their fields of action. King's
manuscript says:
South Alabama was newly settled, mainly with people from the
Carolinas and Georgia. They had never seen a Cumberland Presbyte-
rian before our visit. What they had heard of us was from our ene-
mies; so we had to fight our way against prejudice and opposition.
We traveled separately, and never failed, either of us, to reach our
appointments. We often had to swim the rivers. We preached every
day. God blessed our labors. We gathered societies under a written
compact to organize regular congregations as soon as an ordained min-
ister could be had for the purpose. This was the beginning of the
church in South Alabama. On our way to the meeting of presbytery
in the spring we swam five streams in one day. Hundreds of persons
petitioned for us to be sent back. For this winter tour I received
nothing.
These evangelists were not sent back, however, but sent to
other destitute fields, and for a little season the seed planted in
South Alabama was left to grow without cultivation or to perish.
The Tombigbee Presbytery, organized in 1823, extended partly
into Alabama: but the first successful effort to form a presbytery in
the southern portion of the State was made in 1824. The manner
in which the new presbytery was organized is typical. The Rev.
Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. I59
Benjamin Lockhart and two licensed preachers had settled in that
portion of the State. The Rev. William Moore declared himself
ready to move to South Alabama for the sake of the church. The
Tennessee Presbytery, which was cut off of the Elk Presbytery in
182 1, resolved to hold an intermediate session in South Alabama
for the purpose of ordaining the two licensed preachers who had
settled there, and in this way to provide a quorum for the organi-
zation of Alabama Presbytery. All this was in obedience to an
order of synod. It was a long journey for a whole presbytery to
make, but men did not shrink from such journeys in those days.
Hostile Indians roamed between Tennessee Presbytery and South
Alabama, but a quorum was present at the appointed time. At
this meeting the presbytery ordained John Williams and James W.
Dickey, the two licentiates. William Moore attended, and he and
Benjamin Lockhart, together with the two newly-ordained minis-
ters, constituted the Alabama Presbytery, and made that field their
permanent home.
This presbytery had a strange, hard field. With hostile Indians
near at hand ; with a population mainly from States where Cumber-
land Presbyterians were unknown; with one of its members already
past the period of life for much active labor; with the bitterest mis-
representations, both of its doctrines and its practices, actively cir-
culated; with a location isolated from all the rest of the church:
it is not strange that this presbytery did not grow as did some
others.
It has been my aim to avoid the discussion of all those preju-
dices which once embittered the spirit of many in the Presbyterian
church; but the history of the early struggles of our own church
absolutely requires some mention of these things. An incident
taken from the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King
will suffice to illustrate the state of things in South Alabama when
Cumberland Presbyterians began their work in that field. The
State legislature then met at Cahawba, and it was in session while
King was there. Several of its members knew King, and invited
him to preach for them, which he did. As there was no house of
worship in the place, the three denominations of the town each
had procured the use of the State-house for one Sabbath per month.
i6o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
This left one Sabbath unoccupied. By a formal and official resolu-
tion the legislature invited King to take possession of the house
for that vacant Sabbath. He accepted their invitation, and left an
appointment. When the time for his appointment arrived, and he
was on his way to the place of preaching, the resident minister of
the Presbyterian church came driving rapidly past him in his
buggy. When King, who was walking, entered the hall, which
was then thronged with people, this Presbyterian preacher, whose
name was Sloss, was wp lining out a hymn. After song and
prayer, Mr. Sloss announced a text and proceeded to preach. The
sergeant-at-arms of the legislature came to King and said: "Sir,
with your permission, I will put him out." King, however,
begged him not to interfere. IVIr. Sloss gave a horrid caricature
of the doctrines, the practices, and the ignorance of the Cumber-
land Presbyterians, and warned everybody against having any
thing to do with them. After the benediction. King announced
preaching for the afternoon. When the hour arrived, he had a
crowded hall, and there was a solemn and precious meeting with-
out the least allusion to Mr. Sloss or his caricature of our people.
When Mr. Sloss came to his own appointment the next Sabbath,
his wife was his only auditor. He tried one more time to fill his
regular day, and again his wufe was his only hearer, the members
of his own church reprobating his conduct as much as others.
Then he closed out his work in Cahawba.
The Rev. Gibson W. Murray, whose parents were South Caro-
lina Presbyterians, was brought in early life to South Alabama.
While visiting relatives near Elyton, this young man attended the
first Cumberland Presbyterian camp-meeting he had ever seen. It
was all new and strange to him, and the newest and strangest thing
of it all was the preaching. He says in his manuscript aiitobiog-
raphy, which is before me, that the preaching he had been used to
from childhood was about the decrees, about the absolute certainty
of all the elect being saved, and that all this had never in any way
disturbed his conscience. He felt that nothing he could do would
in anywise change his predetermined destiny. The religion upon
which he had been brought up consisted in keeping the Sabbath
sacred, and in being whipped on Monday for any failure in his cat-
Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. l6l
echism lesson the day before. But this camp-meeting opened up a
new world to him. A preacher of splendid figure and lovely coun-
tenance rose in the stand, and with a voice which won its way right
into his heart, began to discuss the text, "What is truth? " This
preacher was the Rev. William Moore; and this remarkable sermon,
though it continued four hours, Mr, Murray says, held the whole
congregation spell-bound to the last, so that they were sorry when
it ended.
In that sermon Mr. Moore stated that there were so many mis-
representations abroad as to what his church believed, and his
denomination as yet had so few books, that he felt it to be his duty
to give, that day, a synopsis of the doctrines which his people held
as the system of Bible truth. Mr, Murray says that from that day
on he was a believer in the Cumberland Presbyterian system. He
went home and re-preached Mr. Moore's sennon to his father's
family, and the result was that the whole family joined the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church, Mr. Murray had impressions from
that sermon wdiich he never shook off. His own heart was laid bare
to his gaze; his own responsibility was revealed, and he found no
rest until he cast himself irrevocably upon the crucified Redeemer.
He immediately began to plead with sinners to flee from the wrath
to come, and spent the remainder of a long life in work for Jesus.
The Alabama Presbytery had eleven candidates for the ministry
in five years. Only one of the eleven ever made a preacher. Five
of these candidates were dropped from the roll at one session of the
presbyter>'. This, like all the other presbyteries of this period,
had pastorates only in name, for all its so-called pastors were really
evangelists. After several years the Rev. William Moore took reg-
ular pastoral charge of one of its churches. The Rev, J, S. Guth-
rie came into the presbytery at an early day, and made a live evan-
gelist of the original type. He became an efficient instrument in
carrying the gospel into many destitute places, and in planting
new congregations.
South Alabama is one of the most beautiful countries in the
world. In i860 I was traveling among its churches, and wrote
some sketches, historical and descriptive, from which I here make
a few extracts:
II
i62 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
"In company with the Rev. Wiley Burgess I visited the site
where long ago our people had a camp-ground. ' Fallen, fallen, a
silent heap of ruins now!' Here I saw the old Bible which once
belonged to Canaan pulpit. On a fly-leaf were the notes of a ser-
mon preached at the opening of presbytery by J. S. Guthrie long
ago." At Canton Bend, in the house of the Rev. J. C. Weir, this
was written: "Mr. Weir is one of our pioneers in this field. He
has held on to his post for more than thirty years, begging all the
time for more men, more help. Alabama has not fallen below the
third State in rank for contributions to our missions, }-et she has
never received any aid from our missionar}^ board. It is a newer
State than either Ohio or Illinois, but the general church gives no
help to this frontier field. At Pleasant Hill, Alabama, one of our
oldest ministers sleeps — the Rev. William Moore. I often hear
him mentioned in the South. His work here was for many years
a difficult one. Sometimes the wicked threatened to kill him.
Lawlessness and violence were quite common in this town at that
early day, and the minister of Jesus was looked upon as a danger-
ous intruder." Often while Mr. Moore was engaged in family
prayers, sons of Belial would stand outside mocking and making
disturbance. Meeting no check in their lawlessness they were
encouraged to continue it, and finally they fired a whole volley of
balls and shots through the window into the room where the family
were kneeling in prayer. Two of the household were wounded,
and the indignation of all the better class of settlers was so aroused
that they organized a vigilance committee, and gave notice to the
leaders among these desperadoes that the very next time Mr. IMoore
was molested every one of these leaders would be hanged. Mr.
Moore had quiet after that.
There are names of other ministers now gone to rest that are
uttered amid grateful tears in these Alabama homes. Old men,
in the shady portico, talk while the winds bring spices from the
groves of magnolias: and in their talks their voices grow husky,
and their eyes glisten with tears while they speak of Wayman
Adair. Adair was the only one of the first eleven candidates for
the ministry in that field who persevered in the work.
South Alabama has from the first been a field beset with trials
Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. 163
to our preachers. The early developed tendency to gather all the
white people into towns, leaving the rural districts to immense cot-
ton plantations cultivated by negroes, was the death of most of our
rural churches throughout the beautiful land of the magnolia and
the cape jessamine. A people relying on camp-meetings and circuit
riders found their occupation gone when there was no place to
preach in except towns.
164 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PLANTING CHURCHES IN INDIANA AND ILLINOIS.
Now the long and toilsome duty,
Stone by stone to carve and bring.
Afterward tiie perfect beauty
Of the palace of the King.
—F.'R. H.
THE Rev. William Harris was the first Cumberland Presby-
terian preacher to visit Indiana. In a letter to him, written
by Mrs. Lindsey, of Indiana, in June, 1812, she says: "We have
had but one sermon since your visit to this countr>\ One Sabbath
after another comes, but all is silent — the glad news of salvation is
never heard.'" The date of the visit by Harris alluded to in this
letter can be only proximately determined. As Mrs. Lindsey
moved to Indiana in 1810, and the visit was prior to 181 2, we may
fix its date as probably in 181 1. Her pleadings finally induced
Harris, accompanied by Alexander Chapman, to make a second
preaching tour in that countr>'. The date of this second visit is
also uncertain, but it preceded the tour which Chapman and Barnett
made by order of Logan Presbyter>^ in 18 17.
What the Methodists called circuits, Logan Presbyter}- called
districts; and what the ]\Iethodists called circuit riders, Logan Pres-
bytery called missionaries. Nowhere in the Minutes of the early
meetings of Logan Presbytery have I found the missionar}^ called a
circuit rider, though he had regular rounds of "appointments" like
a Methodist itinerant. One of the districts of Logan Presbytery
at first took in several counties of Kentucky^ along with all of
Indiana; but when ministers multiplied Indiana became a separate
district.
During Harris's tour through Indiana the claims, wants, and
earnest pleadings of those pioneers made a deep impression on his
'Beard's Harris, p. 129. =H. A. Hunter's MSS.
Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND ILUNOIS. 165*
heart. At the next meeting of his presbytery he preached a ser-
mon on the need of more laborers. In this sermon he gave a
description of the West and its wants. His feelings became so
deep that he could not talk, and, sinking down in overwhelming
emotion, he wept and prayed, but could not finish his sermon.
Several preachers date their call to the work of the ministry from
that hour and that sermon, and several of these made that same
western country their life-time field of labor.
The presbytery named one of its districts Wabash and one
Indiana, and sent missionaries to both every year. The older
preachers generally attended the camp-meetings in Indiana. There
is something sublime in the struggles of Logan Presbytery to sup-
ply all this vast field with the gospel. As the number of its min-
isters was wholly inadequate to meet the ever-increasing demand
for the grand work, a fast-day was appointed for special prayer to
God for more called laborers. At the very next meeting of the
presbytery David Lowry, Aaron Shelby, William McCord, and
William Henry were received as candidates, and before another
year four others were received — H. A. Hunter, W. M. Hamilton,
A. Downey, and Thomas Campbell. Six of these men were, at one
time or another, sent to the vast districts of Wabash and Indiana.
At subsequent meetings, within a few months, another long list of
names was added to Logan Presbytery's roll of preachers, among
others Henry F. Delany and Joel Knight. These men, along with
others, helped to plant the churches in Indiana and Illinois.
When Anderson Presbytery was organized Indiana and Illinois
were included in its bounds. Before this Logan Presbytery had
extended over this vast field. The first mention of any repre-
sentatives in Logan Presbytery from the churches in either of these
States is found in the Minutes of the fall meeting of 1819. The
Black River congregation of Indiana and the Seven Mile Prairie
congregation in Illinois both had representatives in that meeting.
The Rev. Dr. Darby and the Rev. J. E. Jenkins in their pamphlet
history of our church in southern Indiana give the probable order
of date for our first churches there as follows: Mt. Zion, McAlisters,
Shiloh, Milburns, White Oak Springs, Lester's, Osborne's, Mt.
Pleasant.
•i66 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period it.
The manuscripts of the Rev. H. A. Hunter give some touching
accounts of the hardships which the first missionaries in the Indiana
district endured in their winter tours. To swim rivers in midwinter
in such a climate as that of Indiana was a trial to Southern men
even when they were of that hardy type which was so common in
those early times. Over half the first preachers of Indiana were
natives of Tennessee, where the winters are mild. Others were
Kentuckians, and one was from South Carolina. None of these
men ever missed an appointment. If there was any exception,
sickness and not the weather or the hardships was the cause.
These early preachers had other things besides weather to try
their courage. Their work in this field began before Indiana was
a State, and before Indian troubles ceased to fill the land with mid-
night alarms. The great Indian war, in which General Harrison
led the American troops to victory on Indiana soil, did not end
until after Cumberland Presbyterian pioneers began their work for
Jesus on that same soil. Harrison's victories live in the annals of
blood; the victories won by Harris and Chapman live in the annals
of eternal life.
The following account of the organization of Mt. Zion congre-
gation is from the historical pamphlet already mentioned:
This congregation was organized by the Rev. William Barnett in
August, 1817, at a Methodist place of worship known as Shiloh, in
Gibson County. The elders were James Knowles, Samuel Montgom-
ery, and Alexander Johnson, the two former having been elders in the
Presbyterian church. It is probable that this was the first Cumberland
Presbyterian congregation in the State. At first the name of the con-
gregation was Hopewell, and the members were accustomed to worship
and hold their camp-meetings at the same place with the Methodists.
Thus two camp-meetings were held each year on the same spot con-
jointly for a number of years. Finallv, under circumstances which
need not now be mentioned, the two meetings having been announced
to take place at the same time, the Cumberland Presbyterians with-
drew, and, with the aid of many sympathizers in the community, estab-
lished a camp-ground one half mile from Shiloh, and held their meet-
ing at the appointed time. When Messrs. Downey, Lynn, Hunter, and
others were assembled at the time of meeting, the question arose as to
what name the new place of worship should bear. Father Downey
said: "Call it Mt. Zion, for it shall never be removed." [Ps. cxxv. i.]
Chapter XVIIL] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 167
There are other historic churches in Indiana, but the interest-
ing details of their history must be left for some larger book, or
for some local State history of our people. The Evansville and
Newburg congregations belong to later periods, and deserve more
space than I can give them. The former is now the largest church
in our denomination.
Two incidents of the early Indiana camp - meetings are here
given cm the authority of the Rev. H. A. Hunter, who witnessed
them. They are clipped from Dr. Darby's pamphlet:
A man of considerable prominence in the estimation of some, par-
ticularly of himself, who clauned to be a Universalist, heard a sermon
on Monday of the meeting, and became the subject of such conviction
that with many others he came to the altar for prayer. The preacher
went to him and endeavored to encourage him to believe and be saved.
"O Mr. ," said he, "I can believe that Christ died for and will save
the whole world, but I am such a sinner I fear he will not save me."
At a camp-meeting near Mr. Lester's, in Daviess County, a young
man and his bride were in attendance. The lady became exceedingly
concerned about her soul, and came forward for the prayers of the
church. Being deeply affected, her weeping and praying excited the
sympathy of her husband, who came to her, not to encourage her in
her purpose, but to oppose it. He bade her arise and go out of the
congregation. She entreated him to stay with her, saying, "Let us go
together to heaven." Becoming enraged, he refused his assent to her
course, and threatened to leave her there if she did not come out.
Then throwing her arms around his neck, she exclaimed: "I will go
with you, my husband, if we go to hell." They left the congregation,
and went home together. They were never in another congregation
alive, but within a few weeks were both dead.
It is to be regretted that Mr. Hunter did not leave us accounts
of many other thrilling camp-meeting incidents witnessed by him
not only in Indiana but in other States. Such incidents show that
the preaching of these Western missionaries produced results simi-
lar to those seen under the ministry of McGready and others at the
beginning of the great revival in Kentucky and Tennessee. There
are traditions of a wonderful character about Himter's camp-meet-
ings. Interesting details of Chapman's work in Indiana are given
in Dr. Bird's Life of Chapman, a book that all Cumberland Pres-
byterians ought to read. The following account of a camp-meeting
i68 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
held by Chapman and others just on the borders of the white set-
tlements, and near to the Indians, is given by the Rev. William
Lynn:
They commenced their operations. The Lord was present, and
worked with power. Many fell to the ground under the power of the
gospel. Some lay helpless for a long time, which caused a great talk
among the people. There was a very strong, rough-looking man who
said they could not make him fall. The meeting passed on till Mon-
day. Mr. Chapman preached, and just as he commenced his discourse
he noticed this man come into the edge of the congregation and stop
and look at him very steadily. Directly the man drew nearer the stand,
and as Mr. Chapman advanced in his sermon the man came still nearer,
and about the close of the discourse he was trembling in every joint.
Discovering that he had lost the use of his limbs, and the people refus-
ing to carry him away, he grasped a small tree that stood near, and
cried out, "I won't fall, I won't," still hugging the tree; but at last he
fell full length on the ground before the stand.
This falling helpless continued to mark the work of the great
revival till about the year 1840. It was common at most of the
camp-meetings where the fathers of our church preached. It dis-
appeared gradually as the power of the great revival waned and
the men of 1800 passed away.
Illinois was not a State till 1818, but daring emigrants settled
there before the French and Indian titles to that country' were
extinguished. The father of John Crawford moved to Illinois in
1808 and settled in sight of a camp of Indian hunters. This was
the jEirst family connected with our histor}' that became settlers in
this terr^tor^^ Crawford's parents were anti-revival Presbyterians,
but their children heard the revival preachers in Kentucky and all
sooner or later became Cumberland Presb}-terians. John Crawford
was one of the pioneer preachers of our church in that State. He
lived to a good old age and left a treasure in the form of a brief
manuscript autobiography which is now before me. The first ser-
mon in this State by a Cumberland Presbyterian minister was
preached in 18 15, near Golconda, by the Rev. John Bamett, at the
house of Mr. Glass, whose children were Cumberland Presbyte-
rians. These children were the first members of this church in
that territory.
Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 169
In Mr. Crawford's autobiography he says in reference to the
early experience of his family in Illinois: "We were in constant
fear of Indians, beasts of the forest, and river desperadoes." He
gives an interesting picture of the impressions produced on a youth-
ful mind by prejudice. He says he heard so much about the hor-
rible Cumberland Presbyterians that he concluded there must be
something of demoniacal nature and power in them. Finally he
had an opportunity to hear one of them preach. He went on foot
twelve miles to see and hear the dangerous preacher. He studied
the preacher's looks, but saw no ferocious beast but a kindly looking
human face. He watched his movements but saw neither the spring
of a tiger nor the antics of a monkey. When the sermon began he
studied every word, but he then found something else to do besides
studying the preacher. His own life began to stand out before
him all covered with sin. His own heart began to be revealed to
him as he had never seen it before. His own startling relations to
God and eternity swallowed up his thoughts till all other things
were utterly forgotten. As his smitten soul found no relief that
day, and as there was no other appointment for the strange preacher
in the neighborhood, Mr. Crawford went twenty miles on foot to a
camp-meeting in Kentucky, but he found no relief there. Then
these dangerous strangers came again to Illinois, and under their
ministry Mr. Crawford found Him of whom Moses and the proph-
ets did write, and from that day onward he proclaimed the truth of
the gospel and pointed the people of Illinois to the Savior.
There were many similar instances of early prejudice and its
cure. Although the one here added was not located in Illinois it
took place under the ministry of the same men who participated
in the Crawford incidents. A young lady who was reared by
Roman Catholic parents came from her home in the city of New
York on a visit to relatives in Kentucky. A Cumberland Presby-
terian camp-meeting was held in the neighborhood. Like young
Crawford, her information about this church led her to expect
something unutterably monstrous at one of its camp-meetings.
She resolved, however, come what might, to see for herself She
attended the meeting and then wrote an account of it to her
mother. After telling about the antecedents of the case, she says:
170 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
I just went to see and be seen and, mothci", I did both as never I
did before. I saw, not some inhuman monster in the shape of a
preacher, but my own lost, ruined self, stripped of all my hollow pre-
tenses, guilty, and naked, and condemned before God. I saw beneath
me eternal perdition and my poor soul about to plunge into its fathom-
less depths. I was seen, too, in all my guilt by the piercing eye of
God. I felt its withering gaze and shrieked with condemnation while
I felt it. Then, mother, I saw the most glorious sight any poor, lost
sinner ever gazed upon. I saw the Son of God bearing my sins on the
cross. I saw 7Hy Savior reconciling me to God's law and God's king-
dom. O mother, I know you will be angry, but I must tell you all. I,
even I, am now a happy member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church; and I thank God that I ever heard one of their faithful, hon-
est, scriptural, and fearless sermons. Mother, they are God's people.
John Crawford, from Illinois, and the Roman Catholic woman,
from New York, have gone home now, whither their spiritual
guides preceded them. They see and are seen without any obscur-
ing veil to shut out part of the glories; and among the things
there to be seen are a great company of redeemed ones from the
early camp-meetings of the Cumberland Presbyterians.
After John Crawford's trip to Kentucky an incident occurred
which deserves a place here. Notwithstanding the bitter preju-
dices which Mr. Crawford's parents had against the Cumberland
Presbyterians, they yielded to the wishes of one of their sons who
had professed religion under the preaching of James Johnson, in
Kentucky, and with many misgivings agreed that this son might
invite Johnson to preach at their house. The appointment was
made and Johnson came and preached. At the close of the ser-
mon there was deep feeling and the preacher began to shake hands
with those present as he went singing through the congregation.
The parents of Mr. Crawford could not stand this, but springing
to their feet they left the room. When, however, God used these
same Cumberland Presbyterians in bringing their other children to
Jesus their prejudices all gave way.
In 18 1 7 the Rev. Green P. Rice moved to Illinois and settled
not far from St. Louis, which was then a meager village of French-
men. In the vicinity of Edwardsville there was a Methodist
gamp-ground but no preacher. Methodists, Presbyterians, and
Cumberland Presbyterians united in holding prayer - meetings.
Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 171
There was deep and solemn interest in these meetings, but no
preacher of any church could be secured. Finally the people
entered into a solemn agreement to invite the first preachers they
could get of any evangelical church to come and hold them a camp-
meeting. Mr. Paisley, a Cumberland Presbyterian pioneer, origi-
nally from Finis Ewing's congregation in Kentucky, was the first
to succeed in securing a minister. He wrote an earnest appeal to
the Rev. William Barnett setting forth the great need for gospel
work in that new country. Barnett had no horse, but he took the
letter to Finis Ewing. Ewing read it to his congregation and
they raised money and bought Barnett a horse and sent him on
his way to Illinois. Green P. Rice met him, and he and Rice, at
this Methodist camp-ground, held the first Cumberland Presbyte-
rian camp-meeting in Illinois.' This was in 1817.
In 1818 the Rev. D. W. McLin settled in this State. He was
a preacher of the original type. He organized the first regular
congregation of our people in the State. This was the Hopewell ^
church (now Enfield), in White County. In 1819 the camp-meet-
ing at this place was very precious. Among its converts was Joel
Knight, whose career in the ministry has left its mark for all time
on the church in Illinois as well as elsewhere.
The second Cumberland Presbyterian camp-meeting in this
State was held by R. D. Morrow, John Carnahan, and Green P.
Rice at Elm Point, in Bond County. A pleasant fact about all
the first work of the church in Illinois is that it still abides. The
churches first organized continue yet in existence.
In 1820 the Board of Missions of the church sent the Rev.
Alexander Chapman on a missionary tour through this State.
This was a winter tour, beginning in December, and was one of
no little hardship, but the missionary reported good results. He
says that the destitution of the means of grace and the great desire
of the pioneers for the gospel were enough to melt the hardest
heart.
Though Illinois abounded in soil of surpassing depth and fertil-
ity, yet there were so many new territories thrown open to settlers
' Dr. J. B. Logan's History, and other authorities.
* Called, at first, Seven Mile Prairie.
172 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
simultaneously that the prairies were for a long time sparsely set-
tled. In the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Joseph M.
Bone, he tells us that when he moved to Illinois and settled in
Moultrie County his nearest neighbor lived five miles distant. Yet
this was in 1829, a period much later than the principal events of
this chapter.
A manuscript history of 4he Cumberland Presbyterian church
in Illinois, by the Rev. H. H. Ashmore, has been very helpful to
me in preparing this chapter. Speaking of the hardships of pio-
neer work on the prairies, he says:
The pioneer preachers rode over the prairies in summer traveling
sometimes twenty and thirty miles without passing a house. There
was danger of getting lost in the rain and fog and they were sometimes
thus forced to spend the night in the open prairies without food or
shelter. Wherever there were a few cabins along the skirts of the
timber they were ready to preach at any hour of the week-day. On
Saturdays and Sabbaths the people for miles around attended the meet-
ings, and earnest efforts were put forth to build up congregations.
Many of the early settlers lived ten miles from their place of worship,
yet they were rarely absent on Sabbath. The week-day appointment
was a sort of skirmish line to find a suitable place for the Sunday
services and for protracted efforts. The meetings were held in school-
houses, groves, or private residences. In the winter and spring, thmigh
the circuits were long and the appointments numerous, the preacher
had to be at each place rain or shine. If high water^ were in the way
the preacher would place his saddle-bags, inclosing his Bible and hymn
book and extra linen on his shoulder, and, in less time than a ferry
could cross, his faithful horse would carry him over by swimming. No
one who has not seen a snow-storm on the bare prairie can compre-
hend its driving fury. If the winds were changeable, as was often the
case, the danger was great. At one time a terrible storm overtook
three teams on the prairie. The wind changed. The horses could only
go with the driving snow. The travelers were separated and lost. The
same day my father was to cross that thirt3--mile prairie on his way
home. After the storm three awful days of suspense passed before we
heard from him. At the edge of the timber and along the lanes near
the timber lines the snow was too deep for man or beast to pass.
Every man that could muster a strong horse was searching for the lost.
They were brought in one by one, some with fingers frozen and foot-
sore. At last our eyes were gladdened when my father rode up with
his great butlalo coat making him look three times his usual size.
Chapter XVIII. J INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. I73
Besides the owners of the three teams lost near my father's many other
people were lost in that storm. All business throughout that whole
country was suspended while people searched for the lost. Roads
were blockaded for weeks, and only at great risk could men mounted
on the strongest horses go from one house to another. Our pioneer
preachers passed through just such scenes as this. The common peo-
ple in these early days were glad to have the privilege of going to
church, or "meeting," as they called it. There were no railroads and
but few post-offices. Newspapers were a rarity. They were glad to
meet and hear the preacher and enjoy the privilege of comparing notes.
People would sometimes sit and listen to a sermon two or three hours
long without growing weary. If our people of this generation could
go back to the days of Isaac Hill, Joel Knight, James Ashmore, Will-
iam Finley, R. D. Taylor, Cyrus Haynes, J. M. Berry, Daniel Traugh-
ber, and Archibald and Neil Johnson, they would learn how the seed
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church was sown in this State. These
men were giants in their day. Lincoln University is largely the result
of their labors.
The first presbytery organized exclusively in Illinois was in
1822. But McGee Presbytery, which was organized in 1819,
included in its bounds part of Illinois. In 1822 the order for the
organization of Illinois Presbytery was passed. Its original mem-
bers were to be Green P. Rice, D. W. McLin, John M. Berry, and
W. M. Hamilton. Rice did not attend; all the others were pres-
ent. This presbytery immediately organized a presbyterial board
of missions. Nine probationers for the ministry were transferred
to its care. That meant circuit riding. In 1829 ^^i^ presbytery
had ten members in good standing. It had been obliged to silence
some of its ministers. One of these cases of discipline was mixed
up with the great slavery question, and shows that the church in
Illinois at an early day took a decided stand on that subject.
There is a wonderful difference between the growth of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church in the two States to which this
chapter is devoted. In Indiana there are now (1885) but three
presbyteries; in Illinois there are ten. There is one thing indicated
both by recent statistics and by this early history which may help
to explain the difference. In Illinois from the beginning there
was a vigorous struggle to raise up a home supply of preachers.
Fast-days were appointed on which all the congregations joined in
174 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
prayer that God would call and send forth men of his own choos-
ing to preach the gospel. God answered these prayers, as he will
do to-day in all our frontier presbyteries if, instead of clamoring
for more preachers to come from the older States, they will ask
God to call their own sons into the work.
Another fact doubtless had its influence in causing this superior
growth in Illinois. At an early day some of the oldest ministers
of the church made this State their permanent home. Among
these were Samuel McAdow, one of the three men who formed the
first presbyter}^ of the church. David Foster and D. W. jMcLin
also cast their lots permanently with the pioneers of Illinois. The
first preachers of the church made preaching tours in Indiana, but
none of them settled in that State; and when a later generation of
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers made their homes there a larg^
portion of the ground was preoccupied. From the first it was a
maxim of our people not to build on other men's foundations, but
to go among the destitute. With very few exceptions our preach-
ers have conformed to that maxim in the past, and do still confoOB
to it.
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 175
CHAPTER XIX.
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN MISSOURI AND ARKAN-
SAS, iSii TO 1S39.
So willing to toil and travel,
To suffer and watch for all,
So near in heart to the Master,
So eager to hear his call, —
They spent their souls in the service sweet,
And only in death could rest at his feet.
—B. M.
THE first great tide of American emigrants to Missouri Terri-
tory began in 1816, There were Cumberland Presbyterians
in that first tide, and the usual cry soon began to come, ' ' Send us
a preacher." In 1817 the first Cumberland Presbyterian sermon
was preached in the Territory by Green P. Rice at the little French
village of St. Louis. The first Cumberland Presbyterian preacher
to settle in Missouri was Daniel Buie. He was a citizen already
established in Howard County and had regular preaching places
when R. D. Morrow made his visit to that country in 1819. In a
graphic history of Buie's emigration to Missouri we are told that
he made the journey in 18 18 in a one-horse cart.
In April, 1819, the ladies' missionary society at Russellville,
Kentucky, requested the presbytery to send the Rev. R. D. Mor-
row on a preaching tour through Missouri Territor}^ The presby-
tery agreed to the plan and the missionary board fixed his salary
at twenty dollars per month. He had to make his own appoint-
ments and "blaze his own way" in more senses than one. A let-
ter of instructions was placed in his hands and he was commended
to God and sent forth on his responsible mission. Mounting his
horse, equipped for travel through the wilderness, he started on his
long, solitary journey. Could he have foreseen the glorious work for
Jesus to which God was leading him his heart would have leaped
176 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
for joy. He carried bell and "hobble" for his horse and rations
for himself. Besides these things there were a few books in his
saddle-bags. The wilderness between Logan County, Kentucky,
and Alton, Illinois, was passed with only his horse for a traveling
companion. Crossing the river he proceeded up to what is now
Pike County, where he preached to a few settlers, among whom
were three Cumberland Presbyterians. Proceeding westward he
held his next meeting in Callaway County. At that meeting were
grown men who had never heard a sermon in their lives. Many
such there were in that territory — children of pioneers who pene-
trated the wilderness long in advance of the general tide of emi-
gration. Settling down on some rich prairie perhaps ten miles
from the nearest neighbor, these pioneers brought their children
up without schools and without churches.
In just such a home amid just such destitution was our now
venerable brother, the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, reared. His rich
manuscript autobiography, now before me, describes the joy of the
whole family when they heard of a Methodist preacher making an
appointment for occasional preaching within reach of their home.
When this family and one other settled near Round Prairie, Mis-
souri, there was no other family within a circuit of ten miles. It
was many a long year before there was any school within reach.
Having neither post-offices, newspapers, nor stores, the pioneers
lived a lonely life. There was plenty of game and plenty of prai-
rie grass. In some parts of the territory the grass grew higher
than a man's head when he was mounted on his horse. At a later
day this grass teemed with a species of flies so numerous that they
sometimes killed the traveler's horse as he rode across the prairies.
It is a touching thing to read Mr. Henderson's account of his
rapture when at last his home was surrounded with neighbors who
employed a school-teacher. Into such sparse settlements of pio-
neers Mr. Morrow penetrated, proclaiming the gospel and planting
the standard of our King.
When time for the meeting of Logan Presbyter}- drew near, Mr.
Morrow saddled his horse and made the long journey back to Ken-
tucky. He was one of those who never failed to be present at the
judicatures of his church. At this meeting he was pitied and crit-
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 1 77
icized for his emaciated appearance. The long journe)', the arduous
labor, and the indescribable hardships, had well-nigh cost him his
life. Yet at that meeting of the Presbyter>- he made an appeal for
the spiritually destitute pioneers of Missouri which melted the
people to tears. His whole heart was enlisted for that field, and
his wonderful career afterward was but an outgrowth of his deep
earnestness.
Aofain Mr. Morrow was sent to Missouri. The orders under
which the missionary went on this second trip required him to
remain a year. Although Missouri now had a presbytery, and Mr.
Morrow's membership was in it, yet he still worked under the mis-
sionary board at Russellville, Kentucky. His report to that board
in the fall of 1820 deserves to be handed down as a precious record.
Here it is, copied from the manuscript histor}' prepared by Logan
Presbytery in obedience to the order of the General Synod:
I traveled as a missionary in Missouri nine months. I passed
through all the counties in the Territory except two. I rode horseback
upwards of three thousand miles; have enjoyed pretty good health.
I was kindly received by the people. My congregations were large
and attentive. The desire for preaching from our body surpasses any
thing I have ever before witnessed. Ever^^where the people were
pressing me to return and preach for them again. Often I left them
with tears streaming down their cheeks, while they said, "You are
going away, and we shall have no more preaching. Our children are
growing up in a strange land, without having any one to show them
the way of life." Mothers would follow me to the gate, begging me to
pray for them and their children in that w.ild wilderness. Young peo-
ple would mount their horses and ride with me five or six davs for the
sake of instruction in spiritual things. Among these were many poor
sinners seeking salvation, many of whom were grown men and women
who had never heard a sermon in their lives till I came among them.
During my tour I preached one hundred and sixty sermons. The Lord
was with me, and applied his own truth to the hearts of my hearers.
Sixty-five professed to find Christ precious to their souls. I received
forty-nine dollars for your missionary board.
Mr. Morrow was continued in Missouri. He was now connected
with another presbytery, but he wrote a letter to Logan Presbytery
the next year(i82i) pleading with undiminished fervor for the des-
titute. In that letter he says he finds that good fruits have fol-
12
178 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
lowed his former visits, and that there have been several conver-
sions among those whom he left in tears. He had held four camp-
meetings since his return to Missouri, all of which were successful.
Then he adds:
Brethren and fathers, permit me, through you, to address the Ladies'
Missionary Society under your care. I want them to know that their
labor of love in the cause of God has not been in vain. The great
Head of the Church has condescended to bless the weak efforts of their
missionary far beyond what I had any right to expect. Precious souls
in great numbers have been brought to the knowledge of salvation.
But past success greatly increases the demand for more missionaries.
O that you and they could hear the cries of the destitute which are
coming up from all quarters of this wilderness, cries for the gospel of
our salvation, cries for more preachers, coming up, too, from the uncon-
verted as well as from lambs of the fold, who have no one to guide
them in the way of life.
The order for the organization of McGee Presbytery was passed
in the autmnn after Morrow was first sent to that field (1819). Its
original members were Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, R. D. Morrow,
and John Carnahan. Rice lived in Illinois, and Carnahan across
the wilderness, five hundred miles away in Arkansas; yet all these
men were at the organization.
The next year (1820) Finis Ewing moved to Missouri and set-
tled in Cooper County among his old neighbors from Kentucky
who had preceded him. He soon had an organized congregation,
a meeting-house, and, of course, a camp-ground. This church.
New Lebanon, has had a remarkable history, and has shared largely
in the work for the Master in that State.
In 1 82 1 R. D. Morrow and Finis Ewing opened a school of the
prophets. Morrow taught science and Ewing theology. No
charge was made for the young preachers' tuition or boarding.
McGee Presbytery had already enrolled a large number of candi-
dates for the ministry, and these eagerly availed themselves of the
advantages here offered. There was a long summer vacation which
was spent in preaching tours and camp-meetings, Morrow and
Ewing accompanying the young preachers.
In all the history of our church there is no more interesting
work than that done by this school. It was a pioneer theological
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 1 79
seminary conducted by live men who loved souls and knew how to
work for them. Morrow was a man of good scholarship, and pre-
sided over a college in later years; but this pioneer theological
school stands pre-eminent among the good results of his and
Ewing's noble work for the Master. The roll of young men here
taught includes many cherished and honored names, and one must
read the history^ of the whole Cumberland Presbyterian church to
appreciate the precious fruits of this school. There were features
about the school which deserve to be copied by our later and
stronger theological seminary. It combined theory with practice,
not that stupid moot practice before a professor in the recitation
room, which always seemed to me to be a good way to teach life-
less routine and make hypocrites, but practice under the eyes of
the professors out in the real harvest-field where souls are perish-
ing, and where trophies for the eternal crown of glory are won by
the young laborers. The teachers went along with their pupils,
and held meetings during their long vacation.
In the spring of 1822 the Rev. R. D. King, a licentiate, and
the Rev. Reuben Burrow, a candidate, were ordered by Elk Pres-
bytery to travel and preach in Missouri. I am fortunate in having
a full account of this tour from both the actors in it. They started
on horseback from Tennessee just after the April meeting of the
presbytery. Their first entertainment was swimming water-courses.
After this followed a much more protracted entertainment in the
form of chills and fever; yet they missed no appointments until
long after, when sickness of a more stubborn nature caused a few
failures. Burrow says:
I was placed on a chxuit with John Morrow. The circuit was in
western Missouri, including the country where Lexington and Inde-
pendence have since risen up. . , , About the fourth day, after Brother
Morrow had preached rather a dull sermon, I was invited to conclude
the services; and while trying to talk, ere I was aware of my own con-
dition, God had raised me higher and filled me fuller of heaven than
ever before. The people present were deeply moved by the power of
the Almighty. ... In the course of about two weeks the most of them
made profession of religion. Captain William Jack became awakened
on this occasion, and covenanted with others to seek life, but did not
find peace till two weeks afterward.
i8o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
A camp-meeting was held not far away. Captain Jack took his
family and attended. It was there he found Jesus, and his after
life was full of usefulness to the church. There were over three
hundred converts on that circuit that year. Burrow states:
The people were kind to us, and gave us some clothing such as they
could make, and I received eight dollars in money for the year, and felt
very well contented and thankful for that.
At one time during this missionary journey Burrow's horse got
out and ran off, but he was not to be thwarted by a little thing like
that. He shouldered his saddle-bags and started around his circuit
afoot. He had eighty miles to travel over the prairies. He says:
My feet became very sore from travel. The second day about three
o'clock I entered the last stretch of my journey. It was a prairie of
more than twenty miles. Here I toiled in weariness and pain until
midnight before I reached a house where I could quench my thirst and
rest my weary limbs.
Here Captain Jack overtook him, bringing his horse. An inci-
dent in Dr. Burrow's later life has the same ring. He was regular
supply for a church fifteen miles from his home. On one occasion
he had no horse to ride to his appointment. He made no effort to
borrow, but taking his staff in his hand (he was an old man then)
he walked to his appointment.
While Burrow rode the circuit with the youthful John Morrow,
King was taken under the guardianship of the Rev. R. D. IVIorrow,
to travel with him and hold meetings. They spent the summer
holding camp-meetings in the bounds of INIcGee Presb\-tery, In
the fall, when Morrow returned to his work in the school, King
was pi'-.ced on a circuit in Ray and Clay counties. He kept up his
work on this circuit until Februar\', when he was prostrated by
sickness. In the spring he traveled one hundred miles to be at the
meeting of McGee Presbytery, although he had a chill erev}' other
day on the whole trip.
Next year Mr, King returned to Elk Presbyter}', but was sent
back to Missouri in company with his father, the Rev. Samuel
King, on another missionary tour. Then he and his father both
moved to that State, where his father spent the remainder of his
life in earnest labors, preaching to the very last. Among the
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. l8l
converts of R. D. King's meetings in various fields were LeRoy
Woods, T. M. Johnston, and many others, who afterward became
efficient ministers. King's ashes rest in Texas, where he closed
his life of toil.
While these missionaries from a distance planted the church in
Missouri, it was the home supply of ministers who grew up in that
pioneer school taught by Ewing and Morrow that carried on and
established the work. In a careful study of the whole field from
Pennsylvania to California I find no section or State where the
church has become a strong, established power without this home
supply of pastors and evangelists. Looking to distant fields for
missionaries instead of praying God to call our own sons to the
holy work is the road to failure. It is the sons of Texas who are
taking that great State for Jesus. It is Pennsylvanians who are
making the church strong in western Pennsylvania. It was the
sons of Missouri who, in the early history of the church, gave
Missouri such a prominent place among Cumberland Presbyterians.
But no native Californian is leading our forces on the golden
shores. Other parts of the church supply ministers to bear our
banners in Ohio. Preachers from other States are chiefly depended
on to fill our pulpits in Louisiana and Georgia. We need the
return of the spirit of the olden times. We ought to go with
fasting, and humility, and humble prayer to God, pleading with
him to call men, to call our own sons, to the gospel ministry'.
In 1823 the Rev. Robert Sloan was one of Missouri's circuit
riders. One of his camp-meetings, in Chariton County, was the
means of bringing many of the prominent settlers into the fold of
Christ. That meeting is spoken of even yet in Missouri as a won-
derful work of God among the pioneers. Several of the converts
were men who in after years made a deep impression on the public
affairs of that country. In 1824 Mr. Sloan spent six months on
what was then called the "hard circuit." For this six months'
labor he received one white cravat. Mr. Sloan continued his faith-
ful pioneer labors till the close of his life. His noble wife, -who
was a daughter of the Rev. Finis Ewing, still survives.
Among the faithful workers for Jesus in this field, as in all
others were noble women not a few. Those who would like to
i82 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
read the life of one of the noblest of these are referred to the biosf-
raphy of Mrs. Margaret Ewing — "Aunt Peggy," as she was called —
written by her gifted son, Judge R. C. Ewing.
Among the hardy pioneers of the Missouri churches the Rev.
Archibald McCorkle fills an honorable place. He traveled through
the wilderness from one new settlement to another. He carried
his own provisions, slept on the ground, and tiirned his hobbled
horse on the grass at night. He faced the beating rains and the
bitter snow-storms in order to preach Jesus to men living in the
destitute regions of the frontier. In one of the camp-meetings on
Mr. McCorkle' s circuit there was such a general victory that, like
Hugh Kirkpatrick in the meeting in Tennessee, described in a
former chapter, he reported "all the material worked up'" — that is,
all the unconverted people present became Christians. The work
at this meeting began under the preaching of the Rev. Finis
Ewing. During one of Mr. McCorkle' s tours over a hundred per-
sons claimed to be converted in his meetings, and yet for that six
months of successful work among the scattered pioneers he received
just eight dollars; the same salary which Reuben Burrow received
a few years before for six months of arduous toil w4th the grandest
results on the records of the church's pioneer work.
Burrow and McCorkle both furnished their own horses and paid
their own unavoidable traveling expenses. But eight dollars was
more than the pay many another missionary received, not only in
Missouri but even in the oldest parts of the church. R. D. King
preached two years in Maury and Giles counties, Tennessee, before
he moved to Missouri, receiving for his services neither money nor
any other kind of compensation from the people to whom he
ministered. He lived on the small estate which his wife had inher-
ited till that was exhausted, and then sold his little fann for money
enough to take him to Missouri.
The Rev. Hugh Robinson Smith was among those who took
the infant churches of Missouri by the hand and rendered them
great service. He also sought out the homes of the destitute and
planted churches among the scattered cabins on the prairies. He
carried Hebrew and Greek books in his saddle-bags and pursued a
full course of study while on his circuits. His career, says Judge
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 183
Ewing, was full, complete, finished. In all its parts he accom-
plished his mission, and was wanting neither in literary preparation
nor in soundness of doctrine, neither in unction of the Holy Ghost
nor in fidelity to perform the work committed to his trust. Judge
Ewing speaks also of Frank M. Braly as a representative of the
best type of Missouri's circuit riders. He was among the hardy
pioneers of an early day. His father went to Missouri in advance
of that great wave of emigration which set in toward that territory
in 1816. He was brought up in that wilderness, and to the circuit
on the frontiers and to camp-meetings he devoted all the days of
his manhood. For one whole year devoted exclusively to the
work of an itinerant evangelist he received nine dollars and fifty
cents.
Judge Ewing relates a characteristic incident of Mr. Braly' s
cajeer. On his way to the meeting of presbytery, accompanied by
several others, one of the young preachers was taken suddenly
sick so that he could not travel. Mr. Braly remained with him.
Their stopping place was a cabin in the wilderness. Neither doc-
tor nor drugs were to be had, but Mr. Braly believed that God
healed the sick in answer to the prayer of faith; so he and his
friend resorted to the great Physician and his friend recovered in
time to reach the presbytery. Another incident from the same
authority illustrates the manner in which opposition and prejudice
were often overcome. A Calvinist of the most rigid type under-
took to prove to Mr. Braly that missionary work and all revival
meetings and camp-meetings were uncalled for and wrong, because
God would save his own elect in his own way and time. He
seemed to be sorry for Mr. Braly personally, and to wish tp dis-
suade him from undergoing all the fatigue and hardships which he
was encountering. He tried to convince the preacher that no
amount of exertion which he could make would change the final
results. It is not claimed that this man was a fair representative
of genuine Calvinism, but his perversion of the doctrine was a
very common one among its professed adherents. Mr. Braly,
however, went on with his meeting. Several members of the Cal-
vinist's family were at the "mourner's bench" weeping and crying
for mercy, and soon they were filled with joy and peace in Jesus.
1 84 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
Their faces shone with a heavenly radiance as they told what God
had done for them. Then this man's prejudices all vanished.
Judge Ewing- in his sketches gives a touching picture of Bra-
ly's faithfulness and self-denying consecration. At one time he
had traveled among the destitute, holding meetings and receiving
no pay until his clothing was almost worn out. His boots espe-
cially were unfit to wear and he had no money to buy new ones,
yet he made a long journey through a strange land in order to
attend the meeting of synod, and in spite of his worn garments he
was in his place in that body. Nor were the rough frontier regions
of Missouri alone in leaving their missionaries thus to suffer.
There was a man, now aged and infirm, who traveled in West Ten-
nessee in 1846 holding meetings among a prosperous people. For
six months he preached nearly every day, and more than three hun-
dred persons professed conversion at his meetings. In all that time
he received no compensation, either in clothing or in money. A
rich elder said to him, "Go down to the shoe shop and get your
boots mended." The young man went, but having no money he
borrowed tools and tried as best he could to do his own repairing.
He adopted the old programme of saying nothing about money
or pay of any kind to anybody. The Cumberland Presbyterian
church had its beginning under this mistaken plan, and the exam-
ple of ' ' the fathers ' ' is still the argument wdiich is everywhere
used by those church members wdio want their pastor to serve
them for naught.
We must remember how scattered and sparse were the settle-
ments in all the new territories before we can appreciate the vic-
tories won in these early meetings. An account of a camp-meet-
ing held in Missouri in 182 1 will illustrate this point. It is taken
from the published biography of the Rev. A. A. Young, who was
one of our early preachers in that State: The people in this
sparsely settled region (now Saline County) had no Sabbath-schools,
no churches, no preaching, no pra3'er-meetings. They determined
to secure some preachers to hold a camp-meeting. Their efforts
were successful, and they selected a spot about equally distant from
several settlements, but five miles from the nearest house. When
the camps were erected and all the population of the adjacent set-
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 185
tlemeiits were gathered together there were just twenty-five persons
present. Yet that meeting was perhaps as fruitful in the long run
as some in later times in which the converts are counted by the
hundred. At that meeting A. A. Young, whose after life in the
ministry was greatly blessed, found the preaching just what John
Crawford, of Illinois, found it a few years before. The mask was
torn off" his heart, and he saw himself helpless and ruined and* con-
demned before God, and cried earnestly for help to Jesus, who alone
could save, nor did he cry in vain.
The Rev. Daniel Patton, who was one of the most useful Cum-
berland Presbyterian pioneers in Missouri, is still living, and
though now over eighty years of age, he still takes his horse and
his saddle-bags and goes out on an old-time circuit as an itinerant
missionar}^ in that field. He rode the circuit in South Alabama
in 182 1. His history of our church in Missouri is before me. He
begins with Barnett Presb}'tery, which was organized in April,
1828, at Lexington, Missouri. The ministers composing this pres-
b)'tery were Samuel King, R. D. Morrow, Daniel Patton, and Henry
Renick. Under its care were Clemens Means and William Horn,
candidates, and Robert Renick, a licentiate. Of the early work
of this presbytery Patton says:
To know man perfectly you must see him under the pressure of
the varied phases of human life. You must see the pioneer preacher
in his log-cabin built by his own hands. In frontier settlements in an
unbroken wilderness of more than five hundred miles north and one
thousand miles west, our first Missouri preachers with their families
found their homes. In a few years other settlements are formed
beyond. The cry comes up from the new settlements, Come over and
help us. To answer this cry wide-spread prairies without roads and
deep creeks without bridges had to be crossed. None of these things
deter the pioneer preacher.
The same v^^riter gives a sketch of the early preachers of Mis-
souri. Of Samuel King he says:
He was preaching in my father's house, in Bedford Countv, Ten-
nessee, to a crowded company, when my father professed faith in the
blessed Savior. I saw father passing through the crowd clapping his
hands and praising God, and many others doing the same. I was then
eleven years old. I record this incident not only as a grateful remem-.
i86 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
brance of the past, but to present an instance of the power manifested
in all the public ministrations of Samuel King. He was pre-eminently
a man of prayer. He lived more on his knees than any man I ever
knew, hence his power in the pulpit. I believe that God gave him
more seals to his ministry than to any other man since Whiteficld's
day, 1 heard Finis Ewing say more than once, "I would rather
preach after any other man." He said it seemed to him that King
alwitys said all that could be said to profit, and the state of feeling was
so high that it would only be lowered by his effort. I am sure no man
was a better judge of preaching than Finis Ewing.
It was Patton himself who was preaching at Bee Creek camp-
meeting, Missouri, when the people rose to their feet and uncon-
sciously pressed toward the pulpit till they were densely crowded
around the preacher. There was no more preaching for two days,
"altar work" taking up all the time.
Another glimpse of Patton' s work is found in his history of
Bamett Presbytery. He says:
The writer husked corn which grew from the soil where Rich-
mond, the county seat of Ray County, now stands. He helped raise
the first log-cabins to make it a town. He made the first wagon road
runnino- north from Richmond, crossing the west fork of Crooked
River on his land one mile from town. He drove the first four-horse
team that crossed this stream after digging the bank to ascend. This
road was for many years the highway of emigration north. As much
of this northward travel was directly by my cabin I was much ques-
tioned as to the country beyond. I entertained many weary travelers,
always free. You see by these means many formed my acquaintance,
so that I was known to almost all the new settlements north. As soon
as little settlements were formed It was but natural for them to ask me
to come out and preach for them. I well remember my first tour to
the forks of Grand River. Some of my old Ray County friends had
settled there and thereabouts. The presbytery had sent out William
Clark, a good young man, just licensed to preach, to form a sort of cir-
cuit to suit the frontier settlements. I was to follow, preach, and
administer ordinances as needed. The first day's travel I swam two
considerable streams on the back of my horse, and then steered for a
"deadening" in a little grove of timber. I found a kind family in a
new cabin, nature's floor and nature's fare, fat venison and good cheer.
The next day with diflliculty I found the place for preaching. Mr.
Clark had preached in the forenoon and the people were gathering for
the three o'clock service.
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 187
In a little grove between Shoal Creek and Grand River, Patton
held a camp-meeting. He does not give the date, but he says of
the meeting:
I was conducted to the place by an old hunter who knew the coun-
try and led the wav "by course," as we used to travel in the unbroken
wilds. My guide and myself were the first to reach the place. I exam-
ined the ground with a feeling of interest which no man can realize
who has not been placed in a like position. The lonely place, the
hastily-raised pulpit, the rude, narrow "slab" seats, a narrow path cut
through the brush to a good spring at the base of the hill, called to my
mind Isaiah's prediction of the gospel's spread and conquests, "The
wilderness and solitary places shall be glad for them: yea, the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." Strange but true, whilst I call
up the glorious scenes of the past I live over the emotions of soul of
which I certainly was the subject at that time! I involuntarily and
most earnestly asked, Will this solitary place be made glad to-day
because of thy presence, O God ? The answer in my poor heart was,
It will. And so it was.
Most of Mr. Patton' s history belongs to a later period.
Some facts recorded in the history of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church in Missouri, written by the Rev. P. G. Rea, are here
given. Jacob Ish, a Cumberland Presbyterian elder, was the first
man who drove a wagon into Big Bottom, near the place where
Glasgow, Missouri, now stands. This was in 1816. New Leba-
non church was organized by John Carnahan in the house of Alex-
ander Sloan, father of the Rev. Robert Sloan, in 1820. Among
the children and grandchildren of the members of the first session
of this church there have been twelve preachers. It was here that
the school of Ewing and Morrow was located.
Where pioneer settlers in the wilderness were destitute of the
gospel, there the early Cumberland Presbyterian preachers preferred
going. In a great many instances they declined to organize
churches in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and New
York, saying that every preacher our people had was needed in the
West by those who had no minister of any church to break to them
the bread of life. That there was no sectarian ambition among our
people then is not asserted, but that there was far less of it then
than now can be maintained.
i88 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
A pioneer scene in Missouri is here sketched. When Mr. Will-
iam Blackwell, a Cumberland Presbyterian elder, moved to Mis-
souri, in 1827, and settled in the wilderness, wolves and Indians
were no rarity in his neighborhood. In 1829 ^^r. Blackwell was liv-
ing in what was then Randolph County, when tidings of an Indian
invasion and of murders in the region where Kirksville now stands
reached him. Joining a band of volunteers he hurried to the
relief of the invaded settlements. A battle followed. The whites
fought fiercely, but were compelled to retreat. In the retreat IMn
Blackwell came uj) with a wounded man afoot. He placed this
man upon his own horse, and continued his retreat. Farther on
he came upon another comrade who had stopped from exhaustion.
While Mr. Blackwell was trying to help this comrade on, a shot
from the Indians killed the poor fellow, and Blackwell continued
his retreat. Farther on he found another comrade lying fast under
a dead horse vdiich had been shot, and although the Indians were
coming, he waited to extricate him, and then again continued his
retreat. His rescued comrade was soon shot down, but INIr. Black-
well escaped. It was for the sake of such men and their families
that our first preachers longed to labor in these pioneer fields.
Mr. Blackwell helped to organize the first congregation of Cum-
berland Presbyterians in that part of the country. The preacher
who held the meeting out of which that church grew was the Rev.
James Dysart. The church was called Liberty.
While the French title to what is now Arkansas was transferred
to the United States in 1803, yet Indian claims and Indian inhab-
itants long interposed other obstacles to its settlement by white
people. Arkansas had its separate organization as a Territory' in
1819, and was admitted into the Union as a State in 1836. Before
the organization of its territorial government, and while the In-
dians were still in the land, the country furnished a retreat to those
hardy and daring young men who loved adventure and wanted to
secure good lands in advance of the inevitable white settlements.
Several of these had young wives as daring as their husbands ; and
there yet live old ladies who on the long winter evenings tell the
throng of happy children that gather around them in their now
prosperous and elegant homes about their wonderful adventures.
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 189
In 1811' some families of Cumberland Presbyterians, converts
of the great revival, moved to Arkansas. James and Jacob Pyatt
and their wives, and two young Carnahans, James and Samuel —
sons of John Carnahan, the preacher — embarked in a flatboat and
floated down the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, to the
mouth of Arkansas River. Though they were all Kentuckians,
yet it was from northern Alabama that they emigrated. I^ike
many others, they had rushed to Alabama when some of the Indian
titles were extinguished, only to find others still in force, and to be
driven off as intruders. It took them from January to May to
make this journey to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Then
they went up that river in a keel-boat to Arkansas Post — the oldest
settlement in the territory. Here they expected to make their
homes, but they soon found that the only religion there was
Roman Catholicism. The population was French, Indians, and a
few Americans. Things did not suit them, so they determined to
go farther up the river. In 1812 they went past the spot where
the city of Little Rock now stands to a bluff fifteen miles above,
where they established their homes. The name of the place was
Crystal Hill.
The same year (18 12) the father of the two Carnahans moved
to Arkansas. He had been riding the circuit as a licensed exhorter
before. In the house of Jacob Pyatt he preached the first Prot-
estant sermon ever preached in Arkansas territory. In those days
our people licensed a man twice: first as exhorter, or lay evano-elist,
and, if "he purchased to himself a good degree," they afterward
licensed him as a probationer for the full work of the ministry.
At the meeting of the Cumberland Presbytery in October, 1812,
John Carnahan was ordered to form a circuit on the Arkansas
River, "among the people where he lived. "^ When the synod
was formed (1813), Carnahan was placed on the roll of Elk Presby-
tery. He attended its meetings regularly till a presbytery was
organized in his own field. In 1814 he was licensed in the regular
way. 3 The presbytery ordered him back to his old circuit on the
Arkansas River, and also addressed a circular letter to the people
'The Pyatt MSB. Secured for me by President F. R. Earle.
= Minutes in the S>jiarterly, 1S7S, p. 496. 3 Elk Minutes, Vol. I., p. S.
igo Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
of those settlements, commending Mr. Carnahan to them as an
excellent man and a worthy minister. This solitary standard-
bearer determined to make this new country his permanent home,
and for nine }ears he was the only Cumberland Presby^rian
preacher in all that field. In October, 1816,' the pioneers peti-
tioned for his ordination, and their petition v/as granted. During
all the years of his lonely toil on the frontier, he was in the habit
of attending every meeting of his presbytery. The place of meet-
ing was often more than five hundred miles from his home, and he
traveled all the distance on horseback. Once the presbytery kept
him six mouths in Tennessee and Alabama for his health's sake,
and then sent him back to Arkansas.
It is claimed in papers left by the Pyatt family that Carnahan
held the first sacramental meeting ever held by Protestants on
Arkansas soil. In all the western territories opened up between
1800 and 1840 Cumberland Presbyterians were pioneers in gos-
pel work. God raised them up for frontier missions. Carnahan' s
sacramental meeting was at the house of one of the Pyatts, and he
baptized a daughter of the family. Then there were five persons
who joined him in celebrating the Lord's Supper. This was
twenty years before Arkansas was a State, and three years before
it had a territorial government. Away in this wilderness the Car-
nahans and the Pyatts had erected the family altar, and now they
provided also for the ordinances of God's house. These families
were noted for liberality. There was but little money circulating
in any of the pioneer settlements, but where the heart is right lib-
eral souls will find wa^^s of doing liberal deeds. In 1823 Pyatt's
little boy, seeing Reuben Burrow nearly shoeless, made the mis-
sionary a pair of shoes with his own hands. The pioneers had to
perform such tasks as the making of their own shoes.
Another incident is here given illustrating the character, habits,
and adventures of these pioneers. Jacob Pyatt kept a ferr}--boat.
One day there came a weary pedestrian, stating that he had met
with misfortunes and had no money to pay his ferriage. Pyatt
took him over the river, and kept him at his own house a week;
then he mounted him on one of his horses, and, sending a boy •
'Minutes of Elk Presbytery, Vol. I., p. 25.
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. I9I
along with him to bring- the animal back, thus conveyed him
home to Little Rock. That young man was a nephew of the Rev.
Thomas Calhoun. He graduated at Princeton College, Kentucky,
and finally became governor of Arkansas.
Crystal Hill settlement was a center for Cumberland Presbyte-
rian immigrants. Among others the Blairs, two of whom afterward
became ministers, made that neighborhood their home. John Car-
nahan was still with them, devoting himself to the work of an evan-
gelist, and traveling all the way to Tennessee every six months to
attend the meetings of his presbyter>^
After a few years Carnahan's membership was transferred to the
McGee Presbytery, which included Arkansas in its bounds. That
body became deeply concerned about the organization of a new
presbytery in Mr. Carnahan's field. As there was a prospect for a
supply of candidates for the ministry from that territory, the pres-
bytery determined to hold an "intermediate" meeting in Arkansas.
The distance was great, and much of the intervening country an
uninhabited wilderness. The route was partly through Indian
neighborhoods, and none of the rivers had either bridges or ferries.
The young and active men of the presbytery were therefore to be
pressed into this distant mission. It has already been noticed that
Reuben Burrow, then a candidate, and R. D. King, then a licentiate,
were traveling as missionaries in Missouri. Both were at the meet-
ing of McGee Presbytery in 1823,. though King was sick in bed.
The presbytery, however, licensed Burrow and ordained King in
order to send them to Arkansas. King, though very sick, was
held up, a good lady plying camphor in the meantime, while they
ordained him. Then the moderator resigned, and King was chosen
moderator in his stead, so that he might preside at the intermediate
meeting of the presbytery. It was five hundred miles to the place
of meeting, and one third of the way was a wilderness. Most of the
nights had to be spent without shelter, but King, Long, and Bur-
row were with Camahan at the appointed place on the appointed
day.
The presbytery at this intermediate session received three can-
didates for the ministry. Two of these were James H. Black and
J. M. Blair, men whose names were afterward well known through-
192 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
out the Arkansas churches. After the close of the meeting, which
was held at the house of John Craig, on White River, Mr. Long
returned to Missouri, while Burrow and King remained to do mis-
sion work in Arkansas. These missionaries held two camp-meet-
ings that same year in Mr. Craig's neighborhood, both of which
were greatly blessed. Carnahan and King went to the Arkansas
River, while Burrow formed a circuit among the White River set-
tlements.
In King's autobiography he says there were grown men at his
meetings who had never heard a prayer, much less a sermon. The
settlements were few and far between. The largest crowd of peo-
ple which even a camp-meeting could draw together might possi-
bly reach, in extreme cases, a hundred and fifty persons. Great
gaps of unpeopled wilderness stretched between the settlements;
and of the one hundred and fifty persons who might possibly be at
a camp-meeting, some had to come from a distance of more than a
hundred miles. When forty or fifty converts are reported at one
camp-meeting, we are to understand that from fifty to eighty per
cent, of the entire assembly were converted.
I^ing and Carnahan being ordained ministers, took special
charge of the camp-meetings. The camps were built of rails, and
covered with bushes or the leafy boughs of trees. The preaching
places were not covered, except the stand or pulpit, which had
over it a shed of leafy branches. In these rude .frontier tabernacles
God was pleased to display his converting grace, and many a
church grew up where these rude encampments were erected.
After several months of circuit work Burrow joined the camp-
meeting corps at Fort Smith; but before he reached the meeting
he was attacked with chills. The first two camp-meetings which
he attended were crowned with gracious results; but Burrow grew
worse, until he was unable to preach, and finally became delirious
with fever. Then Carnahan was also taken with fever. King
found himself alone. Another camp - meeting, one hundred and
fifty miles farther down the river, had been appointed. Neither
Burrow nor Carnahan was able to sit up, but King was not to be
thwarted. He bought a very large canoe, or pirogue. In this he
placed dfied prairie grass for beds, and put a cover on bows over
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. I93
the beds. He then laid in a supply of provisions, hired young
men to help row, and others to take the horses through by land,
and, placing his two sick brethren feet to feet in the pirogue,
started on his journey. The second day all the provisions were
found to be spoiled, and they made the rest of their journey without
food. ,They, however, reached the appointed place in time for the
camp-meeting. Neither Burrow nor Carnahan was able to assist.
Both, indeed, were delirious.' One day, after King had preached
on the text "the harvest is past," a lady in the congregation
repeated the text and fell shrieking to the ground. Others in-
stantly fell; then others, until all over the congregation prostrate
penitents were pleading for mercy. For several days King had
felt his frame burning with fever; but as both his comrades were
prostrate, he determined not to acknowledge that he was sick.
Standing in the midst of this throng of weeping sinners, and tiy-
ing to instruct them in the way of salvation, he fainted and fell to
the ground. He was taken up and borne to one of the camps,
bled, and put to bed in an unconscious state. There was no more
preaching at that meeting, and neither of the missionaries was ever
able to tell how the meeting closed. They were both carried along
with Carnahan to private houses. King remained delirious eleven
days, and kept his bed five weeks.
The hardships of the journey of these two missionaries back to
Missouri may be taken as a type of what our pioneer preachers
endured. We have a full account of this journey from both King
and Burrow, and the narrative is here placed before the reader with
the greater pleasure because both of these missionaries were among
the very noblest specimens of true manhood that any church in any
age ever enrolled among its heroes.
Dr. Burrow was a man of great physical power. He had a
compact, heavy, muscular frame, and heavy eyebrows. His black
hair grew low down on his forehead, and his accent betrayed just a
little his German extraction. The working of his mind was like
the heavy and powerful movements of some ponderous machine,
' In this account of the river trip I follow the King manuscript. Burrow's ts
slightly different; but Burrow was delirious or unconscious throughout the trip, and
wrote from memory long afterward.
194 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
His eye and countenance slowly kindled as he advanced in his ser-
mons, until at last his homely face grew beautiful with the glow
of intellect set on fire by the Holy Ghost.
King was a fine specimen of the pioneer preacher. Trained in
pioneer work by the Rev. Samuel King, his father, and all his life
keeping on the frontier, he delighted in hardships and sufferings
for Jesus with something of the same spirit which the first century
witnessed in those who earnestly coveted the martyr's crown. He
closed his career, at last, on the Texas frontier, leaving it as his
dying testimony that, if he had his life to live over again, he would
wish it to be just the kind of life which he had already passed
through.
When the time came to go back to Missouri, King was still
unable to travel, and Burrow set out without him. There was an
appointment for a camp-meeting on the road one hundred miles
distant. Eighteen young people, most of whom were unconverted,
mounted their horses and accompanied Burrow to this meeting,
and almost all of these souls were there blessed. After this camp-
meeting Burrow resumed his journey. He was now alone, and
what was worse, his horse was sick ; but we have already seen that
he never allowed such things to interfere with his work. Placing
his saddle-bags on his shoulder, and driving his sick horse before
him, he pursued his journey. Then his horse died, and he plodded
on afoot, having an appointment one hundred and fifty miles ahead.
It was often from twenty-five to thirty miles from one house to the
next. How he crossed the rivers without a horse, in a land where
there were neither bridges nor ferries, and where the settlements
were twenty-five miles apart, is left to conjecture.
He reached St. Michaels, Missouri, in time for his appointment,
and there with great joy he grasped by the hand his beloved fellow-
laborer, the Rev. W. C. Long. But the end was not yet. The
presbytery was to meet at Finis Ewing's church, near Booneville,
Missouri. He and Long, placing their baggage on Long's horse,
both started afoot. On the way Mr. Burrow was again taken very
sick, and was unable to proceed. Not willing to miss a meeting
of presbyter}', Mr. Long, although he believed Burrow to be in a
dying condition, continued his journey. But Burrow's work was
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 195
not done. He recovered partially, borrowed a horse, and was at
the appointed place in time for the presbyterial meeting. Being
unable to sit up, he was carried to Finis Ewing's house, and cared
for until his recovery by that queen of nurses, "Aunt Peggy"
Ewing.
In the meantime King recovered sufficiently to sit on his horse.
Worn with sickness, and all alone, he set out on the long journey
"to presbytery." His first stretch of houseless wilderness was
thirty miles across. It was dark when he closed that dreary ride,
and he was burning with fever. At every house he was urged not
to try to travel while in that condition; but, says he, "I was going
to presbytery. ' ' The fifth night the family where he stayed were
all sick — no one able to sit up. King himself was in a raging
fever, and too weak to climb up to the loft where the fodder was
kept, but he managed to give his horse some corn ; and then, being
wet to the skin from rain and crossing rivers, he spread his blanket
before the fire and passed the night in sleep. Toward morning he
awoke greatly improved, his fever all gone. He says that he felt
willing to die for the sake of reaching that meeting of presbytery,
and there representing the interests of the destitute people along
the banks of the White and the Arkansas rivers. Indeed, by some
means the report had reached the members of McGee Presbytery
that he was dead; and when he entered the house in which the
presbyter>^ was sitting, the Rev. R. D. Morrow was on his feet read-
ing a preamble and resolutions in relation to the death of their
beloved brother, the Rev. R. D. King. When they saw him enter,
the whole presbytery rushed to meet him with tears of joy and
exclamations of thanksgiving to God.
The Rev. Hiram McDaniel, of Kentucky, spent the winter of
that same year (1823) as missionary in Arkansas. He found trials,
too. Once when he swam the Arkansas River his horse was all
covered with ice before he reached the farther shore. Such things
came in as a matter of course in the work of these pioneer preach-
ers, not only in that day but for many years afterward.
On the fourth Thursday in May, 1824, according to the order
of the synod at its preceding session, the Arkansas Presbytery was
constituted in the house of John Craig, in Independence County.
196 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
Robert Stone, one of the men appointed to assist in the organiza-
tion, was absent. The ministers who were present were John Car-
nahan, W. C. Long, and William Henry. They lived at great dis-
tances from each other, but that was the usual state of things in
the new presbyteries. They at once turned their attention to rais-
ing up a home supply of preachers. There were four candidates
for the ministry to begin with. Prayer, beseeching God to call
more men to preach the gospel, made part of the business of every
meeting of that little presbytery in the wilderness.
At the time for the second meeting of this presbytery, in the
fall of 1824, 3. quorum was not present, but Andrew Buchanan pre-
sented himself to the committee as a candidate for the ministry.
He afterward became a leading preacher, and his name fills
a large place to-day in the history of our church in Arkansas.
From 1824 until he was an old man he was an active missionary
among the Arkansas people. An old lady who long knew him
and held him in very high esteem said to me : ' ' He did n' t preach
at all; he just talked as if he were speaking to little children, and
made every thing so plain. But I tell you Uncle John ' preached."
A natural, simple manner was a rare thing in those days of pulpit
thunder.
In the spring of 1825 ^^^^ Arkansas Presbyter>^ again failed to
hold its regular session, as no quorum was present. The following
autumn a similar failure occurred for the same reason. Several
probationers were ready for licensure. It was a distressing case,
and was brought before the synod. The synod sought to remedy
the trouble by extending the bounds of Arkansas Presbyter>' far
into Missouri, so as to include the homes of several preachers of
that State. A quorum was thus secured, and licensures and ordina-
tions followed.
By this extension of the bounds of Arkansas Presbyter}^ several
names were placed on its roll which do not belong to the history of
the cliurch in that State. Robert Sloan, however, who lived and
died in Missouri, and who for a while held his membership in
Arkansas Presbytery, did labor nobly as a missionarv^ among the
'The Rev. John Buchanan was familiarly spoken of as "Uncle John," and the
Rev. Andrew Buchanan as " Uncle Buck."
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 197
people of Arkansas. Once while traveling in that territory his
horse died; but he was more fortunate in this emergency than
Reuben Burrow had been in similar circumstances. The people
remounted him, and he went on his way rejoicing. Judge Ewing's
excellent little volume of "Historical Memoirs" contains a biog-
raphy of Mr. Sloan.
At the meeting of Arkansas Presbytery in the spring of 1826,
Jesse M. Blair, J. H. Black, W. W. Stevenson, and Andrew Buch-
anan were all licensed to preach. In the fall meeting that year
J. A. Cornwall and W. W. Stevenson were ordained. Black and
Blair were ordained the following spring. In the records of this
presbytery for 1827 there is an item characteristic of the men and
the times. The Rev. James H. Black, who had been appointed to
one of the oldest circuits, reported his failure to carry out the
appointment, giving this as his reason: a Macedonian cry from the
new settlements on Red River, wliere the people had no preaching
of any kind, had greatly touched his heart. He therefore left his
old circuit, where there were some other preachers of other churches,
and spent his whole time in the newer and more destitute field.
He said the success of that work had convinced him that the call
came from God, and he hoped his brethren would excuse his failure
to comply with their order. He was excused, ' ' Red River circuit ' '
established, and in a few more years we find Red River Presbytery
organized.
In the Minutes of the Arkansas Presbytery the boundaries of
the congregations are defined. These boundaries were frequently
as large as a whole county. In some instances, indeed, a circuit
was established exclusively within the limits of a single congrega-
tion. Of course the meetings were held in private houses. Dur-
ing this first period there seem to have been no meeting-houses in
the territory.
In 1827 Arkansas Presbytery called on all the churches to unite
in a day of fasting and of prayer to the great Head of the Church
for more ministers to be called and sent into that needy field.
There were four immense circuits in the Territory, yet the mission-
aries did not reach one half of the destitute. Camp-meetings and
circuit appointments were here, as everywhere else, the chief reli-
198 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11.
auce for supplying the country with the gospel. At least once a
year every congregation was to be examined on theology (the cate-
chism) by one of the ordained ministers. This universal custom
of all our presbyteries in that day was not forgotten in Arkansas.
Another characteristic item appears on the records of this presby-
tery. An order was passed requiring every minister to preach to
each church which he visited one sermon on ' ' the support of the
ministry," and report results to the presbytery. At the next meet-
ing five reported that they had not complied with the order. One
who reported compliance said that the people on his circuit had
pledged sixty-eight dollars and fifty cents for this purpose. An-
other reported that he complied with the order, and that the people
on his circuit all said they could not pay any thing for preaching.
In 1827 all the country around what is now Cane Hill College,
Washington County, was opened to white settlers, the Osage In-
dians having sold their lands and moved farther west. A goodly
number of the Crystal Hill people moved to this new field, and
among them were two Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, Carna-
han and Blair, and also two elders. They organized Cane Hill
church, which has been from that day to this a center of spiritual
power for all Arkansas. It soon "swarmed," and the new hive
was called Salem, which still lives and works for Jesus.
Before the Crystal Hill people reached Cane Hill, another Cum-
berland Presbyterian family had settled there. This was James
Buchanan and his household. Around the Pyatts, the Buchanans,
and the Blairs clusters a large part of the history of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church in that field.
One thing about Cane Hill congregation deser\'es to be specially
mentioned — the large number of noble ministers it has sent
forth, and the very high positions of usefulness which these
ministers have filled. Among its converts are found not only min-
isters, but noble men in other callings, as, for example, Prof A.
H. Buchanan, of Cumberland University. Many of our large
churches never send out any preachers. Numbers and wealth do
not constitute spiritual power. Alas, no! oftener do they co-exist
with a godless worldliness which causes parents to shrink from the
thought of giving their sons to be preachers.
Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 199
Cane Hill church founded Cane Hill College, stamping upon it
the image of its own deep spirituality, which that institution still
bears and impresses on its pupils. A school for Jesus— what a
precious thing it is!
"Not more than one third of the people of Arkansas have any
opportunity to hear the gospel," ' said a writer in 1831. "There
are only three Sabbath-schools in the Territory," he adds. He
pleads with the Cumberland Presbyterian church not to send men
East, where other churches are supplying the people with the word
of life, but to follow up the great wave of western emigrants. At
the close of the period ending in 1829, when the Cumberland Pres-
byterian General Assembly was organized, Arkansas was still a
sparsely settled territory, with wide areas between the settlements,
and with the Indians still on the soil.
There were also two desperate bands of robbers in Washington
County, of this Territory, and many of the pioneer families, and
especially the noble women whose husbands traveled as mission-
aries, lived in constant dread of these desperadoes. These robber
bands were especially troublesome about Cane Hill. All efforts to
reach them through the courts failed. Finally, after whole families,
including little children, had been murdered, a vigilance committee
took the matter in hand and made quick work of the whole busi-
ness. To this committee the Rev. Andrew Buchanan gave his
hearty support. There was no other way to rid the country of
these robbers.
There are many traditions concerning Andrew Buchanan and
his adventures. A cool, fearless hero; never excited, never losing
self-possession, never shrinking from any duty however hard, he
was well fitted for the field in which his lot was cast. Two of his
favorite sayings are still quoted in Arkansas. One was, "I take
no more trouble on my hands than I can kick off at my heels;"
the other, "I never let my feelings stick out far enough for people
to tramp on them."
One of the pioneer workers in Ai-kansas camp-meetings, Mrs.
Mary Marshall, formerly Mrs. Moore, died in Williamson County,
Tennessee, in 1886. She and her husband settled in Arkansas in
^ Religious and Literary Intelligejicer, Maj 12, 1831
200 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
1822. Both were converted in one of the early camp-meetin^-s in
that Territory, and from that day on were very active in all the
meetings within fifty miles of their home. Mrs. Marshall fur-
nished me several incidents illustrating the eminent piety of our
first Arkansas preachers. On one occasion she and others were
talking to the Rev. Guilford Pylant about religion. It was at
night after services. So absorbed were they in this spiritual com-
munion that the day began to break before they noticed how long
the conference had been protracted. Mrs. Marshall says Mr.
Pylant was always "in the Spirit." He is one of the surviving
pioneer preachers of Arkansas.
At another time the Arkansas Presbytery held its meeting in
Mrs. Marshall's parlor. After the presbytery adjourned those who
remained, Andrew Buchanan among the rest, engaged in religious
conversation. In a short time the whole assembly was so filled
with religious ecstasy that the house rang with loud shouts of
"Glory to God." Such was the confidence which our young
preachers had in this woman's piety and good sense that they even
went to her to read, for her criticism, the trial sermons which they
prepared for presbytery.
Chapter XX.] CLOSE OF SECOND PERIOD. 20I
CHAPTER XX.
THE COLLEGE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY—SUMMARY
OF WHAT HAD BEEN DONE.
The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfills himself in many ways.
— Tennyson.
THE Cumberland Presbyterian church at an early period in its
history recognized the necessity of establishing a school for
the education of its preachers. When there were but three pres-
byteries this question was discussed in each of them. In 1S22
commissioners from the Elk, the Nashville, and the Tennessee
presbyteries met in convention to consider this subject. Again in
1823 ^ more vigorous discussion of the subject ended in the deter-
mination to bring the matter before the synod with a view to
co-operation in one school for the whole church.
At the meeting of the General Synod, in Princeton, Kentucky,
in 1825, the final plan for the contemplated school was adopted,
and commissioners appointed to receive bids and locate the institu-
tion. It was to have a department of arts and also a department
of theology. The highest judicature of the church was to be its
board of trustees. The whole country was at that time taking up
with Fellenberg's theory of manual-labor schools, and the synod
caught the infection and resolved that their college should be con-
ducted on that plan.
A novel spectacle greets us here. The synod, composed of all
the ministers of the church, prescribes a course of study, selects
the text-books, and makes a code of by-laws to govern the students;
more than that, it undertakes to direct in the habits of the stu-
dents about dress and other personal matters. It prohibits the use
of feather beds; it requires from every student two or three hours'
labor daily on the farm : it directs also about the management of
203 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
the farm and the boardiiig-hoiise. That race of hardy pioneers,
brought up in a life of hardships on the frontier, undertook to
train up another generation of men for the same rough work.
The synod also directed the commissioners to connect a print-
ing establishment with this manual-labor enterprise, and to pro-
vide thereby for a church paper. It is manifest from all their
proceedings at this time that the members of the synod expected
large results from the cultivation of the fann by the students, but
they were not wholly forgetful of the necessity for endowment.
Agents in large numbers were appointed to solicit donations and
remit to the commissioners, but no salar>' or other compensation
was to be given to these agents.
The history of this college is reser\^ed for another chapter. It
was located at Princeton, Kentucky. The Rev. Franceway R.
Cossitt, D.D., who came to the Cumberland Presbyterian church
from the Episcopalians, was its first president. He was also the
first president of the college afterward established at Lebanon,
Tennessee. His appeals in behalf of education deserve to be col-
lected in a volume, both as a memorial of a noble life of toil and
to keep forever ringing in the ears of our people the important
truths which Dr. Cossitt so earnestly pressed upon their attention —
truths which will live forever, and which are for all countries and all
churches, but especially for this young church of the frontier. If
God, in his providence, raised up and fitted IMcGready and Ewing
to lead in a special work for the great West, much more did his
fatherly care show itself in training up a special leader for the first
educational work of the church. Bred in New England, taught
in her best schools, graduated in one of her best colleges, brought
to Christ according to the Cumberland Presbyterian ideas of "time
and place" and conscious conversion, trained in a regular theo-
logical school, drilled, too, in the work of teaching, Cossitt came
West and cast in his lot with this new church. From that day
until the day of his death he was an active worker for our educa-
tional enterprises.
The last days of the General Synod were chiefly occupied with
the various questions which the college originated, but there were
also several minor matters which received attention, among other
Chapter XX.] CLOSE OF SECOND PERIOD. 203
things the publication of a hymn book for the church. The Rev.
William Harris, on his own responsibility, had brought out a little
book of hymns suited to camp-meetings, but the synod wanted a
larger book and appointed men to prepare one. It also made
arrangements to publish the lectures which the Rev. Finis Ewing
had delivered in his theological school in Missouri. A college, a
theological school, a church paper, and the publication of books
were all partially provided for by the synod before the formation
of a General Assembly.
The expediency of organizing a General Assembly began to be
discussed as early as 1823. The question was debated and deferred
at each successive meeting of the synod for five years. Two things
seem to have caused delay. First, some members feared that the
expansion of the church when proclaimed and acknowledged by
the organization of an Assembly would cause some of our people
to rely on their numbers and forget the true source of all their
strength. Finis Ewing especially feared this, and while his fears
did not lead him to oppose the steps of progress which it was neces-
sary to take, yet at every such advance his voice of warning was
heard pleading with his brethren to keep humble at God's feet and
to remember that all their power came from him. There seems
also to have been a lingering hesitation even yet about accepting
the situation of a permanently organized separate denomination.
A conference with commissioners from the Tennessee Synod of the
Presbyterian church was looked to with strong hopes by some, but
it ended without giving any ground to expect reunion. This
conference originated with the Presbyterians and only proposed
friendly relations, not organic union. The right of a synod to
enter into such negotiations was, however, questioned by the Pres-
byterian General Assembly and the whole matter was dropped.
All of the preachers had to ride on horseback to attend the
annual meetings of the General Synod. Daniel Patton, who is
one of the three surviving members (1887) of that synod gives an
interesting account of its last meeting. He had traveled seven
hundred miles to attend, and traveling expenses had become a
burden. He, therefore, laid ten dollars on the clerk's table to start
a permanent fund, the interest of which should meet such traveling
204 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
expenses. His example was followed by many others. Four
hundred dollars for this fund was secured at that meeting. But the
requisite number of presbyteries sent up their responses in favor
of organizing a General Assembly. It was, therefore, no longer
necessary that all the preachers of the church should attend
every meeting of its highest judicature. So responses to Mr. Pat-
ton's proposition were never carried beyond the four hundred
dollars. A very strong feeling in favor of a delegated s)-nod, and
no higher court, existed, but those maintaining this view v/ere
outvoted. The organization was to be Presbyterian in all its
details.
Some of the minor rules and transactions of the General Synod
deserv'e to be noticed before we pass to the next period. There
was, for instance, a standing order requiring every presbytery to
furnish from time to time a full history of its work and progress,
to be filed with the stated clerk of the synod. The Rev. David
Foster was appointed general superintendent to see that this rule
was complied with. While many of these histories are lost, there
are enough of them still in existence to render valuable aid in the
preparation of this volume. Why could not this old rule be
revived, and precious material be thus preser\^ed? Not a mere
digest of ecclesiastical records, but a photograph of the work in all
the churches of the presbytery is what is needed. The synod, in
its official action, took high ground on the subject of temperance.
It placed itself on record as in favor of all the great benevolent
enterprises of the day. It was recognized in all the West as fore-
most in work for the Bible Society and the Tract Society.
New presbyteries were organized from time to time, and when
the General Synod finally adjourned sine die, there were eighteen
of these presbyteries. The date of the order for the organization
of each, and a list of the original members, are here given:
Nashville,' 1813: Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun, David Foster,
D. W. McLin.
Elk, 1813: William McGee, Samuel King, James B. Porter, Robert
Bell, Robert Donnell. _^__
' The Nashville Presbytery was what was left of the original Cumberland Pres-
bytery after Elk and Logan were stricken off in 1S13. It was still called the Cum-
Chapter XX.] ClOSE OP SECOND PERIOD 205
Logan, 1S13: Finis Ewing, William Harris, Alexander Chapman, Will-
iam Barnett.
McGee, 1819: Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, R. D. Morrow, John Car-
nahan.
Anderson, 182 1: William Henry, John Barnett, D. W. McLin, Aaron
Shelby, W. M. Hamilton, James Johnston, William Barnett.
Lebanon, 1821: Thomas Calhoun, William Bumpass, John Provine, J.
L. Dillard, Daniel Gossedge, Samuel McSpeddin, James McDon-
nold.
Tennessee, 182 1: A. Alexander, Albert Gibson, R. Donnell, James
.Stuart, James Moore, John jMolloy.
Illinois, 1S22: Green P. Rice, D. W. McLin, John M. Berry, W. M.
Hamilton.
Tombigbee, 1823: Robert Bell, John Molloy, John C. Smith, John
Forbes.
Arkan#as, 1833: W. C. Long, William Henry, John Carnahan, Robert
Stone.
Hopewell, 1824: William Barnett, Richard Beai'd, Samuel Harris, John
C. Smith.
Alabama,"" 1S24: William Moore, Benjamin Lockhart, John Williams,
J. W. Dickey.
Indiana, 1S25: Aaron Shelby, H. A. Hunter, A. Downey, William
Lynn.
Barnett, 1S37: Samuel King, R. D. Morrow, Daniel Patton, Henry
Renick.
Knoxville, 1827: George Donnell, S. M. Aston, Abner W. Lansden,
William Smith.
St. Louis, 182S: F. M. Braly, John R. Brown, John W. McCord, John
H. Garvin.
Princeton, 1828: F. R. Cossilt, David Lowry, John W. Ogden, James
Johnston.
Sangamon, 182S: David Foster, John M. Berry, Thomas Campbell,
Gilbert Dodds, John Porter.
The synod resolved to divide itself into four synods preparatory
to the organization of a General Assembly. These new synods were
named Missouri, Franklin, Green River, and Columbia. There
were six presbyteries in Missouri Synod: McGee, Barnett, Sanga-
mon, Illinois, St. Louis, and Arkansas. Franklin Synod had four
berland Presbytery till 1S14, when its name was changed. Elk, Logan, and Nash-
ville were the presbyteries composing the first synod.
''The order to organize in 1821 failed for waut of a resident quorum.
2o6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii.
presbyteries: Nashville, Lebanon, Knoxville, and Hopewell. In
Green River Synod there were also four presbyteries: Anderson,
Princeton, Logan, and Indiana; and four in the Columbia vSynod,
viz.: Alabama, Tombigbee, Elk, and Tennessee. The General
Assembly w-as to hold its first meeting in Princeton, Kentucky, the
third Tuesday in May, 1829. Such changes in the Form of Gov-
ernment as the organization of a General Assembly necessitated
were made by the s}'nod, and, without any reference to the presby-
teries, were accepted by common consent, and became part of the
laws of the church.
This sy nodical period, from 1813 to 1829, was one of unsur-
passed activity and^ spirituality on the part of our ministry. Tak-
ing it altogether, the world has never witnessed its equal; certainly
the Cumberland Presbyterian church has not witnessed any thing
like its equal in the two particulars specified. I am sorr}' to add
that there are no statistics to show even the number of ministers
in the church, much less the number of members, at that time.
There were eighteen presbyteries, and we know who their first
members were; but what names had been added to their rolls after
their organization can not now be ascertained. There were thou-
sands of conversions every year, but God kept that roll; and the
fear of ' ' counting, ' ' which still exists among our people, did not
cause one single genuine convert to be omitted from the family
record in our Father's book of life. On Monday, October 27, 1828,
at Franklin, Tennessee, the General Synod, composed of all the
ministers of the church and their elders, adjourned to meet no
more on earth.
THIRD PERIOD.
CHAPTER XXII.
GENERAL SURVEY.
And now with voices soft, mysterious, low,
Tlie phantoms whisper round me, and I seem
To hear life's blended memories come and go
In strange ethereal music fitfullj.
— Paul H. Ilayne.
THE third period, from the meeting of the first General Assem-
bly in 1829 to the removal of Cumberland College in 1842, is
the great transition period in the history of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church. It seems proper, before taking up any thorough
notice of details, to sweep over this period with a sort of general
survey.
When the first General Assembly met at Princeton, Kentucky,
the church extended into only eight States, six of which had be-
come States since the church was organized. The other two
States had both acquired large areas of Indian territory since the
organization of the church, and even in these two older States
work among the pioneer settlements had constituted a large part
of our denominational activity, while all the work in the new
States had from necessity been accomplished by missionary evan-
gelists. Born on the crest of the great wave of emigration which
was rolling into the immense western territories, as one after
another these territories were thrown open to white settlers, this
church was specially raised up and fitted by a wise Providence for
pioneer work in this field. The ministry of the new church filled
this pioneer mission nobly; but the time came when all the circum-
stances were changed, and Providence pointed to other missions.
(207)
2o8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
That period begins with the meeting of the first General Assembly.
There were still new territories acquired by the nation on the west-
em frontier, but there were also many old established communities
in which our people had churches that needed training.
There were eighteen presbyteries at the time this period began,
sixteen of which were represented in the first General Assembly.
Not one of the preachers who attended this General Assembl}' had
ever been a pastor in the true sense of that term. Missionaries
who had borne great hardships all their li\-es, who had shown
themselves ready and willing to suffer for the sake of leading souls
to Jesus, but had little or no experience in the management of
financial affairs, found themselves in charge of all the great enter-
prises of the denomination. It is not to be wondered at that they
made many a blunder in the business department of their transac-
tions. We know not whether smiles or tears are most called for
when we see the General Assembly year after year appointing
agents to travel over all the United States for the college, without
any salary whatever. Were they not ministers who were thus
appointed? Had they not all been thoroughly trained in working
without any pay? But our smiles turn to admiration when we
find that the Rev. Matthew Houston Bone, the Rev. Franceway R.
Cossitt, and the Rev. John W. Ogden did all three comply with
this appointment made by the first General Assembly, and make
extensive tours in the interest of the college through half a dozen
States. We are not surprised, however, to find in their reports the
next year much more about the number of poor sinners converted
at their meetings than about the amount of money secured for the
college.
Much of the business of the General Assembly during this tran-
sition period had reference to the difficulties and the struggles of
the college. Another matter of a most embarrassing nature, over
which there was much trouble, was the church paper. A third
source of trouble and loss was "the book concern." There were
also heart-burnings and distress over the case of the Rev. John
Barnett, who was financially wrecked while tr}'ing to carr}' on the
business department of the college under contract with the General
Assembly. Another source of embarrassment was a difficult and
Chapter XXI.] GENERAI. SuRVEY. 209
protracted discussion about the pastoral office. The home mission-
ary work in Pennsylvania, Texas, lyouisiana, and other fields was a
hopeful feature of the church's progress during this period.
While the General Assembly uniformly indorsed the American
Board of Missions, and recommended the churches to contribute to
that board, it also clung to the theory of having a missionary board
of its own both for domestic and foreign missions. The General
Assembly of 1836 resolved to co-operate with the American Board
in the foreign work. The Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Mis-
sions, which originated in the second period and continued through
the third, never had any charter. While voices in favor of a char-
tered board of foreign missions were heard at every General Assem-
bly, still no such board was created. The unchartered board was
considered sufficient. Expecting neither legacies, law-suits, nor
defalcations, a majority thought a charter unnecessary. All the
congregations were required to have auxiliary missionary societies,
tributary to this board.
At all the General Assemblies during this period the great
benevolent enterprises of the day received hearty indorsement, and
the churches were urged to co-operate with them. The Coloniza-
tion Society and Tract Society seem to have been favorites, though
the. Bible Society, Temperance Society, and Sunday-school Union
were never forgotten.
While the General Assembly declared itself in favor of full sta-
tistical reports from the presbyteries, and, with constantly dimin-
ishing opposition, resolved at every annual meeting that these
reports must be sent up, yet up to the close of this period only
about half the presbyteries complied with the order. There was a
strong feeling against statistics among some of our best men. The
first synod to make a full statistical report, accompanied with a
directory of its ministers, was the Synod of Missouri, in 1836.
At every General Assembly the reports on the state of religion
speak of extensive revivals, but do not give full statistics of con-
versions. At one meeting half the s^-nods sent up statistics. The
number of conversions in their bounds for that year was a little
over eight thousand. In 1835 the Committee on the State of
Religion reported that secularization of the ministry prevailed
14
2IO Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
to an alarming extent. At two meetings the General Assembly
held a fast-day in the midst of its sessions, the members gathering
at six o'clock in the morning for prayer. General fast-days for the
whole church were twice appointed during this period, and the
people called on to pray for more men to be called to the ministr}'.
Camp-meetings were still universal, and the General Assembly con-
stantly gave them its official indorsement, and urged the churches
to hold them. Even in the very few old churches which, after
the middle of this period, had settled pastors, nobody thought of
abandoning the camp - meeting. The church papers teem with
accounts of revivals at these meetings. Nowhere else did the
preachers of this period appear to such advantage, or preach with
such power. It was customary to hold the sessions of the church
judicatures during or immediately preceding a camp-meeting.
The General Assembly solemnly declared hoh- living on the
part of God's people to be greatly needed and sadly lacking. In
1836 it declared it to be part of the policy of the church for pres-
byteries to license lay exhorters. It is a pity that the church ever
departed from that policy.
It is remarkable how very few appeal cases came up from the
lower church judicatures, and what a mild nature characterized
those which did come. The first appeal case was at the fifth Gen-
eral Assembly, and the question was whether Hiram IMcDaniel
belonged to the Princeton or to the Anderson Presbyter>'. Nor
were there any appeals or any graver questions during all this
period. Questions about the right way of appointing elders to
attend synod were constantly coming up. Occasional memorials
to abolish the synod were laid on the table, or voted down.
Two of the early ministers of the church were superannuated
and in destitution. The General Assembly at every meeting made
some provisions for these sufferers and their families. For one of
them it bought a little farm.
The first part of this period presented few exciting debates.
There were no great speeches. Orator\' found its field in the pul-
pit, especially at the camp-meetings. The last Assembly of this
period (1842), however, was more like one of our modern judica-
tures. There were animated debates and long and earnest speeches
Chapter XXL] GENERAL SURVEY. 211
on the question of removing the college from Princeton. Local
and party feelings made their first decided exhibition in this Assem-
bly. According to all accounts the speeches in all the former
sessions were short, and utterly destitute of any ill-feeling. This
was true even in the discussion of the questions about which it is
known that there were bitter heart-burnings. The peace and har-
mony of the church were at that day held in very high esteem.
In 1833 the General Assembly resolved that it would be a grat-
ifying thing to have the three men who organized our first pres-
bytery visit all the churches. The Rev. Samuel King, therefore,
after some preparation, took with him his son, the Rev. R. D. King,
and started in April, 1834, on the grand tour. His first year was
spent in the South-west, during which time he aided in organizing
the Louisiana Presbytery. He reported good meetings all through
the year. The next General Assembly asked him to continue the
work, which he did, and reported to the Assembly of 1836. He
visited Logan, Kentucky, and Knoxville presbyteries, the Creek and
Cherokee Indians, and the Elyton, Alabama, and Mississippi pres-
byteries, holding meetings all along the journey. He says that he
everywhere found the old preachers more zealous than their juniors.
Several precious revivals and other good results of the mission are
mentioned. For the whole two years he and his son received com-
pensation nearly equal to their traveling expenses.
In 1836 the General Assembly declared that making, selling, or
giving away ardent spirits was an offense requiring discipline. It
put on record a declaration about fraternal intercourse with all
orthodox churches, and directed its preachers to maintain this
intercourse so far as possible with all God's children. The same
Assembly formed a society for the purpose of aiding candidates for
the ministr}'' in securing a thorough education.
Owing to the financial embarrassments into which the college
was plunged at the very beginning of its career, the first General
Assembly decided to defer indefinitely the scheme of establishing a
theological department in that college. The church, however, was
clamorous for a theological school, and the General Assembly of
1834 submitted the question to the presbyteries whether it would
be better to have one school under Assemblv ausoices. or several
212 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
schools under synodical control. The replies from the presbyteries
were not in harmony: some wanted presbyterial, and some synod-
ical schools, and some one school under the Assembly. Others
thought that the time for action had not yet arrived. Under this
state of tilings the whole question was again postponed. The Gen-
eral Assembly of 1838 resolved to try the plan of holding biennial
instead of annual sessions; therefore no Assembly met in 1839.
During this period the number of synods in the church grew
from four to twelve, and the number of presbyteries from eighteen
to fifty-three. The period began imder the dispensation of mis-
sionar}' evangelists; it closed with a recognized pastoral system
thoroughly indorsed by church authority, but not yet established
in the hearts of tlie lay members. This w^as in some respects the
darkest epoch of the church's history, the war period itself not
excejoted. The darkness arose from troubles over the college, the
paper, and the publication of books, and from the transition from
missions to pastorates. A list of the new presbyteries established
during this period, with the dates when they are first mentioned on
the rolls of the Assembly, is here given: Kentucky, 1830; Elyton,
Forked Deer, Hatchie, Mississippi, Vandalia, and Wabash, 1832;
Lexington, New Lebanon, Obion, Pennsylvania, Salt River, and
White River, 1833; Jackson and Red River, 1834; Louisiana and
Richland, 1835; Chapman, King, Rushville, Shiloh, Talladega,
and Wolf River, 1836; Athens, Hiwassee, Mackinaw, Neosho,
Ohio, and Union town — now Union (Pennsylvania) — 1837; Oxford,
Texas, and Washington, 1838; Columbus and Union (West Tennes-
see Synod), 1840; Charity Hall, Foster, IMcGready, and Memphis,
1841; Evving (Illinois), Mound Prairie, and Ozark, 1842. Several
of these, however, were not new presbyteries, but new names for
old ones. The new synods added in 1832 were Mississippi, Illinois,
and Western District, aftenvard called West Tennessee. In 1834
Arkansas Synod was created, and the name of Missouri S}'nod
changed to Washington, but the original name was soon after
resumed. Union (now Alabama) Synod was organized in 1836;
Indiana in 1837; and Pennsylvania, McHaca, and ]\Iiddle Tennes-
see in 1838. The name McHaca was afterward changed to Sanga-
mon. The Franklin Synod was dissolved, and its presbyteries
Chapter XXL] GENERAI. SuRVEY. 213
attached to other synods. Finis Ewing, David Foster, David W.
McLin, William Barnett, Alexander Chapman, and H. F. Delany
died during this period, and the Rev. Samuel King just at its close.
One thing is fully manifest from the study of this whole period:
At the bottom of all the financial trouble about the printing of
books, about the paper, about the college, and about John Barnett' s
embarrassments and losses, lay one and the same foundation of
rottenness — the credit system. Let the church heed the danger
signals which its past ervperience has raised so high over the
wrecks of its early enterprises.
The same period furnishes another danger signal demanding
^present and perpetual attention: No body as large as the General
Assembly is competent to manage financial enterprises. A small
board of experts selected for this special work may do so; no Gen-
eral Assembly in any church has ever done so successfully. During
this period the whole church, through its General Assembly, en-
tered into half a dozen or more business contracts, making solemn
pledges which it did not and could not keep. Trouble and disaster
came from every one of these contracts. The inconsistency of
attempting the direct management of financial enterprises by so
large a body is well illustrated in the history of the church's first
general Board of Missions. This board was composed of all the
ministers of the church. Among them were a considerable num-
ber of men who were opposed to foreign missions; yet they helped
to manage our first foreign mission!
What then is the conclusion? "Look ye out seven men" fit
for such business, and leave its management to them. What if
they prove false? Then the immorality, not the business manage-
ment, is a fit siibject for ecclesiastical reckoning. Unfitness for the
trust may call for a change of men, but it never justifies an Assem-
bly in taking into its own hands the financial direction of any busi-
ness enterprise.
214 Cumberland Presbyterian History cPerioj iii.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIRST CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE.
'•Si monumentum queris circumspice."
A CHURCH college necessarily has two histories — one outward
and ecclesiastical, the other internal and domestic. The first
Cumberland Presbyterian college has been very fortunate in the
writer of its outward history, but much of the material for a record
of its internal workings has forever perished. Dr. Richard Beard's
article, secured by Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley, and published by Dr. M.
B. De Witt in the Theological Mediu7n^ April, 1876, is a full and reli-
able presentation of the official and ecclesiastical side of the history
of this college. With all the official records of the college and the
General Assembly to guide him, besides a personal connection with
most of the events he recorded, there could not have been found a
more accurate historian than Dr. Beard. One of his dates is no
doubt a misprint. It was not 1844, but 1842, when the General
Assembly forever severed its connection with Cumberland College.
The antecedents of the action establishing the college were
given in a former chapter. The following reasons were urged in
favor of a manual labor institution: Health will be promoted, econ-
omy will be secured, the poor will have a chance for a collegiate
education, and the ministry will thus be trained for that life of
hardships which pioneer missions call for.
The commissioners appointed by the synod in 1825 to arrange
for the location and establishment of the college visited Hopkins-
ville, Elkton, Russellville, and Princeton. The synod felt obliged
to locate the school in Kentucky. The people of Princeton made
the largest bid ($28,000) in subscriptions, and the college was
located there, and a board of trust chartered. A large farm was
bought on a credit, tools and stock were bought with borrowed
money; buildings were erected on a credit. "Here beginneth our
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 215
morning lesson." Less than one fourth of the subscriptions made
by the people of Princeton were ever paid. Thus the institution
was born in embarrassments. The conditions on which the loca-
tion at Princeton was made were thus violated at the beginning,
and the church began immediately to regret that some other place
had not been selected. There were many strong men in the
church who from the first seriously doubted the fitness of the loca-
tion at Princeton. Prominent among these was the Rev. Robert
Donnell. He predicated his doubts solely on the weakness of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church in that town. He said that a
temporary interest aroused among members of other churches by
local considerations could not be relied on for a long struggle. To
all this he gave utterance before Princeton was selected, and while
different locations were under discussion. The results showed that
Donnell's doubts were well founded. A few men of other churches
were true helpers to the last, but there was lacking that strong
local support which ever}' college imperatively requires. Cumber-
land College was my own alma mater^ and for half of my lifetime
Princeton was the dearest spot to me on the earth. No community
anywhere could have shown more kindness to the students. The
trouble did not lie in that quarter.
The college opened on the first of March, 1826, with six stu-
dents, but the number soon increased. The large, hewed log house,
which afterward was Dr. Beard's residence, now burned, was the
college building. Dormitories, some good and some rude, were on
the other side of the street. The refectory was a little nearer the
town. Before the institution was a year old the farm was mort-
gaged to raise money to meet the most pressing debts. In 1831
debts had accumulated until the institution was about to be sold.
Several agents had been sent out, but very few of them secured
any thing more than traveling expenses. The Rev. John W.
Ogden, who canvassed the churches in South Alabama, paid over
to the trustees seven hundred dollars, but that was "only a drop in
the bucket." The others altogether paid just seventy-eight dollars
and forty-seven cents. Debts to the amount of twelve thousand
dollars were then pressing. The case was pronounced hopeless.
When the General Assembly met that year, many people thought
2i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
it would be better to abandon that enterprise, and start a college in
some community which had never arrayed the prejudices of the
church against it.
The Rev. John Barnett and the Rev. Aaron Shelby, both pos-
sessed of considerable estates and both warm friends of the college
and of its location also, made a proposition to lease the institution
for four years. Their proposition was accepted. Its terms and con-
ditions are here briefly stated: (i) The lessees assumed all the debts
and all the expenses both of college and refector)-; (2) They were
authorized to charge eighty dollars a year for boarding and tuition,
instead of sixty dollars, the former price. There were four condi-
tions: First, It was stipulated that the individual members of the
General Assembly should give their notes for ^2,400, due in one
and two years. Second, It was agreed that the General Assembly
should keep an agent constantly in the field soliciting aid for the
college. Third, All the net profits from the church paper were to
be given to the lessees. (This item was changed afterward.)
Fourth, All the assets of the institution of ever}- description, and
all its net income, were to be gi\'en to the lessees. After this con-
tract was entered into, the trustees, whose chartered existence and
general oversight of the college still continued, agreed to extend
the lease to Barnett and Shelby to twelve years in payment for a
large brick building to be erected by them. They erected the
building which was so long the chief home of the institution.
The details of the trouble and complaints which grew out of
this lease would be neither interesting nor profitable. Shelby was
shrewd enough to get his head out of the halter while the rope was
slack. Young, who bought out Shelby, died of cholera, and the
trustees bought his half of the lease. Both the lessees and the
General Assembly failed in part of their pledges. The lessees
never paid off the debts against the institution, and the General
Assembly failed to pay the ^2,400 pledged to the lessees. Crimina-
tion and recrimination followed. The cholera visited Princeton
year after year. There was great dissatisfaction among the stu-
dents with the labor requirement, and with the refectorv' These
thino-s combined to make Barnett' s connection with the college
disastrous to him. Some thought the General Assembly ought to
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 217
iudemnify liim, but a majority voted against such a proposition.
Many hard feelings and heart-burnings there were, but it is need-
less to follow the subject further.
When the General Assembly of 1836 met, Barnett proposed to
surrender his lease ; and declared himself unable, by reason of many
losses, to cany out his contracts. The General Assembly then
asked the trustees to form a joint-stock company. They failed to
do so, and bitter complaints were made in the church paper about
this failure. Some of the trustees replied, representing the condi-
tion and prospects of the college as utterly hopeless. The General
Assembly of 1837, which met at Princeton, urged the formation of
the joint-stock company. The trustees replied that the property
of the college was all under the hammer, and no joint-stock com-
pany was possible. Thereupon various members of the Assembly
agreed to become stockholders, and these members, aided by a few
citizens of Princeton, formed the company apd Barnett surrendered
his lease.
This company was to be independent of the Assembly and to
relieve the church of all responsibility for the debts of the institu-
tion. It had its own chartered board of trust cliosen by itself
The main consideration in view of which the Assembly agreed to
surrender all control of the institution and all title to its property
of every description was that the Association should pay off all
the debts against the college. A two years' breathing spell was
gained by the new arrangement and money enough was secured -
to stave off the most pressing debts, but not enough to liquidate
them.
An Episcopalian minister was placed in the facult}^, and people
thought it was through his influence that the new board of direct-
ors began to talk about transferring the college to the Episcopal
church. To the General Assembly in 1840 the college authorities
reported their determination to transfer the college to some other
church unless that Assembly would make reliable provisions for
endowment. They told how much the people of Princeton had
done for the institution, and lectured the Assembly about its fail-
ures. A new plan was then adopted. On condition thai? all the
property, real and personal, should be transferred back, free from
2l8 CUMBERLANCl PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period III.
debt, to a board of trust to be appointed by the General Assembly,
that body undertook to raise an endowment of fifty-five thousand
dollars.
In 1 841 the college reported that the charter for the new board
had been secured and that the institution had better patronage.
The agents reported fifteen thousand dollars subscribed for endow-
ment. Hopes began to revive. In 1842 the new board reported
to the General Assembly that the property was not turned over to
them free of debt according to the contract, but was then levied
on for debts far exceeding in amount what the real estate was
worth. A large number of those who had subscribed to the
endowment were at this Assembly, and with great unanimity they
declared themselves absolved from the payment of their subscrip-
tions.
The Committee on Education then reported in favor of select-
ing a more eligible si^e for the church college. Their report was
adopted, it is said, with only three dissenting voices. It recom-
mended the appointment of a commission to receive bids, to locate
the school, and to make arrangements for buildings and for all
other necessary' things, so as to enable the new college to begin its
work in September; but with the distinct understanding that the
commission was forbidden to contract any debts. The General
Assembly had sufficiently tested the credit system, and was thor-
oughly sick of being in debt. After this motion was carried, it
was resolved to allow Princeton also to put in its bid. Other and
different statements concerning this final action have been pub-
lished, but the original records of the General Assembly are fol-
lowed in this account. The removal of the college had long been
spoken of, and for some time had been distinctly foreseen by lead-
ing men of the church.
The commission met in Nashville, July i, 1842. It was com-
posed of the ablest and purest men of the church, among them
Robert Donnell, Reuben Burrow, and James B. Porter. The bid of
Lebanon, which was by far the best, was accepted, and the school
was located there. The histor\' of this college belongs to another
chapter, but one item deserves to be put on record here. Every
dollar of Lebanon's bid was promptly paid. When the commis-
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERI.AND COLLEGE. 219
siou met a vigorous protest from the Cumberland College Associa-
tion against the attempt to remove the college from Princeton was
presented.
To the next General Assembly, May, 1843, ^^^^ commissioners
made their report, announcing that they had located the college
at Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee, and that the school was
already in successful operation. This report referred to the remon-
strance of Cumberland College Association against the removal of
the college from Princeton, but declared that since "the General
Assembly had decided on a removal of the college, and appointed
commissioners to locate it, the Association's remonstrance, unac-
companied by any proposition or any guarantee that the institution
would be disenthralled from its pecuniary embarrassments, did not
present sufficient reasons to the commissioners to justify their
departure from the instructions of the General Assembly."
It set forth four reasons which had influenced the Assembly to
provide for the removal of the college: First, Many had been led to
regfard the location at Princeton unfavorable because less than one
fourth of the subscription originally made by the citizens of that
town had been paid. Second, During several years after the loca-
tion of the college at Princeton, agents appointed by the General
Assembly had traveled in different directions soliciting and receiv-
ing donations. An impression had gone abroad that a large
amount had been received, and this impression, though to some
extent erroneous, had, when viewed in connection with the con-
tinued pecuniary embarrassments of the college, created in many
minds a prejudice against the location. Third, The report declared
that the disastrous failure to relieve the institution of debt by leas-
ing it to individuals, and its continued and augmented indebted-
ness in spite of all measures for its relief, had done much to alien-
ate the minds and feelings of the people from Princeton as a suita-
ble location for the college. Fourth, The final effort to relieve the
institution from its embarrassment by the formation of the Cum-
berland College Association was also described, and the failure of
this effort, the report said, had tended still more to discourage the
church with regard to the success of the college at Princeton.
The commissioners then gave their reasons for selecting Leb-
220 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY [Period III.
anon as "a more eligible site" for the church college. The citi-
zens of that town proposed the erection of a large and commodious
edifice for the school. Lebanon was known to be a healthful
place, and was one of the most flourishing towns in the State. A
large number of its citizens were intelligent and energetic members
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, who were interested in
the college and able to help it. The people generally were well
di-sposed toward the church, and in Wilson and adjoining counties
there was a strong Cumberland Presbyterian influence. The soci-
ety of Lebanon was refined and moral; its people were hospitable;
dissipation was banished from the town.
The Lebanon people had promised to build an edifice two
stories high and one hundred feet long; but this report informed
the General Assembly that the building actually erected was
"three stories high, one hundred and ten feet long, and forty feet
wide," conveniently constructed of substantial materials, and cov-
ered with cedar shingles, and that "the comb of the roof" was
about fifty-five feet from the foundation, and the highest part of
the dome seventy-five feet. This building, the report said, was to
be completed in July. There were then forty-five students in
attendance. The trustees had made arrangements by which young
men preparing for the ministry might be educated without the
payment of tuition.
The report explained that the General Assembly did not have or
claim to have any right or title to the incorporated powers or privi-
leges, or the property of Cumberland College Association, or con-
template the removal of any of these. It said that the Assembh-'s
trustees, an incorporated body entirely distinct from the Cumber-
land College Association, held, and were intended to hold, the
endowment of the college, of which the interest alone could be
used. All that was understood or intended by the removal of the
college was the appropriation of this endowment at another place.
The report expressed the opinion that the General Assembly had
the right "to direct the application of the endowment to such
place as the college might be removed to," but suggested that for
the sake of peace subscribers who had pledged money to the
endowment fund should be allowed to pay it for the use of either
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERI^AND COLLEGE. 221
the college at Princeton or the one at I^ebanon, at the election of
such subscribers. It also declared that, should the General Assem-
bly desire to endow a college at Princeton, the commissioners were
assured that the friends and patrons of the Lebanon school would
make no objection to any equitable arrangement; but denied that
the resolves of former General Assemblies to raise an endowment
for Cumberland College were legally binding on the Assembly then
sittinof or on the church.
The ground taken by the friends of Princeton was that the
General Assembly had no power to sever its connection with the
college at Princeton, and that that connection still existed. They
presented these views in a communication to the General Assembly.
The decision was against them, the vote being thirty-six to twenty-
eight. This decision is embodied in the report of the Committee
on Education, to which this question was referred, and of which
Richard Beard was chairman. After declaring that the committee
"entered into the investigation with a settled determination most
rigidly to follow truth and justice to whatever decision their con-
sciences and their judgment might be conducted," this report goes
on to say that, after an elaborate review of the facts, the committee
but yielded to the overwhelming weight of these facts and the
clearest convictions of justice in coming to the conclusion that the
action of the General Assembly in dissolving its connection with
Cumberland College Association "was not only altogether justifia-
ble, but imperiously demanded by a proper self-respect and the
dearest interests of the confiding community for whose good that
high judicatory is appointed."
The report continues:
What loss has that Association sustained bj the action of the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1S43? All the debts against it are understood to be
now paid by the sale of the college property. Not a dollar is pointed
out to as actually lost by the Association on account of that action.
The pretended wrongs complained of seem to be a withholding of the
prospective munificence of the General Assembly from them.
After declaring that the General Assembly and not the Associa-
tion was the injured and suffering party, the report closed with two
resolutions:
222 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period III.
Resolved, In view of the premises, and in the exercise of the rights
recognized in the amended charter of 1841, that the General Assembly
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, in the exercise of its just
rights, and in view of the facts which in its opinion at the time fully
justified that action, did on the 22d day of May, 1842, intentionally dis-
solve its ecclesiastical connection from Cumberland College Association
thereby leaving the property and rights of said Association to revert to
the same, according to the provisions of its charter.
2. That in view of the rights and interests of all concerned, the pres-
ent subscribers to the endowing fund be authorized and advised at their
own discretion to determine the place to which they will pay over their
subscriptions, they being fully competent to act for themselves.
Dr. Beard did not vote for liis committee's report, but joined in
the strong protest against it, which was put on record.
This protest denied that the General Assembly of 1842 did
sever its connection with Cumberland College Association, or that
the General Assembly had fulfilled all obligations to that Associ-
ation. It claimed that a more vigorous effort should have been
made to endow the college, that the zeal and unanimity of the
General Assembly in 1840 had led to hopes that had not been
realized, and that if the members of the Association had expected
so sudden an abandonment of the institution they would have pre-
ferred to look elsewhere for endowment and patronage. The
protest further expressed the belief that the Association had sus-
tained losses through the General Assembly's action; that "if the
affairs of the institution had been wound up in 1840 the property
would not only have paid the debts but returned to the members
of the Association their original stock." This, however, was
charged not to any wrong intention on the part of the General
Assembly, but to hasty and unadvised legislation. The protest
admitted that the General Assembly had been injured and had
suffered from its connection with Cumberland College Association,
but denied that the injury and suflfering originated with that
Association.
Dr. Beard, and the minority of the Committee on Education,
had presented a plan for the settlement of these difficulties, in
which it was proposed to transfer the General Assembly's legal
powers and responsibilities in relation to Cumberland College, and
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 22$
the control of the Board of Trustees, to an association composed
of eleven individuals, and to bind Cumberland College Association
to relinquish its claims on the General Assembly and to allow the
moneys subscribed to the endowment to be invested at Princeton
or Lebanon, or elsewhere, as the donors might direct. The protest
expressed the solemn belief that this plan would have met the
views and wishes of the Cumberland College Association, and that
it would have effectually disencumbered the General Assembly of
the affairs of the college without compromising any essential or
important principle.
Any wish to embarrass the General Assembly was disclaimed,
and it was declared that those who made this protest were the fast,
unwavering friends of the church, and that they wished the Gen-
eral Assembl)' to be freed as far as possible from all causes of
agitation and confusion. This protest was signed by Robert Sloan,
Caleb Weeden, Elam McCord, James Smith, William Henr}^, G.
A. Fleming, Joel Lambert, F. C. Usher, David Negly, H. Mc-
Daniel, A. H. Dudley, Richard Beard, Milton Bird, James Ritchey,
William Halsell, James Ashmore, A. Shelby, and P. G. Rea. John
S. Sawyer appended a personal protest in which he added other
reasons for objecting to the action of the General Assembly.
After the adoption of the report and the presentation of this
protest against it, the friends of Princeton introduced a resolution
declaring it inexpedient for the General Assembly to have control
of any financial enterprise. Dr. Cossitt, Robert Donnell, J. S.,
McClain, and the friends of Lebanon generally supported the reso-
lution. Only six negative votes were cast, while fifty-nine voted
in the affirmative. The resolution was in these words:
Resolved, That it would be unwise, impolitic, inexpedient, and con-
trary to the genius of presbyterian government for the General Assem-
bly to enter into connections of a pecuniary nature giving it the super-
vision of any literary institution or newspaper, or otherwise to become
embarrassed l)y the control of pecuniary matters, so as to give occasion
for its moral integrity and good faith to be called in question.
When the General Assembly severed its connection with Prince-
ton College, the authorities of that school resolved to keep it alive.
They allowed the farm to be sold, resenting the buildings and ten
224 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
acres of ground. After a brief suspension they reorganized a fac-
ulty, and spread the "banner of the college again to the breeze.
The Rev. Richard Beard was elected president, and accepted the
position. The career of the college after its abandonment by the
General Assembly was happier and more useful than ever before.
It kept clear of debt. It secured the services of that excellent
agent, the Rev. W. G. h. Quaite, who, in spite of all the limita-
tions placed upon him by the unfortunate histoiy of the school,
succeeded in securing considerable subscriptions to tlie endowment.
Green River Synod took the cast-off child under its care. A jrood
faculty was secured, and the existence of the institution was pro-
tracted till 1858. At that time it ceased to be an institution of the
Cumberland Presb}'terian church.
The outward histor}' of the college has thus far been followed.
A few words are added about its inner domestic histor\'. Let us go
back to the origin of the college in 1826, and take glimpses only,
until the close in 1858.
Economy was a standing text of the General Assembly, on
which it annually preached the college a sermon. The faculty be-
gan their administration in cap and govv'n a la inodc^ but the Gen-
eral Assembly notified them that it wished both faculty and stu-
dents to dress in home-made clothing from head to foot. The order
was obeyed, and Dr. Beard says his jeans suit was made too large
for him, but he wore it obediently. The students were required to
have long linen aprons to wear while working on the farm. Many
of the Southern boys, reared where slaves did all the v.'ork, met
the labor requirements with bad grace, but there were no exemp-
tions. Difficulties between students and the overseer of the farm
were ver}^ frequent. The daily college routine had many details
which would seem strange now. Every two hours a horn was
blown for a new section of laborers on the farm. This horn and
the ringing of recitation bells made the place seem quite lively.
Those recitation bells were unlike any others I ever heard. A big
bell hung near by. Each professor did his own ringing in his own
peculiar way, so that his bell could be distinguished from all the
others. One gave three clear taps, another gave two clear taps,
another gave one tap and a jingle. When the hour was out it did
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 225
not follow that the class would be dismissed, even if it had a reci-
tation in some other room, until the professor who had possession
got ready to let it go.
Every student was required to board at the refector}^ and sleep
in the college dormitories. The spiciest part of this history be-
longs to the refectory. The pigeon-holes in the old library used
to be full of documents about that department of the college.
Poetry, records of trials, testimony of committees sent to examine
the fare, memorials of students praying for changes, complaints —
sometimes by the students, sometimes by the managers — were all
filed there. The students used to express their dissatisfaction with
their fare in doggerel verse, and these satirical effusions were filed
with other refectory papers. When it is remembered that the col-
lege undertook to furnish boarding at forty dollars a year, we need
not wonder that the fare was often complained of.
Concerning those honored gentlemen who served as presidents
of this institution a goodly volume might be written, and no doubt
will be at some future time. Under the five different presidents
there were five administrations of the college, each deserving a
much longer notice than can here be given. The first president
was Dr. Cossitt. His management of the young men was wise and
fatherly. There were precious revivals of religion among the stu-
dents at different times during his administration. Dr. Cossitt' s
sermons were one of the chief agencies used of God in bringing
these revivals about. For many years the graduates and foster
children of this school who were trained under Dr. Cossitt' s in-
fluence were the noblest workers for education in the Cumberland
Presbyterian church, and among them were many faithful and
efficient laborers in other departments of the work.
The men who at one time or another assisted Dr. Cossitt in the
work of instruction were James L. Morrison, Bertrand Guerin,
David Lowry, T. C. Anderson, Livingston Lindsay, Richard Beard,
F. C. Usher, and C. G. McPherson. Several of these became dis-
tinguished teachers, and their record is well known. Dr. McPher-
son has spent a large part of his life in educating young ladies.
Mr. Lindsay went early to the practice of law, which he still pur-
sues. Anderson and Beard will come before us in other con-
15
2a6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
nections, as will David Lowry. But it is proper to introduce here
au interesting item about Lowry' s dwelling-house. When he was
elected professor in the college ten acres of the college farm were
allotted for his cultivation, and fifty dollars were appropriated to
build him a house back of the camp-ground spring. In that fifty
dollar house, the man who afterward spent the best years of his
life as missionary among the Indians, lived without murmuring.
Of the next administration, under the presidency of the Rev.
Richard Beard, D. D., I can speak with the confidence given by
personal knowledge. Dr. Beard took charge of the college in 1843,
after the Assembly abandoned it ; when it was officially pronounced
dead ; when its faculty had transferred their labors to the new insti-
tution at Lebanon, Tennessee; when, indeed, it was said and thought
too that the college itself had been removed to Lebanon. Finding
itself abandoned by the church, Princeton rallied and called Dr.
Beard to the presidency. The loss of the farm and the manual
labor feature proved to be a good riddance.
The administration was all new. There was no more refectory';
no more restrictions laid on a student in selecting his boarding-
house; no more laws requiring students and faculty to dress in
home-spun. It was like passing out of Mosaic rigor into Christian
freedom. True, there was still a printed code of by-laws nominally
in force, but the example of Dr. Beard's holy and dignified life,
and his appeals to the young men's sense of right were more effect-
ive than all by-laws. The students respected, honored, and loved
their president, and were proud of being under such a leader.
They were like a family of brothers with Dr. Beard for their
father. Each one felt that he had a friend and counselor in the
president. Never under any circumstances laying aside his dig-
nity, never tolerating any lack of respectful demeanor in his
presence, he yet was felt and known to be the true friend and
counselor of every one of his pupils. When these young men left
college they never ceased to write back to him for advice in every
perplexity. Of the thousands of old letters which he carefully
kept, a large part are from his old students asking his counsel in
some emergency. None ever asked in vain.
All through the college life of his students there was a silent,
Chapter XXII.] CUMBERI,AND COLLEGE. 227
invisible influence, a subtle, indescribable power going out from
Dr. Beard's life and impressing all around him with the truth of
Christianity and the high destiny of cultivated, sanctified, immortal
manhood. Scholarship put on a new aspect under this influence ;
an undersong awakening thoughts of personal responsibility and
immortality blended with every lesson and recitation. This influ-
ence soon spread over the whole church. Noble men, trained
under Dr. Beard and his colleagues, carried this power with them
wherever they went, and the precious fruits of his administration
are earnest and consecrated men in the pulpits and colleges in all
parts of the church.
Those habits of severe study which Dr. Beard formed while a
student of this institution, and which were a part of the town-talk
for thirty years afterward, were strictly kept up by him all through
his life. An idle student, strolling about at night, always met a
silent rebuke when he turned his eyes toward Dr. Beard's library
where the inevitable lamp burned on until late bed-time. His
lectures in the chapel were one of the potent moral and educational
resources of his administration. With an equanimity of temper
rarely equaled, with a clock-like regularity of life which governed
even the length of his footsteps, his uniform faultless precision was
the talk of all the students.
The faculty who labored with him in the work of instruction at
one time or another were the Rev. F. C. Usher, the Rev. J. G.
Biddle, Philip Riley, W. S. Delany, and the Rev. Azel Freeman,
D. D. Except Dr. Freeman, these were all alumni of Cumberland
College. Mr. Usher had also been graduated in the Theological
School at Princeton, New Jersey. Riley and Delany were grad-
uated under Dr. Beard. Mr. Delany soon turned his attention to
the legal profession, to which he is still devoted. Professor Riley
spent his life in teaching. He was one of the purest and truest of
men. His memory and his very looks are still enshrined in many
hearts. One incident will illustrate his conduct toward his stu-
dents: A young man who was very poor, and often unable to buy
text-books, went one day to Professor Riley to borrow a copy of
Smellie. He was told to come back next day. That evening Pro-
fessor Riley went to town and bought a copy of Smellie, and when
228 Cumberland Presbyterian History [Period in.
the student returned he loaned him the book. An accident revealed
the fact that he had bought the book specially for this student.
Mr. Biddle remained only a short time in Princeton College, and
then took charge of the school for young ladies at Winchester,
Tennessee, devoting the remainder of his life to teaching in this
school and to preaching the gospel. He labored as both teacher
and preacher even while at Princeton. He has a son now in the
ministry, the Rev. A. C. Biddle.
The Rev. Azel Freeman, D.D., afterward president of three of
our colleges, was for a while professor of mathematics in Cumber-
land College. The closing years of his life were spent in pastoral
work in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He died at Cumberland, Ohio,
December 3, 1886. Dr. Beard closed his connection with the in-
stitution in 1855. That was its death blow. The church every-
where so felt. Still three good men struggled, each for a short
period, to save the dying institution, and some noble alumni were
sent out by them; but the three administrations averaged only a
year apiece. Then the institution was given up by Cumberland
Presbyterians and other churches tried for a year or two to sustain
it, but finally abandoned it. Princeton still has a college on another
site and under new auspices, but it is in no sense the successor of
old Cumberland College. The latter has utterly passed away, every
vestige even of the old buildings having disappeared.
Of the alumni of Cumberland College, the Rev. W. G. L.
Quaite once said: "I can track every one of them by a path
of light." This dear old college, even in its mistakes, bore good
fruit. Our people had to learn by experience. Cumberland Pres-
byterians will hardly attempt another manual labor college. They
have seen and felt the curse of the credit system. They will
not be likely to locate another college where the church is weak,
expecting the members of other churches and outsiders to give the
institution the necessary local support. Nor will they again make
the fatal blunder of placing the financial management of such an
enterprise in the hands of the General Assembly. Even these
mistakes bear fruit; but the grand and deathless fruit which out-
weighs all else is found in the men who were trained in this insti-
tution, and in the souls that have been won through their labors.
Chapter XXIII.] ThE ChuRCH PAPER. 229
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CHURCH PAPER.
"Away with distrust and away with despair,
Beyond all my thoughts and above all my prayer
Exceeding abundantly Jesus will prove,
The power and grace of his wonderful love."
" Afettie manuque potefis.^^
THE chapter now to be written is the darkest one in all the
history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church ; and, perhaps,
the very hardest to write correctly. Two parties, with wholly dif-
ferent views of what was right, and also with different views about
what were the facts, have left us their conflicting testimony.
The formidable difficulties which grew out of the church paper
can not be explained without a general sketch of that paper's
history. At Princeton, Kentucky, early in the year 1830, Dr.
Cossitt, aided by the faculty of Cumberland College, started a
weekly paper called the Religions and Literary Intelligencer.
There had before this been several abortive attempts to start a
church paper, but this was the first Cumberland Presbyterian paper
which was really published. It was purely a private enterprise.
The press was owned by the Rev. David Lowry, who at that time
was one of the faculty of Cumberland College, and who was Dr.
Cossitt' s chief assistant in the editorial work.
The General Assembly of the church met in Princeton that
year, as it had done the year before. A strong feeling was man-
ifested in favor of a church organ, whose editor should be under
the control of the General Assembly. When the men who were
publishing the Religions and Literary Intelligencer met this Gen-
eral Assembly, they submitted to that body a proposition to have
their paper made the recognized organ of the church. In consid-
eration of this advantage they agreed that the Assembly should
230 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
have the exclusive right to appoint the editor. The records show
that the proposition was accepted with the understanding that the
General Assembly should neither own the press nor assume any
financial responsibility in the matter. The Rev. David Lowry was
chosen editor, it being understood that he should resign all his
former relations to the college and devote his whole time to the
paper. He proved to be well suited to the place. His adminis-
tration was a good one. His financial management was wise. His
editorials were able and his spirit Christ-like.
In 1832 he moved the paper to Nashville, changed its name to
The Revivalist^ and made the Rev. James Smith his partner.
This was not exactly authorized by the contract under which the
paper became the organ of the General Assembly, but it was
allowed to pass. The publication had prospered under Lowry' s
editorial and business management until he felt able to have an
assistant. Smith was a Scotchman of great learning, and a preacher
of strong influence throughout the West. He, however, liked to
lead and expected others to follow.
Before a year passed away Lowry sold out to Smith, leaving the
latter in sole management of the paper. It is by no means certain
that the Assembly, if left untrammeled, would have chosen Smith
for its editor, but when it met in 1833 ^^^*^ found him already in
possession, it "accepted the situation" and continued him in this
position. In business matters Smith carried far more sail than
ballast. He issued his paper to subscribers on a credit. He bor-
rowed money extensively and gave his brethren in the ministry for
security. When he was "in funds" instead of paying off these
debts and saving his securities, he started new enterprises and made
more debts. He contracted to publish all the books of the church,
and these books were generally sold on a credit. He edited and
published a monthly magazine of his own. He was "pastor" of
the Nashville church. He published books, too, of his own, large
works which required the best energies of his strong manhood, so
that, in his own editorials, he tells us the paper was neglected on
this account. Nor were these all the labors which he undertook.
He was stated clerk of the General Assembly; he was treasurer of the
church fund, and he taxed himself with various smaller matters.
Chapter XXIII.] ThE ChURCH PAPER. 231
In 1834 the name of the paper was changed to the Cumberland
Presbyterian. When the General Assembly met that year, Smith
was hopelessly in debt. He laid all the blame of his embarrass-
ment on the church because the people had not patronized the
paper as he expected. The Assembly resolved to do two things for
his relief. First, to raise twelve hundred dollars then and there, to
be loaned to Smith or exchanged for unpaid subscription bills.
Second, to extend the patronage of the paper during the next year
to four thousand subscribers. The first resolution was carried out,
but the second was never fully made good.
On this action was based the best semblance of just ground for
complaint which the editor ever had against the General Assembly.
The subscription was never raised to four thousand. While some
exerted themselves to secure new subscribers, old ones were con-
stantly withdrawing. There were several reasons for these with-
drawals. One of them is greatly to Smith's credit. He kept up
incessantly the cry for reform in paying preachers and in having
settled pastors. He was sometimes very severe; the facts called
for severity, but subscribers grew sore under it and discontinued
their subscriptions. Another source of dissatisfaction was the mul-
tiplied engagements of the editor, and his frequent and protracted
absence from the office. But greater than all other causes of trouble
were the alienations which grew out of his business management.
For two years the Rev. T. C. Anderson was employed by Mr.
Smith as assistant editor. In his manuscript autobiography,
written from time to time long before he began to fail in his
memory, is an extended accoimt of Smith and his paper. Dr.
Anderson says that he himself, though working for a definite
salary, and in nowise sharing in any profits which the paper might
realize, was obliged to bring in all his own funds, and all his own
credit, and to draw into the same snare all his personal friends who
were willing to loan money or indorse Smith's notes; and that he
retired from his connection with the paper because he saw clearly
that Smith's management would bring bankruptcy, no matter what
help the church might be able to render. He also states that Smith
was often absent from the office three or four months at a time
engaged in selling his books.
232 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
In 1835 the General Assembly renewed its determination to
secure the four thousand subscribers. The list still fell six hundred
short of that number. In 1836, in spite of the renewed exertions,
the number of subscribers had declined rather than advanced.
Bitter attacks had been made on the paper and on Smith. The
General Assembly declared that so long as the paper was the church
organ, those attacks were really on the church and not on Smith.
The members renewed their pledges to struggle for an increase of
the subscription list, and struggle they did, but it was like pouring
water into a sieve.
In 1837, when the General Assembly met. Smith resigned. He
stated in his resignation that when he was elected editor it was un-
derstood that the church would buy the press, own the paper, and
indemnify him for all the losses he might sustain in the business.
The General Assembly did not so understand matters. The official
papers are preserved, and have been searched in vain for any hint
of such an agreement. The records of the General Assembly show
that Smith was to publish the paper on his oum responsibility^ so
far as its finances were concerned. Smith stated in editorials, }'ear
after year, that he was publishing the paper on his own responsi-
bility, except that the church had chosen him as editor, and his
paper as the church organ. He had simply, of his own accord,
stepped into Lowry's place, and the church allowed him to con-
tinue in it. That individual members had assured Smith, on their
own responsibility, that the church would buy the press and
indemnify him for any losses which he might sustain is quite
likely; that the General Assembly never gave any such assurances
is absolutely certain. He had often urged the church to buy his
subscription list and his press and pay him a salary as editor. His
failure to secure the adoption of this policy had long chafed him.
The committee to which Smith's resignation was referred, sub-
mitted two plans for the publication and management of the paper.
The first recommended that a joint stock company should be formed
to own the paper and the press, and that the General Assembly
should still elect the editor. The other plan was for the General
Assembly to buy the paper and the press and conduct the enterprise
through a publishing committee. Investigation showed that both
Chanter XXIII.] ThE ChURCH PaPER. 233
schemes were impracticable. Then the General Assembly appealed
to Smith to state the conditions on which he would be willing to
continue the publication of the paper. He named three con-
ditions, (i) That the members of the General Assembly should
individually pledge themselves to help collect unpaid subscriptions.
(2) That the members should pledge themselves to use all practi-
cable exertions to bring the list up to four thousand subscribers.
(3) That the General Assembly should publish a circular calling
on all the members and friends of the church to aid in carrying out
these pledges. All of these conditions were unanimously agreed
to. Smith then pledged himself to carry on the work until the
volume then commenced should be completed, and then either to
hand the paper over to an association or continue it himself, or
else cease to publish it.
When the General Assembly met in 1838, Smith, without any
conditions, asked to be continued as editor, and his request was
granted. It was decided at this time that the next General Assem-
bly should not meet until 1840. Therefore, the dissolution of the
General Assembly of 1838 was equivalent to an adjournment for
two years. The first of January, 1839, Smith began a series of
editorials on reformation in the church. The pastoral relation, the
pay of preachers, the mode of raising money for preachers, and the
education of the ministry were the themes. While justice requires
it to be said that the evils which he denounced were beyond the
possibility of exaggeration, and the excoriations which he gave the
church were all richly deserved; yet the terrible denunciations were
not always of a nature to be endured, even by those who believed
about those matters as the editor did.
After all, it may have been necessary to make the crew angry
and bring the ship within an inch of hopeless wreck in order to
insure better navigation in after years. God's merciful and over-
ruling hand was doubtless in it all. Men began to reply to Smith's
severe denunciations of the church in his own columns. Several
of Smith's editorials had prophesied secession. All the best min-
isters, he predicted, would be driven out of the church, unless cer-
tain reforms took place. As there was to be no General Assembly
that year, he called for a convention. His call was seconded, and
234 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
a convention was agreed upon to meet in Nashville at the time
usually appointed for the General Assembly's meeting. A year
before Smith had sold his printing office, and agreed to take his
pay in printing. Before the convention met the publication of the
paper was suspended, and the closing editorial, as well as several
previous editorials, declared in the most unequivocal manner that
Smith was forever done with all connection with the church paper.
He urged the church to have an organ, but declared his purpose to
be unalterably fixed not to be its editor.' The last issue of the
paper at Nashville was dated April 30, 1839. If editorial declara-
tions could settle any thing, it was settled that Smith was, under
no conditions, ever to be church editor again.
Although Smith was not appointed by his presbytery as a dele-
gate to the convention, yet he was allowed to take his seat as a
member, and he occupied one whole day in a set speech on the
necessity of reforms. He published this speech afterward in a
pamphlet. I have only some extracts from it, not being able to
secure a copy. He said: "The ministr}' of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church are a mass of ignorance, heresy, and fanaticism."
He charged lying and fraud upon the General Assembly, and other
pleasant little compliments to the denomination inflated his sails in
that wonderful harangue. But all this was mild compared to the
wormwood, the gall, the pits atqiie venemim^ which his private
letters for the next few years poured forth. Several hundreds of
these letters have been placed in the hands of the writer of this
history.
The convention passed resolutions in favor of reform. It
appointed a committee to form a stock company to continue the
publication of the Cninbcrland Presbyterian. It decided to have
this paper issued from Lebanon instead of Nashville. The Rev.
George Donnell was chosen editor. Its publication was to be
delayed till the fall meetings of the presbyteries. At this point in
the history some conflict as to facts begins. Members and friends
of the convention say that Smith asked such an enormous price for
his subscription list that no one could think of paying it. Smith
denies that any conference with him on the subject of his subscrip-
' See editorials January 22, January 29, and April 30, 1839.
Chapter XXIII.] ThE ChuRCH PaPER. 235
tion list was ever sought. T. C. Anderson is very positive on the
other side. One thing all are agreed upon, the subscription list of
Smith's Cumberland Presbyterian was not purchased; but the con-
vention resolved to start a paper with the same name to be the or-
gan of the church. It was at this point in its action that the con-
vention proved afterward to be vulnerable. The committee which
reported the plan of action which was adopted by the conven-
tion was composed of Hiram A, Hunter, J. S. McClain, Carson P.
Reed, George Donnell, T. B. Wilson, Jesse Ford, and George Will-
iamson.
^ The first of September, just before the fall meetings of the pres-
byteries, lo! Smith's paper reappeared! This time it was issued at
Springfield, Tennessee, and some brethren, who had plenty of money,
were meeting its financial wants. It claimed still to be the organ
of the church, and the only organ. It explained its reappearance
as a necessity, since the Lebanon committee had neither bought out
its subscription list, nor made any provisions to supply the paper to
subscribers whose time had not expired. It denounced the conven-
tion as a clique, and declared the action of that body in assuming
to publish an organ for the church unconstitutional and seditious.
The defense made by the friends of the convention is all summed
up in a few words. They said that the convention claimed no power
to make any paper a church organ, but met and acted simply to
keep alive the organ which the General Assembly itself had started;
that it had the strongest evidences that Smith was forever done
with the paper; that it met on Smith's call, without any hint or
dream of any conflict like the one which had arisen; and that
Smith himself cooperated heartily with the convention until he
found that another man was to be chosen editor, and that his sub-
scription list was not to be bought at an extravagant price. They
said further that the convention had resolved to do its utmost in
'the next General Assembly, and before the meeting of that body,
to have Smith indemnified for all the losses he had sustained
through any fault of the church. They showed that the conven-
tion was composed of fifty delegates, among them many of the
purest men of the church, appointed by the presbyteries in obedi-
ence to a public call; and that if any presbyteries were not repre-
236 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
sen ted it was their own fault; that the convention acted in an
emergency, under the pressure of a great necessity; and ^that the
changes made in regard to the business management were such as
the imperative necessities of the case required, and such as the
General Assembly resolved on in 1837, when Smith first tendered
his resignation.
That Smith had the legal right to resume the publication of his
paper and call it the organ of the church was generally conceded;
but the propriety of his course, after his unequivocal declaration,
in April, was questioned. Parties rapidly formed. Angry feelings
were stirred up. The presbyteries nearly all took action in favor
of one party or the other. Finis Ewing and John L. Dillard, both
threw their great influence on the side of Smith's paper. Logan
Presbytery passed resolutions condemning the convention, and
declaring Smith's paper the true organ of the church. Alabama
Presbytery did likewise. Richland Presbytery and all of Columbia
Synod, with Robert Donnell at their head, took the side of the con-
rention and requested the members of their congregations not to
take Smith's paper.
Secession, division, disruption were the words floating in the
air. After nearly all the presbyteries had arrayed themselves as par-
tisans in the contest, and many of our best men had utterly de-
spaired, a synod in Illinois passed resolutions calling on all parties
to agree to submit the whole question to the next General Assem-
bly, and to forbear all further discussion of the merits of the case
till that Assembly should meet, and urging all true lovers of Jesus
to join in prayer to God for the peace of the church. ' That voice
for peace and prayer, without taking either side, was surely a voice
from heaven.
The committee appointed by the convention to issue a paper
from Lebanon resolved to delay this publication until the meeting
of the General Assembly, and to refer the whole matter to that
body, but this wise decision of that committee was robbed of some
of its peaceable fruits by the course of Smith's paper. In October,
1839, the Rev. George Donnell wrote a private letter to the Rev.
John W. Ogden, who was corresponding editor of Smith's paper,
' It is said that Rev. Joel Knight was the mover of these resolutions.
Chapter XXIII.] ThE ChURCH PaPER. 237
correcting the rumors which even then were afloat that the Lebanon
committee had declined publishing a paper. This letter, with no
dates affixed, was kept standing in the editorial columns of Smith's
paper until the Assembly met, in May, 1840.
I have not felt at liberty to quote Smith's private letters, but
have used them in investigating questions about which the other
authorities are in conflict, especially when the evidence of these
letters is on the side of the convention. These private letters shed
much light on various editorials about "The Union College," and
other cognate subjects which appeared in the paper while it was
published at Springfield, Tennessee. Their contents, moreover, are
a complete vindication of the people of Lebanon from some of the
charges which the friends at Princeton made at the time the ' ' re-
moval" of the college took place. While Mr. Smith had all the
time ably advocated an educated ministry, he seemed to have a
deep-seated dislike to Cumberland College. His bargain with the
General Assembly, in 1833, taxed him ten cents on each subscrib-
er, for the benefit of that institution ; and although John Bamett,
after his lease began, voluntarily released the paper from all tribute
to the college, yet there was a sting left. Editorials in the paper
declared the college to be of little or no benefit to the church. Mr.
Smith visited Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1839, for the purpose of in-
ducing the people of that place to establish a church college. The
account of his conference with R. L. Caruthers, under Smith's own
signature, is in my possession. Caruthers took just the ground
which his known loyalty to the church would have led us to ex-
pect. He thought the college at Princeton a doomed enterprise;
but so long as it continued to be the college of the church, he would
do nothing in conflict with the General Assembly's plan. Smith's
account of that conference is dated September 10, 1839. At Spring-
field his persuasions proved more effective than at Lebanon. Here
he not only found men to set his paper going once more, but he se-
cured subscriptions amounting to six thousand dollars for a church
college. Through his influence the school and buildings then in
use in that town were transferred to this new ' * college. ' ' He urged
the presbyteries to send their candidates for the ministry to Spring-
field, promising every presbytery fifty dollars on each two hun-
238 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
dred subscribers for the paper, the money to be paid in tuition at
Springfield. He afterward made extensive tours among the south-
ern churches, raising money to endow his college. He always
speaks of it as "my college." He says, in one letter, that he se-
cured several thousand dollars from the Cumberland Presbyterians
of Mississippi for his school. He never raised a farthing for Cum-
berland College.
Smith was ubiquitous. He traveled, he wrote letters, he de-
livered lectures, and in all places he struggled to stir up the church
against the convention and its proposed paper. He visited the
presbyteries at their spring meetings in 1840, calling attention to
his sufferings and arousing sympathy. Some presbyteries which
had shown strong aversion to him and his course as editor turned
over under his vigorous speeches, and passed resolutions indorsing
him and his paper, and denouncing the convention. It was evident
to all true friends of the church that there was danger ahead. Smith
had an army of old camp-meeting friends; for his camp-meeting
preaching had been, from the first, his most powerful work. But
there was another army, made up of sufferers from his financial
recklessness, who said that every enterprise of the church which
had ever been touched by him had either been injured or ruined by
the contact.
There were still alarming symptoms of approaching schism,
when, in March, 1840, the Rev. F. R. Cossitt, President of Cum-
berland College, commenced issuing a monthly pamphlet, which
he called The Banner of Peace. He made no charges for this pe-
riodical, but sent it, at his own expense, throughout the church.
He declared his aim to be the peace and unity of the church. He
said that this monthly would be published until the meeting of the
General Assembly as a free magazine, but if continued longer a
subscription fee would be charged. His editorials were powerful
appeals to all parties for peace. He showed no leaning, in his
paper, to either party; but he published an article for Smith which
declared the church to be in its death agonies.
True friends of the church rallied to the support of Cossitt' s
views, and many a noble plea for peace appeared in the columns of
the Banner of Peace. To F. R. Cossitt, more than to any other
Chapter XXIIL] ThE ChURCH PaPER. 239
human agency, does the church owe its escape from wreck in the
General Assembly of 1840.
When that Assembly met the mind of the majority was made
up to leave both Smith's paper and the proposed Lebanon paper
without either recognition or condemnation, and for the time
being to have no church organ, but to settle on something like lib-
eral terms with Smith, and to be forever done with him. Smith
claimed large things, especially on account of his losses arising
from the failure of several General Assemblies to secure the prom-
ised four thousand subscribers. He proposed arbitration, but the
General Assembly declared this unnecessary, as a satisfactory set-
tlement seemed practicable without it. A committee was appoint-
ed to investigate the matter. This committee reported that a pa-
tient inquiry into all the facts had satisfied them that the General
Assembly did not owe Mr. Smith any thing; but, as he made a large
claim, and as some of the members of the church believed his claim
to be just, they recommended that nineteen hundred dollars be paid
to him as damages.
The recommendation was adopted. The nineteen hundred dol-
lars were paid before the Assembly adjourned, and Smith's receipt
was spread on the Minutes.
After this Smith's course was a strange medley. While the Gen-
eral Assembly maintained control of the college at Princeton, Smith
wrote the most abusive private letters against that institution and
all connected with it. But when the Assembly abandoned that
school, and Smith was forced also to abandon his college, then he
became a very earnest partisan of the college at Princeton and
against the college at Lebanon. All through his editorial career
he had been an advocate of a church organ, to be owned and con-
trolled by the General Assembly. When the Assembly failed to
continue him as editor, he at once suspended the publication of
his paper, and warmly denounced the policy he had defended
before, declaring that the church should not own or manage either
college or newspaper. This he did through the columns of Mil-
ton Bird's paper. There were two weekly newspapers now pub-
lished— one by Dr. Cossitt, and one by Milton Bird. Bird was
then a young man. Smith, it is said, did his utmost to array
240 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
Bird's paper against Cossitt, and against the college at Lebanon.
In this way alone is it possible to account for some of Mr. Bird's
editorials, they are so unlike all that noble man's record before and
afterward. Smith had been stated clerk of the General Assembly
but he did not deliver the records over to his successor till three
years after his resignation, though he was twice ordered to do so.
He came very near involving Milton Bird in a serious difficulty by
inducing him to make a proposition to publish these old records,
and sell them as private property. Not friendship to Bird, but
schism in the church was thought to be his aim. Once he talked
of forming a church of his own. ' He tried to enlist various par-
ties, but could not secure the followers that were necessary for
such a scheme. Then he struggled to persuade many of our best
men to go with him into the Presbyterian church; but his only
success was in the case of John W. Ogden.
The evils growing out of the lack of proper compensation to
ministers, of which Smith so bitterly complained, had already
driven out of the church several strong men. Among these the
strongest, perhaps, was the Rev. W. A. Scott, D. D, , who recently
died in San Francisco. Mr. Ford, of Louisiana, who also left the
church about the time Scott did, was influenced by purely doctrinal
considerations, so he declared in a letter to Dr. Beard. Smith was
very confident that he would take Dr. Beard with him. He told
various persons that Dr. Beard was going to leave the church.
Beard wrote to Smith calling him to task for these reports. Smith
defended his statements as a prophecy based on the nature of the
case. He said to Beard: "You will be obliged to go; they will
drive you out as they are driving me. ' '
It was once generally believed among Cumberland Presbyte-
rians that W. A. Scott tried to induce Dr. Beard to leave the
church. There was not a particle of foundation for this belief.
All Dr. Scott's letters to Dr. Beard have been examined, and there
is not the remotest hint at any such thing. While there were
tempting offers made to Dr. Beard, most of them originated with
Smith.
» Proofs of all this are among many of the literary remains in my hands, espe-
cially those of the Rev. Isaac Shook.
Rev. F, R.Cossitt □, D
TXs/liyJCBunre.NY.
Rev. am. Bryan. D.D.
Rev. Milton Bip,.d. D. D.
Chapter XXIII.] ThE ChURCH PAPER. 24I
The impression was long current among our people that system-
atic and unlawful means were resorted to to entice our educated
men to join the Presbyterian church. Careful examination of
private diaries, correspondence, and other records, reveal no trace
of any such efforts. Had the facts been as our people once thought
they were, the evidence would inevitably exist in some of the doc-
uments now in my hands. The main motive for withdrawing
from the Cumberland Presbyterian church and joining the Pres-
byterians is correctly stated in a letter to Dr. Beard, written by
one who had taken this step. He says : ' ' There is no hope of
my ever getting a living as a pastor in the Cumberland Presby-
terian church. Between being secularized and false to my min-
isterial vows, and adopting the Westminster Confession with such
mental reservations as I know to be made by many of the Pres-
byterian ministry, I chose the latter as the far lesser evil."
16
242 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TRANSITION FROM MISSIONARY EVANGELISTS
TO PAID PASTORS.
A library imitated in -wood.
— Vuict.
THE learned Erasmus declared that no king's office is equal in
dignity to the office of the humblest pastor. In a heathen
country, under peculiar circumstances, it was all right for Paul to
work with his own hands to earn his own bread, and preach with-
out any pay. Likewise the state of things in the new settlements
to which the self-denying missionaries went, made it absolutely
necessary for them, at first, to earn their own bread by some secular
pursuit. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that there should
have grown up in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, all of
whose preachers were at first missionaries, loose views about the
pastor's office and pastors' salaries. Indeed, many of our preachers
and people came to think that pastorates were invented by self-
seeking men who dreaded the hardships of an itinerant life and
wanted big salaries. An element of positive opposition to the
office of settled pastor, in the true Presbyterian sense of that word,
sprang up. There was, along with this, a disposition to apply the
name pastor to any minister who had regular appointments, how-
ever rare, to preach in any one congregation.
When the second Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly
met, 1830, this opposition to the pastoral office had reached its
zenith. That General Assembly, by a large majority, voted to
submit to the presbyteries the question of striking out of the Form
of Government the whole section recognizing the pastoral office.'
■It may be Avell to note that the chapters and sections Avere then numbered
differently from their later form. The numbering was changed by the Rev. James
Smith, publisher of the book.
Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 243
The General Assembly not only submitted this question but de-
clared the change desirable.
There were then only eighteen presbyteries: of these, only two
voted for striking out that chapter. Thirteen voted no. Three
made no report — perhaps did not meet — as there were often failures
to secure a quorum in the new presbyteries. The effort was never
renewed, but year after year the feeling grew in the General Assem-
blies that the regular pastoral office, in its true sense, would have
to be established. In 1835 a faint utterance in favor of settled
pastors was given by the General Assembly. In 1836 an unequiv-
ocal declaration of the importance of the pastoral office was placed
on record.
The first battle was won; but let it not be supposed that all
opposition to the pastor's office had disappeared. I give one exam-
ple: At the meeting of the West Tennessee Synod in 1849 ^^^
Committee on the State of Religion brought in a report which
contained a paragraph about the deplorable lack of settled pastors.
This report was met with the most uncompromising opposition.
Earnest and eloquent speeches were made against it by some of the
oldest ministers present. The chairman of this committee and the
Rev. Samuel Dennis, D. D, , then pastor of the Cumberland Presby-
terian church in Memphis, were the only men who stood up in
that meeting in favor of the regular pastoral office. Yet, in that
synod, the largest in the church, there was not at that time any
genuine evangelist, and not as many as a half dozen men devoted
exclusively to the work of the ministry. A system of supplies, on
Sabbaths, by preachers who through the week earned their bread
in secular callings, was depended on in that synod, and is, alas, the
system by which many of our churches are still kept up.
Very few of the early Cumberland Presbyterian ministers had
any correct idea of the true nature of- the pastor's office. When
the necessity for real pastorates was urged, many seemed to think
that installation was all that they lacked. The people soon under-
stood, however, that he who served them under the name of a
pastor, was in fact but a secularized supply who preached on the
Sabbath and then went back to his worldly pursuits. In many
cases these preachers rode eight or ten miles on Sabbath morning
244 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
to their appointments, and rode back Sabbath evening. Thus an
utter lack of any correct knowledge of what a true pastor is, was a
serious difficulty in the way of introducing true pastors.
Even now the truth is but slowly dawning upon our people that
pastor and evangelist belong to two very different vocations; so
different, indeed, that fitness for one is presumptive evidence of un-
fitness for the other. The standards by which the churches have
usually judged of a man's fitness for the pastor's work, or of his
success when in that work, are standards which belong rather to
the other vocation, that of the evangelist. To preach thrilling,
popular sermons, to attract a great crowd, to gather in many
wealthy members, to build a fine meeting-house — such things as
these have been regarded the ne plus ultra of pastoral success.
There may be no systematic beneficence in the congregation, no
entire personal consecration to Christ's service in the daily practi-
cal life of any member; the missionar}^ spirit may be wanting in
both pastor and people; no child of the church may ever go to
labor among the heathen or enter the holy ministr}-; family prayers
may be neglected in the households, and the members be untaught
in the great fundamental truths of Christianity; there may be as
little separation from the ways of a godless world as the devil him-
self could wish — still if the attractive sermons draw great crowds
and a handsome salary is paid, the man who occupies the pulpit is
regarded by many as a successful pastor. Ah ! the great day will
reverse many a human verdict.
The long-established custom of looking upon thrilling popular
sermons as the sole test of a pastor's fitness has built up a stubborn
barrier against right measures. Let a man who knowTS what real
pastoral work is studiously avoid all sensational discourses and all
mere spasms, and set himself to work earnestly to organize, drill,
train, and indoctrinate his flock in real, personal consecration to
Christ; let him strive to cultivate love to Jesus by enlisting every
member of the flock in a thorough study of the Bible and in active
efforts to do good and win souls, and in a large majority of cases,
the church will rebel. That is not what they want; they want to
be thrilled with eloquence on the Sabbath and left to themselves
through the week.
Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 245
That the pastor's office is the most difficult and important of all
human callings can be easily proved. It is a calling from God, yet
those who engage in it need special training, more careful than
that required in any secular employment or profession. But when
the transition from circuit preaching to settled pastorates became a
necessity, there were in the Cumberland Presbyterian church no
men trained to the pastoral office. Our people had no school to
teach the theory of pastoral theology; no experienced pastors to
lead and train the rising ministry, and there were no churches
willing to sustain a pastor decently. It is a wonder, under all the
circumstances, that the preachers of that period succeeded as well
as they did.
Men who know nothing about a difficult calling generally
underestimate the labor required to master it. Many of the
preachers failed to understand the difficulty and importance of
pastoral work. A leading minister, one of the most beloved and
successful pioneer missionaries in the church, declared in a public
discourse that the whole science of pastoral theology could be
mastered in two hours! Even yet few among us know what care-
ful and extensive preparation is needed for the pastor's work.
Discussing the extreme difficulty of a true pastorate the learned
Bengel said: "Many things are needed in order to create a true
community." The care of individual souls is like preparing the
individual stones for a temple. To create a true spiritual commu-
nity— the temple in its finished state — is a life work. It is never
done by any one great revival or under frequent change of pastors.
As well talk of one painter beginning a painting and a whole
"apostolical succession " of other painters carr}-ing out the original
design. A true pastor, by a whole life-time of toil, may accomplish
the work, but even then the inner fountain of power must be the
Lord of glory himself dwelling in the pastor. When one such
spiritual community is secured the results are abiding.
The pastors in this transition period had to unteach some
wrong lessons which the church had learned. The silence of the
pioneer preachers about money had created a strong opposition to
paying preachers. This existed not only among the covetous and
the worldly, but among people who had considerable reputation
246 CUMBERI.AND Presbyterian History. [Period in.
for piety. Indeed, congregations which were celebrated for dem-
onstrations of religious fervor were often the very ones which gave
tlie least money.
All the first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers started wrong.
Bitterly did our old men regret their failure to teach and train the
people in this duty, but their regrets came too late. It will take
several generations yet to get rid of the leaven of their example.
In the midst of the great congregation at Big Spring, Tliomas
Calhoun, near the close of his life, used substantially these words:
"I am now old, and must soon go to meet my Judge. I have been
one of the actors in establishing the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, and in all that pertains to its early history. I have a clear
conscience save only about one thing. We have all failed to do
our duty in training the people to pay their preachers. I have
lived to see the ruinous consequences of that failure, and I don't
want to die without confessing my sin in this matter in the most
public manner possible." So too, did Ewing and others make
public confession, but it came too late. The evil continues.
In several instances synods sent men to preach on this subject
throughout their bounds, the order in one case extending to a whole
State. One can not, however, help doubting whether any man of
the class and type to which the first Cumberland Presb}-terian
preachers belonged, would be likely to accomplish much in such a
mission. That whole generation of preachers had false views on
this subject. "Supporting the gospel" was the text; a pitiful hat
collection, which furnished the ministers who held the meeting
from one to three dollars apiece for a week's labor, was the appli-
cation. The men who gave the money were, in their self-compla-
cent views, "supporting the gospel." Many of the efforts of the
presbyteries to remedy the difficulty were as pitiful as these hat
collections. One presbytery^ resolved that every member of the
church ought to give twenty-five cents a year to "the support of
the gospel;" another, that all church members should give fifty
cents apiece annually for this purpose, and another had the daring
to ask every member of its congregation to pay a dollar a year to
secure the means of grace. In one of the oldest and richest por-
I have all these presbyterial records before me.
Cliapter XXIV.] ' TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 247
tions of tlie cliurcli, a presbytery named ten dollars per annum as
the amount which each of its congregations ought to try to pay
its "pastor."
Now place by the side of these "heavy burdens" which the
presbyteries were laying upon the churches, the burdens which
these preachers were themselves patiently bearing. From a num-
ber of examples recorded in the church paper, one is selected. In
the spring of 1832, when a minister of good talents was ordained,
he volunteered to go as a missionary to a new State. He had fifteen
hundred dollars in money and no family. He went on his mission
without any provision for compensation. He traveled and built
up several small churches, paying his own way, until all his money
was gone. He had said nothing about compensation, though the
people he preached to were generally getting rich; but the time
now came when he could no longer pay his own way and travel as
a missionary. He went into secular business, and continued to
preach on Sabbath without one cent of pay. The church paper
commenting on this case and others like it, calls them cases of
necessity. But did not the neglect of duty have something to do
with creating this necessity ? The ministers of that day were too
sensitive and timid about preaching on the duty of giving. What
they did say often made matters worse.
At a later day there were a few men in the church who knew
how to present this subject. Dr. A. J. Baird was one of these.
There was a church in one of the wealthiest portions of Middle
Tennessee whose pastor had resigned because his salary could not
be raised. Dr. Baird visited this church with a view of bringing
it up to its duty in this matter. He first conferred with the session
and learned that the difficulty was not about the man, but only
about the salary. The people could not raise enough money to
support that man or any other, and had decided to dismiss the
pastor and depend on monthly supplies from some non-resident
minister. Baird plead and argued, but the session finally told him
that he would not even be permitted to canvass the congregation
for subscriptions. All this was on Saturday. On Sabbath Dr.
Baird preached, discussing the whole subject in that practical and
common-sense way of which he was a master. At the close of the
248 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11 1.
sermon lie described his interview with the session. Then he
added, "I am not going to ask either this session or these church
members to give one cent;, but I am going to raise the pastor's
salary here to-day among the unconverted people. These sinners
have a higher appreciation of the blessings which stand forever
connected with the regular means of grace than this session has.
I want some of these rich old sinners to start the subscription.
Who will pledge a sum bearing some little proportion to the
inestimable worth of the gospel?" In less than a half hour the
whole salary was raised, and that without the name of a single
church member. Dr. Baird then delivered a scathing lecture to
that session, and proceeded to install the preacher as pastor for
those sinners.
Dr. Baird was often called to present this subject, but in no two
cases did he use the same methods. Once at Lebanon, Tennessee,
where the congregation had generally maintained a standard of
liberality above the average, they fell sadly behind in the pastor's
salary, and sent for Dr. Baird to help them. He came and met the
congregation, making just a little talk in which were only three
points. In the first he assumed that the people of Lebanon would
not consent to be left destitute of the means of grace. In the
second he discussed, very briefly, one way of supplying this
acknowledged necessity — the old scriptural way of having one
man exclusively devoted to that work and paying him for his
labors, as we pay lawyers, doctors, and others. Thirdly, he stated
that this scriptural method had been tried in Lebanon, and had
broken down, and he had been sent for to help devise wa}-s and
means to meet the emergency. He said, " Sometimes when peo-
ple want a new meeting-house, and can not raise money enough
to hire a carpenter, they divide out the work among the members
and do it themselves. Inasmuch as we can not raise money enough
here to have one man do all the preaching and pay him for it, w^e
shall have to divide out the work among the members and not try
to have any pastor. I have made," said he, "the best distribution
of the labor I can, and will now proceed to read the appointments.
'Squire McClain, you will preach next Sunday morning and Sun-
day night." "No I won't," said the 'Squire. "No dodging,"
Chapter XXIV.J TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 249
answered Baird, "there will be some rare head-scratcliiiig in
'Squire McClain's office the next few days. It is not quite as easy
as it looks to prepare two sermons in one week." "I am not
going- to prepare any sermons," said McClain, "What will you
do then? Are you going to do without the gospel?" "No," he
answered, ' ' I am going to pay my full share of the salary and have
a pastor to do my part of the preaching." The pastor was re-
tained, but we are not told whether he was adequately paid or not.
To go forward and preach the gospel, pay or no pay, is certainly
right. In that, the example of our fathers is worthy of all com-
mendation. But there is also another line of duty. To be silent
about money, to say nothing about consecration to God in pocket
as well as profession, to leave unrebuked a habitual course of con-
duct which robs God and robs his own called ministers who stand
before the church in his name and by his authority as his own
ambassadors — this is a criminal neglect of part of the very work
committed to those ambassadors. It is useless to try to conceal
the fact that our fathers were sadly delinquent in this part of their
duty. This is a blot on the record of their heroism and their
spirituality which we can not wash off. The heroism and spirit-
uality are with the dead past. Old established communities, crys-
tallized into a life devoted mainly to worldly things, is what we have
now. This silence on the subject of money which was persisted in
by the first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers even while actual
want pressed upon some of them and their families, and the gen-
eral secularization of the ministry which followed it, suited well
the carnal hearts of nominal church members who gloried in a
"free gospel." As a consequence, it is hard now to find any
church which is willing to pay a pastor a living salary. Our
churches have been trained to take a preacher's labor without pay.
Grave as was the fault of the ministry', a far more grievous
complaint is recorded in heaven against the churches. With some
honorable exceptions, they stand charged before God with robbing
their own pastors, and that, too, where there is no chance to plead
any lack of plain teaching from the pulpit as an apology for the
robbery, nor any lack of ability on the part of the robbers. A
painful array of historical facts might be here presented, but to
250 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
publish the details, with the names of the preachers and of the
churches which took their services without pay would, perhaps,
give offense and not cure the evil. An old preacher, in extreme
poverty, and utterly helpless in body, says "I spent forty years
giving my whole time to such and such churches." The list is
omitted. "In no one of these churches" he continues, "did I
ever receive more than half the salary which they promised to pay
me. If I had these unpaid balances, I would now be in eas)' circum-
stances." This man was an able preacher in his day, and there
were many conversions under his ministry. The position taken
here is indorsed by the authority of one of the noblest servants
and truest friends the Cumberland Presbyterian church ever had.
In Dr. Beard's diary for September 18, 1855, is the following entr}'-:
"Went to Brother Mansfield's; found him in his field at work.
He is a good and useful preacher, and yet is laboring on a farm to
support his wife and children. Will not the church have to render
a fearful account for her treatment of such men ? "
The reports of several hundreds of circuit riders show that
about one third of them received no pay at all. Perhaps another
third received some socks, and from five to twenty dollars a year in
money. The largest salary reported by any one of them was
eighty dollars a year. Only one reports so large a sum. The
compensation of the first "pastors" in the church was still more
meager. It was not expected that men who did not travel would
be paid any thing for preaching. It was said that the church to
which a leading minister devoted the best years of his life did
not, during the whole time, pay him as much as twenty dollars.
But we are improving; people and preachers are improving. Per-
haps when all the formidable obstacles which had to be o\-ercome
are taken into the account, the improvement ought to be con-
sidered remarkable. One of the largest and most central presby-
teries may perhaps be taken as an average sample of what the
whole church is now doing. It has forty ministers. Three of
these are entirely supported by their congregations. Two otliers,
whether supported or not, give their whole time to the work of the
ministrv. Six others are devoted to church work under some of
the boards, and twenty-eight are secularized, though they preach
Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 25I
on Sabbath and get some little compensation. Now that circuit
riding is no more, and camp-meetings are generally abandoned, our
churches must employ regular pastors or cease to exist. The chief
hope of the church is with the young men who take a regular
course of theological studies and enter the pastoral work. Every
true pastor is a light-house ^mong the churches. The work of
many such in town and country stands as the strongest argument
in favor of permanent pastorates.
The sermon which this chapter preaches needs to be followed
by an exhortation. The credit system, pledges forfeited by church
judicatures for future payment of money, the failure to pay sub-
scriptions and even notes given to church enterprises, the injustice
and robbery of neglecting to support pastors and evangelists, or of
refusing to pay the meager salaries promised them, are all forms
of financial mismanagement and wrong -doing. From just such
things as these the greatest dangers and losses of the church have
come in the past. It will be well if such causes of trouble are
avoided in the future.
Not only to Barnett and Smith did the General Assembly make
pledges which it had no power to fulfill, but there were other simi-
lar cases. The particulars of one such instance are found in the
manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King. When the
General Assembly of 1834 asked the Rev. Samuel King and his
son to go on their long evangelistic tour among the churches, it
included in the request a solemn pledge that the evangelists should
be compensated for their services. R, D. King took his wife to
the home of her relatives in Kentucky, where she and her children
remained during the twenty months of her husband's absence.
When these evangelists made their final report to the General
Assembly, they stated that their compensation had been one hun-
dred and fifty dollars less than their unavoidable traveling expenses.
One member then arose in the Assembly and moved that steps be
taken to redeem the pledge for compensation made to these evan-
gelists. Another member made a speech against the motion, de-
claring that neither he nor the Assembly then sitting had ever
made any such pledges. "This Assembly," said he, ''is not the
same body which pledged compensation, and we are not bound
252 Cumberland Presbyterian History. Lferiod in.
either morally or legally." The matter dropped there. There
being no second to the motion, no vote was taken. When the
clerk read in the Minutes the words, "compensation nearly equal to
their traveling expenses," Samuel King objected. But being
appealed to to let this record stand "for the sake of the church,"
he withdrew his objection. R. D. King had to borrow money to
remove his family back to his little home in Tennessee. On his
arrival he found that his note for the borrowed money had preceded
him and was in the hands of an officer. His property was sold
under the sheriff's hammer. He says that for a considerable time
after that his purpose remained fixed to preach no more for Cum-
berland Presbyterians. In that state of mind his communion with
God was cut oif. Heart-searching followed, and the conclusion
was reached that his preaching was for Jesus and not for any de-
nomination, and he girded on his armor once more. There have
been many other cases like R. D. King's, belonging to all the
periods down to the present day.
There are scriptural methods of transacting financial affairs, but
the credit system forms no part of these methods. Church debts
are unscriptural, and whether they be contracted by congregations
or church judicatures, or chartered boards, they are always a curse.
A chapter might be devoted to the history of such debts. It would
tell of college buildings which have been sold to meet the claims
of creditors; of houses of worship mortgaged, and at last forfeited;
of pastors disappointed and crushed; of good men alienated from
the church because its pledges were not redeemed; of donations
from the wealthy turned away from our institutions by disaffection
and want of confidence caused by financial failures. The materials
for such a chapter are at hand. Among other things is the record
of a consecrated pastor, an able and holy man, who in his last
illness, only a few years ago, was kept from starving, not by his
congregation v/hich still owed him large balances on his salarj',
but by unconverted men whom God sent, like the prophet's ravens,
to feed his servant. But let these sad records of failure and wrong
rest in oblivion till the great day of reckoning shall bring them
to light.
Chanter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA 253
CHAPTER XXV.
THE CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA
Thy mighty river jet shall know
A gracious stream of grander flow.
— Anonymous.
IN tlie chapter on Bell's Indian mission, notice was taken of the
first work of Cumberland Presbyterians in the territory which
now forms the State of Mississippi. That work was exclusively
among the Indians, who throughout that period occupied the
northern portion of Mississippi. The condition of things south
of the Indian country presented few attractions for Cumberland
Presbyterian preachers. The settlers did not come from the field
occupied by this new church; they sent no pressing calls for its
missionaries, while far more such calls than the presbyteries could
possibly respond to came from other fields. The Tombigbee Pres-
bytery, organized in 1823, included Bell's mission, but there were
then in Mississippi no congregations of white people belonging to
this church.
White people, and some of them Cumberland Presbyterians,
had penetrated the Indian country, and were making their homes
there, the treaty of 1816 having opened the door for such settle-
ments. Robert Bell, John C. Smith, and James Stewart, all con-
nected with the Indian mission — Stewart only a short time —
preached to these pioneers. But the whites who settled in the
Indian country were, with some noble exceptions, people of bad
character, and their influence was a serious barrier to the success
of the gospel among the Indians. One of these white men was a
slave trader from Princeton, Kentucky, who circulated slanderous
reports about a mission which the American Board had established
in Mississippi. This negro trader, on his purchasing tours, fre-
quently visited Kentucky, and spread his slanders against the
missionaries wherever he went. These missionaries held anti-
254 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
slavery views, and were sadly in his way. F. R. Cossitt and David
Lowry, knowing the vileness of this man's character, publicly
denounced his slanders, and warned the people of Kentucky
against him. They also wrote to the Cumberland Presbyterian
missionaries, begging them to furnish the means of vindicating
their brethren in the Monroe mission. This Mr. Bell did in such
a thorough manner that the neighboring mission was not again
assailed. This generous interference against a dangerous ruffian
in behalf of a mission planted by another board illustrates the
magnanimous spirit of the Cumberland Presbyterians of that day.
One of the men who settled in Monroe County, Mississippi,
long before the Indians moved away, was Colonel John S. Topp,
an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Among the
anecdotes told by him is one connected with the final removal of
the Indians from this territory'. Various pretexts for delay had for
years retarded this promised removal. Finally, all things were
supposed to be ready, but still the Indians failed to assemble for
their journey. The agent inquired, "What is the matter now?"
They told him that their chief, Tisho Mingo, was in prison for
debt. This was strange, for Tisho Mingo had been rich. It
seems, however, that he had been robbed while preparing to move,
and could not pay his debts. Colonel Topp suggested to the agent
that the old chief should take the insolvent debtor's oath. This
was done, and Tisho Mingo released. The Indians, who stood
around when the oath was administered and their chief released,
exclaimed in wonder: "Talk a little on the book, talk a little off
the book, and Indian's debts paid." This was the last obstacle
of any serious character to their removal.
The agent who removed the last company of the Chickasaws
completed his task in the spring of 1839. Only a few wealthy
families of this tribe remained till a later period. The Choctaw
country was opened in 1833. The sudden opening to settlers^ of
all the vast cotton lands vacated by the Indians, synchronizing
with that wonderful inflation of the currency, together with the
fabulous stories of vast fortunes to be accumulated in IMississippi,
caused an immense rush to that territory. It was said, and per-
haps with some truth, that a man without one cent of capital could
Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 355
go there, buy land on a credit, and negroes with borrowed money,
and make enough on his cotton to meet every payment. Specula-
tion ran wild. Many preachers of different churches went to Mis-
sissippi under its promptings. Others who went there to preach
were told by older settlers to seize the golden opportunity to make
themselves independent first. "We will loan you money. Get you
a plantation and hands to cultivate it; get them paid for; and then
you can go and preach as much as }'ou please." One preacher
writes in the church paper that he was told that Mississippians
would not listen with any respect to a preacher who let ' ' this
golden opportunity for independence slip, and then expected the
people to support him." Thus it came about that most of the
preachers of all the churches were secularized. The statement
was published at that time that nine out of every ten ministers in
Mississippi were secularized. From a long series of letters in the
church paper on the condition of things in Mississippi between
1832 and 1834, we learn that the capital of the State for fifteen
years had neither church -house nor school - house. Ten whole
counties in the poorer regions east of Pearl River had only one
preacher who could read and write. The richest county in the
State had neither bookstores, academies, nor pastors. According
to this writer, people going to Mississippi caught the mania for
speculation, and lost all concern about books, schools, churches, or
any thing else. He wrote over a fictitious signature, and his state-
ments are perhaps exaggerated.
Other writers, who do not use fictitious names however, o-ive a
sufficiently dark picture of the wild spirit of speculation which
prevailed for five or six years after the Choctaw country was opened.
The Clinton Presbytery (Presbyterian) sent forth a strong protest
against this state of things; and inasmuch as it had previously
given official indorsement to the zeal and consecration of the few
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in that field, it now published
through our church paper an earnest protest against the course
which some preachers of our church in Mississippi were then
taking.
In the diary of the Rev. Isaac Shook is an account of a visit
to a Mississippi town in 1834. There were seven hundred inhab-
256 CUMBERI.AND Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
itants, and among them five Protestant ministers all secularized.
One was a merchant, one a school-teacher, one a lawyer, and two
"slave drivers," as Shook calls them. They were "seizing the
golden opportunity to secure independence." Shook began a
series of meetings. By and by the school-teacher began to attend.
There was a revival. Then the merchant, who also sold whisky,
came of nights, and grew wonderfully zealous, but he still sold
whisky. The others would drop in occasionally, but took no
special interest. The meeting closed. One of these preachers
afterward was silenced; all of them utterly lost the confidence of
the people. The town became noted for its contempt of Chris-
tianity.
In 1836 the church paper stated that all the Cumberland Pres-
byterian congregations in Mississippi had been organized in the
preceding five years. At the meeting of Columbia Synod, in the
town of Pulaski, Tennessee, on the fourth day of November, 1831,
the order was passed for the formation of Mississippi Presbytery.
Its limits on the south-west were indefinite; on the south it ex-
tended to Mobile. Its original members were to be Thomas J.
Bryan, Robert Molloy, Samuel W. Sparks, and Isaac Shook; and
its first meeting was to be held in the town of Gallatin, Copia
County, Mississippi, the fourth Thursday in April, 1832, Thomas
J. Br>'an to be its first moderator. ' Different statements as to who
were the original members of this presbyterj- have been published,
but this is the correct list as ordered by the synod. These var\'ing
accounts are thus explained: Several ministers from different syn-
ods were living in Mississippi, but not enough from any one to
form a presbytery. The Rev. S. W. Sparks and the Rev. Isaac
Shook, both of Columbia Synod, volunteered to go at their own
expense to Mississippi and co-operate with Molloy and Bryan — who
also belonged to that synod, but lived in Mississippi— in the forma-
tion of a presbyter}^ As soon as the presbytery was organized it
received as members the other resident ministers, and then Shook
and Sparks returned.
In going to Mississippi they had traveled on horseback to
Memphis, thence by boat to Vicksburg, and thence on horseback
'See records of Columbia Synod, in the church paper. November 17, 1831.
Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 257
to Gallatin. They expected to return by the same routQ, but God,
in his providence, had other plans for Shook. He was induced to
visit some old friends in Mississippi and hold meetings for them.
He afterward made arrangements to go all the way back to Hunts-
ville, Alabama, by stage. Saturday, May 19, 1832, Mr. Shook
was traveling homeward in the stage. He would not travel on the
Sabbath, and his only alternative was to spend two days at the
hotel in a strange town, which had the reputation of being a very
wicked place. Stages passed only on alternate days, and hotel bills
in Mississippi were very high. Late Saturday night Shook put
up at the Columbus hotel. Sunday morning he found the hotel
keeper to be an old acquaintance and a special friend. Through
him an arrangement was made for Shook to preach that day in
the Baptist church. Shook says that he preached with the feeling
that he would never see his congregation again till the great judg-
ment-day, and he prayed God to enable him to be faithful. Early
Monday morning he was waited on by the pastor and one elder of
the Presbyterian church who urged him very earnestly to remain
till the next Sabbath, when their communion meeting was to
begin. He hesitated, but said he would give them an answer be-
fore stage time. In the course of the day, he found that his sermon
the day before had awakened several sinners. He resolved to re-
main. Mr. Byington, of the Choctaw mission, came and assisted
in the meeting. At the close of Shock's first sermon, he "called
for mourners," and two ladies, who were leaders in society, came
forward. At the close of his second sermon, the school-mistress
and nearly all her school came for\\^ard. The interest spread to
the country, where it seemed to be greater than in town. It was
finally decided to hold meetings at different points all around
Columbus. On, till the first of August, over two months, Shook
continued preaching every day. In Columbus and the surround-
ing countr>', three hundred persons claimed to be converted at
these meetings. Of these, Shook took twenty into the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church. He says he encouraged no one to join
the Cumberland Presbyterians because he saw no prospects of any
reliable supply of the preached gospel from our ministers. He
even apologizes for receivmg the twenty, but says they would not
17
258 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period III.
agree to belong to any other church, and were willing to put up
with sermons by occasional circuit riders. The Rev. Samuel
Nelson rode that circuit and supplied this little flock with the gos-
pel for a few years. In 1839 this little church at Columbus called
Mr. Shook as their pastor at a salary of ^800. He ser\'ed them
faithfully for many years. The war came near destroying this and
many other Southern congregations, but in spite of the war and
of other hindrances, this faithful band still perseveres in the work.
A member of the Mississippi Presbyter>', rather short of funds,
rode one hundred and fifty miles to attend one of the early meet-
ings of that body. He found the members all quartered at the
town hotel, each paying $3 a day for himself and horse. There
was no meeting-house in the town, but the forest was near b}', and
the presbytery convened under the trees. The clerk wrote on his
hat crown. The largest Cumberland Presbyterian congregation in
the State in 1836 numbered only twenty-eight members. Small
as was this beginning our membership in that State at a later day
was among the foremost in the whole church in every good work.
This IS especially true in reference to the payment of pastors'
salaries. In all the important financial enterprises of the church
from 1840 to i860, Mississippi and Alabama took a leading part.
They were favorite fields for agents appointed in any part of the
church to raise money. Before the war the contributions of
Alabamians and Mississippians to the endowment of the colleges of
the church far exceeded those made by the people of any other two
States. Notwithstanding the losses caused by the war, Mississippi
still stands among the foremost States in supporting all church
enterprises.
In 1832 the Mississippi Synod was organized. Its presbyteries
were the Mississippi, the Alabama, and the Eh'ton. This synod
extended its jurisdiction into Louisiana and over all Texas. By it
Louisiana Presbyter}^ was organized in 1835, and Texas Presbytery
in 1837— (ordered in 1836). Three new presbyteries created by
Mississippi Synod were soon dissolved. These were named Colum-
bus, Charity Hall, and Shiloh. Two other presbyteries were
organized in this State during this period, which still exist — Ox-
ford and New Hope. The efficiency and energy of the New
Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 259
•
Hope Presbytery, its admirable organization, and the consecration
of its preachers and people, deserve special commendation.
In 1832 the Rev. H. H. Hill traveled in Alabama and Missis-
sippi, holding meetings. His work was greatly blessed. The
Rev. R. L. Ross was a convert of these meetings, as were his
father and nearly all the family. In 1834 the Rev. W. S. Bumey
was engaged in holding camp-meetings in Mississippi. He was
assisted by the Rev. A. P. Bradley, and their work was abundantly
successful. Jefferson Brown, Joseph Harrison, and Cyrus Wilson
all labored in this field about this time. Wilson was afterward a
candidate for governor of Arkansas, but was defeated. Elam
Waddell, Jabez Hickman, and F. M. Fincher came next. In 1838
the Rev. Richard Beard took charge of the Sharon Academy in
Mississippi, and his influence and labors were a great help to the
church in that State. James Mitchell, Andrew Herron, J. B.
Jopling, Wayman Adair, and John P. Campbell, all preached in
Mississippi during this period. Of all this list, only a very small
number were free from secular pursuits. The New Hope Pres-
bytery (1838) was united with the Columbus Presbytery in 1840,
and then had among its members, Wayman Adair, Thomas Tabb,
Joe Bell, James W. Dickey, W. C. Ross, F. E. Harris, Isaac
Shook, and some others. Perhaps W. C. Ross is the only one of
the list who still lingers on earth.'
The Rev. R. L. Ross entered the ministry in Mississippi soon
after his conversion in 1832. He has always been a liberal helper
in church work. By good management and rigid economy he has
been enabled to give more money to our church enterprises than
any other preacher in the denomination. He has often aided Cum-
berland University, in some cases "just in the nick of time,"
when his contributions saved the institution from disaster. There
are some touching incidents of his early work in the ministry, one
of which deserves to be recorded here. There was in Mississippi a
neighborhood made up of Scotch emigrants, and Mr. Ross became
very much attached to them and married one of their daughters.
They were all Presbyterians, and had brought their Scotch
pastor along with them. This pastor, whose name was McDonald,
'The united presbj'tery was called New Hope.
26o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
was an earnest Christian but very much afraid of "disorderly"
revivals, and especially afraid of Cumberland Presbyterian revivals.
Still he became attached to Ross, and finally consented to have
Ross and Leftwich, both Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, hold
a camp-meeting for him. It was not long before the Scotch pastor
was startled by loud shouting from some of his "orderly" mem-
bers. Throngs of penitents were at the "mourner's bench," and
the conversion of some of them made parents and relatives forget
all about "order." The pastor, along with the elders, looked on
with great displeasure. One of these elders was named McKee.
The pastor soon discovered, to his great disgust, that McKee's little
daughter, only eleven years old, was one of the mourners. He
advised the father to take her away, saying the\' Avould ' ' frighten
her to death." The father acted on the advice immediately. She
was taken to a tent and put under medical treatment. She was
given a camphor bath, then a strong toddy was administered, and
she was put to bed. The pastor and elders then decided to put a
stop to such a disorderly meeting, and so announced to Ross.
The latter, believing the pastor to be a sincere Christian, asked
him first to go alone to the forest and spend a season of earnest
prayer for divine guidance. The old Scotchman was a believer in
divine guidance, and he took Mr. Ross' advice. When he returned
his mind was made up to let the meeting go on one more daj' and
see what the results would be. In his prayer he said he had asked
God if there was any good in such meetings to let him see con-
vincing proof of it that day. That night a curious spectacle was
presented. The Scotch parents, with their children seated by
them, all occupied the outside seats as far away from the pulpit as
possible. They had all given orders to their children not to go to
the mourner's bench. Ross preached with great power, and then
"called mourners." The pastor stood leaning on the pulpit.
Mourners came in great numbers, among them the pastor's son,
thirty years old. His two married daughters also came. Mr. Ross
then went to the pastor's wife and insisted that she should go
to her children who were seeking salvation and give them instruc-
tions. She went and commenced talking to her daughter about
''waiting the Lord's own time." But just as the mother began
Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 26l
her instructions the daughter rose shouting. Her face shone with
heavenly light, and the mother then and there acknowledged that
the work was from God. She went and knelt by her son, and
began a silent prayer for him. Her prayer soon grew audible.
Then it was poured forth with all the ardor of a Methodist. The
son was soon rejoicing. Then another son; and then the mother
was on her feet preaching Jesus and crs'ing "glory to God." By
this time every doubt vanished from the pastor's heart, and mount-
ing a chair he gave a thrilling exhortation to all sinners to come at
once to the arms of the Redeemer. He told them all that he was
now fully convinced that this was God's work, and that resistance
to it was resistance to God's Spirit. All barriers were now swept
away and many were gathered into the fold. Several of the con-
verts joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. The Rev. J. F.
McDonald, of our church, is a descendant of this old Scotch
pastor. It is gratifying also to know that "the little girl who was
dragged away from the mourner's bench was, in after years, con-
verted. She became the Rev. R. L. Ross' second wife.
The Cumberland Presbyterian church was never strong in
Louisiana. At a camp-meeting held by Rainey Mercer and Robert
Molloy, near Springfield, on Lake Pontchartrain, in St. Helena
Parish, October, 183 1, the first congregation of our people in that
State was organized. Here, as ever^^where else, the pioneers
formed a temperance society when they organized a church. The
next account we have of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians in
that State is from John W. Ogden, March, 1832. He had organ-
ized a church at Opelousas, with forty members; and another at
Alexandria. Each of these congregations began at once to build
a suitable house of worship. Ogden also reported great revivals at
his meetings throughout his circuit, especially in Bayou Cotile
and Bayou Rapide. In 1835 the Rev. Samuel King and his son,
R. D. King, rendered some valuable assistance to the church in
Louisiana. W. A. Scott, then a licensed preacher, was also in
that field. So, too, was the Rev. Thomas B. Reynolds, and prob-
ably Wiley Burgess. The Louisiana Presbytery was organized
March 13, 1835. Its original members were John W. Ogden,
Rainey Mercer, and Thomas B. Reynolds. At this first meeting
262 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
it ordained W. A. Scott, P. M. Griffin, and Sumner Bacon.' This
presbytery has had a hard struggle. It has been dissolved and
again revived. Of its ministers Scott, Ogden, and Ford left the
church. Still, in spite of these discouragements and losses, it
maintains its organic life and its preachers and congregations are
accomplishing good work for the Master. They deserve help.
' Minutes of Louisiana Presbytery^ in Revivalist, Vol. i., No. 31.
Chapter XXVI.] ThE ChURCH IN TeXAS. 263
CHAPTER XXVI.
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN TEXAS— 1S28 TO 1842.
The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I
have called them. — Ac/s xt'ti. 2.
WHILE Texas was a part of the constitutional and federal
Republic of Mexico, various colonies of people from the
United States settled in that province. Most of these colonies
obtained large grants of land from the Mexican government. In
1834 it was said that sixty thousand of these colonists were living
on Texas soil. Though all these Anglo-Saxons were from a Prot-
estant country, yet they lived under laws which forbade all public
Protestant worship. There was at first no Protestant preacher in
all the province.
In 1826 Sumner Bacon, an unprepossessing son of Massachu-
setts, living then in Arkansas, presented himself to Arkansas Pres-
bytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian church as a candidate for
the ministry. He was dressed in buckskin clothing. His man-
ners were rough, like his dress. He gave a very unusual account
of what he considered his call to the ministry. He said he was
only called to one special work, and not to the general work of
the ministry-. He was called to go to Texas, where there were no
Protestant preachers. On account of the strange appearance and
strange call of this young man, the presbytery declined to re-
ceive him. At a subsequent meeting of the same presbytery he
presented himself again, and was again rejected' How blind we
all are! God had specially trained up a man of his own choosing
for a special work which no ordinary man could do. As a soldier
in camp, then as a surveyor on a dangerous frontier, with Yankee
energy and Cumberland Presbyterian zeal, this rough man was
furnished for his wild, hard, dangerous, but exceedingly important
.^ History given by the Rev. J. A. Cornw^all, who was present.
a64 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
mission. Because he was rough, wore buckskin, and had a special
call, the dear brethren of Arkansas rejected him; but God will not
be thwarted if men are blind.
At the same time that Bacon was receiving these impressions, a
Cumberland Presbyterian lady living in one of the Anglo-Saxon
colonies in western Texas was daily making it a matter of special
prayer that God would send to her neighborhood a preacher of the
everlasting gospel. Meantime Bacon, nothing daunted by rebuffs,
gathered up what means he could control, and in 1828 set out to
perform his mission to Texas, without human authority. At his
own expense he managed to secure some Bibles and tracts, and
began his work as an independent lay evangelist among the people
of western Texas. He was the first Protestant who ever preached
on Texas soil. As it was dangerous for people to open to him
their houses, he held his first meetings under the trees, near the
house of that praying lady.
But Bacon encountered far greater danger from ruffians than
from Mexican laws. If there had been any very great rigor in
enforcing those laws his out-door meetings could not have been
held. Only a small part of the population were Catholics. The
priests were generally extremely ignorant.
Bacon was acquainted with a regular agent of the American
Bible Society in Louisiana, the Rev. Mr. Chase, and often obtained
Bibles from him. Chase was a minister in the Presbyterian church,
and took great interest in Bacon. The question of lay ordination
had been pressed upon Bacon, as there was no ordained preacher
of any Protestant church in Texas. His friend, Chase, did not
favor this plan, but urged him to wait and trust God to open up
the way for ordination in some regular channel. In 1832 Mr.
Chase obtained for Bacon a commission as agent for the American
Bible Society, which he accepted with the distinct stipulation that
he was to receive no salar}\
Sometime in 1833 Bacon's life, which had often been endan-
gered and often threatened, was nigh being taken by some desper-
adoes of western Texas. There are some variations in the many
different accounts of this adventure, but the authority here fol-
lowed is the church paper, whose editor compiled his statements
Chapter XXVI.] ThE ChURCH IN TexAS. 265
from correspondence with Bacon at the time/ Bacon was informed,
before starting to an appointment to preach, that he wonld cer-
tainly be waylaid and killed if he went on that journey, and ear-
nest efforts were made to dissuade him from going. Failing in
that, the man who warned him against attempting the journey,
and who some say was a Texas ruffian won over to be Bacon's
friend, armed himself, saddled his horse, and went along with the
preacher. Passing a narrow ravine, in which it was necessary to
ride single file, the armed friend saw two men rush upon Bacon
and knock him from his horse at a single blow. His companion
fled, and reported that Bacon was killed. It seems, however, that
he was not dead. The assassins dragged him into the thicket for
the purpose of concealing their bloody deed, when they discovered
that their victim still lived. They were proceeding to complete
the work, when Bacon asked them to allow him a few minutes for
prayer. This was granted. The man of God knelt and poured
forth a most earnest prayer for his murderers. When he rose, the
assassins were in tears, and declared to him that they could not kill
so good a man.
Sometime afterward Bacon was to hold a camp-meeting. His
first camp-meeting,^ and the first ever held in Texas, was in Sabine
County, in 1833. It is not certain whether it was at this or some
other camp-meeting in the same year that his life was again in
jeopardy. Ruffians went to the meeting anned, declaring their
purpose to kill him. On the appearance of these desperadoes, one
of the men who had been prayed for in the former attempt on
Bacon's life, rose with his gun in his hands, and, planting himself
in front of the preacher, told the people that he was there to defend
Bacon. He stood guard while the minister delivered his sermon,
and no violence was attempted. Amid scenes like thest ^'n^- Cum-
berland Presbyterian church, the first Protestant church of Texas,
was planted.
Bacon kept a book in which he took the signatures of all those
who claimed to be Christians, and of all others who were willing
'See Ctunberland Presbyferian, April 2:;, 1S3:;.
^'A Methodist minister aided in this meeting. See Bacon's own letter in the
Cumberland Presbyterian, October 33, 1833.
266 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
to enter into a solemn pledge to live a Christian life. As yet, he
had no human authority to preach, nor was there in Mexico an\-
Protestant church court to give such authority, Mr. Bacon's
work, as Bible agent, was characteristic of pioneer life. He had
a pack-horse to carry liis books, and bear skins to cover them in
rainy weather. His chief difficulty was in crossing the water-
courses. When he reached a deep river he went into camp and
remained till he could construct a raft which would bear him and
his books. That done, he swam his horses over beside his raft,
and went on his way again. A number of his private letters
written to friends "in the States" show that he made earnest
appeals for help. In these letters he says that he found the
Mexicans destitute of the Scriptures, and generally eager to be
supplied. He seemed to feel no fears of being arrested for dis-
tributing the word of God, and always spoke in terms of tender
interest about the immortal souls of the people among whom he
labored. His circuit was from the Gulf of Mexico to the western
border of Texas. He preached and scattered Bibles as he went.
The heavens were the roof over his head at night. The prairie
grass furnished him forage. Indians, Mexicans, persecuting
priests, and rigid laws, bloody assassins, and wild beasts, were all
in the hands of his God who sent him to that special field.
Arkansas Presbytery had refused to recognize his special call,
but the Great Head of the church raised up another presbytery to
enjoy the honor of commissioning him to preach. In 1835 the
Rev. Mr. Chase wrote to Mr. Bacon that a Cumberland Presb}-
terian Presbytery was to be organized at Alexandria, Louisiana, in
March, and urged him to attend. Bacon did so. Mr. Chase also
attended and made a statement to the presbyter>- of the peculiar
and pressing nature of the case, whereupon the presb}ter}- received
Bacon as a candidate for the ministry, licensed, and ordained him
all on the same day. ' Mr. Chase preached the ordination sermon.
God not only raised up the man of his own choosing for this work,
but he raised up also, in the bosom of the Presbyterian church, a
friend to stand before a Cumberland Presbyterian judicature and
'Minutes of Louisiana Presbvterv, in Cumberland Presbyterian, April 15, 1835,
and April 22, 1835; also, editorial in it.
Chapter XXVI.] ThE ChURCH IN TeXAS. 267
plead for a suspension of the educational rules in that particular
case. It was with some difiSculty that Mr. Chase succeeded in this
matter, and the presbytery spread on its minutes a declaration that
this case was not to be a precedent in the future. Ah, God rules!
Before Bacon's ordination, some two or three other ministers
of other churches had penetrated the wilds of Texas and lent their
aid to the good work. They and Bacon often met at camp-
meetings, and through their united efforts many souls were brought
to a knowledge of Jesus.
Meantime, other features in the plans of the heavenly Father
were slowly brought to light. The usurpations of a military
despot drove the Texans into revolt. Men from the States rushed
to their assistance, and among these was iVndrew Jackson McGown,
a son of one of Andrew Jackson's old colonels. His parents were
then living in Texas, and though he was a probationer for the
ministry, going to school, when he heard the cry for help he left
school, and books, and native land, and went to join the patriot
Texan army. He reached Texas in the darkest period of the rev-
olution. Citizens fleeing in wild dismay from the cruel invader
first met him; next the retreating army. All the woe and alarm
which such things always involve, greeted him. Casting in his
lot with the army he gave his whole heart to the struggle. The
books, the songs, the histories, and the oratory of Texas, all
dwell fondly on the name of A. J. McGown. One of the Texas
poets represents it as the loftiest achievement of any man to pass
through such a war with both a soldier's heroism and a Christian's
integrity unsullied by a single spot, and then ascribes this high
honor to McGown.
His service with the patriots of Texas was in the providence of
God a means of fitting him for his special work afterward. The
fact that he had shared in the dangers and triumphs on the battle-
fields of 1835 and 1836, appealed, as nothing else could, to every
Texan patriot's heart. All the rest of his days, in his work in the
ministry, McGown used the influence thus acquired with wonder-
ful effect. Many a time he visited neighborhoods where mob
violence had been used against preachers, but an appeal to his
comrades of San Jacinto never failed to call forth daring friends
268 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
who would protect him from all attacks. On one occasion, in a
thrilling appeal to his army comrades while "calling mourners,"
he saw a man who had been an officer in his regiment, rising, and
as he advanced saying, "I'll come, Andy, for your sake." Mc-
Gown cried out, "Stoj), stop, not for my sake, but for your poor
soul's sake, and for Christ's sake." That day was one of great
victory for Christ and his cause. Not even the historic fields of
the 2ist of April, 1836, can compare with it. The books of earth
keep one record, the archives of eternal glory keep the other.
McGown traveled and preached with as much zeal and energy
as he had manifested in the struggle for Texan independence,
laboring as all other Cumberland Presbyterian preachers on the
frontier had to do, without any pay. On one occasion he came to
a ferry, but had no money. He told the ferryman that he had a
pair of new socks which he would give him for his ferriage. The
offer was accepted, and the preacher went on his way rejoicing.
On another occasion, his clothing was worn and threadbare. The
Rev. S. W, Frazier, who was traveling with him, was also in need
of clothing. A gambler, who saw their need, went into a store
and bought a suit of clothes for each of the preachers. Thus they
were supplied.
In 1836 McGown and Bacon first met. Both of them had their
hearts earnestly set on the interests of Christ's kingdom in the
Republic of Texas, for the Lone Star banner then floated over that
field. A presbytery, a newspaper, and a school were three things
which they agreed to work for. To secure the first they attended
the meeting of Mississippi Synod, whose jurisdiction extended
indefinitely to the south and west. At their request this synod
authorized any three ordained ministers of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church who could be got together on Texas soil to organ-
ize a presbyter}'. McGown was not yet ordained. Next year,
November 27, 1837, the Rev. Amos Roark of Hatchie Presbytery,
and the Rev. Mitchell Smith of Talladega Presbyter}^ met at the
house of the Rev. Sumner Bacon of Louisiana Presbyter\', and
there constituted the Texas Presbytery.^ At this first meeting
R. O. Watkins was received as a candidate for the ministry. The
' Minutes published in Cumberland Presbyterian, February 20, 1S38.
Chapter XXVI.] ThE ChuRCH IN TexAS. 269
organized churches of our people then in the Republic were but
four in number. One was in eastern Texas, then supposed to be
in Arkansas, and was organized by Milton Estill, in 1833, the first
in the State. Another was in Sabine County, where the first
camp-meeting was held. It was organized by Bacon, in 1836. A
third was in the Watkins neighborhood (Nacogdoches) and was
organized in 1837. With war still raging, with only three ordained
preachers, and four chnrches, the first presbytery had a dark pros-
pect before it. It however adopted brave and decided measures.
It resolved to establish a school and a religious paper, and seek help
from the church in the United States. It adopted the platfonii
of total abstinence. Its memorial to the General Assembly asking
help, was a document of great ability and earnestness. It sent
Amos Roark to the next General Assembly (1838), and that body
resolved to send the Rev. Samuel Frazier as missionary to Texas.
Roark, accompanied by Frazier, returned to Texas overland, on
horseback, holding meetings along the way. In a letter to the
church paper, written on this long journey, they say that in every
place people bade them farewell with tears, imploring God's
blessings on their labors in that distant field.
Before the Texas Presbytery was organized, the Rev. Robert
Tate, one of the most devoted of Tennessee's young preachers,
resolved to make Texas his home. This young man had property
enough to enable him to preach without pay, and it is said he
uniformly refused to accept any compensation for his preaching.
His was a wonderful religious experience. After thrilling advent-
ures in a life of sin, he had been almost miraculously rescued by
divine grace. He went to Texas in 1835. He spent less than a
year preaching as an itinerant missionary in that country when
his financial interests called him back to Tennessee, After trans-
acting this business he started on his long journey back to the land
of his adoption, but died on his way, September 17, 1837. Tate
was not the only pioneer preacher in that field who was called to
heaven after a very brief season of toil. Samuel W. Frazier
entered on his work there, and died the same year at Houston,
December 9, 1838.
That vear also witnessed the accession of two more ordained
270 CUMBERI^AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period III.
preachers to the Texas Presbytery. These were James McDoiinold
and Milton Moore. In those days the journey to Texas from any
of the Eastern States was a very different thing from what it is
to-day. There were two routes, one by river and Gulf, and then
by ox wagons; the other overland in ox wagons all the way.
Emigrants generally chose the latter route. Santa Anna, while a
prisoner, had acknowledged the independence of Texas, but Mex-
ico refused to abide by the acts of a prisoner. War was not over.
Indians and Mexicans made common cause, and the Comanches
were more dreaded than the Mexicans. When James McDonnold
started from Tennessee to Texas great crowds of people gathered
to see the family take their departure. He had a large circle of
kin besides numerous church friends whom his preaching had won.
His eldest son was with Houston's armies, and stories of battle
and blood were still coming from that land which was farther off
than British India is to-day. When the ox wagons began to creak
along the highway, bearing our friends away, it was to us who
were left behind very much like seeing them led to execution.
Everybody was weeping. On McDonnold' s arrival in Texas he
entered on his old life — "a circuit rider." With a large family to
support, he yet managed to give himself to the work of the
ministry.
One measure adopted by the Texas Presbyter}' at its second
meeting had in it the ring of 1800. In the vast destitution which
that pioneer field presented, the presb}tery resolved to send out
elders to help to organize churches. Another fact shows the char-
acter of the times and the dangers to which these pioneers were
exposed. At one time the place appointed for the meeting of the
presbytery was invaded by the Indians, and the whole settlement
broken up, so that a called meeting had to be held to select another
place. Along with this fact is another of similar significance. R.
O. Watkins had a regular circuit assigned him. The whole cir-
cuit was invaded by Mexicans and Indians and the settlers all
driven off. Watkins being imable to pursue his circuit work,
went to Mississippi and entered school. Still another incident
sheds light of the same character. In 1840 the presbyter}' M^as to
meet at Fort Houston. When the time for the meeting arrived, it
Chapter XXVL] ThE ChURCH IN TeXAS. 27I
was considered necessar}^ for all the members to arm themselves
and travel in a body, like a band of soldiers, for mutual protection.
At this meeting of the presbyter^', R. O. Watkins was ordained.
This was the first ordination of a minister by Protestants on Texas
soil. At the same meeting Watkins' horse got away and he had
to walk home, a distance of eighty miles, through a country over
which hostile Indians were --constantly roaming. He traveled
mostly by night.
Meantime, other valuable men were joining the ranks of Texas
Cumberland Presbyterians. The Rev. J. M. Foster, and the Rev.
F. B. Foster, natives of Wilson County, Tennessee, but Missou-
rians by adoption, arrived in Texas in 1841, and spent the rest of
their days in labors for the church in that country.
There was a period of great darkness to the members of this
solitary presbytery. Warlike invasions, and other difficulties,
drove them to the verge of despair. Roark went back to the
United States. A. J. McGown went also, but expected to return.
His mission was to seek aid for Texas, and especially to try to raise
money to start a newspaper. Some powerful appeals for help were
at that time published by Texas preachers. They said that other
churches were sustaining several missionaries there, while the little
band of Cumberland Presbyterian pioneers were left without help.
They did not complain of their own hardships, but pleaded that
others should be sent aud sustained. Very little, however, was
ever done by the church through its boards or General Assembly
toward planting missions in that coimtry.
In 1 84 1 McGown returned to Texas. God wonderfully blessed
the meetings held by Cumberland Presbyterians in different parts
of that Republic. It was like life from the dead. The Texas
Presbytery, after being ready to disband, was now ready to extend
its work. In 1842 it asked for and obtained the order for the
formation of Texas Synod. This synod was organized in March,
1843. It was made up of the Texas Presbytery, whose members
were Sumner Bacon, Milton Moore, Milton Estill, and R. O.
Watkins; the Red River Presbytery, whose members were Mitch-
ell Smith, James McDonnold, Robert Gilkerson, and Samuel
Corley; and the Colorado Presbytery, whose members were A. J.
272 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
McGown, J. M. Foster, and F. E. Foster. In 1837 our people had
three preachers and four churches in Texas. In 1842 there were
three presbyteries and eleven ministers; and churches, which had
been planted amid the horrors of a civil war, had grown up in all
parts of the Republic.
It will be seen from this little sketch that Cumberland Presby-
terians had the start of all other Protestants on Texas soil. They
had the first preacher, the first camp - meeting, the first church
judicature, and the first religious newspaper in that field. Texas,
made a State of the Union in 1846, with a territory sufficient to
sustain over thirty millions of people, with soil of unsurpassed
fertility, and resources varied and inexhaustible, with a rapidly
growing population, is an inviting field for our people. Among
the martyrs who died to rescue this country from IVIexican misrule
were the sons of the Cumberland Presbyterian church; and the
ministers of this church were with the patriots at San Jacinto. Our
people have historic and traditional advantages which ought to
give them ready access to the hearts of Texans as long as the
Alamo and San Jacinto are remembered.
Table of Texas Dates.
182 1 to 1827. Colonization by Missourians and other Anglo-Saxons.
1828. Bacon preaches the first Protestant sermon in Texas.
1833. Bacon, assisted by a Methodist preacher, holds the first camp-
meeting.
1835. Bacon ordained in Louisiana. The revolution begins.
1836. Independence declared. McGown arrives.
1837. Texas Presbytery organized. Arrival of Roark and Smith.
1838. McDonnold, Frazier, and Moore arrive. Frazier dies.
1839. Dark period. Invasions.'
1840. Roark returns to the United States. Watkins ordained.
1841. The Fosters arrive. Great revival.
1842. Organization of Texas Synod ordered.
1846. Texas annexed to the United States.
Chapter XXVIL] PENNSYI.VANIA. 273
CHAPTER XXVII.
ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA.
My presence shall go with thee. 'Tis enough!
Lead on, my heavenly guide;
Enough for faith to hear thy voice, and see
Thy own right hand in love upiiolding me.
— Anna Shifio7i.
IN 1829 ^ Presbyterian minister who held and taught the doc-
trine of a general atonement lived on Ten Mile Creek, Wash-
ington County, Pennsylvania. His name was Jacob Lindley. In
the same presbytery was another minister with equally liberal
views about the provisions of divine grace. His name was Cor-
nelius lyoughran. The churches of these two men shared in these
views, as did several other Presbyterian churches in western Penn-
sylvania. When the outline of Cumberland Presbyterian doctrines
appeared in Buck's Theological Dictionary, many of these people
read it with intense interest.
Two agents for Cumberland College, the Rev. M. H. Bone and
the Rev. John W. Ogden, whose commission embraced the whole
United States, extended their labors into western Pennsylvania.
They began their mission in June, 1829. Smith's history says of
them:
They spent the following summer and autumn in the State of Ohio
and in western Pennsylvania, preaching with power and demonstration
of the Spirit, especially in Ohio, where through their instrumentality
many souls found redemption. Their mission paved the way for the
opening of a door for extensive usefulness to the church in Ohio, west-
ern Pennsylvania, and New York. In January, 1S31, by request of a
congregation of Presbyterians in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
five of its members wrote a letter to the president of Cumberland Col-
lege, stating that they had lately heard of the existence of the Cumber-
land Presbyterians in the West; that they had examined, in Buck's The-
18
274 CUMBERLAXD PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period III.
ological Dictionary, the l)rief expose of their doctrines and discipline,
which the congregation sincerely apj^roved;" that although they were
members of the Presbyterian church, they could not adopt the whole of
its Confession of Faith, and were solicitous to become better acquainted
with the Cumberland Presbyterians, who were viewed by them as their
brethren in Christ Jesus. They requested that the president should
adopt some measures to provide them, at least for a short time, with the
ministrations of a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary. ]VIr. Cossitt
informed them that he would lay their case before the next General
Assembly, and urge upon that body to meet with their wishes on the
subject. To this the committee replied: " Immediately on the receipt
of yours, we called a meeting of the congregation, and, having read
your letter to them, they expressed their gratiHcation at the prospect of
becoming better acquainted with the Cumberland Presbyterian minis-
ters. They entreated us to continue our correspondence with you, and
to renew the request that your Assembly would send us a missionary for
a short time. Should you succeed, we wish you to inform us as early
as possible; and, if practicable, we are solicitous for him to reach here
by the first of June, which will enable us (should we agree with you in
faith and practice) to obtain our dismission from the Presbyterian
church at the session of j^resbytery which meets about the middle of
that month. We are also authorized to state that our minister heartily
approves of our procedure, and will Avith us attach himself to your
body as soon as an opportunity ofters.' We think that nine tenths of
our sister congregations of the Presbvtcrian church believe as we do,
and for some time, especially since two of your preachers w'ere in
Washington, an anxious desire has been manifested bv them to become
better acquainted with your ministry. I^Iany who make no profession
of religion are solicitous for 3'our ministers to operate in this country;
and we believe that if your Assembly will send us one or more zealous
preachers, they will prove a great blessing to the church of Christ.
We do request that you will press the matter upon the General Assem-
bly with as much ardor as possible."
These documents, together with others of the same nature from the
western section of the State of New York, were laid before the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1S31. The Assembly viewed these pressing calls as
an intimation that the Head of the Church was opening a more exten-
sive field of labor to the Cumberland Presbyterian ministry, and ap-
pointed Alexander Chapman, Robert Donnell, Reuben Burrow, John
Morgan, and A. M. Bryan missionaries to visit the congregations that
had applied for the ministrations of Cumberland Presbyterians. Imme-
' This congregation was without a pastor when the missionaries arrived
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 275
diately after their appointment, Chapman, Morgan, and Bryan pro-
ceeded to western Pennsylvania. Donnell and Burrow passed through
North CaroHna and Virginia, and in tlie autumn met the others in the
vicinity of Washington, Pennsylvania. An extract from a letter to Mr.
Cossitt from a member of the Pennsylvania congregation that had ap-
plied for a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary, exhibits the reception
of the missionaries by that people, and the success of their first labors:
"Messrs. Chapman, Bryan, and Morgan reached us about three weeks
ago, and were received with joy and thankfulness. Their first business
was to declare their doctrinal views. This they did with such clearness
and perspicuity, that almost all who heard them appeared to be con-
vinced that their peculiarities were founded on the word of God, and
none were disposed to controvert. Having declared their peculiar
views, they dropped non-essentials, and commenced preaching Christ
and him crucified. This they did with such power and demonstration
of the Spirit, that many were cut to the heart. At the close of the
sixth sermon preached by them, Mr. Morgan invited all who desired to
obtain an interest in the blood of Christ, to distinguish themselves by
meeting him before the stand, and to our astonishment forty-two went
forward, and at this time more than a hundred have thus distinguished
themselves. God has often revived his work among us here, but we
have never before v/itnessed any thing to compare with the blessed
work which is now in progress among us through the instrumentality
of these missionaries from the West."
John Morgan gives this account of the work:
Messrs. Bryan and Morgan, after visiting and preaching at many
points on the way, reached Washington, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1S31.
At this time there was not a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church in any part of the State of Pennsylvania. The Methodist
brethren received us kindly, to some of whom we had introductory let-
ters from the Rev. C. Cook, a Methodist preacher then stationed in
Wheeling, Virginia. We preached several sermons in the Methodist
Episcopal church in Washington, then under the pastoral care of the
Rev. John Waterman, who received and treated us in a most courteous
and Christian manner. Nothing of special interest occurred at this
time under the preaching at Washington. In a few days a committee
from those persons who had written to Dr. Cossitt asking for missiona-
ries waited on us, and told us an appointment had been published for
one of us to preach on Wednesday, the 20th of July, in the afternoon,
at a small church belonging to the Methodists, called Mount Zion, about
twelve miles from Washington. Mr. Bryan was now quite unwell,
Mr. Morgan accompanied the committee to the place appointed, where
276 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
we found a large and promiscuous crowd of people, all anxious to hear
what these Cumberland Presbyterian preachers would say. The Rev.
Jacob Lindlcy, then pastor of a Presbyterian church in that neighbor-
hood, was present, and after receiving an introduction to "the strange
preacher," was invited to take a seat in the pulpit, which he did very
cordially. During the sermon there was nothing remarkable but a
fixedness of attention on the part of every hearer, and many tears from
many eyes, which bespoke the searching influence of gospel truth.
Mr. Lindley closed the meeting with an unusually feeling and powerful
prayer, the tears streaming from his eyes all the time.
An appointment was then made for preaching the next Sabbath in
a sugar camp in that neighborhood. We had no meeting-houses of
course; and, indeed, if we had had, unless they had been large enough
to cover from a half acre to an acre of ground, they would have been of
but little use to us, so large were the crowds that attended. Sabbath
came, and the people from all directions came pouring into the sugar
camp, a most delightful and beautiful spot, and one now dear to many
hearts from the recollection of what it pleased the Lord to do for them
in that place.
By this time Father Chapman had reached us, who was a most
precious instrument in the hands of God in winning souls to Christ.
Our hearts were cheered by this valuable accession of ministerial help.
Mr. Brvan was still unable to preach, though convalescent, and in a few
days was able to join our feeble band.
The hour for preaching arrived. Mr. Morgan preached, and was
succeeded by Mr. Chapman immediately with another sermon. During
the pi'eaching a deep solemnity pervaded the vast assembly. All was
still and orderly however, only that one lady fell from her seat as if she
had fainted. Dr. B , being on the ground, was called to her, but
was unable to determine the nature of her disease — a strong mark of
the doctor's discriminating medical judgment — for, indeed, it was a case
which demanded the presence and skill of the Physician of souls, to
whom she made fervent application in prayer, and was made every
whit whole.
In the afternoon of that day we preached at a private house (Mr.
Marsh's), where the mighty power of the Holy Ghost was realized by
all present. Christians were melted into penitence and thankfulness,
many of the unconverted were cut to the heart, and some cried out,
"Sirs, what must we do to be saved." It was manifest the Lord had
begun a great and good work among the people. We continued
preaching from house to house and grove to grove every day during
the whole week, and convictions multiplied daily in every direction.
The people in the neighborhood had enjoyed religious instruction
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 277
under Presbj'terian influence during all their lives. No people could be
more opposed to noisy excitements than they were. . . . Their exer-
cises were not the result of education in favor of such things, but of the
mighty power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Many of the ministers and members of the Presbyterian church
had received information that we were coming to this country, and had
taken timely measures to prevent their people from hearing us preach.
But this only increased their anxiety to hear what we had to say, and go
they would. One would be the means of another's going. All who
went seemed to have their prejudices greatly abated, and became more
and more anxious to go again, and to have others go. The very means
intended to hedge up our way only tended to build us up, and taught
us this very important lesson, that gag laws and proscriptive acts will
never answer the purposes of those who enact them among a free peo-
ple. They tend directly to promote the things they are intended to
defeat.
The first Presbyterian minister to open his church to the mis-
sionaries wao the Rev. Mr. Dodd, of ' ' the Brick church. ' ' He had
heard them preach, and he gave them a hearty invitation to hold a
meeting in his congregation. Many members of this church after-
ward joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. Philip and Luther
Axtell, both faithful and beloved ministers of our church in west-
ern Pennsylvania, were sons of one of these members. ' It is said
that when a large part of this flock joined "the heretics," and the
Presbyterian congregation ceased to exist, the remnant preferred
tearing down the house to letting the Cumberland Presbyterians
use it.
The next invitation came from Jacob Lindley, of Ten Mile.
The meeting in Mr. Lindley' s congregation is minutely described
by Mr. Morgan. When "mourners" were called for, seventy-five
responded. Some of the old elders began to oppose the work, but
the pastor encouraged the missionaries. Mr. Morgan says:
In the arrangement for preaching on Monday Mr. Chapman was
appointed to occupy the pulpit at ii o'clock a.m. He preached from
the text, "Strait is the gate and naiTow is the way which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it." Plis manner was naturally agreea-
ble, his person dignified and commanding, his voice clear, strong, and
musical. He seldom preached without leaving a deep sense of religious
' Luther Axtell died March 23, 1SS6.
278 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
awe upon the minds of his hearers, but on this occasion he far sur-
passed himself. He became awfully sublime in his descriptions of the
sinner's danger and of the love of God in Christ to a perishing world.
The house was large, and crowded full of people. Every eye was
fixed on the preacher during the whole discourse; every heart melted;
not one careless person could be seen in all the crowd. The service
closed very happily, leaving a favorable impression on every heart.
After a recess of thirty minutes or more the people came together
again, Mr. Morgan was to preach. After reading a hymn he remarked
that some thought the anxious had been called forward the evening be-
fore under too much excitement; and to prevent this charge being made
again, he was going to invite them forward at the very commencement
of the service, before singing or prayer, and without making any appeal
to their feelings. The seats being prepared, one hundred and two came
forward. A more moving scene has seldom been witnessed. When
their sons and daughters and neighbors of all ages, from the children
of but ten to men and women of seventy years of age, from the most
intelligent and moral down to the most ignoi-ant and profligate, were
seen deliberately coming forward in the public assembly deeply affected
with a sense of their lost condition, even many of those who had found
fault before now melted and said, " It is the Lord, let him do what
seemeth him good." A most powerful and general revival of religion
ensued. Hundreds were hopefully converted to God, and Christians
of different sects were revived and stirred up to take a deep and lively
interest in the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom.
In regard to the formation of the first Cumberland Presbyterian
church in that State Mr. Morgan says:
After having preached some time, and the work having progressed
to a considerable extent, those individuals who had applied for mission
aries to be sent desired the formation of a church. To this the minis-
ters replied, "We do not expect to remain in this country; we wish to
return South." This, however, was strongly objected to, and the
strongest appeals made to induce them to remain. To this they did not
consent until late in tlie fall of 1831.
The first church was organized on the i8th of August, 1831. The
appointment had been previously made for preaching and the organi-
zation of the church Many people came, some from a considerable
distance: some to join the church, and others to see who would join.
The service was held in a beautiful grove on the premises of William
Stockdale, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The minister arose and
read this beautiful text, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 2/9
When he closed his sermon, it seemed that all present had imbibed
the sentiment expressed by the apostle. I do not now remember the
number who associated themselves together at this meeting as a church,
but the number was large, and the promptness and zeal manifested
showed that they were in good earnest, and understood what they were
doing. This little band grew rapidly in numbers, zeal, and usefulness.
The circumstances under which this church was organized were
truly trying. Think of a people publicly adopting the religious views
of a denomination which they had but very recently known, and
against which rumor, with her ten thousand tongues, was scattering
abroad every kind of slander that prejudice and bigotry could invent.
Add to this the fact that there was not another congregation of the
same church within five hundred miles, and it will be plain that it re-
quired strong faith and unshaken confidence in God, and in the power
of his truth, which they believed they were adopting, to enable them
to take the step they did.
Mr. Morgan describes the first camp-meeting held by our mis-
sionaries in Pennsylvania in these words:
Cases of deep awakening had become so numerous, and the subjects
were so remote from each other, that the missionaries thought best to
propose holding a camp-meeting as the best method of getting them
together, and of bringing them more directly and effectually under the
influence of the means of grace. But the idea of a camp-meeting was
shocking to most of the people in that neighborhood. They urged that
it would be impolitic — look too much like the Methodists. Such meet-
ings, in their opinion, were calculated to produce disorder in worship,
and bring religion into disrepute. To this the missionaries replied that
there was nothing peculiar in camp-meetings further than the fact that
the people stay on the ground and do not return home after one service
is over; that there was nothing in this calculated to produce disorder,
that it was this remaining on the ground, secluded from domestic and
worldly cares, worldly company and influences, which give camp-
meetings their chief advantage over other meetings; that more people
could be thus brought together and kejDt on the spot where the means
of grace are brought to bear directly and continuously upon the mind.
They insisted that, under proper regulations, camp-meetings might be
conducted with as good order and as much religious dignity as any
other. After many meetings and much conversation on the subject, it
was decided to hold a camp-meeting. The first Sunday in September,
1831, was the time agreed on. The people went to the ground to make
the necessary preparations. The pulpit was erected of boards, and
made large enough to contain nearly a dozen persons. Before it seats for
28o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
the accommodation of many hundreds were arranged. Tents made of
logs, boards, and canvas were arranged so as to form a hollow square
of about an acre of ground. Two hundred and Hfty families tented on
the ground, one hundred wagons and carriages stood round the encamp-
ment. The services commenced on Thursday evening with a lecture
on the duties of Christians on such occasions. Friday was observed as
a day for fasting and prayer. The services from the beginning were
unusually interesting and solemn. Christians were in the spirit, and
abounded in prayer. The irreligious were attentive, and scores of anx-
ious souls who had been awakened before came here to ask what they
must do to be saved, and to seek an interest in the blood of Christ.
The power of the Lord was present to heal, and there were happy con-
versions at the commencement of the meeting. The concourse grew
larger every day until Sunday, when the number present was estimated
at from five to seven thousand people. We have attended many meet-
ings, but this surpassed any we had seen. Several times when the
anxious were invited forward, two hundred and fifty wei"e counted on
the seats at one time. Not one light, trifling countenance was to be
seen in all the crowd. Convictions for sin were more general, deeper,
and more rational than we had ever before noticed, and conversions
were the clearest, and attended with the most overwhelming joy and
peace. It was common to see persons of age and intelligence, over-
whelmed by a sense of their sins, in the deepest anguish of soul as if
they could not possibly live. From this sad and affecting state they
would seem all of a sudden to awake into light and life and jo}^ the
most ecstatic and indescribable. We can never recur to those blessed
scenes but with the deepest emotions.
Three hundred conversions were reported to the church paper
at the time. Jacob Lindley, who was a Presbyterian, says' that
the missionaries had sitch a hold upon the sympathies of the young
converts that nearly all of them would have joined the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church had the opportunity then and there been
given; and that, in view of this fact, the missionaries proposed the
plan of waiting four weeks, and then having the officers of all the
cooperating congregations meet the converts at Mr. Lindley' s
church for the purpose of receiving members. As a large number
of the converts were members of Mr. Lindley' s Sunday-school,
this measure saved his congregation from heavy loss. In four
weeks all had time to think soberly, and Mr. Lindley received one
'Manuscript autobiography, p. 221, et se,q.
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 28l
hundred of the converts into his church. According to Mr. Lind-
ley this was not the only time that these missionaries might easily
have taken advantage of the tide of popular sympathy and carried
whole congregations into the Cumberland Presb\-terian church.
He mentions four other instances in which the}' refused to take
such advantage, and he testifies most earnestly to their disinter-
ested love of souls, and their freedom from all partisan and secta-
rian motives. He wrote this testimony while he was still a mem-
ber of the Presbj'terian church, and he says that he had no expec-
tations at that time of ever becoming a Cumberland Presbyterian.
The foregoing description of this first Pennsylvania camp-meet-
ing was published by Mr. Morgan in 1840. There is another
account of these events which was written bv ]\Ir. Morgfan, and
published in the church paper the same year in which they
occurred. There is also a manuscript account of this meeting
written by Reuben Burrow. From these sources we learn that the
meeting continued seven days, and that such crowds of people
gathered on Sunday that no one man's voice could reach them all.
Though the services were out of doors, yet two sermons were
preached simultaneously. Donnell preached at the stand where
there were seats, and Morgan under the trees where no seats were
prepared.
Among other interesting incidents Mr. Morgan tells about the
conversion of an old man who just before the beginning of this
camp-meeting became so violent in his opposition to the missiona-
ries, and so enraged because some members of his family had
joined the Cumberland Presbyterians, that in a drunken fit he
attempted to kill his wife. With his gun in his hand he drove
the family away from home, and remained for three days alone in
his house raging and blaspheming. But at the end of this time
he sent for his family to return, and, to their astonishment, they
found him praying. He asked to be taken to the camp-meeting,
which was to begin the next day. He was unable to walk, but
supported by his two sons he appeared on the camp-ground early
in the morning before the services began. He went to the preach-
ers' tent and implored their forgiveness, begging them to pray for
him. He professed conversion that day, and soon afterward joined
283 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii,
*
the church, and continued a consistent and worthy Christian until
his death.
This first camp-meeting was held in the neighborhood of the
church now known as Concord. When this camp-meeting was
just beginning, Burrow and Donnell arrived. Burrow was sick,
but Donnell preached throughout the meeting. There are old
people still living who describe his wonderful discourses, quoting
the very texts and giving many of the main points of the sermons.
Several of these aged members seem to be deeply imbued with the
spirit which reigned in that first camp-meeting. This church is
not on the same spot where the meeting in the grove of sugar trees
was held, but is in the same neighborhood. This first camp-meet-
ing silenced all the objections to such meetings, and another was
soon held in another neighborhood.
This incident is related about Burrow. He and Donnell made
an agreement that if either one felt specially impressed to preach
on some particular subject when the other happened to be the one
appointed to preach, the fact was to be made known, and the one
appointed to preach was to give way. While they were in Penn-
sylvania, Burrow was appointed to preach on a certain day. All
the morning, in prayer and study, he had struggled in vain to get
hold of some text, some old sermon or new sermon which he could
take an interest in, but even,- thing was dark. He could not decide
on any text. In this state of mind he went into the pulpit. The
introductory services were over, and he rose to his feet, but still
utterly in the dark as to what his text or sermon should be. He
opened the Bible and began reading a chapter, his heart cr^-ing
meanwhile to God for some gleam of light. While he was read-
ing, Donnell pulled him by the coat, and said: "Reuben, I think
God wants me to preach to-da}'." Burrow said afterward that if
ever his heart went out to God in thanksgiving it was then; and
that of all the many powerful sermons he had heard Robert Don-
nell preach, that was the most powerful.' All the first Cumber-
land Presbyterian preachers believed that God gave special indica-
tions of his will in such matters, and they were very careful to
obey those indications.
* Conversations with Dr. Burrow.
Chapter XXVIL] PENNSYLVANIA. 283
There were enough of the missionaries to hold meetings simul-
taneously in diflferent places. The Rev. A. M. Bryan was the first
to work in Pittsburg. No church was opened to him ; but he
preached on the streets and elsewhere, and soon won many friends.
In the church paper, The Religions and Literacy Intelligencer^
the missionaries gave regular reports of their work. There were
reported by them for the whole period of their first mission, June
to November, 1831, about eight hundred conversions. These let-
ters state that the only obstacle in the way of forming Cumberland
Presbyterian congregations throughout that field was the impossi-
bility of supplying them with preaching. Two of the missionaries
had made up their minds to make Pennsylvania their permanent
home, and the number of churches was limited by this scanty
prospect for the means of grace. The congregations organized
were one at Washington with fifty members, one twelve miles
from Washington with two hundred members, another in W^ash-
ington county with forty members, and another in the town of
Jefferson with fifty-two members. '
The Rev. Mr. Loughran, who preached the doctrine. of a general
atonement, had ministered to the Presbyterians of Waynesburg.
He afterward became a Cumberland Presbyterian. In November,
1831, Mr. Morgan, just before he returned temporarily to the
South, and after the other missionaries had gone, assisted Bryan
in a meeting in Waynesburg, and. they organized a small church
in that place. It had but twenty-two members.
In the autumn of 1831, Burrow, Donnell, and Chapman returned
to the South. Morgan remained till late in December, and then
he returned. Bryan was now alone, but before December passed
away the Rev. Milton Bird arrived. The reports published by the
missionaries had stirred the whole church. Mr. Bryan had made
up his mind to make Pennsylvania his permanent field of labor,
and although Morgan went South in December, it was only to
make his arrangements for a permanent settlement in Pennsyl-
vania.
All the missionaries jointly addressed a letter to Green River
" This is taken from the official report of their work, made by the missionaries.
The names of the churches are not given in that report.
284 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
Synod, whose jurisdiction extended indefinitely northward, pray-
ing for the organization of a presbytery in Pennsylvania. This
letter was sent to the synod before the missionaries left that State.
It was published October 20, 1831. In the same month Green
River Synod passed the order for the formation of the presbytery.
It was at first called Washington, and included the States of New
York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Its original members were to be
William Harris, Alexander Chapman, A. M, Bryan, and Milton
Bird. Friday before the first Sabbath in May, 1832, was set for its
first meeting. That Chapman and Harris went horseback from
Kentucky to Pennsylvania, simply to constitute this Presbyter}-,
and that they did so at their own expense, was nothing at all
remarkable then. The Rev. S. M. Aston was also at this meeting
with his letter ready to join the presbytery as soon as it was
organized. It was his purpose, also, to make this field his perma-
nent home.
In the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Le Ro}- Woods is
an interesting account of Mr. Morgan's efforts to secure help for
Pennsylvania. Morgan visited the presbyteries pleading for men.
His zeal was a flaming fire. He had long private conferences with
the young preachers on this subject. With arguments, appeals,
and tears he labored to enlist recruits for the Pennsylvania work.
The Rev. S. M. Sparks and the Rev. Le Ro)' Woods finally con-
sented to accompany Mr. Morgan. The Assembly of 1832 com-
missioned all three of these men to go as missionaries to Penn-
sylvania.
We have in Mr. Woods' manuscript another glimpse of the
habits of that time. He bought horse, saddle, and bridle on a
credit, borrowed money for traveling expenses, and, on the 4th day
of Jime, 1832, he and his comrades set out on their long journey.
They reached their destination on the 7th of July. Mr. Woods
was appointed to preach to the Greene County churches, and he
puts on record his grateful acknowledgment of the liberalit}- of this
people — especially those of Carmichaels. His debts back in Ten-
nessee were promptly paid, and all his financial wants fully pro-
vided for. Mr. Woods also puts on record a noble tribute to his
wife's helpfulness to him in all his ministerial life. She was a
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 285
daughter of the Rev. Jacob Lindley. Mr. Woods married her after
he went to Pennsylvania. He gained that, as well as other bene-
fits, by his mission.
The manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Jacob lyindley
shows what were his own relations to this mission. He had been
president of the University of Ohio; but in 1831 was the pastor of
a very large country church in western Pennsylvania. He says
that he had heard the statement often that the ' ' Cumberlands ' ' and
"Schismatics," or "New Lights," were the same body. He had
met with the Schismatics, and had no use for them. When, there-
fore, he learned that missionaries from the Cumberland Presby-
terian church were to hold meetings in his country, and within
reach of the lambs of his flock, he was filled with alarm. That the
missionaries were men of power only increased his apprehensions.
He determined to prepare for battle. First, he took up the records
of his own General Assembly and other works, and studied the his-
tory of the case. This study amazed him. The "Cumberlands"
and "New Lights" had nothing in common. They originated in
different parts of the country, at different times, and had never
affiliated. They were not alike in doctrines, polity, or history.
The Cumberland Presbyterians, he was surprised to find, had a
Confession of Faith. He had been told that they denounced all
human creeds. What still more surprised him was that thev held
that very same system of doctrines which he had avowed to his
presbytery, at the tiine of his ordination, thirty years before, and
which he had been preaching ever since without any charo-e of
heresy being brought against him. Still more, he saw clearly that
the final cause of the separation of the "Cumberlands" from his
church was an unconstitutional usurpation of a presbytery's rights.
He was puzzled.
When he met the missionaries and heard them preach he could
find nothing to condemn in their doctrine or their methods, but
was, on the contrary, fully convinced that they sought only God's
glory, and would never harm a single lamb of his flock, Morgan
especially won him. He took the missionaries to his own house
and joined his session in inviting them to preach in his church.
He gives us a full account of the meeting which they proceeded
286 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
to hold, and mentions some gray-headed infidels who wete brought
under the power of the gospel. After the camp-meeting, in which
Mr. Lindley cooperated, the missionaries held a second series of
meetings in his church, in which there were nearly a hundred con-
verts.
When Mr. Lindley went to the meeting of his presbytery that
fall he took Mr. Morgan with him. The presb)'tery gave him and
Morgan both the "cold shoulder." When ministerial reports were
called for, Mr. Lindley was questioned ver>' closely about his coop-
eration with "excommunicated heretics." When he, in his an-
swers, quoted a passage from the Cumberland Presbyterian Confes-
sion of Faith, the moderator stopped him, saying, "They have no
Confession of Faith, but denounce all such things." Mr. Lindley
produced a copy, greatly to the moderator's confusion. When
attention was called to the action of the Presbyterian General
Assembly of 1825, in which intercourse with Cumberland Presby-
terians was placed on the same footing as intercourse with other
evangelical denominations, the moderator and the members gen-
erally denied that there had ever been any such action. Mr. Lind-
ley then produced the Minutes of that Assembly, and had the words
referring to this subject read. The moderator said he felt it
to be the duty of all good Presbyterians to scout those heretical
fanatics from the face of the earth. The presb}tery then passed
an order directing "the session of Upper Ten IVIile congregation to
close the doors against Cumberland preachers." A committee was
also appointed to visit this congregation with a view to bringing it
to order.
Mr. Lindley says he still had not formed the purpose of joining
the Cumberland Presbyterians, but was in favor of appealing to
higher courts, feeling sure that the General Assembly would set
matters right. The course pursued by the committee which vis-
ited his church, taken in connection with the fact that there were
among his people many anxious inquirers after salvation, finally
led both him and his congregation to go together into the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church. That church is now called Bethel.
The fruit of its Presbyterian training is still seen in Bethel congre-
gation, as also in Concord. They keep a pastor, and pay him.
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 28/
But they show also the true revival spirit which belonged to Mor-
gan and Chapman. Old Presbyterian training, grafted on Cum-
berland Presbyterian zeal, makes the very best church members.
Pennsylvania and Ohio furnish examples of our noblest congrega-
tions. These are, all of them, of Presbyterian antecedents.
Jacob Lindley found in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
his own sphere of usefulness, and he worked among the people
with marked success until the day of his death. The second wife
of the Rev. Robert Donnell was his daughter. Dear ' 'Aunt Clara, ' '
loved by many in all parts of the church, sought by the young
people for her genial company, sought by true Christians for her
holy counsels, sought by ministers for her wide knowledge of
church affairs, has bequeathed a sacredness to the name of Athens,
Alabama, where she lived and died, and has left a pattern from
which Christian womanhood may take many a lesson. Mr. L/ind-
ley's other daughters were all noble Christian women. His son
went to Africa as missionary. Mr. Lindley' s book called, "Infant
Philosophy," is a valuable treatise on the right mode of training
children. It ought to be republished.
The church at Carmichaels, organized August 20, 1832, has
ever been one of the most active of our congregations. Greene
Academy, the first Cumberland Presbyterian church school in
Pennsylvania, was located there. This congregation has from the
first kept its own pastor. It has done much for missions, and is
still liberal in its gifts for this purpose. An exceptionally long
pastorate, for Cumberland Presbyterians, was that of the Rev. I. N.
Carey. He served this congregation for sixteen years.
The missionaries who remained in Pennsylvania soon had
encouraging intimations of accessions to their force, and they
went on organizing churches all through the western part of the
State. Uniontown was one of these pioneer congregations. It
was a sort of mother of churches. It still flourishes. The dust
of John Morgan sleeps there. A college, once under the control
of our people but never owned by them, was located there. Many
of our good men have served that church as pastor.
Rev. J. T. A. Henderson' relates the following incident which
' Henderson's MS. autobiography.
288 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
occurred while he was serving as pastor here: He frequently visited
in the home of an infidel whose family attended the church. This
man would leave the house whenever he saw the preacher coming,
but finally his poor health made it necessary for him to stay in the
room during these visits. The preacher came and went several
times without saying any thing to him on religious subjects, but at
last ventured to ask him his views. The reply was that there was
no truth in Christianity. The Bible, he said, was full of contra-
dictions. Tom Paine had proved that abundantly. Mr. Hender-
son asked him to point out some of these contradictions. He re-
plied that he would hunt them up and show them at the preacher's
next visit. The next visit came and the contradictions had not
yet been found. The man was confident, however, that he would
find them by the time the preacher came again. At the next visit
the preacher asked him if he had yet found them. He said he had
not, but he had found out that the Bible was a searcher of men's
hearts and lives. It had shown him that he was a miserable, lost
sinner. He was sure now that the book was from God. In a
short time this man became an earnest Christian.
This account is given of the origin of Hopewell congregation,
Fayette County. The Methodists had a church named Hopewell,
and they invited the missionaries to preach there. Bryan and
Bird sent an appointment, and great multitudes attended. The
pastor of a neighboring Presbyterian congregation was present, but
refused to be introduced to the missionaries. Several sermons
were preached, and very pressing invitations were given the mis-
sionaries to make another visit. In about six weeks two of them
came back, and their preaching was so popular that the Presby-
terian elders felt constrained, by public opinion, to invite them
to preach in their church. When the hour came for this ser\'ice
in the Presbyterian church the pastor took a back seat and still
refused to be introduced to the visiting preachers. After some
moments of painful suspense, Aaron Baird, uncle of A. J. Baird,
whispered to one of the missionaries, ' ' you had as well be killed
for an old sheep as a lamb. Knock all the hard points of Calvin-
ism to pieces to-day." Then Mr. Ebenezer Finley, one of the
elders, took Mr. Bryan by the arm and led him to the pulpit, and
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 289
placing a silver dollar in the preacher's hand said, "We want you
to preach your own doctrine to-day and not feel the least restraint
about it. ' ' An old man, describing that sermon many years after-
ward, said that although he had been reared a "Seceder" of the
straitest pattern, he was fully convinced before Bryan closed that
discourse, that Christ died for ever}' man. In a short time the mis-
sionaries were urged by the new converts to organize a church in
that neighborhood. This was done; and, in honor of the liber-
ality of the Methodist Hopewell, the new Cumberland Presby-
terian church was named Hopewell also.
The Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, who served as pastor of the
Hopewell church for many years, states in his manuscript auto-
biography that his relations with this congregation were ever
pleasant, and all his salary was promptly paid. He names, also,
some men in this and the Salem congregation who, he says, were
the purest men and the best Christians he ever knew. This he
writes after a sojourn on earth of over eighty years.
While the revival in which the Hopewell church had its origin
was in progress, the missionaries were invited to hold meetings in
the neighboring town of Brownsville. Bryan and Bird accepted
the invitation, and spent two days there. Bird preached in the
forenoon of the first day in the Methodist Episcopal church; Bryan
preached in the evening. Crowds of people left their work to
attend the services. A large number of penitents crowded the
altar. The next day the services were held in the Episcopal
church. During these two days many of the leading people of
the town professed faith in Christ. No effort, however, was made
to organize a congregation. The Cumberland Presbyterian church
at this place was not organized until more than twelve years after-
ward, September, 1844.
In his missionary work, the Rev. A. M. Bryan ^ visited Mead-
ville, Pennsylvania, to hold meetings. Not only were the churches
and other public buildings closed against him, but the Presby-
terian minister and some others canvassed the town from house
to house to persuade the people not to give the *' heretic" a hear-
ing. They denied that Bryan had any right to preach or hold
'The church paper, February 12, 1833
19
290 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
services. Not at all moved by such opposition, he held his
meetings, partly on the streets, and partly in a private house.
There were a great multitude of conversions, and Bryan organized
a church with ninety-three members. Unfortunately, however
there was no preacher to place in charge of such a flock.
The Pittsburg church was organized by the missionaries in
1833, John Morgan officiating. The Rev. A. M. Bryan spent the
best part of his life as pastor of this church. His ashes sleep
there. From time to time Mr. Bryan reported in the church
papers interesting revivals in his congregation. At one of these
there were two hundred converts. If it be true that the poet is
born, not made, it is equally true that A. M. Bryan was born a
preacher and not made one. It is wonderful how any man, with
no broad scholarship, could have had the pure style, the clear
thoughts, the fme resources which Dr. Br}'an always had in the
pulpit.
An anecdote, which still lingers about the home of Bryan's
boyhood, is pertinent in this connection. When, as a candidate
for the ministry, he was called on for his first trial discourse, he
stated that he had no sermon, that he could not write one. That
was in the days of authority, and the brows of the grave fathers
portended a storm. It was expected that the boy would be treated
as the sailors treated Jonah. Before the fatal vote was taken, his
mother, who sat looking on with alarm, said to one of the
preachers, "I tell you the boy can preach if he can't write. Ap-
point a time and hear him try." It is said that the appointment
was made, and the boy preached with such earnestness and fervor
as to make all the reverend ecclesiastics weep. So he was retained
on the roll of candidates. From that day to the day of his death
A. M. Br>'an never lost his power to move the hearts of all his
hearers, old or ^S'oung, lay or clerical. The Pittsburg church was
his life's best work.
When the Pennsylvania Presbyter}^ met in October, 1833, it
had twelve ordained ministers, three licensed preachers, and seven
candidates. It had seventeen congregations and two thousand
eight hundred members. Every preacher belonging to the presby-
tery was then "living of the gospel." The records of no other
Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYI.VANIA. 29I
presbytery in the church furnish an instance like this. In the
minutes of some of the presbyteries the record might be truthfully
made that none of their preachers have ever lived of the gospel.
On the 17th day of October, 1841, in the thirty-sixth year
of his age, and the fourteenth of his ministry-, the Rev. John
Morgan passed through the golden gates to his Father's house.
Of his work in Pennsylvania, Dr. Bird says "he traveled through
the country like a flame of fire. ' ' Aged Christians who were con-
verted under Mr. Morgan's first preaching in Alabama, still live
and hold his memory in a reverence as sacred even as that felt for
him in Pennsylvania. To the young churches in Pennsylvania
the death of Morgan seemed an irreparable loss, but the great
Father still led them on. Other good preachers were raised up,
but among them all there was no other John Morgan. It was in
1840 that Mr. Morgan began the publication of The Utiion and
Evangelist^ at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It was a valuable little
semi-monthly paper, but before he had been long in that work he
received his summons from the King. After his death the Rev.
Milton Bird took charge of the paper.
At the close of this period Cumberland Presbyterians had two
presbyteries in this State. This was the growth in ten years. The
Union Presbytery was organized at Uniontown, Pennsylvania,
April 14, 1837, the Rev. John Morgan being the first moderator.
The Pennsylvania Synod, which was at first made up of Pennsyl-
vania, Union, and Athens presbyteries, was organized at Union-
town, October 11, 1838. Allegheny Presbytery was not formed
until 1847. In mission work and in sustaining regular pastorates
these Pennsylvania churches rank among the first in the denom-
ination. They had to work throughout this first decade like
Nehemiah's builders on the wall, sword in one hand and building
implements in the other. Those who assailed them were, how-
ever, the losers by this policy. Various slanderous misrepresen-
tations of the doctrines and practices of Cumberland Presbyterians
were published in Pittsburg during this period. That they were
slanderous was triumphantly proved then, and there is no need of
reviving the old bitterness.
293 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ORIGIN OF OUR CHURCH IN OHIO.
"And a little picture shall meet the eye,
That dear hands painted in years gone by."
—6". G. Prout.
THE same agents of the church "college who were the first
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in Pennsylvania also
traveled through portions of Ohio in 1829 ^^^ ^^3^ holding meet-
ings and soliciting help for the college. We have no history of
their work except the general fact that their meetings often resulted
in many conversions. It is known, also, that they did not, during
this tour, attempt to organize any Cumberland Presb}-terian church.
The first Presbyterian church at Athens, Ohio, was organized
by the Rev. Jacob Lindley. The college over which Air. Lindley
long presided was also at that town. His interest for this commu-
nity was so great that he entreated Mr. Morgan to visit Athens
while on his way South in 1831, promising to accompany him
thither. To this Morgan agreed. They both met a warm welcome
from the Presbyterian church at Athens, and also from its pastor,
the Rev. Mr. Spaulding. Mr. Lindley speaks in strong terms of
Mr. Spaulding' s liberality.' Mr. Morgan tarried nine days, and
preached eighteen sermons. Although it was winter, and bitter
cold, the house was crowded, and there were forty-three profes-
sions.^ Here again, as Mr. Lindley testifies, Morgan resisted the
young converts who wanted to be organized into a Cumberland
Presbyterian church.
Before Mr. Morgan's departure, pastor and people united in im-
portuning him to come by Athens when he returned to Pennsyl-
vania in the spring. He gave his promise, and kept it, too; but
on his arrival he found a very great change. Mr. Spaulding called
' Lindley's MS. autobiography, from which this whole account is taken.
■Fifteen of these afterward entered the ministry.
Chapter XXVIII.] OhIO. 293
on him and told him with deep mortification and sincere regret
that his session had become alarmed at the outcry for a Cumber-
land Presbyterian church, and had resolved to close their doors
against Morgan. A leading layman in the Presbyterian church
then informed Mr. Morgan that the members of his church had
secured the court-house for him to preach in. It was evident that
a movement was on foot among these members to secede and join
the Cumberland Presbyterians. Mr. Morgan at once declined to
preach for them. He was then invited to preach in the Methodist
church, which he did, and nearly all of the Presbyterians attended.
At the close of his sermon that Sabbath, he was requested to
attend a temperance meeting ten miles from Athens. To this
request he acceded. The Rev. Mr. Hibbard, a Presbyterian, whose
church was six miles distant from Athens, also obtained a promise
from Mr. Morgan that he would attend his sacramental meeting,
which was to be held the next Sabbath. Morgan left Athens
Monday and held his temperance meeting in a grove. An im-
mense concourse of people was gathered. A new distillery owned
by two brothers was situated right at the place where this meeting
was held. The lecture, though on temperance, w^as all of it in-
tensely religious. The vast crowd was in tears, and Morgan, at
the close of the lecture, called mourners. Many came. He ap-
pointed preaching for the next day on the same spot. Before he
closed the meeting one of the owners of the distillery and the
wives of both of them were converted. The distillery was forever
closed. O the power of God's Spirit is the true source of victory
against rum and all other works of Satan. Instead of the distillery
there arose a house of worship in a community where there had
never been one before.
At the meetings in Mr. Hibbard' s church the usual blessing of
Heaven followed Mr. Morgan's preaching. About seventy souls
professed to be saved. Mr. Morgan had some difficulty in convinc-
ing the young converts that no Cumberland Presbyterian church
could be organized for them. After he went on to Pennsylvania a
large number of people who had attended the two meetings just
described, wrote to him to come back and hold a camp-meeting.
This he did, Mr. Lindley and his daughter accompanying him.
294 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
This camp-meeting was held in Alexander township, six miles
from Athens. It was here that the first Cumberland Presbyterian
church in Ohio was organized. At this camp-meeting the Rev.
Mr. McAboy, of the Presbyterian church, saw his two sons con-
verted. They both entered the ministry afterward, and their father
from that camp-meeting till the day of his death, without chang-
ing his ecclesiastical relations or having any charges preferred
against him, not only adopted Cumberland Presbyterian measures,
but preached Cumberland Presbyterian doctrines. His ministry
was far more fruitful after he made these changes." This first
Ohio camp-meeting was prolific in its results. There were over a
hundred conversions, and calls for Morgan's and Lindley's sen- ices
poured in upon them from all the adjacent counties. Mr. Lind-
ley relates several touching incidents of this camp-meeting. A
certain militia captain, who was also dissipated, conspired with a
number of rough men to break up the meeting. They entered
into a regular organization for this purpose, and elected this militia
officer as captain of their band. At the hour for services these
men gathered under the trees near the place of worship. ]\Ir. ]\Ior-
gan, before he began his sermon, invited penitents to come for-
ward. Many Christian people rose to their feet and went out
through the congregation trying to persuade their relatives to go
to the mourner's bench. While this was going on, the brother-in-
law of "the captain" came to Mr. Lindley and requested him to
go to that promoter of mischief Mr. Lindley went, accompanied
by the brother-in-law. On seeing those Christians approach him,
the captain straightened himself up with a defiant look. Mr.
Lindley says that at that moment his own soul was overwhelmed
with sympathy and an awful sense of this poor sinner's perilous
state. So great were his emotions that utterance failed him, and
for some time he could do nothing but weep. At length, finding
the use of his tongue, he struggled with all his soul to warn the
poor captain of his danger. Finally the hardened sinner burst
into tears, fell upon Mr. Lindley's neck, and asked that his wife
should be brought. When she arrived she also burst into tears,
and soon both husband and wife agreed to go to the mourner's
'Lindley's MS.
Chapter XXVIII.] OHIO. 295
bench. As Mr. Lindley led them up to the place of prayer several
of the gang of desperadoes followed. The captain had a hard
struggle, but he and his wife both found peace in Jesus before the
meetings closed.
Another case deserves mention. An aged infidel attended the
meeting, sitting afar off and watching. Finally his favorite son
was converted, and with a face beaming with the light of heaven,
started to find his father. When the old man saw his boy
approaching, and looked into his illumined face and heard his
tender, loving appeals, he was utterly broken down, and, falling to
the earth, began crying aloud for mercy. Nor were his cries in
vain. After some delay, and after a beloved minister had patiently
instructed him in the way of salvation, he sprang up from the
ground where he was lying and told to all around what a glorious
light had dawned upon his soul.
There was in this neighborhood a skeptic of unusual bitterness
toward Christianity. He had an interesting daughter who was
very anxious to attend the camp-meeting, but he would not permit
her to do so. Mr. Lindley's daughter, Louisa, who had accompa-
nied her father to this community, where she was well acquainted,
visited this skeptic with a view to gaining permission for his daugh-
ter to attend the camp-meeting. After many failures she finally
won a conditional consent. The condition was that Louisa would
solemnly promise him that his daughter should not go to the
mourner's bench. The promise was made, and the young lady
attended. Under Morgan's preaching she became overwhelmingly
convicted, and when the call for mourners was made she wanted to
go. Louisa went to Mr. Morgan for counsel. He told her to keep
her promise, and to take the young lady off to some private place
and pray with her there. This was done, and in a few moments
the poor girl was rejoicing in the hope of glory, and ever afterward
lived a consistent Christian.
When a church was organized, at the close of this meeting,
a congregation of Presbyterians in the neighborhood, who were
without a pastor, formally seceded from the Presbyterians, and pro-
posed to unite with this new congregation. Mr. Lindley received
them, and became their temporary pastor, arranging with Mr. Mor-
396 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
gau to take care of Teu Mile until some permanent arrangement
could be made for the Ohio flock. This was in the fall of 1832.
The next spring Mr. Lindley returned to his Pennsylvania church.
The Pennsylvania Presbytery supplied the Ohio congregations with
itinerant preaching. These itinerants were changed frequently.
The records show that nearly all the members of that presbytery
were at one time or another appointed to this Ohio work.
Mr. Lindley had been pastor of the Presbyterian church at Bev-
erly, Ohio, before he took charge of the college at Athens. On
his journey to his home in Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1833,
he stopped at Beverly, and held a meeting. Great interest was
manifested in his preaching, and fifty persons professed conver-
sion. The Presbyterian church at Beverly, which Mr. Lindley had
organized long before, was at this time without a pastor, and its
members passed a formal act, by unanimous vote, withdrawing
from the Presb}terian church, and unanimously resolved to join
the Cumberland Presbyterians, and call Mr. Lindle}' for their pas-
tor. He accepted the call, and, after a brief visit to Pennsylvania,
returned to Beverly, where he spent four years in charge of his
old flock, preaching, as his elders put on record, the very same
doctrines which he had preached thirty years before.
Mr. Lindley said he found a state of moral death in all the coun-
try surrounding Beverly. The people had little or no preaching,
save in Marietta, the county town. Country pulpits were all va-
cant, and Sabbath-schools had been abandoned. He therefore
arranged with the Beverly church to be allowed to spend one
fourth of his time as missionar}' to the surrounding country. With-
in a circle of thirty miles he established a round of appointments
for preaching. He tried to do pastoral work in all this vast dis-
trict, asw^ell as to preach regularly. He passed none by, calling at
great houses and small. He says his sole aim was the salvation
of these destitute souls. He took no written sermons. He went
forth with his Bible and with a loving heart. He says he looks
for sheaves from many a humble home which he visited in this
strange field.
In these missionary tours Mr. Lindley visited Senecaville, thirty
miles from Beverly. There was a Presbyterian church there, but for
Chapter XXVIIL] OhIO. 297
a long time it had been without preaching. Mr. Lindley held an
eight days' meeting, and had a great revival. The interest stirred
the whole country for fifteen miles around. There were great
numbers of conversions. The Lancaster Presbytery (Presbyte-
rian), of which Mr. Lindley had been one of the original mem-
bers, took the alarm. Mr. Lindley sa}-s all the members of this
presbytery had the same false views about the identity of the Cum-
berland Presbyterians and the New Lights which he himself had
before he investigated the matter. Lancaster Presbytery sent a
man to Senecaville to warn the people against the heretics. But
he did not investigate the subject before commencing the battle.
His attacks were against a man of straw. The good people of Sen-
ecaville were much better informed about the Cumberland Presby-
terians than he was, and they were disgusted at his ignorance and
offended at his injustice. The members of that congregation felt
themselves outraged by the severe censures poured out upon them.
They met together and formally seceded from the Presbyterian
church, and declared themselves Cumberland Presbyterians. This
was in the summer of 1835. Mr. Lindley agreed to give one fourth
of his time to this church until better provisions could be made.
His first meeting under this new arrangement was to begin on
a Friday. It happened that the circus was to be there that day.
The gaudy show bills covered walls and fences. The show arrived
on time. The great tent was stretched, the brass bands played,
flags waved, and mottled harlequins danced on spotted animals as
the procession nsoved around town. But the door-keeper vv^ho
stood at the entrance of the tent took in not even one single ticket.
Mr. Lindley had the crowd. After a little delay the circus tent
was taken down, and managers and harlequins went on their way
in great disgust, cursing Cumberland Presbyterians.
An elder of the Presbyterian church, near the village of Cum-
berland, attended the great revival at Senecaville. He earnestly
pressed Mr. Lindley to hold a meeting in his town. This elder
said the church at Cumberland was in a state of spiritual torpor.
The house of worship was out of town, built there before the town
existed. Mr. Lindley sent an appointment for a meeting in the
town. A large unfinished dwelling-house, whose partitions were
298 ' Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
not yet erected, was used for this meeting. God revived his work.
Many souls were converted; but the Presbyterian pastor stood aloof
and opposed. Mr. Ivindley visited him, and tried to win him, but
failed to elicit the slightest expression of concern for the salvation
of the unconverted; though the pastor did try to be polite, and
played the violin beautifully for the entertainment of his visitor.
Other engagements calling IMr. Lindley away, he sent the Rev.
Isaac Shook to Cumberland, in 1835, and the latter organized a'
church of our people in that town.
One of the towns in which the Rev. M. H. Bone (one of the
college agents) preached was Lebanon, Ohio. He had a very
interesting meeting there. The people begged him to remain and
organize a church. This he could not then, do. In 1835 he was
earnestly importuned by letters from the Lebanon people to
return. They had seen and learned still more of the ways and
doctrines of the Cumberland Presb}'terians, and were anxious to be
identified with them. Mr. Bone, therefore, made another visit to
that town. A congregation was organized, and he consented to re-
main one year as their pastor. The same year he appointed a camp-
meeting, and wrote for Hugh B. Hill and T. C. Anderson to assist
him.^ They both lived in Tennessee, but they responded promptly
to Mr. Bone's appeal. Owing to failure in boat and stage connec-
tions they arrived too late for the camp-meeting.
Mr. Bone started a movement for building a meeting-house at
Lebanon, but for some reason he gave up his charge and re-
turned to the South. Before doing so, however, he obtained
the consent of the Rev. Felix G. Black to take charge of the little
church. Black was a pastor in the true sense, and did good ser^-ice
in this congregation. From eleven original members the church
in three years grew to one hundred and thirt}'-eight. This growth
was all under systematic and steady pastoral work. Mr. Black, in
1838, published a good report from that congregation, showing its
progress in all the departments of its work. It contributed s\-stem-
atically to all the benevolent enterprises of the church. It paid its
pastor's salary in full, and was spiritually alive and active.
The old church bell at Lebanon has a curious histon,'. When
' Manuscript autobiography of T. C. Anderson.
Chapter XXVIII.] - OhIO. 299
Spain confiscated tlie property of the convents this bell was sent to
New York and sold at auction. It brought two hundred dollars.
It was cast in 1636 for a convent. It was the first church bell ever
rung in Lebanon, but it now calls not nuns but Cumberland
Presbyterians together. It has a Spanish inscription upon it call-
ing on the Virgin to ' ' pray for us. "
In 1833 there were supplies appointed by the Pennsylvania
Presbytery for two Ohio churches — Waterford and Athens. In
1834 supplies were appointed for four Ohio congregations — Athens,
Alexander, Waterford, and McConnellsburg. The Rev. James
Smith and the Rev. Joseph A. Copp, made a preaching tour
through that State in the winter of 1833-4. Smith says the
Presbyterian pulpits were everywhere closed against them. In 1835
a grand forward movement was made by Cumberland Presbyterians
in Ohio. The Rev. Isaac Shook spent that year in this field. T.
C. Anderson and Hugh B. Hill were also there, as was S. M.
Aston. Three or four of the ministers of Pennsylvania Presby-
tery were also working part of their time in this field. Aston held
a good meeting at Jacobsville, and organized a church there.
The Covington congregation has an interesting histoiy. When
the Rev. F. G. Black succeeded Mr. Bone as pastor at Lebanon he
found on the church-book the name of Benjamin Leavell. There
was no such man living in Lebanon. On inquiry he learned that
this was Judge Leavell, who lived fifty miles away. Owing to his
dissatisfaction with the hard points of Calvinism he had with-
drawn from the Presbyterian church and joined the Lebanon con-
gregation, there being no other Cumberland Presbyterian church
nearer his home. On receiving this information, Mr. Black
mounted his horse and started on a pastoral visit fifty miles. He
had to swim one canal before reaching his parishioner. The Judge
told Mr. Black that before he heard of the Cumberland Presby-
terians he had made out a system of theology^ for himself On a
business trip to Cincinnati he stopped to spend the Sabbath at
Lebanon. Bone and others were holding a meeting there. He
went to hear them. To his surprise and delight they preached his
system of doctrine, a medium system between Calvinism and
Arminianism. He therefore joined the new church. Then the
300 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
Judge told his pastor about a town called " Rowdy," noted for its
drunkenness and other vices, and induced him to visit the place
and hold a meeting. The first services were in a little school-
house. Other visits followed, and finally in 1838, Mr. Black
organized a congregation. "Rowdy" is now Covington. The
church there to-day numbers four hundred and nineteen members.
It contributed to church enterprises last year (1885) ten thousand
dollars. It keeps a regular pastor. Two faithful ministers have
grown up among its members, the Rev. W. H. Black, of St. Louis,
and the Rev. J. A. Billingsley. It has just built an elegant house
of worship, and it maintains a high standing for liberality and
efficiency in church work.
The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Ohio has never been
strong in numbers. There are at this time (1886) only three pres-
byteries in the State; one with eight ordained ministers and no
candidates, another with five ordained ministers and one candidate,
and a third with four ministers and no candidate. Preaching on a
call to the ministry, and praying the great Head of the church to
call their oiun sons to this holy work, are clearly the urgent duties
of our Ohio ministry and people. A home supply of preachers and
provisions for their education, would certainly improve the pros-
pect of the church in that State. In this field, as well as several
others, we have this strange phenomenon: IMuch larger donations
have been made by some of our own members to the colleges of
other churches than have ever been made to our own institutions.
Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 3OI
CHAPTER XXIX.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS.
" There is no wind but soweth seeds
Of a more true and holj Hfe,
Which bursts, unlocked for, into high-souled deeds,
With wayside beauties rife."
AN account of the great revival at Bowling Green, Kentucky,
deserves a place at the beginning of this chapter of miscel-
laneous sketches. There was no Cumberland Presbyterian church
at Bowling Green in 1833, and the presbytery refused to organize
one, even when pressed to do so, because no preacher could be
spared from the itinerant work and located there; and it was under-
stood that a church in a large town could not be sustained by itin-
erant preaching. Some of the preachers were willing, however, to -
hold a meeting there for the sake of souls; but it was announced
beforehand that they would attempt no organization. Chapman,
Lowry, Harris, and Lewis began meetings in the First Baptist
church. Lowry did most of the preaching. By Monday the
whole town was so stirred that shops, business houses, and law
offices were spontaneously closed for each service. There were
three services a day. At these meetings some strange results, sim-
ilar to those which so startled the people of Logan County, Ken-
tucky, in 1799, manifested themselves. Men of strong frames
fell to the ground and lay motionless for hours. One man was
carried out and his friends sent for a physician. Mr. Lowry, how-
ever, told them that he had seen many such cases and never knew
any dangerous consequences to result. After a long delay the man
rose with rapturous exclamations of joy and trust. An infidel
attended this meeting and was seized with deep convictions. He
went to the mourner's bench and offered up this prayer: "If there
be any such person as the Lord Jesus Christ, I want him to have
mercy on me, and save me." He at last found the Savior.
302 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
These meetings continued seventeen days, and their influence
swept over all the town and the surrounding country. All the
Bowling Green churches received many valuable members. Mr.
lyowry was urged to organize a Cumberland Presbyterian church,
but as he steadfastly adhered to his refusal many who would have
entered into such an organization went into other churches. The
now venerable Judge Burnum, of Bowling Green, was one of the
converts at this meeting. The father of the Rev. J. M. Halsell
was also among the converts.
The Rev. J. B. McCallan, of Illinois, relates the following
incident: In 1833 he was living in Calloway County, Kentucky.
No religious services were held in all his neighborhood. He and
his wife were both unconverted. A camp-meeting was to be held
ten miles away. He and his wife both attended, walking all the
way, and both were converted. On their return home they set up
the family altar. Then Mr. McCallan began holding prayer-meet-
ings in the neighborhood. A revival soon followed with numerous
conversions. Then circuit riders were induced to make resfular
appointments for preaching in that neighborhood. In a short
time the character of the whole community was changed. C. E.
Hay was the first circuit rider who preached there, and he
organized a congregation and ordained Mr. McCallan as one of
its elders.
A fair sample of the best Cumberland Presbyterian churches
tinder the old supply system was the Concord congregation. West
Tennessee. The boundaries of this congregation extended from
Trenton, Tennessee, to the Mississippi River — sixty miles. The
Rev. S. Y. Thomas was its preacher. His financial necessities
once caused him to change his field, but the Concord people loved
him, and they wrote to him proposing to give him a deed to four
hundred acres of good land if he would come back and stay with
them, and preach regularly one Sabbath in each month. He
accepted the oflfer. Including his work before this arrangement
was made, he serv^ed this church thirty-nine years, farming and
preaching. A number of ministers have grown up in this congre-
gation, among them several members of the Thomas family. Its
camp-meetings were great occasions, and people attended from all
Chapter XXIX. ] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 303
parts of West Tenuessee. Converts of these camp-meetings are
found in all parts of the church.
The Oak Grove congregation, Sumner County, Tennessee,
organized 1836, which had Hugh B. Hill for its regular pastor,
long kept up its annual camp-meetings. At one of these one hun-
dred and seventy-five conversions were reported, and at another
three hundred. At the camp-meeting held in 1840, Robert Don-
nell and several other ministers from a distance were assisting. Of
course the pastor did not expect to preach. Mr. Hill's father-in-
law, then quite old, was not a Christian, and several members of
his very large family were also unconverted. After the meetings
had continued several days, Mrs. Hill saw her husband come into
the tent "pale as a sheet," and evidently in some deep soul-strug-
gle. She went to him and asked what it was that troubled him;
but he begged her to leave him alone, and fell upon the bed groan-
ing. Mrs. Hill inquired of others, and learned that her father and
another very old gentleman, both unconverted, had sent a special
request for Mr. Hill to preach at the next service. Mr. Hill re-
mained lying on his face till the hour for service, and then went to
the pulpit. The two old men who had made the request sat in
front near the pulpit. The realities of the eternal world were face
to face with the preacher. Something more than that was with
him. God's irresistible Spirit breathed through his lips and quiv-
ered in his words. Hill always had a holy power in the pulpit,
but this sermon, it is said, surpassed all his other efforts. The two
old men, both past their threescore and ten, were brought into the
joyous liberty of the sons of God. So, too, were many others."
Hill devoted the whole of his life to the ministry, and owing to
the meagerness of his salary and misfortunes brought on by the
war, he died in comparative poverty. Loving friends erected a
monument over his grave, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The
Middle Tennessee Synod, while in session at Murfreesboro soon
after his death, held a memorial service at his grave. Hill's life
was the text for an address on consecration in the ministry by
Dr. A. J. Baird. The Rev. M. H. Bone, the life-long associate of
Hill, said in the obituary notice which he published: "I never
* Facts furnished by Mr. Hill's daughter.
304 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
knew Hill to utter a sentence which I wished unsaid, or to do a
deed which I wished undone."
In the autobiography of the Rev. Isaac Shook is recorded a
notice of the "stars falling" in 1833, which is worth quoting.
Shook was holding meetings in Huntsville, Alabama, and there
was considerable interest in the services. One morning at early-
dawn he was awakened by sounds of shouting and pra)-er over all
the town. He rose and dressed himself, and on going out discov-
ered the whole horizon ablaze with what seemed to be stars falling.
Advent teachers had been through the country- proclaiming the
speedy end of the world, and this looked very much like the
accomplishment of their proclamation. All over town negroes
and white people, too, were either praying or shouting. It was
five o'clock in the morning. Presently the church bell began to
ring, and soon the house was filled with people. When Shook
entered he found nearly a hundred unconverted men and women
on their knees, pouring out earnest prayers to God for pardon
and salvation. It is a curious fact that there were no conversions
among all that number of frightened mourners. The meeting,
however, continued many days with good results, not from the
fright, but from the blessed gospel of the Son of God.
The 28th of October, 1834, a meeting of the Cumberland Pres-
byterians of Washington County, Arkansas, was held in the Cane
Hill meeting-house for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to
establish a school. This was two years before Arkansas became a
State of the Union, and six years before Cumberland University at
Lebanon, Tennessee, was born. The Rev. Samuel King, then
traveling as evangelist at large, was called to the chair, and pre-
sided over the meeting. A board of trust was chosen, and the
Rev. B. H. Pierson, D.D., was elected president, and Ezra Wilson,
clerk. This school was opened April, 1835, and was probably kept
up in some form until seventeen years afterward, when Cane Hill
College was chartered. Cane Hill was only about ten miles from
the Indian country. The tracks of the red man were scarcely gone
from the spot. The three men who organized the first presbytery
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church were all living, and one
of them presided over this meeting. This school in the wilder-
Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 305
ness, some say, was the first institution of learning ever established
on Arkansas soil. Its prime object was to educate young men pre-
paring for the work of the ministry.
Dr. Pierson, both the Buchanans, and the Pylants were all
active movers in inaugurating this pioneer educational enterprise.
Of John Buchanan's education it has been said: "He was like a
grindstone; if not very sharp himself, he was specially useful in
sharpening others." The fruit of his work in aiding young
preachers to secure an education will endure forever. John Buch-
anan's name everywhere in Arkansas calls forth exclamations of
praise and affection. He spent many years as Bible agent. The
salary offered him was more than he was willing to accept. He
had it reduced two hundred dollars per annum, and out of the
remainder he regularly gave a tenth to the Lord's cause. He
devoted all his days to the Lord's work. Once he stopped at a
blacksmith shop and had his horse shod. When he asked, ' ' What
is the bill?" the answer was, "Pray for me." "Uncle John" re-
plied: "I am in the habit of paying as I go, so we will kneel down
here now and have the prayer." There in the way-side shop the
two men knelt, and a soul-stirring prayer went up to God for the
blacksmith. Buchanan rode the circuit ten years without pay.
He worked as colporteur one year for one hundred dollars and his
traveling expenses. He was Bible agent five }'ears on a salary of
five hundred dollars per annum. He collected money for the soci-
ety equal to six times his salary.
In 1834 President T. C. Anderson and the Rev. J. M. McMur-
ray were traveling in Missouri. They put up at a private house
on the way-side — strangers in a strange land. At table the land-
lady kept gazing at Anderson. After a while she heard Mr.
McMurray call his name. Immediately she asked, "Are you any
kin to the Rev. Alexander Anderson ? " 'When she was told that her
guest was his son, she sprang to her feet, seized Mr. Anderson's
hand, and related the touching story of her conversion under the
ministry of his father. The travelers yielded to a pressing in-
vitation to remain and preach in the neighborhood. President
Anderson says, they had great difiSculty in getting away from
this dear lady. She clung to the son of her spiritual father
20
3o6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iii.
with a touching tenderness, and begged him to remain in that
field and be their preacher.
Some of the people's favorites in the political horizon of Mis-
souri, in 1831, had been fighting duels. Resolutions were brought
before the Missouri Synod, not only condemning duelling, but
earnestly advising all members of the church to vote for no man
who ever gave or accepted a challenge. This was bringing
matters to close quarters. Andrew Jackson and Thomas H.
Benton would be proscribed by that action. Fieiy Democrats
in the synod declared that these resolutions were introduced for
political purposes. The debate was very warm, but the reso-
lutions passed. The minority appealed to the General Assembly,
but their appeal was not sustained. A hard case. Loyalty to
party or loyalty to the church courts was the question to be
decided. Perhaps General Jackson did not lose many votes by
the decision.
When Jackson was elected President of the United States, one
of his old soldiers, the Rev. J. M. Berry, then of Illinois, was heard
to say, " The 8th day of Januar\^ made Andrew Jackson President
and me a preacher." He said he had long felt it to be his
duty to preach the gospel, but had rebelled. During the fiercest
portion of the battle, on the day of Jackson's great victor}',
Mr. Berry found himself in a very exposed position. The
prospects were very poor for escaping all the deadly missiles.
In view of almost certain -death, his rebellion against the duty
of preaching came up before him as a ver}' solemn matter. It
seemed a fearful thing to go into the presence of the Judge from
a life of disobedience ! With these thoughts he there vowed
to God that if he should be spared he would rebel no longer.
He kept his vow, and was an ordained preacher when Jackson
was elected President. He then made the remark here quoted,
adding, "I would not swap places with him to-day."
In that beautiful valley which lies south of the great bend
in Tennessee River, there lived, far back in the days of slaver}-,
a wealthy doctor. He and his wife were both infidels; and what was
worse, they had propagated their views far and near, especially among
the young people. In their large parlor had been held many a
Chapter XXIX.] MISCEI.I.ANEOUS SKETCHES. 307
dancing party, wliere ridiculing the Bible and Christianity was
one of the chief sources of amusement. By and by the doctor was
taken very ill, and saw that his illness was unto death. Summon-
ing a servant he sent him in haste after the Rev. W. D. Chadick,
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. When Chadick arrived
the wife of the sick man met him at the gate and said to him,
" Mr. Chadick, if I had known in time I would have prevented
the messenger from going and so saved you a useless ride. I
am not going to allow you to see my husband." The preacher
mounted his horse, and returned to his home. The sick doctor,
finding himself thwarted in his ejSforts to secure Chadick, de-
termined on another scheme. He owned a negro, who was a
preacher. This old man was called ' ' Uncle Dick. ' ' The doctor
sent for Dick, and told him that he wanted to be taught the
way of salvation. Dick replied "O Lord a mercy, massa, I can't
help you. If de Lord hisself don't help you, you 're gone." The
doctor then asked Dick to kneel and pray for him. With fast
streaming eyes the old negro knelt and poured out a most
earnest prayer for divine help. The prayer continued long, and
contained in it the simple lesson of trust in the Redeemer alone
for salvation. The doctor grasped the blessed truth, and when
Dick rose to his feet, the sick man was clinging to Christ,
the one hope for lost souls. He died and was buried, and after
the funeral the infidel widow returned to her home. Alone
and desolate she walked through her large rooms and elegant
parlor.5, absorbed in earnest thought. She was an educated woman,
and in her sorrow she felt the truth of what Christians had
always told her about the emptiness of worldly pleasure. If
they were right about that might they not be right about a
future state ? She could not believe that her husband was only
dust and ashes. Then she sent for old Uncle Dick, and after
hours of earnest prayer she became a rejoicing convert. She
joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. As she had been a prop-
agandist of unbelief, she now resolved to devote her life to the
work of leading souls to Christ. Accompanied by Uncle Dick,
who drove her carriage, and assisted by his prayers, she often
went from house to house laboring for souls. The good fruits
3o8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in.
of her Christian influence and efforts are still found in that
valley. Old Uncle Dick went to his reward long ago, but she,
though now quite old, still gives her strength to the service of
her King.
In 1825 the Rev. R. D. King was "riding the circuit" in
Tennessee, when a man described to him a wonderful praj-er
which he had overheard a woman offer up to God. The woman
was living in a new settlement where infidelity abounded, and
her husband and sons were coming under its influence. The
neighborhood had no regular preaching of any sort, and this
Christian woman had tried in vain to secure some one to preach
the gospel to her family. In her prayer, which was by accident
overheard, she opened up her heart's deep troubles to the Lord,
laying before him the whole dreadful condition of the com-
munity in which she lived. She told the Lord how infidelity
was making its way into her own family, and, finally, in all
her helplessness, she laid the case down at the Master's feet.
On further inquir}^, King learned that this woman lived only
eighteen miles from his usual route, and he determined to send
an appointment for preaching at her house. This he did; but
he happened, in the meantime, to meet with a Methodist min-
ister who warned him not to visit that neighborhood because
personal violence had been threatened against any preacher who
might venture to preach there. When the day arrived the people
at whose house King had spent the night, tried hard to dissuade
him from going. King yielded, put his horse back in the
stable, and sat down to try to study. But he could not study.
He had an appointment to preach and was playing coward.
Never had that been the case before. Again he brouglit out
his horse, and this time no persuasion could stop him. When
he reached the place, though it was not Sabbath, the whole yard
was thronged with people. Three rooms were packed full. King
preached ; and began singing, "Hark, my soul, it is the Lord."
As yet there was no violence, no interruption; but some frowns
and scowding faces were seen, and King was not yet free from
apprehension. When he was singing the second verse, a beauti-
ful woman cried out, ' ' Glory to God. " " That, ' ' says King, ' ' was
Chapter XXIX.] MISCEI.I.ANEOUS SKETCHES. 309
one of tlie sweetest interruptions ever a preacher suffered." Rising
to lier feet, this woman made her way toward a man who had
been looking defiance all through the sermon. When the happy
woman drew near him, stretching out both her arms toward
him she exclaimed, in thrilling accents, "O father." The
man fell prostrate. He was the husband of the woman who
prayed that wonderful prayer, and he proved to be the key-stone
of the arch, and all the arch came tumbling down. This was
one of the day's of the Son of man. They had services again
that night. Next day when King started on his way sixteen
of the young people were at the gate, mounted and ready to go
with him to his next place of preaching ; and every one of these
sixteen professed conversion that day. The woman who had
prayed the wonderful prayer also went along with King to that
next day's meeting.
The results were so different from all his apprehensions that
Mr. King was puzzled to understand the case. Inquiring into
the matter, he learned that after the woman had prayed so ear-
nestly she began the regular practice of gathering all her children
into her private room, every Sabbath, and there reading a por-
tion of Scripture and trying to expound it, after which she knelt
with them in prayer. A change came over these children, especially
in their Sabbath habits. Their comrades, who visited the family,
noticed the change, and asked the cause of it. Learning about
the Sabbath lessons in that private room, they obtained per-
mission to attend. The little private room was crowded at
every recitation, and there, under the teaching and prayers of
that humble woman, God was sapping the foundations of infidelitv,
and preparing the way for his gospel. When King next passed
that way on his circuit, he again preached at this good woman's
house, and then organized the Lasting Hope congregation, Maury
County, Tennessee. The name was appropriate to the long cling-
ing, and finally gratified, hope of that mother. At that second
service this mother saw her husband and children become mem-
bers of the church. This account is taken from King's m.anu-
script autobiography.
FOURTH PERIOD.
CHAPTER XXX.
A GENERAL SURVEY.
Already, laboring with a mighty fate,
She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brovr.
And seems to have renewed her charter's date.
Which Heaven will to the death of Time allow.
— Dryde/i.
T tlie beginning of this period of eighteen years there were
twelve Cumberland Presbyterian synods and fifty-three
presbyteries ; at its close there were twenty-seven synods and
ninty-seven presbyteries. The average increase was not quite
one synod each year ; and considerably over two presbyteries a
year, not quite three. When this period began the church had
just emerged from great internal trials ; at its close the whole
country was just plunging into the fiery external ordeal which
the civil war was bringing on. It was well that the church
had this breathing spell of eighteen years between these two
ordeals.
True, the bitter strifes of the third period projected their
waning shadows into this fourth period. The Rev. James Smith
remained a member of the church several years after his resig-
nation of the office of stated clerk, and after the beginning of
this period. He refused to hand over the Minutes of the General
Assembly to his successor, but, after many calls and some threats
of legal process, the Assembly finally got possession of its own
records. The Minutes of three meetings of the General S>-nod,
1821, 1823,' ^"^ 1S26, however were lacking, also the Minutes
» I have found the Records for 1823, since I began to write this History.
Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 31I
of the General Assembly for 1838. The Assembly called on all
the ministers of the church to help find the lost records. The
Minutes for 1838 were partially recovered through the newspaper
reports. The others remain lost.
The opening sermon of the General Assembly of 1843 was
preached by Milton Bird. The text was Acts vi. 4. Two great
evils had been crushing the very life out of the church: A secu-
larized ministry and a secularized General Assembly — that is,
an Assembly embarrassed by financial enterprises, all of which had
proved disastrous. Various writers had been pointing out the
evils arising from this secularization of preachers and church
courts ; but the most forcible and effective of all these protests
was this opening sermon by Milton Bird. He argued first
against a secularized clergy. He showed what was the voice of
both history and Scripture on the subject, and dwelt with power
on the high and holy nature of the minister's calling. He
showed next that the mission of the church courts was like the
mission of the ministr}', exclusively spiritual ; that both the Old
and New Testament Scriptures laid down rigid laws excluding
these courts from the management of secular affairs. Other and
wholly separate organizations were required by Scripture for the
transaction of financial business. Boards of experts could manage
these things far better than any General Assembl}-, while the spirit-
ual oversight of the churches far exceeded in importance all secular
business, and was work enough to fill the hands of any Assembly.
From that day onward Milton Bird's high rank among the min-
isters of the church was recognized. The Assembly passed resolu-
tions declaring itself forever divorced from all management of
financial affairs, whether connected v/ith newspapers, colleges, the
publication of books, or aught else.
Inasmuch as there were still found in the Assembly of 1843
men who kept alive the strife about the colleges and the papers,
those who were for peace determined to have no Assembly in 1844.
Their views prevailed, and the Assembly adjourned, requiring the
next Assembly to meet in 1845, ^^ Lebanon, Tennessee.
The General Assembly of 1845 ^^^ a most interesting convoca-
tion. The great speech of that occasion was made outside of
312 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
Assembly hours by the Rev. A. M. Bryan, D.D., of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania. His theme was the great fire which had lately
swept through Pittsburg. At the close of that speech Judge R.
L. Caruthers gave Dr. Bryan a thousand dollars for the sufferers.
Dr. Beard's address on education was also deeply impressive.
The missionary work of the church had almost entirely passed
into the hands of presbyterial and synodical boards of missions.
The lyadies' General Board at Russellville, Kentucky, had ceased to
exist, and the church at that place had declined much in numbers
and influence. The Assembly of 1845 proceeded to organize a
Board of Domestic and Foreign Missions, and located it at Leb-
anon, Tennessee. For a few years it carried on its foreign work as
an auxiliary to the American Board. The Rev. Thomas Calhoun
was its first president. After his death the Rev. F. R. Cossitt was
president.
A curious complication arose in connection with the church's
mission work. The presbyterial and synodical boards had ex-
tended their operations far beyond their own boundaries. Some
of them were slow to yield their independent work and become
auxiliary to the general board. The men in charge of the general
board had a hard struggle to get all this machinery adjusted; but
through a wise and prudent administration of the board's affairs,
harmony was secured.
The board at first had no paid officers. The whole receipts
would not have paid one salary. When at last, in 1851, the Rev.
Isaac Shook was employed as secretary, the receipts were only a
little more than the salary. In 1853, after this secretary had held
his office for two years, the entire receipts were $2,953. ^^ was a
curious view of this responsible work which allowed the only paid
officer of the board to live on his farm fifty miles away from Leb-
anon. This state of things, however, was not permitted to con-
tinue long. Mr. Shook moved to Lebanon in 1852, and put forth
all his strength in the work. In 1853, by the direction of the
board, and with the approval of the General Assembly, he began
the publication of a monthly missionary magazine. Shook was a
holy, earnest man. His heart was in his work. He stirred up
new interest for the Indians, and made some progress in enlisting
Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 313
the whole church in the great work of missions. He was all his
life an invalid.
After Mr. Shook' s resignation, in 1854, there was an interval
without a secretary. Then the Rev. T. P. Calhoun was elected.
He was a young man just out of college, a son of Thomas Cal-
houn so often mentioned in the preceding chapters of this history,
and a son-in-law of the Rev. David Lowry. In the collection of
missionary funds he relied largely on traveling agents, but the
results of this whole system were unsatisfactory. In 1857 Mr. Cal-
houn resigned, and there v/as considerable difficulty in securing
another secretary.
The Rev. T. C. Blake was secured for this position in Decem-
ber, 1857, and to him the church is indebted for the first success-
ful attempt to dispense with traveling agents in the work of collect-
ing money for missions. When he announced that the preachers
throughout the church would be solely relied on to do the work
hitherto done by agents, many were the prophesies of disaster. But
the secretary adhered strictly to his programme. In two years,
without paid agents, the receipts of the board were increased from
five thousand dollars to fourteen thousand dollars. Notes on hand
were regularly reported by Mr. Blake, but these were notes taken
under former secretaries. The cash receipts were fourteen thou-
sand dollars. The receipts by States for i860 were, in round num-
bers, as follows: Tennessee, $5,235; Alabama, $2,251;, Arkansas,
$1,595; Mississippi, $1,460; Kentucky, $1,135; Indiana, $925; Mis-
souri, $562; Texas, $302; Kansas, $181; I^ouisiana, $106; Illinois,
$90; Iowa, $75; Pennsylvania, $53; Ohio, $48. There were small
contributions from several other States.
For several years each synod made its own arrangements about
having the Confession of Faith and Catechism published. The
propriety of having some general and central committee of publi-
cation had often been discussed, and at the Assembly of 1845 such
a committee was appointed. The scheme contemplated proved
impracticable. The members of the committee lived in different
States at great distances from each other. A joint stock company
was to be formed, and all the presbyteries were asked to become
Stockholders in the enterprise. Thus the mania for joint stock
314 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
companies which prevailed during the preceding period had not
wholly disappeared. Speculation in Western lands, in gold mines,
in insurance companies, in various other schemes, have all been
tried by our boards, and have all left the marks of God's displeas-
ure upon the past records of the church. Giving money for God's
cause is an act of worship and a means of grace, and all schemes to
supplant God's established method are theoretically false and prac-
tically disastrous. Under a new disguise the Assembly of 1845
fettered itself again with the halter from which the Assembly of
1843 had freed itself. Financial speculation was to be embarked
in, not this time by the Assembly itself, but by the presbyteries.
The Committee on Publication at the next two meetings of the
Assembly reported nothing accomplished.
In 1847 t^i^ programme was changed. The General Assembly
appointed a publishing committee whose members lived near
Ivouisville, Kentucky. This committee was instructed to secure a
charter, and to appoint financial agents to solicit donations, to
keep clear of debt, and to make no sales on a credit. Like little
boats, they were to keep near shore. The Rev. Milton Bird was
at the head of this enterprise. It was on a sound basis, though its
lack of capital was a great embarrassment. For several years it
issued Confessions of Faith and hymn books, and seemed to be
doing well. This board sent out traveling agents, and thus
secured means to begin its business. Its books were published
under contract, by the house of Morton & Griswold, which was
then the best publishing house south of the Ohio River.
The administration of the board's financial affairs frequently
changed hands, and there grew up at last general dissatisfaction
with the management. In 1857 the General Assembly declared
the report of the board both vague and unsatisfactory, and called
for a final settlement of its affairs. The next year (1858) the board
made no report, but A. F. Cox, financial agent, attended the Assem-
bly, and answered the inquiries made by the committee appointed
to investigate the case. The result of this investigation was that
the Assembly appointed a new committee of publication, to be
located at Nashville, Tennessee, and ordered the Louisville board
to transfer all its assets to this Nashville committee. The Rev. W.
Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 315
M. Reed was cliainnan of this committee. The Rev. W. S. Lang-
don was the first financial agent, and he began his services soon
after the committee was organized, but resigned after a few
months.
The Nashville committee obtained fcom the Louisville board a
lot of badly damaged books, the manuscript for a hymn book, a
number of old notes, and a few stereotype plates. Along with
these it received another inheritance, the debts of the Louisville
board. The books and old notes, however, paid off these debts,
and furnished besides about nine hundred dollars capital. The
committee then secured a regular charter. After the confusion
attending the removal of the effects of the board from Louisville,
the stereotype plates of "Infant Philosophy," " Ewing's Lectures,"
"Donnell's Thoughts," and "Porter's Foreknowledge and De-
crees," were found to be missing. The Louisville board in 1853
had reported all these plates except the last as assets, mentioning
the recent purchase of the copyright of "Infant Philosophy."
When the plates were missed, a man was sent from Nashville to
search for them. He succeeded in tracing them from Louisville to
Philadelphia, but failed to find them. They will probably never be
recovered.
In the second year after the removal to Nashville this board
secured the Rev. Isaac Shook as its general financial agent. The
last year of this period it reported books and plates on hand
amounting in value to thirty-seven hundred dollars. Ten thou-
sand copies of the Hymn Book had been sold. The board owed
one debt of one hundred and sixty dollars. The report to the
General Assembly declared that no church could carry on its pub-
lication work on any other plan than strict conformity to sound
business principles.
Cumberland Presbyterians have a curious hymn book history.
Several small collections of camp-meeting In-mns were published
by individuals, but the church for a long time had no recognized
book of its own. On the pulpits could be found the hymn books
of Methodists, Baptists, and other churches. At a Sunday sen^ice
in a church where a Methodist book was used a minister who had
but lately preached a series of sermons on the final perseverance of
3i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
the saints hurriedly selected a h}'mn. Beginning without noticing
the import of the words, he read:
" With shame of soul I do confess,
A real saint may fall from grace."
In 1845 a manuscript hymn book was adopted by the General
Assembly, and afterward published by the Board of Publication.
In 1858 this book was revised by a committee aj^pointed by the
Assembly, and then stereotyped under direction of the board at
Nashville. This was that board's first work of this kind.
The Assembly of 1855 organized the Board of Education at
Nashville, Tennessee. The Rev. M. H. Bone was its president,
and the Rev. J. C. Provine, D. D. , secretary and treasurer. This
board's receipts averaged about one thousand dollars a year in cash,
v/hile the notes it annually took ranged from six hundred to five
thousand dollars. It was interrupted by the war, but is still at
work. The aid it has given annuall}^ to 5'Oung men preparing for
the ministry does not, however, equal the tenth part of what is
done by the church, because many individuals and even some soci-
eties prefer to report only to the Lord what they give for this pur-
pose. It is very important that the receipts of this board should
be greatly increased.
The Board of Church Erection, organized by the Assembly of
1856, was located at St. Louis, IMissouri, with the Rev. J. B. Logan
at its head. This board was instructed to secure donations, and to
loan, not give, the money to weak churches for building purposes.
At no time did its receipts amount to three hundred dollars per
annum. One year it received only seven dollars; another year it
reported no receipts at all. Let it not be supposed, however, that
our people turned a deaf ear to all calls for help in building
churches. At Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, at Austin,
Texas, Burlington, Iowa, and Murfreesboro and Jackson, Tennes-
see, and at other places, comfortable houses were erected vrith
money given by distant congregations. It is not known wh}- these
handsome donations to church erection were not given through the
board or reported to it.
From an early day the highest judicature of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church kept renewing its declarations of readiness for
Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 317
friendly correspondence with other evangelical churches. The
General Assembly appointed a standing Committee on Fraternal
Correspondence. In 1845 several articles from members of the
New School Presbyterian church appeared in the papers, advocat-
ing closer union with Cumberland Presbyterians. One New School
synod passed -some resolutions calling for such union. The New
School General Assembly of 1846 passed the following paper:
Whereas, there is a spirit abroad that seeks to unite in closer
bonds the different divisions of the Christian cliurch; and whereas,
there prevails extensively In some parts of our country an impression
that a union between the Presbyterian church and the Cumberland
Presbyterian church would be very desirable; and whereas, the General
Assembly of that body did, at its session in May last, at Lebanon, Ten-
nessee, appoint a committee of correspondence on the subject of union;
therefore,
Resolved, That this Assembly now appoint a committee to corre-
spond with the aforesaid committee on the subject, to obtain all neces-
sary information, and to present it to this Assembly at its next stated
meeting.
Although this action was not known to the Cumberland Pres-
byterian Assembly of 1846, yet there had been so much written by
members of the New School church about union with our people,
and so many friendly signals had been held out by synods and
presbyteries, that this Assembly felt itself authorized to take some
steps toward responding to these friendly expressions. It there-
fore appointed Dr. Richard Beard a corresponding delegate to the
next New School Assembly. In 1847 o^^r Assembly met at Leb-
anon, Ohio, wdiile theirs met in Cincinnati. Their committee
came to Lebanon, and there held a conference with our standing
committee while the two Assemblies were in session. These two
committees entered into an agreement not only for correspondence,
but much more. The items of their agreement were in these
words:
Resolved, Provided both Assemblies shall agree thereto, that the fol-
lowing plan of correspondence be adopted, viz.: The General Assem-
bly of each of these churches shall receive and appoint two delegates
to each stated meeting of the General Assembly of the other church,
who shall possess all the powers and privileges of other members of
3i8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
such Assemblies, with the exception of the right of voting. 2. It is
hereby recommended that the synods and presbyteries of these churches
which are contiguous, or which occupy the same territory, appoint and
receive delegates to one another in like manner, and that they endeavor
to cultivate a spirit of friendly correspondence and extended toleration,
mutually to increase in courteous and fraternal feelings toward each
other. 3. Vacant churches belonging to each denomination may at
their own discretion, and under regulations to be provided by the pres-
byteries to which they belong, employ the ministers connected with the
other body as temporary supplies for their pulpits, without a change in
the ecclesiastical relations of such ministers or churches.
The Rev. Milton Bird, chairman of our standing committee,
submitted this report to our Assembly immediately. The first item
was unanimously agreed to. The second and third items were
indefinitely postponed. The New School committee hastened to
Cincinnati and submitted their report. There was considerable
debate. The large slave-holding element in the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church constituted the only objection. One prominent
doctor said in his speech ' that the Presbyterian church owed the
Cumberland Presbyterians an acknowledgement for the wrong
which drove them into a separate organization. The chairman of
the committee said that he had found no difference between the
two churches in doctrine. Finally the whole matter was deferred
till the next General Assembly.
Dr. Beard, as corresponding delegate to the Cincinnati Assem-
bly, found himself in an awkward attitude. He was present and
heard this discussion on the question of receiving corresponding
delegates from the Cumberland Presbyterians. He declined to
press his case on the attention of the Assembly, but after spending
one day as a private spectator only, he returned to his home. He
felt mortified and humiliated, and said he would never again allow
himself to be placed in so embarrassing an attitude.
The New School Assembly of 1848, to which this report of the
Committee on Fraternal Intercourse was referred, adopted the first
item of this report, and appointed a delegate to the next Cumber-
land Presbyterian Assembly. Action on the second and third
items was forestalled by what our Assembly had done the year
^The Texas Presbyterian, July 17, 1847, quotes these speeches at some length.
Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 319
before. In spite of ecclesiastical marriages, fraternal correspond-
ence lias been kept up in some form between the two churches
ever since. In 1850 the Rev. Edward McMillan, D.D., delegate
from the New School church, closed his address to the Cumberland
Presbyterian Assembly with these words:
The literary institutions of your church, with the divine blessing,
will prove a most effective instrumentality for promoting that enlarge-
ment of mind and vigor of thought which, when united with evangel-
ical piety, form such important quaHfications for doing good on a large
scale. We congratulate you most heartily in your success in securing
tiie endowment of your university, and the encouraging prospects be-
fore you of establishing schools for your sons of the prophets. May
Christ conduct your efforts in this undertaking to a prosperous termina-
tion. I would not fail to assure you that we rejoice much in the decid-
edly evangeUcal character of your religious periodicals.
Finally, brethren, I testify that I have with much happiness wit-
nessed the excellent spirit with which you have conducted the business
of your present sessions, and the tender regard continually shown by
all your speakers for the feelings of their brethren. I shall long cherish
the fondest recollections of this beginning of fraternal correspondence
between these kindred branches of the church of Christ. May it be
long continued, and, as it continues, may our mutual love, attachment,
and co-operation in every good work be increased till the Master comes
and finds us so doing.
It was not till i860 that the Old School Assembly took steps
toward an exchange of corresponding delegates with our Assembly.
While Cumberland Presbyterians naturally waited for Presbyterians
to move first in this matter, 3^et they hailed this movement with
great joy.
At different times official efforts have been made to secure a
complete history' of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The
Assembly of 1847 appointed Dr. Cossitt to write such a histor}^
This, like other similar appointments, came to nothing.
Two general fast-days were appointed in this period: one to
pray for peace with England, in 1846, the Oregon difficulties being
then portentous of war; and the other, in 1853, to pray that more
preachers might be called and sent into the ministry. All through
this period the Assembly kept up its efforts to secure full statistics,
and a complete ministerial directory, but at no time were there full
320 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
reports from more than half tlie presbyteries. Not until after the
war did all opposition to counting cease to show itself.
In 1855, while the General Assembly was in session at Lebanon,
Tennessee, it received a letter from the Rev. Robert Donnell, writ-
ten from his death-bed. It was a tender, fatherly letter, full of love
and full of hope for the future of his church. He urged the impor-
tance of securing a full history of our church. He remonstrated
against revising the Confession of Faith. He said of the Confes-
sion: "Though it is not perfect in phraseology, yet it has system
and perfection enough to make us all think alike." The General
Assembly apjDointed a committee to respond to this letter, and thus
closed forever the church's earthly intercourse with one of the
noblest of all its servants.
Memorials proposing to change the name of our church to
American Presbyterian were voted down in 1850. Discussions
about baptism were brought before the Assembly of 1857, and the
traditional position of the church was steadfastly maintained.
In i860 there were fifteen chartered Cumberland Presbyterian
colleges, and thirteen academies and seminaries. ]\Iany other mat-
ters of vital importance which occupied the attention of the vari-
ous Assemblies, having special chapters devoted to them, need not
be now discussed. In 1855 the day of meeting for the General
Assembly was changed to the third Thursday of ]\Iay instead of the
third Tuesday. In 1850 Milton Bird was elected stated clerk, C. G.
McPherson having resigned. The synods that were formed in this
period, or whose organization was ordered by the General Assem-
bly, were: East Tennessee, 1843; Texas (recognized as existing),
McAdow, Kentucky, Hernando, 1845; Cumberland (dissolved in
1852), 1848; Brazos, 1849; Ozark, Ouchita (incorrectly spelled
Washita), 1852; Ohio, 1853; Colorado, 1854; Iowa (failed to organ-
ize), 1855; Mississippi, 2d (name changed to Iowa afterward), 1856;
White River, Central Illinois, 1859; Sacramento, i860. The pres-
byteries named in the following list are mentioned for the first time
in the Minutes of the Assembly at the dates here indicated:' Mad-
ison, Trinity, Yazoo, 1846; Allegheny, Springfield (Missouri), 1847;
' Several of these presbyteries were doubtless organized at earlier dates than
those here assigned.
Chapter XXX.] GENERAI. SURVEY. 321
Hodge/ Charlotte, Independence, 1848; Frazier, Oucliita, Marshall,
1849; Chillicothe, Ewing (Missouri), Harris, 1850; Ewing^ (Arkan-
sas), Union (Mississippi), Bartholomew, Brazos, Foster, and Cali-
fornia, 1852; Oregon, Muskingum, 1853; Guadalupe, Little River,
1854; Tehuacana, Pacific, McMinnville, Waxahachie, West Iowa,
1855; Searcy, Kansas, White Rock, Greenville, 1856; Monroe, 1857;
Frazier (reported dissolved), 1858; Mount Olive, Red Oak, Georgia,
Davis, West Prairie, Decatur, Bacon, White Oak, Colesburg, Cen-
tral Iowa, 1859; Kirksville, Sacramento, i860.
'Name changed to Springfield (1849).
'The other Ewing Presbytery (McAdow Synod) was dissolved in 1852.
21
322 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
CHAPTER XXXI.
MISSIONS— 1S43 TO 1S60.
But through the clouds and through the flame
And flowing floods as on I went,
A voice of hope and cheering came,
Fear not to go where God hath sent.
— Ufham.
IN all the territories wliicli were opened to settlement during
this period, as well as in all the new States mentioned in
former chapters, Cumberland Presbyterian missions were planted,
some under the general board, but a larger number under the care
of presbyteries and synods. Church judicatures had long arms
when it came to missionary work. A presbytery in Tennessee had
a missionary in Texas. Most of this work by synods and presby-
teries will have to be passed over in silence. However precious it
may have been, it is only traceable now in the fruit which still
abides. The special chapters devoted to the new States will bring
to our notice some of these fruits, as well as some account of the
general board's work in those States.
One feature of the home missionary work of this period was
city missions. There were a great many of these, some under the
general board and some under local boards. In Tennessee, missions
were established at Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, and
Jackson. These have all become self-sustaining churches, with
good buildings finished and paid for.
In Kentucky the city missions of the period were Louisville
and Paducah. At Louisville a good house was built and paid for,
and a little congregation organized; but the house was lost during
the war by processes which it is not now worth while to discuss.
This mission has been revived, and now has a new house almost
completed. Paducah became for a time self-sustaining.
In Missouri the city missions were at St. Joseph and St. Louis.
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 3^3
There were two at the latter city, one for the Germans and one
for the Americans. These missions, especially the one for Amer-
icans, passed through many struggles and reverses, and will claim
attention in another chapter of this history.
In Indiana our only city mission was at Evansville. It grew
steadily, and is now one of the strongest congregations in the
church.
In Illinois our people had missions at Peoria and Alton. At
Peoria a church was built, but the mission failed to be sustained,
and Cumberland Presbyterians have no congregation there. At
Alton, after a long struggle, a self-sustaining church was estab-
lished.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, our people attempted a mission, and suc-
ceeded in building a house. The Rev. F, G. Black, the mission-
ary, spent one thousand dollars of his own money while struggling
to establish this enterprise, but it was at last abandoned.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there was a Cumberland Presby-
terian mission. A good house was built and paid for. Over a
hundred members were gathered into the congregation, but on
account of its isolated condition the little church was peculiarly
tried every year. As our people had no churches on that side of
the Alleghenies, this congregation had no tributaries. Every
member that moved out of its bounds to some distant part of the
city was lost, and those who rented houses near the church could
always find in the neighborhood a church of the same denomina-
tion to which they had before belonged. There was thus a con-
stant drain on the membership. This forlorn outpost was finally
abandoned.
In Texas there were missions at Austin, Jefferson, and San An-
tonio. The first two were in due time self-sustaining; the last,
after being long abandoned, has in recent years been revived.
During this period there were successful missions at Little
Rock, Arkansas; Corinth, Mississippi; Waukon, Iowa; and Shelby-
ville, Tennessee. All these are now self-sustaining churches. To
the mission at Burlington, Iowa, the church paid more money than
to any other city mission except St. Louis. In spite of this large
outlay the work there was an entire failure.
324 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
There were missions in various smaller towns, which can not
be enumerated here. City missions were a prominent feature of the
work of the church in this period. During former periods towns
and cities had generally, from the necessities of the case, been
shunned. In spite of losses and failures the city mission work
during this period yielded permanent results of good, far outvaluing
the labor or the cost.
In 1834,' under what he considered divine leadings, the Rev.
David Lowry undertook a mission to the Winnebago Indians. He
had no church appointment, but he had pledges from the Indian
agent that the usual aid from the United States government would
be given him if he established a school among the Winnebagoes.
Mr. Ivowry first made his home at Prairie du Chien. On his arrival
the Indians were celebrating a funeral Avith drunken orgies. Naked
savages were lying prostrate on the ground and some of them howl-
ing like wolves. Their annuity had just been paid them, and this
enabled them to buy whisky. The missionary says he felt very
much like he had imdertaken to evangelize a herd of wild animals.
The agent was absent. The promised school -buildings were not
ready. It was a dark day. Mr. Lowry had his family with him,
and they were filled with dismay.
The inhabitants of the town of Prairie du Chien were mostly
French Catholics, but Mr. Lowry says they were but little better
than the Winnebagoes. At first the Indians would not allow their
children to attend Mr. Lowrj^'s school. His first session was with-
out a single pupil. But with unshaken courage and unyielding
devotion the missionar>^ persevered. In 1837, after three }-ears of
apparently fruitless struggle, the obstacles began to' yield. That
vear the school had forty-two pupils. Mr. Lowry' s preaching also
bore good fruit. Doubtless many converts of this mission greeted
him when he passed from earth to dwell by the side of the river of
life.
In 1844 Mr. Lowrv- lost his appointment. He and others attrib-
uted this loss to the intrigues of Catholic priests. In 1846 his
appointment was restored and he immediately returned to his mis-
' The arrangements for the school were made in 1832, and a Cumberland Pres-
byterian elder, General Street, appointed agent.
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 335
sion. An official report of the Indian sub-agent, J. E. Fletcher,
after sketching the condition of the tribe, their crops, etc., speaks
thus of the school :
The Winnebago school is in successful operation under the superin-
tendence of the Rev. David Lowry. I have frequently visited the school
and inspected the boarding and clothing departments. I find that the
children in attendance are well supplied with wholesome food, and are
suitably clothed. Neatness, order, and cheerfulness are apparent
throughout the establishment. Mr. Lowry's management of the school
is, I think, judicious. Patience and kindness are substituted for passion
and severity. The general system of education adopted in the school is
similar to the system ordinarily adopted in primary schools. The capac-
ity of the scholars to learn is similar to that evinced by white children
of the same age. The progress of the scholars attending the school is
not equal to the progress usually made by white children. This differ-
ence on the part of the Indian is accounted for by his irregularity of
attendance and the influences to which he is subject when not at school.
Believing that a practical knowledge of agriculture, and the for-
mation of industrious habits is to the Indian youth of at least equal
importance to the acquirement of literary knowledge, I recommended to
the principal of the school that the boys of suitable age should be em-
ployed in manual labor a part of every day. The plan met his approba-
tion, and was acted upon, and it is understood that manual labor, both in
the field and in the shop, will be a part of the system of instruction in
the school. There are at present three female and two male teachers
employed. If it was considered probable that the Winnebagoes would
long occupy their present home, I should deem it my duty respectfully
to suggest to the department the expediency of establishing branches
of this school or the establishment of additional schools at a point on the
Iowa River, and also on the Red Cedar. Three bands of the Winne-
bagoes have concentrated on the east fork of the Red Cedar and built
the best village in the nation, and have upward of one hundred children
of a suitable age to attend school.
Mr. Lowry, in his official report to the United States Indian
agent, dated Winnebago school, August 15, 1846, says :
I entered on the duties of superintendent of the Winnebago school
on the first day of May last. Eighty-five children were found registered
on the daily list ; but as usual at all Indian schools, the whole number
were not in constant attendance. Twenty new scholars have been
added in the course of the summer, making one hundred and five now
connected with the institution.
326 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
This report goes on to state that some of the pupils had acquired
"a respectable knowledge of figures, geography, etc.," and were
learning to write. There were a few more girls than boys in
attendance. The girls were taught to sew, and with the assistance
of the lady in charge made all the clothes worn at the school,
while the boys were "called out at regular periods to labor on the
farm." Mr. Lowry stated that the condition of the Indians was
greatly improved through the influence of the school. They owned
more property, their physical sufferings were much diminished,
there was a growing disposition to cultivate the soil, they employed
horses to draw plows and wagons. The missionary adds : ' ' They
would live in houses, but have been discouraged by the govern-
ment, owing to their unsettled state, ' ' He goes on to show that
the great obstacle to the progress of the tribes was the want of a
permanent home. This state of uncertainty prevented the erection
of additional buildings needed by the school. The pupils returning
to their houseless and homeless people, found their education of but
little service. Mr. Lowry spoke of "whisky and intercourse with
the whites" as " the stereotyped curse of the red man," and insisted
that a people could not be raised from a savage to a civilized and
happy state without religion. He suggested ' ' the propriety of send-
ing off, with the consent of their parents, a few of the most prom-
ising children of the school, to complete their education in some
religious community. ' ' He also suggested the purchase of a print-
ing-press for the use of the school.
In May, 1848, Mr. Lowry published in the Cumberland Presby-
terian a brief history of this mission, showing the evils of the
liquor traffic among the Indians and the wrongs they suffered from
the vices and greed of the whites. He says : ' ' Sixteen years ago
a government school was established among these Indians, under
the care of a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. Buildings were
erected on the west side of the Mississippi, in the interior of the
country, teachers were employed, land plowed and fenced for
them, and other advantages held out to induce them to settle in the
vicinity. In 1837 they ceded all their country east of the Missis-
sippi to the government, and in 1840, according to the stipulations
of the treaty made at that time, new buildings were erected and
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 327
the school and agency removed fifty miles farther into the interior,
that the Indians might be farther away from whisky and the con-
taminating vices of the frontier. It was not long, however, before
the intervening forests and prairies began to be filled with rapidly
growing settlements of whites. Whisky traders soon came with
their red-stained barrels to engage in their murderous trafiic."
With whisky came drunkenness among the Indians — quarrels,
fights and depredations. The people of Iowa soon began to
clamor for the removal of the Indians from their boundaries. The
government sent a commissioner, and the Winnebagoes were told
that "the Great Father, the President," was pained to hear of
their difficulties and depredations and thought his red children too
near his white children, and wished them to go out farther, where
game was plenty, and where they would be away from whisky and
could live in peace. It was several years, however, before these
negotiations were successful. At last, in 1846, the Indians ceded
all their lands in Iowa to the government ; but the government
did not purchase for them the country promised, and they refused
to move.
In 1848 the treaty was enforced, the government agreeing to
obtain other lands for the Winnebagoes. The Indians were not
satisfied with the treaty, and it took something like military force
to induce them to accept its conditions. A letter written by Mr.
Lowry from Fort Snelling, to his son, June 28, 1848, shows how
reluctantly this treaty was complied with, and what embarrassments
the missionary suffered on that account. This letter shows that Mr.
Lowry' s family, with other white families living among the Winne-
bagoes, foreseeing the trouble which was likely to result from an
attempt to enforce the treaty, removed to Fort Snelling before the
time appointed for the removal of the Indians, The result proved
that this precaution was necessary. The Indians refused to move,
and two hundred and fifty of their warriors armed themselves for
battle. Sylvanus Lowry was sent for. He went immediately to the
scene of trouble and threw himself between the Indians and the dra-
goons. The cry, "shoot him down," was heard, but he continued
his appeal, and the Indians at last agreed to disperse. Some days
of disputing followed, and then they took up their line of march.
328 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
But after they began their journey they held a council and a large
majority declared against removing. All but about six hundred
refused to proceed. The great majority did not remove until forced
to do so.
Mr. Lowry and his son often interposed to prevent bloodshed.
He followed the Indians to their new home in the far north-west.
Here he again opened his school and had it well under way ; but
after a few years of successful labor he was again the victim of
intrigues, and lost his appointment.
Many of the older members of the church remember with what
earnest words David Lowry used to plead in the pulpit for the per-
ishing heathen. The years sweep on, Lowry has gone to his Father's
house ; a generation of heathen has also gone to eternity since those
thrilling appeals were made, but still the church doles out its poor
little pittance of men and money to Foreign Missions. And yet the
thrilling interest at stake in the work which our King has commis-
sioned us to do is far greater than all the earthly interests to which
men are so ready to devote their money and their lives. "Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ' '
Two noble young ladies, members of the Cumberland Presby-
terian church in Philadelphia, went, in 1853, under the direction
of the American Board of Missions, to work among the heathen.
We know in a general way that they were successful missionaries,
but we have no details of their work. They both belonged to that
class of real Christians who give Christ the supremacy in all things.
Their family name was Diamont, and their native State was New
Jersey.
In 1854 David Lowry visited the Cumberland Presbyterian
Board of Missions and appealed to its members for more help for
the Indians. The board resolved to send him to the Indian
country on a tour of inspection, clothing him with authority to
appoint missionaries if he could find men suitable for the work.
He made a very thorough investigation and submitted a report to
the board. Some extracts from this report' are here appended :
I traveled several hundred miles throuo^h the Choctaw Nation and
preached wherever opportunity offered. The Rev. S. Corley, of Texas,
was appointed to ride and oreach in this countrv one half of his time.
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 329
His appointment and acceptance are herewith submitted. He is well
known among the Indians, and no preacher could exert a stronger
influence over them. He resides within thirty miles of their country,
and his circuit will embrace a few congregations on the border of Texas,
west of Red River. In preaching to the Indians he may have to employ
occasionally an interpreter, and in view of such contingency his appoint-
ment permits him to draw on the board for a sum not exceeding fifty
dollars. Two native Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, Israel Folsom
and Payson Wiliston, have been appointed to ride and preach as exten-
sively as their circumstances will permit, and report to the board quar-
terly. Their appointments are herewith submitted. Mr. Folsom is an
ordained preacher, and his ministerial services among his people have
been greatly blessed. Mr. Wiliston is a licentiate and full Indian. He
is a man of much promise, and capable of doing great good ; but he is
poor and has a family depending on him, and can not preach extensively
without aid from the board. He was in debt for a horse, and twenty
dollars of missionary funds were appropriated to liquidate this debt.
Some preparatory steps were taken for the purpose of establishing
schools and permanent missions in the Indian country, but no final
action was taken. Although it is desirable to locate schools for the
intellectual improvement of the Indians, yet my conviction is that itin-
erant preaching is more loudly called for now among the Choctaws
than any other service the Cumberland Presbyterian church can render.
Many of their children have gone through the ordinary course of edu-
cation at the schools and academies, and have returned to their homes
without any deep religious impressions and are now entirely destitute of
religious instruction. Their former teachers (though most of them
ministers of the gospel) being confined to their schools, can not follow
them with the word of life; therefore, unless itinerants can be intro-
duced, it is difficult to see how they can be brought under the power of
the gospel. They have abandoned the heathen religion, but they have
not yet embraced Christianity, but it is believed that no people are more
accessible to the truth than the educated Choctaws, could they be blessed
with a zealous ministry.
Under the act of the late Choctaw legislature, ten boys were sent
by me to Tennessee, to learn trades, and one came on his own responsi-
bility to study law. Six of these boys have been bound as apprentices in
Nashville and two in McMinnville. One is preparing for the ministry,
and another has been put to school. I am happy to learn that thus
far these boys are well pleased, and that they are receiving sympathy
and encouragement in the communities where they reside. I shall con-
fidently expect another company of boys to enter the university in the
course of the winter.
330 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
Mr. Lowry's report gives also a brief historj' of all the missions
under other churches throughout the Indian country. The Cum-
berland Presbyterian Board pressed the work begun by Lowr>'.
The Rev. R. W. Baker was added to the corps of itinerant preach-
ers. He proved a faithful and successful missionary. Corley also
was a true and noble Christian minister. They by their joint
labors, aided by the Rev. Israel Folsom and other native preach-
ers, brought into the church that year over six hundred members.
In 1855 Baker was placed by the board over Armstrong Acad-
emy, Choctaw Nation. In 1859 this school had one hundred
pupils. Baker, while managing this mission school, still kept up
his preaching, though within a smaller circle. The same year the
board resolved to have a school for the Chickasaws. This was
called Burney Academy. Its opening was delayed by the tardiness
of the builder. The Chickasaw Nation furnished the buildings,
and the board furnished the teachers. The Rev. F. D. Piner was
appointed the first superintendent. In 1859 the Rev. R. S. Bell
and his wife were sent by the board to teach the Chickasaw girls.
Bell remained at his post all through the war, though all help
from the board was cut off. All our Indian missionaries were
exposed to hardships, but perhaps none of them suffered so much
as R. S. Bell.
Israel Folsom was a strong man and a genuine Indian. He
manifested a most touching devotion to the interests of his people.
The writer of this history can never forget his last interview with
him. If one could write an accent, or put the modulation and the
emotional vibrations of the voice into a written sentence, then
might the full meaning of Folsom' s words about that portion of
the Indian population which he, with flowing tears, said was rap-
idly lapsing back into barbarism be expressed on a printed page.
One of his appeals to the board deserv^es a place here. The letter
is addressed to the secretary of the Board of IMissions.
Near Fort Washita, Choctaw Nation, )
December 30, 1S52. j
Brother Isaac Shook: — I hope you will not become tired of me.
Will you once more listen to my words as I speak ? A child starving
for want of bread can not be satisfied with any thing short of it. Here
are people starving for the lack of the bread of life, and they will not
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 331
be satisfied with any tiling else. I have been called upon again and
again to go and preach to the people living twenty, forty, eighty, and
one hundred and forty miles off. Not that I was any better than other
preachers, but they hunger and thirst after the bread of life, and many
of them tell me they want a Cumberland Presbyterian minister to
preach to them. They reject no minister of any name. They would
be glad to hear any preaching. I am speaking for those who spoke to
me desiring to hear Cumberland Presbyterian preaching as their choice.
It has been impossible for me to go and preach to them. We want
help. We need it right now. Can you not send us one young minis-
ter, full of the Spirit of God, to preach to these people? By this way
he could acquaint himself with the real wants of this Nation, and fur-
nish your board with important information in reference to establishing
a mission.
I have a complaint in my body which disables me from riding out
and preaching. I also have a large family to provide for. It is out of
my power to labor as much as I did formerly, and I do need help. Can
you do any thing for us? I believe you can; I believe you are willing.
The prayers of a righteous man availeth much, and through your
prayers we may expect help in due time. Send a missionary to my
house, and let him make my house his home; he will be boarded and have
his washing done for nothing, and his horse fed free. And I will also
instruct him in acquiring the Choctaw language, that he may preach in
the native tongue.
In going out to preach through different parts of the country where
he is known as a preacher, the people will not charge him. But there
are some who care very little for the gospel, that would no doubt charge.
The missionary sent should have a good English education, at least. . .
Yours in Christ, Israel Folsom.
Here is a letter from an Indian chief to the Board of Missions:
Choctaw Nation, May 13, 1853.
Brother Shook: — I never saw you, but have often heard of you.
It would give me much satisfaction to see and speak with you about the
salvation of my people. I understand you have labored to send a man
among my people to teach them the way of life. I thank you. I trust
God will bless your labors. I once thought of going to the General
Assembly, but have failed.
The word of God says, "The Son of man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost." If any could be said to be lost whom the
Son of man came to seek and to save, I think the poor red man may
truly be placed among them. God did not reject us, but came to seek
and save us. We hope that his friends will not reject us. I hope that
332 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
your board will soon send a man in the name of Christ to come, and
seek and save the poor lost red man. Our foes are many and powerful.
Our woes are heavy on us. We are distressed on every side. We want
friends and help. Shall we find them in the Cumberland church? It
seems now that the last and only hope for aid to be relied upon is the
church of Christ. Shall we hope that the Cumberland Presbyterian
church will send us help.? Brother, pardon me for the liberty I take to
write to you. I desire only the good of my people.
Your brother in Christ, George Folsom,
Chief of Pushimataha District.
Besides the earnest old Choctaw, Israel Folsom, who was the first
native Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, and to whom the INIis-
sionar}^ Board gave some small salar\', several other natives also
entered the ministry during this period. Several Indians, both
Chickasaws and Chocktaws, came to our church schools in Tennes-
see. Among them there was occasionally found a young man pre-
paring for the ministry.
Though these missions were more recent than Robert Bell's in
Mississippi, yet none of the missionaries preserved for us journals
or other data for a full history, as Robert Bell did. We see now
only the fruits of their toil, in native preachers, churches, and
presbyteries.
Besides the regular native preachers who co-operated with Corley
and Baker, they also called to their aid a considerable number of
Christian laymen from the native churches. These traveled with
them during "the camp-meeting season " each year. One of these
whom they called Frazier, was especially valuable to the mission-
aries. He could interpret for them. Occasionally when translating
the preacher's words he would break forth in an exhortation of his
own. Mr. Corley, who was more dependent on the interpreter
than any of the other missionaries, became greatly attached to
Frazier. The board often called for more men for this work, but
failed to get half the number called for. Still the work done and
the results obtained were of great and lasting importance.
Though the voice of ever}^ General Assembly recommended
co-operation with the American Board in foreign work, }'et there was
a growing feeling in favor of having our own foreign missionaries
under the Cumberland Presbyterian Board. It was argued that the
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 333
strength of the church could not be brought fully into service for the
Master until our people engaged directly in the foreign work. It
was said also that the church had no means of knowing what its
congregations were doing for Foreign Missions, that it was not
known whether our people were asleep or awake. It was urged,
too, that the church and the ministry needed the inspiration and
the training which nothing but work in the foreign field could
give. These and many similar arguments finally prevailed. But
the relations with the American Board were not at once severed.
Our congregations were left free to contribute to that board. For
many years our people continued to send help ta the foreign work
through that channel.
The first Cumberland Presbyterian missionary to a distant land
was Edmond Weir, whose work was in Liberia, Africa. This mis-
sion was opened providentially. Weir was a young colored man,
who was licensed to preach and afterward ordained by Anderson
Presbytery, in Kentucky. Though a slave, he had succeeded in
securing a good education. The American colonization move-
ment was then enlisting many in all the Southern States. Many
slaves were manumitted and sent to Liberia. Among these were
two older brothers of Edmond Weir, who had secured a good edu-
cation. They studied law, and on their arrival in Liberia entered
the practice of this profession. Edmond Weir wanted to go to
Africa as a preacher of the gospel. He was manumitted and sent
to Liberia for that purpose. Through the influence of his brothers
he was elected sheriff. From this office he secured a living and
preached without salary. In 1857, five years after his removal to
Africa, he came back to America in order to secure missionary help.
He wanted money and men. The board commissioned him as mis-
sionary, and sent him out among the churches to raise funds to
build a house of worship.
The Watchman and Eva7igelist^ published at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, mentions Weir's visit to that city, and says that a large
audience greeted him at the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and
that his address was listened to with great attention, and that a lib-
eral collection was taken up for the mission. The ladies of the First
Cumberland Presbyterian church of Louisville organized a society
334 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
' ' for the purpose of affording such aid as the Liberia Mission might
need in the way of clothing and school books."
The Board of Missions, through its president, the Rev. F. R. Cos-
sitt, published a stirring appeal to the ministers and members of the
church in behalf of this mission. In this appeal the board urged
upon our people the force of Christ's command, "Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel; " and pointed out the cr^'ing need
for missionary work in Africa, declaring that no church which
neglected the Lord's great commission could long live and prosper.
It called attention to the providential circumstances which led the
board to undertake this mission. On going to Liberia, Mr. Weir
" had found a number of people who had been Cumberland Presby-
terians before their removal from the United States, While some
of these had joined other churches, there were many who had pre-
ferred to wait for the providence of God to open the way for them
to unite with a church of their own faith. This mission seemed to
be God's appointed means of opening the way. It was proposed to
establish the mission at Cape IVIount, a thriving sea-coast town, near
which Weir had settled, and where there was no church. The
board stated in its appeal that the missionary had already received
six hundred dollars for his building, and that this was not quite
half the sum needed.
He was finally successful in raising the money, but the board's
call asking those who owned colored Cumberland Presbyterian
preachers to set them free so that they might be sent with Weir to
Liberia, was not successful. Weir returned alone, and amid many
discouragements, carried on his solitary work in Africa. At one
time he received a request from the king of a neighboring tribe to
send Mrs. Weir to be governess for the king's daughters. The
proposition was not according to Mr. Weir's fancies. IMrS. Weir
had her heart set on other things, as an extract from a letter writ-
ten by her to Mrs. Hunter will show. In this letter she describes
the kind of clothing needed by the boys in the mission — " trousers
and shirts made of any kind of cloth." She speaks of her desire
to help the native girls as well as the boys, and of the pleasure she
would take in making clothes for these poor heathen children if the
material could be furnished her. She adds with touching simplicity :
Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 335
' ' You do not know how glad I am to help in the work of God
among the heathen in this dark part of the world." Her letter
continues:
My health is indifferent, and has been for some time. I need the
prayers of all the praying friends in America. I expect to open a reg-
ular day school for the native children. All that I ask of my friends is
a few common books. I beg the friends not to deny me these. I know
that I can 't do this work of myself, but I know that God can and will
help me. He has helped me. About one year and six months ago we
had a small boy given to us out of the Goler country. When he came
he had no clothing, and I gave him a piece of calico to put around him-
self; he went so about a month. I could not bear that. Mr. Weir told
me to take some of his garments and make clothes for the boy. I did
so. We named him Willa. It was a long time before I could get him
to understand. I tried and tried until I thought my work was in vain.
But at last his stammering tongue was loosed. On the 26th of July was
our day of celeba"ation, and we also examined our Sabbath School.
Willa was in the midst and recited some verses which he had com-
mitted to memory.
The voice of the board was in favor of China as a field in which
to begin work for the heathen. To this, however, there was one
exception. Dr. Cossitt, while saying nothing against other fields,
kept pleading the cause of Japan. Meantime four young men in
Cumberland University offered themselves simultaneously to the
board for the foreign work. The General Assembly was consulted,
but there was unaccountable delay. These four young men made
other engagements. Then the Rev. J. C. Armstrong, a graduate
of the theological school at Lebanon, Tennessee, felt special im-
pressions to go to Turkey as a missionary. In 1859 ^^^ offered
himself to the Board of Missions for this special work. His offer
was accepted, and the board sent him out as an agent to raise funds
for his mission. He was quite successful in this agency and by the
General Assembly in May, i860, he was specially consecrated to his
work as a missionary to Turkey. The story of this mission belong3
to the next period of this history.
336 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
CHAPTER XXXII.
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN THE NORTH-WEST.
IOWA AND OTHER FIELDS.
Through ways we have not known,
We pass yet not alone
From height to height,
To dwell with Him in light.
The Lord shall lead us on.
— Miss Lathbury.
THE beginnings of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians
in Iowa before the close of the third period (1842) were so
small that it has seemed best to reserve the history of the origin of
the church in that State for this chapter.
When David Lowry, in 1834, planted his mission in Iowa,
the whole of that country except some small settlements was
occupied by Indians, though treaties for its cession had been
agreed upon. There were no Protestant churches on Iowa soil.
At the points where Indian agents were stationed there were United
States troops and some French families.
Mr. Lowry -organized the first church of our people, and the
first Protestant church in Iowa, in 1834. It was composed of sol-
diers, officers of the United States army, government employes,
and a few Indians. When the Indians and soldiers were removed
that was the end of the organization.
Iowa was organized as a separate Territory' with its own Terri-
torial government in 1838. Three years before this a Cumberland
Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Joseph Howard, settled among the
emigrants in Iowa. The next year. May, 1836, the Rev. Cyrus
Haynes traveled in this country and organized a church in Mr.
Howard's house. Counting Mr. Lowr^^'s organization at the mis-
sion, this church in Mr. Howard's house was the second Cumber-
land Presbyterian congregation in Iowa. At the organization of
Chapter XXXII.] ThE NORTH-WEST. 337
this church Mr. Haynes baptized Mr. Howard's infant son. That
son is now the Rev. J. S. Howard, of Oxford, Mississippi.
In 1853 ^^^ Rev. J. G. White was laboring in Iowa as an inde-
pendent evangelist, that is independent of any salary from church
boards. The first camp-meeting of which mention is made was
held by him and B. B. Bonham, August 1843, ^^ ^t. Pleasant.
Thirteen professions were reported.
Like all the pioneer congregations in the new Territories, each
of these Iowa Cumberland Presbyterian churches embraced a large
area, requiring several preaching places. In 1844 the Sangamon
Synod ordered J. G. White, B. B. Bonham, Joseph Howard, and J.
M. Stockton to constitute the Iowa Presbytery. In 1846 there
were nine congregations represented in this presbytery.
In 1848 the Rev. Neil Johnson rode the circuit in Iowa, and
received from the settlers two hundred and fifteen dollars for his
services. There were then six ordained ministers (one had been
deposed), and twelve congregations in Iowa Presbyter\'.
All through this early period there were in Iowa many Mormons
and Catholics, Ruffianism was everywhere. Whisky and pistols,
outlaws and murderers, mingled with the heterogeneous mass of
emigrants. It required preachers with sterling courage to make
their way in the midst of such a population. Men like J. G.
White seemed to enjoy such hardships and perils. The Rev. John
Cameron and the Rev. Wm. Lynn are also mentioned among the
pioneers of Iowa,' but no facts or incidents connected with their
work have been secured. The Rev Benjamin Hall was among the
successful laborers in that field.
It was a favorite scheme of David Lowry to concentrate in Iowa,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota a strong home missionar>^ force. One
of the warmest debates ever heard in the rooms of the Missionary
Board at Lebanon, Tennessee, was on that question. That debate is
mentioned in Dr. Richard Beard's diary, and he speaks in terms of
the deepest mortification and regret about the failure of Mr. Low-
ry's plans. Several of his letters, written to Lowr}^, on this sub-
ject are preserved.
'The Rev. R. A. Ferguson's MS. Ferguson himself has spent most of his life
in that field.
22
338 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
In 1856 the board commissioned the Rev. J. C. Armstrong to
go as missionary to the North-west. It was Mr. Lowry's wish that
the missionary should begin his work at Prairie du Chien. Taking
letters of introduction, this young man, just out of the theological
school, set out for his first j&eld of labor. The Rev. J. M. B. Roach,
who was appointed to accompany him, failed in health, and Arm-
strong went alone. On his arrival at Prairie du Chien, he found
little but ruins. The town and Fort Crawford were gone. The
church where General Zachary Taylor had regularly attended Mr.
Lowry's preaching was gone. Only a few settlers remained.
A citizen of Iowa, named P. C. Balsinger, was a sporting gentle-
man, who kept race-horses, and who was wealthy. Armstrong had
a letter of introduction to C. C. Balsinger, and, supposing this per-
son to be the one intended, he presented his letter. Mr. Balsinger
read it with a look of scorn and wrath, then tossed it back to Arm-
strong, saying: "Sir, I am not the man; this man lives away
down on Turkey River." Armstrong, after some further conver-
sation with him, set out for Turkey River. He found the right
Balsinger this time, and met a most cordial welcome. This man
was the father of the horse-racer, and was a Pennsylvanian who
had been converted at one of John Morgan's meetings.
The missionary appointed a camp-meeting at Mr. Balsinger' s.
When this meeting began the races at Colesburg were going on.
Great crowds of people passed the encampment, going to the races.
Armstrong, though without ministerial assistance, went bravely
on with the daily services. Monday, the fourth day of the meet-
ing, a strange scene was witnessed. Loaded wagons began coming
in from Colesburg, and kept coming. All these wagons brought
tents, provisions, and families, coming to attend the camp-meeting.
Among others who came was the sporting gentleman, P. C. Balsin-
ger, with his family. When the call for mourners was made, !\Ir.
Balsinger, the horse-racer, rose and made a talk. He said he had
been under conviction ever since he read Armstrong's letter of in-
troduction, and was now determined to seek his soul's salvation.
Then, turninsr to his seven sons who had come with him to the
camp-meeting, he asked the people to pray for him and his boys.
He found the Savior that day, and his conversion gave new life to
Chapter XXXII.] ThE NoRTH-WEST. 339
the meetings. A great revival followed. The converted horse-racer
was a man of great liberality. Each day he would mount the pulpit
and invite everybody to come and eat with him at his tent.
Out of this meeting grew the Hopewell church, which Arm-
strong organized, making P. C. Balsinger an elder therein. This
elder made a large-hearted and faithful worker for Jesus. At this
meeting the wife, daughter, and two sons of a Roman Catholic
were converted. Almost at the risk of their lives by the enraged
drunken husband and father, they joined the Cumberland Presby-
terian church.
On an Indian pathway, at some springs in the prairie, there had
grown up a little village called Waukon. Thither Armstrong next
directed his steps. His work there was owned of Heaven, and
many souls were converted. In September, 1856, he organized tke
Waukon church with thirty-one members. When the missionar>^
left this field in 1859, Waukon congregation had built a house of
worship, and paid for it.
In July, 1857, through Armstrong's importunities, the Rev. P. H.
Crider was sent by the Missionary Board to his assistance, Arm-
strong guaranteeing missionary money enough from Iowa to meet
the salary. In this arrangement his trust in the pioneers was not
disappointed. The following letter gives a glimpse of Mr. Arm-
strong's labors in this field:
Waukon, Iowa, Sept. 15th, 1S56.
The prospects are still bright here. My strength failed after I wrote
last, and I closed the meetings. But as the interest was still ^reat in the
town, I afterward resumed the work, and we had meetings four nio-hts
resulting in five conversions, making in all twenty-nine. Our little
band, organized the 21st of August, now numbers forty-four members.
Owing to the want of a house, we have not had our meetings regularly,
but will resume them again to-nio-ht.
On Thursday next I will start again for Colesburg, sixty miles dis-
tant, and will hold a meeting in that town
Waukon is improving very rapidly. Our Sabbath-school is ably
conducted. The number in attendance yesterday was 114, with increas-
ing interest. The Maine Law is enforced to the letter in town. The
Temperance Association has 200 members. We have a joint stock of
seven thousand dollars to enforce the Liquor Law. Nearly sixty houses
were built in all in 1856.
340 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
Colesburg is a larger town than Waukon, and much older, but
Satan has had almost supreme dominion in that community. The
Protestant churches there are not much more than a name. They have
been daubed with untempered mortar. The truth startles them, enrag-
ing some, and breaking down many. Members of the different churches
were seen crowding to the anxious seat, and crying for mercy at our late
revival. Pray for us, for we are a needy few, often assailed and perse-
cuted. J. C. Armstrong.
In 1857, Armstrong and Crider, and the Rev. Joshua Loughran,
of Wisconsin, organized the Colesburg Presbytery, extending from
forty degrees north latitude to the North Pole. In 1858 the Rev.
D. A. Houghton came into the Cumberland Presbyterian church
from the Congregationalists, and took charge of the upper Iowa
mission.
In these missions the pioneer preachers suffered many priva-
tions, and were often exposed to danger. Once Armstrong was shot
at while in the pulpit preaching. At a camp-meeting a mob came
to kill him, but others gathered to his defense and he was unhurt.
He says he often went where there was danger of being killed, but
God took care of him. He was never harmed. The pioneers con-
tributed liberally to his support.
In Iowa at this time (1886) there is one small Cumberland Pres-
byterian synod composed of three small presbyteries, with an aggre-
gate of seventeen ordained ministers and six licentiates, but no
candidates. In that field, and everywdiere, the perpetuation and
growth of the church demand that the money and the prayers of
our people be devoted to raising up a home supply of preachers.
There have been Cumberland Presbyterian missions in several
other north-western States. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alinnesota
have all been visited by individual enterprise. In 1859 the Mis-
slonar}' Board reported that the Rev. A. H. Houghton had been
commissioned to travel and preach in northern Iowa and southern
Minnesota. There is no record of the extent of his success m
Minnesota. In i860 the board's report again mentioned Houghton
as missionary in this field, and adds, "He is doing a good work."
In 1857 the board resolved to establish a mission in St. Cloud, Min-
nesota. Some money was raised for that purpose, but no mission-
ary was sent. The work dragged along till the war put an end to
Chapter XXXII.] ThE NORTH-WEST. 34I
sucli enterprises. Good meetings were held in several of these
north-western States, and some feeble churches were organized,
but the population being made up of emigrants from States where
there are no Cumberland Presbyterians, it was the more difficult
for our people to gain a permanent foothold. Among the early
settlers in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon, California, and
Washington, there was a large Cumberland Presbyterian element,
therefore these States and Territories offered more inviting fields
for our ministers.
Our Church has sometimes tried to press its way into fields
where there was no providential opening, but the results have
never been satisfactory. There are fields where others are mani-
festly chosen of God to bear his name to the perishing, and where
Cumberland Presbyterians are not so chosen; and there are other
fields where our people have a high mission to fill simultaneously
with others. L<et us follow the divine leading.
342 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
OREGON AND CALIFORNIA— 1844 TO i860.
By dust of earth encumbered,
None prized the precious stone;
Christ looked on it and loved it:
I low fair his gem hath grown!
— Anna Shipton.
CALIFORNIA gold was not the precious stone, but the dust
which encumbered it. God rules, and he has used even
man's lust for riches as a means of carrying the gospel to multi-
tudes of perishing immortals. The work of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church on the Pacific coast began in Oregon, and extended
from that field to California.
Oregon was disputed territory till 1846. The claimants had
been Spain, England, and the United States, but in 18 18 Spain
relinquished all her claims in favor of the United States. Both
Great Britain and America, knowing the great difficulties which
beset this question, shrank for many years from attempting a set-
tlement of boundaries. Fur companies with their employes were
there from both nations, and with no kindly feeling toward each
other. The first meetings of commissioners to settle the bounda-
ries ended in nothing but an agreement to postpone the difficulty,
and leave the pioneers to joint occupation of the country. While
treaties in 1846 averted a war and settled the boundaries, yet it was
not till 1848 that Oregon was organized as a Territory of the
United States with regular territorial government.
The difficulties in the way of colonizing Oregon by the Ameri-
cans were so great that prominent writers in British quarterlies
prophesied that it would never be done. ' The route by sea around
Cape Horn, and the route overland across the great desert and the
Rocky Mountains, were alike appalling. In spite of these difficul-
'See Edinburgh Rernetv, 1S43.
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 343
ties two Methodist preachers (Lee and Shepherd) took a colony of
Americans to Oregon in 1834, twelve years before the boundary
question was settled. It was a daring thing, but it was done.
This colony of Methodists went by sea, and settled in Willamette
Valley.
Fur traders and government expeditions began to call attention
to the overland route. Mr. Parker, the missionar}^, led a band
over the dreadful desert and across the Rocky Mountains in 1835.
Next year the ill-fated mission of Whitman, Gray, and Spaulding
(American Board) was planted in Oregon.
All this time American settlers in Oregon had to encounter
hostile Indians and unfriendly English fur traders. They settled,
too, on soil whose ownership was still in dispute. They reached
their destination through dangers, trials, and losses rarely paral-
leled. In 1839 ^^^^ following list of prices on Green River was
published for the information of emigrants. Whisky (of course
this came first), three dollars a pint. Dogs (for food), fifteen dol-
lars apiece. Tobacco, five dollars per pound. Flour, none to be
had. Whisky, dogs, tobacco — that was the bill of fare!
The first Cumberland Presbyterian who undertook to plant a
colony in Oregon was the Rev. J. A. Cornwall. He made his call
for colonists in 1844, two years before the war-cloud which grew
out of the boundary question passed away. It was 1846 when his
colony reached Oregon. The Rev. J. E. Braly and his family
went in 1847. I^ong afterward Mrs. Braly ("Aunt Sue") often re-
cited the story of this daring journey. They started in 1846, but
halted on the Platte till the next year. Indians dogged their steps,
and sometimes stole their cattle. One favorite method with the
red men was to stampede these animals. Overland emigrants
relied mainly on cattle. Every family took as many oxen as pos-
sible. Cows, too, were sometimes yoked to draw the wagons, or
driven in herds. Cattle not only endured the journey better than
horses, but they constituted the most desirable property after the
journey was finished. For mutual protection large numbers of
families formed a company, elected a captain, gave him almost mil-
itary authority, and traveled in one band or "train." Thus an
army of cattle was brought together. These animals in vast
344 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
herds, frightened and stampeded, became as destructive as a tor-
nado. After they were thus scattered they could never all be gath-
ered together again. A stampeded train meant the death of many
an emigrant during the stampede, and starvation to many another
afterward.
On his arrival in Oregon ]\Ir. Braly stopped with his family at
Whitman's mission. There he found a most welcome rest for him-
self and his family, and he felt disposed to remain till thoroughly
recruited. To this, however, there arose an obstacle. Mrs. Braly
told him one day that she felt an overwhelming presentiment of
evil, and could not consent to remain at Whitman's any longer.
Mr. Braly expostulated, but "Aunt Sue" said, "I'll die if I have
to stay one day longer." The result was that Braly took up his
line of march for other portions of Oregon. He was just in time,
for soon after his departure the whole country was ringing with the
tidings of the horrid massacre by the Indians of all the people at
Whitman's Station.
It was generally believed by the Protestants that this deed was
instigated by the Jesuit priests, who were exceedingly averse to
having Protestant missions established in that country. There
was an independent provisional government in the territory' be-
longing to no nation, but watched by English and Americans alike.
The militia under the control of this government went in pursuit
of the murderers of the missionaries. Mr. Braly' s horses were
pressed into the service by these militia-men, but he afterward
recovered them. There was an official investigation of the charges
against the Jesuit priests, but the story of this massacre does not
belong to this history.
Some facts concerning emigration to Oregon at this early period
will be of service in explaining the work of the first Cumberland
Presbyterian preachers in that country. Some statements about a
body of eight hundred emigrants (1843) ^^^ quoted from the Over-
land Monthly:
Successful as the first large emigration was in safely reaching east-
ern Oregon, the emigrants found one of the most difficult portions of
their journey would be the passage of the Cascade ISIountains with
their families, household stuff, wagons, and stock. Upon arriving at
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 345
the Dalles, very few of these eight hundred people had any provisions
left. Neither had the colonists made any preparations for them. Many
of them had left their exhausted cattle in the Walla Walla country to
recruit until spring. Others expected to drive theirs into the Willa-
mette Valley by a narrow pack-trail, over which it was impossible to
take the wagons. In this extremity the very corporation they had been
taught tx) fear and dislike came to their assistance, with food for the
starving families and boats for transportation down the Columbia.
Those who could not pay fared as well as those who could. The colo-
nists had made no preparation for the reception of the eight hundred
new settlers; neither was there food nor shelter for all these people, nor
teams to break up the sod, nor seed to put in the earth for the next
year's provisions. Credit had to be extended to large numbers of these
people, whose little all was exhausted by the long and wasting journey
from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The colonists themselves
could not I'elieve such a number. The mission store had no authority
to give credit; the few small traders already in the country would not.
Dr. McLaughlin alone was both able and willing. Thus none of the
immigrants suffered as they must have suffered without this assistance.
Dr. Mclvaughlin was the agent of the Hudson Bay Fur Com-
pany (British), and for this kindness to American emigrants he was
deprived of his office.
One of the keen disappointments which immigrants encount-
ered was that which they met after- reaching Oregon. They
reached the high mountains of Oregon with exhausted and starv-
ing teams. To their amazement and horror they often found it
impossible to cross these mountains before another year. Thus
the Rev. J. A. Cornwall and his party were forced to tarry through
the winter of 1846. When spring came nearly all the cattle and
other property belonging to these suffering immigrants was gone,
and they made their way to the settlements under difficulties which
no pen can describe.
The Rev. Neil Johnson went to Oregon in 185 1, and the Rev.
J. H. D. Henderson in 1852. Johnson lost nearly all his earthly
possessions on the journey. Many emigrants in 1852 perished on
the way. Johnson, while on his journey, writes thus to one of the
church papers:
There are a few things connected with the journey that are far
from being pleasant. The first is the weather. Scarcely a day passes
346 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
without a storm of rain and hail and thunder and lightning all com-
bined, and sometimes these continue for many hours together. This,
combined with a scarcity of fuel, often makes the emigrant feel any
thing but comfortable. The scarcity of fuel is quite an inconvenience.
What there is in the way of wood consists mainly of Cottonwood and
willow. These are generally found on islands in the river, and may be
obtained by wading from fifty to one hundred yards. But for days
together you will travel and not see so much as a riding switch. Then
your alternative for fuel is "buftalo chips " — a very poor substitute, espe-
cially in wet weather. Or drift-wood may be found in some places
along the margin of the river; or occasionally the remains of an emi-
grant's wagon. But little calculation can be made on the latter, from
the fact that when a wagon is to be left it is nearly all burned by the
company before leaving camp. . . . The abundance of alkali water has
caused many a poor ox to leave his bones to bleach on the prairie.
This extends at intervals for a thousand miles of the journey all along
Platte River, and until you reach Big Sandy. Should you get along
early in the season the danger is not so great; but when the dry season
sets in, and the ravines cease to run, then look out for poison. The
common remedy when cattle are poisoned is lard, fat bacon, or citric
acid. These, if administered in time, generally give relief. ....
Another Cumberland Presbyterian emigrant while on this
dreary journey writes about the cholera thus:
The dead are disposed of in a summary manner. The grave is dug
as soon as the breath leaves the body. This occupies about half an
hour; not that graves are dug so shallow, but the earth is so sandy and
soft that the work is soon accomplished. The corpse is then borne
upon a blanket, or some of the bed-clothes upon which the person died,
and let down into its final abode, this blanket answering for winding-
sheet and coflin. The sand is then replaced, the name, residence, date
of death, etc., inscribed upon a board placed at the head, and the train
is all probably under way again in thirty minutes. In such graves hun-
dreds are sleeping.
In 1852 the emigration was so large that the grass was ex-
hausted, and the emigrants who started late not only lost all their
cattle and other property, but a great many of the men and women
perished on the journey. Through such difficulties as these the
first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers made their way to Oregon.
Our first congregation in Oregon was organized by Mr. Cornwall,
aided by J. E. Braly, The Rev. Neil Johnson has published
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 347
a historical sketch of our church iu that country, which shows
that the organization of the Oregon Presbytery was ordered in
1847, ^i^d ^^^^ order was carried out November 3, 185 1. The
members present were Neil Johnson, J. A. Cornwall, and Joseph
Robertson. The Rev. A. W. Sweeney was present as a visitor.
Licensed preachers present: B. F. Music and John Dillard. Four
congregations were represented. A great revival was reported.
Braly had gone to California, as had many private members.
In 1853 t^^^^ frontier presbytery resolved to have a college. It
raised the money and built a house. It secured a $20,000 scholar-
ship endowment. It employed a graduate of Waynesburg College
for president, and opened the institution. The infidels of Eugene
City, where the school was located, were its bitter enemies. In a
few weeks some incendiary burned down the buildings. A hall
was rented for temporar>^ use, and other buildings erected. The
teaching force was enlarged, and the school had one hundred and
fifty pupils when the buildings were again destroyed by fire. Then
our people erected a fire-proof building, but unfortunately went in
debt for a large part of the work. The infidels started a rival
enterprise, and struggled to alienate those who had promised to
contribute for the erection of the fire-proof buildings. By reason
of accumulated disasters payments were not met, and the buildings
were sold for debt. This ended the college enterprise. Private
schools, however, were kept up by our people in different parts of
Oregon with good results.
A manuscript sketch of the history of our church in Oregon,
prepared by the venerable Jacob Gillespie, gives some additional par-
ticulars about the fire-proof college building. It seems that a storm
came and swept away the roof after the building was nearly com-
pleted. Mr. Gillespie also mentions some other struggles of the
Oregon churches to secure educational facilities. Surely they have
had to brave many difficulties. Gillespie gives a graphic picture
of the scattered condition of our people in that country. Oregon
included at first the whole of what is now Washington Territory,
and was once thought to extend to 54° 40' north latitude. In a
territory large enough for an empire a half dozen preachers and a
few feeble churches were scattered here and there.
348 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
The Rev. T. H, Small and the Rev. Jacob Gillespie were among
these pioneer preachers in Oregon.
All these men had to earn their own bread. The immigrants
were generally poor, and could not sustain pastors. There was no
Cumberland Presbyterian minister in all the territory whose hands
were freed from secular pursuits. Yet our preachers planted
churches and worked patiently on. How valuable a consecrated,
minister, sustained by the Missionary Board for a few years, might
have been! The church did not have even one such helper on any
part of the Pacific coast.
Gillespie was one of the original members of Willamette Pres-
bytery. He has been in the ministry over fifty-six years. He
organized a congregation in Oregon thirty-seven years ago. He
calls attention to the fact that the Cumberland Presbyterian minis-
ters in Oregon are nearly all old men.
Our church has three presbyteries in what once was Oregon
Territory. The Oregon Presbytery has six ordained ministers and
one licensed preacher. Walla Walla Presbytery has twelve ordained
ministers and no probationers. The Willamette Presbyter^' has
nine ordained ministers and two licentiates. This lack of a
home supply of rising ministers is startling, and ought to send all
the surviving pioneers in that field to God in earnest prayer that
their own sons may be called into the ministr}'.
It was not till 1859 that Oregon became a State in the American
Union. It is still a new field with ample room for growth.
The acquisition of California by the United States, and the dis-
covery of gold there immediately afterward (1848), produced a rush
of population from all parts of the world, such as perhaps never
had a parallel. All the tongues of the earth mingled in the jargon
that babbled about the mines. All grades of scholarship and cult-
ure, as well as all grades of ignorance and vice, were represented
among the gold diggers. A desert, waterless, treeless, foodless,
stretching wider than Sahara, could not check the great rush from
the States. The way was paved with skeletons, but the gold hunt-
ers pressed on. Men perished in the snows of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, but other parties still kept coming with larger forces.
California was peopled at once.
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 349
The change from the sluggish progress under the padres, which
had marked the last three hundred years of California life, was like
waking from a vague dream and a quiet sleep in your own chamber
to find yourself in the midst of a city which infuriated armies are
sacking. Among these wild and motley masses at the mines, as
well as among the dead who fell on the journey, were many mem-
bers of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Some of our minis-
ters were also" among these transient multitudes.
All was transient. A city of tents would spring up where gold
abounded, and if ' ' better diggings ' ' were discovered elsewhere, the
city would vanish in a week, leaving perhaps a dozen Chinamen to
rewash "the tailings." Four hundred thousand letters were re-
turned from California to the dead letter office in a single year.
The soldiers in our great civil war were more permanent and far
more readily found than were these mining populations.
Ruffians and Christian gentlemen, preachers and people, all
alike went to California to dig gold. The scholarly clerg^'man girt
himself with a revolver and shouldered his spade. Alas, too, that
it should be necessary to add that some of these clergymen became
notorious gamblers before they left the mines. A young minister
was fitted out by the Rev. Hugh B. Hill and furnished money to
go to California and preach to the miners. This was in the begin-
ning of the great rush thither. This young man made his way to
the Golden Gate, and there, after six months among the pioneers,
set up a gambling saloon. Nor was his the only case of this kind.
This unfortunate feature of the history of the church in California
is mentioned that it may be known that our true men in that field
had such traitors in their camp, and were crippled in their work
for Jesus by their evil example.
But some true men went with their families to California in
1849, aiming to preach as much as was consistent with their cir-
cumstances. They all had their own families to support. Our
board sent no missionary to California until ten years later. The
only men who remained true to their calling among the first Cum-
berland Presbyterian preachers in that country were those who re-
ceived no help from the Church.
The first of these to arrive in California was Rev. John B.
350 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
Braly. ' He went from Oregon and settled first at Fremont. Put-
ting up a canvas structure, he established a Christian boarding-
house for the miners. He was then without property, but he soon
made money. On the 4th of July, 1849, ^^^ began his ministry to
the gold diggers, Indians, and heathen. Some say his was the
first Protestant preaching in California.
Another true man and faithful minister in that field was the
Rev. T. A. Ish. In a letter dated Sacramento City, March 25,
1850, which was published in the Cumberland Presbyterian^ he
says he "left the land of civilization" on the 5th of May, 1849,
and arrived in California September 12. In the latter part of the
journey the cattle grew so weak that they had to be abandoned,
and were left to perish in the desert. The letter continues:
When I arrived here I was worn out with the fatigue of the jour-
ney and much debilitated by an attack of fever. In a short time, how-
ever, I recovered my health, and it has been unusually good ever since.
For a time I stopped in the vicinity of Fort Sutler, a town of four or
five tliousand inhabitants, mostly intelligent and energetic men. I aft-
erward came to Sacramento City, and will probably stay here during
my residence in California. I, with many others, had something of the
gold fever, yet I could not content myself to sit down as an idler in the
Lord's vineyard. After consulting a few of the brethren and friends,
I resolved to make an effort to have a house of worship erected. The
house is now completed, in good order, and is a comfortable room, well
furnished, where some three or four hundred persons may comfortably
sit and hear the gospel of peace. The city has so enlarged that we
want several churches. You can not imagine how much good it did us
on last Sabbath week, and yesterday, to meet in our church to worship
together. The Rev. J. M. Cameron and myself have both preached
each Sabbath since the completion of our room. He came to this city
a few weeks since with his famil}', but he is talking of leaving this place
and going lower down in the country.
There are several substantial members of our church here, and I
think we could after a while organize a tolerably respectable congrega-
tion. We have enough ordained preachers in this country to form a
presbytery, but gold has such a distracting influence that I do not know
whether they can be got together or not. The Rev. J. E. Braly is in
the town of Fremont, twenty-five or thirty miles above Sacramento
'Some saj the Rev. J. M. Small was first, but give no dates. I believe Braly
was first.
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CaUFORNIA. 351
City. Brothers Mansfield and Moore are in the mines. These, as far as
I know, are the only Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in this country.
Here are people from every nation under heaven who much need
the gospel. The harvest is white, but the laborers are few. Strikingly
was my mind impressed last night at our prayer-meeting by the petition
offered in every prayer, "Lord, send more laborers into thy vineyard!"
This was sanctioned by hearty amens from all the praying band. It is
only now and then, amidst the busy throng, that I am permitted to see
the face of a minister of the gospel. The Methodists have a good
church here, and a faithful man to preach to them. The miners in
many parts are said to be doing very well, obtaining from $16 to $50
per day.
The Rev. Cornelius Yager has long been a faithful Cumberland
Presbyterian minister in California. With six motherless children
he arrived in that country in 1850. He had a hard journey across
the plains, and had to go immediately to work to earn bread. At
first the only opportunity open to him for work and wages was to
do hauling with his ox teams. From that day to this Mr. Yager
has labored with his own hands for bread, preaching regularly on
Sabbaths. Once, for the sake of sacred interests, he consented to
represent his fellow-citizens in the legislature. A man of peace, a
hard worker, a safe counselor, he has been of great service to our
little churches in his adopted State.
In 1854, Linville Dooley, a married man, and a candidate for
the ministr}^, arrived with his family in California. He had been
there as a gold miner before he made up his mind to enter the min-
istry. This time he went to this country exclusively to preach
Christ. He went at his own charges, with the deliberate purpose
of bearing any and all privations that might come to him in the
prosecution of his chosen life work. He has never swerved from
this purpose. Receiving less than three hundred dollars annually
for his labors, and supporting a large family in a land where meat
was at first a dollar per pound, he has gone faithfully on in his
work for thirty-two years. He has organized a number of congre-
gations and received many converts into the church. Much of his
time has been spent ' ' on the circuit ' ' among the miners. Through
all these years he has faithfully kept a diary. He has preached on
the streets, in drinking saloons, in dance-houses, in gambling dens,
352 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
in hotel dining-rooms, and in other strange places. Some idea of
the character of communities in which he has held meetings may
be gathered from the names of the towns mentioned in his diary.
Samples of these are Humbug, Red Dog, You Bet, Poker Flat, and
Gouge Eye.
Although Mr. Dooley is now old, and of course has accumu-
lated no worldly wealth, he says he expects to pursue the same
calling till the Master takes him home. He sa}^s he has no regrets
over his long years of privation, but would bear it all over again
if he had to start at the beginning with a full knowledge of all
the hardships. Regrets? ah no! Let those have regrets who have
been false to their Lord and their high calling.
A description of a California meeting held by the Rev. E. C.
Latta, another faithful Cumberland Presbyterian pioneer on the
Pacific coast, will give the reader an idea of the difficulties under
which the first preachers in that country sometimes labored. Latta
was earning his bread by hunting. A hotel at which he boarded
bought his venison. He got permission from Jim, the hotel
keeper, to have preaching in the bar-room. When Sabbath came
the only two women in all the country' came to the meeting. Gam-
blers, too, were there, busy at their cards. Latta interrupted their
games, saying, "Boys, it's my put in now. Jim says I may preach
in this room. Just mark your place and wait till I preach."
And then, without preliminaries, he began his sermon. When the
sermon was over the gamblers returned to their cards.
It was difficult to determine what synod had jurisdiction in Cal-
ifornia. The Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in this State
wanted to form a presbytery, but no order had been passed author-
izing such an organization. In this emergency they resolved to
organize without any formal order, and to ask the General Assem-
bly to recognize the new presbytery and attach it to some synod.
In the house of J. E. Braly, on the 4th of April, 1851, Cornelius
Yager, W. Gallimore, James M. Small, and John E. Braly, all
ordained ministers, constituted the California Presbytery. The
next General Assembly approved their action, and attached the
presbytery to the Missouri Synod, whose jurisdiction extended also
to Oregon.
Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 353
So long as the great mass of the population had less local per-
manency than a great army in the midst of war, church organiza-
tions were also without permanence. In traveling over this State
one may hear the history of such mushroom churches in almost
all the counties; and yet who shall dare say that the results were
not permanent? "By Yuba's red waters" the grave of the miner
who died three thousand miles from his mother's fireside is all
unmarked and unknown ; but amid the blessed spirits of light and
glory who gather along the banks of the river of life, the immortal
soul saved in the mushroom church now reigns in deathless glory.
Not lost were those transient labors among those transient peoples.
One of the pioneer churches which did not melt away like
morning mists was the Mountain View church, in Santa Clara
County. It was organized in 1852 by the Rev. J. E. Braly. Mr.
Braly long ministered to that flock.
In the very beginning of our denominational work in this
State the Rev. J. M. Small planted a church and built a house of
worship in Napa City. In the neighborhood of one of Mr. Small's
congregations, in 1852, some young unmarried men sustained a
camp-meeting. The same year Mr. Small and others held a meet-
ing in Sonoma, and secured money to build a house of worship.
The Pacific Presbytery was organized in 1854, in the house of
the Rev. J. M. Cameron. This presbytery established an academy
at Sonoma, which in i860 was turned over to the synod and called
Cumberland College. It had a short but useful career. It was the
first Cumberland Presbyterian school in California. There was
wrangling over the location, and this, according to Mr. Dooley, was
ultimately the cause of its death. Another, or at least an auxiliary
cause can be found in the flitting away of all the first population
of Sonoma. German wine growers now own the principal part of
the beautiful country around the old college buildings. That
rivalry and divided counsels injured not only Cumberland College
at Sonoma, but other church work in California, is however a pain-
ful fact. The history of these diflferences and disputes would make
a long chapter, but it would be useless to record it here.
■ The Board of Missions was instructed by the General Assembly
(1855) to send a man to California before opening any other new
23
354 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
mission. For years the board reported that all efiforts to secure a
man for that field had failed. Finally, in 1859, ^^^^ Rev. W. N,
Cunningham was sent to Stockton, California. Nothing more was
done, however, than to pay the missionary's way to his field of
labor, the board seeming to have the impression that he could live
on what our people in Stockton could pay him. On his arrival he
found in that city a few members of our church, but no organized
congregation. He received such small compensation for his labors
that he suffered for the actual necessities of life. He struggled
alone and in destitution till he secured money to build a church,
but was driven at last by sheer starvation to seek other work.
He next took charge of Sonoma College. This institution was
overwhelmed in debts when he entered upon its management. He
labored till these debts were paid off. He raised twelve thousand
dollars to build a new college edifice, remaining twelve years in all
at Sonoma. He has since combined some secular business for the
support of his family with his work of preaching. This he did
not do till he had been driven to it by the most pressing necessity.
In this combined work he has built up and helped to build up sev-
eral churches. Mr, Cunningham has suffered long from hope
deferred. The church did just nothing to help the struggling few
who went to California to preach the gospel. Had even one mis-
sionary been sustained in that field the case would not be so bad;
but while other churches were paying salaries and building houses
of worship in California, the pioneer preachers of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church had to earn their own bread and preach with-
out pay.
Speaking of the paper started by Rev. T. M. Johnston in i860,
and of the college at Sonoma, the Rev. D. E. Bushnell, D.D., says
in a published article:
Both of these enterprises have been connected with nearly all of
our subsequent history, though both have ceased to exist in fact though
not in influence. When the full history of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church on the Pacific slope shall have been written, there will be
found two enterprises inseparably connected with its record, and the
forces that have contributed toward the results already achieved, viz.:
Cumberland College aVid the Pacific Observer. And indissolubly con-
nected with these invaluable agencies for Christ and his cause are the
Chapter XXXIIL] OrEGON AND CALIFORNIA. 355
names of the sainted Johnston, the founder and for ten years the pro-
prietor and editor of our church journal, who has gone to reap the
reward which was wholly denied him in this life, and the indefatigable
and heroic Cunningham, whose indomitable will and lofty courage bore
up the cherished college enterprise when the hearts of others failed
them. . . . Working in the same general direction, but resulting fi^om
an unfortunate and ever-to-be-regretted division and diversion of the
energies of our little band of builders in the spiritual wilderness, so sadly
common in such cases, were the Union Academy at Alamo, and the
San Joaquin College near Stockton. After short careers of struggle,
though at times well manned and liberally patronized, and accomplish-
ing no little good for the communities in which they were located, these
institutions lost all their property by accidental fires, and having no
endowment, ceased. No well-defined effort has since been made to
establish a church school in the name of the Cumberland Presbyterians
of California.
What a pity that our people could not concentrate their college
work even in that feeble frontier! They tried to have three col-
leges, and ended in having none at all.
The Rev. T. M. Johnston was an earnest preacher, a sound the-
ologian, a safe counselor, and an indefatigable worker. When
others wrangled, he wept. When others sought self, he toiled for
Jesus. When it was attempted to involve him in these unfortu-
nate disputes, he removed to another presbytery. He was a peace-
maker, ready to bind up the wounds of those that had been
wronged or injured, ready to pray with them and remind them of
what Jesus suffered while achieving the world's redemption.
The fascinating opportunities to acquire wealth both in farming
and in mining were a snare in which many a preacher became
involved. Many of these opportunities bore a striking resemblance
to gambling. One year a single crop would yield net profits suffi-
cient to buy a ranch. Another year, in some parts of the State,
the crop would not repay what the seed cost. There were many
ministerial wrecks, caused in most cases by an undue haste to be
rich.
The difficulties in the way of faithful Cumberland Presbyte-
rian evangelists in this State were at first appalling. Besides the
transient nature of the population, the mixture of nationalities
and creeds was a serious obstacle. Educated infidels abounded.
356 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
As late as 1877 infidel lecturers were ready to confront the earnest
advocates of the gosj^el in nearly all the California towns. But
above all else, the mad rush for wealth was and is the thing most
unfriendly to the development of spiritual life. Steady honest toil
is mocked at by men who ride horseback eighty miles a day, who
feed three hundred hands all through harvest, who talk only about
hundreds of thousands when speaking of their future expectations.
But there are for Cumberland Presbyterians advantages of no
mean character in that field. Of all the States, California is the
most thoroughly national. It is neither Northern nor Southern;
or rather it is both. So, too, is our church, and so was it even
while the war was at its worst. California is constantly receiving
emigration from our churches. Some of our best men go there.
With a delightful climate, a wonderful soil, an invigorating atmos-
phere, and a world of natural wonders; with a grand system of
free schools, and throngs of the world's ablest scholars and think-
ers constantly pouring in among its motley society — it is by all
odds the most fascinating as well as the most difficult field our
church has ever undertaken to cultivate. They do nothing by
halves in California — at least not in the financial world. Small,
slow-going enterprises are not likely to live in that country. Other
churches send large sums of money and strong missionaries; Cum-
berland Presbyterians send one man at a time for a whole State,
and have but recently done that.
Our people have now in that State three presbyteries. The
directory for 1886 shows that the California Presbytery has fourteen
ordained preachers, three licentiates, and one candidate. The Sac-
ramento Presbytery has seven ordained ministers, two licentiates,
and no candidate. The Tulare Presbyter}' has twelve ordained
ministers, one licentiate, and one candidate. A home supph- of
preachers is one of the great wants of our church in California
and everywhere.
Some of the same men who planted the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church in California also organized a few churches in Idaho,
but our people never had strength enough in that Territory to call
for any separate history.
Chapter XXXIV.] SMALL BEGINNINGS. 357
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SUNDRY SMALL BEGINNINGS — NORTH CAROLINA,
WEST VIRGINIA, GEORGIA, KANSAS.
All the lessons He shall send
Are the sweetest;
And his training, in the end,
Is completest.
—F. Ji. H,
THE history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in North
Carolina is soon written. Before 1842, under church direc-
tion, missionary tours were made through this State by Reuben
Burrow and Robert Donnell. They held meetings for the revival
party of the Presbyterian church. They had gracious revivals, but
they uniformly declined to organize churches. At a later day our
church in East Tennessee began to extend a little into North Car-
olina, and a few zealous men thought the way was open to push
the work far into that State. Young men pressed beyond the bor-
ders, organized some feeble churches, and published appeals for
help; but the church did not respond, and these little picket sta-
tions were abandoned.
Cumberland Presbyterians have penetrated into West Virginia
through the natural expansion of the church in western Pennsyl-
vania, and mainly under the ministry of Pennsylvania pastors liv-
ing near enough to give a part of their time to the work beyond
the State line. One congregation in West Virginia has considera-
ble strength, but our people have no presbytery in that State, and
never had any missionary in that field.
It was by the natural expansion of the forces of the church that
Cumberland Presbyterians extended their boundaries into Georgia.
In East Tennessee and in Alabama, all along the Georgia border,
there are congregations of our people. Members of these churches
were constantly moving to Georgia, and writing back to their pas-
358 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
tors to come and preach for them. Prominent among the minis-
ters who responded to this call was the Rev. A. Templeton, then
of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Finally one of our preachers settled
in Georgia. This was the Rev. Z. M. McGhee. The war made
Georgia the temporary home of many a Cumberland Presbyterian
minister, the Rev. A. Templeton among the rest.
An anecdote of Templeton taken from the papers is here con-
densed. He was preaching at a Georgia meeting-house at a time
when either blue coats or gray might be expected at church. Sure
enotlgfh at one meeting the gray coats were there. The services
began, and were progressing quietly, but with deep interest, when
lip rode a company of blue coats. Mr. Templeton turned to the
Southern soldiers and said: "Keep your seats. If you really want
to worship God, he will not allow you to be hurt." They remained
in their seats. The Federal soldiers then entered. Mr. Templeton
said to them: " Please be seated, gentlemen, and let us all worship
God a few moments together." They did as he requested. In a
few moments the whole house was in tears. The petty contests of
this little life were all forgotten. Eternal things pressed every
heart. There were that day souls born of God. When the bene-
diction was pronounced, each company of soldiers followed its own
leader and went quietly away without any fighting.
Cumberland Presbyterians have in Georgia one little presbyter}'
with nine ministers, four licentiates, and two candidates. We have
no missionary in this field, though precious interests are at stake
there. At Rome there are several valuable members, but they
have no house of worship and no minister. In Atlanta our people
once had a mission, but it was allowed to die, although the influx
of members from Alabama and Tennessee might in a few years
have made it self-sustaining.
Kansas was settled amid scenes of blood, not blood shed b}-
Indians, but brothers butchering brothers. There were Cumber-
land Presbyterians in both the angry parties which struggled for
supremacy in that State. The repeal of "the Missouri compro-
mise" and the law leaving the first settlers to decide for themselves
whether Kansas should be a free or a slave State opened the gates
of civil war. No full history of that bloody struggle has ever been
Chapter XXXIV.] KANSAS. 359
written. It was crowded back into forgetfulness by the greater
contest which so soon followed. Nevertheless it was really a war,
with armies, battles, and campaigns — war to the knife between two
parties coming to live in the same Territory.
Kansas was opened to white settlers late in 1854, under an act
that led slave and free States alike to send armed emigrants thither,
each aiming to keep out the other party by force. The rush of
emigrants was stimulated by the angry political strife of the day.
To gain in Congress the votes of a new State was the aim of each
party; to use force in keeping out emigrants from States unfavor-
able to the schemes of its partisans was the policy of each.
A peaceably disposed Cumberland Presbyterian emigrant, while
on his way to Kansas in 1854 to preach Jesus to the settlers, wrote
a letter which was published in the church paper. He thus
describes the scene at the ferry across the Missouri River at Weston,
Missouri :
The crowd of passengers wishing to cross had become so great that
we were somewhat doubtful of the safety of embarking on so crazy a
craft with so large a number of passengers. The ferryman assured us,
however, that there was no danger, and that if we waited until the next
trip we would only find matters worse, as the crowd would probably
be greater than it now was. We, therefore, ventured on his boat, but
such cramming and jamming of buggies, wagons, horses, mules, and
footmen on a little crazy steam ferry-boat we have never seen, and do
not care to see again soon. We took the pains to count them and found
that there were about eighty persons on board, most of whom were
going over into the new Territory to stake out their claims and take
possession of the soil. They were generally equipped according to
border life, having a set of camping furniture, besides axes, hatchets,
butcher and Bowie-knives, guns, pistols, and other weapons of the
chase ^nd of warfare, offensive and defensive. We began to feel as if
we had got into the wrong crowd, being entirely unarmed, whilst every
one about us seemed to be armed to the teeth. A more daring, reso-
lute, reckless set of men we have scarcely ever looked upon. Each
man seemed to say by his airs and gait, " I am able, single-handed and
alone, to vindicate my rights against all intruders." Still we found
that beneath this rough and forbidding exterior there was generally a
current of warm and genial feeling.
The river once passed, they branched off in every direction, each
in search of some spot on which to locate his claim. As we rode off
360 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
we saw on the other biiiik another company equally large awaiting the
return of the boat. The ferryman a^suied us that he had been kept
busily engaged from morning till night tor the last two or three weeks
in ferrying immigrants. Most of those whom we saw were from
upper Ivlissouri, but they were already beginning to arrive in consider-
able numbers from all the Western States, though but a single month
had elapsed since the opening of the country.
Kansas did not become a State of the Union till 1861, but sol-
diers of the Cross were as ready to rusli thither in the beginning
as the soldiers of political parties. Early in 1855, under the min-
istry of the Rev. C. B. Hodges, the Round Prairie church was
formed. This, it is claimed, was the first Cumberland Presbyte-
rian consfreijation orcranized on Kansas soil. According to an
order of Missouri Synod, Kansas Presbytery was organized Novem-
ber 16, 1855.' The original members were W. W. Bell, Benjamin
McCrary, C. B. Plodges, A. A. Moore, Thomas Allen, and O. Guth-
rie. The two last named were not present at the organization.
The presbytery met in a school-house in Leavenworth County,
near the dwelling of the Rev. B. McCrary. A. A. ]\Ioore was
moderator. There were some licentiates and candidates from the
first, and one of the licentiates, A. P. Searcy, was ordered to pre-
pare for ordination at the next meeting.
This presbytery had all of Kansas for its field, though a large
portion of the territory was without a single inhabitant. All of
its ministers lived north of Kansas River, while settlements
abounded south of the river, and earnest appeals came up from
that region begging for the bread of life. The presbytery took
the very best steps in its power toward respotiding to these appeals,
urging all the churches and every member to contribute money to
sectire preachers. At its very first meeting it passed strong resolu-
tions against whisky. Of the original members two still live,
Moore and Hodges.
Leavenworth Presbytery was next organized, and then followed
two others. The territory assigned to these new presbyteries was
all carved out of the field first assigned to Kansas Presbytery. The
'Valuable extracts from the Minutes and other items were furnished me by the
stated clerk, the Rev. William Spencer.
Chapter XXXIV.] KANSAS. 361
original Kansas Presbytery now has twenty-five congregations and
nine hundred and eighteen communicants. There is still great
need of more preachers in that country. There are Cumberland
Presbyterian families scattered over all the State. The Rev. W.
Spencer and the Rev. R. H. Shearer are the only Cumberland Pres-
byterian ministers in Kansas who are natives of that State.
In 1857 the Missionary Board at Lebanon, Tennessee, commis-
sioned the Rev. A. A. Moore to travel as missionary in Kansas.
He spent several years in this work and had good success. In
1859 the board sent the Rev. J. B. Green (now the Rev. Dr. Green,
of Nebraska) to travel as missionary in the country around Fort
Leavenworth. He had some very fruitful revivals and did valuable
service.
The Directory, 1886, shows that Kansas Presbytery has thirteen
ministers, two licentiates, and one candidate; Leavenworth Pres-
bytery five, and Republican Valley Presbytery eight ministers;
and Wichita Presbytery, twelve ministers and one candidate. The
members of the church in Kansas should ask the Lord to call their
own sous to preach the gospel.
362 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
CHAPTER XXXV.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Hush, my troubled heart be still,
God is faithful come what will.
— Anna Shipton.
THERE has always been a party in the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church opposed to concentration, and another party
which has believed it necessary to combine the forces of the church
in some of the greater enterprises, especially in our denominational
schools. Milton Bird and F. R. Cossitt, as editors respectively of
the two leading church papers, took opposite sides of this ques-
tion. The policy advocated by Dr. Cossitt was concentration on
one or two colleges, one or two papers, and one theological school.
Though Robert Donnell and many other thoughtful men gave their
voices on this side of the question, their views did not prevail.
The church had to learn by experience, and this period, from 1842
to i860, was full of lessons on this subject. •
It was no uncommon thing for a single presbyter}^' to resolve to
have an endowed college of its own. Thus, Tennessee Presbyter}^,
in 1850, resolved to establish and endow a college. Purdy College
had a still smaller ecclesiastical backing. Such efforts showed
clearly that many of our people had no correct idea of what con-
stitutes a college. We had at one time in this period fifteen char-
tered colleges for young men, besides several similar institutions
for young ladies. Fifteen does not exhaust the list for the whole
period, but this is the largest number that simultaneously existed.
Some of the schools did not live five years.
But, in the course of time, these evils began to correct them-
selves. Young men who went from these mushroom colleges to
real ones had their eyes opened. The little school which suddenly
sprung up as a rival of an older institution and called itself a col-
lege, soon found some other little college springing up in its field,
Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 363
rivaling it, until, sooner or later, came the death agonies of both.
Of the fifteen Cumberland Presbyterian colleges which, in 1859,
had a name to live, only three now survive. Each of these three
had secured some little endowment, though by no means enough.
For more than twenty years the General Assembly tried to
obtain harmonious reports from the presbyteries in reference to a
theological school. Some of the presbyteries favored presbyterial,
and some synodical, and some General Assembly schools. There
was no harmony, and the Assembly waited, declaring meantime its
opinion that it would be wisest to establish one school for the
whole church. At different times this question was sent down to
the presbyteries; but while the responses showed a steady increase;
in the number of voices in favor of giving the exclusive control of
such schools to the General Assembly, there was still too much
conflict to allow that body to establish such an institution.
The last reference of this question to the presbyteries was made
in 1848, and when the response came back in 1849 with something
like unanimity in favor of a theological school under the control
of the General Assembly, there was great rejoicing. Steps were
taken at once toward the establishment of such a school. At first
the rival claims of two colleges made the Assembly agree that
there should be two schools; but this matter was soon adjusted,
and one school for the whole church, to be located at Lebanon,
Tennessee, was undertaken.
There were some delays in getting this school into successful
operation. Meantime the Assembly of 1852 was thrown into con-
fusion by the action of Bethel College, in West Tennessee. Before
the charter of this college was a year old it resolved to establish a
theological school and send out agents for its endowment, appeal-
ing to the whole church for contributions. This had the appear-
ance of an attempt to head off" the General Assembly. West Ten-
nessee Synod, under whose control Bethel College held its charter,
had many members who opposed this measure. So, too, had even
the Board of Trust and Faculty of- Bethel College. There were,
however, three controlling spirits who advanced the scheme and
carried it through the synod. These were Reuben Burrow, J. N.
Roach, and C. J. Bradley.
364 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv
Three years prior to this action Mr. Roach had been in charge of
a flourishing school for young ladies at Lebanon, Tennessee. When
the school was in its greatest prosperity grave charges were made
against Mr. Roach, of which he was afterward fully acquitted; but
although he was doubtless innocent of the things charged against
him, yet the tide of public prejudice ran high enough to break up
his school. Deeply hurt, he left Lebanon and went immediately
to West Tennessee and set to work to establish a college there. As
West Tennessee lay between Lebanon and the field from which the
university at Lebanon drew its principal patronage, many questioned
the wisdom of this course. Mr. Roach, though not a thorough
scholar, was a man of splendid natural abilities, and he had an
amazing capacity for hard work. He had, too, a commanding
influence over the common people, and his plan for the establish-
ment of a college was carried through the West Tennessee Synod
mainly by his personal influence. He next planned a theological
department, naming Dr. Burrow and the Rev. C. J. Bradley as
prospective professors.
West Tennessee Synod was then in a sharp controversy with
Lebanon men about the revision of the Confession of Faith. Dr.
Burrow was not only a leader in advocating revision, but, on va-
rious points, he held doctrines which were not in strict harmony
with the creed of the church, and he seemed to feel under solemn
obligations to propagate his peculiar views. A theological school
would enable him more effectually to do this, therefore Mr. Roach
easily won him to his plans. Burrow's voice carried the measure
through the synod.
When the General Assembly of 1852 met severe resolutions of
condemnation against this project of Bethel College were offered,
and after hot discussion were in a fair way to pass, when the Rev.
C. J. Bradley rose in his place and warned the Assembly that the
passage of these resolutions would be the signal for the secession
of West Tennessee Synod. That was then the largest synod in the
church. Mr. Bradley's announcement checked proceedings. The
Assembly adopted pacific measures, simply entreating the lower
judicatures to co-operate with the Assembly's school, and left
Bethel College to pursue its course. For many years Dr. Burrow's
Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 365
theological pupils adopted the Confession of Faith only in part,
openly stating their partial adoption of the book at their ordina-
tion.
This case suggests a very different matter. One of the living
questions now pressing on all the denominations is how to protect
their theological schools from teachers who change their views
after their appointment to professorships.
In the chapter on missions it was seen that it was with difficulty
that co-operation with a general board was secured. There were
fears by some that the general board would become a pope. But
the danger in the Cumberland Presbyterian church has never been
in the direction of the pope, but in the other direction. Independ-
ence, which regards neither session, presbytery, assembly, nor the
general welfare, has more frequently paralyzed our enterprises.
There is a medium between the centralization which makes a pope
and the private independence which makes anarchy. God in his
providence is slowly leading the church to this medium ground.
One of the measures often proposed in the General Assembly
in this period was the consolidation of the church papers. There
were at one time seven of these weeklies. It cost a preacher not
less than fourteen dollars to secure the news from all parts of the
field, while a communication intended for the whole church had to
be sent to seven editors. Each of the seven had a circulation
mainly local, and the support of each was too meager to command
first-class facilities. To have one paper owned by the church, or the
presbyteries, was one of the plans proposed. It is a curious fact
that the New York Observer took a special interest on the negative
side of this discussion. Its objection was that the scheme put too
much power into the hands of one editor.
A sample of the arguments used by those who favored this plan
is found in the following extract from a communication published
in the Watchman and Evangelist:
A change has come over me in regard to the church paper which
has been so much talked of. The arguments in favor of one paper
for the whole church preponderate in my judgment. A like change is
discoverable in those who, in this region, take any of our papers.
"In union there is strength," is an indisputable maxim. Had the
366 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
church adhered to this in all its important undertakings, our spiritual
momentum would have been greater than it now is. Had no more lit-
erary institutions been planted than the pecuniary ability of the church
could have amply furnished and rendered potent, our educational facili-
ties would have been far in advance of what they now are. Mere local
interests have operated against the general good, and originated, here and
there, schools of various grades until they have become so numerous as
to be burdensome and meagerly supported. A similar error has been
committed in our publishing enterprises. Local interests have been re-
garded as the sine qua non, until blindness to the general well-being of
the whcfle body has come over our eyes.
One presbytery or synod conceives it to be important that a paper
should be published within its bounds to advocate the cause in that
quarter. Another, in another portion of the body, is actuated by a simi-
lar reason, and so on until the patronage of the church is cut up into
small sectional divisions, and none of the papers sufficiently well sup-
ported to give us even one of the right character. By this division of
our strength, our name and influence evidently suffer. The Cumber-
land Presbyterian church has had experience of this kind to its sorrow.
Why should we support this evil policy in regard to an enterprise which
affects so directly the vital interests of the whole church.^ Or will we
continue to disregard those lessons of wisdom to be learned from our
past history?
Another evil growing out of the strenuous advocacy of these local
publishing interests is strife. An attempt to originate a paper and sup-
port it in a body already too feeble to maintain well what it has, curtails
the patronage of those of prior existence. But each watches its own
interests with a jealous eye, and upon the first appearance of infringe-
ment upon its dominions takes up the sword, and the result not unfre-
quently is the disturbance of the peace of the church by a newspaper
war. Has there not been sad experience in this very thing?
This writer also pressed two other arguments: the cost to one per-
son who desired to take all the papers and secure the news from the
whole church, and the fact that all seven of the weeklies copied
from one another, so that such a subscriber got much of the same
matter in all of the seven papers.
On the negative I find all the arguments are capable of reduction
to these: It was claimed that local interests in remote parts of the
church would suffer under the one paper plan, and that more peo-
ple can be induced to take a paper published in their own locality
than one from a distant part of the church.
Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 367
One writer pressed another and a strong argument in these
words :
Should controversy arise on important subjects, under the trammels
of the "one paper" system the editorial authority would have the right
to sit in judgment upon the propriety of admitting or not admitting
articles on either side in controversy, which might unknowingly be pro-
ductive of much ill-feeling, and do great injury to certain brethren and
some portion of the church. Should the editorial authority come to the
conclusion, as has once occurred, that nothing should be published until
the judicature had taken action, then the whole church must abide the
decisions for the time, or appear in the unenviable attitude of scattering
church dissensions in secular newspapers.
The one paper scheme failed, but the Assembly appealed to the
editors to combine and reduce the number of papers. In this way,
and still more by the failure of several of the weaker publications,
the number was considerably diminished. There was a deeper les-
son from financial failure than from the voice of the Assembly.
The books published by Cumberland Presbyterians in this
period were neither many nor large. It was a time of too great
activity in planting churches and inaugurating new enterprises to
allow much book making. One of the most valuable books ever
published on the subject of training children was Dr. Lindley's
Infant Philosophy. The stereotype plates for this book were lost
in 1858, and it has never been republished. The copyright was
bought by the Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Publication at
Louisville in 1853. ^^- E- ^- Crisman's little volume, "The Ori-
gin and Doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church," met a
demand which was keenly felt prior to that time. The Rev. John
L. Dillard published a little book in reply to Lewis A. Lowry,
who left the Cumberland Presbyterian church and bitterly attacked
it in a volume which was brought out by the Presbyterian Pub-
lishing House. It was the general opinion among our people
that Dillard gave the young man a well-deserved castigation. Va-
rious newspapers of other churches expressed the same opinion.
Mr. Lowry 's book was in the form of letters addressed to his fa-
ther, the Rev. David Lowry. The latter, it is said, never read a
line of these letters.
One of the most scholarly books of this period was, ' ' The Life
368 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
and Times of Ewing," by Dr. Cossitt. The very nature of the
subject made the book necessarily controversial. At the close of
the book is a severe but able review of Davidson's History of the
Presbyterian Church in Kentucky. But most of our people have
grown tired of fighting over the old battles with the Presbyterian
church, and such is their lack of interest in this subject that they
will not buy books devoted to that old contest. The writer of these
pages has been entreated by many of the purest and best men in
the Cumberland Presbyterian church to pass over all that old bit-
terness just as lightly as the truth of history will permit. This
he has done.'
President Anderson's Life of George Donnell was published in
this period, and is generally regarded as the best biographical book
in our church. It would be hard to find a better biography in any
church.
Dr. Beard began the publication of his great work on systematic
theology in this period. These lectures present the genuine origi-
nal Cumberland Presbyterian system of doctrine. There is more
Calvinism in the book than some of our modern theologians like,
but not more than the whole of the first generation of our minis-
ters preached. This book will stand as a landmark from which we
can measure from age to age any drifting away of our theology
from orthodoxy.
While Dr. Beard was never brilliant, and never relied on any
extemporaneous afflatus, his profound and patient research always
went to the bottom of any subject which he investigated, and then
swept around all the adjacent field before he attempted to write his
lecture. Loyalty to Scripture, without a particle of ambition for
originality, marked all his work. From first to last there is in his
book no harsh word about other theological systems or teachers.
He labored simply, by prayer and severe study, to give God's sys-
tem as it is found in the Bible. With a profound knowledge of the
original Scripture, with a world-wide acquaintance with theolog-
ical writers, he devoted the best years of his noble life to the prep-
aration of his lectures. If his church ever fails to appreciate this
• It is necessary to know something of the number of false charges made against
our people before the extent of mj forbearance in this matter can be appreciated.
Rev. R. 0. Watk ins.
Rev. Reuben Burrow.D.D.
Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D.
Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 369
book, SO much the worse for the church. There are so many orig-
inal thinkers in modern times that it is hard to find among them
one who is willing to draw all his theology from God's own revela-
tion. Human philosophy must shape and sqil^re and trim and
smooth the Scripture system, eliminating here, supplementing
there, until with great truth the original thinker can at last say.
This is my system.
About twenty other books were brought out by Cumberland
Presbyterians in this period, but none of them call for any special
notice in this history. There was not a single devotional book
published by any of our people, nor has there been to this day any
great amount of devotional literature among our publications.
Controversial writings, usque ad nauseam^ we have had, but very
few works which would ever lead a soul to Christ. The second
period in the history of the church presented better things in this
respect than the fourth.
In this period there were long controversies on doctrinal ques-
tions. One of these questions was whether or not faith should ever
be called the gift of God. On both sides in this controversy there
seemed to be fears that the other party held doctrines which it not
only did not avow but indignantly disclaimed. A patient study
of all the long controversy has satisfied the writer that there was
no difference at all between the parties about the real nature of
faith. Both said that the sinner could not believe unto salvation
without the Holy Spirit's aid, and that the act of believing was the
act of the sinner thus aided, and not the act of the Holy Spirit.
The disputants agreed, too, as to the manner in which the Holy
Spirit aids the sinner — that he sheds light on the way of salvation,
on the wonderful love and the gracious words of Christ to all who
seek him, until the heart is won to trust him. The real question
was whether this assistance thus given by the Spirit justifies us in
calling faith a grace — a gift of God. One party charged the other
with holding that faith is created in the sinner's heart by a divine
act. The other party retorted : ' ' You hold to an unaided human
faith, merely historical." Neither charge was just.
There was also a long controversy about sanctification. One
party, led by Dr. Reuben Burrow, advocated the Zinzendorfian
24
370 CuMBERLANr) Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
view of sanctification. The other party, and by far the larger one,
held to the doctrine of the Confession, which is the same as the
doctrine of the Westminster Confession. There were also sharp
controversies between Dr. Burrow and his brethren generally on
various doctrines wherein Burrow differed from the Confession of
Faith. Infant justification was prominent among these subjects
of controversy. Dr. Burrow held that infants are born in a jus-
tified state.
There were so many points in which Burrow departed from the
traditional teachings of the church, and he pressed his views so
persistently in the church papers, that one presbytery finally took
official action, warning its young preachers against these doctrines.
This warning was published in the papers. Then came a sharp
controversy about the rights of presbyteries. Burrow said that
though he was not a member of this presbytery, nor amenable to
it, yet it had assumed to try and condemn him. In answer to this
it was said that the presbytery did not try men, but doctrines; that
the Book of Discipline made it the duty of presbyteries to condemn
erroneous doctrines which were injuring the peace of the church.
Burrow's friends then pleaded his noble service as an evangelist on
our frontiers as proof of his soundness in doctrine, and with that
the controversy closed.
Another controversy was about abolishing the synod. S. G.
Burney, D.D., led the affirmative in this discussion. Many of the
old men of the church took the other side. The synod was not
abolished. A proposition to revise the Confession of Faith was
also discussed. Some of the papers declined to publish any thing
on this subject. Others opened their columns, but men hesitated
to discuss general questions in local papers.
The tone of church controversies has greatly improved since
1842. The Rev. W. S. Langdon, while editor, announced this as his
rule: "No writer shall publish in these columns any thing about
his brethren which I would be unwilling to have him publish about
me."
In this fourth period camp-meetings in all the older portions of
the church died a lingering death. Of the later meetings of this
kind only a few were equal in results to those of earlier times. At
Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 37I
Bethel church, Carroll County, Tennessee, there were three camp-
meetings between 1846 and 1850, all of them like the old gatherings
of other days. John Barnett attended one of these meetings. Besides
preaching with holy ^^ower, he went from camp to camp, and from
person to person, preaching Christ in private interviews as well as
from the pulpit. At one of these meetings two hundred mourners
bowed simultaneously in the great congregation. The mighty
power of God was present.
An unusually large number of church trials occurred during
this period. Some men of the highest standing were arraigned on
the gravest charges before their presbyteries. The verdict in most
cases, not all, was "not guilty," and after years approved these
verdicts.
A long and profitless controversy over the restoration of J. A.
Dewoody to the ministry by one presbytery after he had been de-
posed by another, though always decided against, this restoration
kept finding new methods of getting before the General Assembly
and annoying that body.
There was a fierce controversy between Hopewell Presbytery and
a Methodist presiding elder over the reception by the presbytery of
a minister who had been deposed by the Methodists. The mem-
bers of the presbytery claimed that they had evidence that it was
personal spite in the elder which caused this man to be deposed.
There have been sundry instances of preachers coming to the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church from other denominations to escape
some difficulty with their own churches, but no such accession to
our ranks has ever proved valuable.
There were long newspaper debates during this period between
our people and the Baptists. These discussions were not always
conducted in a Christian spirit, and were injurious to both churches.
Dr. Burrow published a book on baptism full of hard sayings-
against the Baptists. This book was fiercely assailed by Dr. J.
R. Graves, of the Baptist church. Then there were oral de-
bates between him and Dr. Burrow, and between Burrow and the
Rev. James Hurt Bitter personal charges and a long and acrid
newspaper controversy followed. All through West Tennessee
Cumberland Presbyterians and Baptists became like Jews and
373 CUMBERtAND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period IV.
Samaritans. The cause of the Master suffered in both churches.
May no such unseemly strife ever occur again!
There was also a protracted controversy on doctrines between
Dr. Cossitt and the Presbyterians. It was conducted with ability
and in a Christian spirit on both sides, but there is no proof that
the doctrinal views of any one were changed by this discussion.
However, one good thing at least came of it. People saw that two
strong men could differ and discuss their differences without trans-
gressing the rules of Christian courtesy, or departing from the spirit
of the Master. Such a lesson was needed.
Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 373
CHAPTER XXXVI.
SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS.
All things are His, and all obej
His wonder working will;
E'en common things have life and speech,
And His command fulfill.
— A una Shipton,
IN 1843 Robert Donnell determined to establish a cliurcli in
Memphis, Tennessee, and for that purpose began a series of
meetings in that place. A great revival followed. Many promi-
nent citizens were converted, and Donnell organized a church.
This church promptly called him as its pastor, but he declined. He
however remained until he secured money enough to build a house
of worship. He wrote the subscription and made the canvass
himself It is said that ver^^ few persons refused to subscribe. This
house stood till about i860, when the large building now in use by
that congregation was erected.
Matthew H. Bone and Hugh B. Hill were boys together. Their
associations were of the most intimate character. They were con-
verted about the same time. One day Hill said to his dear young
friend: "If you will never tell any one I will communicate to you
a secret." Bone promised not to betray this confidence, where-
upon Hill said: "I believe God is calling me to preach the gospel."
Bone replied: "I believe he is calling me to the same work." The
two boys were alone together in the woods, and they wept and
prayed together there. Months passed away, and Hill had another
confidence to repose in his friend. It was that he had concluded
that it was all a mistake about God calling him to preach. To his
surprise he found his friend had also reached a similar conclusion.
So theybdth agreed to abandon all thoughts of preaching and turn
their attention to something else. It happened that they went to-
gether soon afterward to a camp-meeting. The leading preachers
374 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
of Kentucky were j^resent. Barnett preached, Chapman preached,
Delany preached. God's spirit was poured out. Again Hill sought
his friend and told him that all his old impressions had come back
stronger than ever. Bone made similar statements about his im-
pressions. Before the meeting closed one of the ministers asked
the two young men to go with him to the woods. It was the daily
custom at the camp-meetings to go to the woods for secret prayer.
The two young men were surprised on reaching the retreat in the
grove to find all the preachers there together. It was a precon-
certed arrangement. The old men wanted to talk to these two
young men about preaching. The result was that Hill and Bone
were advised to attend the next meeting of the presbytery and be-
come candidates for the ministry. After that these two friends
traveled together on the circuit. All their l\ves they worked to-
gether at camp-meeting's. Once they went together on a voluntary
mission to Ohio, and the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian
clun-ch at Lebanon, Ohio, is due to that mission. In Bone's man-
uscript he says that Hill in his riper years bitterly regretted that
the old men forced him away from school and put him on the cir-
cuit before his education was completed.
An aged minister, the Rev. Benjamin Watson, who began life
as a INIethodist, but joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church
afterward, gives at the close of his manuscript autobiography some
interesting reflections. He says his long experience has taught him
that the church's best members and most of its converts come from
the Sabbath-school; that giving to the poor is lending to the Lord,
and that only out-and-out consecration to the ministry has any
right to claim the gracious promises which God makes about the
preacher's temporal necessities. He tried teaching and preaching,
but could not claim these promises and did not realize their fulfill-
ment. For sixteen years he tested the other plan. He cast him-
self upon God to preach even if he starv-ed. Then he did claim
the promises and did realize their fulfillment.
Mr. Watson's history is interesting in many particulars. His
father bitterly opposed his entering the ministry-, and to prevent
his riding the circuit attempted to shoot his horse, but, just as he
fired, the gun was thrown up and the ball passed over the animal.
Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 375
Then the enraged father took his knife and cut his son's saddle,
bridle, and saddle-bags to pieces. Not content with that, he gath-
ered up all the young man's Sunday clothing, books and money,
and burned them. Then he struck his son with a walkino-stick,
and seized his watch chain, and jerking the watch out of his pocket
broke it against a post. The boy was then told to choose be-
tween giving up circuit riding and leaving his home forever. Ben-
jamin took his final choice then and there. He bade mother and
sister good-bye, and went to a neighbor's house. Next morning
a merchant called and invited him to go home with him. On his
arrival he found a number of ladies assembled for the purpose of
making him a suit of clothes. Bridle, saddle, clothing, and money
were all furnished him, and his own horse was brought from his
father's, and the young man went on his way preaching the gospel.
The Rev. P. G. Rea, in his manuscript history of the New
Lebanon Presb}tery of Missouri (organized 1832) gives some inter-
esting facts. He says: "Since its organization to 1885 this pres-
bytery has ordained thirty-two ministers, licensed forty-eight, and
has had under its care eighty-six -candidates. Eight thousand one
hundred and eighty-eight accessions, and over eleven thousand con-
versions have been reported." Some samples will show how the
preachers of this presbytery were compensated for their services:
"John Reed and W. B. Wear, as missionaries for six months, each
received four dollars and twenty-eight cents, and A. McCorkle,
twenty-three dollars and ninety-five cents. J. M. Foster, for six
months, received thirt}^-tliree dollars and twelve cents, and F. E.
Foster the same amount. P. G. Rea, for six months, received fifteen
dollars and forty-three cents, and W. F. Lawrence, fifteen dollars
and twelve cents. ]\I. Neal, for one month, received two dollars
and thirty-seven cents, and Moses Allen, for three months, twelve
dollars and twelve cents."
In 1853 this presbyter}^ passed resolutions in favor of "the
Maine law. ' ' In Mr. Rea's manuscript is a melancholy notice of the
last days of the Rev. Daniel Buie. He became insane while presid-
ing as moderator of the presbytery, and died in the Fulton asylum,
1834. Mr. Rea corrects a few of R. C. Ewing's dates. ^ Rea's cor-
' Ewing's Memoirs.
376 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv.
rections have been followed in this work. Mr. Rea is now an ao-ed
man, and looks back npon a long life of usefulness as he lingers
waiting the signal to call him home. His memor)', however, is
unini]Daired, and it is remarkabl)- accurate about dates.
From a manuscript autobiography of the Rev. James Johnson
(who was born in 1803) we learn that after he began the ministry
in Ocoee Presbytery, Tennessee, he attended a protracted meeting
held in connection wdth the meeting of East Tennessee Synod.
The leading preachers of the synod all seemed to fail in the pulpit.
A Presbyterian minister said: "You will have no revival so long
as you rely on your big preachers. Pick out the least and hum-
blest man you have and let him do the preaching, and let your big
men go to praying." Johnson naively tells us that they selected
him. He replied that he would preach if they would have Hiram
Douglass follow with an exhortation. He said: "Let Douglass
follow a poor sermon, and he has never been known to fail." The
arrangement was made. Johnson preached, Douglass exhorted,
and when the call was made crowds pressed to the mourner's bench.
A great revival with scores of conversions followed. Johnson's
humorous estimate of Douglass's talent is correct. Douglass ex-
celled in tact, in ability to meet emergencies, to lead forlorn hopes,
and turn defeats into victories.
Ten vears ajro there lived in the Choctaw Nation an aged Indian
named Durant. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian
church. He wrote for Dr. Crisman a sketch of his life, which con-
tains some interesting facts. He says he was born in Mississippi,
in 1798. In his childhood there were neither schools nor books,
neither churches nor preaching anywhere in his countr)\ He
never heard of such things till he was fifteen years old, and when
at last a missionary school was established near his home, he was
afraid of it. He did not understand what kind of a thing it was,
and the mere thought of going to it frightened him. He says his
people wore no hats, and instead of shoes wore moccasins. Very
little was said or thought about any Supreme Being, though they
did believe in a Great Spirit. Finally, however, he heard the
gospel in his own language and became a Christian. He claims
Cyrus Kingsbury as his spiritual father.
Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 377
In West Tennessee there was, in 1845, near the home of a pious
Cumberland Presbyterian mother an extensive neighborhood in
which there was neither church nor Sunday-school. This was a
source of great grief to this dear lady. Finally she found an ear-
nest Christian man, Wm. Moore, who was willing to join her in an
ejSbrt to establish a Sunday-school in the neglected neighborhood.
Engaging the little log school-house, they published their appoint-
ment for a Sabbath-school. Neither of them had any knowledge
of modern methods of Sunday-school work, but they both had a
deep love for souls. The school at first was composed mostly of
grown people, some of them gray headed. Their method was to
read a chapter, talk about it a little while, then pray. After the
first prayer came personal conversation with the unconverted about
their souls, then another pra}-er. It was not long before a most
gracious revival began in the log school-house, and it continued
for months, until many of the married people, as well as a number
of the young people, were counted among the converts. This in-
cident, taken along with another now to be related, may serv^e to
encourage some earnest worker in the Sabbath-school. The other
instance was at Bowling Green, Kentucky. One of the teachers in
the Cumberland Presbyterian Sabbath-school at that place went to
her pastor and said, " I want to give up my class." He asked her
why, and she answered: " I am no scholar. I can't understand all
these new methods. I can 't keep up with all these learned teachers
or with my class. Everybody has got so far ahead of me. I am not
fit to teach." He asked her how many of her large class of boys
were Christians when she took charge of it. She replied, ' ' None
of them." "How many do you believe have been converted since
you took charge of them?" "All but one." The pastor then
asked her if she thought she had learning enough to pray earnestly
for the conversion of that one. With tears she said, "Yes, with
my whole heart." He then said to her, "I would not give you for
fifty learned teachers who never led a pupil to Jesus. "
The following incident is found in the manuscript of the Rev.
M. H. Bone: The Missionar}^ Board desired to secure the services
of the Rev. F. G. Black, of Ohio, to take charge of a new mission
in the city of Cincinnati; but the members of his congregation
378 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [reriod iv.
were not willing to let him go, and lie would not leave them with-
out their full consent. The board employed Mr. Bone to visit
Black's congregation with a view to persuading them to yield
tlieir interests to the demands of the general cause. He made the
visit, and on Sabbath he delivered an address on the great claims
of Christ's kingdom, and showed how we ought to yield our local
interests to larger general interests. Seeing the whole congrega-
tion in tears, he thought the time had come to have the question
decided. Turning to the elders, he asked them if they would
consent to give up their pastor. The elders asked: "What does
Brother Black say? Does he want to go?" Mr. Black replied: "I
believe it is my duty to go." Then Mr. Bone asked: "How many
elders and members are there who are willing to let Mr. Black go
where he feels that the Lord is calling him?" To this the only
answer was increased weeping throughout the congregation. Still
the agent of the board persevered in private till he accomplished
his mission. Mr. Bone, when he was an old man, and long after
Mr. Black had lost his wife and another member of his family by
the cholera in Cincinnati, and after the Cincinnati mission had
been for many years abandoned, put on record, concerning his visit
to Mr. Black's church and his efforts to sever that holy pastoral
relation, these words, "It was not of God."
The Rev. R. A. A. Moorman, of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, stammers badly; yet, strange to say, he has no impediment
in his utterance while praying. In the beginning of his sermons
this infirmity is often ver}'^ embarrassing, but when he advances
and becomes absorbed in his discourse, all traces of it vanish.
Once at a large camp-meeting Mr. Moorman was to preach at
eleven o'clock Sunday morning. He tried hard to begin his ser-
mon, but his stammering was worse than usual. He sang a stanza,
then tried again to preach, but he could not finish a single sen-
tence. Falling upon his knees he poured forth a touching prayer
for divine help. He asked the Lord that he might be rid of all
concern about himself, and have grace that day to preach the sim-
ple gospel. He confessed before God and the people that his heart
had been set on preaching a great sermon. He prayed God to for-
give him and enable him to preach a little sermon that should lead
Chapter XXXVI. ] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 379
souls to Christ. Long before he rose from his knees the whole
congregation was melted to tears, while many earnest Christian
hearts were joining in the preacher's earnest prayer. When he
rose at last and began his discourse there was no more stammering.
The sermon was soul-stirring and convincing, full of the power of
the gospel. One who heard it testifies that it was the most power-
ful presentation of the truth he ever listened to. Scores owe their
salvation, under God, t-o that prayer and sermon.
FIFTH PERIOD.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
TEN ASSEMBLIES— iS6i TO 1870.
Per mare, • . per saxa, per ignes — Horace.
OP the ninety-seven presbyteries with which the Cumberland
Presbyterian church began this period, sixty-nine were in
the slave States. Fifty Southern and thirteen Northern presby-
teries were each entitled to four representatives in the General
Assembly. In a full Assembly there would have been two hun-
dred and thirty-eight commissioners from the Southern States, and
eighty-two from the Northeru. The Board of Church Erection
was located at St. Louis, Missouri; the Boards of Education and
Publication at Nashville, Tennessee; and the Board of Missious
and the Theological School at Lebanon, Tennessee — all on South-
ern soil, though St. Louis was far more under Northern than
Southern control. It was generally claimed as a Northern city,
but as it had but two congregations of Cumberland Presbyterians,
both of them feeble and struggling missions, it was not a favorable
location for a church board.
When the crushing weight of the war rested on the Southern
States, it rested on and paralyzed over two thirds of our people, so
that our General Assemblies, which all met north of the military
Jines during the whole war, were greatly weakened. W^ien the
Assembly of 1861 convened in St. Louis, Missouri, there were
twenty-nine delegates from Southern presbyteries, and twenty-one
from Northern presbyteries: fifty out of three hundred and twenty.
Sixty-one out of ninety-seven presbyteries had no representative at
the organization. The question was seriously debated whether or
(380)
Chapter XXXVII.] Ten ASSEMBUES. 381
not those present sliould try to transact business for the church
when so large a number of the presbyteries were not represented.
It is well, however, that they decided the question affirmatively,
for no better representation was secured until the great military
struggle was over.
The church boards all managed to have their reports before the
Assembly of 1861, and though the s-tate of the country had already
diminished their prosperity, yet they all showed a slight gain upon
the preceding year's work. The Theological School had been
suspended. The Missionary Board reported twenty-two thousand
dollars receipts, fifty-five hundred dollars of it being a legacy.
Only one hundred and thirty-three dollars had been paid to agents.
In the ten Assemblies now under discussion much time was occu-
pied in- considering questions growing out of the war, but all that
is reserved for the next chapter.
The General Assembly of 1862 met at Owensboro, Kentucky.
The selection of that place was made in the spirit of conservatism.
It is on the line between the two great sections then at war with
each other, but the state of the country was such that no repre-
sentatives of the Southern presbyteries were in attendance. When
the Assembly was organized, sixty-nine presbyteries were unrepre-
sented. It is not difficult to understand the reason why the South-
ern presbyteries were not represented. It was either wholly impos-
sible for delegates to cross the military lines, or altogether too
dangerous to be undertaken. The chances of being treated as a
spy, or of being sent to a military prison, awaited any man from
either section who crossed the lines without a pass; and passes for
such trips to go and return were not granted.
The boards located in Tennessee had no representatives and no
reports before this Assembly. These boards were, in fact, wholly
unable even to have a meeting. All such operations were sus-
pended. In this emergency two temporary committees were
appointed by the Assembly, one on missions, and another on
publication, to take charge, for the time, of these interests. The
Committee on Publication was composed of men living far apart.
They were to act in co-operation with the board at Nashville, if
that was practicable, but independently of that board if they found
382 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
it necessary. The Committee on Missions was composed of men
living in three different States. We are not surprised, therefore,
at the nature of the reports made by these committees to the next
Assembly.
When the General Assembly of 1863 met at Alton, Illinois,
sixty-nine presbyteries were still without representatives, and none
of the boards located in the South sent any report or representa-
tive. The two committees appointed to co-operate respectively
with the Board of Missions and the Board of Publication, or to
supplement their work, reported nothing done. These committees
were then both re-organized. The one on missions was located at
Alton, Illinois, and the one on publication at Pittsburg, Pennsyl-
vania. Neither the Board of Missions at Lebanon nor the Board
of Publication at Nashville was disbanded, but these new boards
were organized for existing emergencies.
When a committee appointed by the General Assembly went to
Nashville to take charge of the books, plates, and other property
of the Board of Publication, with a view to removing these effects
to Pittsburg, they encountered one serious obstacle. There was a
debt against the board, and the creditors interfered to prevent the
removal of the property. The committee returned without the
books. They then raised money to pay off the debt, and when it
was paid the books were safely shipped to Pittsburg. P. G. Rea
and Frederick Lack were the committee. During their visit to
Nashville no unpleasant word passed between them and the repre-
sentatives of the Nashville board, '
In 1864 the General Assembly met in Lebanon, Ohio. The
times were stormy, and the Assembly spent much of its session in
discussing questions connected with the great national struggle.
The General Assembly of 1865, which was held at Evansville,
Indiana, was more conservative than its predecessor. Owensboro,
Kentucky, was nominated by the Rev. J. W. Woods, a Federal
chaplain, and chosen as the place for the next Assembly.
From 1862 to 1865 the state of things in the Southern portion
of the church was distressing beyond all description. No dele-
gates could reach the General Assembly. No Cumberland Presby-
' Private letter of Dr. W. E. Ward to Dr. Beard, written at the time.
Chapter XXXVIL] TeN AsSEMBUES. 383
terian paper was published in the South after the fall of Fort Don-
nelson, February, 1862. Papers from the Northern part of the
church ver>' rarely reached Southern readers. Even the proceed-
ings of the General Assemblies were unknown. Synods and pres-
byteries could seldom meet except at called sessions, the regular
meetings being prevented by military events. The records of
some of these Southern presbyteries show failure after failure in
their efforts to hold even called meetings. The place appointed
might be accessible enough when the call was made, but not
accessible when the time for meetino; arrived.
In view of these things it was resolved to try to hold annual
conventions to be composed of delegates from all the Southern
presbyteries. Several unsuccessful attempts to bring such a con-
vention together to consult about the church's interests were made
prior to 1863. Finally calls for a convention to meet in Chatta-
nooga, Tennessee, were published in the secular papers. The
time set for this meeting was August 10, 1863. As far as possible
private letters were also sent to all the Southern presbyteries.
The convention was to be composed of delegates from the presby-
teries, the same ratio of representation being adopted as that
obser\''ed in regard to commissioners to the General Assembly. In
the organization of the convention, however, some elders and
preachers who were not commissioned by any presbytery were
present, and were admitted to seats. The convention was com-
posed of over sixty members. Its Minutes were never published;
therefore in giving a synopsis of its proceedings reliance is placed
on private memoranda taken down at the time. There were only
three important measures adopted. The first was the appointment
of a missionary committee located in the army, with General A. P.
Stewart chairman. The second was to resolve to hold annual con-
ventions at the same time that the General Assembly met. The
third was the adoption of a resolution steadfastly to resist any
movement which looked toward the division of the church.
The largest Cumberland Presbyterian convention of this period
met in Selma, Alabama, May, 1864.' It had about one hundred
and fifty delegates. A most touching letter from the Rev. Milton
* My own memoranda, and papers furnished by N. Waller, of Selma, Alabama.
384 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
Bird, D.D., was received by this body. Bird lived north of the
military lines, and his letter pleaded for the unity of the church.
Many present were moved to tears while they listened to this letter.
The convention changed the membership of the Committee on Mis-
sions from army men to citizens with a fixed residence. The new
committee was located at Selma. But those were times when
Southern citizens as a rule were almost as destitute of a fixed resi-
dence as were the soldiers, and in a short time it was proved that the
members of the Selma committee were no exceptions. This com-
mittee, however, did good work so long as it had power to meet.
Inasmuch as the Cumberland Presbyterian papers in the South
were all suspended, the Selma convention resolved to publish a
religious weekly, and elected the Rev. L. C. Ransom editor. A
copy of the Southern Observer would be quite a curiosity now.
The same edition would be partly on foolscap paper, partly on
brown wrapping paper, and partly on wall-paper. The coming of
the United States troops to Selma put an end to its career.
A very small convention met in Memphis, Tennessee, the next
year. But the church throughout the South thought the time for
conventions past, inasmuch as the way promised to be opened for
all sections to be represented in the next General Assembly.
In 1866 the way was open for delegates from the Southern as
well as the Northern States to attend the General Assembly, and
there was a ver}' full delegation from both sections. The Assem-
bly met at Owensboro, Kentucky. It appointed a general fast-day
to pray for more preachers. A very large number of the young
ministers of the church had been killed in the war. This Assem-
bly recognized both the Board of Missions at Alton and the one at
Lebanon as legitimate boards of the church. The Committee on
Missions which had long been at work on the Pacific coast was
also at this time taken under the care of the General Assembly.
The board located at Lebanon made its first report since 1861. It
had held no meeting during the war, neither had it established
any missions or collected any money. It gave the Assembly its
reasons. Those who have lived in a country overrun by armies
and blazing with battles will readily guess what the reasons were.
Others could never understand them.
Chapter XXXVII.] Ten ASSEMBLIES. 385
The next General Assembly, 1867, met in Memphis, Tennessee.
There was a very full attendance. A sermon about the church as
the body of Christ, which was preached at this Assembly by the
Rev. L. C. Ransom, deserves to be specially mentioned. The
preacher spoke of wounds in the body. He said every thing
depended on the state of health. The forces of nature could soon
overcome wounds in a healthy body, but a weak, sickly condition
might make even small wounds fatal. The healthy condition of
the church, Christ's body, was a state of vigorous spiritual life,
and depended on daily communion with Jesus. Such a state
would insure the rapid healing up of any wounds which it was
possible for the body to receive. He said there were no wrongs
which could possibly separate true Christians hopelessly, no wrongs
which such Christians could not adjust. He based his hopes for
preserving our church unity on the vigorous spirituality which
Cumberland Presbyterians still preserved as a heritage from their
fathers, and which, by the wonderful grace of God, had been main-
tained through all the tr}ang contest which had deluged our land
in blood. This Assembly resolved to discontinue the Committee
on Publication located at Pittsburg, and to reorganize the board at
Nashville, and directed that the assets should be transferred from
Pittsburg to Nashville. Motions looking to the re-organization
of this board at Nashville had been made in a former Assembly,
but owing to the impoverished condition of all the Southern
States the measu;-e had been delayed.
The corresponding delegate representing the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
church (Southern), had on his own authority stated in his speech
to that body that he believed the time for steps toward organic
union had come. That Assembly thereupon (November, 1866)
appointed a committee to meet a similar committee from our
church. The Cumberland Presbyterian committee was appointed
by our Assembly in 1867. The two committees met in Memphis
the following August. A long and pleasant conference was held.
At the first meeting a resolution was adopted expressing the belief
that the strengthening and edification of the church and the salva-
tion of sinners would be greatly promoted by the union of the two
25
386 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
churches. Each of the two committees, after consulting sepa-
rately, presented a statement of the conditions upon which it was
thought possible to effect an organic union. The Presbyterian
committee proposed that the union should be formed "on the
basis of the old Standards as they were held by the fathers previ-
ous to the separation." The committee representing the Cumber-
'land Presbyterian church agreed to give up our church name; to
surrender our Standards and accept those of the Presbyterian
church in the matter of ministerial education, and to adopt the
Presbyterian Standards, or such modifications of them as might be
mutually acceptable, on all other points of difference in Form of
Government and Discipline. But they asked that the Confession
of Faith and Catechism of the Cumberland Presbyterian church
should be adopted instead of the Presbyterian Confession and Cate-
chism; or, as an alternative, they agreed to adopt the doctrinal
Standards of the Presbyterian church with the modifications of the
third, fifth, eighth, and seventeenth chapters of the Westminster
Confession of Faith indicated on pages 69 and 70 of this Histor}'.
In case this should not be satisfactory, the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian committee expressed their willingness to accept a new com-
pilation on the basis of the Westminster Standards which should
exclude all phraseology and modes of expression which might
plausibly be construed as favoring the idea of fatality or necessity.
The conference closed, and these propositions were referred to the
General Assemblies of the two churches. The Presbyterian Assem-
bly met first (November, 1867), and voted down the proposed union,
adopting the following deliverance on this subject:
The Assembly hereby records its devout acknowledgement to the
Great Head of the church for the manifest tokens of his presence with
the committees of conference during their deliberations as evinced by
the spirit of Christian candor, forbearance, and love displayed by both
Darties in their entire proceedings. The Assembly regards the object
for \vhich the committees were appointed as one fully worthy of the
earnest endeavors and continued pra3'ers of God's people in both
branches of the church represented in the committees. But at the
same time it is compelled, in view of the terms for effecting any organic
union suggested by the committee of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, to declare that, regarding the present period as one very un-
Chapter XXXVII.] TeN ASSEMBLIES. 387
favorable for making changes in our standards of faith and practice, it
is more especially so for effecting changes so materially modifying the
system of doctrine which has for centuries been the distinguishing
peculiarity and eminent glory of the Presbyterian churches both of
Europe and the United States.
This was equivalent to a decision by the Presbyterian church
that doctrinal differences are the one bar to union with Cumber-
land Presbyterians.
Delegates appointed by the Cumberland Presbyterian General
Assembly for the sole purpose of bearing fraternal greetings to
other churches have several times abused their official positions by
inaugurating negotiations looking toward organic union with these
churches. This has been done at least four times since the war.
The Assembly of 1886 adopted a resolution requiring correspond-
ing delegates to refrain from all such unauthorized officiousness.
The General Assembly of 1868 met at lyincoln, Illinois. The
Board of Publication at Nashville had been organized by the elec-
tion of the Rev. A. J. Baird, president, and the Rev. J. C. Provine,
financial agent. Its receipts for the year were ^12,208. The
previous Assembly had appointed a committee to revise the Form
of Government (not the Confession of Faith), and the report of
this committee occupied a large part of this Assembly's time.
This revised discipline was on hand for several years. It was
referred to the presbyteries three times, but their responses not
being satisfactory in any case, it was finally abandoned.
The General Assembly of 1869 met at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Various matters in the action of these Assemblies, it will be remem-
bered, are reserved for special chapters. Except such reserved
items, the chief work of this Assembly was the consolidation of
the three missionary boards into one. The Ctnnberland Presbyte-
rian^ then published in Pennsylvania, had been earnestly urging
this consolidation. The Theological School, the Board of Publi-
cation, and the Board of Missions were regardecTas the three most
important denominational enterprises, and there was among the
delegates in this Assembly a general feeling in favor of establishing
one of these in the Northern part of the church. A movement
with this end in view was inaugurated by representatives from the
388 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
South, and at the suggestion of Northern representatives the con-
solidated Board of Missions was located at St. Louis, Missouri.
The wisdom of this selection needs no vindication. A point far-
ther north than St. Louis would have been too near the outer
border of the church. Under this new arrangement it was under-
stood that the whole church was to co-operate with the Board of
Missions at St. Louis, and also with the Board of Publication and
the Theological School located respectively at Nashville and Leb-
anon, Tennessee. With only such exceptions as all human affairs
abound in, this pledge is still kept in good faith.
Between the Assembly of 1869 and that of 1870 a sharp discus-
sion arose over the plans of the Board of IMissions. The Assembly
had divided the ecclesiastical year into quarters, assigning to each
of the four principal enterprises of the church one quarter for its
financial collections. The aim of this quarterly system was to
avoid conflicting calls upon the congregations, and, by having all
the pastors take these regular quarterly collections, to supersede "
the employment of agents by the boards. As soon as the consoli-
dated Board of Missions at St. Louis was organized, it decided to
adopt a system of agencies similar to those emplo}'ed by insurance
companies. There were two obligations which, some people
thought, were violated by this scheme. The Assembly's plan for
quarterly work by the pastors would be virtually set aside, and the
pledge of co-operation with the other church boards would be
infringed. If agents were to be sent out to canvass the churches
all the year round as proposed, working only for missions, there
would be conflicts, and, it was feared, very little co-operation.
Long articles on both sides of the question appeared in the church
papers.
The Board of Missions argued that the pastoral system of the
church was as yet too imperfect to justify the abandonment of
agencies. The other side replied that all ministers, whether pas-
tors or supplies, were expected to work under the quarterly system,
and would in time all fall into line. When the Assembly of 1870
met at Warrensburg, Missouri, the Board of Missions proposed as
a compromise that its agents should be intrusted with all the col-
lections for all the boards of the church. The Assembly referred
Chapter XXXVII.l TeN ASSEMBLIES. 389
the whole matter to a committee composed of representatives of all
the boards. None of the other boards agreed to the proposed com-
promise; but they submitted another plan which was accepted and
approved by the Assembly. The substance of this compromise
was that the quarterly system should be suspended for one year,
and that the missionary board and all the other boards should be
allowed to work on their own plans. The friends of the mission-
ary board felt confident that one year's test of their plan would
demonstrate its utility. But their expectations were not realized,
and the system of quarterly collections was subsequently restored.
There was a long and able discussion in the church papers
between Dr. S. G. Burney and Dr. Milton Bird on the proposition
to abolish synods, Dr. Burney taking the affirmative. The matter
was brought before the General Assembly, but the proposition met
with but little favor. It was not referred to the presbyteries,
though most of the presbyteries discussed the question, and gave
utterance to their views on the subject. Much interest was awak-
ened throughout the whole church by this discussion, not only
because both the disputants were men of marked ability and used
very abl'e arguments, but also because the question really had two
sides, with a long array of facts favoring each side.
The church periodicals of this period were numerous, but most
of them short lived. The CiDuberlmid Presbyterian^ in Pennsyl-
vania, was published all through the war. The Banner of Peace
was suspended from 1862 till the war closed, and then revived.
With various changes of name and auspices, a weekly paper was
kept up either at St. Louis, Missouri, or at Alton, Illinois, through-
out this period. After the war The Ladies' Pearl and the Theo-
logical Medium^ the former a monthly and the latter a quarterly,
were revived, and Dr. T. C. Blake established the Snnday-school
Ge7n. This was the first Sunday-school paper ever published in
the interest of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. This little
paper has been the means of leading many a child to Jesus.
The new presbyteries appearing on the Minutes of the Assem-
bly in this period are: Huntsville (1866), Leavenworth (1867),
Guthrie (1868), King, Bethel, and Tulare (1869). The work of
consolidating the synods began in this period, so that there were
390 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
fewer synods in the church but much larger ones in 1870 than in
i860. Through such consolidation the Kentucky Synod disap-
peared from the roll in 1865, and the Ozark Synod in 1866. The
latter was re-organized in 1871. The name of Union Synod was
changed to Alabama (1867), and that of Sacramento to Pacific (1863).
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE War RECORD.
39^
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE WAR RECORD.
They strive alike for truth's behoof,
For God and country, right and roof.
—y. G. HoUa7id.
IN this period several General Assemblies were held which were
not accessible to Southern representatives, and there were also
conventions of delegates from Southern presbyteries not accessible
to Northern men. Then after the war closed there were several
Assemblies in which the representatives of the church from both
sections met and deliberated together. The deliverances of these
several Assemblies and conventions concerning subjects connected
with the civil war are now to be considered. It seems most impar-
tial to give the full text of these deliverances, as it is possible to
make a wrong impression by omissions, or to change a fair history
into a partisan one by omitting portions of the record.
Before proceeding to these deliverances let us read the openino-
sermon of the Assembly of 1861 as it v/as reported in the papers at
the time. This sermon was preached by the Rev. Milton Bird,
D.D., from Hebrews xiii, i: "Let brotherly love continue." The
speaker introduced the subject with the inquiry, Who are brothers ?
and then proceeded to say:
In the most comprehensive sense of the word, all men are brethren,
being made of the same blood. In its most limited signification those
who are born of the same immediate parents are brethren. In the
Bible sense of the term, Christians — those who are born of God,
adopted into his family, and made partakers of his Spirit — are brethren.
It is of this great brotherhood in Christ that the apostle speaks when
he says, Let brotherly love continue.
I. It is a fact that Christians love one another. The spirit of Chris-
tianity is a spirit of love; faith works by love; pure Christianity is the
strongest bond of friendship and kindness. That religion which is
392 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
not so is unworthy of the name. It is sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal, i John v. 12; iv. 7, 8, 9, 16; and iii. 14, 15.
2. The continuance of brotherly love is the true apostolic succes-
sion. There is but this one sense in which there is a regular line, de-
scent, or succession from the apostles. All who are regenerated by the
Holy Spirit and built together upon Christ, the corner-stone, are in the
regular line — no others. Any other succession than this is a gross
delusion. They who set themselves up as the only church in virtue of
a regular line of popes, or apostolic ordinations, or water baptisms,
deceive themselves and others. The true church of Christ is made up
of all regenerated persons of all ages, nations, and denominations. All
who have been born of the Spirit are brethren; they are one, and
should love one another as God has commanded. The true line of suc-
cession revealed in the gospel is the law of life in Christ Jesus, which
makes us free from the law of sin and death. All in whom this law
abides recognize the same Spirit in each other by his outgoings from
their hearts; and with a pure heart they fervently love one another as
brethren. Judas was an apostle, and Simon, the sorcerer, was bap-
tized; but outward ceremonies and rites were not sufficient to place
them in thf true line of succession; they were without the spirit and
law of life in Christ Jesus; their hearts were not right in the sight of
God.
Trusting in barren ordinances and rejecting the vital spirit of Chris-
tianity has perverted and poisoned the church. Ecclesiastical bodies
without the renewing life of the Holy Spirit are not the habitations of
God. They are not built upon the corner-stone, nor cemented together
by brotherly love in the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace.
They conform to the world, and are attractive to the carnally minded
because such can live in their communion without any restraint upon
their follies and lusts. The current of the world has set so strongly
into the true and living church, that multitudes make profession of
religion and connect themselves with the visible church who are little
if any better than before. They are often full of envy and strife among
themselves, being desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envy-
ing one another; and they often have more bitter prejudices and less
charity for those who do not agree with them about some rite or minor
point of doctrine than the people of the world. Alas, for such Chris-
tianity as does not change the carnal mind, and turn the heart from
hatred to love, and prove itself genuine by yielding the fruits of the
Spirit — " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance." Such a religion is not worth the name. It
had been better, infinitely better, for the cause of truth and the world,
had it never existed. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WaR RECORD. 393
with the affections and lusts." " If we live in the spirit, let us also walk
in the spirit.' " Let brotherly love continue."
3. When is brotherly love in danger of being lost?
At the time when it was said to the Hebrews, " Let brotherly love
continue," the Jewish people were divided and distracted among them-
selves about matters of State and religion. Both the church and State
were greatly corrupted and demoralized. So it is now in our nation.
This fact can not be disguised; we all painfully feel it. Most of our old
men, great men and good men both in church and State, have died.
The rude blast was permitted to shake them like ripe fruit to their fall.
Our beloved country is now convulsed with civil war. Why and how
this was brought about, and who is to blame for it, is not .for me to say
in this place. Of the fact I speak, and a lamentable fact it is to every
patriot, to every Christian heart. In such times as these brotherly love
is in great danger of being lost.
Brothers in Christ, though our country is divided and engaged in
fratricidal war, we are brethren still, we can not afford to separate.
Pure religion changes not Its life is love, its atmosphere peace. As
soon could heaven sink into hell, or hell rise up to heaven, as a change
come over the pure principles and spirit of Christianity. Love can not
become hatred; it always endeavors to keep the unity of the Spirit in
the bonds of peace. If we are the followers of the meek and lowly
Jesus, we are the subjects of a kingdom not of this world. The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual; we wield the
sword of the Spirit. The more we love one another with a pure heart-
fervently, the better we can fight the battles of the Prince of Peace.
If the spirit of Christ is in us, we will let brotherly love continue. We
will not dishonor the white flag of heaven, nor give aid to the black
flag of hell by strife and division. A pure and honest Christian is just
and true still, though the heavens fall. He will not desert the standard,
nor give aid and encouragement to the enemy of God. He will not
wound the Captain-General of his salvation in the house of his friends.
Brethren, we are in the midst of temptations; and motives to disobedi-
ence, alienation, and division present themselves on every hand. Let
us, as Christians, prove our faith and love and verify our profession by
abiding in love and in obedience to the laws of God and man in humble
imitation of him who was obedient unto death.
In our organic relations as brethren let the pure spirit and principle
of Christianity continue to connect us as one body. Christ is not
divided, why should we divide? There is no sufficient cause. That
which can not divide Christ should not be permitted to divide his peo-
ple. A double guard and a most rigid scrutiny are required of every
Christian who would do his duty in times so perilous as these upon
394 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
which we have fallen. We find alarming developments in the tone of
some of the secular and so-called religious journals which profess at
once to express and guide the public mind. These openly evince an
utter disregard for truth and right, of constitution and law, and do their
utmost to marshal North and South against each other in the most
bitter malignity.
In these times of serious religious apostasy and general political
corruption on which we have fallen, city and State and nation are
tainted with the virus of loathsome disease; magistrates take bribes,
legislators are more selfish than patriotic, and rulers are oftentimes
demasroeues instead of statesmen. It is easv to do wrong in matters
which seem insignificant, owing to the circumstances which have
brought other things into greater prominence. It is very easy, in a
time of general defection and excitement, to lose sight of those funda-
mental principles of right by which we are bound to act at all times.
It is very easy to loosen the restraints which God's law, conscience, and
good government impose for our welfare and to keep us in unity as
•brethren. It requires genuine faith in God to stand firm in these times
of general defection of church and State. The pulpit has been per-
verted and the church prostrated. The standard of morality has been
lowered, and the nation so demoralized that God and the Bible have
been repudiated, passion and lust have been enthroned. The nation
has defied the binding force of the law of the Sabbath. The country
has been ruled by the passion of avarice. God will humble the pride
of the nation. Sectional war has fallen upon the land as a just judg-
ment of the Almighty. It is a punishment for the ingratitude and
guilty delusion, folly, and blindness of the people. Let the church and
the nation humble themselves beneath the rod, and, in penitential con-
fession and earnest supplication to God, seek deliverance from the most
terrible calamity and threatened destruction.
Beloved brethren, we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into
disputes about the things which belong to Ciesar, and so become
divided in things which belong to God. Each must allow others to
follow their convictions of right in regard to the unfortunate condition
produced by the Northern and Southern extremists who have dismem-
bered our once happy and prosperous Union. Before this rupture our
religion was not geographical or sectional, nor is it so since the rupture.
If a sectional religion divides us here, and destroys brotherly love, it
will exclude us from heaven. There is no Northern or Southern religion
there, but God's redeemed in heaven come froin the north and the
south, from the east and the west. Disputes about religion should
never be suffered to cool our Christian affection. Christians should
always love and live as brethren. Without regard to name, denomina-
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WaR RECORD. 395
tion, or peculiar views, they should recognize each other as members
of the same great spiritual family. More especially should those who
agree in doctrine and practice cultivate friendly relations, and remain
one. The sea is rocking, the waves are rolling, great is the necessity
therefore that we should stand firm in this perilous hour, and show that
our church has enough of the life and power of godliness to be capable
of braving the storm and guiding the ship. We must look to Jehovah,
who is the God of the rainbow as of the deluge. He reigns in the
storm as in the calm. How appropriate and how full of comfort the
language of the Psalmist, as read in your hearing in the introduction
of these exercises, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear though the earth be removed,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. . . . He maketh wars to cease unto the end
of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he
burnetii the chariot in the fire." We are in the hands of the Lord.
Only let us do our duty and put our trust in him and all will be well.
He will protect his joeople and save his church. As we have loved
each other heretofore, so let brotherly love continue until all men shall
be constrained to cry aloud, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity."
Through all these bitter years the voice of Milton Bird rang
out on the same key, nor did it ring in vain.
The Assembly of 1861 met at St. Louis. After a preamble de-
ploring the war, it put on record the following resolutions:
Resolved, I. That we recognize the good providence and rich grace
of Almighty God in bringing our General Assembly together in the
present fearful crisis in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace,
and in giving us to experience " How good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity."
2. That while we regret the circumstances which have prevented
the attendance of commissioners from some of the presbyteries, we do
now and hereby record our sincere thanks to our heavenly Father that
brethren have met from north and south, east and west, and that
brotherly kindness and love have continued from the opening to the
close of our present meeting — nothing occurring to disturb in the least
the warm and brotherly spirit of unity and peace.
3. That, the grace of God assisting us, we will always endeavor to
cherish the true principles and pure spirit of Christianity; that, with
this enthroned in our hearts, we can and will walk in love and live in
396 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
peace; that thus we may walk and hve in the bonds of unbroken
brotherhood, we do hereby recommend that unceasing prayer be made
throughout the whole church for the guidance and blessing of Almighty
God through these times of great peril and trouble.
4, That the General Assembly do now and hereby recommend to
every person, family, and congregation composing our church the
observance of the twenty-second day of June as a day of humiliation,
fasting, and prayer before and unto that God who has said, "Be still,
and know that I am God," for the deliverance of his church out of her
fiery trials, and for a righteous and peaceful solution of the troubles and
fratricidal war that now curse our common country.
The General Assembly of 1862, held at Owensboro, Kentucky,
adopted the following report:
The committee submit the following report: Since the last meeting
of this body the church has been passing through a severe ordeal. No
small injury to her spiritual and temporal interests has resulted from the
crisis of public affairs, religious and civil. While in some portions of
the church there have been precious revivals of religion, still there is an
evident want of an earnest-hearted Christianity. . . . Our church in its
teachings on the subject of our duties to the civil government has in its
doctrines (drawn, as we believe, from the word of God) set up a pure
and lofty standard of Christian morality, included in which is the doc-
trine that government is God's institution, not a mere human regulation,
and that obedience in its constitutional sphere is a religious as well as a
civil obligation. This doctrine is particularly set forth in our Confession
of Faith, chapter 23, section 4: "It is the duty of the people to pray for
magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other
duties; to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their
authority for conscience' sake. Infidelity or difference in religion
does not make void the magistrate's just and legal authority, nor free
the people from their due obedience to him, from which ecclesiastical
persons are not exempted."
Chapter 20, section 4: "And because the powers which God hath
ordained and the liberty which Christ hath purchased are not intended
by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another,
they who upon pretense of Christian liberty shall oppose any lawful
power, or the lawful exercise of It, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical,
resist the ordinance of God. And for their publishing of such opin-
ions, or maintaining of such practices as are contrary to the light of
nature or to the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning
faith, worship, or conversation, or the power of godliness, or such
erroneous opinions or practices as either in their own nature, or in the
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WaR RECORD. 397
manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the ex-
ternal peace and order which Christ hath established in the church, they
may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the cen-
sures of the church."
Regarding our duties to civil government, we refer our ministers
and people to the aforementioned article of our faith as the utterance
of the Assembly on the subject. In connection with this we invite
their attention to, and strict observance of, chapter 31, section 4:
"Synods and councils are to handle or conclude nothing but that which
is ecclesiastical,'and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which conr
cern the commonwealth, unless by humble petition, in cases extraordi-
nary, or by way of advice for satisfaction of conscience, if they be
thereunto required by the civil magistrate."
Resolved^ i. That m the teaching of our Confession of Faith, as
well as in our admirable civil constitution, church and State are wisely
kept apart, and the principle established that ecclesiastical legislation is
not needed for the State, nor civil legislation, except for security of
person and property, which is a political right, for the church.
2. That in this time of trial we approve and re-indoi'se unequivocally
the above-mentioned article of our faith, and agreeably thereto we at all
times hold ourselves accountable for our ecclesiastical relations and con-
duct to the church.
3. That we deeply deplore the carnage and demoralizing tendency
of a war of brothers.
4. That in the present crisis of our public affairs we regard the
church 'and the nation especially called upon to humble themselves
before God for their many and grievous sins, imploring his assistance
in bringing the war to a speedy conclusion in a righteous peace.
5. That in this lime of confused passion we will, so far as in us lies,
endeavor to allay and not exasperate the feelings of those who differ
from us, and we most earnestly and affectionately advise our ministers
and members to cultivate forbearance and conciliation; to avoid parti-
sanship and sectionalism in church and State; and to evidence their
loyalty to Caesar by their loyalty to Christ in following his example and
teaching, and thus continue in brotherly love, and stand before the
world a united brotherhood, walking in the comfort of love and in the
fellowship of the Spirit.
6. That we deeply sympathize with those stricken families in our
several congregations now mourning the death of loved ones fallen in
the bloody strife, and we commend them to the tender compassion of
the God of all consolation who is good, a stronghold in the day of
trouble, and who knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum i. 7-)
Adopted unanimously by the committee.
398 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
This report was signed by Milton Bird, Chairman^ W. F. Baird,
Archibald Johnson, A. B. Brice, H. C. Read, F. A. Witherspoon,
J. B. Green, J. B. Logan, J. H. Nickel!, J. M. Gill, and I. N. Gary.
The General Assembly of 1863, at Alton, Illinois, adopted the
following:
Your special committee to whom was referred the memorial from
the Synod of Ohio touching the morality of political secession and the
institution of American slavery, have had the subject assigned them
under prayerful, protracted, and patient investigation, and in answer to
the memorial before us, and, also, in order to present a paper that will
embody a deliverance from this General Assembly touching these sub-
jects, we submit the following preamble and resolutions:
Whereas, This General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church in the United States of America can not conceal from itself
the lamentable truth that the very existence of our church and nation is
endangered by a gigantic rebellion against the rightful authority of the
general government of the United States, which rebellion has plunged
the nation into the most dreadful civil war; and, whereas, The church
is the light of the world, and can not withhold her testimony upon
great moral and religious questions, and upon measures so deeply affect-
ing the great interests of Christian civilization, without becoining justly
chargeable with the sin of hiding her light under a bushel; therefore,
Resolved^ I. That loyalty and obedience to the general government
in the exercise of its legitimate authority, are the imperative Christian
duties of every citizen; and that treason and rebellion are not mere
political offenses of one section against another, but heinous sins against
God and his authority.
2. That the interests of our common Christianity, and the cause of
Christian civilization and national freedom throughout the world, impel
us to hope and pray God (in whom is all our trust) that this unnatural
rebellion may be put down, and the rightful authority of the general
government re-established and maintained.
3. That we deeply sympathize with our fellow-countrymen and
brethren who, in the midst of great temptation and sufferings, have
stood iirm in their devotion to God and their country; and, also, with
those who have been driven, contrary to their judgment and wishes,
into the ranks of the rebellion.
4. That in this time of trial and darkness we re-indorse the pream-
ble and resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church at Clarksville, Tennessee, on the 34th day of
May, 1850, which are as follows:
"Whereas, In the opinion of this General Assembly the preserva-
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WaR RECORD. 399
tion of the union of these States is essential to the civil and religious
liberty of the people; and it is regarded as proper and commendable in
the church, and more particularly in the branch which we represent (it
having had its origin within the limits of the United States of America,
and that soon after the blood of our revolutionary fathers had ceased to
flow in that unequal contest through which they were successfully con-
ducted by the strong arm of Jehovah), to express its devotion on all
suitable occasions to the government of their choice; therefore,
'■'■Resolved, That this General Assembly look with censure and dis-
approbation upon attempts from any quarter to dissolve this Union, and
would regard the success of any such movement as exceedingly hazard-
ous to the cause of religion, as well as civil liberty. And this General
Assembly would strongly recommend to all Christians to make it a sub-
ject of prayer to Almighty God to avert from our beloved country a
catastrophe so direful and disastrous."
The General Assembly of 1864 met at Lebanon, Ohio. The
momentous events then transpiring and the perilous and excited
state of the country doubtless had much influence in shaping the
deliverance of this Assembly. It adopted the following:
The special committee appointed to consider the memorial from the
Presbytery of Indiana, and to which was referred the communication
from the Presbytery of Richland, would respectfully report that the
questions brought under consideration in the memorial and communica-
tion are of deepest interest to the church at the present time. This is a
season of extraordinary events and unusual i-esponsibilities. God, the
Maker of the world, the Governor of kingdoms and States, who will be
known by the judgments he executes, seems now to be dealing with
the nations in his displeasure, and in dignity and majesty he is march-
ing through the land, while the foundations of society are breaking up.
Then, it is a time when we should look to the wrong that we may for-
sake it, and inquire diligently for the truth that we may embrace it as a
precious thing that can not be disregarded without offending the Most
High.
The question intended to be brought to the consideration of your
reverend body by the Presbytery of Indiana is contained in the fourth
resolution of its memorial, which is as follows:
^'■Resolved, further, That in this great crisis of our church and nation
we memorialize the next General Assembly of the Cumberland Presby-
terian church to set forth still more fully and more clearly than it did
last spring, the social and moral evils inherent in the system of slavery
as it exists in the Southern States; and that it urge upon our Southern
brethren, in all Christian faithfulness, that the time has fully come, in the
400 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
providence of God, when they can, and therefore should, without de-
lay, abandon a system which is a reproach to our holy religion, and
which has so imperiled our beloved church, our free government, and
our national union."
On this memorial we propose the following deliverance:
JResolved, I. That we regard the holding of human beings in invol-
untary servitude, as practiced in some of the States of the American
Union, as contrary to the principles of our holy religion; and as being
the fruitful source of many evils and vices in the social system.
2. That it be recommended to Cumberland Presbyterians, both
North and South, to give countenance and support to all constitutional
efforts of our government to rid the country of that enormous evil.
The business intended to be brought before your reverend body in
the communication from the Presbytery of Richland, is contained in the
following resolutions:
JResolved, i. That as a presbytery we do not desire the dissolution of
our church whether our government be permanently divided or not.
2. That as a Presbytery we wish to cultivate the same feelings which
have ever existed between this presbytery and the brethren of the
whole church.
3. That we do not think political differences a sufficient ground for
the dissolution of any church.
4. That this presbytery instruct her delegates to the General Assem-
bly, to study the interests of the whole church, leaving out of view
any sectional feeling or interest.
In response to which your committee would say that we regard the
preservation of the integrity of the church as of great importance, and
we hope that all will be done that can be done to preserve it whole,
without conniving at sin and sacrificing the principles of truth and just-
ice, but to these we must adhere. The great Master said: "I came not
to send peace, but a svv^ord; for I come to set a man at variance against
his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own
household." Not that such was the design of his coming, but that such
would be the effect, in that conflict that must go on between truth and
falsehood, holiness and sin. In this conflict we must stand by our IMas-
ter, though it require us to sever the dearest ties of time. And as this
General Assembly has twice declared that obedience to the civil magis-
trate is a Christian duty, therefore we must regard those who are, or have
been, voluntarily in rebellion against the government of these United
States, as not only guilty of a crime against the government, but also
guilty of a great sin against God; and with such, without repentance
and humiliation before God and the church, we can desire no fellow-
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WaR RECORD. 4OI
ship. But to all such as have stood true to God and the government
of the United States, and prove their loyalty by their works, we extend
the cordial hand of a brother's greeting and a brother's welcome, saying
let us live in peace, love as brethren, and toil together under the banner
of our common Master, until we shall be called from labor to the refresh-
ing rewards on high.
[The committee which submitted this report consisted of W. S.
Campbell, Illinois; Le Roy Woods, Ohio; J. L. Payne, Tennessee; Jas.
Ritchey, Indiana; Geo. S.Adams, Iowa; J. M. Gallagher, Pennsylvania;
H. W. Eagan, Illinois; J. B. Logan, Illinois; P. G. Rea, Missouri. The
first item was signed by all of these, and the second item by all except
J. L. Payne.]
Against this action the following protest was entered:
We protest against the action adopting the report: i. Because the
principle of action is erroneous, and its spirit secular and sectional. It
makes, or seeks to make, an issue that is not made in the fundamental
law or doctrine of the church. The point involved subverts our ecclesi-
astical law, by inaugurating a radical course of action tending to revolu-
tionize and destroy. The principles of the constitution of the church
and teachings of the word of God, point out an open way, wherein all
must walk, who avoid revolution and destruction produced by radi-
calism, in its opposite types; it is erroneous in principle and fanatical
in spirit, producing alienation, division, and ruin.
2. The fundamental law of our church organization can not be
changed, nor a new one introduced, either directly or indirectly, by any
person in this Assembly; any action it may take overstepping this law
or tending thereto is of no binding force, and is, in fact, merely the
opinion of those voting for it.
Those who demand that the time of this Assembly shall be occupied
in the unceasing agitation of slavery, to the neglect of its legitimate busi-
ness, say they want and must have a full and clear expression of the
whole church. Now if such expression was not given in 1851 and 1863,
it is certain that it is not given in 1864, when the country is in such a
state of excitement as it never was before, and this is the smallest As-
sembly that ever has taken action on the subject. (Here follows a
comparison of figures to show that the Assembly of 1864, which had
representatives from but twenty-six presbyteries out of ninety-seven,
and had only fifty delegates present when the vote was taken, was not
able to give the "full and clear expression of the whole church.")
The action of the previous Assemblies was sufficiently plain and full
to satisfy all reasonable persons, and as for others they will continue to
clamor for increased and continued agitation.
26
402 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
3. Intelligence, order, piety, justice, and benevolence do not consist
with agitation and violence, or the result thereof. Indulgence sharpens
the appetite for agitation and makes it more craving. In the incipient
stages of it, few if any look to the final result. It is a chronic nightmare,
varied with periodical spasms, until its normal state is convulsion, and it
enters upon a revolution, the radicalness of which becomes every day
more apparent. The ever-restless and clamorous agitation is destruc-
tive in its tendency; it generates an atmosphere of alienation and bitter-
ness in which the genius of cohesion dies and union crumbles away.
When the creed of the church or its fundamental law dies, or sectional
hatred becomes stronger than love to that creed and that law and their
sacred associations, then fanatical sectional agitation dismembers the
church and makes its continued unity impossible, by having no common
ground for a truce to conflict of opinion; the spirit of fanaticism not
being less intolerant than that of the Spanish inquisition.
4. The perpetual agitation is aimless, if its end is not to introduce
a condition of communion such as is not made by our Savior and his
apostles, and the framers of the constitution and discipline of our church.
The agitation is not demanded by a type of piety and benevolence above
that professed by others, but by a strange mania that is abroad, which
seems to operate alike in scoffing infidels, corrupt and babbling politi-
cians, and such professors of religion as are led or driven by the pressure
of any peculiar circumstances which may surround them. They who
would make the church conform to the outside secular, sectional pres-
sure of the times, under the idea that if they do not do so, that pressure
will crush and kill the church, take the most effectual course they could
to destroy the spiritual life, strength, and moral influence of the church.
Do they follow the example and believe him who said, "I will build my
church upon this rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it?"
God and his word do not change. What is our duty now was our
duty in the past, and will be our duty in the future. Changing circum-
stances are not the standard of duty.
5. The adoption of the report arrives at no finality on the subject.
The presbyteries have not had it before them, as the issue is sought to
be made here, and therefore any action of the Assembly amounts to noth-
ing more than an expression of the private opinion of those sustaining
it. Present action will be no more a finality than past action, if we may
judge the future by the past. Those voting for the report simply ex-
press their opinion, and that opinion neither becomes the word of God
nor the principle of the Constitution and Discipline of the church; it is
merely agitation for the sake of agitation, and the appetite for it becomes
more clamorous by indulgence, and it is not even satisfied when it has
produced alienation, division, and ruin.
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WAR RECORD. 403
6. We protest against the adoption of the report, because we are
opposed to that wliich in effect leads to secession in church and
State. It is a historical fact that church secession opens the way to, and
was auxiliary to, secession and division in the State; that which carries
forward the former aids the latter.
There is an abolition type of disloyalty as well as a secession type;
the latter is the offspring of the former, and there is a sympathy be-
tween them, both operating as a unit in effect. If the end aimed at
in ecclesiastical secession is to strengthen good government, then it is
commendable, but it is not attained in so cheap a way. They do great-
ly deceive themselves who think to establish a character for extraordi-
nary patriotism and loyalty, by delivering themselves of preambles, and
resolutions, and wind, in ecclesiastical bodies. If they would take their
position with the suffering soldier in the front ranks under the lead of
the true and earnest generals, then they would obtain credit for patriot-
ism and loyalty, by showing that they had a heart to serve the country
in its trials. It is an old but true maxim that " actions speak louder than
words."
7. We can not countenance the work of alienation and disorganiza-
tion in the church, because faithand liberty suffer equally from it. The
course of action against which we protest, we regard as unwise, es-
pecially in the present condition of the country. There is no precedent
in the primitive church for the policy of this action. While it does
no good, it will do harm. In our judgment, its advocates are under
some bewildering influence, and strangely misconceive the question
which they undertake to settle, and the bearing of their action upon
it. The chapter God has written upon the heart and animus of the
Assembly, he will cause to be respected, and each one of us must meet
it for himself at the judgment seat of Christ.
This protest was signed by Milton Bird, Minor E. Pate, E. Bar-
bour, M. T. Reed, J. W. P. Davis, J. B. Green, W. B. Farr, M. V.
Brokau, S. A. Ramsey, R. A. Reed, Ezra Ward, and Jesse Anderson.
Thirty-eight votes were cast in favor of the deliverance adopted
by this Assembly, and twelve against it.
The Assembly of 1865, at Evansville, Indiana, made no new de-
liverance, but passed the following resolution :
Resolved^ That we are apprised that in all the States lately in re-
bellion against the government of the United States, there will be dif-
ficulties to encounter in re-organizing churches and presbyteries, on ac-
count of the fact that many of our ministers and members have been in-
volved in the rebellion; some perhaps willingly, and many from force
404 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
of circumstances. Therefore we recommend to all our brethren in those
States, in re-constructing the churches, to adopt the action of the last
General Assembly, touching that matter, as a basis, believing that said
action after showing true devotion to civil government, is according to
the princif^les of God's holy word and our Confession of Faith, and that
no further legislation is necessary on the subject.
A full report has now been given of deliverances made by Assem-
blies inaccessible to the Southern presbyteries. We are next to
look at the action of the Southern Cumberland Presbyterian con-
ventions. These conventions refused uniformly to give any deliver-
ance on these questions. This was not because there was on the
part of those composing them any lack of earnest conviction, nor
because there was any less outside pressure on them than on the
Assemblies. The convictions of rectitude, and the feeling against
what was regarded the outrages of ' ' the enemy, ' ' were, if possible,
even deeper with Southern than with Northern Christians. The
pressure on the conventions for some "deliverance" condemning
' ' the sectional usurpations of the Northern States, ' ' was very great.
The Oxford Presbytery seceded from the denomination because the
church still held to its "union with the enemy." Members in
the extreme South were withdrawing for political reasons.
When the Chattanooga convention met in 1863, there was one
member who thought that the Southern churches would be com-
pelled to yield to this outside pressure, and he moved that steps be
taken in that direction. Then the Rev. W. M. Reed, a rebel col-
onel, rose in his place and made . a most thrilling speech. In sub-
stance, among other things, he said : "They taunt us with treason.
Very well. Let those whose ecclesiastical skirts are red with the
blood of this fratricidal war taunt on. I would rather go before my
final Judge with our record than with theirs. Mr. Chairman, at
this solemn hour, when Jehovah is dealing with our people, it is a
source of unspeakable comfort to me that our church has always
been conservative. The outside world demands that we come out.
They call for deliverances. Well, sir, the whole manhood of our
Southern churches is giving its deliverances, with muskets in the
trenches, not on paper in church judicatures. Those who are not
satisfied with tlie form of our deliverances, but ask in addition that
we put Caesar above Christ, and rend Christ's body, in order to
Chapter XXXVIIL] ThE WaR RECORD. 405
show our patriotism, are not entitled to our respect. We want to
please God, not politicians. Mr. Chairman, let us v/ait, and pray,
and hope. I believe our church will remain undivided, no matter
what comes of this bitter civil struggle. ' '
When the vote was taken not one single voice was heard in
favor of the motion. Even its mover voted no. No such motion
ever again came up in this or any subsequent convention held by
Southern Cumberland Presbyterians. A persistent determination
to avoid schism was both expressed and maintained.
We are now to consider the deliverances adopted by the repre-
sentatives of the two sections in General Assemblies held after the
close of the war. The first Assembly in which Northern and South-
ern delegates met after peace was established, was held at Owens-
boro, Kentucky, May, 1866. This appointment, by Northern votes,
to meet on Southern soil, looked like holding out the olive branch
of peace. Still there were many fears of division. There were
extreme men on both sides who wanted partisan action, but there
were also many who were earnestly praying for the unity of the
church. The question was. What shall be done about the deliver-
ances of 1864? If they were enforced, some said, the Southern
delegates would not be entitled to sit in the Assembly. The stated
clerk, however, enrolled all the regularly commissioned Southern
delegates. They were then, of course, largely in the majority.
This Assembly of 1866 was the first in which the voices of all
the presbyteries had a chance to be mingled into one expression.
Its deliverance, which was written by the Rev. J. C. Provine, D.D.,
then editor of the Banner of Peace^ and offered by Milton Bird,
was as follows:
Whereas, According to the plain teaching of our Confession of
Faith, " synods and councils are to handle and conclude nothing but that
which is ecclesiastical, and are not to interfere with the affairs of the
commonwealth;" and,
Whereas, It is of momentous interest to the church to recog-
nize practically, as well as in theory, the great truth taught by the
Savior, viz.: That his kingdom is not of this world; therefore,
Resolved^ i. That this General Assembly is opposed to every move-
ment, coming from any quarter, that looks to a union of church and
State.
4o6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
2. That we are opposed to the prostitution of the pulpit, the relig-
ious press, or our ecclesiastical courts to the accomplishment of political
and sectional purposes.
3. That any expression of political sentiment made by any judica-
tory of our church, north, south, east, or west, is unnecessary, and no
part of the legitimate business of an ecclesiastical court.
4. That nothing in the foregoing shall be construed into an expres-
sion of opinion upon slavery and rebellion.
There were 112 votes in favor of this deliverance, and 40
against it.
The next fall the Pennsylvania Synod passed the following
resolutions asking the General Assembly to explain or modify this
action:
Whereas, The Cumberland Presbyterian church did. In the adop-
tion of its form of government and discii5line under the title of "The
Form of Government and Discipline of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church in these United States, under their care," recognize the duty of
submission to the general government, as the supreme civil power; de-
claring also that "they who, under pretense of Christian liberty, shall
oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it, resist the ordi-
nance of God," and that such persons " may lawfully be called to account
and proceeded against by the censures of the church;" and.
Whereas, The General Assembly of 1864, in the exercise of its de-
clared authority for "reproving, warning, or bearing testimony against
error in doctrine or immorality in practice," did declare those volunta-
rily engaged in the late rebellion against the government of the United
States to be guilty of great sin, and the General Assembly of 1865 re-
affirmed this deliverance against the sin of rebellion; and
Whereas, The late General Assembly which met at Owensboro,
Kentucky, passed certain resolutions, sometimes styled the " final action,"
which are now claimed by many who voted for them to be, in effect, a
repeal of the deliverances of 1864 in regard to the sin of rebellion; and,
Whereas, These resolutions, from their own ambiguity as to their
intended bearing on the deliverance of 1864, are the occasion of much
difference of view as to their import, engendering strife and confusion,
and threatening to divide the church; and.
Whereas, The late General Assembly, which met at Owensboro,
Ky., is considered by many of our people not to have been a constitu-
tional Assembly, in that it admitted to seats, as is alleged, certain mem-
bers who had not a constitutional right to membership in that body be-
cause of the disorganized condition of the presbvteries from v/hich they
Chapter XXXVIIL] ThK WaR RECORD. 407
came, the action of the Assembly of 1865 respecting the re-organization
of such presbyteries being, as it appears, entirely disregarded; therefore,
Resolved^ i. That we respectfully memorialize the General As-
sembly, to meet in 1S67, and that it is hereby memorialized to investi-
gate the question of the legality of the representation from disorgan-
ized presbyteries in the General Assembly of 1866.
2. That the action of the late Assembly is in effect a nullification of
the deliverance of 1864, leaving the church without any record against
the sins of slavery and rebellion, and justly chargeable with approving
slavery and rebellion, both because it has nullified a deliverance against
these sins, and because that nullification was demanded by its advocates
on the ground that slavery is right in itself and that the rebellion was
not wrong.
3. That as a synod we hereby solemnly and unequivocally declare
our adherence to the deliverence of 1864 against the sins of slavery and
rebellion.
4. That we hereby memorialize the General Assembly which is to
meet in 1867 to declare unequivocally whether or not the deliverance of
1864 still stands as the declared and unmodified position of the church
on the question of slavery and rebellion.
5. That should the next Assembly refuse to reaffirm the deliverance
of 1864, or to adopt such an expression as will fairly and unequivocally
recognize that deliverance, in its substance, as the record of the church
against the sins of slavery and rebellion, that we will then, in common
with others who adhere to that deliverance, claim to be the true Cum-
berland Presbyterian church in the United States.
This called forth from the Assembly of 1867, at Memphis, Ten-
nessee, the following deliverance:
Whereas, There exists some doubts about the bearing of the last
General Assembly's utterances on those of former Assemblies on the
subjects of slavery and rebellion; therefore.
Resolved^ That while the decisions of the General Assembly are of
high authority, they can not become a law, binding upon all the churches,
so as to set up a test of church membership, unless they are referred to
the presbyteries, and there approved. Hence, such decisions are not sub-
jects of repeal, and the decisions of last Assembly did not repeal the de-
cisions of former Assemblies on the subjects above named, nor did
they acknowledge their authority, but simply disclaimed all jurisdiction
over such questions.
There were only two dissenting voices to this resolution, and
they afterward withdrew their opposition. So, with the full con-
4o8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
sent of all the Southern members, the deliverances of 1864 stand on
the records as the opinion of all those Who voted for them, and all
who chose to conform to them. Their moral force, whatever it may-
be, is not a subject for repeal. They are a part of the history of the
times, and, like all other utterances, a part of the records which
are to come before the last appellate court, when the final Judge as-
sembles the universe to the last assizes.
But some in Pennsylvania and elsewhere were still dissatisfied,
and a memorial called up the subject in the Assembly of 1868, at
lyincoln, Illinois. That Assembly adopted the following report: -
Your Committee on Overtures have had under serious and prayer-
ful consideration a memorial, signed by a number of brethren of the
ministry and eldership, asking of "your reverend body to declare and
affirm the following propositions as the principles taught in our Confes-
sion of Faith, and the word of God:
" I. That things secular and civil belong to the State,
"2. That things moral and ecclesiastical belong to the church.
"3. That in regard to things which are mixed, being partly secular
and civil, and partly moral and ecclesiastical, the secular and civil as-
pects belong to the State, but the moral and ecclesiastical aspects belong
to the church.
"4. That it is the prerogative of the church of Christ to sanction
correct morals, to express its views through the pulpit, the press, and
the various judicatures, on all moral questions, regardless of civil codes
or political creeds."
While your committee appreciate fully the sincerity and earnest de-
sire of your memorialists, we can not recommend the adoption of the
precise language of said memorial, as being in harmony with your Con-
fession of Faith, and the word of God. At least it is so liable to miscon-
struction that it would be unsafe as the form of a rule of practice.
We respectfully recommend the adoption of the following answer
to said memorial:
I. The Confession of Faith is a much clearer statement of civil juris-
diction than the first proposition of the memorial. See chapter 23, sec-
tion 3. "Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the adminis-
tration of the word and sacraments, or the powers of the keys of the
kingdom of heaven; or in the least interfere in matters of faith. Yet as
nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church
of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomina-
tion of Christians above the rest, in such manner that all ecclesiastical
persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE WAR RECORD. 409
discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or
danger. And, as Jesus Christ hath appointed a regular government
and discipline in his church, no law of any commonwealth should inter-
fere with, let, or hinder the due exercise thereof among the voluntary
members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own pro-
fession and belief. It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the per-
son and good name of all their people in such an eftectual manner as
that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or of infidel-
ity, to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any person what-
soever, and to take order that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies
be held without molestation or distui'bance." See also accompanying
scrijoture, 2 Chron. xxvi. 18.
2. Your committee are of opinion that the second proposition of the
memorial is not respectful to the State, as a power ordained of God.
For while the pulpit, press, and ecclesiastic courts have jurisdiction
over all moral and ecclesiastic questions, there are many moral ques-
tions over which the State has jurisdiction also.
3. Many questions have arisen and doubtless will arise, which must
be divided, the church considering and acting upon such parts of said
questions as coine within her jurisdiction. And while she is to be
free and untrammeled in her teaching and adjudication, she must be wise
and prudent, and will find amjole instructions in her just and scriptural
standards. See Confession of Faith, chapter 31, sections 2, 4. "It be-
longeth to synods and councils, ministerially, to determine controver-
sies of faith and cases of conscience, to set down rules and directions for
the better ordering of the worship of God, and government of his
church, to receive complaints in cases of mal-administration, and authori-
tatively to determine the same; which decrees and determinations, if
consonant with the word of God, are to be received with reverence and
submission, not only for their agreement with the word, but also for the
power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God, appoint-
ed thereunto in his word." " Synods and councils are to handle or con-
clude nothing but that which is ecclesiastical; and are not to intermeddle
with civil affairs, which concern the commonwealth; unless by way of
humble petition, in cases extraordinary, or by way of advice for satis-
isfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magis-
trate." See also Luke xii. 13, 14; John xviii. 36. Also, Form of Gov-
ernment, chapter 7, section 2. "These assemblies ought not to possess
any civil jurisdiction, nor to inflict any civil penalties. Their power is
wholly moral and spiritual, and that only ministerial and declarative.
They possess the right of requiring obedience to the laws of Christ, and
of excluding the disobedient and disorderly from the privileges of the
church."
4IO Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
4. Your committee agree fully with your memorialists in the expres-
sions of the fourth proposition, except the phrase, "of civil codes."
Your committee are of opinion, tliat while it is the prerogative and duty
of the church to reprove and rebuke sin, and approve and establish all
righteousness and true holiness, she should not put herself in an attitude
of defiance, or disregard for the civil laws of the land.
This was the last action on the war issues, and seems to have
given universal satisfaction.
Before closing this chapter it seems proper to speak briefly of
the relations of Cumberland Presbyterians to slaver}\ Though the
church had its origin in a slave State, and though its greatest
strength has always been in the South, yet the author of this book
never knew an extreme pro-slavery man among its members.
There were doubtless some before the war who believed that slavery
was justifiable; but most of these looked upon it as a means of edu-
cating the negro and preparing him for ultimate freedom, and all
held that it was a solemn duty to labor for the spiritual salvation of
the slaves. Much the larger number believed slavery to be an evil
and a curse which had been at first thrust upon the people without
their consent, and against their protest, and then handed down
from father to son. But they denied their responsibility for the
deeds of a past generation. They believed in restoring the negro
to his rights, but they held that the whole case, with all its sur-
rounding facts, should be considered, and that method of resto-
ration selected which promised the least mischief and the largest ad-
vantages to both races. IMany advocated the gradual colonization
of the slaves in Liberia, or elsewhere. Nearly all admitted that
there were under the existing laws, cases in which humanity and
religion both made it necessary to hold men in bondage, and that
in such cases, if the slaves were properly treated, there was no sin
involved. But a majority of our people. South as well as North,
would have rejoiced to see all the negroes peacefully emancipated.
Of the three ministers who organized the first presbyter}^ of the
Cumberland Presbyterien church, Ewing was the only one who
owned slaves, and he emaiia'patcd thevi. ' Besides this noble act,
he also boldly wrote and preached against "the traffic in human
' The laws where he lived permitted that to be done.
Chapter XXXVIII.l ThE WAR RECORD. 41I
flesli. ' ' He lived all his days in the slave States, and was the lead-
ing spirit in the first generation of Cumberland Presbyterians. In
a published sennon '^ he says :
But where shall w^e begin? O is it indeed true that in this enlight-
ened age, there are so many palpable evils in the church that it is diffi-
cult to know where to commence enumerating them? The first evil
which I will mention is a traffic in human flesh and human souls. It is
true that many professors of reHgion, and I fear some of my Cumber-
land brethren, do not scruple to sell for life their fellow-beings, some of
whom are brethren in the Lord. • And what is worse, they are not
scrupulous to whom they sell, provided they can obtain a better price.
Sometimes husbands and wives, parents and children are thus separated,
and I doubt not their cries reach the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. . . .
Others who constitute a part of the visible church half feed, half clothe,
and oppress their servants. Indeed, they seem by their conduct toward
them, not to consider them fellow-beings. And it is to be feared that
many of them are taking no pains at all to give their servants religious
instruction of any kind, and especially are they making no efforts to
teach them or cause them to be taught. to read that Book which testifies
of Jesus, whilst others permit, perhaps require, their servants to work,
cook, etc., while the white people are praying around the family altar.
The church papers also contained many communications of a
similar character from his pen. He says:
I have determined not to hold,^ nor to give, nor to sell, nor to buy
any slave for life. Mainly from the influence of that passage of God's
word which says, "Masters give unto your servants that which is just
and equal."
McAdow was not an aggressive man, but he was thoroughly
opposed to slavery; and, lest his own family should become in-
volved in it, he moved away from Tennessee to Illinois. While
always charitable toward Southern people, he hesitated not to
speak out against the institution which so long oppressed the
countr}'.
That there were individual members of our church that may
have been guilty of all the unholy practices which Finis Ewing
here condemns is not called in question. There have also been
members of all churches guilty of adultery and of other great crimes,
= Life and Times of Ewing, page 273. 3 lb.
412 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
but that is a very different thing from advocating and defending
such crimes.
Some Cumberland Presbyterian preachers who inherited slaves
were greatly perplexed to know what was their duty. Ephraim
McLean, the first minister that was ordained in the church, be-
lieved his negroes incapable of freedom, yet desired to be rid of
slave-holding. He laid out a farm, built a house, gave his negroes
stock and tools and told them to go free. In a few years, drunk-
enness and idleness brought them to suffering, and they came to
McLean, begging him to take them back, which he did. '
Robert Donnell puts on record a prayer and a vow,^ in which
he asks the Lord to let him know what is his duty in regard to the
negroes, whom he has inherited; and he solemnly promises, no
matter what the sacrifice, faithfully to perform the Lord's bidding.
During his whole life he gathered all his servants at family prayers
daily; and spent a season in instructing them in spiritual things.
His negroes were unwilling to be sent away to Liberia. The laws
of his own State did not allow emancipated slaves to remain
there. In just such straits were thousands of conscientious men
who became slave owners without their own consent. Some kept
up the outward appearance of saintliness by selling the poor negroes,
perhaps to heartless slave drivers, but a far better class did as Don-
nell did; kept the negroes and treated them as a Christian should.
Donnell' s overseer used regularly to complain that Donnell stood
between him and the negroes under his charge, and kept the whole
plantation waiting morning and evening for his protracted fam.ily
worship.
In Dr. Beard's diary I find many antislavery records. He de-
clares it to be his opinion that his negroes (inherited) were inca-
pable of taking care of themselves. He thinks them a trust com-
mitted to his hands for whom he will be held responsible as much as
for his own minor children. July nth, 1855, he makes this entry:
"About ten o'clock word came to me that one of my servants, who
is hired out, was lying out. This is one of the curses of slavery,
and the longer I live the more deeply I regret that I ever became
» Items furnished by Hon. F. E. McLean.
= Donnell's manuscript to be filed in Cumberland University.
Chapter XXXVIIL] ThE WaR RECORD. 413
involved in it. JSIy heart always hated it, and now loathes it more
and more ever}' day."
There were many cases in which the demands of humanity and
religion forced antislaver}' men living South to become slave
owners. Take one case. A Southern preacher of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church, who had resolved never to become mixed up
with the curse, saw the day when his own father's slaves were levied
on for his father's debts. These negroes were the playmates of his
childhood. His old father was heart-broken about the matter.
While this preacher had money enough to pay for the negroes, he
did not have enough to meet any thing like all his father's debts.
To pay out what money he had on these debts and leave the negroes
still the property of his father would leave them to fall again into
the hands of the sheriff and the negro trader. The horror with
which slaves generally regarded negro traders passes all description.
In this case the laws of the State did not allow the emancipation of
slaves unless they could be taken out of the State. These negroes
were consulted, and declared that they would rather die than be
taken away, either to Canada or Liberia. What they longed for
and prayed for was to be allowed to remain with their old master.
So the preacher bought them and left them living in their old home
with his parents, where they remained till the end of the war, and
longer too. This case, which is no fiction, is a typical one. Many
Southern men similarly situated, are now, with a quiet conscience,
awaiting the awards of the last solemn tribunal.
From 1830 to 1836 our church paper at Nashville not only de-
nounced slavery and the rigid legislation of some of the Southern
States, but it was also fiercely attacked by the political papers of the
South on this account. The paper was the Revivalist. Some ex-
tracts will show what was its attitude on this question. lyowry,
Smith, and Anderson all wrote editorials for it.
SHAMEFUL LEGISLATION.
The legislature of South Carolina, at its last session, enacted a law
imposing a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, and imprison-
ment not more than six months, upon any person who shall be found
guilty of teaching a slave to read or write! Or if a free person of color
be convicted of the like crime, he must be whipped not exceeding fifty
414 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
lashes, and fined not more than fifty dollars! It further provides, that
any person employing a man of color as a salesman or clerk, shall be
subject to a fine of one hundred dollars and six months' imprisonment!
Such enactments are foul blots upon the records of a free people, which
our posterity will blush to behold. They are not only unjust and cruel
but actually impolitic — such laws do not even deserve the name of time-
serving policy. We are aware that the notion prevails to some extent
that it diminishes the value of a slave to teach him to read; and some are
so credulous as to believe that religious instruction, yea, the possession of
the spirit of Christ, will injure slaves. Those who entertain the latter sen-
timent, it will be granted, are themselves ignorant — grossly ignorant —
of the nature and tendency of the religion of Christ, and we must think
that those who oppose teaching servants to read the Bible and other re-
ligious books, are equally ignorant of the influence of such instruction
upon their minds. The extensive slave-holder is at too great a remove
from the slave to learn the workings of his mind and the feelings of his
heart. There is no contact of feeling, no interchange of sympathies
between most Southern planters and their servants. They govern, con-
trol, and direct their labors by proxy, and too many masters are depend-
ent upon the representations of heartless overseers for a knowledge
of the character and disposition of their own slaves. Southern planters
who govern by proxy, are, thej^efore, unprepared to do justice to the
African character. Men who have, through life, been in more imme-
diate contact with the slave, are better qualified to render an impartial
Judgment. And, notwithstanding all that has been or may be said or en-
acted to the contrary, from long acquaintance with educated and uned-
ucated slaves, from experience in imparting instruction, from extensive
observation, fi-om all the facts we have been enabled to collect, we are
fully persuaded that ability to read, and especially a disposition therewith
to read the ScrijDtures, so far from diminishing, adds to the value of a
slave.
This position is tenable from principles of sound reason. Any gen-
tleman wishing to purchase a slave with the design of retaining him as
a servant, would give ten per cent, more for one of good moral charac-
terj in whose integrity he could confide, than he would for another
possessing equal bodily po\vers and dexterity, yet destitute of moral
character. Well, what is so well calculated to improve and mature the
morals as ability and disposition to read the volume of inspiration, and
other religious books? It would be most impious infidelity to deny the
adaptedness of divine truth to induce and confirm moral habits. In fact
it is the only antidote to corruption, the only conservator of personal or
public morals; and as slaves are most exposed at least to certain descrip-
tions of vice, they most need its restraining and conservative influence.
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE War RECORD. 415
Teach your slaves to read, and give them moral and religious in-
struction, and they will not only be better men but better servants. We
speak what we know, and have seen demonstrated by actual experi-
ment, and in the assertion we are sustained by reason and revelation.
To assume the opposite is a departure from reason, and an approach to
infidelity. If indeed slavery is incompatible with the ability and privi-
lege of reading the Scriptures and receiving religious instruction, then it
is as heinous in the sight of Heaven as idolatry or priestcraft. No cir-
cumstances whatever can justify the master in withholding from his
servants a knowledge of the Scriptures; wherein alone life and immortal-
ity are brought to light. Doubtless, it was for this very purpose that
God, in the depth of his councils, suffered the poor African to be brought
into bondage, intending by the subjection of his person to bring him
under the influence of the gospel, and thereby free his immortality from
the dark cloisters of gross superstition, and if so, woe to that man or
legislature that denies the African the light and hope of the gospel. If
you would not provoke the God of heaven to entail upon us worse than
Egyptian plagues, and lead out the oppressed by the hand of a second
Moses, don't withhold from the African religious instruction.
Later the same paper contained the following:
THE GOSPEL CAN NOT INJURE SLAVES.
Some time since, we published, without note or comment, a com-
munication from a "Mississippi Planter," calling for a reputable evan-
gelical preacher, of any denomination, to be sent to that State, to itiner-
ate and preach the gospel to the slave population. The planter pledged
himself for fifty dollars, and gave some assurance that five hundred
could be raised for the support of such a missionary. We find the said
communication in a recent number of the Western Weekly Review^ pre-
ceded by the following editorial:
SLAVERY MOVEMENTS AT HOME.
"We quote the following article from the Nashville Revivalist for
the purpose of laising a warning voice against the proposed measure.
Far be it from us to say aught against the diffusing of light and intelli-
gence, or against ameliorating the condition of any of our species, but
let it be remembered that there is a time and place for all things; and
circumstances to be considered in all cases. The "Mississippi planters"
have no desire to see the terrible tragedies of St. Domingo and South-
ampton re-enacted amongst themselves; and to such a result the mission
proposed below must inevitably lead. We speak what we know."
We think that, for once, the editor of the Review has gone a little
too far and spoken more than he " knows." How does he " know " that
4i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
the "proposed mission" would "inevitably lead" to such results in
Mississippi as the "terrible tragedies of St. Domingo and Southamp-
ton?" Does he "know" that the gospel of peace will produce strife,
excite discontent and rebellion? Will that gospel which teaches serv-
ants to obey their masters, prompt them to rebellion? Were the terri-
ble tragedies of St. Domingo and Southampton the results of the gos-
pel? Does not universal experience prove that when a slave becomes
truly pious, he is ever afterward a more obedient servant than he was
before. Does not the editor of the Review know that missions among
the slave population in South Carolina and Georgia have been and are
now being attended by the best of consequences? That the slave-hold-
ers in those States testify to their good effects upon the slaves, and
that such missions have received their decided approbation? ]Many
Southern j^lanters have erected meeting-houses for their slaves, and so-
licit preaching every Sabbath, or as often as they can procure the serv-
ices of the missionaries. The editor does not " know " that preaching
the gospel to the slaves in ISIississippi will lead to such results as the
tragedies of St. Domingo and Southampton. We believe he is sincere,
but think his fears have outrun his knowledge, and therefore he has
been induced to lift up his "warning voice." We appi^ehend no such
bloody results, but believe that the gospel is the best and only sure pre-
ventive of rebellion; and in our estimation the Mississippi planters would
promote their own interests and security by employing all judicious
means to evangelize the slave population.
The Cumberland Presbyterian^ of Nashville, Tennessee, August
19, 1835, says: "We proclaim it abroad we do not own slaves.
We never shall. We long to see the black man free and happy,
and thousands of Christians who now hold them in bondage enter-
tain the same sentiments." The same editor constantly advocated
gradual emancipation, and urged on masters the duty of prepar-
ing their servants for freedom.
It is proper, however, to state that all these things under\vent
great changes after slavery entered into the bitter political strug-
gles of the country'. Just what the feelings or views of Cumber-
land Presbyterians were during the years just preceding the war, or
what their relations were to the bitter political questions of the
times, this history does not undertake to discuss. Two of the Gen-
eral Assemblies held during the period named, one at INIemphis,
Tennessee, in 1848, and the other at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in
1851, adopted reports directly relating to slavery, and these two
Chapter XXXVIIL] ThE WaR RECORD. 417
deliverances perhaps indicate what was at that time the prevailing
sentiment of our people.
The action of 1848 was called out by the minutes of the Penn-
sylvania Synod. That Synod, at its meeting in 1847, ^^^ rescinded
"a resolution passed at the preceding session declaring the relation
existing between the synod and American slavery to be such as
required her to take no action thereon, ' ' and had proceeded to take
action in these words.
Jiesolved, That the system of slavery in the United States is contrary
to the principles of the gospel, hinders the progress thereof, and ought
to be abolished.
The synodical minutes containing the resolution came up in the
Assembly of 1848 for review, and were referred to a committee,
consisting of the Rev. Hiram A. Hunter, of Kentucky, the Rev. A.
H. Goodpasture, of Illinois, and Ruling Elder J. S. McLean, of
Tennessee. This committee's report, which was concurred in by
the Assembly, expressed regret at the synod's action, and disap-
probation of "any attempt by judicatures of the church to agitate
the exciting subject of slavery," closing with these words : "The
tendency of such resolutions, if persisted in, we believe is to gender
strife, produce distraction in the church, and thereby hinder the
progress of the gospel. '
In the General Assembly of 185 1 "the moderator announced the
reception of six memorials from persons residing in Ohio and Penn-
sylvania, numbering, in the aggregate, about one hundred and fifty,
upon the subject of slavery."^ The Committee on Overtures, to
which these memorials were referred, submitted the following
report : 3
The church of God is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction extends
only to matters of faith and morals. She has no power to legislate upon
subjects on which Christ and his apostles did not legislate, nor to estab-
lish terms of union, where they have given no express warrant. Your
committee, therefore, believe that this question on which you are asked
by the memorialists to take action, is one which belongs rather to civil
than ecclesiastical legislation ; and we are fully persuaded that legisla-
tion on that subject in any of the judicatories of the church, instead of
* Assembly's Minutes, 1848, pp. 12, 13, *Ib. 1851, p. 16. 3 lb. pp. 56, 57.
4i8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
mitigating the evils connected with slavery, "will only have a tendency
to alienate feeling between brethren; to engender strifes and animosi-
ties in your churches; and tend, ultimately to a separation between breth-
ren who hold a common faith, an event leading to the most disastrous
results, and one which we believe ought to be deprecated by every true
patriot and Christian.
But your committee believe that members of the church holding
slaves should regard them as rational and accountable beings, and treat
them as such, affording them as far as possible the means of grace.
Finally, your committee would recommend the adoption of the following
resolutions:
Resolved, I. That inasmuch as the Cumberland Presbyterian church
was originally organized and has ever since existed and prospered
under the conceded principle that slavery was not and should not be
regarded as a bar to communion ; we, therefore, believe that it should
not now be so regarded.
2. That, having entire confidence in the honesty and sincerity of the
memorialists, and cherishing the tenderest regard for their feelings and
opinions, it is the conviction of this General Assembly that the agitation
of this question, which has already torn in sunder other branches of the
church, can be productive of no real benefit to master or slave. We
would, therefore, in the fear of God, and with the utmost solicitude for
the peace and welfare of the churches under our care, advise a spirit
of mutual forbearance and brotherly love; and, instead of censure and
proscription, that we endeavor to cultivate a fraternal feeling one toward
another.
The members of the committee, all of whom signed the report,
were: the Rev. Le Roy Woods, of Indiana; the Rev. A. J. Baird,
of Kentucky; the Rev. J. J. Meek, of Mississippi; the Rev. N. P.
Modrall, of Tennessee; the Rev. J. H. Coulter, of Ohio; the Rev.
S. E. Hudson, of Pennsylvania; and Ruling Elder J. C. Henson,
of Indiana.
As to the present attitude of our people in regard to the now
old and thrice-dead slavery issue, the writer does not know a Cum-
berland Presbyterian of any section who is not heartily glad that
the negro is free.
The fact that the church did not divide, even in those bitter
times, when all the other Protestant churches of America were rent
asunder, speaks with great power in favor of the Christian and con-
servative spirit of our people. The Cumberland Presbyterian
Chapter XXXVIII.] ThE War RECORD. 419
cliurcli is now, was during the war, and we trust will always be,
national, not sectional; and it has to-day no members who look with
more pride on our ecclesiastical unity than do those who fought
under Lee and Bragg in 1863.
In one view of the case the church is specially indebted to its
Southern membership for this unity. Most of the strength of the
church was in the South, and neither in members nor church prop-
erty would Southern Cumberland Presbyterians have been very
great losers by setting up an independent establishment as the
Southern Presbyterians did ; but there were other things which they
prized far more than members or property. One thing more is
claimed to their special credit. When they were in the majority in
the Assembly, and able to carry things their own way, they unani-
mously granted terms to our Northern membership, such as the
Southern wing of the Presbyterian church has steadfastly refused to
accept from Northern Presbyterians. At no time in the last fifteen
years would the Presbyterian church have continued to be rent asun-
der, had the Southern wing thereof declared its willingness to
accept a similar compromise.
420 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PREACHING TO SOLDIERS.
"Like Him, through scenes of deep distress,
Who hore the world's sad weight,
We, in their crowded loneliness,
Would seek the desolate."
THIS book has little to do with military records, but the
history of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians for the
salvation of souls, whether in Northern or Southern armies,
ought to be interesting to us all. The man whose soul is too
narrow to believe in a conversion because it was in the army which
he called "the enemy," would do well to pass over this chapter.
God loved the souls of men, whether they wore blue coats or gray,
and who can doubt that there were earnest Christian men in both
armies who fell in battle and winged their flight to heaven
together? The heroism of Americans from both sections has
become part of our common national heritage of glory.
The principal strength of our church lay in the South, and almost
all the men in that section went to the army. Nearly all the youthful
ministers from one section, and only a few comparatively from the
other, marched with the soldiers during the four years of civil
strife. There was, therefore, a much larger number of Cumberland
Presbyterian chaplains in the Southern than in the Northern army.
Of the services of the latter, only a meager account can now be
obtained. It will, therefore, require more space to sketch the work
of Southern than that of Northern chaplains. The limits of this
volume do not permit the description of all the worthy actors, or
important events. Only selections, and not a full history, can be
given.
In one single Southern army — Bragg' s — there were twenty Cum-
berland Presbyterian chaplains. All the other Southern armies
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 42 1
also had a considerable number. So far as the personal histor>' of
these men is known, they were every one faithful in the perilous
duties which they had undertaken. Much of the material which
has been collected for a history of their work can not be used in
this short chapter.
No army missionaries were sent out by our church Boards of
Missions. There might have been embarrassing questions attend-
ing any such an effort at that time. There was, however, a mis-
sionary committee in the South, organized after the war began, for
the special purpose of prosecuting missionary work among the
Southern soldiers. In the North the Christian Commission super-
seded the necessity for any special denominational organization for
this kind of missionary effort. In both sections there was earnest
work done by the Cumberland Presbyterian church for the evan-
gelization of the soldiers.
The call to preach to a regiment was sometimes made by the
colonel, and sometimes by the united voice of the men composing
the regiment. There were two ver}' different methods pursued in
taking converts into the church. The Northern chaplains and the
chaplains in Lee's army had what they called an "Army Church."
All except Catholics and Episcopalians co-operated in this organ-
ization. Converts became members in this undenominational
church. ' ' The Army of Tennessee ' ' had a different arrangement.
If there were under the charge of a Cumberland Presbyterian chap-
lain converts who wanted to join the Baptists, he sent for a Baptist
chaplain to come and baptize them. Their names, with a certifi-
cate of the facts, were then sent to the home congregation. So of
the adherents of all other churches, except Roman Catholics and
Episcopalians. These generally refused to co-operate with the
other chaplains.
The programme for work among the soldiers had to be shaped
to meet the nature of the case. If a chaplain was a true man, he
was to all intents the pastor of his regiment. All the spiritual
oversight and care of persons which any pastor ever had at home,
fell to his lot. He visited the messes. He held prayer-meetings
for the regiment. He held private conferences with individuals
about their spiritual interests. He distributed tracts and books.
422 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
He preached at regular times. But there were other spheres of duty
peculiar to his station. During a battle his usual place was at the
field hospital, or along with the litter corps, who carried the
wounded back to the field hospital. To take down from the lips
of the dying their last message to loved ones was a large part of
his work in the midst of a battle. To point suffering and dying
comrades to the Friend who was wounded for our transgressions
was a still larger part of his work on those fields of blood. Then
the chaplains had another and broader field of operations. There
were chaplains' associations, where all consulted together about the
general interests of the work. These associations had regular
oJSicers and regular meetings ; and ministers of our own church
took a prominent part in nearly all of them. The permanent
chairman in the very largest of these associations was a Cumber-
land Presbyterian. Another duty which some of the chaplains felt
called upon to fulfill, was to preach against " official sins " — not
the sins of "the enemy," but the sins of their own generals, and
even V^f the official head of the government which they recognized.
In the South, at least, there were instances in which Cumberland
Presbyterian chaplains took such a bold staiid in the presence of
the very parties arraigned, that their friends expected to see them
put under arrest or punished in some still severer manner. On one
such occasion, after the chaplain had boldly denounced, in the
presence of all the leading generals of "the Aniiy of Tennessee,*'
some of the official sins of those very generals, and had taken his
seat in the pulpit. General Leonidas Polk rose to his feet, walked
up to the pulpit, seized the chaplain by the hand, and said, with
deep feeling : " Sir, I thank you for your fidelity this day."
It was next to impossible for a chaplain to do denominational
work in the camps. A few tried it and came to grief. The soldiers
would not tolerate any man who undertook sectarian work among
them. No other work of the churches, not even missions to the
heathen, has ever been more efficient in breaking down sectarian
feeling. Two chaplains had worked side by side for twelve months
when one of them, a Cumberland Presbyterian, learned with sur-
prise that the other was a New School Presbyterian ; up to that
time he had thought his companion a Methodist A chaplain
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 423
(Cumberland Presbyterian) was sent for by a wealthy lady of the
Episcopalian church. Her words to him were substantially these :
* ' I have seen the time when I Avould have preferred risking the
death of my boy out of the church to having him placed under the
instruction of any minister who is not an Episcopalian ; but I have
got past that. My son is in your regiment. I am looking daily to
hear of his falling in battle. He is not ready to die. I want you
to see him and talk to him about his soul's salvation, and I ask you
to press the matter upon him at once. ' '
Some samples of the work of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers
in connection with the Union armies are presented first. The Rev.
A. W. White and the Rev. G. N. Mattox, of Pennsylvania, spent
a brief period working under the United States Christian Commis-
sion. Their brief services produced very valuable results. It is
recorded of these two men that, among other good deeds, they inter-
posed to prevent mistreatment of prisoners. They preached Jesus
to prisoners as well as to the soldiers in blue. At Decatur, Ala-
bama, they secured a room and raised their flag. Here they held
regular prayer-meetings with good results. There were inquirers
after the way of salvation, and conversions in considerable numbers
in this room under the preaching of these missionaries. Mr. White
mentions with gratitude the "fact that those who had been out on
picket duty came in and reported at the prayer-meeting that a great
revival was going on at the same time in the Confederate army.
Thus God was at work on both sides of the hostile lines.
One day Mr. Mattox found in the- hospital a little boy whose
right* shoulder was shattered by a piece of shell. Talking with
this child about his soul, he soon learned that the boy had run
away from a Christian mother in Vermont. Mattox prayed with
him and labored for him till he saw bright evidences of conversion.
The child's first desire then was that Mattox should write the good
news to his mother. This was done. For a wonder the boy recov-
ered apparently, and for a while made a hearty worker for the souls
of other soldiers. He then relapsed and died, and his death oc-
curred about the same time that Mattox also sickened and died.
This was the introduction to a warm correspondence between the
boy's mother, in Vermont, and the preacher's mother, in Pennsyl-
424 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
vania. A volume might be filled with similar incidents. In many-
cases, too, the parties who were brought into communication by-
such incidents belonged to different sides of the great contest.
Among Dr. Beard's literary remains are several intensely interest-
ing letters of this class.
A curious thing about Mattox is that he had felt himself specially
called to the work of a foreign missionary. It does not detract any
thing from our confidence in the divine origin of the call, to see
that God himself thwarted its accomplishment. God called Abra-
ham to offer up Isaac, but God never intended to let Abraham carry
the work farther than a certain fixed point. God calls men to
preach, and sometimes takes them home to heaven before they de-
liver their first sermon.
Chaplain A. G. Osborn, of Pennsylvania, published a letter ad-
dressed to Union Presbytery, from which this extract is made:
I can, through the mercy of God, my dear brethren, assure you that
the great Head of the church has not left himself without witnesses
even here, amid army scenes and battle strife. During nearly the whole
of this winter there have been reviving influences in our camps. About
three hundred persons have professed faith in Christ. I can say that a
great change has taken place in my own regiment Our camp, it is true,
has a great deal of wickedness in it yet; but, thank the Lord, many who
but recently were numbered among blasphemers and Sabbath-breakers,
are now enrolled among the names constituting our regimental church,
or "Christian League," as it is n^ore fitly denominated. One remark-
able feature in the case is the fact that nearly every one in the Four-
teenth Regiment that has made a profession, has taken up the cross,
and prays in public. I know of but one or two exceptions. We now
have a chapel tent erected. The Christian commission on my applica-
tion, furnished the canvas to cover it, and our soldiers labored with a
good will to get it built. It is comfortably seated, and has a stove in it.
There has been meeting in it nearly every night since it was built, and
every Sabbath we have two services. A. G. Osborn,
Chaplain Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Martinsburg, West Virginia, March 21, 1S64.
The Rev. H. H. Ashmore served long and faithfully as chaplain
in an Illinois regiment. He furnishes some interesting incidents.
He says that in all the protracted intercourse with Cumberland
Presbyterians, which the long sojourn of his regiment in the South
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 425
enabled him to hold, he met with no one of them who did not ear-
nestly desire the preservation of the ecclesiastical unity of the church.
That his observations on this subject were in keeping with the
general facts in the case will be seen from the proceedings of the
conventions discussed in a former chapter. This fact, and that
other precious fact that we stood undivided through the war which
rent other churches asunder, is a valuable proof of the power of
that spiritual legacy which has always constituted our noblest de-
nominational heritage. It was Milton Bird who, in a sermon in
1864, after pointing out the evils of disruption, uttered the follow-
ing noble words: ^' If, on the other hand, we can show to the world
a church which is able through divine grace to rise above all the
passions of this furious war, and stand bound together in holy unity
by a divine bond which no national strife can sunder, then truly
may we put forth an argument for the divinity of Christianity which
infidelity can not overthrow."
At the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, Chaplain Ashmore was
worn down by work with wounded men. Late at night, utterly
exhausted, he sank down upon a log, rested his head upon what he
supposed was a fallen limb of a tree, and sank to sleep. On awak-
ing in the morning, he found that his pillow was the amputated
leg of some poor soldier. Ashmore testifies that the dying soldiers,
however wicked they had been in life, died calling on the name of
God. "My mother," "my wife," "my country," "my God,"
Were the words oftenest on the dying lips of those over whose last
moments the army chaplains kept watch.
While Ashmore' s regiment was at Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
some very sore trials pressed upon the chaplains. They met to-
gether once to consult about disbanding and going home in a body,
but the proposition was not carried out. Instead of going home
they began a series of meetings. God blessed their efforts. A re-
vival began and spread far through that portion of the army. Ash-
more was an active worker in this revival, and it was estimated
that one thousand persons were converted before this series of meet-
ings closed.
The venerable Hiram A. Hunter, who had been a member of
General Andrew Jackson's body-guard in the war' of 1812, and was
426 CUMBERI^AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period V.
in his sixty-first year when the late civil war began, was a chap-
lain in the Federal army. Neither in his diary nor in his very full
autobiography (MSS.) docs he give any details of his work as chap-
lain, except the texts he used, and the dates of certain transactions.
The Rev. J. W. Woods served as chaplain of the Fifth Illinois
Regiment from September, 1861, till the close of the war. Like
many others he was regularly elected by the men of the regiment
before receiving any military appointment. For several mouths he
was detailed to special work among the colored people who flocked
to the army. He diligently circulated Bibles, tracts, and papers
among the soldiers, besides doing all the other regular work usually
done by chaplains. He was with his regiment at Vicksburg, and
his labors there resulted in many conversions. Three of these con-
verts afterward entered the ministry.
The Rev. S. Richards, D.D,, was also chaplain throughout the
war, but no account of his labors has been secured.
As to the work in the Southern army, a few selections carefully
made are here presented in order to illustrate different features of
that work. A large volume would be needed to furnish a full history.
About the time the chaplains of the army under General Rose-
crans were consulting as to the propriety of disbanding and going
home, the chaplains in Bragg' s army were in consultation over the
same kind of a proposition. A meeting of all the chaplains in that
army had been called to consider the question of resigning and
going home en masse. The feeling was quite common that war
and religion were incompatible, and that no good could be accom-
plished by preaching to soldiers. A few of the chaplains responded
to the call. After the proposition to abandon the chaplains' work
had been made and discussed for a few minutes, the Rev. Mr. ]\Iil-
ligan, of the Baptist Church, offered some resolutions to the follow-
ing effect:
Resolved^ I. That the souls of this vast multitude are too precious
to be abandoned to perdition.
2. That God is able to give his own called ministers the victory even
among soldiers.
3. That the chaplains should enter into a covenant to pray for each
other, and that all should at once begin protracted meetings in their
several regiments, claiming this whole army for the King of kings.
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 427
These resolutions were adopted. One week from that day the
chaplains met again to report results. The number present was
much larger than on the former occasion. The bowed heads were
lifted up. Every chaplain who had entered into the covenant one
week before, reported that a revival had already begun in his regi-
ment. This work of grace went on till the armies of the Confed-
eracy were disbanded.
One of these chaplains was the Rev. George L. Winchester, of
the Madison Presbytery, of our church. He was eminently fitted
for a chaplain's work. After entering into this covenant, he went
back to his regiment and began his series of meetings. The next
week he reported a wonderful revival in progress, with great demand
for more preaching. Various regiments were destitute of chaplains.
Winchester began a series of services in one of these, besides con-
tinuing the meetings in his own regiment. Forgetting that his
body was mortal, or ceasing to care for its mortality, he carried on
this double service for a considerable time, until, in the midst of
his labors, he suddenly fell and was gone to heaven before his fellow
chaplains knew that he was ill. His regiment was like a family of
orphans, mourning a father's death. Nearly all of them had been
led to Jesus by Winchester. When they selected a new chaplain
the principal point was to find a man whom Winchester had loved
and indorsed.
An exchanged prisoner who had belonged to that regiment re-
turned to it after Winchester's death. He took out his deck of
cards, and went to some of his old companions to have a game.
They all declined, stating that they had become Christians. He
went to others with the same result. He made the trial in every
mess of the whole regiment, without finding a single one to join
him. With a bitter oath he said: "The whole regiment has got
religion. ' '
Mention has been made of the Cumberland Presbyterian South-
ern Committee, on army missions. This committee resolved to
raise a salary to secure a general missionary for "the Army of Ten-
nessee," to whose hands they might commit a sort of supervision
of missionary work among the soldiers. Three failures were made
before a suitable man was obtained; and finally one of the chaplains
428 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
was induced to resign and take this missionary work instead of his
chaplaincy. Under his management, after he entered on this gen-
eral work, money was raised to secure the Rev. J. L. Cooper, of
Mississippi, as a general army missionary, and Cooper accepted.
Besides this, several other arrangements were made for missions
among the soldiers. The location of the missionary committee
was changed from the army of Tennessee to Selma, Alabama, in
1864, and under its direction, aided by the superintendent, money
was raised and still other missionaries secured.
Mr. Cooper was pre-eminently fitted for the missionary work, and
he devoted himself to it from 1863 till the end of the war with an
energy and fidelity that were never surpassed. For four months and
five days he held meetings on the lines, under fire, every night except
one. At every meeting his congregations were measured only by
the compass of his voice. When men could not approach near
enough to hear they would go away. This was during Joe John-
ston's retreat through North Georgia. The one night when there
was no meeting the army marched all night. Nor was Cooper the
only one who had services every night. The work was general along
all the lines. There were fourteen miles of revivals nightly and
multitudes of conversions.
The programme of exercises agreed on by all the co-operating
chaplains in this army was as follows: First, at the opening of the
ser\dces all those who had found the Savior were called up to
ascertain what church they desired to join. At Cooper's meetings
the number responding to this call was about one hundred per
night. The next item in the programme was to call up all who
were seeking salvation. To this invitation a still larger number
always responded. Then a sermon of instruction was preached,
specially to the seekers. Then the congregation was dismissed.
At every service during this bloody retreat, some were present
who would be killed before the next meeting. Many found Jesus
during the sermon; some after they went out into the picket holes.
These holes were very near the enemy, and the pickets had to be
relieved at midnight, and there were always men killed in this
work of relieving pickets. One poor fellow gave the following
account of his conversion. He went from the preaching service to
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 429
picket duty. Getting down into his picket hole, still thinking of
the sermon, still eagerly seeking salvation, he felt the light dawn
upon his soul. Forgetting all about war and its dangers, he raised
himself up and shouted, ' ' Glory to God. ' ' Just then a minie-ball
cut away a lock of his hair, grazing the scalp. Down into his hole
he crept again, but his soul was too full of joy to suffer him long
to keep in mind minie-balls, and in a little while he again rose up
shouting. Another bullet went through his clothing. So he
said he "spent the night alternately praising God and dodging
the devil." On being questioned what he meant by "dodging the
devil," he said: "It is my opinion that his satanic majesty was
angry about losing my soul, and I believe he rode astraddle of everv
one of those balls, but the Lord would not let them hit me."
The Rev. Mr. Baker, of Missouri, a Cumberland Presbyterian,
was standing on the breastworks preaching. In his sermon he was
crying, "Glor>' to God," when a ball struck him and killed him in-
stantly. Old men, past military age, were army chaplains. Rev.
J. F. McCutcheon, of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, was one
of these. I saw this old man when his garment? were riddled with
bullets, for he always went along with his men wherever duty
called him, but bullets were more merciful than some other things.
General Bragg, a few days before he was removed from the command
of ' ' the Army of Tennessee, ' ' issued an order to have all his chap-
lains' horses pressed for military uses. Ministers of the gospel were
exempted from conscription in ' ' Dixie, ' ' but men who were far
past the military age were in the chaplain work. The Confederate
government furnished no horses to chaplains. Bragg' s order paid
no respect to age. Old men like McCutcheon were robbed by it of
their private property, except where some generous officer, like
George Johnson, who was allowed several horses, claimed the chap-
lain's horse, and kept it for its owner. Ah well ! the wa)'^ Bragg
left Missionary Ridge, a few days after that order about the chap-
lains' horses, always seemed to me to be a special retribution.
One little incident connected with this missionary work is too
good to be lost. A pocket-book was sent to our missionary com-
mittee accompanied with the following statement: "The good
sister who sent it is a widow. Her husband was killed by the frag-
430 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
ment of a shell at the battle of Chickamauga. The deadly missile
struck his pocket first, and drove the pocket-book into his body.
The surgeon extracted it with its contents. The widow says these
blood-stained bills are too sacred for any common use. She sends
them to the missionary board."
The trials of Southern chaplains were very great. The mess
tax, which was imposed to eke out sufficient rations, was generally
larger than a chaplain's salary. It would require a month and a
half's wages of a chaplain to buy a pound of coffee; and about two
years' wages to buy an overcoat. The price of a good horse was
more than any chaplain earned during the whole war. Yet there
were chaplains who wore out as many as five horses while they were
in the service. The Southern government furnished neither horses
nor clothing to chaplains. It was not an uncommon thing for
chaplains and soldiers to be brought to great suffering both for
rations and for clothing.
Chaplain M. B. De Witt, now the Rev. Dr. De Witt, of Nashville,
Tennessee, had some severe trials. The country where his home
had been, and where he had left his wife, was invaded. When the
state of things became unbearable there, Mrs. De Witt, like thou-
sands of others, became a refugee. Having no other place to fly to,
she went to the camps, and remained near her husband through all
those dreadful last struggles of the Confederate army. De Witt was
one of that class of chaplains whose call to the work came first from
the men of the regiment, not from the colonel. Of course his
official nomination had to be made by the colonel.
Chaplains with the cavalry had a peculiar lot. Their only place
during a battle was with their regiments. Chaplain A. G. Burrow
was one of these. He was wounded, and came to the writer's tent.
It was winter and bitter cold. The wounded chaplain had no over-
coat. His other coat was thin and ragged. All his clothing was
worn out. His wound was in his head, and his skull had just been
trepanned. His face was the color of a corpse. He staggered as he
walked. His voice, once so quick and cheerful, was faint and fal-
tering. The wound was four inches long. Yet this man, who
might have had a comfortable home under his father's roof — who,
both by reason of his profession, and on account of his wound,
Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 431
might have found exemption from further service — chose rather to
remain as chaplain with the soldiers, and continue his efforts to
lead them to their Savior. (Acts xx. 24.)
ISIany other chaplains deserve as favorable notice as those men-
tioned in the foregoing sketches, but as it would require a large
volume to give a full history of all, only such illustrations have
been selected as the most reliable materials at hand furnish. There
were other Cumberland Presbyterian preachers who gave their lives
up, as G. L. Winchester gave his, a willing sacrifice for the salva-
tion of the soldiers. Sharing the privations and dangers of siege
or battle, eating mule beef at Vicksburg, or marching all "night in
the mad raids, and, when the fight came on, following along the
battle's fiery front to pick up the wounded and carry them back to
the field hospital ; then returning to the line to bend over the dying,
and there, on the bloody field, to write their last message to loved
ones at home, while shells hurtled and minie-balls whistled thick
around them, were some of the tasks and duties which fell to the
lot of our army missionaries.
In the wonderful revival in the Southern armies the number of
conversions must have reached an aggregate of more than a hun-
dred thousand men. Dr. Felix Johnson, now gone to his rest,
once said, while this work was going on: "God is going to answer
all these prayers and fast-days which the people of the South are
having — not by setting up a new Republic, but by converting all
the Southern soldiers." At two different times, by two different
men, an extensive history of this great revival was prepared, many
years ago, but, for unknown reasons neither of these works was
ever published. No history of the great conflict can be complete
without an account of this wonderful work of grace.
433 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
CHAPTER XL.
COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS.
Let us have faith in God's all-wise intention,
His plans will never fail;
Though far beyond our feeble comprehension,
We know it must prevail.
— 5. A. Stoddard .
O stranger, with all your wealth.
Do you 'spect to buy heaven and keep it for yourself?
— Negro Melody.
BEFORE the war there were twenty thousand colored Cumber-
land Presbyterians. These all belonged to the same congre-
gations of which the white people were members, and were under
the ministrations of the same preachers who served the white
conofreofations. While there were instances in the South in which
white men built separate churches for their slaves and hired for
them separate pastors, yet there were no such instances among the
Cumberland Presbyterians. In our church colored members every-
where attended the same services with the white people . It is true
that separate seats were appropriated to them, but white people
and black were taught the way of salvation by the same pastors.
In addition to this privilege of attending services along with the
white people, the colored people had preachers of their own race,
and held their own special servdces, occupying the same houses
which were owned and used by the white congregations. State
laws generally required that some steady white man should be
present at these meetings. This requirement was always complied
with.
An illustration showing the nature of pastoral work in a con-
gregation made up of white people and their slaves will doubtless
be of interest. In a town in Middle Tennessee the pastor of such
a church had under his charge one hundred and fifty colored mem-
bers. He was as much the pastor of the humblest of these as of
Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 433
the wealthiest and most influential white member. Common
sense, if nothing better, required that his pastoral labors among
these people should conform to the wishes and interests of the
owners. Many a time was he taken by the mistress into the negro
cabin to minister to some afflicted servant. Many a time, too,
under similar direction, did he go to the negro cabin to pray for
some penitent sinner, and try to lead him to his Savior. While
he was the pastor of these colored people he had a colored assist-
ant, ' ' Brother Jim, ' ' the property of one of the elders. It was
Jim's custom regularly to bring the notes of his sermon to the
white pastor Saturday afternoon for criticism; and when something
was pointed out to be corrected he never failed to make the sug-
gested changes. Jim preached at three o'clock Sunday afternoons
in the same pulpit which had been occupied by the regular pastor
in the morning. It was the pastor's duty and pleasure as a Chris-
tian to be present at these three o'clock services, and he testifies
that he has heard no preaching from our colored brethren since
the war which was as near the pure gospel as Jim's simple and
earnest discourses. There were many converts at these meetings.
This is a sample of the general order of things with Cumberland
Presbyterian pastors throughout the Southern States before the
war.
At the camp-meetings there were some special arrangements
for colored worshipers. A shed in front of the pulpit was built
for the white people, and another in the rear for the colored
people. When the call for mourners was made at the close of the
sermon, seats next the pulpit both front and rear were reserved
for the penitents. There were many conversions in the rear of
the pulpit as well as in the front; but the negroes never seemed to
feel entirely free to work in their own way until the white people
closed their services and went to their tents. Then began a scene
of wild excitement and wonderful interest which no pen can
describe. The singing at such a time was specially interesting.
Nothing in the meetings of the colored people at the present day
makes any approximation to these revival melodies. The camp-
meeting songs of the negroes, like the corn songs of that period,
were rich, original, and genuine African productions. When a
28
434 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
thousand negroes, keeping time with foot and head, with arms and
body, poured out all their souls upon the night air in a camp-
meetincf chorus suited to their voices and their culture, the weird
and solemn grandeur and grotesqueness were indescribable.
Our colored ministers sometimes preached to white audiences.
There was a colored Cumberland Presbyterian preacher in Missouri
who often preached at camp-meetings to the white people. It was
everywhere the custom among Cumberland Presb}-terians to ordain
white and colored preachers in precisely the same way and by the
same presbyters, except that the necessities of the case made it
necessary to use leniency about literary requirements. The educa-
tion of the colored preacher in the days of slavery was secured
under no little disadvantage. Generally his teacher was his
*' young master," usually a lad of from twelve to eighteen. His
theological instruction was obtained partly at church, partly at
the meetings of the presbyter)^, where he was catechised, and
partly in private interviews with his pastor.
The old order of things broke down during the war. The
origin of this change has often been misunderstood. It was by
their own choice, and without any promptings by their former
masters, that the colored members of our church ceased to attend
services with the white people. The change was universal, and in
all the denominations. A state of things sprang up during the
war which not only led to this result, but also closed their ears for
a time against all white preachers of Southern antecedents.
After the war, in October, 1868, the colored people of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church held a convention at Henderson, Ken-
tucky, to decide what steps should be taken. The convention was
not large, but the prevailing voice was for ecclesiastical separation
from the whites. A call for another convention to meet in Hunts-
ville, Alabama, January, 1869, w^as responded to by only a few.
Those who met decided to defer all action until the next IMay, and
endeavor to have a full delegation of colored ministers in a con-
vention to be held at the same time and place at which the next
General Assembly was to meet. The Banner of Peace joined
heartily in the call for a full convention. Dr. W. D. Chadick,
pastor of our church at Murfreesboro, where the Assembly w^as to
Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 435
meet, published assurauces that all the colored delegates would be
entertained free of charge. A full delegation was present. After
this convention had held several meetings, the Rev. Moses T. Weir,
brother of our African missionary', went to one of the members of
the General Assembly and requested his co-operation in obtaining
the consent of the Assembly to the organization of a separate
African Cumberland Presbyterian church. In a long conversation
on this subject Weir said that colored men would never learn self-
reliance and independence in the same church judicatures with the
white people. It seemed evident that much larger financial assist-
ance for the work among the negroes could be secured by I\Ir.
Weir's plan than by any other.
In a short time the convention sent in to the General Assembly
its official action. That action declares that "it would not be for
the advancement of the interests of the church amonsf either the
white or colored people for the ministers of the two races to meet
together in the same judicatures." The convention therefore
asked the Assembly to adopt a plan by which, under the superin-
tendence and by assistance of the whites, they might be organized
into separate presbyteries and synods. It asked also for financial
aid in setting up the new organization.
To all of this the Assembly gave its consent, and appointed the
necessary committees for carrying out the plan. Under this plan
several colored presbyteries were organized that same year. The
committee to co-operate with the colored people in this organiza-
tion, and in establishing a school for the education of their minis-
ters, was composed of the Rev. J. C. Bowden, D.D., the Rev.
Barnett IMiller, the Rev. Thomas E. Young, together with ruling
elders A. M. C. Simmons and A. J. Fuqua. This committee, be-
sides such aid as it was practicable to give in organizing presby-
teries, also appointed the Rev. Moses T. Weir agent to secure funds
for the establishment of a college for colored people.
In the organization of the colored presbyteries others besides
the committee rendered valuable assistance. The Rev. M. B. De
Witt, D. D. , was perhaps the very first to aid in this work.
All seemed to start ojEF with the utmost harmony. No jar had
occurred up to 1870. In May of that year, when our General
436 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
Assembly met at Warrensburg, Missouri, the Rev. Moses T. Weir
appeared with a commission from the Greenville Presbytery (col-
ored), asking a seat as a member of the Assembly. Fears were
entertained by Southern members that somebody was tr>'ing to
use Weir for political purposes, and there were in the Assembly
indications of serious trouble about this matter. The commission
which ]\Ir. Weir presented was read by Dr. Bird, the stated clerk,
and action concerning it was deferred until after the committee
appointed the year before at IMurfreesboro, Tennessee, to co-operate
with the colored people in their efforts to establish an institution of
learning should make its report. The matter came up several times
during the first four days of the Assembly's meeting, and there
were some exciting discussions. Finally, the Rev. W. S. Camp-
bell, D.D., of Illinois, called attention to the fact that there was
no proper information before the General Assembly touching the
organization or existence of Greenville Presbytery^, and on his
motion i\Ir. Weir's informal commission was almost unanimously
laid on the table. A similar case was before the next Assembly,
with similar results. Since then all strife about the relations of
our church to the colored people has ceased.
The colored Cumberland Presbyterians have continued their
work with var}ang prosperity, but their success has been far be-
Yond what the many discouragements would have led us to expect.
They now have a General Assembly, a Board of ]\Iissions, a Board
of Publication, and other boards. The increase in the number of
their ministers has been wonderful. They have five synods, nine-
teen presbyteries, two hundred ordained ministers, two hundred
and twenty-five licensed preachers, two hundred candidates for the
ministry, and fifteen thousand members. Although there were
about twenty thousand colored Cumberland Presbyterians in i860,
only a very small portion of them were gathered into this inde-
pendent denomination. The Rev. Robert Johnson, corresponding
delegate sent from that church to our General Assembly in 1874,
made the following statement:
Moderator and Brethren: Believing that more good would be
accomplished by a separate organization, the body which I have the
honor to represent hailed with pleasure the action taken by the General
Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 437
Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, in May, 1S69. With the assistance and co-oiDeration of
presbyteries under your control, a number of colored ministers have
been from time to time set apart to the whole work of the ministry to
labor among their own people. These ministers have formed them-
selves into presbyteries and synods, and on the first day of May, 1874,
commissioners from the .various presbyteries met in the city of Nash-
ville, Tennessee, and formed a General Assembly. That body deter-
mined to appoint a corresponding delegate to represent them in this
meeting of your reverend body, and that duty devolved upon me. Un-
der the control of the body which I represent, there are now seven
presbyteries, viz.: Huntsville, Elk River, Farmington, Pliwassee, New
Hopewell, New Middleton, and Springfield. The first four constitute
the Synod of Tennessee, and the last three the Synod of Huntsville.
In our communion we number now, as nearly as can be ascertained, 46
ordained ministers, 20 licentiates, 30 candidates, and 3,000 communi-
cants. The value of church property is about $5,000. We earnestly
desire, moderator and brethren, to have your assistance and co-opera-
tion. We are weak, you are strong; we are young as an organization,
you are old. We need the benefit of your experience. Above all, we
need your prayers. For these things I confidently ask, and may the
great Head of the church accept you and us with all true believers into
his holy keeping always.
In twelve years the growth in numbers in the ministry and
membership of this church has been five hundred per cent.
The school for colored Cumberland Presbyterians at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, lias never received any considerable assistance
from the wealthy. Perhaps the whole church has not contributed
as much as ten thousand dollars for its establishment and support.
It is a struggling enterprise, yet it has done some good work in
spite of its disadvantages. At the meeting of our General Assem-
bly at Covington, Ohio, May, 1887, nearly $2,700 was raised for
the benefit of this institution, thus freeing it from debt.
We all acknowledge our obligation to send the gospel to Africa,
and think it a noble work of Christian heroism to go to that dark
land and win souls to Christ; but the Africans here at our doors
have still stronger claims on us. In spite of past difficulties and
theoretical fears, it stands to-day as a demonstrated fact wherever
tested that labors in the interest of the colored people by Southern
white men are not only acceptable, but also fruitful of good results.
438 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
The Rev. J. L. Cooper, who was army missionar}', furnishes
an account of his work among the negroes of Mississippi since the
war. In the field where he labored the "prohibition" ticket tri-
umphed through negro votes, and that, too, when the advocates
of the liquor traffic with money and whisky sought to corrupt
these voters. Mr. Cooper had his hands full of other work, but
he made occasional tours among the negroes, and he testifies that
these occasional visits yielded better fruits than his labors among
the white people. He says that the negroes of INIississippi are
ever}^' where accessible if Southern white preachers approach them
in the right spirit. This is the testimony of a man bom and reared
in Mississippi — a man who was a missionary in the rebel army.
There ought to be an organized system of evangelistic work
among the negroes by Cumberland Presbyterians, and Southern
white men should lead in this work. There ought to be minis-
ters and lay workers in the South noble enough and with enough
of the spirit of Christ to trample under foot all foolish prejudices,
and render personal assistance in the meetings and the Sabbath-
schools of the colored people. Why should a young man who had
a negro nurse for daily companion and instructor through all the
tenderest and most impressible years of childhood, now be thrust
out and lose caste because he tries to instruct a class in the col-
ored Sabbath-school, or leads the worship in a meeting of colored
people ?
The religious interests of the colored Cumberland Presbyterians
will no doubt be best developed in a separate denomination of
their own, where the whole responsibility of their ecclesiastical
affairs is placed in their own hands. Yet who can doubt that it is
our solemn duty to help them establish a school for the instruction
of their preachers ? And when this school is established, one of
our educated white men who is sound in the faith should be
secured for its theological department until the time comes when
enough of scholarship and enough of soundness in the faith are
found among the colored preachers to enable them to teach their
own candidates for the ministr}'.
As a fitting close to this chapter, the appeal of the Rev. J. F.
Humphrey to our Assembly in 1879 is inserted:
Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 439
Fayetteville, Tenn., May 14, 1879,
To the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, Metn^his, Tenn.
The General Assembly (colored) of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, which convened at Bowling Green, Kentucky, May i, 1879,
conferred the honor upon me to address your reverend and honored
body, to set forth our warm sympathies and Christian love. We look
upon you as our fathers and our refuge in time of need, and feel
assured that you will hear the cries of your poor, humble, destitute
children. We have been set apart only a few years, and through much
prayer and hard struggles we have been able to sustain the doctrine of
our fathers, which is as dear as life itself to us. As children, you have
our prayers that all the proceedings of your body may be guided by
the unerring counsel .of the God of our fathers. We pray that the
day may not be far distant when our poor young preachers shall be
imbued with the spirit and wisdom which distinguishes your noble
body. You have our sincere and heartfelt thanks for your liberal
donations to our young preacher at Lebanon, Tennessee, at your last
sitting, and we humbly solicit and pray that you will still remember us,
and provide some means to aid us in the publication of our little paper,
which we desire to issue in the interest of our church. I herewith send
you a circular letter, which will set forth our desires and intentions.
Should it trespass upon your precious time and suspend your business
to read this article, please allow your minds to reflect upon our deplora-
ble condition when we were set apart, by our own request, expecting,
after we had made earnest endeavors to help ourselves, that you would
extend the aiding hand to succor your child that looks to its father for
assistance.
We truly regretted that we were deprived of the counsel of your
corresponding delegate at Bowling Green, as he did not appear or send
any communication whatever. We value your prayers for the fulfill-
ment of our desires, and shall ever expect your earnest petitions to
ascend to the throne of grace in our behalf. If nothing else is done
but the offering of your prayers in our behalf, the dark cloud will be
dispei'sed, and then we shall be able to rejoice in the God of our fathers.
Please remember the colored Cumberland Presbyterians in your
devotional exercises. If you do this, we feel confident that the obstacles
will be removed, and we shall be able to advance in our work, ever
holding up the Cumberland Presbyterian banner, with the precious
name of Jesus inscribed upon it. May God be with you and conduct
the business of your body to the approval and approbation of the
Supreme Moderator of the universe.
Yours fraternally, J. F. Humphrey,
Stated Clerk Cumberland Presbyterian Assembly.
440 CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period. V.
CHAPTER XLI.
MISSIONS— 1860 TO 1S70.
"Sow in faith through joy and sorrow,
Lo, tlie promise standeth plain,
There shall dawn a harvest morrow,
Seeds that die shall live again."
N i860 tliere were in the United States fourteen Cumberland
Presbyterian missions in cities and larger towns. So far as can
be ascertained, self-sustaining cliurclies have been established at all
these points, except in Ivouisville, Kentucky, San Antonio, Texas,
and Burlington, Iowa. The work at Burlington has been finally
abandoned. At Ivouisville and San Antonio promising mission
churches are now growing up.
While the war raged, mission work was prosecuted at ]\Iattoon,
Macomb, Atlanta, Winona, and Jersey ville, Illinois; Leavenworth
Kansas; and Waukon, Oskaloosa and Nevada, Iowa. Most of this
work was under the charge of the Board of Missions at Alton,
Illinois. The churches at Waukon, Nevada, Mattoon and Atlanta
have become self-sustaining.
In the years immediately succeeding the war missions were
reported at Austin, Texas, and Bowling Green, Kentucky; also at
Paducah, Kentucky; Clarksville, Chattanooga, and Shelby ville,
Tennessee; and Helena, Arkansas. The first two advanced rap-
idly to a self-sustaining strength.
On the Pacific coast no new missions in cities or towns were
undertaken during this period. Some active country missions and
valuable itinerent work were reported. The missionaries of this
period in California were D. E. Bushnell, E. C. Latta, O. D. Dooley,
E. J. Gillespie, C. H. Crawford, L. Dooley, W. N. Cunningham,
and C. Yager. Some of these labored in local missions, and some
traveled only for a short period. There was a missionar}' board, or
Chapter XLI.] MISSIONS. 441
committee, in California. But little or no help was sent from the
older portions of the church to any part of the Pacific coast.
In other States, itinerent missionaries were not numerous. The
Rev. Benjamin Hall was kept at work in Iowa part of the time as
missionary evangelist, and part of the time in charge of the Waukon
mission. He gave frequent accounts of precious revivals. The
Rev. P. H. Crider was missionary in the same State, devoting him-
self partly to a local field and laboring also as an evangelist. Pie,
too, reported gracious revivals. The same statements apply to the
Rev. A. H. Houghton, who was laboring in Iowa and Minnesota.
At the beginning of this period the Rev. J. B. Green was working
in Kansas as an itinerant missionary under the direction of the
Board of Missions at Lebanon, Tennessee. He had remarkable
success. The Rev. A. M. Wilson was employed as a missionary in
Kansas during part of this period. The board says of him : ' ' He
is a faithful, self-sacrificing brother."
The principal new territories entered by our people between i860
and 1870 were Nebraska and Colorado. This work began through
the immigration of Cumberland Presbyterians into these Terri-
tories, but so little was accomplished in these fields that it is best
to reserve it to be placed along with the events of the next period.
Although the entire work of the Board of IMissions at Lebanon,
Tennessee, was suspended by the war; and although the inter\'en-
ing military lines prevented any communication between the board
at Alton, Illinois, and our Indian missions, yet these missions
stubbornly refused to die. The Rev. R. S. Bell and his wife, with
the native preachers to aid them, determined to keep the churches
alive. All through the war, without any salary from the board.
Bell labored on. The Indians helped to feed him; but it was by
a hard struggle, and through much privation and self-denial, that
the work was sustained. The fruits of this self-sacrificing toil will
endure forever. When the war closed and mails were re-established,
it was with feelings of amazement that the church found this mis-
sionary hero still at his post. He continued in this work till 1880.
The foreign missionary work of Cumberland Presbyterians
during this period was in three fields: the Indian country, Liberia,
and Turkey. The work of Edmond Weir in Africa was continued
442 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
througli all these dark war years. From 1861 till he came back to
America, in 1868, his letters grew more and more gloomy. Writing
to the Rev. J. B. Logan, from Cape Mount, Liberia, September 11,
1 86 1, he says:
This mornhig I must confess that I am at a great loss to know how
to write these lines to you in the United States I think that
my good Brother Logan will drop me a few lines and let me hear how
stands the case with the board and its foreign fields of labor. I know,
from what I read, that it can not do much at present toward paying us
off. But when will it ? I am bare for clothing — indeed I may say that
I have but one coat; .... and I don't know what I will have to
do, seeing those who have such things for sale, say: "I can not credit
you, for I think that your board will not do any thing more." ....
Now, if any member of the board were to drop me a line, saying, "The
board will send you some money in a short time," I could get credit,
and not suffer so much. Will you please let me know how stands
the case at this time. Please write as soon as you get this letter, so that
I can know what to do.
I am your most humble servant, E. Weir.
While the war progressed, and the Board of IVIissions at Leba-
non was inoperative, the Alton board took charge of this Liberia
mission, but could send Weir only a very meager support, and
utterly failed to secure any other preachers to join him. When
the board at Lebanon resumed operations in 1867^ the missions were
divided between the boards, and the work in Liberia fell to the
Alton board. Weir's letters were gloomy; his wife's still more so.
In 1868 he left his family in Africa, and came to America to see
what was the matter. He attended the meeting of the Alton board,
but was not much encouraged by what he there learned. That
board was in debt, and had no money for him. It, however, gave
him permission to canvass its field and collect all the help he could.
After a brief and very unprofitable canvass, he was requested by the
board to take a mission to the freedmen of the Southern States,
instead of his African mission. This he declined. The board
then asked the advice of the General Assembly, and was instructed
to abandon the Liberia mission.
This is a sad record to make, but it will be borne in mind that
all the Southern States, where two thirds of our people lived, were
Chapter XLL] MISSIONS. 443
in a state of extreme financial prostration. North as well as South
the absorbing interest in the war, the excitements and distractions,
the sore losses and bereavements, had long interfered with mission-
ary collections and hindered all church operations. Every depart-
ment of the work was crippled for the lack of money. Time was
needed for our people to recover their strength and for those who
had been separated during the years of the great struggle to re-adjust
themselves to one another and to the work. While the church was
in this crippled state, it was found impossible to do much for foreign
missions, and so the Liberia mission failed.
As for ]\Ir. Weir, he quit the Cumberland Presbyterian church
and joined the Congregationalists.
The Rev. J. C. Armstrong's mission to Turkey had, in some
respects, a sadder history than the Liberia mission. His Southern
birth and Southern sympathies involved him in a class of difficulties
which need not be discussed. He was sent by the Lebanon board,
which became inoperative before Armstrong had been in Turkey
twelve months. This board was crippled almost to its death before
Armstrong set his foot on Asiatic soil.
In the summer of i860, supplied with numerous letters of intro-
duction, the missionary and his wife, and their three-months-old
babe set sail from New York in the Golden Rule, Captain ]\Iayo.
This was a sail ship, bound for India via London. It was over-
laden, and had a poor crew, though a good captain.
They were becalmed for a week near the banks of New Found-
land. After this, late one night when they were under full sail,
near the middle of the Atlantic, they were overtaken by a sudden
storm. Every sail was spread when the hurricane struck them.
The ship was thrown on its beam ends, and when the captain or-
dered the sails to be furled, he found the crew in mutiny. Not a
man obeyed the order. It was perhaps due to this mutiny that the
watch had not been faithful to report the approaching storm. The
captain, however, was equal to the emergency. He managed by
the assistance of the officers to capture and lock up the crew, and
take in the sails. Presently the ship was found to be leaking rap-
idly. The pumps were resorted to, but it was ascertained that the
mutineers had intentionally spoiled them. After much trouble and
444 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v.
alarm, the pumps were repaired and ofiicers and passengers were
set to pumping; but in spite of their utmost eflforts, the water
gained on them. Wild alarm now reigned. The captain said that
the vessel would not keep afloat fifteen minutes longer. Death was
the accepted issue. True, there might be some faint hope of escap-
ing in the boats, if the officers could manage to launch them. Be-
fore this was undertaken, however, the captain remembered that
the vessel was still on its side, and that the leak might be in the
side, and not in the hull. Instantly he called every body to aid in
righting the ship. That was a supreme moment of peril and sus-
pense. Should all the time remaining be spent in righting the
vessel, and the leak still continue, it would then be too late to
lower the boats. Every energy was taxed to its utmost, and the
ship was righted. It was then found that the leak had entirely
ceased. The injury was in the side of the ship, above the water-
line. After much vigorous pumping they succeeded in empt}-ing
the vessel of water, and finally reached London in safety.
In London, the missionaries utilized their many letters of intro-
duction in a social and pleasant manner. Here, too, tidings reached
them of ' ' the Syrian massacre. ' ' This was a trial to missionaries
bound for Damascus. The different missionary societies of London
advised them to abandon the mission to Syria. From London they
went to Paris, wdiere they again made pleasant use of their letters
of introduction. From France they sailed on a French steamer to
Constantinople. They came in sight of this city the morning of
the 22d of September, i860.
Armstrong says that he had from his boyhood felt a special call
to preach to the Mohammedans, and when he reached Constanti-
nople, he felt as if his life's mission lay before his eyes. Engaging
boarding with the Rev. Wm. Goodall, D. D. , the missionaries set to
work immediately to study the Turkish language. After six
months they rented a house, moved into it, and then began in a
small way to work among their neighbors. In the meantime they
had cultivated the acquaintance of all the Protestant missionaries
then in the city.
In the latter part of the year i860, a delegation from Brusa, a
populous city seventy miles westward, visited the missionaries at
Chapter XLL] MISSIONS. 445
Constantinople. This delegation represented two thousand people
who had revolted from the Greek church. They proposed to turn
over their houses of worship, membership, and other interests to
any Protestant missionary board that would immediately supply
them with preaching. Two Protestant preachers, one an editor
and a native Greek, proposed to Armstrong that they three should
unite and form a Cumberland Presbyterian Presbytery, and take
charge of this work in Brusa. Here was a conflict between what
seemed a clear call of divine Providence, and a long-cherished im-
pression that he was especially called to work for the Mohammed-
ans. He had made good progress in the Turkish language, but he
could already speak modern Greek.
Two things, however, were necessary in order to carry out the
Brusa enterprise — authority from the Cumberland Presbyterian
Board, of IMissions, and more money. If the two Greek preachers
entered the work with him, they, as well as he, would need a small
advance from the board. He wrote, but received no reply. He
waited and hoped till the opportunity was gone forever.
There were other similar offers, however, from the Greeks — one
from the islands of the Greek Archipelago, but they were all de-
clined. Armstrong studied several languages simultaneously with
the Turkish. Mrs. Armstrong studied these languages with her
husband, and one (Armenian) which he did not. She and her hus-
band still use the Turkish language in their family, being great
admirers of that conglomerate tongue.
When the war grew to a white heat in America, the American
missionaries in Constantinople became intensely wrought up con-
cerning the war issues at home, Armstrong's* position became per-
ilous. His supplies from America were all cut off. His political
antecedents prevented him from obtaining any loans from the other
American missionaries. He saw before him no prospect but starva-
tion. He says: " I called my faithful servant and his wife, and told
them we could no longer afford to keep a servant; they would have
to go." He then had prayers with them. When they rose after
prayer, the man said: "God do so to me and more also if we leave
thee." He then ran down stairs and brought up his earnings,
am-ounting to a hundred dollars, and placed the money in Arm-
44.6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [reriod v,
strong's hands. This kept them from starvation a little while
longer. Then their rent was due, and their provisions exhausted.
The landlord gave them notice to vacate the house in twenty-four
hours. In that burning heat they could not live twenty-four hours
outside of shelter. Human help there was none. The night was
spent in looking to a higher source of help. The next morning
there was a vigorous knocking at the door. They supposed their
landlord had come to put them out, but, when they opened the
door with fear and trembling, it was not the red turban, and big
breeches, and bloated face of their landlord which met them, but a
young Frenchman in European costume. He seemed excited, and
handing Armstrong some money, said hurriedly that the Lord had
impressed it on his heart in the night that Armstrong was in want,
and had sent him with relief. He told Armstrong that he had just
seen the dreaded landlord, and settled the rents for the past, and
for six months in advance. He refused to give his name, but said,
with tears: "I belong to your King; never doubt that a gracious
Lord is watching over you. Good-bye." From that day to this
Armstrong has neither seen this timely messenger nor received any
tidings from him. He found his rent all paid, as the Frenchman
had told him.
That night the chaplain of the British embassy, the Rev. Mr.
Gribble, came and loaned Armstrong some money. Next day ^Mr.
Gribble and his wife called, bringing various articles which the
missionaries greatly needed. By invitation, formally made, Arm-
strong began making translations for the seven pastors of the Re-
formed Armenian church, who about that time had declared them-
selves independent of the American Board, and set up an organiza-
tion of their own. The manuscripts of their leader were a mixed
mass of English, Turkish, and French, as confused in matter as in
language. They desired Armstrong to arrange this mass in one
language, and from it to formulate their system of theology for
them. To this work he devoted three months, and when he had
digested, arranged, and translated the matter placed in his hands,
he found it to be a system of doctrine almost identical with that
taught by Cumberland Presbyterians. This creed, he says, is no
doubt still held and preached by these oriental pastors.
Chapter XLI.] ' MISSIONS, 447
Another work now opened up for our missionary. It was the
translation of the Scriptures into the Roumanian language. He
accepted this work, and expected to travel to the capital city of
Roumania. Here a new difficulty met him. American citizens
who were suspected of rebel sympathies had trouble about secur-
ing passports. Armstrong took Turkish protection; but he did
not, after all, embark in this new work, or need his Turkish pass-
port. An attack of typhoid fever kept him in Constantinople.
The illness was long and severe, but all his wants were supplied.
The missionaries sat up with him, nursed him, and when he was
able to travel loaned him money to the amount of six hundred dol-
lars to come home on. The voyage back to America restored his
health and closed his missionary career.
His wife was a Canadian, and he sailed from Asia to Canada,
where he remained teaching school until after the close of the war.
He greatly longed to return to Asia, but the way has never been
opened. The Board of Missions at Lebanon, Tennessee, when it
resumed operations, paid off the debts which he had been forced to
contract. "God sometimes sends his servants a long way to do
what seems to us a very little thing." No matter, if he sends us,
it will all be right.
SIXTH PERIOD.
CHAPTER XLII.
SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES.
Return to thy fortress
That can not be taken,
And rest on thy rock
That no earthquake hath shaken.
— Anna Ship ton.
THE earthquake was past, and our temple stood without a
rent in its walls. We had felt the shock only to learn new
lessons about the firmness of that Rock on which our house is
builded. After 1870 the spirit of unity and fraternity in the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church grew rapidly, and there is more union
of heart among our people now than ever before.
The General Assembly of 1871, which met at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, was harmonious and full of hope. The quarterly system
of collections by pastors, which had been suspended for one year,
was by this Assembly promptly, and with great unanimity, restored.
The Assembly of 1872, at Evansville, Indiana, appointed a day
of prayer for colleges, and called on the whole church to join in its
observance. The great want of the church was men. All keenly
felt this want; and the struggle to train men for their work in the
ministr}' was embarrassed by the overwhelming bankruptcy of all
the Southern people. Besides this general bankruptcy, which sur-
passed all description, there was in the Southern States a sad lack
of young men. Many from both sections who had been the hope
of church and State were sleeping in coffinless graves on the
m}-riad battle-fields of the civil war. Our church was very weak
in the Northern States, and the hope of a supply of recruits for
(44S)
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 449
the broken ranks of the ministry was but faint. Hitherto, the
most of our preachers, even in the Northern States, had come
from that South which was now to a large extent demoralized and
in ruins. The day of prayer was well timed and was generally
observed, and as the histor>' of our colleges will show, it was not
observed in vain.
At this Assembly the announcement was officially made of the
death of the Rev. Milton Bird, D.D., the stated clerk. Dr. Bird
is one of those characters that will grow in our esteem as the years
sweep away and all littleness and party prejudices die out. He
belonged to no section, no party; and because he would not bow
down and worship at any partisan shrine, the true grandeur of his
soul was not appreciated in the days of mad partisan extremes.
Ruling Elder John Frizzell was elected stated clerk in Dr. Bird's
place. Mr. Frizzell had special adaptedness to this work, and the
announcement that he could be secured to fill this vacancy gave
universal satisfaction.
This Assembly warned our churches and people against bad
books. Most of the session was occupied in considering the
revised Form of Government, which had long been under dis-
cussion, and which, after three references to the presbyteries, was
at last laid on the table indefinitely.
The Assembly of 1873 was held at Huntsville, Alabama. One
matter of special interest came before this body. Dr. A. J. Baird,
who had been sent as corresponding delegate to the General Assem-
bly of the Northern Presbyterian church, in session at Baltimore,
Maryland, telegraphed that a committee to consider organic union
with Cumberland Presbyterians had, at his request, been appointed
by the Presbyterian Assembly, and he asked our Assembly if it
would appoint a similar committee. Dr. Baird had, on his own
responsibility, made this proposition, and the Presbyterian Assem-
bly had acted on it. Our Assembly appointed the committee asked
for, and thus another fruitless movement looking toward organic
union was inaugurated.
The two committees thus appointed had a very pleasant and
fraternal conference at Nashville, Tennessee, beginning February
25th, 1874, and continuing through the next day. The members
29
450 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
of the Cumberland Presbyterian committee present were Drs.
Richard Beard, J. B. Mitchell, A. J. Baird, and A. B. Miller.
Among the members of the Presbyterian committee were Drs. H.
A. Nelson, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Joseph T. Smith, of Baltimore,
Maryland; and Charles A. Dickey, of St. Louis, Missouri. But
in this case, as in the conference at Memphis six years before with
the committee of the Southern branch of the Presbyterian church,
the only basis of union submitted by the Presbyterians was the
Westminster Confession of Faith. In the Nashville conference
the Presbyterians did not even promise to submit to their Assem-
bly the plan of union proposed by the Cumberland Presbyterian
committee, but recommended that negotiations should be con-
tinued. As in the conference at Memphis, so at Nashville the
Cumberland Presbyterian committee went to great lengths in try-
ing to devise a plan upon which the two churches could unite.
The plan proposed in the latter case was as follows:
We, the committee on the part of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, submit the following' as a basis of union between our church
and the Presbyterian church here represented:
1. That both Confessions of Faith shall be retained as they are, and
shall be regarded as of equal authority as standards of evangelical doc-
trine; and hereafter in the licensure of candidates, and in the ordination
of ministers or other officers of the church, or on any other occasion
when it shall be necessary to adopt a Confession of Faith, it shall be
left to the choice of the individual as to which of these he shall adopt.
2. That the Form of Government and Discipline of the Presbyte-
rian church shall be the Form of Government and Discipline of the
united church.
3. That the united church shall be known as the Presbyterian
church of the United States of America.
The impression went abroad that the joint committee had
agreed to this plan of union, and such an impression prevailed
among the members of the next Cumberland Presbyterian Assem-
bly; but neither the published records of the joint committee nor
the original manuscript minutes of its meetings justify any such
conclusion.
To the plan of union proposed by our committee the Presbyte-
rian committee responded in these words:
Chapter XLII] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 45I
The committee on the part of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian church having considered the paper presented b}' our brethren,
cordially respond:
1. That this paper and our familiar conference of this morning con-
firm the impressions and hopes indicated in our pievious paper, and
our desire for the continued and increased intercourse, co-operation,
and united prayer of the ministers and people of both churches which
that paper recommends.
2. That in our judgment it is desirable that such intercourse be con-
tinued, and the mutual acquaintance of the two churches become more
extensive and intimate before their General Assemblies shall be called
upon to act upon any plan of union.
3. That in submitting the proceedings of this joint committee to
our respective Assemblies we recommend the appointment of a joint
committee for continued conference and for promoting intercourse and
acquaintance between the two bodies during the next year.
The one thing which the joint committee agreed upon was that
the negotiations should be continued. This was the only question
connected with this matter which the Cumberland Presbyterian
Assembly of 1874, at Springfield, Missouri, was called upon to
decide. The discussion of this subject, however, which was not
free from ill-feeling, took a far wider range. The Assembly
finally adopted a resolution which, without expressing any opinion
on the proposed plan of union, declared it inexpedient to continue
the negotiations. This forestalled the action of the Presbyterian
Assembly, and the whole matter was dropped.
There are two false ideas that ought never again to deceive us
or our Presbyterian brethren. One is the hope on their part that
our people will sometime adopt unchanged the Westminster Con-
fession of Faith. The other is the belief among Cumberland
Presbyterians that Presbyterians are ready to accept our doctrinal
platform. Both parties are honest and conscientious, and so long
as there exist such important differences in doctrinal views, they
can work with more harmony and love in separate ecclesiastical
organizations. The union which Christ prayed for is not an out-
ward visible union, else we would all be driven back into the
Roman Catholic church. Outward union is vain and woirthless
when union of heart and spirit do not accompany it. Union of
heart often binds Christians of different churches closer together
452 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
than brothers of the same family. We should cultivate this lov-
ing spirit, and wait till God's providence prepares the way for out-
ward oneness. We can cordially co-operate in promoting such
preparation, but we can not force it.
All the propositions made by Presbyterians for conference about
union with Cumberland Presbyterians have contained evidence
that the union to be taken into consideration was, according to the
Presbyterian view, to be on the basis of the Westminster standards.
Thus the Presbyterian Assembly (Southern), in appointing a com-
mittee to meet a similar committee from our church, used this
language :
In practically carrying out this idea [viz., of a union], the Assem-
bly, laying aside ecclesiastical etiquette, would affectionately say to their
brethren of the Associate Reformed Synod, that they may pull the
latch-string of our dwelling whenever they may choose, and may be
incorporated with us upon the simple adoption of our standards, when-
ever these may happen to differ from their own; and to our brethren
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, we respectfully suggest
whether the time has not come to consider the great importance to the
kingdom of our common Master of their union with us by the adoption
of the time-honored standards to which we adhere.
In the conference with the committee of the Southern branch
of the Presbyterian church their only proposition was that we
should take the Westminster Confession unchanged. In the con-
ference with the representatives of the other branch of the Pres-
byterian church six or seven years afterward, nothing was offered
our committee but the Westminster Confession unchanged. In a
movement originated by individuals in California, the Presbyterian
synod on the Pacific coast proposed that the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian synod be consolidated with it on the basis of the Westmin-
ster Confession unchanged. What ground individual members of
our church gave our dear Presbyterian brethren to encourage them
to make such offers is an inquiry whose investigation would not
be for our edification.
The Assembly of 1874 was rendered memorable by the visit of
Dr. James Morrison and Dr. Fergus Ferguson, corresponding dele-
gates from the Evangelical Union Church of Scotland. The pro-
found scholarship of Dr. Morrison made him a fitting companion
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 453
for Dr. Beard, and it was interesting to see how these two scholars
' ' took to each other. ' '
Ferguson is a genial, witty man, and a thorough Scotchman.
A preacher who had been chaplain in the Southern army was Fer-
guson's room-mate. General Holland, at whose house they were
quartered, had been a commander in the Northern army. The
two army men became warm friends at their first meeting, and
they showed great fondness for talking over war experiences. Fer-
guson listened in amazement. At last he broke forth with his
strong Scotch accent: "I don't understand it, General. Just a
little while ago he was preaching to the soldiers, and you were
shooting at him. Nowhere you both are cheek by jowl together,
like the best friends in the world." Yes, and the best friends in
the world they are still, whether a Scotchman can understand it or
not. But they are not any warmer friends to each other than they
both are to that quaint, original, genial son of Caledonia, who
published a pleasant little book about his trip to Springfield.
The custom of sending corresponding delegates to bear frater-
nal greetings to General Assemblies and conferences was then at
its zenith. For fourteen years it had been growing. The churches
which generally had representatives on the floor of our Assembly
were the Presbyterian (both branches), the Lutheran, the Evangel-
ical Union, the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian, the Congrega-
tional, and sometimes others.
The address of the Rev. J. S. Hays, corresponding delegate
from the Presbyterian church in the United States of America
to the Cumberland Presbyterian Assembly of 1874, is here pre-
sented:
For two reasons no service could be more agreeable to me than that
of being the bearer to you of the Christian salutations of that branch
of the church to which I belong. In the first place, after observing
the spirit and temper of my church toward you as manifested in our
General Assembly one year ago, I am able to present these greetings
without a single misgiving as to the sincerity and cordiality of those for
whom I speak. And then the old animosities that were engendered
by the separation which took place before we were born have all been
happily buried and forgotten. There is but little diversity and much in
common in our history and doctrines and discipline. We serve the
454 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
same Master and fight against the same enemy in the hojoe of the same
glorious reward.
In a communication received by tlie Presbyterian General Assem-
bly a year ago, you were pleased to speak of us as the mother church.
I am happy to reciprocate the compliment and assure you, in return, of
the mother's great pride in recognizing her daughter. It is true, I pre-
sume, that some of our very proper people regard the daughter in her
religious enjoyments sometimes as a little demonstrative, as possibly
some of your more demonstrative people regard the mother as a little
too sedate. It is also true, perhaps, that some of our very orthodox
people regard your belief as a little flexible, as doubtless some of your
flexible people regard the mother a little rigid. Such difterences we
may expect, but I assure you that there is on our part a deep, strong
current of respect, affection, and love such as a mother feels for her
child.
When your representative. Dr. A, J. Baird, one year ago in our
General Assembly, expressed a desire for the formation of a stronger
boad of union between us — a desire, indeed, for organic union if it
could be satisfactorily^ accomplished — his words were met in our As-
sembly with a round of applause, the meaning of which it was impos-
sible to misunderstand. Upon the spot and without a dissenting voice
a committee was appointed to meet and confer with a similar commit-
tee from your own body for the purpose of ascertaining if such a union
could be effected. We have not yet heard the report of that commit-
tee; but it is understood that it was only a royal courtship, not a wed-
ding nor an engagement for a wedding. Perhaps the committees were
right about it. We have had a wedding of that sort in our house re-
cently. There are those among us — and I am free to confess that I am
one of them — who have never been able to see any indispensable
necessity for organic union in order to genuine co-operation and the
most cordial fraternal relations. I understand that many of you hold
the same opinion.
Now, what sort of unity in the church of Christ would be pro-
ductive of the greatest amount of efficiency and fraternity, is a question
that can not be passed over lightly or easily by our corresponding com-
mittees. No more important or delicate question is now before the
church. However it may be settled, I am sure that there is a deep and
wide- spread desire in my own church for some such organic union as
that which was suggested to you by the memorial of Drs. Crosb}', Mc-
Cosh, and others in regard to union among Presbyterians. For such a
union, especially with your church, we are ready to labor and pray. If
at any future time a full organic union can be effected on terms alike
honorable and agreeable to all, we will thoroughly rejoice. If not, we
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAI. GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 455
will still stand side by side and shoulder to shoulder with you in the
strife against evil, and we will defer our little differences about election
and other matters until we pass beyond the vale and sit at the feet of
Jesus, where we will enjoy better instruction than that which we now
receive from the lips of a Beard or a Hodge.
I was intensely interested yesterday in hearing your educational and
missionaiy reports read. With many of the statements I was highly
gratified, and when I make my report to my own General Assembly I
shall try to convey to them the same impression that was made upon
my mind while I listened.
When we, as Presbyterians, look out upon this broad land and ob-
serve the millions that are swarming into it, and when we look out
upon the broader field, which is the world, and hear the cries that come
to us for help which it is impossible for us to give, it is with the pro-
foundest interest that we watch the increasing strength and hail the
rising power of vigorous young churches like your own, marching
under the same banner, calling themselves by the same name, and pro-
claiming substantially the same faith.
Laying upon your table the minutes of our last General Assembly,
in which you will see an exhibit of our present condition and future
prospects, permit me to close as I commenced, by tendering to you the
fraternal greetings and the cordial sympathies of the Presbyterian
church in the United States of America.
The Presbyterian church (Old School) sent its first delegate to
the Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly in i860. Dele-
gates came regularly after that. By and by the churches generally
concluded to convey these fraternal greetings by letter, and not
send delegates in person. Only the colored Cumberland Presbyte-
rians now send corresponding delegates to our Assembly, and there
exist special reasons in their case for still keeping up the old
custom.
The Assembly of 1875 met at Jefferson, Texas. An interesting
item in the business of this meeting was the presentation to the
Assembly, by Joseph W. Allen, of Nashville, of an elegant gavel,
made from wood which grew on the McAdow farm near the spot
where the first Cumberland Presbyterian presbytery was organized.
The Assembly of 1876 met at Bowling Green, Kentucky; that
of 1877 at Lincoln, Illinois. At the Assembly of 1878, which was
held at Lebanon, Tennessee, Caruthers Hall, one of the buildings
of Cumberland University, was dedicated.
456 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
The Assembly of 1879, at Memphis, Tennessee, introduced one
new feature. It set apart a whole day for the discussion of topics
connected with Sunday-schools. In actual Sunday-school work
our people were doing far too little, and though we have since
then made decided improvement, }'et the statistical report for 1886
shows only a little over half as many Sunday-school scholars as
members of the church. Not until 1883 was it decided to have a
general superintendent of Sunday-schools for the whole church.
Dr. M. B. DeWitt was elected to this office, but as no provisions
were made for his salary, and as his time was fully employed with
his duties as a pastor, he was unable to devote himself to this
work. He resigned in 1886. The Rev. J. H. Warren, his suc-
cessor, has done good service, collecting many valuable statis-
tics and preparing the way for a greater work in the future. One
collection each year from all the congregations in the church, to be
taken up on a Sunday designated as "Children's Day," is hereafter
to be devoted to the payment of the salary of the general superin-
tendent and the support of Sunday-school interests.
Dr. E. D. Morris, corresponding delegate from the Presbyterian
church (Northern), delivered an address in the Cumberland Pres-
byterian Assembly of 1879, at Memphis, Tennessee, which for
sound sense and a rare combination of unflinching fidelity to his
own church, along with the noblest liberality toward others, is
deserving of special mention. While he called in question the
wisdom of any attempt to unite all Presbyterians in one organic
body, and expressed doubts about the utility of such large bodies
even were they one in faith, calling them "too unwieldy to be
efficient, too proud to be endured," he yet declared it desirable for
all Presbyterians to ' ' think less about their differences and more
of their vital points of agreement in doctrine and order."
The Assembly of 1880 was held at Evansville, Indiana, and by
a sort of averaging of dates it was agreed to celebrate this as its
semi-centennial meeting. Our first Assembly was organized in
1829, but there had been two years in which no Assembly met.
This semi-centennial celebration called forth numerous historical
addresses. These were published in a neat little pamphlet pre-
pared by the stated clerk, the Hon. John Frizzell.
Chapter XLIL] SEVERAI^ GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 457
The Woman's Board of Foreign Missions was organized at this
meeting. While there had been suggestions and resolutions look-
ing toward such an organization years before, such propositions
had until iSSo ended in words yielding no positive results. Our
missionaries in Japan at last kept the subject ringing in the ears
of our people, and Dr. W. J. Darby, of Evansville, helped to press
the matter until the organization became an accomplished fact.
This board was located at Evansville, Indiana. Just as soon as
it was organized, a young lady from Missouri offered herself as
a missionary to go to Japan, and was accepted. No part of our
ecclesiastical machinery works more successfully or yields larger
results of good than this board with its numerous auxiliaries and
children's bands. Its annual receipts have increased from a little
over $2,000 for the first year, to almost $6,800 for the year ending
May, 1887. It has now five missionaries in Japan. It has estab-
lished a school for the education of Japanese girls. It also assists
in mission work in Mexico and among the Indians, and is steadily
extending its operations and influence.
The first Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Missions ever
organized (1818) was a woman's board, and at different times
there were local boards of the same character. One such organ-
ization is mentioned in the following letter found in the Watch-
man and Evangelist^ a Cumberland Presbyterian paper published
at Louisville, Kentucky, thirty years ago:
Lebanon, Tenn., November 25, 1857.
Mr. Editor — I am pleased to read in your paper — nay, the expres-
sion does not do justice to my feelings — I am delighted, overjoyed, at
the movement of the ladies, members of our church in your city. In-
deed, they have set a noble example, which I trust may be followed by
the ladies of many other churches. "A female foreign missionary soci-
ety " according to the plan of that lately formed in Louisville, and for
the object there specified, as well as other similar objects which will
doubtless be presented, might be formed in every congregation. This
would reioice pious hearts, be approved by the great Head of the
church, and, being crowned with the divine blessing, might accomplish
results the extent and glory of which eternity alone would reveal.
What is more natural than to see the followers of Jesus Christ laboring
to advance the great object on which his heart is set ? As workers
together with him, and loving him who has loved them and saved them
458 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
from sin and the wrath to come, it is to be expected that they will de-
sire to please him and exert themselves to save those for whom he shed
his precious blood. The Savior, it is true, is able to convert the world
without human instrumentalities; but it has pleased him to employ his
people in the glorious work. The church is the grand instrument by
the labors and sacrifices of which the Son of God is to have the
heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a
possession. F. R. Cossitt.
The custom of organizing and maintaining sucli societies had
fallen into neglect. The Assembly's action in 1880 gave it new
form and new life.
Growing out of a resolution presented to the General Assembly
of 1880, which was referred to the standing committee on fraternal
relations, a correspondence sprung up on the subject of organic
union with the Evangelical Lutheran church. Committees were
appointed, but they did not meet for a joint conference. The cor-
respondence between the Rev. F. Springer, D. D. , chairman of the
Lutheran committee, and the Rev. J. P. Sprowls, D.D., chairman
of the Cumberland Presbyterian committee, developed the fact that
while both churches desired closer and more hearty fraternal rela-
tions, neither of them was ready for organic union.'
By the Assembly of 1881, which met at Austin, Texas, meas-
ures of far-reaching significance were adopted. The constitution
of the Presbyterian Alliance was approved, and "our Confession
of Faith was submitted as indicating our harmony with the Con-
sensus of the Reformed Confessions." Committees were appointed
to revise the Confession of Faith. The Board of Ministerial Re-
lief was organized. The national council of the Cherokee Indians
was memorialized to set apart lands for a Cumberland Presbyterian
mission school. A memorial page in the Assembl}''s Minutes
was set apart to the memory of Dr. Richard Beard. This was
the first time in the history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church
that such a tribute was paid to one of its members. A similar
memorial has since been accorded to the Hon. R. L. Caruthers.
The next Assembly, 1882, which met at Huntsville, Alabama,
elected delegates to the General Presbyterian Alliance, leaving that
' See Minutes of General Assembly, 1S80, p. 38; 1882, pp. 30, 96; 1SS3, pp. 30, 31.
Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 459
council to decide concerning the harmony or want of harmony of
the Cumberland Presbyterian creed with the Consensus of the Re-
formed Confessions. A new committee to co-operate wath the col-
ored Cumberland Presbyterians in establishing and endowing a
school was appointed.
This Assembly spent most of its sessions in considering the
proposed new Confession of Faith, which was submitted to it by
the committees appointed the year before. After thoroughly re-
viewing the work of the committees, and making various changes
and amendments, this General Assembly approved the revised
book and transmitted it to the presbyteries for their action.
At the Assembly of 1883, held at Nashville, Tennessee, it was
announced that one hundred of the one hundred and sixteen pres-
byteries had approved this revised Confession. In sixty-one pres-
byteries the vote was unanimous, and in seven there was but one
dissenting voice. One presbytery protested against the revision;
a majority in nine presbyteries voted against its adoption ; three did
not report, and three presented memorials suggesting changes or
asking postponement. The new ' ' Constitution and Rules of Dis-
cipline," and the "General Regulations, Directory for Worship,
and Rules of Order" were approved by one hundred and six of the
presbyteries. The General Assembly then declared that "the Con-
fession of Faith and Government of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church had been constitutionally changed," and that the revised
Confession should thereafter "be of binding authority upon the
churehes."
In 1883 the Hon. John Frizzell, stated clerk, resigned, and T. C.
Blake, D.D., was appointed in his place. The Assembly of 1884,
which met at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, chose Mr. Frizzell as
its moderator, he being the first ruling elder ever elected to that
position.
At the next Assembly, which convened at Bentonville, Arkan-
sas, after the opening sermon, which was preached by J. M. Gill,
D.D., Mr. Frizzell, on retiring from the moderator's chair, delivered
an address abounding in valuable suggestions about the business
affairs of the Assembly. He took strong ground in favor of some
provisions for regulating the work of evangelists, condemning all
460 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
that class of lay evangelism which is under no regular ecclesiastical
ajjpointment.
At different times in this period, as well as in former periods,
the General Assembly bore strong testimony against card playing,
theater going, and dancing. The language of one deliverance on
dancing was as follows:
Rcsohed, by this General Assembly, as expressed by former Assem-
blies, That the practice of promiscuous dancing as an amusement by
professed Christians, as well as attendance upon such places of amuse-
ment, is hereby declared to be inconsistent with Christian profession
and the pure and sacred obhgations of our holy religion; and that pres-
byteries and church sessions are advised that members persisting in
such a practice are proper subjects of church discipUne.
The meaning of "promiscuous" dancing was discussed at the
time, and was defined to be dancing in which both sexes participate.
In 1874 the Board of Publication bought the Banner of Peace
for $10,000, the Cumberland Presbyterian for $13,000, and the
Texas Cumberland Presbyterian for $2,500, filling out the unex-
pired subscriptions of each. The Sunday - school Gem and the
TJicological Medium had been purchased in 1872. All the weekly
papers were consolidated under the name of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian. The consolidated organ was located at Nashville, and
the Rev. J. R. Brown, D.D,, was appointed editor.
The Board of Ministerial Relief, though not organized until
1881, has done valuable work in providing for the wants of men
who have worn their lives out in half-paid labors for the church.
The self-sacrificing services of these veteran soldiers of the Cross
have been worth a thousand times more than all the pay they ever
received or can ever receive from man. This board was located at
Evansville, Indiana. The Rev. W. J. Darby, pastor of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church in that city, was the prime mover in
securing its organization. Articles of corporation were obtained
for it in October, 1881. Its receipts during the first year were less
than $600. Its total receipts for the 3'ear ending ]\Iay, 1887, were
nearly $5,500. It has a permanent fund of $3,500. The number
of persons receiving aid has increased from four, who were helped
during the first year, to forty-three now on the roll of beneficiaries.
Chapter XLIL] SEVERAI. GENERAL ASSEMBUES. 461
The boards of the church all made good progpress in this period.
The Board of Publication, through the aid of contributions from
the churches, paid off the immense debt created by purchasing
papers and periodicals published by individuals, as well as all the
debts for presses and fixtures. It also gave, by order of the Assem-
bly, one thousand dollars to meet expenses incurred in connection
with the revision of the Confession of Faith.
The new books written and published by ministers or members
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in this period are not
numerous. The themes of the volumes issued are theological,
biographical, educational, and practical. No devotional books
have made their appearance. There is a wide gap here for our
writers to fill. Tracts that will strengthen and build up church
members in Christian life are greatly needed. One little book to
guide disciples in the Christian life — "Lights on the Way," by
Dr. J. R. Brown — was issued in 1879. The work of publishing
Sunday-school books has made some little progress. A few relig-
ious stories constitute the principal additions. Works to guide the
young unto salvation, to train hearts in love to Jesus, to develop
the Christian life, to foster faith, and build up souls in real conse-
cration— not works to fascinate by questionable fictions — are what
our Sunday-schools need. Such books are likely to find the largest
sales. Frances Ridley Havergal's books are an illustration. Of
these millions of copies have been sold, and there is no cessation in
the demand. At first her publisher protested against the subjects
she had chosen, and proposed some world-pleasing substitute, saying
that books on the themes she had selected would not be salable.
The results show that God still rules. His presence and blessings
are with those whose labors are ' ' ever, only, all for Jesus. ' ' Let
one little book, or tract, or periodical, be so filled with God's truth
and God's Spirit that conversions constantly follow its circulation,
and no human power can long shut it up within denominational
boundaries. To write one such book as "Kept for the Master's
Use" is far better than to found an "empire, or revolutionize all
human sciences.
It remains to speak of the relations of the Cumberland Presby-
terian church to the Presbyterian Alliance. The plan for this
463 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
"general council of all Presbyterian bodies throughout the world "
was formed at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in New
York city, in 1873. In response to a communication from the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States
of America, inviting the Cumberland Presbyterian church to par-
ticipate in this " Ecumenical Council of Presbyterians," our Assem-
bly in 1874 appointed "a committee to confer with similar com-
mittees from other Presbyterian Assemblies to arrange for such a
Council." This committee never reported. In 1875 our Assembly
appointed the Rev. W. E. Ward, D.D., to attend the "Presbyterian
Alliance to meet in London." At this London conference, which
began July 21st, 1875, there were sixty-four commissioners present,
representing twenty-two Presbyterian organizations; but as Dr.
Ward failed to be present, the Cumberland Presbyterian church
had no representative in this initial meeting, and, therefore, did
not become one of the churches originally composing the Alliance.
The commissioners in attendance agreed upon a basis of union, and
adopted a constitution, designating the body as "The Alliance of
the Reformed Churches Throughout the World holding the Pres-
byterian System," and providing that "Any church organized on
Presbyterian principles, which holds the supreme authority of the
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in matters of faith and
morals, and whose creed is in harmony with the Consensus of the
Reformed Confessions, shall be eligible for admission into the Alli-
ance. ' '
The first regular meeting of the Alliance under this constitution
was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning July 4, 1877, but no
Cumberland Presbyterian delegates were in attendance. None had
been appointed. Oui- General Assembly in 1880 appointed nine
representatives to attend the Alliance's regular meeting, which was
to convene at Philadelphia, September 23d of that year. Only two
of these, the Rev. W. H. Black, and INIr. John R. Rush, presented
themselves for admission. The Committee on Credentials reported
against the admission of the two delegates. The report said :
We are constrained to adopt this resolution by the absence of suf-
ficient evidence that the Cumberland church now accept the doctrinal
basis of the Alliance, and by the terms of Article II. of the Constitution,
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAIv GENERAI. ASSEMBLIES. 463
which restricts the Alliance to churches whose creeds are in harmony
with the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions.
No one in the Council seemed to comprehend the importance of
this report, when it was first presented by the committee, and it
was adopted without discussion; but on the following day the ques-
tion was re-opened, and led to an exciting debate. One leading
member argued that these delegates could not be admitted because
the church they represented did not accept the whole of the West-
minster Confession. Another argued that because the committees
on organic union between Cumberland Presbyterians and Southern
Presbyterians had, in their conference at Memphis, in 1867, failed
to agree, therefore Cumberland Presbyterians had no right to seats
in the Council. But many of the best men in the Alliance, repre-
senting both Europe and America, argued in favor of the admission
of our delegates. After this matter had been before the Alliance
for several days, the following was adopted in lieu of the report of
the Committee on Credentials:
Resolved^ That the Council are unable, hoc statu, to admit as mem-
bers brethren representing churches whose relations to the Constitution
have not been explained and can not now be considered.
This, as a leading religious paper remarked at the time, kept
the delegates out without committing the Alliance permanently to
the rejection of the church they represented. In his report to our
General Assembly, the Rev. W. H. Black said:
You are already acquainted with the facts concerning the rejection
of your delegates, ostensibly, because our Assembly had not taken the
necessary regular steps toward admission; but really, as your delegate
thinks, because some of the members of the Alliance considered the
doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian church out of harmony with
the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions.
This matter awakened a lively interest, both in this country
and Europe, and was widely discussed by the press. There was,
among the more liberal members of the Alliance, much dissatisfac-
tion with the result. The Cumberland Presbyterian General As-
sembly at its next meeting, in 188 1, after formally adopting the
Constitution of the Alliance, and submitting our Confession of
Faith, "as indicating our harmony with the Consensus of the
464 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Reformed Confessions," appointed a committee, "to consider the
subject in the light of future developments, and to report to the
next Assembly." The report of this committee, which was unani-
mously adopted by the General Assembly of 1882, stated the par-
ticulars' in which the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church dissented from the Westminster Confession, and then added:
By these exceptions it will be seen that we have an amended form
of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and if this puts us out of har-
mony with the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions, we will be
glad to have the fact clearly and unequivocally stated. That this may
be certainly done by the next Council, we recommend that you appoint
delej^ates to the next meeting of the Alliance in the city of Belfast,
Ireland, in 1884.
The next year our Assembly adopted an address, submitting to
the Alliance "Our Confession of Faith and Government," and
saying to that Council: " If the difference between our statements
of doctrine and those of the Westminster Confession of Faith is
inconsistent with our being represented in your body, }-ou will so
decide."
Twenty-five delegates had been appointed to attend the meeting
of the Alliance at Belfast, which was to convene June 24th, 1884.
Twelve of the number were present at that meeting. The first
important item before this Council was the report of a committee
appointed four years before to define the Consensus of the Reformed
Confessions. This committee announced that, after diligent in-
quiry, the conclusion had been reached that it was inexpedient to
attempt a statement of the creed on which the churches composing
the Alliance were united. It had been discovered that the Presby-
terian churches in Continental Europe were not in harmony with
the Westminster Confession of Faith in many important particulars,
and it was well known that even the United Presbyterian Church
of Scotland had found it necessary to adopt an explanator}' clause,
to which candidates for ordination were required to subscribe, rather
than to the simple Confession.
Much interest was felt in the probable result of the application
of our delegates for admission. So great was the demand for Cum-
* See page 99 of this historjr.
Rev. R. Beard. D, D
IlnJ^liy J.CBii(to.N.y.
Rev. A.J. Baird, D.D. Rev S.G.Burney, D.D.
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 465
berlaiid Presbyterian Confessions of Faith, that a Belfast firm
printed a new edition of three thousand copies of that book. The
Committee on the Reception of Churches was enlarged from three
to seventeen members, representing all shades of opinion and all
parts of the world. After due deliberation this committee unani-
mously agreed upon the following report, which was presented to
the Council:
Respecting the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America, the following deliverance "v\^as unanimously adopted:
Whereas, The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has adopted the
Constitution of the Alliance;
Whereas, It was one of the churches which was invited to assist
in the formation of the Alliance in 1875;
Whereas, It has now, as on previous occasions, made application
for admission, and has sent delegates to the present meeting;
Whereas, Further, as declared by the first meeting of the Council,
the responsibility of deciding whether they ought to join the AlHance
should rest on the churches themselves, your committee recommends to
the Council, without pronouncing any judgment on the church's revision
of the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism, to admit the
Cumberland Presbyterian church into the Alliance, and to invite the
delegates now present to take their seats.
The Rev. Dr. Martin, of Kentucky, moved to reject the report,
and made a lengthy speech against the reception of our delegates.
A heated debate followed which lasted three hours, and in which
the representatives from the Southern Presbyterian church took
the lead in opposing the report of the committee. Men represent-
ing the best thought in the several churches composing the Alli-
ance, took strong grounds in its favor. Among these were Dr.
Briggs and Dr. John Hall, of New York; Professor E. D. Morris,
of Cincinnati ; Professor Calderwood, of Edinburgh ; Principal Mc-
Vicar, of Montreal; and Dr. Brown and Dr. Story, of Scotland.
Dr. Monod, of France, warned the Council that if the Cumberland
Presbyterians were rejected the continental churches would feel
themselves bound to withdraw from the Alliance.' Less than
twenty members of the Council voted in favor of Dr. Martin's
motion. On motion of the Rev. T. W. Chambers, D.D., of New
'Report in Cumberland Presbyterian, Julj 24, 1SS4.
30
466 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period, vi.
York, the closing part of Committee's report, was made to read as
follows, and with this amendment was adopted:
The Council, without approving of the church's revision of the
Westminster Confession and of the Shorter Catechism, admit the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church into the Alliance, and invite the delegates
now present to take their seats.
Our delegates, in their report to the next Assembly (1885), said:
Dr. Chambers' amendment was carried by a vote of 112 to 78.
Those voting against Dr. Chambers' amendment were in favor of ad-
mitting our church unconditionally. Those voting for the amendment
desired the admission of the church "without approving our revision
of the Westminster Confession of Faith." After due deliberation and
consultation, we decided to accept seats in the Council and report our
action to you. The action of the Council in this matter gave great sat-
isfaction to its members. . . . We take special pleasure in bearing testi-
mony to the cordial and hearty reception our delegates received, both
from members of the Council and the citizens of Belfast. . . . W"e recom-
mend that you continue to fraternize with this great and powerful
organization intended to promote the welfare of our common Presby-
terianism.
The General Assembly (1885) adopted the following report on
this subject:
Your committee has fully considered the report of your delegates to
the Pan-Presbyterian Council, also the official communication from the
clerk of the Council, and unanimously recommend that you adopt the
following preamble and resolutions: •
Whereas, The Council was neither asked nor expected to express
approval of our Confession of Faith, but to decide whether it is in har-
mony with the Consensus of the Reformed churches; and,
Whereas, The Council decided to admit the Cumberland Presby-
terian church to membership in the Alliance, and our delegates to seats
in the Council, thereby placing the Alliance upon a basis not Inconsist-
ent with our creed; therefore,
Resolved, i. That this new evidence of a growing catholicity among
the members of the great Presbyterian family is hailed with pleasure
by this General Assembly representing the Cumberland Presbyterian
church.
3. That we, as a denomination of Christians, continue to fraternize
cordially with the liberal and progressive churches composing the Alli-
ance, endeavoring. In the true spirit of unity, with them to promote the
gospel's advancement throughout the world.
Chapter XLII.] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 467
Although the action by which our church was admitted to
membership in the Alliance was not entirely pleasing to all our
ministers and people, yet the General Assembly has shown no dis-
position to recede from the steps it has taken in this matter. In
its latest action the Assembly declared that the connection of our
church with the Alliance has brought the system of doctrine
taught by our people to the attention of the world as never
before, and that the Alliance has become a medium of greater
fraternity among the churches, drawing them together, promoting
a better understanding among the great organizations constituting
the Presbyterian family, and promising to become the medium of
practical co-operation in foreign mission fields. While it is felt
that co-operation is needed, the indications are strong that the
churches which most opposed the admission of Cumberland Pres-
byterians to membership in the Alliance need us more than we
need them. The noble words of Dr. E. D. Morris, of Lane Sem-
inary, Cincinnati, Ohio, uttered in behalf of our people in the Coun-
cil at Belfast, ought to endear him to all Cumberland Presbyte-
rians forever.
A sad event connected with the journey of the Cumberland
Presbyterian delegates to the Belfast Council was the death of the
Rev. A. J. Baird, D.D. His health had been failing for several
months, but he was unwilling to give up his cherished purpose to
attend the Alliance, and he hoped to be benefited by foreign
travel. He, however, grew rapidly worse after leaving home, and
at New York city, June 15, 1884, the day after his fellow-commis-
sioners sailed, he breathed his last. By his eloquence, his winning
personality, and his genial and loving spirit, as well as by his work
as a pastor and revival preacher and a writer, he had won a place
in the affections of our people which has been attained by few, and
his death was mourned as a great loss to the church.
The process of consolidating synods has gone on steadily
throughout this period. Presbyteries, also, have in several in-
stances been consolidated. So far as can be learned, the results
in all these cases have been favorable. Large bodies are more
powerful.
The following new synods have been organized: Ozark (re-
468 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
organized), 1871; Oregon and Kansas, 1875; Missouri Valley, 1877;
Trinity, 1878.
The following new presbyteries have appeared in the Assem-
bly's Minutes:
Ozark (reorganized) and Rocky Mountain, 1871; Nolin, Nebras-
ka, and Louisiana, 1873; Hot Springs and Magazine, 1874; Purdy,
Republican Valley, and Bosque, 1875; Kirkpatrick and Hill, 1876;
Wichita and Graham, 1878; vSpringville, Albion, Missouri, Burrow,
and La Crosse, 1880; Mayfield and San Saba, 1882; Gregory, 1883;
Bonham, Cherokee, and McDonald, 1884; Florida and Buffalo Gap,
1885. Louisiana and McDonald are disbanded presbyteries re-
stored. The dates given are the dates when the first mention of
these presbyteries is found in the Minutes of the Assembly.
The following table shows the statistics for diflferent parts of
this period:
Members.
96>33S
98,242
111,863
i38>564
The contributions have increased more than four hundred per
cent., and the number of Sunday-school pupils nearly three hun-
dred per cent. The progress in other things is also encouraging.
The colored Cumberland Presbyterians have made rapid growth
in numbers, but their statistics are not included in this table. One
thing which has always been characteristic of the growth of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church is that it represents not prose-
lytes from other churches, but soiils won from the kingdom of
darkness. For the few proselytes coming to us from others we can
show a little army of persons who were converted at our meetings,
and who afterward joined some other denomination. Such a
record is worth more than longer lists of names on the church roll.
May God grant us grace in all the coming years to be more in ear-
nest to bring souls to Christ than to build up denominational
strength !
Year.
Ministers.
1871
1,116
187s
1,232
1880
1,386
1886
1.547
Sunday-school Pupils.
Contributions.
26,466
$136.-31
44,912
$295,886
54.813
$329418
74.576
$553,033
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 469
CHAPTER XLIII.
MISSIONS.
I gave, I gave my life for thee,
What hast thou given for me ?
—F. R. H,
WHILE still far behind its duty in missionary work, the
Cumberland Presbyterian church has made great progress
therein during the last ten y^ears. Private missions, presbyterial
and synodical missions, and itinerant missions under the church
board have been numerous, and it is not possible to give even in
outline the history of all these.
In city mission work the results during the last fourteen years
have been far more encouraging than in any former period. Since
1870 a large proportion of our mission churches in cities and towns
have grown strong enough to dispense with the assistance of the
board. Among these are two in St. Louis, one made up of Ger-
man-speaking and the other of English-speaking Cumberland
Presbyterians. The latter, which, to distinguish it from the other,
was designated as the "American" mission, has had a remarkable
history. The Rev. J. G. White became missionary at St. Louis,
November, 1848, and continued in this work until i860, when he
was succeeded by the Rev. L. C. Ransom. At the beginning of
the civil war this mission had a growing congregation and a good
house of worship located in a central and desirable part of the city.
On the property, valued at $27,000, there was an embarrassing debt
of nearly $10,000. Soon after the war commenced the missionary
went to Alabama, and the little flock became shepherdless. The
regular services were suspended, and the building was finally sold
to meet the claims of creditors.
Though the fruit of the toil and sacrifice of more than fifteen
years was thus lost, efforts to revive the work were not given up.
In .the Assembly of 1865 the Committee on Missions recommended
470 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
St. Louis as an important mission field, and stated that the congre-
gation then had "an opportunity to purchase a comfortable and
well-situated house of worship at reasonable rates." The next
year the Board of Missions, at Alton, Illinois, reported that the
Rev. F. M. Gilliam had been appointed to take charge of the St.
Louis work, and that a jilan for raising money by a joint stock
company to purchase a house and lot had been adopted and was
succeeding admirably. The missionary had been in the field as
soliciting agent, and had secured subscriptions enough to pay for
this property. He, however, for some reason not stated in the
Minutes, resigned in October, 1866,
About this time the board adopted a new, and what proved to
be an unfortunate measure. A congregation known as the ' ' First
Independent Church of St. Louis," which had grown out of a mis-
sion Sunday-school, had a large and expensive house of worship in
process of erection. Eight thousand dollars was needed to com-
plete this building, and there was a debt of fifteen thousand dollars
on it. The members of this church proposed to become Cumber-
land Presbyterians, and to convey this property to our mission, on
condition that the board would assume the debt. This proposition
was accepted, and the property already owned by the mission, as
well as this new property, was mortgaged in order to borrow
$20,000 to meet the pressing claims of the creditors of the Inde-
pendent church, and to advance the work on the new building.
December 12th, 1866, the Rev. J. H. Coulter, whose ministerial
services had been temporarily secured by the mission, perfected
the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian congregation,
and the formal union with the Independent congregation was
effected February 17, 1867. The consolidated church then num-
bered one hundred and fifteen members. The property acquired
by the Cumberland Presbyterian mission before forming this union
was sold, and the proceeds used in prosecuting the work on the new
building. The basement was finished October, 1867, but to secure
this result two thousand dollars more had been borrowed. Though
the property was valued at forty-six thousand dollars, the debts be-
gan to be pressing. The Rev. F. M. Gilliam, who had for a time
resumed the charge of the work, had again resigned, and the Rev.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 47I
William S. I^angdon had been appointed temporarily as missionary.
In 1869 the board reported unforseen reverses. The payments of
interest due had not been met by the board, and a large portion of
those who had composed the Independent church had seceded and
taken possession of the property. When the Assembly of 1870
met, the "Independent" faction still held the building. To the
Assembly of 1872 the board reported that all honorable means to
get possession of the property or ' * to get back the money we had
invested over and above the debts of the property," had been in
vain. That portion of the congregation which had seceded had
taken refuge in the Presbyterian church, and under the sanction
of the St. L-ouis Presbyteiy captured the house. Both this presby-
tery and the congregation which held the property acknowledged
their moral obligation to repay the money our people had invested ;
but they not only failed to meet this obligation, but thwarted all
the board's efforts to re-imburse itself
Abandoning all hope of success in this quarter, the board re-
solved to begin a new work in another part of the city. Efforts
were set on foot to secure ten thousand dollars to buy a lot and
build a chapel. In May, 1873, the Rev. E. J. Gillespie was already
soliciting funds for this purpose. In the summer of 1874 the
board resolved to prosecute this work with renewed vigor, but
' ' with no hope of success in a day or a year. ' ' The Rev. C. H.
Bell, D.D., was chosen to take charge of the work. Before the
meeting of the Assembly of 1875, ten thousand dollars in notes
and pledges had been secured. Dr. Bell and others diligently
prosecuted the work of raising money; and the board, made wiser
by its past experiments, promised "to take no step until it had the
money to pay for what was done. ' ' Through these years the mis-
sionary, ' ' when not engaged in soliciting funds, devoted his atten-
tion to looking up members and others in sympathy with the
church, and to conducting services in various parts of the city."
The congregation was organized, and took possession of its new
chapel December i, 1877. In May, 1879, this church had fifty-
three in communion; and during the year ending with May, 1880,
it not only paid its incidental expenses, but contributed nearly
three hundred and fifty dollars toward the missionary's salary. At
472 Cumberland Presbyterian History, [Period vi.
the close of 1880 Dr. Bell asked leave to retire from the work.
His resignation took effect January 31, 1881, and the Rev. W. H.
Black succeeded him immediately. This church became self-sup-
porting January i, 1882, and has since grown steadily in numbers
and influence. The Rev. W. H. Black is still its pastor (1887).
The lessons learned in connection with this St. Louis work and
from similar efforts elsewhere have borne good fruit. Successful
mission churches have grown up in a number of cities and towns,
and the missionary work of the church has prospered as never be-
fore. Among the city missions that have grown into successful
churches during this period are one at Little Rock, Arkansas, one
at Kansas City, Missouri, one at Sedalia, Missouri, and one at
Logansport, Indiana.
The Little Rock mission became self-supporting in 1875. Of
this mission the board, in its report to the Assembly of 1876, said:
Tlie work at this place has made most gratifying progress spiritu-
all}', and also financially, so that it has become self-sustaining as to the
pastor's support. . . . The fruits which have rapidly attended this
work, undertaken only a few years ago, are most encouraging, and are
in large part, under God, due to the zeal and judgment of S. H. Buch-
anan, D.D., the pastor.
Dr. Buchanan is still pastor of this church.
To the General Assembly of 1870 the Kansas City mission was
reported as a new enterprise but lately received under the care of
the board. Through the efforts of Lexington Presbytery, a neat
and comfortable house of worship had been erected. The Rev. J. E.
Sharp was missionary, and through his efficient labors, supported
by contributions from the presbytery, the foundations of our church
here were securely laid. He resigned in the fall of 1874. After-
ward the Rev. C. P. Duvall for a time had charge of this mission.
The Rev. B, P. Fullerton was called to this field in 1879, entering
upon the work October ist. He is still the pastor in charge. The
church was declared self-sustaining October 8, 1883. A new and
commodious house of worship was dedicated the day before. The
work of this church continues to be greatly blessed. From the
beginning this mission was under the direct care and support of
the Lexington Presbyter)\
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 473
The Rev. A. H. Stephens became missionary at Sedalia, Mis-
souri, June I, 1881. Efforts to establish a Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church in this growing city had been begun several years
before. With a view of building a house of worship, a small sum
of money had been raised, and was in the hands of a committee
appointed by New Lebanon Presbytery; but prior to 1878 all
efforts to build up a congregation had failed. In September of
that year the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, then of Knobnoster, Mis-
souri, began to preach twice a month in this city without any
appointment from the board or the presbytery, and at his own
charges. He continued these services regularly for about two
years, his compensation being less than his traveling expenses.
During the years 1879 and 1880 a small frame church costing
$2,500 was erected with money collected by New Lebanon Presby-
tery. The w^ork, though under the charge of the Board of Mis-
sions after 1881, was sustained by the contributions of this presby-
tery. This congregation became self-supporting November 29,
1885, at which time it dedicated a new and elegant church edifice.
In May, 1886, it reported a membership of one hundred and thir-
teen, and has since steadily grown in numbers and usefulness
under the efficient pastorate of Mr. Stephens. The General As-
sembly of 1886 was held at Sedalia.
In the fall of 1875 the Board of Missions, at the earnest solic-
itation of ministers and members of the church in Indiana, and
after due investigation, resolved to plant a mission in Logansport,
and appointed the Rev. A. W. Hawkins missionary. He took
charge of the work November i, 1875. Twelve or fourteen per-
sons who had once been Cumberland Presbyterians were found in
or near the city. A hall was rented and regular services held. Of
his work at this time the missionary says: "I made my sermons
in the early part of the week, and in the latter part of the week
I went out and made a congregation to hear them." In May,
1876, a church with thirty-five members was organized. In 1877
a lot with a dwelling-house on it was purchased, and a comfortable
church was built and dedicated. All the money used in erecting
this building, except fifteen dollars sent from Pennsylvania, was
raised at Logansport by the missionary, who though "cramped by
474 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period xi.
a support far too meager," continued to be "patient, persevering,
and successful.'" In February, 1885, lie handed in his resigna-
tion, but continued in charge of the work until the 8th of the fol-
lowing April, at which time he was succeeded by the Rev. James
Best, who continues to labor successfully in this field. This
church was declared self-sustaining Sunday, May 9, 1886.
At the beginning of the war there was at Chattanooga, Tennes-
see, a flourishing Cumberland Presbyterian mission. In i860 this
congregation reported ninety in membership, and it had "a neat
brick edifice, well located, and almost entirely paid for." The
Rev. A. Templeton was missionary, and his work here had been
most successful; but during the great civil conflict the members
were scattered and the house greatly damaged. The work was re-
sumed after the war closed, and in 1868 the little church had thirt}'
members, and regular services were kept up. Rev. N. W. !Motheral
was then the missionary in charge, but for some reason he did not
long continue in the work, and for several years the congregation
was most of the time without a pastor. Then Rev. W. D. Chadick
became missionary, and under his wise and energetic administration
the congregation made gratifying progress for three or four years.
By reason of failing health he gave up the work in December, 1877.
Then after another period of change and uncertainty the Rev. W.
H. Darnall, D.D., was appointed to take charge of this mission,
and under his labors, which continued from March, 1880, to the
fall of 1882, the work was again prosperous. After his retirement
this church seems to have passed from under the care of the board,
and was again much of the time without a pastor until April, 1885,
when the Rev. E. J. McCrosky entered upon his successful labors
in this field. During the time he had charge of the work a com-
modious and beautiful church was erected, and the congregation
entered upon a new career of growth and usefulness. He resigned
July 15, 1887.
Many other mission churches not less deserving of mention
than those whose work has been thus briefly sketched have, dur-
ing this period, grown into self-support and extended usefulness.
Those described are but selections illustrating the character of our
'Report of the Board of Missions to the General Assembly of 1879.
Chapter XLIII.J MISSIONS. 475
home mission work. In the wide field extending from Pennsyl-
vania to California, and from Iowa to Texas, scores of similar mis-
sions have flourished, not only in towns and villages but in country
places; not only under the supervision of the Board of Missions,
but under the direction of synods or presbyteries, or of single con-
gregations, or through the liberality or self-sacrifice of individual
church members or ministers.
The following is a list of some of the important and growing
mission churches now under the care of the board, with the names
of the missionaries: Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the Rev. J. H. Bar-
nett; Louisville, Kentucky, the Rev. B. D. Cockrill; Knoxville,
Tennessee, the Rev. J. V. Stephens; Birmingham, Alabama, the
Rev. F. J. Tyler; St. Joseph, Missouri, the Rev. Alonzo Pearson;
Springfield, Illinois, the Rev. S. Richards, D. D. ; Fort Scott, Kan-
sas, the Rev. S. A. Sadler; Garden City, Kansas, the Rev. J. R.
Lowrance; Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Rev. S. H. McElvain; San
Antonio, Texas, the Rev. W. B. Preston; Stockton, California, the
Rev. T. A. Cowan; Meridian, Mississippi, the Rev. R. A. Cody;
Walla Walla, Washington Territorv^ the Rev. W. W. Beck. Of
these missions, and others under the care of the board. Dr. Bell
says, in a recent address:^
Some of these are nearly self-supporting, having good property un-
incumbered; others have suitable buildings, and the work of gathering
congregations is in progress; while some are earnestly seeking funds
for the purchase of church homes preparatory to the commencement
of preaching services. Never were the prospects so encouraging for
obtaining denominational footing in centers of moral and commercial
influence.
Much of this increased success in missionary work has been
due to the prudence and efiiciency of those who have administered
the affairs of the board. At the beginning of this period the work
Vs^as under the immediate supervision of the Rev. R. S. Reed, sec-
retary. He died early in the summer of 1871, and was succeeded
by the Rev. J. B. Logan, D. D. , w^ho was for two years general
superintendent and corresponding secretar}^ After this, beginning
'This address was delivered at the Cumberland Presbj'terian State Sunday-
Bchool Encampment, at Pertle Springs, Missouri, August, 1S77.
476 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
May I, 1874, the Rev. E. B. Crisiiian, D.D., became superintendent
and corresponding secretary, and the ahnost seven years during
which he held this office were a period of increasing success in
every department of mission work. Since February, 1881, the
Rev. C. H. Bell, D.D., president of the board, has devoted his
whole attention to the general management of missions, and in
these years this cause has flourished as never before.
In no other country on earth is the home missionary work so
important as it is in the United States, New States are springing
up, new populations are gathering. Vast communities are taking
shape and setting into their final type so rapidly that it requires
constant reading to keep up with their progress. The opportunity
now open to home missions will never return. This is pre-emi-
nently true in regard to the home mission work of Cumberland
Presbyterians. We can not shift the responsibility. We stand
nearest of all to these new States. The center of our streng-th and
influence is in the West. Our own sons are among the pioneers
who are pressing into these new fields. If we fall behind, and
leave these rapidly - growing communities to be evangelized by
other churches, we must forever stand charged with being false to
our own children and our own King.
Cumberland Presbyterians have missions among the Chicka-
saw, the Choctaw, and the Cherokee Indians. There are two
growing presbyteries in this field. Bethel Presbytery has eleven
ordained ministers, and ten probationers. All but two of these are
natives, and the work in that field is now mainly done by native
preachers. This presbytery embraces the countr}^ of the Chicka-
saws and Choctaws, and it has thirty-one congregations and five
hundred and forty communicants. These two Nations are closely
united, and form one missionary field. The churches in this pres-
bytery are now nearly all self-sustaining. Leading men among
the Indians are active members of our church, and attend our
General Assemblies as delegates. One of the most interestino-
features of the Assembly of 1878 was the presence of Judge Chico
as a representative from Bethel Presbytery, Our work among the
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians began in 1819, and has been kept
up in some form ever since. The Rev. Calvin Robinson, a native,
Chapter XLIII.J MISSIONS. 477
the Rev. J. H. Dickerson, and the Rev. J. J. Smith are now our
missionaries in Bethel Presbytery. All three are consecrated and
successful workers.
Although zealous Cumberland Presbyterian preachers have
often visited the Cherokees and held meetings, yet it was but
recently that the board sent permanent missionaries to that field.
The first of these was the Rev. N. J. Crawford, in whose veins
there is some Indian blood. He determined in 1876 to cast his lot
among the Cherokees. More than four hundred conversions were
reported as the result of his meetings prior to 1885.
There are curious items about some of our missionaries in that
field. The Rev. David Hogan had been preaching fifty years be-
fore he determined to become a missionary. He had preached
along with Finis Ewing in other days. With his own hands he
closed Finis Ewing' s eyes when that hero of the Cross fell asleep
in Jesus. ' A most interesting thing it is to hear Hogan talk of
his early experiences. He says: " My church is better known and
held in higher esteem in heaven than it is on earth." When he
was seventy-one years old he said to the Board of Missions: "If
you will commission me as missionary to the Cherokee Indians,
without salary, I will spend the rest of my days preaching to that
people." The commission was given him, and now for more than
three years he has been laboring in this mission field.
The first Cumberland Presbyterian church among the Chero-
kees was organized by N. J. Crawford in 1877. It is in the eastern
part of the Cherokee country, and is known as the Prairie Grove
congregation. There was a great revival among the Cherokees in
1880 and 1881.
In 1874 a Cherokee boy came to Cumberland University, Leb-
anon, Tennessee, to prepare for the ministry. He was graduated
in 1879, ^^^ ^^ ^^°"^ ^^ ^^^ native land preaching Jesus. His name is
R. C. Parks. His churches now number over a hundred members.
The Cherokee Presbytery was organized in February, 1884, at
the residence of the Rev. R. C. Parks, Canadian District, Indian
Territor}^ N. J. Crawford, David Hogan, and R. C. Parks were
the original members. J. H. Kelley, licentiate, placed himself
* Memoranda furnished by Hogan.
478 Cumberland Presbyterian, History. [Period vi.
under the care of the presbytery at its organization. This presby-
tery now has five ordained ministers, two probationers, and seven
congregations, with ni'ne out-stations. The aggregate number of
communicants is four hundred and fifty.
One of the schools in the Cherokee country is partially under
the care of our Woman's Board of Missions — that is, this board
has been giving it assistance. This school is known as Hogan In-
stitute. Our native members and preachers have also aided in
various other schools among the Cherokees. An item of interest
connected with this presbytery is that a consecrated Christian
5'-oung lady. Miss Bell Cobb, is its stated clerk. In the manuscript
history of this presbyter}^, prepared by this lady, the work of N.
J. Crawford, R. C. Parks, J. H. Kelley, David Plogan, Laman Car-
ter, and J. H. Pigman is described with a fullness of detail which
can not be repeated here. This interesting narrative closes with
some statements which are brief enough to be quoted:
In May, 1886, the Rev. Joseph Smallwood, of the Methodist Epis-
copal church, South, a full blood Cherokee Indian, was, by a commis-
sion appointed by the presbytery, received as a minister in the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church. All the ministers in this presbytery are
now in the field and identified with the Cherokee people, and, under
God, and by the help of his Holy Spirit, intend to maintain and advance
the church's work among them. The Board of Missions has three mis-
sionaries in the Cherokee Nation: the Rev. N. J. Crawford, with a
salary of $25 per month; the Rev. R. C. Parks, with a salary of $8.33
per month; and the Rev. David Hogan, without a salary. The presby-
tery has one missionary in the field, the Rev. Josej^h Smallwood, with
a salary of $12.50 per month.
Special mention must here be made of the Rev. B. F. Totten, of
Arkansas Presbytery, who aided the Rev. N. J. Crawford in revival
meetings in 18S0-1; of the Rev. E. E. Baily, of Pennsylvania, who, at
his own expense, labored through several revival seasons, not only
among the Cherokee, but other tribes as well; of the Rev. E. M. Roach,
of Arkansas Piesbyte?-y, who labored three months with the Rev. R.
C. Parks and the Rev. N. J. Crawford in the summer and fall of 1885,
being employed and sent by the Woman's Home Missionary Society
of Boonsboro, Arkansas. We are, also, under many obligations to the
Woman's Board of Foreign Missions, Evansville, Indiana, for five hun-
dred dollars kindly sent us in October, 1885, for the purposes of church
extension.
Chapter XLIII.] ^ MISSIONS. 479
We predict a bright future for the Cumberland Presbyterian church
in the Cherokee Nation. The intelHgence of the people, the self-sacri-
fice of the ministry, and the leadings of the Holy Spirit all point to the
success of the church and the glorification of God in the salvation of
this people.
After the Board of Missions recalled the Rev. Bdmond Weir
from Liberia in 1868, and until it appointed the Rev. S. T. Ander-
son, D.D., to go to the Island of Trinidad in 1873, it had no foreign
mission under its care, unless we except the work among the Ameri-
can Indians. The records during these years show that our people
felt dissatisfied with this state of things.
In 1870 the board declared that the time had come when the
Assembly should at least ' ' begin to lay plans and devise means for
active efforts in re-occupying the foreign field," and the General As-
sembly of that year adopted a report which, after calling attention
to the opportunities for mission work in Mexico and in the South
American States, said, "The foreign field is open to us: so far as
God enables us we should occupy it."
In 187 1 the declarations of the General Assembly indicate that
there was in the minds of our people increasing interest in regard
to the foreign work. The board was instructed to ascertain if
possible the best method of entering upon this work, and was direct-
ed to raise funds for this purpose.
During the year following the board corresponded with persons
in different parts of the world in order to elicit information to guide
them in selecting a mission field. Among those who were thus
written to was Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime, of New York, who recommend-
ed Japan as the heathen country "most accessible and least
occupied by Christian churches," and whose, people in spite of "the
strange and seemingly paradoxical position of the Japan govern-
ment against Christianity," were eager to hear the gospel.
The board had also received communications from N. H. Mc-
Ghirk, M.D., urging the claims of the Island of Trinidad in the
West Indies. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church who had moved from Missouri to that island. He said that
country, while nominally Catholic was really heathen, and urged the
board to send one or two missionaries thither.
480 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period, vi.
A memorial came from Pennsylvania Synod entreating the
Assembly of 1872 to move at once in the work of foreig^i missions.
This synod had already made arrangements by which it was to
send the Rev. M. L. Gordon to Japan through the American Board.
Increased contributions for the foreign work showed a growing in-
terest in this subject throughout the church. In their report to this
Assembly the board expressed their unanimous judgment, "after
much reflection on the subject," that union with the American
Board in the prosecution of mission work was not advisable on
account of the great dissimilarity of doctrinal views between Cum-
berland Presbyterians and those represented by that board ; adding
that those united in the work through the American Board had
" ever been regarded as strictly Calvanistic, while the very^ existence
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church is a protest against the
radical features of Calvanism."
To the Assembly of 1873 it was announced that the Island of
Trinidad and the capital of Venezuela, South America, had been
selected as the mission fields most easily accessible and promising
the quickest and surest results of good. One chief reason which
influenced the board in making this choice was the expectation of
coming into possession of an immense tract of land in Venezuela.
This was part of a still larger tract which had been granted by the
government of Venezuela to a company of which Dr. N. H. McGhirk
was a member. This company had re-granted eight hundred square
miles of their prospective domain to nine trustees for the use and
benefit of the Cumberland Presbyterian church for the purpose of
establishing and carrying on mission work in that country.^
The Rev. S. T. Anderson, D. D., was appointed missionary in
November, 1873, and he proceeded at once to the Island of Trini-
dad. Dr. McGhirk was also appointed as a lay helper. Dr. An-
derson soon after his arrival accepted an invitation to supply a
vacant Presbyterian mission church in the city of San Fernando.
This congregation was under the care of the Free Church of Scot-
land. It gave Dr. Anderson ten dollars a week for his services and
allowed him the free use of the manse, agreeing to continue this
arrangement until the Free Church should send a man to fill the
'Minutes 1S73, p. 63.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 481
vacancy. This gave our missionary a home and work at once, but,
as it also gave him the largest part of his support, the liberality of
the church at home was not developed by this mission as it might
otherwise have been. Though there were several thousands of
Hindus and Chinese on the Island of Trinidad and sixty or seventy
thousand negroes, besides many Spaniards, Portuguese, French,
English, and a few Americans, our missionaries and the board re-
garded this island as but the starting point of their work. They
believed Venezuela, among whose two millions of people there was
not one Protestant missionary, to be the great mission field for our
people.
During the year preceding the General Assembly of 1875 ar-
rangements were made by which Dr. Anderson became agent of the
American Bible Society for the distribution of the Scriptures. Dr.
McGhirk expected to move to the Continent and thus the work was
to be extended to Venezuela. The board had been making diligent
inquiry about the half million of acres of Venezuelan land which
had been granted to the church, and trying to perfect the title.
But any expectations which may have been cherished of securing
from this source the means of enlarging the mission work of the
church failed to be realized. Though the board in 1876 expressed
the opinion that this claim would "some day be valuable," yet
neither the church nor the cause of missions has ever received any
benefit from it. Missions have seldom been effectively helped by
grants of land or princely endowments from States or governments.
The preaching of the gospel among the heathen, as well as at home,
must be sustained by the self-sacrificing efforts and direct gifts of
consecrated Christians.
In 1876 the board reported that the work in Trinidad and Ven-
eziiela had not been prosecuted as intended when the mission was
undertaken. The reason assigned was that it had been found im-
possible "to raise the means necessary to send two other men to
accompany Dr. Anderson to Venezuela, which was the plan on
which the work was begun." After laboring and waiting more
than two years Dr. Anderson wrote to the board expressing a de-
sire to return to the United States unless the needed re-inforcements
could at once be sent. He stated also that the condition of his own
31
482 CUMliKRLAND PrESBYTEKIAN HiSTORV. [reriod VI.
health and that of his wife, as well as the necessity of educating
his cliildren made it his duty to return. At his own request his
appointment as missionary expired with May, 1876. He returned
to the United States, and the Trinidad and Venezuela mission was
abandoned.
But the growing missionary spirit of the church was not
checked by this discouraging failure. In answer to a paper pre-
sented to the Assembly of 1876, "recommending the cessation of
all work in the foreign field," that body declared that the adop-
tion of sucli a resolution would be "unwise and attended with
dangerous consequences,-' ' and that ' ' we ought not to grieve the
Spirit's yearnings for foreign lands." The Rev. J. B. Hail and the
Rev. A. D. Hail had already been accepted " as candidates " for
the foreign field, and were preparing to enter the work, though it
had not yet been decided into what part of the heathen world they
were to be sent.
No series of events in the history of the church bears more dis-
tinctly the marks of God's providential hand than that connected
with the origin and progress of our denominational work in Japan.
The seed was sown nearly thirty years before by a dying mother's
prayer. It grew in the heart of one young man until other hearts
received it, and until a whole church was awakened and blessed by
it. The mother of M. L. Gordon died in Greene county, Penn-
sylvania, when her son was yet an infant. On her death bed she
consecrated this boy to the work of foreign missions. We do not
know how often through the }'ears of his youth thoughts of this
work were awakened in his mind. At the breaking out of the war
he enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment and served three }'ears.
He was converted near the close of his tenn of enlistment on ]\Ior-
ris Island, South Carolina, during the siege, under General Gilmore,
of the fortifications in the neighborhood of Charleston. In the
autumn of 1864 he entered Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, but
afterward gave up his collegiate studies for a time and began the
study of medicine. But his impressions that he ought to devote
himself to the work of the ministry became so intense that he closed
his medical books and returned to college determined to prepare
himself to preach the gospel. He had in 1865 joined the Cumber-
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 483
land Presbyterian church, and in 1868 he became a candidate for
the ministry in Penns}'lvania Presbyter)\ After his graduation
from Waynesburg College, and while he was in the Theological
Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, he decided to enter the for-
eign field. His mother's prayers were at last ready to ripen into
fruit.
The following extract from the IMinutes of the General Assembly
of 187 1 show that he was in correspondence with the Cumberland
Presbyterian Board of Missions in reference to the foreign work :
A young brother of the Synod of Pennsylvania is consecrating him-
self to this work, and is now offering himself to the board and asks to be
sent to bear the glad tidings of salvation to poor dying sinners in heathen
lands, but owing to our want of means we are not prepared to recom-
mend such decided action on this subject as we would otherwise be
pleased to do.'
The Pennsylvania Synod, which urged the appointment of Gor-
don by the board, pledged its members to sustain him with their
means and their influence.^ Without chanoine his ecclesiastical
relations, he was finally commissioned to the work in Japan by
the American Board. He received his ordination from the Penn-
sylvania Presbytery August 6, 1872. The Pennsylvania Synod
stood pledged to contribute to his support, and did for six or
seven years pay into the treasury of the American Board a sum
averaging more than $700 per annum. He and his wife sailed to
Japan September ist, 1872, arriving at Yokohama the 24th of
the same month. His going attracted the eyes of the whole
church to that field, and marked the way for the missionaries
who were sent by our board to the same country more than four
years afterward. God has used him as an honored instrument in
helping the work, not only of the board that sent him, but also
of the church of which he is so worthy a minister. When our own
missionaries arrived in Japan he was there in a successful mission.
He was an old acquaintance and friend of the Hail brothers, and
gave them all the counsel and assistance in his power. Did the
limits of this volume permit it would be a pleasant task to take up
Dr. Gordon's own labors and their results in detail, nor would such
'Minutes 1871, pp. 28, 29. * Ibid., p. 47.
484 Cumberland Presbyteriax History. [Period vi.
a history- be unprofitable or uninteresting to Cumberland Presby-
terians. After nearly five years spent in general missionary' work
in the city of Osaka, during which he suffered greatly from an
affection of the eyes, he and family returned to America in the
summer of 1877. They went out again the next year, sailing
October ist in the same vessel that bore A. D. Hail and family to
Japan. Dr. Gordon has since labored most of the time in connec-
tion with a training school at Kyoto. In Decerhber, 1885, he was
compelled by failing health to return a second time to the United
States. After spending more than a year in this country, most of
the time in California, he again sailed for Japan August 23, 1887.
Speaking in a late letter of his work in its relations to the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church he says with characteristic modesty:
"I sometimes think that while my going as I did may have been
helpful in arousing the board and church to action, and so divinely
ordered, yet when an independent mission was to be established
that work was in the same divinely wise way given to other and
better hands. ' '
The brothers A. D. Hail and J. B. Hail, whose mother is a
daughter of Alexander Chapman of precious memor}-, were fellow-
students of Gordon, at Waynesburg College. A. D. Hail Avas
graduated from this institution in 1866, and his younger brother,
J. B. Hail, three years later. Both resolved to consecrate tliem-
selves as foreign missionaries. We do not know how much Gor-
don's example did toward turning their thoughts in this direction.
God often touches our hearts through the silent influence of our
friends, or by their words or actions. An example of consecration
and of faithful service can hardly fail to prove God's call beck-
oning others to similar self-denial and faithfulness. Consciously
or unconsciously every life is influenced and molded by other
lives. When Gordon gave himself to the foreign work his fellow-
students and fellow-candidates for the ministry could hardly fail to
feel the influence of his example.
These two brothers began to look about them for an opportu-
nity to enter the work to which they felt that they were called. The
prospects of being sent to any part of the foreign field by the Cum-
berland Presbyterian Board of Missions were at that time very
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 485
discouraging. Therefore, J. B. Hail wrote to E. B. Treat, corres-
ponding secretary of the American Board, asking an appointment
to the foreign field as a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary. In
his reply the secretary, after inquiring what he was to understand
by an appointment as a "Cumberland Presbyterian missionary,"
discouraged the application on account of the limited financial
resources then at the board's command. The younger Hail then
offered himself to our own board. This was early in the year 1875.
His brother made a like offer of himself to the Cumberland Presby-
terian board in November of the same year. Both were accepted as
candidates.
In 1876 Pennsylvania Synod, of which J. B. Plail was a member,
pledged $1,000 for his outfit and $300 a year on his salar}'-, on con-
dition that the board would at once send him to Japan. This offer
was accepted, and he and his family sailed from San Francisco about
the first of January, 1877, reaching Osaka the 30th of that month.
There were then not more than fifty native Christians in that great
city. But three Protestant churches were represented in mission
work: the Congregationalists, through the American Board; and
the Episcopalians, English and American. Our missionary and
his wife devoted themselves at once to the study of the language
and the people, ' ' sometimes exchanging instruction in English for
instruction in Japanese."' They found a home in that part of the
city allotted to foreigners, and known as the Foreign Concession.
There was no money in our missionary treasury, and A. D. Hail,
who had for some years been pastor at Cumberland, Ohio, had to
wait. At the board's request he studied medicine, attending
Cleveland Medical College in 1876 and 1877. A gentleman in
Illinois, early in 1878 offered the board $1,000 for Mr. Hail's outfit.
At the meeting of the General Assembly at lycbanon, Tennessee,
in May of that year, he was solemnly ordained to this work, and he
and his family sailed from San Francisco the following autumn
reaching Japan October 21st. Up to this time but one inquirer, a
man named Yamamoto San, had placed himself under the instruc-
tion of our missionaries. When J. B. Hail acquired a sufficient
knowledge of Japanese to begin to preach, efforts were made to find
'See historical sketch of our Japan Mission in ISIinutes of the Assemblj 18S7, p. 77.
486 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
a place in the city in which to hold services. But there was such a
prejudice against Christianity that it was almost three months
before a preaching place was found. At last a building on Ruhe-
bashi street was rented and ' ' the first sermon was preached on Sab-
bath, February 9th, 1879, at 4 p.m., almost the exact time of the
sixty-ninth anniversary of our denomination."
There was much interest in the services from the first. In his
report to the General Assembly of 1879, A. D. Hail, speaking of
these first meetings, says:
It is a matter of profound interest to witness the attention paid by
some of the hearers, and to see others dropping into the passage-way as
they are passing, and standing with great burdens of wares upon their
backs, and greater burdens upon their hearts, turning their bronzed
faces toward the speaker to catch his words. At sucli times one feels an
inexpressible longing for a thorough knowledge of the tongue through
which so many deaf hearts must be reached.
The missionaries found that until they became accustomed to
the climate they could not work so well as at home. Three years'
study of the language was required in order to begin responsible
work. They were hindered by the restrictions of the government,
and by the circulation of infidel books from Europe and America, as
well as by the difficulty of expressing spiritual ideas in the Japanese
tongue, and the degrading effects wrought on the people by hea-
thenism. But the Christian homes of the missionaries were already
exerting an influence for good. Schools were springing up and
the children were receiving instruction in anti-heathen knowledge.
Persecutions had measurably ceased. The reading habits of the
people and their eagerness to learn afforded constant opportunities
to impart the gospel, while the number of native believers and
Christian churches was rapidly multiplying.
A Sunday-school, with an average attendance of fifteen, was
organized by our missionaries November 2d, 1879, ^'^^^ ^ weekly
prayer-meeting was regularly maintained, out of which grew a
weekly meeting for inquirers. Two native helpers, Obato San and
Suji San, were assisting in the work, teaching, exhorting, and aid-
ing in pastoral visitation.
Though there were in 1879 a small number of inquirers, one or
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 487
two of whom the missionaries thought they might "justifiably en-
courage to become candidates for baptism," yet it was thought
' ' better to err on the side of caution than of haste amongst those
having such low ideas of the Christian life. " ' It was not until
September 26th, 1880, that the first converts of the mission were
baptized. On that day two men, Yamamoto San and Kuzze San,
received this ordinance at the hands of the Rev. J. B. Hail, and
joined the missionaries in the first communion service of this
infant church in the city of Osaka. Of these two men the Rev. G.
G. Hudson says in his late report as corresponding secretary of the
mission:^
These were the first fruits of our mission in Japan. Without special
direction from their teachers thevse men consulted together, and agree-
ing that as they were the first members of this new church, their con-
duct would have great influence with those who should join later, they
sought help from God to fit themselves for their responsible position,
and promised on their part to have a stated time for secret prayer, and
to give to the Lord one tenth of their income. Having such a founda-
tion, we may hope that " all the building, fitly framed together, shall
grow unto an holy temple in the Lord."
Though the missionaries felt the importance of extending the
work to points outside of Osaka, and tours of observation were
made to Wakayama, Tanabe, and other important places, the want
of men and women to aid in the work prevented them at that time
from occupying these inviting fields.
In the meantime the mission was bearing fruit in the church at
home. Missionary contributions were greatly increased. The or-
ganization of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions grew directly
out of the pressing necessities of this work in Japan. The mis-
sionaries made their first official report in 1879. In it they said:
As the work progresses we feel the indispensable need of female
helpers. If one was on the ground now and had a thorough knowl-
edge of the tongue she would prove an invaluable adjunct to the preach-
ing place that is now opened. . . . While the labors of the wives of
the missionaries are manifold, yet there is a large field that can be
successfully worked only by young lady helpers. . . . The work ac-
complished by the young ladies of other denominations has been very
» Report to Assembly, 18S0, Minutes, p. 80. ='Ibid., 1887, p. 77.
488 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
great. No denomination can wholly succeed without them, . . . The
time has come in the providence of God when he is opening a great
door of usefulness to our Christian women.
In the same report it was suggested that "our board and Gen-
eral Assembly call on the ladies of the church to organize them-
selves for work," and it was urged that if possible at least one
young lady should be sent to Japan the following autumn. But
as this suggestion was not, that year, carried out, A. D, Hail and
liis wife, early in 1880, wrote a letter to the ladies of our church
at Evansville, Indiana, through their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Darby,
requesting, inasmuch as the General Assembly was to meet in that
city in ]\Iay of that year, that these ladies would call a convention
of the women of the Cumberland Presbyterian church to meet
there at the time of the Assembly's meeting for the purpose of or-
ganizing a Woman's Board of Missions. The call was issued and
the matter was pressed by the pastor at Evansville and the ladies
of his church. The convention was held, and with the unanimous
approval of the General Assembly the Woman's Board was organ-
ized and located at Evansville.
In 1 88 1 our missionaries began to make extended preaching
tours in the country south of Osaka, and the work was thus en-
larged. An extract from the report written March 15th, 1881, will
show what were at that time the arduous duties of the missionaries:
The work presses upon us so that every member of the mission
must labor so constantly as to call for continual care against overwork.
In addition to the regular day's work on the language, there are the
usual labors of preaching, teaching, and superintending. During the
present 3'ear prayer-meetings have been maintained Tuesday and Thurs-
day evenings. . , . The average attendance, has been larger than
it was last year. . . . The wives of the missionaries have also begun
a woman's prayer-meeting, which is held on Wednesday evening.
. . . Every morning also, at the hour of family worship, which is
arranged* with that end in view, there is generallv a half hour de-
voted to exegesis which is shared by several of the Japanese.
Every evening of the week also has been devoted to teaching a few
young men English and science, for the sake of gaining an influence
over them, and reaching them with the gospel of Christ. One of the
young men thus taught continues to open his house every Sabbath
morning for Bible study.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 489
The Sabbath services, preaching and Sunday-school, were kept
up with growing interest at the regular preaching place; and an
afternoon Sunday-school was opened in another part of the city,
where a preaching service was held every Sabbath at 4 p. m. ; and
Sabbath evening services were held in still another place. Mainly
through native helpers the work had begun to extend outside the
city. Services were kept up once a month at a mountain village
twelve miles from Osaka; and the influence of the mission was
gradually finding its way to other places. Three extensive tours
into the Province of Kishu were this year made "with the pur-
pose of ascertaining the feasibility of making it an out-station,"
but in all these efforts the mission was crippled by the lack of an
adequate force of men and women, and the want of means to pros-
ecute the work.
The need of a religious, and especially of a denominational, lit-
erature in the native language was at an early period recognized.
When the entire New Testament was translated and printed, the
work of imparting a knowledge of the gospel was made much less
difficult. The Scriptures were sold everywhere, in shops, on the
streets, at Christian meetings, and at heathen festivals. It was no
unusual thing " to see men with a copy of the gospels in one hand,
and the image of a fox or of Buddha in the other, returning from
their religious gatherings. ' ' In some cases those whose only teacher
had been the printed word presented themselves for baptism.
In 1 88 1 a be2:inninQ^ in the matter of denominational literature
was made. The Confession of Faith was translated by J. B. Hail,
who also translated the chapter of Dr. J. R. Brown's "Lights
on the Way," entitled "The Doctrines." A. D. Hail translated
the Shorter Catechism and the Catechism for Children. He also
wrote an expository tract on Luke xv., entitled "The Sinner's
Staff," and a Manual of Systematic Theology. The mission that
year issued two hundred and sixty thousand pages of printed matter.
Some other translations and original works have since been pub-
lished, but efforts in this department have been much hindered by
other pressing demands on the time and energies of the missionaries,
as well as by the lack of an adequate fund to be used in the pub-
lication of books.
490 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
A religious book and tract store was opened early in 1881.
While much religious reading matter was distributed gratuitously,
the missionaries believed that more good would be accomplished by
cheap sales than by the indiscriminate giving away of books and
tracts. In the succeeding years book depositories have been estab-
lished in many places, and colporteurs have been sent forth. This
work is placed in the hands of native Christians, who combine its
duties with evangelistic labors.
November 21, 1881, Miss Alice M. Orr, of Missouri, and Miss
Julia Iv. Leavitt, of Indiana, the first two missionaries sent out by
the Woman's Board, arrived at Osaka. Though they were able
immediately to relieve their fellow-missionaries of part of their
English teaching work, and as time went on to assist to some ex-
tent in imparting instruction in music, sacred geography, and some
other branches, yet their time for the first three }-ears was mainly
devoted to the study of the language.
A preaching place was opened October i, 1881, in a part of
Osaka hitherto unoccupied by Christian teachers. The native
Christians resolved to pay the current expenses of the services held
here. They provided a box which, in memory of the widow's mite,
they called "the denarii box," and "hung it every Sunday in the
front part of the house, so that the people might place in it their
weekly gifts." Since then all the preaching places and churches
connected with this mission have been provided with denarii boxes.
Under the direction of Mrs. A. D, Hail a "woman's meeting"
was inaugurated to teach the Japanese women domestic handi-
work by which they could earn money to assist in maintaining the
preaching places. These meetings were well attended and grew in
interest and good results. In 1882 the native membership in-
creased more than two hundred per cent. Our half-dozen mission-
aries felt themselves inadequate to provide for the multiplying
demands of the work. They pleaded earnestly for re-inforcements.
Work "after the manner of circuit-riding on foot," had been pros-
ecuted in the Province of Kishu, and "a catechumenical class"
was in process of formation.
All the converts baptized by our missionaries in any part of the
empire were at first enrolled as members of the church at Osaka.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 49I
This church raised a salary and tried to secure a native pastor.
Althougli there were several young men studying preparatory
to taking a theological course no one among them was found
" sufficiently acquainted with theology and the holy Scriptures to
take the pastoral oversight of the flock." This church "resolved
to sustain its own preaching place" — that is, to pay its own rents
and relieve the board of all incidental expenses connected with the
services. This enabled the mission to rent a new preaching place
in another part of the city. Thus at the close of the year, 1882,
there were in Osaka three places where our missionaries main-
tained preaching and Sunday-schools regularly every Sabbath,
while private houses in different parts of the city were opened for
prayer and other Christian work.
Events of great importance to the cause of Christianity in
Japan and to our struggling mission occurred during the year 1883.
A missionary conference, in which all the Protestant missions of
the empire were represented, was held April i6th-22d. Delegates
from eighteen foreign societies, and representing a native church of
five thousand communicants, were present. The report submitted
to our General Assembly the next year says:
The Conference came together in the spirit of prayer. All shades
of Ej^iscopacy, all the various Presbyterian and Methodist bodies, and
different nationalities, came together in a oneness of spirit that pro-
claimed the essential unity of the body of Christ. The influence of
this meeting has been, and will continue to be, felt for good along dif-
ferent lines of mission work in Japan. It will give a greater insight into
the work to those Christians in America who have the cause of mis-
sions in this empire in their hearts and hands, and give ample instruc-
tion to Mission Boards as to the kind of persons that should be sent to
this field, and of the best and wisest method of dealing with them so
as to secure their greatest efficiency as workers at a minimum of ex-
pense.
A still more important event was a general revival of religion
throughout the Japanese empire. Describing this revival the cor-
responding secretary of the mission in his annual report, says :
The results of this revival have been such as to call forth the highest
gratitude of all who have given to, and prayed and wrought for, the
Christianization of Japan. Many of the churches have almost doubled
492 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
their membership. The Christian Hfe of the believers has been quick-
ened, and has manifested this quickeningr in a fyreater consecration to
Christian work, and a spirit of greater Hberahty. It has done much to
eradicate from the hearts of native Christians the deep-seated prejudice
against foreigners, which oftentimes made itself felt even against mis-
sionaries. Thus has the way for a more cordial confidence in, and co-
operation with, missionaries, upon the part of the native church, been
opened by the Spirit of God. The native Christians of all denomina-
tions hold a biennial Conference, composed of delegates representing
the respective churches in the land. The object of this meeting is to
consider questions which relate to the life of the church and to its suc-
cessful progress. Meeting, as it did this yeai", in the wake of the Mis-
sionary Conference, and in the inception of the revival v/hich has been
spreading throughout the country, the Conference was converted by the
Holy Spirit into a daily and hourly meeting of incessant praver. At
the same time, without preconcerted action, all the churches in the vari-
ous cities began daily prayer-meetings. The spontaneity of the move-
ment was so manifest that none could question that the hand of God
was directing it. It was but natural for these various streams of
quickened religious life to flow together into one channel of Christian
effort. The numerical results, so far as conversions are concerned,
while they have been very great, are only one of the minor features of
importance in this work. . . . Our own little church has shared with
all others in the precious results. Its spiritual condition seems, therefore,
to be much better than at any other time in its brief history.
This 5'ear the Osaka church selected three men to serve six
months as elders. Their re-election was made to depend on the
ability and fidelity with which they performed their dttties. The
church being still without a pastor, these elders were called upon
to discharge the duties of the pastoral office in turn, bi-monthly.
The members of the congregation, numbering in all abotit forty-
seven, were "scattered over a territory of about three hundred
miles. In Osaka, a city of about 600,000 inhabitants, there were
thirty-seven members; in Wakayama (out-station), 75,000 inhab-
itants, one member; in Hikata, a cluster of villages of 5,000 inhab-
itants, five members; in Tanabe, 11,000 inhabitants, one member;
in Shingu, 8,000 inhabitants, three members." In the beginning
of their work our missionaries made it their aim to cultivate in
the native Christians a sense of responsibility and a feeling of self-
dependence in relation to the financial affairs of the church, and
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 493
the regulation and management of other church interests. The
following is a brief statement of the principles governing the mis-
sion in its policy:
The leading idea which the mission strives to realize is: The re-
sponsibility of the native church for the conversion of fapan. This is
the principle which is sought to be made prominent, and which has
thus far determined the missionaries' plans of work. It has been their
endeavor to follow this idea in defining the relation of the foreign
church to the church in Japan: (I) It determines the attitude of the
foreign missionaries to the native church to be that of co-laborers and
advisers, "as being helpers of their joy and not as having dominion
over their faith." While, therefore, they are here as members of a
church that has a polity and system of doctrine of its own, yet they do
not seek to impose these things upon the converts by any exercise of
authority. They encourage any movements on their part toward any
kind of union with their native brethren, which will aid them most ef-
fectively in carrying out the responsibility which devolves upon them —
that is, any union within essentially orthodox doctrine and liberal forms
of church government. (II) The missionaries have tried to regulate
the use of foreign money for native purposes upon the same principle.
Believing that the practice of self-sacrifice and a sense of personal re-
sponsibility are essential to the cultivation of a true missionary spirit,
the use of foreign money has not been encouraged. When used, it has
been as an exception only. The mission, therefore, has no schedule of
salaries of native heljoers, no definite rules as to aid granted to those
desiring to be educated as evangelists or lay workers. In cases where
aid is granted, other than directly evangelistic work is required as a
compensation — that is, they must pay back to the mission monies ex-
pended upon them by the mission. When it is necessary to hire
preaching places in neighborhoods where no Christians live, the na-
tive brethren are expected to aid in the financial maintainance of such
stations. In localities where there are native Christians, they are en-
couraged to rent a small preaching place within their own means,
sometimes aided by private contributions from the missionarv, or else to
open their own houses. (HI) The same formative idea we expect to
be governed by in any other phase of the work which may arise. Our
experience in the work, as thus conducted, encoui'ages us to hope with
reference to ultimate results. Our experience thus far may prove to be
only the inexperience of a young mission, yet we shall continue to fol-
low out this principle, subject to further light.
This outline was written for the Osaka Conference in the latter
part of the year 1882, by A. D. Hail, corresponding secretary of the
494 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
mission. The test of experience in the years which have followed
has demonstrated the soundness of the principle thus laid down,
and the wisdom of the policy growing out of it. The native
Christians have shown an increasing disposition to sustain their own
churches, and to extend help to new places. Their missionary
gifts in 1882 equaled thirty-seven cents for each member, and the
year following more than fifty cents per member. In 1884 the
total collections for all purposes reached an amount equal to six
dollars for each member. When we remember that these people
make their contributions out of their poverty, that one hundred
and fifty dollars a year is counted a large income, that many earn
almost nothing, and that the average pay of those who have regu-
lar employment or business is not more than eight dollars per
month, we see that they show a willingness to give, far in advance
of that shown by the church at home.
Nor has the policy of our mission, in allowing the Japanese
Christians freedom in choosing their own methods of work and rules
of government, been attended with any evil results. The regula-
tions adopted have sometimes been more strict and wholesome than
those enforced at home. For instance, we have this item in the
report for the year 1882: "The native brethren have established a
rule that persons not well known must wait at least two months
after their application before receiving baptism." "This," says
the corresponding secretar}'-, "has doubtless saved us from some
mistakes."' A report made three years later informs us that "The
[native] church takes very aggressive ground in regard to the use
of wine and tobacco. While it has made no formal utterances up-
on these subjects, yet the use of such things by non-Christians has
such associations that persons coming into the church naturally
feel that such habits should be renounced as being inconsistent
with Christian character. We have not been very solicitous to
correct such an impression."''
]\Irs. A. ISI. Drennan, the third missionary sent by the Woman's
Board, reached Japan May 4, 1883. Early in 1882 the missionaries
had called on this board to take steps to lay the foundation of a
girl's school and orphanage in Osaka. No Protestant orphanage
'Assembly's Minutes, 1SS2, p. 66. 'Minutes, 1885, p. 81.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 495
had at that time been established in that part of Japan. The
Woman's Board was asked to send an educated lad}-, one with expe-
rience in the care of a household, joined to ability to teach and a
motherly tact and judgment in looking after the welfare of the
young, to aid in this work. In response to this call, the board
equipped and sent forth Mrs. Drennan, contributing also three thou-
sand dollars to furnish buildings for the proposed school and or-
phanage. A lot and buildings were secured in the Foreign Con-
cession, and the school was opened w4th four pupils, Januar}^ 8
1884. It has since been known as the Wilmina school. By June
1884, it had seventeen pupils. At the beginning of the year 1886
the attendance was forty-one, with an enrollment of fifty-nine,
This school is divided into three grades, the primary, intermediate
and advanced. The studies, with but few exceptions, are the same
as those pursued in similar schools at home. Japanese composition
and history are taught, and the Bible is a daily text-book in all the
grades. The first year six of the pupils joined the church, and
others were awaiting baptism. There were sixty pupils at the be-
ginning of the year 1887. In December, 1886, there were three
graduates who have since taken their places as teachers and help-
ers in missionary^ work. With money furnished by the Woman's
Board, a new building has recently been erected for this school.
In addition to her regular work Mrs. Drennan has kept up daily
and weekly classes for young men. Out of these has grown a
Young Men's Christian Endeavor Society with forty-five members.
Through Mrs. Drennan' s influence and under her direction a Jap-
anese branch of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle has
been organized, which in 1887 numbered fourteen hundred mem-
bers. She also instructs a class composed of the wives of govern-
ment officers "in English, the Bible, and household duties."
The year 1884 was one of great fruitfulness in other departments
of the work. The attitude of the people and the government was
undergoing a change favorable to the propagation of Christianity.
Men of prominence were beginning to appreciate the benefits of the
new faith. The people were ready and eager to hear the gospel.
The impetus given the work by the revival of the preceding year
was not checked, but steadily increasing in beneficial results. One
496 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
of the emperor's privy council had petitioned the government to
employ Christian teachers, and give instruction in Christian mor-
als in all the schools from the Imperial University down. Another
prominent man, "as the result of his investigations abroad, memo-
rialized the emperor in behalf of the introduction of Christianity."
China and other Eastern countries were catching glimpses of the
light shed abroad in Japan. Of Corea the report made at the close
of this year says:
The "Hermit Nation" (Corea), so recently opened for commerce
to the Western Powers through the successful negotiations of Commo-
dore Shufeldt, is looking upon the movements in Japan with profound
interest. A few days ago that government sent one of its learned men
(its historian) to this land in order to investigate its condition since the
introduction of Western arts and sciences. This man, Rijutei, became
a Christian, and is now employed by the American Bible Society in
translating the gospel into his native language. The account of his
conversion and work, as given by the agent of that society, is full of
interest. While investigating the subject of Christianity, he dreamed
that two men appeared who offered him books, and he was told that
these were the most useful of all things for his people. When it was
asked, "What books are they? " it was replied, "These are Bibles." So
deeply impressed was the man by his dream, and also by the truths he
heard, that he soon became a Christian, and from that time has been
earnestly at work for the salvation of his people. His growth in grace
and in knowledge of God's word has been marked and rapid. Through
his labors several other Coreans have become Christians. Some of
these are students in some of the Tokio Mission Schools, preparatory to
work amongst their own people. A number of other prominent Co-
reans, in this country for temporary residence, have applied to him to
be taught the doctrines of Christ. Certainly in all this there is such a
prophecy of what might be in regard to the evangelization of other
Eastern nations by the help of a Christian Japan, as to stimulate the
Church in Christian lands to devise more liberal things for the speedy
conversion of her people.
The preaching of our missionaries \vas this year attended with
gracious results. In February the Osaka church perfected its
organization. Two other churches, one at Kuroye (Hikata), a
village near Wakayama, and the other at Shingu, "the extremest
point of the province of Kishu," one hundred and ninety miles
from Osaka, were regularly organized, the former ]\Iay the nth,
c^hapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 407
and the latter the month following. The report of the Corre-
sponding Secretary of the mission in the Minutes of the General
Assembly for 1887, gives an account of the origin of these and
other Japanese churches, illustrating "God's power to use appar-
ently trivial events to produce great results."
The work at Hikata began with one man who, having heard
something of Christianity, asked a missionary of the American
Board for preaching. This missionary repeated the request to J.
B, Hail. "As the interest deepened, the local priest became
alarmed, and circulated a pledge against hearing Christianity
taught, and against having even business relations with Christians.
One man refused to sign the pledge, saying that Christians were the
principal purchasers of their manufactures — lacquer work. On
inquiry, a number of Bible readers were found in the village, and
these formed the ' Society of Brotherly Love ' for Bible study.
The meetings were at first secret, though largely attended." Thus
the church grew up.
The history of the work at Shingu still more strikingly shows
how the truth in the heart of one Christian proved the seed of a
church :
Some years ago a man living at Shingu sent his sister to a Girls'
School of the American Board at Osaka. She became a Christian, and
on returning home and observing the rules of a godly life was greatly
persecuted by her relatives. To spend the Sabbath in a Christian-like
manner, she was compelled to retire to the mountains, where she spent
the day in reading and prayer. Some time after this Yamamoto San
was preaching through that province, dependirig wholly upon Provi-
dence for his support. He reached Shingu late at night without monev
or acquaintances, and weary with his march through mud and rain.
He met a man who proved to be the brother of the girl referred to, and
who inquired his name and business. When told that the traveler was
a teacher of the religion of Jesus, he invited him to his own house, say-
ing that he wished to learn of that way. From this grew the Shingu
church.
The church at Mitani Mura, a village nine miles from Waka-
yama, was also temporarily organized in 1884. A young man from
one of the families of the village went to America to seek his for-
tune. "His father warned him expressly against the Christian
32
498 CUMBIiRLAND PRKSBYTERIAN HISTOK.Y. [Period VI.
religion, and was enraged to find on liis son's return that he had
become a Christian. The son patiently endured his father's wrath
until he could be heard in explanation of his course, when the father
became interested and afterward a believer. The first baptism was
administered in 1884." The church at that place in 1886 reported
a membership of thirty-two.
The history of the two churches organized in 1885, one in \Va-
kayama and the other at Tanabe, is equally interesting. The
events which led to the formation of the Wakayama church are
thus briefly stated:
A youth went from that city to America, and there became a Chris-
tian. He wrote to his mother of the new-found faith, and so taught its
principles and encouraged her that she also became a believer. He was
anxious for her to have a teacher, and learning from an Osaka friend
whom he met in San Francisco that a Mr. Hail taught in Wakayama,
he wrote the missionary requesting him to visit the mother. When the
request was complied with, it was found that she had been praying for
a teacher. After a satisfactory examination the mother was baptized,
and partook of the Lord's Supper with the missionary and his helper.
The membership at this place is now fift}'-nine, and the Sunday-
school numbers one hundred and sixty-two. The church supports
a day school of more than one hundred pupils.
At Tanabe J. B. Hail began visiting in 1881. "After a year
or two there were many reading the Scriptures, but all seemed
waiting for some one to make the first profession of faith. On a
certain occasion the missionary and his helper were especially bur-
dened for visible results in their work, and without revealing to
each other the unusual anxiety felt, they separated for secret
prayer. Upon returning to the hotel they met a man who offered
himself for baptism." The church thus begun reports a member-
ship of forty-seven.
We will get a better idea of the importance of these mission
churches as centers of influence if we remember that Osaka is the
' ' chief commercial center of Japan ; Wakayama, forty miles from
Osaka, the largest city of its entire province and of its contiguous
southern provinces; while Tanabe and Shingu are respectively
the sources of supply and trade for several valleys of populous vil-
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 499
lages. In the first-named city are five different Protestant bodies,
besides the Roman and Greek Catholic churches. In Wakayama
the American Episcopal and Cumberland Presbyterian missiona-
ries, and Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic church are at work ;
while in the rest of that and the adjoining state, our missionaries
alone are engaged. ' ' '
Two churches were built during the year 1884, one at Shingu
and the other at Osaka. Work on the former was commenced
when the number of baptized believers in the town was only four,
and none of them well to do in the world. The report adds: "Yet
God, who always honors faith in him, blessed them with hearts to
expect great things from him and to undertake great things for
him. The people of the village came generously to their aid, and
a handsome little church was built and dedicated.'"'
The Osaka church was dedicated in October, 1884. The con-
gregations at Tanabe and Wakayama have since built houses of
worship. The other churches rent their preaching places. Up
to 1887 none of these churches had pastors, because none of the
native preachers had attained to the standard of qualification which
was thought necessary. The elders and leading members assume
the duties and responsibilities of pastoral work.
In October, 1884, the several churches, three of which had up
to that time been formally organized, appointed delegates to meet
with the Osaka church to take steps for a better organization.
"They were in session about one week, and considered such topics
as Form of Government, Confession of Faith, Missions, and Edu-
cational Work. The missionaries were called on occasionally for
advice, but sustained to them no other than an advisory relation."
They organized themselves into a temporary body to meet semi-
annually, arranging to have representatives from the elders and
brethren of the several churches until they should be supplied
with pastors and be able to form a presbytery. 3 These meetings
are still held regularly, and the body made up of the assembled
delegates is dignified with the title of presbytery.'*
The apprenticeship of ]\Iiss Orr and Miss Leavitt in language
'Report in Assembly's Minutes, 1SS6, p. 89. ^Minutes, 18S5. p. 80.
sAssembly's Minutes, 1885, p. So. * Minutes, 1S87, p. 79,
5(X) Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
study and other preparatory work had in 1884 proceeded far enough
to enable them to enter regularly upon their missionary labors.
Miss Orr at first devoted herself to work amongst the women in the
out-stations in the province of Kishu, while Miss Leavitt engaged
in similar work in Osaka. Both these young ladies have proven
most efficient and consecrated v/orkers. Miss Orr obtained a per-
mit from the government to live for three years at Wakayama,
with freedom to travel through the province at will. When Miss
Bettie A. Duffield, of Missouri, the fourth missionary sent by the
Woman's Board, reached Japan, April 24, 1885, the church at Wa-
kayama secured permission for her, also, to live in that city three
years. While studying the language she was associated with Miss
Orr in a co-educational English day school, which was opened by
the Wakayama church in November, 1885. This school, which is
established on a thoroughly Christian basis, and which is "exclu-
sively under the control and management of the native Christians,"
had, besides Miss Orr and Miss Duffield, three native teachers.
The number of its pupils grew from forty in 1885, to one hundred
and twenty at the close of 1886. During the latter year this school
was "so approved by the government officials that they proposed
to give a new school building, pay the salary of two English teach-
ers, and continue the management as a Christian school," if Miss
Orr and Miss Duffield would devote three hours instead of an hour
and a half daily to teaching in it. This proposition was referred
to the mission.
Miss Orr's work has not been confined to this school, or to Wa-
kayama. She visits other places, conducting Bible meetings for
women, holding prayer-meetings, and instructing inquirers. In
1S87 she reported "two growing classes, respectively twenty and
ten miles from Wakayama, at Yuwasa and Iwada." At Yuwasa,
where the class numbered twenty men and women, it was expected
that a church would soon be organized. ' In a published letter she
gives the following account of the origin of this work:
One young man spent a month of successful work at Yuwasa.
During his stay, a party of about twelve Christians from here went to
the town and held a large meeting in a theater, with an audience of
' Minutes of Assembly, 1S87, p. 86.
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 50I
about five hundred most attentive and quiet people. Many school
teachers and officials came to the hotel to ask us more minutely the
way. Many desire to have Christianity.
Speaking further of the missionary labors of these Wakayama
converts, Miss Orr says:
The young men took turns in going to a village, about two miles
out, one night in every week, and have met with still more encourage-
ment. Two of the women have gone often to still another village, some
eight miles away, and two or three persons there have received bap-
tism as the result, and a church is about to be organized. In conse-
quence of this mission work, the Wakayama church is growing
stronger in numbers and in spirit.
Miss Leavitt's labors in the city of Osaka included "house to
house visitation of women, conducting women's meetings, cate-
chetical teaching in the ragged school, . . . explaining the gospel
of Luke in the woman's theological class," and "giving lessons in
foreign handiwork." In March, 1885, she began work among the
women of the interior at Shingu and Tanabe and other places. In
May, 1885, two schools, one for boys and one for girls, were opened
by the church at Shingu. A. D. Hail and his wife spent the sum-
mer there, and assisted the native church in this work. Miss
Leavitt's work now permanently embraces the churches at Tanabe
and Shingu. She spent much of the summer of 1886 at Shingu,
where she filled "the varied positions of teacher, adviser, class
director, and Christian friend." Of this summer's work she says:
"It was the hottest, busiest, happiest time I ever spent in Japan."
Of a class of five young men, all but one joined the church.
These with eleven others made up the largest number ever bap-
tized at one time in the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Japan.
Besides the Wilmina school at Osaka, which is supported by
the mission, and the English day schools supported by the churches
at Wakayama and Shingu, a kindergarten is maintained by the
church at Tanabe. There is also a ragged school at Osaka, in a
district full of pauperism, and free night schools at Osaka and
Wakayama, Classes and night schools are kept up also at other
places.
Several young men who have been won to Christianity by our
503 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
missionaries are studying in America. One of these is INIiyoslii
San, who has been in Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee,
since September, 1884. He graduated in the literary department
of that institution, and expects to finish the theological course in
1888, and afterward to devote himself to Christian work in his
native land.
In May, 1886, sixteen members of the Osaka congregation re-
ceived permission from the "Presbytery" to take steps looking to
the formal organization of a second church in the city. Counting
this second church, there are now seven congregations under the
care of the Japan mission, viz. : Osaka, First and Second churches,
Wakayama, Hikata, Mitani Mura, Tanabe, and Shingu. At the
close of the year 1886 the total membership was 275, and there
were 302 pupils in the Sunday-schools. During that year there
were 157 baptisms. The growth of the church is indicated by the
number in communion at the close of each year since the first two
young men were baptized, September 26, 1880. In 1880 there
were 3 members; in 1881, 8; in 1882, 27; in 1883, 47; in 1884, 124;
in 1885, 208; in 1886, 275.
In December, 1876, the Rev. George G. Hudson and wife, and
Miss Rena Rezner, all of Illinois, arrived in Japan to join the mis-
sion. Miss Rezner is the fifth missionary sent by the Woman's
Board, and is associated with Mrs. Drennan in the Wilmina school.
A. D. Hail, accompanied by his family, is now (September, 1887)
in America on sick leave.
Composing this mission there are eleven persons besides chil-
dren. The whole list is as follows: J. B. Hail and wife, A. D. Hail
and wife. Miss Alice M. Orr, Miss Julia A. Leavitt, Mrs. A. M.
Drennan, Miss Bettie A. Duffield, George G. Hudson and wife, and
Miss Rena Rezner. All these, except Miss Orr and Miss Dufiield,
reside at Osaka, on the Foreign Concession. The need of additional
missionaries is very great. From the first and through all the
years the force has been inadequate to meet the ever-increasing
demands and opportunities of the work.
It was a great gain to the church when it at last had its own
successful missionaries in the foreign field under the direction of
its own board. This was necessary to awaken the activity and call
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 503
out the strength of the church. Up to 1845, when our General
Board of Missions was first organized, and for a number of years
afterward, "Cumberland Presbyterians were accustomed to make
their contributions abroad, except what was appropriated to Indian
missions, through the American Board. The members of the Pres-
byterian church did the same until the inauguration of their For-
eign Mission Board in 1833."' From 1810 till the present time
two young ladies and one married couple are the only Cumberland
Presbyterians who have gone to a foreign field under the American
Board. But these did not bring the work home to the hearts of
our people. The Indian work under our own board called forth a
hundred-fold more interest. The American Board and its mission-
aries were to Cumberland Presbyterians telescopic, like the far-
away splendors of the fixed stars. But now the case is different.
When our own familiar acquaintances, our brothers and sisters and
sons and daughters, go forth, and are supported by our own gifts,
the heroism begins to enter our own homes. Our young men and
women begin to ask. If these can go and be missionaries, why may
not we also ? The stirring power of a heroic example right in our
homes is far more precious than all our money. It is that which
the church needs. If every large congregation had its own mis-
sionary sent from its own Sunday-school to some foreign field, and
not only sustained this missionary, but kept up constant corre-
spondence with him, the results would far outweigh all the money
ever given to missions. The children in such a Sunday-school
would receive new impulses toward nobler things. Selfishness and
worldliness would be rebuked. Pastors would find their hands
strengthened in every effort they make against worldliness, and
every appeal to nobler impulses would m^et with increased success.
Our own missionaries under our own board, in the very nature of
the case, come nearer to our own people. Their work and their
support become a part of the work of every congregation.
Our women's missionary societies over the whole church are in
correspondence with our own missionaries in Japan. A letter from
some of these missionaries is read at almost every meeting of our
'Address of the Rev. C. H. Bell, D.D., before the Missouri Cumberland Presby-
terian Sunday-school Assembly, at Pertle Springs, August, 1887.
504 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
numerous societies and children's bands. Thus the missionary
spirit is everywhere kept alive.
While Cumberland Presbyterians have found so great a gain
growing out of their own independent missionary work, they are
not opposed to the closest possible co-operation with other churches
in the foreign field. On this subject the General Assembly of 1885
unanimously adopted the following declaration:
We believe union on the foreign mission field is desirable, and will
cheerfully enter into whatever measures may seem best looking to that
end. Instead of transferring our differences to mission lands, we would
join our sister denominations in the plan of establishing one Presbyte-
rian church in each mission field. We regard it as very desirable, if not
essential, to formulate a short and simple yet comprehensive creed in
harmony with and containing the essential d )ctrines held by the
churches composing the Alliance, the same to be used in ordaining
native mmisters, elders, and deacons.
By the Assembly of 1887 this action was re-affirmed. Full
confidence in our missionaries and in the native members of the
churches organized and trained by them was expressed. "The
conducting of negotiations for union with other Presbyterian
churches in Japan" was therefore intrusted to these missionaries
and native Christians, with the stipulation "that in any basis of
union that might be agreed upon they were to be careful to pre-
serve untrammeled their privilege to hold and teach such views
of the holy Scriptures as are peculiar to the Cumberland Presby-
terian church." It was provided, also, that if such a union was
entered into, the missionaries of our board were to continue under
its direction in their work, and to receive support from its funds;
and that these missionaries, while holding their ecclesiastical rela-
tions with the union church in Japan, were to be "recognized in
all other respects as belonging to us, and when in this country' and
present at the General Assembly or other judicatures, to be entitled
to seats as advisor}^ members." On all parts of the field in all
periods of its history the Cumberland Presbyterian church has
given its utterances in an uneq^iivocal tone in favor of the utmost
practicable union of evangelical denominations.
The-long-talked-of, long-delayed mission to IVIexico was regu-
larly opened in 1886. The Rev. A. H. Whatley, of Texas, who was
Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS.
505
graduated from the Theological School of Cumberland Univer-
sity, June, 1885, was appointed missionary. He was set apart for
this work January 10, 1886, at Lebanon, Tennessee. He soon after
proceeded to Mexico, where he spent fourteen months "in prepar-
atory work, the stud}' of the language, the people, and the field."
At first he lived at Chihuahua, the capital of the State of the same
name. He was sent with instructions from the board ' ' to study
well the situation, and take ample time for deciding both as to
where and how the work should be begun." "After careful inves-
tigation during several months, Aguas Calientes was selected as the
place for establishing the first Cumberland Presbyterian church in
Mexico." This is a city of thirty-five thousand inhabitants, situ-
ated about two hundred and eighty-five miles north-west of the
City of Mexico. It has seven Roman Catholic churches, but no
Protestant church, and is "one of the neediest fields in Mexico. '
The missionary advised the board to purchase property for a church,
and to establish a school. Illustrating the importance of beginning
the work in this way, he said in a letter to the board:
In this countiy the missionary has to meet the peoole piincipalh'^ in
a public place. The customs of the country will not admit of his visit-
ing from house to house, even among the poorer classes, until he is
acquainted with them. One does not easily get acquainted with a peo-
ple some of whom make the sign of the cross when he merely passes
the window, that they may be delivered from the power of the devil,
whose servant he is supposed to be. There are many people whose
curiosity would lead them to church, whom nothing could induce to
enter a place of worship in a private house. . . . These people are
much more scrupulous about these things than we are. They have
been accustomed to magnificent churches, and many of them look with
contempt on the feeble beginnings of a Protestant mission. . . . The
board is right, too, in its policy of establishing a school in connection
with the mission. The importance of this branch of the work can
hardly be overestimated. The Mexicans are very anxious to have their
children study English. This interest in our language will furnish
pupils for our school.
The Board of Missions, in its report, May, 1887, says of this
work :
Our missionary to Mexico, the Rev. A. H. Whatley, has already
acquired a sufiicient knowledge of the SjDanish language to enable him
5o6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
to speak and to preach to the people in their native tongue. He re-
cently returned to the United States and took a wife, a devout Chris-
tian, intelligent and resolute, who will henceforth share his labors and
rewards. Property suitable for a chapel and a school will be bought at
as early a date as practicable. A portion of the needed funds has been
contributed by individuals. The Woman's Board, ever prompt and
cordial in co-operating WMth your board in aggressive movements, has
appropriated one thousand dollars for the purchase of property, and in
due time will supply the proposed school with one or more lady mis-
sionaries. The total cost of property and improvements will probably
amount to three thousand dollars.
At the meeting of the General Assembly of 1887, at Covington,
Ohio, the Rev. F. P. Lawyer, of Illinois, a graduate of Lincoln
University, and of IMcCormack Theological Seminar)-, Chicago,
was formally consecrated to the foreign work in Mexico. It is
expected that lie will soon join ]\Ir. Whatley and his wife in the
mission at Aguas Calientes.
In the last ten years new missionary life has been awakened in
our Theological School. An annual course of lectures on missions
before the students, by Dr. C. H. Bell, has done much to bring
about this result. Our school has been well represented in the
meetings of the Inter-Seminar}' Missionary Alliance.
The Board of IMissions lias for several years been issuing a
montlil}' paper. The Missionaiy Record. Its able editorials and its
aggressive yet catholic spirit have made it an increasing power of
good to the church and the cause of missions.
The introduction of radical changes, however desirable those
changes may be, is always a slow work. The one thing in which
the Cumberland Presbyterian church was of necessity deficient at
first was systematic giving. It had no pastors: could have none
while our fathers were all out planting the church in the wilder-
ness. It had self-forgetting heroism of the loftiest pattern, and
these fathers accomplished the mission whereunto God had sent
them. Now, the work of patiently training the organized con-
gregations in the systematic consecration of their wealth to God
is our most pressing duty. This duty rests on parents, pastors, and
church courts. The home, the nurser}', is the most important
place for this training. Here is the beginning of missionar>' edit-
Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 507
cation — to teacli the little ones that deep love to Jesus which can
not rest without doing something for his kingdom. How we do
miss this high purpose when we put these little immortals on a
course of church theatricals and other substitutes for God's plan
of training! The cause of missions appeals to the highest motives
which can influence the heart. God's plan is to develop in the
church a supreme love to Christ, so that it will be more than our
meat and drink to work, to give, to suffer, and, if need be, to die
for his kingdom.
To secure such training throughout the church will require
many things, and require that these things be persisted in a long
time. Co-operation among the church boards, the church courts,
and the church papers — among pastors, and Sabbath-schools, and
parents, in carrying out God's own appointed plan of systematic
beneficence must be secured. Let presbyteries beware of nullify-
ing the wholesome plans of the General Assembly. Let patient
training go on. We are making progress, but years of labor will
be required — ^perhaps generations must pass away — before we come
up to the gospel standard. And while these generations pass
away, let us not forget that generations of unsaved heathen are
also passing out into eternity.
The most powerful sun-glass will not set fire to tinder even
unless you continue its concentrated light on the same spot. You
must give it time. Time and persistence in concentrating the mis-
sionary spirit upon the rising generation of Christians are needed.
Training is never the fruit of Spasms and changes. We want a
sun-glass in our theological schools, Sunday-schools, and homes.
We want the very sun himself in our pulpits, and by and by we shall
have a blaze which will kindle and burn throughout the church.
Let it be borne in mind that the church at home can not live
without the influence which foreign missions exert upon it. With-
out this the great swelling floods of worldliness would soon sweep
the church away, or make its professions an empty sham. Infidel-
ity is the home product of sham consecration. A whole neighbor-
hood was once rapidly drifting into infidelity. The leading men
in the churches were at heart infidels. INIen not members of the
church openly mocked at the hypocrisy of modern Christians.
5o8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
While that was the general state of things, Christ had one loyal
servant among the mothers of that neighborhood who trained her
children to be what they professed. By and by three of this
woman's daughters went as missionaries to the heathen. An im-
mediate revolution began in that neighborhood. Infidels ceased
to cry out ' ' sham. ' ' Three of the leaders among them became
Christians, and when they joined the church they stated that it
was the going forth of those young ladies as missionaries which
annihilated their skepticism.
A Southern presb)^tery (Presbyterian) was full of dissensions.
Its meetings were scenes of wrangling. In the midst of all this,
one of the young men belonging to the presbytery returned from
the theological seminary to ask for ordination as a missionary to
the heathen. At his ordination every heart was melted and every
feud was forever healed.
J. B. Taylor tells us that after he saw Mr. Scudder embark for
a distant mission, from that day onward his own preaching of the
gospel rose to a higher plane. We must have all these elements
of the gospel — love, and consecration, and self-denial — or else our
home pulpits descend to the plane of mere human entertainments.
The home church will never grasp the real divinity of Chris-
tianity till it comes up to the divine pattern of entire consecration
to Christ's kingdom. A patient study of the glorious promises
which God makes to his people shows that they are all linked with
this entire consecration. While God's sovereign grace may extend
blessings to churches which are not thus consecrated to him, there
are no assurances that such blessings will be bestowed, but many
reasons are given why we should cherish no such expectation. On
the other hand, it is absolutely certain that the divinity of Chris-
tianity will be realized and known by those who are thus conse-
crated, will be manifested to their children, and will convince even
the gainsaying and the skeptical. We have had no missionary'
work since the days of the apostles. We have only been playing
a little at missions. Let the church of this day give men and
money as the apostolic churches gave, and thousands of conse-
crated missionaries will immediately be added to the forces now in
the foreign field.
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 509
CHAPTER XLIV.
CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY— 1S43 TO 1SS7.
It is not necessary that this should be a school of three hundred bojs. ... It
is necessary that it should be a school of Christian gentlemen. — Dr. Thomas Arnold^
of Rugby.
WHAT was known as the removal of Cumberland College
from Princeton, Kentucky, to Lebanon, Tennessee, in
1842, lias already been discussed. Among those who composed
the first board of trustees of this institution at Lebanon were
some of the best men in the country — men fitted to lead in all
noble public enterprises. Deservedly foremost among these was
R. L. Caruthers, who was made president of the board. Who can
estimate the value of one great-souled leader? In all noble plans
for the advancement of the institution's interests, this man led the
way. If he had been what the world now calls wealthy, the uni-
versity would long ago have been fully endowed. His estate was
large enough to enable him to place his name at the head of every
subscription paper circulated to raise money for the institution.
He led not only in liberal giving, but in planning liberal things.
He scorned all littleness and meanness of policy in the manage-
ment of the college business.
Members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church were nearly
always selected as trustees. When exceptions were made it was
not from any lack of suitable men of our own, but for the purpose
of extending the influence and increasing the usefulness of the in-
stitution. James C. Jones, who was once Governor of the State,
though not a Cumberland Presbyterian, was a friend to the church
and made a good trustee.
The members of the board at a regular meeting, in 1842, desig-
nated their choice of men to compose the college faculty, as follows:
F. R. Cossitt, D.D., President; the Rev. C. G. McPherson, Pro-
fessor of Mathematics • the Rev. T. C. Anderson, Professor of Latin
5IO Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
and Greek; and N. Lawrence Lindsley, Professor of ^Modern Lan-
guages. At a later meeting the same year, T. N. Jarman was
appointed tutor. All of these ultimately accepted their appoint-
ments, but McPherson alone agreed to enter on his work at once.
He, with the assistance of a student as tutor, opened the first
term, September, 1842, in the building now known as ]\Irs. Jones'
school-house. At the opening of the second term, February, 1843,
Dr. Cossitt, and Tutor Jarman arrived and entered on their duties.
The third term, beginning September, 1843, ■^^' Anderson entered
on his duties; and Dr. Lindsley began his labors in the department
of modern languages September, 1844. This w^as then considered
a pretty full faculty.
Meantime it became plain enough to the church at large that in
order to make the college at Lebanon a success, it would be neces-
sary to abandon the "removal" idea, and regard this school as a
new and original enterprise. To this view of things none gave
more cheerful acquiescence than the people of Lebanon. A new
charter was obtained in 1844, in which the institution was called
Cumberland University, instead of Cumberland College. The
trustees had already resolved to secure a university organization,
according to the American interpretation of that phrase — that is,
they resolved to establish a group of professional schools around a
college of arts as a center.
When the fifth term of the college opened, the buildings erected
specially for it were ready for occupation. This gave great relief,
as the patronage had grown beyond the accommodations.
At a meeting of the trustees, July 29, 1842, they defined the
nature of their obligations for teachers' salaries, and declared that
definition to be of perpetual application. This action has been
repeatedly re-affirmed. In pledging a salary to any professor, they
simply pledged to each his part, pro rata^ of tuition fees and endow-
ment interest, and any deficiency of salary remaining still unpaid
was to constitute no debt against the institution, unless in some
future session there should be a surplus from this fund after paying
current expenses — a thing by no means likely ever to occur. In
two cases, after rigid investigation made b}' disinterested experts,
it has been decided that the institution did not owe any debts to
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 51I
professors who had not received their full iiominal salar}?-, but had
drawn their proportional part of tuition fees and endowment in-
terest. Two faults, however, are undeniable: one, that this law
about salaries was not always kept clearly before the professors;
the other, that in case of a favorite professor, the trustees have
sometimes departed from this regulation.
The year 1845 was marked by several changes. Dr. Cossitt this
year resigned, and Prof. Anderson was elected to the president's
chair. Prof. IMcPherson rehired from the chair of Mathematics,
and was succeeded by A. P. Stewart; and James H. Sharp was
appointed to the chair of Physical Sciences. This, too, was the
first year in which the institution published a catalogue. The roll
of students numbered ninety-six. Of these, twenty-five were can-
didates for the ministry.
From the very first the institution gave free tuition to all regular
candidates for the ministry, without distinction of denominations.
In addition to this liberality on the part of the faculty — for the
school had as }'et no endowment — about fifteen of the citizens of the
town entered into an agreement that each would give one young
preacher free boarding. Several of the number kept two each.
But liberality of soul does not give infallibility of judgment. A
few who proved unworthy were cared for and petted, while some
of the church's noblest servants, as the after years proved them
to be, who were sent here in their plain clothing and poverty,
were rejected as unpromising by the good people to whom their
presbyteries commended them, and went away deeply mortified and
embarrassed to seek their education elsewhere. But the great
majority of those who received this generous aid paid back the
favor a hundred-fold in usefulness to the church.
As soon as the institution was chartered, it began to struggle
for endowment. After various efforts by others, the Rev. J. M.
McMurray was appointed agent, and made a most thorough and
protracted canvass. The plan which he was instructed to pursue
was to take notes bearing interest. The interest was to be paid
annually, and the principal to be retained by the donor during his
life-time. By this plan, often modified to suit emergencies, McMur-
ray enlarged the endowment to sixty thousand dollars.
512 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
It was soon found, however, that the plan did not work well.
It required trouble and expense to collect interest every year from
men scattered over so vast a field. In the old note bag of the uni-
versity treasurer there are to-day (1887) a large number of these old
notes still unpaid. They keep well — so do Confederate bonds.
One thing deserves to be commemorated — the persevering fidelity
of McMurray in this work. With his family, in his own carriage,
through mud, swamps, and snow, over mountains and rocks, and
along all manner of rough roads, he plodded on his patient jour-
ne}'S throughout the church.
During the year 1845 ^^^^ trustees determined to open a law de-
partment in the institution. This determination was condemned
by several leading men in the church. It was argued that a
theological school should be established before tr}'ing to build up
any other department; and that this effort to secure a law school
would divert interest, distract our forces, and delay the one work
which has always been nearest the hearts of our people — the estab-
lishment of a theological school. Various private letters of expos-
tulation were written to the leaders at Lebanon. This opposition,
private and public, continued and increased till July 26, 1848, when
the trustees met and agreed upon a paper to be published to the
church, which should quiet all further apprehensions. ' The sub-
stance of this paper was a pledge, to be forever binding, that the law
department should never be any tax on the church ; that it should
forever support itself, without asking the church for any assistance.
The publication of this pledge jn the church papers quieted the
opposition. The organization of this department was delayed by
the refusal of men chosen for that work to accept their appoint-
ment. At last (1847) Judge Abram Caruthers was secured as law
professor, his brother, Robert L. Caruthers, becoming responsible
for any deficiency which might arise in the salary. The law school
was opened in R. L. Caruther's law office. There were thirteen
students the first term, among them the present chancellor of the
university.
In 1848 the Hon. Nathan Green, Sr., then Judge of the Supreme
Court of Tennessee, and Hon. Bromfield L. Ridley, one of the
' Minutes of the Board, July 26, 1S2S.
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 513
State Chancellors, were secured to teach in the law school as much
of their time as their other engagements permitted. In 1852 Judge
Green resigned his position on the Supreme Bench, and devoted
his whole time to the law school. This school grew to great pros-
perity, paying at one time over four thousand dollars per annum to
each of its professors.
The other departments of the university also grew and pros-
pered. Prof. W. M. Mariner, was added to the college faculty in
1847, and Prof. J. M. Safford succeeded Prof J. H. Sharp in the
chair of Physical Sciences in 1848. Prof W. J. Grannis was
secured for the preparatory school in 1852. He still occupies this
position. Many different persons served as tutors for short terms.
One thing which has made its impression deep on the church
and the country is the very high grade of scholarship possessed by
the faculty of this institution. In no one thing is there greater
verification of the saying that "like produces like," than in the
similar grade of scholarship found in teachers and their pupils. In
all churches, all countries, all ages, this truth holds good. The
scholarship of the teacher is reproduced in the members of the
classes taught by him. The records of the English universities
kept from generation to generation show that in rigid and impartial
examinations, conducted from year to year, the first honors have
nearly always been won by students whose professors were first
honor men, and very seldom by those taught by professors who
had themselves won no honors. If there were some method by
which the senior classes of all the colleges of this country could be
annually brought to some such test, it would do much toward pro-
moting thoroughness in our institutions of learning.
As Cumberland University grew, its buildings were found to
be insuflficient. A magnificent extension to these buildings was
designed, and T. C. Blake was in 1856 sent out to secure money
for its erection. The plan on which the agent was instructed to
operate was mainly the sale of scholarships. The building was to
include dormitories, and the rent of the dormitories was to pay the
interest on the scholarships. In addition to the new donations to
be taken on this plan, the agent was authorized in some special
cases to convert endowment notes secured by McMurray and others
33
514 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
into building scholarships. The needed amount was secured and the
new buildings erected. A large part of this sum was contributed
by citizens of Lebanon. The rent of the dormitories was for a while
a pretty good equivalent for the subtractions from the endowment.
The handsome buildings were an ornament to the town, and a great
help to the institution. Placing all departments in one building,
however, involved some serious disadvantages, and is not likely to
be tried again by Cumberland University.
President Anderson's administration was long and prosperous.
A man of deep piety, whose heart was set far more on the kingdom
of Christ than on any literary fame or earthly interest, he struggled
nobly to train up a cultivated army of Christian soldiers. Broken
down in health before he became connected with the institution,
and continuing an invalid all the remainder of his life, he yet
managed to do a noble service for his church in the long years he
spent as president of this university.
The long-delayed theological department was opened in 1853.
The Rev. Richard Beard, D. D. , was its first professor. Dr. Cossitt
had been elected, but declined. Dr. Beard, who gave his whole
time to this work, was aided in it by the president of the univer-
sity and the pastor of the Lebanon congregation. As this depart-
ment had at first no endowment. Dr. Beard's salary was secured by
private contributions from citizens of Lebanon. The Rev. \V. D.
Chadick, D.D., was then sent out to solicit endowment specially
for this department. He secured notes amounting to nineteen
thousand dollars. Then the Rev. W. E. Ward was commissioned
as agent, and he secured nine thousand dollars in notes.
The patronage of the Theological School was small. In 1858
it had its first graduating class, four in number. With but one
professor, and no available endowment, the outlook was certainly
gloomy. Dr. Beard, however, toiled on, though often greatly dis-
couraged. The entries in his private diary are often very sad. He
began to doubt that his church really wanted a theological school.
He grew very sensitive on the subject. Some statements in the
church paper from one of the older preachers he regarded as an
attack upon the whole system of theological schools, and he wrote
a long series of articles in reply. Then another aged minister,
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 515
while on a visit at Lebanon, preached a sermon which Dr. Beard
construed as another attack on theological schools, though the
preacher afterward disclaimed any such intention. Dr. Beard
spent a week in gloomy fastings and heart searchings. "Am I
wrong? Have I taken a wrong step? Thou, Lord, knowest my
whole heart. If this work is not from thee, Lord, shut the door
on it forever." Thus he wrote in his diary. After that his spirit
had rest. A sweet assurance of God's approbation filled his soul,
and he went on with his half-paid labors all the remainder of his
life. His professorship lasted twenty-seven years.
The university grew and prospered. The largest number of
students ever reported for one year was four hundred and eighty-
one. That was in 1858. Nearly half of these were law students.
In that year the Law School reached its greatest prosperity.
Then came the war, closing out all departments and sending
members of the same class to fight against each other in different
armies. The war wiped out the endowment, burned down the
buildings, destroyed the library, and filled all the friends of the
university with despair. Stunned, bewildered, heartless, the sur-
viving trustees, after the war, looked on the old columns which
marked the site of the burnt buildings, with very little hope of
ever seeing another college class taught in their town. About this
time the Rev. W. E. Ward, D.D., visited Lebanon. He was an
alumnus of all the departments of the university. Walking sadly
about the old ruins, he took out his pencil and wrote on one of the
then standing columns, ' ''Resurgam. ' ' The word was taken up by
others, and soon became the watchword for a new struggle. The
Rev. T. C. Blake was sent out as an agent to raise money for the
erection of new buildings. The whole country was a scene of
confusion and desolation; but in spite of the discouragements he
secured in notes and cash over thirty thousand dollars.
Dr. Beard and Dr. Anderson secured a hall and proclaimed
their readiness to receive pupils in the College of Arts. The two
Greens — father and son — in another hall opened the Law School.
Very few matriculants were enrolled in either department the first
session.
Some of the trustees advocated the policy of abandoning all
5i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
the old departments except the Law School. The board resolved
to purchase the former residence of Abram Caruthers, deceased,
for this school. For the buildings, sixty acres of land, and the
work needed to fit up the buildings, they agreed to pay sixteen
thousand dollars. Their only building fund was the unpaid notes
which had been secured and handed over by Dr. Blake. The aim
was to raise half the purchase money by subscriptions from Ten-
nessee lawyers. This plan, however, was not successful, and dis-
satisfaction about the purchase became general.
The Law School never occupied these buildings, but the trus-
tees turned them over to the College of Arts, hoping in this way
to conciliate the people. But this measure had the oj^posite effect.
It was interpreted as a deliberate abandonment of the plan for
rebuilding on the old site. A large majority of those who had
promised to contribute to the building fund refused to pay their
notes, and most of these notes remain unpaid, and will doubtless
so remain forever. Much prejudice and ill-feeling were thus en-
gendered.
This was the state of things when the writer of this historv' be-
came president of this institution.' Dr. Anderson had resigned a
year before, and the presidency had been offered to Gen. A. P.
Stewart, and perhaps to others. Then the school had remained
without a head for some time. The prospects were ver}'' dark.
The condition of things when the new administration began beg-
gars all description. There was deep-seated dissatisfaction about
the buildings. There was no hope in the Board of Trustees,
There were old debts contracted before the war, and pressing like
hungr}^ wolves. There was not an advertisement of the school in
any paper. There was no endowment, there was no money be-
lonofing- to the institution. And worse than all else were those
rentable scholarships by whose aid the burnt buildings had been
erected. Many of these were sent to Lebanon to be rented to the
students at less rates than tuition fees, and there was nothing to
compensate the faculty for teaching the pupils who rented these
' Not being able to secure the history of my own administration from any other
pen, I submitted my own account of it to the present chancellor, who was my col-
'.eague in toil and trials, and I have made all changes suggested by him. — B. W. M.
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 517
scholarships. These and many other equally trying things in-
volved perplexities and struggles which only the Omniscient One
and those who grappled directly with these difficulties can under-
stand. No matter, '"''Resurgam^'' became a fulfilled prophecy.
The plan for work in the institution was, at whatever cost, to
secure a full and able faculty. Private subscriptions at Lebanon,
supplemented by what was called ' ' the cash endowment, ' ' enabled
us to accomplish this object. Many of the leading newspapers of
the South declared ours to be the best faculty in all the Southern
States. A distinguished jurist said, "Cumberland University has
shot out of the channel ahead. " Not only were our professors able
and tried educators, but they had filled high positions of trust,
which fact went far toward giving influence and power to the
university.
For a few years we were steadily overcoming the difficulties.
The institution, for the first time in its history, was out of debt.
Endowment, unencumbered and real, was slowly but regularly
secured. For this work, reliance was placed on several things.
The main one was to enlist the efforts of pastors. This method
was extensively successful. Next to that was a series of well
studied articles in the church papers. There were also vacation
trips and visits and speeches to the church judicatures. The
wealthy were called upon in order to secure donations. These
methods, combined with "the cash endowment" for immediate
use without investment, made up the programme by which the
work was sustained.
The Finley Bequest, secured in 1869, now furnishes the best part
of the living of the theological professors. A will, made through
the influence of one of our pastors at that time, has been changed
since into a ten thousand dollar cash contribution. Several small
tracts of land were about this time deeded to the university, and
turned by it into money to meet some of its pressing wants. Ex-
tensive mining lands, which were thought then to be valuable,
though nothing has ever been realized from them, were secured;
also a tract of land lying between Kansas City and Independence,
Missouri, which promises to be very valuable. A dear friend of
the university holds a life-time reservation claim on the tract last
5i8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
mentioned, so that it is not now available. This land was donated
to the university in 1870. It was then supposed to be of sufficient
value to endow a professorship. Its value has since increased
greatly, and is perhaps the largest donation ever made to the insti-
tution.
The largest gift of books which the university ever received
was made in 1869. This is the library of the Rev. James Mur-
dock, of the theological department of Yale College. It is specially
rich in patristic and historic literature. This library was donated
by the Hon. Abraham Murdock, of Columbus, Mississippi. He is
a son of the old Professor, and was at the time the donation was
made under the pastoral care of that active friend of the university,
Dr. G. T. Stainback.
When the war closed the citizens of Lebanon were no longer
able to give free boarding to candidates for the ministry. Dr. T.
C. Blake suggested the establishment of "a camp" for them, sim-
ilar to the quarters or barracks occupied by soldiers. Provisions
were to be solicited from the surrounding churches. As many of
the probationers had been soldiers in the war, this plan was the
more readily adopted. An old boarding-house, with several small
buildings surrounding it, was purchased and named Camp Blake.
The money to pay for this property was secured, and an ample
supply of provisions was also obtained. Nathan Green, the present
chancellor, became superintendent of this novel encampment, and
filled this position without any pay as long as this method of pro-
viding homes for our young men was continued. His services in
that sphere were very valuable, for he not only managed the finances
so as to keep the camp clear of debt, but also exercised the kindest
fatherly oversight over the young preachers. Some of those who
gathered there were very unpromising in appearance at first, but
they improved afterward to a degree that placed them in the front
ranks of the ministry of our church.
To many an old student the following paragraphs, clipped from
one of Judge Green's published articles, will call up pleasant rem-
iniscences:
Yielding to the suggestion of many older and wiser men, I have
engaged the services of one of the most refined and elegant ladies of our
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERI^AND UNIVERSITY. 519
church to supervise the cooking and grace the table at Camp Blake.
The lady has her mother with her, who contributes much to the com-
fort of the cadets. It was thought indispensible that a lady should be
among these young preachers to soften and refine their manners, as well
as to protect them against the carelessness of servants. . , .
Already, though the next session will not begin for ten days, have
the young preachers who intend to enter college next year begun to
arrive. I am afraid to say how many will be here next session, for the
old ones all remain. I am confident there will be fifty or more. What
shall we do with them ? They must all eat at once at the table, and they
must all eat at the same table. The dining-room now used is too small
for fifty men. We must have another, and take this for a dormitory. It
has been determined, therefore, by the best advice, to erect a tabernacle.
From fifty to seventy young preachers were provided for every
term. Some of these are now among the most snccessful pastors
in the denomination. More yotmg preachers went to college under
this arrangement than any other our church ever had. When
better times enabled the trustees to make better arrangements, the
Camp Blake property, which was clear of debt, was rented out in
the interest of the theological department, and is still so used.
One of the great difficulties the college encountered just after
the war, was the utter lack of any regular preparatory schools in
the South. In view of this, the trustees established detached pre-
paratory schools in several Southern towais and cities. The number
of pupils in these at one time reached seven htmdred. The mis-
sion which these schools were designed to fill was temporary, and
when their work was done they were abandoned.
Meantime the troubles about the purchase of the Caruthers
buildings greatly increased. Only a small number of the building
notes could be collected. About half the purchase money had
been paid, and the remaining debt was pressing. Finally the prop-
erty was condemned by the courts and its sale ordered. The theo-
logical school bought it, paying for it just half what it had cost
the trustees.
This was one of the wisest steps the theological school ever
took. This school had unimproved property in Chicago, which
had been for years eating itself up with taxes and agent's fees. The
trustees sold this Chicago property for twelve thousand dollars cash.
520 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
The theological school invested four thousand dollars of this money
as endowment, and paid eight thousand for the Caruthers property,
now called Divinity Hall. Thus buildings and land, which were
valued at twice the money invested, were obtained, and the uni-
versity was saved a sacrifice which would have placed both the
theological school and the college of arts out of doors, with scarcely
a hope of ever securing a shelter over their heads. Indeed this
purchase saved the life both of the theological school and the col-
lege of arts. And }et a committee which knew nothing of the
facts wanted the next General Assembly to censure the trustees for
making it.
The darkest, saddest part of this struggle to build up the uni-
versity was the bitter but unsuccessful conflict with the life insur-
ance companies. Schemes for securing endowment by persuading
men to take out insurance policies in favor of the university were
pressed by five different companies. When these efforts were
thwarted at Lebanon, the agents of the companies would visit
churches and attend the meetings of Presbyteries and Synods to
secure their influence in urging these plans upon the trustees.
Some of our ablest ministers were induced thus to take an active
part in pressing these schemes.
As the president had several times succeeded in defeating the
efforts of these agents, they began to watch for opportunities to
press their plans on the board in his absence. In 1871, while he
was absent in Alabama, an agent of the St. Louis IMutual Life
Insurance Company, who was also an elder in one of our strong
churches, and a true friend of the university, prevailed on the
trustees to adopt his scheme. Though this scheme was well meant,
and looked plausible, and was indorsed by many friends of the
institution, yet its adoption was a death blow to all the plans that
had been formed by the president and those co-operating with him.
The trustees claimed for the agents of the insurance companies a
clear field, not permitting any other method of raising money for
permanent endowment, or allowing the collection of cash contribu-
tions to supplement salaries. It being known that the author of
this history, as president, had no confidence in the scheme, he was
enjoined to keep silence. This he did except when conscience re-
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 521
quired him to speak. He did nothing to thwart the agents; but
when the friends of other colleges wrote, making inquiries about
the "grand scheme," they were warned to have nothing to do with
it. The University of Virginia and other institutions were perhaps
saved from burnt fins^ers bv these warnings.
The insurance scheme amounted to a disaster. The insolvency
of the company after the church had invested many thousands with
it, and before the university had received any real benefit, came^
sweeping away confidence and hope together. Under the anxiety
growing out of this insurance business, and the suspense and final
disaster it brought, the health of the president gave way, leaving
him in a long struggle between life and death. He resigned in
September, 1873, and the Hon. Nathan Green was placed at the
head of the institution as chancellor.
Dr. Green receives pay as Law Professor, but his work as chan-
cellor is done without salary. We can often judge of a man's clear-
sightedness by looking backward. Dr. Green opposed the purchase
of the Caruthers buildings for the law school. He opposed the
schemes of endowment by life insurance. He opposed all the
schemes for cheap scholarships, and all other clap-trap methods for
securing endowment funds. The results now indicate the correct-
ness of his judgment in all these matters.
The most important work of Dr. Green's administration has been
that done for the theological school. When he was made chan-
cellor that school had but one professor. It now has a faculty
of three professors, and an indefatigable agent is making good
progress toward its endowment. Two handsome buildings, large
enough for two of the departments of the university, have also been
secured since Dr. Green became chancellor.
The institution now has one building for each of its four depart-
ments. Its endowment is largely prospective — notes and lands
being the main items.
A change of deep significance has taken place in regard to the
endowment of the theological school. The General Assembly has
awakened at last to the fact that this school belongs not to Cumber-
land University, but to the whole church. Not the trustees of the
university, but the General Assembly planned and inaugurated this
522 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
department. Cumberland University did not even ask the General
Assembly to establish such a department. True, the friends of the
university from all parts of the church are very earnest in their
convictions that Lebanon is the proper place for such a school, and
they urged those views on the General Assembly before the school
was located.
At Benton ville, Arkansas, 1885, the General Assembly instructed
its own Board of Education, located at Nashville, Tennessee, to
appoint an agent to secure endowment for the theological school.
So long as the trustees of Cumberland University appointed the
agents to endow this department, that fact placed this school in a
false light. It is not and never was a mere department of the uni-
versity. It stands in relations to the university far different from
those sustained by the law department. The latter was created by
the trustees at lycbanon, and could be abandoned by them without
asking the church or the General Assembly.
The church's theological school is a department of the university
only so far as such relation is supposed to be serviceable to this
school, but it is something more than a mere department. It has
relations independent of the university. The propriety of having
a separate board of trust for it has often been discussed, but its own
interests are against such a separation.
The charter for this department differs greatly in its provisions
from the charters of the other departments. One item included in
the rules laid down by the Assembly when this school was estab-
lished, and which was rigidly enforced for a few }'ears, has unfor-
tunately been allowed to pass into forgetful ness. It provides that
a committee shall be appointed annually by the General Assembly
to visit the institution and report concerning its prosperity and
orthodoxy. At a time when so many theological schools are drift-
ing away into heresies and something worse, our church should by
no means relax its use of this fortunate provision. We have no
right to assume that we are forever free from jeopardy, when some
of our neighbors are even now in such trouble.
The fundamental laws of the institution, to which its charter
was required to conform, were laid down by the General Assembly
when the school was established. (See Assembly IMinutes, 1852).
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 523
The last section of Article V. and three sections from Article VI.
are here given :
ARTICLE V.
Sec. 7. — Each professor, before entering upon the duties of his
office, shall solemnly adopt, in such form as the Assembly may pre-
scribe, the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith and Form
of Government.
ARTICLE VI.
Sec. I. — That the theology taught in the school may be subject to
the judgment of the Assembly, it shall be the duty of the Professor of
Systematic Theology to write out his lectures to the classes, and when
required, he shall submit them to the examination of the board, or to a
committee of the Assembly.
Sec 2. — Professors, as other ministers, will be amenable to the
presbytery, and subject to be arraigned for immorality or heresy. But
for their official character they shall be amenable to the Assembly, and
upon a recoinmendation of the board or a committee of the Assembly,
they shall be subject to removal for incompetency, gross neglect of offi-
cial duty, or such irregularity in deportment or error in doctrine as shall
render their continuance in office detrimental to the interests of the school.
Sec. 3. — As professors may be removed whenever the Assembly
shall deem it expedient, appointments shall be made for an indefinite
time, except in cases where the board may recommend an appointment
for a definite period.
One of the strange questions of the times relates to the theo-
logical education of young ladies who are to go out as foreign
missionaries. That there should be embarrassment and hesitation
about receiving them into the classes of our theological seminary
seems to some people very strange. To some of the staid old con-
serxT'atives of Cumberland University, who have always objected to
co-education, it is a matter of astonishment that such an innova-
tion should be demanded. Now the question is to come before the
General Assembly, and we shall see whether or not the world is
moving. In this matter the Assembly has entire control.
The tables of statistics relating to the university, published in
The Theological Medium^ October, 1876, abound in mistakes.
The dates, and the figures indicating the patronage, are unreliable.
Omitting the temporary and detached schools, the following is a
list of all those who have been members of the faculty of Cumber-
land University:
524
Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Rev. F. It. Cossitt, D.D
Rtjv. T. ('. Aiulersoii, D.lK.
Kev. B. W. McUonnold, 1».1».,
LL.U
Hon. N. Oreon, IX. 1)
Kev. C. G. Mcl'hurson
Rev. T. C. Anderson
Mr. . Price
T. N..I;iniiaii
B. S. Foster
N. L.awrence Undsley, LL.D..
Gen. A. I'. Stewart
Geu. A. P. Stewart
Gen. A. P. Stewart
Ixjuis A. I^wry, A.B
J. H. Sharp, M.I)
lion. Ab. Carulhers
K. P. Decherd
R. P. Deeherd
R. P. Decherd
Rev. Itobert Donnell
Rev. Wiley M. Reed
Robert Hatton
R«v. N.J. Fox
Wm. JNIariner, A.M
J. M. Sattbrd, Ph.D
J. L. McDowell
Wm. Mariner, A.M
AVm. Mariner, A.M
Rev. J. C. Provine
Rev. T. C. Blake
Rev. T. C. Blake
Rev. S. T. Anderson
Rev. W. W. Suddarth....,
Rev. E. B. Crisiuan
Rev. A. H. Alsup
Rev. II. Beard, D.D
Hubert H. Merrill
W. .1. Craw
A. H. Buchanan
A. H. Buchanan
II. A. D. Brown
J. Blau
E. G. Burney
Ben Decherd
T. C. Anderson. D.D
W. D. McLaughlin
W. D. McLaughlin
D. S. Bodenhamer
H. T. Norman
John I. D. Hinds
W. J. Grannis
W. J. Grannis
Samuel Y. Finley
H. S. Kennedy
N. J. Finney
Rev. T. M. Thuruian
Oliver Holben
N. (ireen, Jr
T. H. llardwick
H. H. Merrill
B. C, Jilson
E. H. Plumacher
W. H. Daruall
H. W. Grannis
Abram Carulhers
Nathan Green
B. L. Ridley
N. Green, Jr
John C. Carter
Henry Cooper
Robert L. Caruthers
Andrew B. Martin
S.G. Burney, D.D
R. V. Foster, A.M
John 1. 1). Hinds
J. D. Kirkpatrick, D.D
E. E. Weir
rKOFESSOKSHIP.
President.
President.
President
I'haucellor ,
-Mathematics
Languages
Tutor lor one session
Permanent Tutor
Tutor
Lin. Vetr
Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics (temporary)
Chemistry
Int. and Const, l^iw and Political Economy.
Second Tutor
Tutor
Sup't. Prep. Dep't
Lecturer on Theology
Junior Tutor
Tutor
Tutor
:V.ss'tProf. Lin. Vetr
Chem., Win., and Geo
Tutor
Mathematics
Lin. Vetr
-\ssistant Tutor
Tutor
Mathematics
Tutor
Tutor for five months
Tutor fur one session
Tutor
Systematic Theology
Teacher Prej). Dep't
In Dr. Safibrd's absence
Eng. and Engineering Deji't
Mathematics
Teacher Prep. Dep't
Modern Languages
Prin. Prep. Dep't
.\ssistant Teacher Prep. Dep't
Lecturer in Theology
Adjunct I'rof. Classics and Belles-Lettres..
Prof. Lin. Vetr
Teacher Prep. Dep't
Teacher Prep. Dep't
.\dj. Prof. Phys. feci
Prop. Dep't
Prin. Prep. Dep't
Teacher Prep. Dep't
Prin. Eng. School
Teacher Prep. Dep't
Tutor
Modern Languages
Tutor
Tutor
Teacher
Geology
Modern Languages
Murdock Prof. Eccles. Hist
Teacher Prep. Dep't
Law Professor
Prof. Bib. Lit
Prof. Belles-Lettres and Hebrew.,
Prof. Chem. and Nat. Science
Eccles. Hist
Eng. Literature
April
.lune
Feb.
Feb.
.May
Jan.
Fe>).
Feb.
July
Feb.
June
June
Dec.
June
Sept.
Oct.
July
Feb.
Sept.
Aug.
Jan.
June
Oct.
April
April
May
June
Aug.
Sept.
Aug.
July
Nov.
Aug.
June
July
Aug.
June
Oct.
Aug.
Aug.
Sept.
9, 1842,
30, 1844,
-, ISGC,
■61), l.sTa.
9, 1842
3, 1842
3, 1842
!», 1842
2'J, 1844
21, 1844
22, 184")
3, 1850
28, 18"G
27, 1845
27, 1845
17, 1845
3, l«4ti
22, 1849,
16, 18.50
10, 1846
20, 1847
26, 1847
26, 1847
31, 1847
27, 1848
11, 1848
1, 1849
12, 1850
16, 1850
20, 1850
2, 1854
IS, 1851
27, 1851
10, 1851
2, 1852
22, 1853
24, 1,'55!
3, 1854
2, 1854
2, 1860,
21, 1850
11, ISGii
17, 1866
24, 1S6'.I
30, 1870
22, 1870
17, 1872
6, 1871
18, 1871,
30, 1873,
-, 1852,
30, 1873
-, 1859,
-, 1866,
-, 1866,
-, 1866,
-, 1867,
-, 1-44,
-, 1851,
-, 1858,
-, 1854,
-, 1870,
-, 1873,
-, 1875,
-, 1847,
-, 1848,
-, 1848,
-, 1856,
-, 1859,
-, 1866,
-, 1868,
-, 1878.
-, 1877.
-, 1877.
-, 1874.
-, 1880.
, 1880.
.Sept. 30, 1S44.
Aug. 24, 18tiG.
, 1873.
21, 1844.
21, 1814.
-, 1842.
, 1841.
-, 1846.
13, 1849.
1, 1819.
2, 18.54.
2, 1869.
-, 1845.
4, 1847.
1, 1847.
20, 1S47.
16, 1850.
2, 1854.
-, 1848.
, 1.S4S.
-, 184.S.
-, 1848.
1, 1849.
-, 1873.
-, 1848.
12, 1850.
-, 1860.
-, 1850.
24, 1851.
28, 1856.
-, 1851.
-, 1851.
-, 1852.
-, 1852.
-, 1881.
3, 1800.
-, 1800.
, 18.-)8.
, 1867.
July 22, 1870.
, 1871.
, 1872.
Aug. 17. 1872.
, -S72.
, 1872.
, 1874.
, 1862.
.*ept.
Sept.
Oct.
Oct.
Aug.
Sept.
.Sci)t.
May
Feb.
Feb.
Aug.
Oct.
July
June
June
July
1860.
1871.
1867.
1867.
1870.
1845.
1852.
1859.
1856.
1871.
1878.
1862.
1866.
1852.
1864.
1S68.
1882.
Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 525
From the first the law school has combined all the best methods
of instruction with the services of the very ablest professors. The
instruction does not consist of mere lectures by those who have
turned aside for an hour from busy practice at the bar, but able
lawyers give their whole time to the classes, teaching by recita-
tions, lectures, and moot courts.
The first want of a student in his preparation for any profession
is that mental discipline and development which a college of arts
furnishes. To place a student in his professional studies before he
learns how to think, is the road to professional failure. Cumber-
land University could furnish from its own long rolls, many an
illustration of this fundamental truth. The department of arts
demands larger facilities, and must have them if we would realize
the best results.
Wiley A. Hatley, of Arkansas, in a tribute to the memory of
his father, John Hatley, after describing many noble services which
his father rendered to the church, closes the biographical sketch
with these words: " No other part of the legacy he left to his chil-
dren has been so precious in its influence on them as the money he
contributed for the founding of Cumberland University, and for the
support of other enterprises of the church. The large sums which
he so freely gave to the church, and for the cause of Christian
education, brought a greater blessing to those he left behind than
the estate which they directly inherited."
Whenever the church resolves to have an endowed colleo-e, we
shall have it. Not paper resolutions, but heart and pocket resolu-
tions are meant. Small contributions from our entire membership
can be secured, if the ministry will do their duty. This general
action is the first great lever to prize up big donations. It was to
Union College, long fostered by the gifts of a multitude of poor
people, that Dr. Nott gave six hundred thousand dollars. "He
that hath to him shall be given," is the law in college endowment.
General action, even from the poor will make our colleges a suc-
cess. • The tax of one peck of corn on the poor colonists of Massa-
chusetts saved Harvard College, and attracted large gifts even from
England,
Let not our people foster the mistaken notion that we are
526 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
top poor to endow our colleges. Count over how much was lost
by members of our church in your county by the war. They bore
that loss and yet live. But they pleaded poverty before the war
just as much as they do now. Suppose half as much as has been
lost had been given to the church, could the donors not have sup-
ported their families and lived happily ? Look around you and see
what the members of the church are paying for railroads. Yes,
and still the donors live.
Our men of large wealth have given us no examples of liber-
ality proportionate to their ability. There is a wide field open for
usefulness, for happiness, for honorable distinction — open to any
wealthy man among us who will break the long spell of parsimony,
and lead our rich men in deeds of munificence. Alumni of Cum-
berland Presbyterian colleges, the cause of learning in our church
cries out to you for help.
Chapter XLV.] WaYNESBURG COLLEGE. j 527
CHAPTER XLV.
WAYNESBURG COLLEGE, LINCOLN UNIVERSITY,
AND TRINITY UNIVERSITY.
Delve we there for richer gems
Than the stars of diadems.
— James Montgomery.
BESIDES the university at Lebanon, Tennessee, whose work
is described in the last chapter, Cumberland Presbyterians
have three other principal educational centers. These are Waynes-
burg College, at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of
the territory occupied by our people; Lincoln University, in the
North-west, at Lincoln, Illinois; and Trinity University, in the
extreme South-west, at Tehuacana, Texas. The object of this
chapter is to sketch the history of these three institutions.
WAYNESBURG COLLEGE.
Some account of the first efforts of our people in Pennsylvania
and Ohio to establish denominational schools is necessary as an
introduction to the history of Waynesburg College. We have
positive evidence that the missionaries who planted the first Cum-
berland Presbyterian churches in Pennsylvania recognized the
importance of education, and the necessity for an institution of
learning on that eastern border of our denominational field. The
Rev. Le Roy Woods, who began his labors in that State in 1832,
testifies" that: " To educate up to a high standard was a fixed pur-
pose with Morgan and Bryan. Milton Bird occupied no equivo-
cal position in reference to this question. Donnell, Burrow, Chap-
man, Aston, Shook — indeed all who took an active part in the
'Q^ioted from the Religious Pantagraph by Dr. A. B. Miller in his article on
Waynesburg College in the Theological Medium, Vol. XIV. pp. 63-118, January,
1878. Dr. Miller gives a very full and satisfactory history of the institution over
which he has so long and so ably presided, and many of the facts in this sketch are
gleaned from his article.
528 Cumberland Presbyterian History. (Period vi.
commencement of our work in Pennsylvania — were outspoken
friends of education — of collegiate education."
These pioneers showed their faith on this subject by their works.
The Pennsylvania Synod at its first meeting, which was held at
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, October, 1838, passed "a resolution
encouraging the presbyteries to foster their educational interests."
This synod at that time was made up of three presbyteries, Penn-
sylvania and Union in western Penns)-lvania, and Athens, in Ohio.
Each of these presbyteries "was making an effort to furnish the
facilities necessary to the liberal education of the }'outh under its
influence." '
Greene Academy, at Carmichaels, Greene county, Pennsylvania,
in the bounds of Pennsylvania Presbjter}'-, "was largely under
Cumberland Presbyterian control, though it never sustained any
ecclesiastical relation." The Rev. Joshua Loughran, a Cumberland
Presbyterian minister, was its principal. "The congregation at
Carmichaels was one of the first organized in western Pennsyl-
vania, and under the blessing of God grew in numbers, strength,
and usefulness. ' ' The influence of the Rev. Le Roy Woods and
the Rev. S. E. Hudson, who were successively pastors of this
church, did much to make Greene Academy an ally of Cumberland
Presbyterians. IVIany candidates for the ministn,' were attracted to
this school. Among our well-known and useful preachers who
were in part educated here were A. J. Baird, Philip and Luther
Axtell, Samuel McCollum, J. W.. Cleaver, J. S. Gibson, and A. B.
Miller. A. J. Baird for several terms did good service as assistant
teacher in this institution.
In the bounds of Union Presbytery, at Uniontown, PennsN'l-
vania, was INIadison College. In 1838 this institution was under
the controlling influence of Cumberland Presbyterians, though the
nominal control was in the hands of a board of trustees, which,
according to the statement of the Rev. J. P. Weethee,^ "consisted of
forty-five members, scattered through a dozen States." This school
was probably established near the beginning of the century. Ac-
' Dr. A. B. Miller, in Thcoloffical Medium.
' See his " Review of Dr. Miller's Sketch," in Theological Medium^ Vol. XIV.
p- 345. J"ij i^rS-
/
Rev. JOHN MORGAN.
The Only Existing Likeness.
530 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
He was far on his way to the end of his race, and was so feeble
that he could scarcely talk. After an interview of considerable length,
during which we had in a very friendly manner reviewed the jjast and
endeavored to forecast the future of our cause in Pennsylvania, when I
announced to him that I would have to go, with much effort he arose
from his couch, straightened himself to his full height, and looking me
full in the face with an expression that I can never forget, he asked in
an easy and familiar way, "Woods, how is Greene Academy getting
along.'"' I gave him an appropriate answer. He then asked how many
candidates were there. I gave him the number. I approached to bid
him farewell. He took my hand in his, then hot with the fever that
was consuming him, and said, with a tone of voice and with an ear-
nestness of manner which showed clearly the deep interest he felt in
the subject, and with a pressure of the hand more eloquent than words,
"Do n't give up your school — hang on to it." Then, referring to Bryan,
in Pittsburg, and Bird, on Tenmile, both settled pastors but not con-
nected with any school, he said, "they may have an easier time, and
receive a better compensation than we, but our schools will be doing
good after we are in our graves."
During Mr. Weetliee's administration this question was brought
before the board of trustees: "Are females, matriculated and pur-
suing a college course, students in the eye of the law?" This ques-
tion was decided in the affirmative, and Mr. Weethee says this
decision made Madison College "perhaps the first co-educational
college in the Union."
In the spring of 1842 there was a serious rupture between the
president and the board of trustees, and Weethee, Bird, and Free-
man resigned; and the college passed for a time into the hands of
the Presbyterians. Of his own labors in this school, and his final
resignation, Mr. Weethee says:
My recitations began at sunrise, and continued through the day. I
often heard twenty classes daily. To keep the college in motion, I at
different times was called to fill every professorship. As the institution
prospered and became an object of interest " worth having," the oppo-
sition increased, until finally by a general union of Presbyterian, Meth-
. odist, and Episcopal members of the board, . . . the opposition secured
a majority of the votes. A change of administration being contem-
plated, and being well assured that the institution was lost to our church,
I resigned.
Two years after Weetliee's resignation the college was practically
Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG COLLEGE). 531
dead. The trustees heartily ' ' repented of their folly in dispossess-
ing Cumberland Presbyterians, and were quite ready to invoke
their aid once more." In 1844 they were in correspondence with
Pennsylvania Synod. That body at its meeting in the autumn of
this year resolved "that the synod ought to take the necessary
steps to secure the control ' ' of Madison College. To carry out
this resolution a committee was appointed " to offer proposals " to
the trustees. In 1845 the synod adopted a report, "which sets
forth that the trustees of Madison College had given it into the
synod's control."
The Rev. A. Freeman was again elected as a professor, and an
earnest effort was made to revive this college. Some students were
gathered during the winter, and with the opening of the spring
term an additional professor was appointed. But there was "only
feeble, faint-hearted co-operation on the part of the synod," and the
number of students was not encouraging. In the autumn of 1846
" the two professors resigned, and the synod relinquished all care
and control." Thus ended the connection of our people with Mad-
ison College.
Within the bounds of Athens Presbyter}'-, at Beverly, Ohio, in
1838, Benjamin Dana bequeathed certain coal lands to an academy
to be built at that town. In 1842, John Dodge, of Beverly, deeded
several lots to the Rev. Charles R. Barclay, in trust, ' ' for the pur-
pose and to the use of education at and within the Muskingum
College (afterward called Beverly College) now erected or hereafter
to be erected on said real estate, under and by the exclusive direc-
tion and control of the Pennsylvania Synod of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church forever." A three-story brick building, which
still stands, was erected on one of these lots for the intended college.
In 1840 the Pennsylvania Synod had discussed this question:
Shall the Synod co-operate with the General Assembly in support-
ing Cumberland College, at Princeton, Kentucky, or undertake to
establish a school of high order within its own bounds ? A report
was adopted by which the synod resolved " to act in its individual
capacity," and to raise a fund of thirty thousand dollars for the
endowment of a synodical college. A board of twelve trustees was
elected, with authority:
532 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
1. To make proposals to any Ijoard of trustees within the bounds of
the synod, or to any number of men who shall be incorporated within
Pennsylvania, for the purpose of securing the erection of a college
building.
2. To accept such terms as, in the clearest convictions of their judg-
ments, atlbrd the greatest advantages to the synod.
The Rev, J. P. Weethee, whose name stands first in the list of
these twelve trustees, informs us that this board located the pro-
posed synodical college at Beverly, Ohio, "induced to that action
by the Dodge and Dana grants," and that this was the real origin
of Beverly Col-ege. A liberal charter was granted to this institu-
tion by the legislature of Ohio, in 1843. ^^^' Weethee was elected
to the presidency. He says:
I removed to Beverly in the fall of 1842, and took charge of the
students I could find. The location of the college was soon found to
be not what we had anticipated. The town population was then incon-
siderable, and the surrounding country was divided in its patronage by
the Ohio University and Marietta College. Our denomination was
weak, and could aflord us but a few students. The college building
was not sufficiently finished to be occupied. The winter that followed
was very severe and protracted. We made our hotel room our recita-
tion room. . . . The Dodge and Dana bequests did not then yield a
dime, and we were left with scarcely enough to discharge our board
bills.
How long Mr. Weethee continued his efforts in this school we
are not informed, nor do we know wdio were his successors in the
direct work of teaching. In 1848 the synod recommended "the,
tender of the Beverly property to the General Assembly for the use
of a theological seminary." Reports were adopted in 1849 ^"^
1850, deploring the condition of this college; and in 1851 a com-
mittee summed up the state of things in these words: "No school
in operation at present, no agent in the field to solicit funds for the
institution, no endowment fund on hand, no apparatus, no librarj-,
no professors or teachers." This institution never had a graduate,
and it can scarcely be said that it "ever had an existence as a col-
lege. ' ' After the Ohio Synod was formed in 1853, the management
of this school was handed over to that body, though, by some neg-
lect or oversight, the charter was never so changed as to transfer the
Chapter XLV.] WaYNESBURG C0I.I.EGE. 533
legal control and the ownership of the property from Pennsylvania
Synod to Ohio Synod.
The efforts of Pennsylvania Synod to adopt and build up Mad-
ison College had failed; the hopes of those who had desired to
make Beverly College the educational center of the synod had also
been disappointed. Our people had no legal title to Greene Acad-
emy— no assurance that the control of its affairs might not at any
time be taken out of their hands. Therefore, in April, 1849, Penn-
sylvania Presbytery declared that its educational interests impe-
riously demanded that an institution of learning should be estab-
lished in its bounds, and appointed a committee of five "to receive
proposals for the location and establishment of such an institu-
tion." When the presbytery met in the autumn following the
committee reported proposals from Waynesburg and Carmichaels,
both in Greene County, Pennsylvania. "Waynesburg offered a
considerably larger sum than Carmichaels for the erection of a
building, and was chosen as the location of what finally became
the educational enterprise of the whole church in Pennsylvania."
The same autumn "the Rev. Joshua Loughran left Greene Acad-
emy and went to Waynesburg, where he built up a high school
simultaneously v/ith the preliminary steps of the presbytery for
the founding of a college, and which school was merged into the
college."
The new building, ' ' a three-story brick edifice, seventy by fifty
feet," was erected by the citizens of Waynesburg at a cost of six
thousand dollars. Work on it was begun in the spring of 1850,
and it was fully completed in the fall of the following year. " On
the first Tuesday in November, 1851, the college went into formal
operation in this new building." The Rev. Joshua Loughran,
A.M., had been chosen president, the Rev. R. M. Fish, A.B., Pro-
fessor of Mathematics, and A. B. Miller and Frank Patterson,
tutors. Miss Margaret K. Bell had been employed in the fall of
1850 to take charge of a school for 3^oung ladies, with the design
of founding a female seminary in connection with the college.
She became principal of what was afterward known as the Female
Department. Three young ladies were graduated in this depart-
ment in the autumn of 1852.
534 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
A year later, September 28, 1853, the first Commencement in
the college proper was held. At this time, besides four young
ladies who received diplomas from the Female Department, four
young men, among them A. B. Miller, were graduated in the reg-
ular college course.
The charter, which was granted in March, 1850, placed the
government of the college in the hands of a board of trustees, a
majority of whom were to be elected by Pennsylvania Presbytery.
In 1853 the college was transferred to the control of Pennsylvania
Synod. Since then all the educational efforts of our church on
its eastern border have been concentrated in this institution. Dr.
Miller sums up the precise relations of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church to Waynesburg College in these words:
1. The charter secures to the synod the perpetual use of the prop-
erty, provided the synod sustains therein at least three professors. (The
charter makes no requirement as to the manner in which the professors
are to be supported.)
2. Of the twenty-one trustees, the charter grants to the synod the
appointment of twelve. (The synod has, in fact, for twenty-four years,
appointed the whole number of trustees.)
3. By mutual agreement it is a by-law that the trustees shall elect
no person to a professorship until the synod has first nominated the
person for the place.
4. The endowment fund of the college is held by another board,
styled "The Board of Trust of the College Endowment Fund of Penn-
sylvania Synod," consisting of five members appointed by the synod,
and acting under a charter securing to this board all needful powers
and perpetual succession.
Prof. Fish having resigned, the Rev. A. B. I\Iiller was elected
to *the chair of Mathematics, October, 1853, at a salary' of three
hundred dollars a year. The want of an adequate financial sup-
port was probably the chief cause of the resignation of President
Ivoughran, which took place Augiist, 1855. During his connec-
tion with the college Mr. Loughran also preached to the Waynes-
burg congregation. Dr. Miller testifies that he possessed "excel-
lencies that made him a valuable man in the class-room; " that he
was "a great reader, a good thinker, and could hold a class spell-
bound for an hour," and make a "recitation in his room a de-
Chapter XLV.] WaYNESBURG COLLEGE. 535
light." But lie was unable or unwilling to grapple with the
financial difficulties which beset the college, and so yielded its
management to other hands.
The s}nod nominated the Rev. J. P. Weethee as Mr. Lough-
ran' s successor, and he was elected president by the board of
trustees. Though Mr. Weethee had ceased to be a Cumberland
Presbyterian, and at that time "did not belong to any denomina-
tion," ' yet he professed unabated attachment to our church; and
his doctrinal views, as explained by himself, were thought by the
synod "to be no serious barrier to his nomination."^
Dr. Miller says: "Mr. Weethee entered upon his duties with a
strong popular sentiment in his favor. . . . He brought into the
college a spirit of improvement, and an earnest purpose to build
up, and the first year of his labors was marked with decided prog-
ress." But difficulties afterward arose, growing in part out of
dissatisfaction with the new president's peculiar religious views, and
in part out of questions connected with the internal management
of the institution. At the end of the third year of his presidency,
in the autumn of 1858, on account of these difficulties, and because
he "was not paid according to contract," Mr. Weethee resigned.
The friends of the college were much discouraged, and " feared
that this educational effort would terminate in a repetition of the
Madison College trouble. ' ' Some advocated the re-election of the
Rev. Joshua Ivoughran to the presidency, and he was written to on
the subject ; ' ' but having been once starved out, he made conditions
which the synod pronounced impracticable. "3 The Hon. John C,
Flenniken was made president pro tern. The Rev. S. H. Jeffery,
A.M., pastor of the Waynesburg Presbyterian church, was called
to the chair of Natural Science, and the Rev. A. J, McGlumphy,
who had just graduated, was appointed Professor of Mathematics.
The real work of managing the internal affairs of the institution
fell on the Rev. A. B. Miller, who was vice-president by priority
of appointment. Mrs. Miller (formerly Miss Margaret K. Bell) was
still principal of the Female Department, and continued in this
position until her death in 1874.
'Weethee's Review of Dr. Miller's Sketch, Theological Medium, July, 1S7S.
^Dr. Miller, Ibid., January, 1S78. 3 Dr. Miller.
536 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Dr. Miller was duly nominated and elected to the presidency
in the fall of 1859. At the same time Milton E. Garrison, A.M.,
a graduate of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, was
elected Professor of Greek and Latin. A year later W. G. vScott,
A. M. , became Professor of Mathematics.
Of the condition and prospects of the college when he was
called to the presidency, and of his perplexing and responsible
duties, Dr. Miller says:
A debt of over three thousand dollars hung upon the college. My
salary was very inadequate; and, worse, there was no reasonable ground
of hope that it would be paid if the other necessary professors were
employed and paid. Dissension had turned a portion of the commu-
nity against the college, and had begotten in the public mind a feeling
of distrust in regard to the future. Accepting the position, and going
to work under these unpromising circumstances, it seemed to me more
like an effort to make a college than the honor of presiding over one —
nor have I yet outgrown that feeling. My special aims were, first, to
get the college out of debt, and to establish confidence in its value and
permanence. To accomplish the former, and to keep the necessary
teaching force in the college without incurring debt, has been the con-
stant ever-perplexing problem through all these years. After looking
in vain for other sources of reliable pecuniary dependence, I found it
necessary to assume toward the college, in fact, the relation of president,
financial agent, and board of trustees. Taught by bitter experience
how great are these cares thus thrown on a college president, and ad-
mitting that ordinarily such a course could promise only financial ruin'
I must record my profound conviction that in this case nothing but the
unbounded liberty allowed me in the management of the college could
have saved it from hopeless failure.
As tutor and professor and president, Dr. IMiller has labored
incessantly in this institution for nearly thirty-six years, and is still
at his post faithful to his life-time work of building up a Cumber-
land Presbyterian college in Pennsylvania. In his article already
quoted, he says:
I have been compelled to preach in order to live, sometimes supply-
ing points twenty miles distant; I have been compelled to deny myself
books greatly needed; to stay at home when I should have traveled; to
walk many miles because I could not afllbrd to pay hack fare; to be
harassed with debts that have eaten up the mind as cancers eat the
flesh; in short, to do a great many things, and to leave undone a great
Chapter XLV.] WaYNESBURG COLLEGE. 537
many things, which doing- and not doing greatly hindered my usefuhiess
as a public servant of the church. I once turned superintendent of
schools, and walked all over Greene county in order to save a little
money, and still the college went on, while the nation was fighting its
battles. At another time I edited the Czi7nbcrla7id Presbytei-ian^ did
all the necessary correspondence of the office, and kept the books, at
the same time teaching six hours a day In the college, exercising gen-
eral oversight of its financial affairs, and often preaching Kvice on the
Sabbath.
Through all the years until lier death (1874), Mrs. Miller, as
principal of the Female Department, was lier husband's faithful
co-worker. To the young ladies under lier charge "she was at
once a teacher, a counselor, a sympathizing friend. ' ' She labored
almost without pecuniary return, her salary being "for a long time
three hundred dollars a year, and never over four hundred dollars,"
and the full sum of even this pittance was not paid for any year.
Through twenty-four years her time and strength were given with
the utmost unselfishness and enthusiasm to this work. She really
sacrificed her life to build up this institution. Without her brave
self-denying work and influence, the enterprise would probably
have failed. In addition to duties in her home, which was con-
stantly open for the entertainment of the friends of the college,
she usually taught six hours a day. "It can not be doubted that
her early death was the result of exhaustion from overwork."
Since 1852 Waynesburg College has each year sent forth a class
of educated men and v/omen, many of whom have filled important
places of trust and usefulness; and their influence and work have
been no inconsiderable factor in promoting the progress of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church. The largest class ever gradu-
ated by this institution was that of 1873, consisting of twenty mem-
bers— eight young women and twelve young men. The same year
the college had three hundred students, the largest number ever
reported in attendance. The first five Cumberland Presbyterian
missionaries sent to Japan were all graduates of this school,
Waynesburg College has not only sent forth preachers and mis-
sionaries, but it has furnished many successful teachers to other
schools and colleges, and has trained up its own most valued and
efficient teachers and professors. As has been seen, Dr. Miller was
538 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi,
himself a member of the first graduating class. Prof. W. G. Scott,
who has so long and vvlth snch ability filled tlie chair of Mathe-
matics, was a member of the class of 1857. When Prof ]\I. E.
Garrison died, April 7, 1870, after ten years of valuable service as
Professor of Greek and Latin, the vacancy thus caused was filled
temporarily by J. W. Freeland, A.B. , who graduated in 1868.
Afterward J. M. Garrison, A.B., a member of the class of 1870,
was appointed to this chair. He was succeeded in 1872 by J. ^I.
Crow, A.B., who had received his diploma from the college the
year before. After teaching a year he spent two }-ears in Germany
and Switzerland prosecuting his studies. Returning in 1875, he
resumed his work in the college, Avinning great popularity; but on
account of the insufficiency of his salary he resigned his position.
He was not the first nor the last valued instructor whom this insti-
tution has lost by reason of its meager financial resources. John
F. White, B.S., who was graduated in the same class w4th Prof
Crow, was made Professor of Natural Science. Going to Han-ard
University to pursue his chemical studies, he was made assistant
professor there, continuing several years in that position. Prof
Albert McGinnis, A.M., who graduated in 1878, and afterward
studied in Leipsic, Germany, was elected to the chair of Greek and
Latin, and proved a most thorough and successful teacher. He
recently resigned this position to accept the chair of Belles-Lettres
and the vice-presidency of Lincoln University, Illinois.
Among other graduates of Waynesburg College who served for
a time as members of its faculty were James R. Rineliart, Lewis
Sayers, John S. Hughes, H. D. Patton, J. C. Gw)'nu, and A. T.
Silveus. Among the ladies who, after their graduation from this
institution, proved efficient teachers in it, Dr. IMiller mentions Miss
Martha Bayard, now Mrs. J. ]\L Howard, of Nashville, Tennessee;
Miss Minerva Lindsey, nov/ IVIrs. A. Freeman, of Colorado; INIiss
Juliet E. Barclay, now Mrs. Wilson, of Iowa; Miss M. C. Carter,
afterward Mrs. W. L. Parkinson, and since deceased; IMiss M. Lou
Hager, now Mrs. M. L. Smith, of Illinois; Mrs. Estelle Biddle
Clark, now of Nashville, Tennessee; and Miss Emma J. Downey,
afterward Mrs. S. F. Hoge, now deceased.
As the Theological School, as well as all the other departments
Chapter XLV.] WaYNESBURG COLLEGE. " 539
of Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, was closed dur-
ing the civil war, tlie necessity for some facilities for the theolog-
ical training of our }-oung men preparing for the ministry became
pressing. From the IMinutes of the General Assembly we learn
that Pennsylvania Synod, in connection with the board of trustees
of Waynesburg College, was, in 1863, "making efforts to establish
a Chair of Theolog>'." The Rev. S. T. Anderson, D.D., was
elected to this professorship. He entered upon his duties in the
autumn of 1864, and was also made vice-president of the college.
In connection with his duties as pastor of the Waynesburg congre-
gation, he did good ser\dce for several years as teacher of Hebrew
and ethics. This theological professorship, being without endow-
ment, was not made permanent. No successor to Dr. Anderson
was elected.
In the autumn of 1873 "the purpose to erect a new building
for the college was projected." A magnificent edifice, with splen-
did rooms for recitations, for libraries, apparatus, and all other re-
quirements of a first-class' college, was planned. In the erection
of this building debts have been avoided, and the progress of the
work has therefore been slow. Most of the rooms are now finished,
and it is "the finest single college building in western Pennsyl-
vania," and by far the most beautiful and imposing structure of
the kind ever erected by Cumberland Presbyterians.
We have already seen that in 1840, when Pennsylvania Synod
decided to act in its own individual capacity in establishing and
sustaining a college, it resolved to raise thirty thousand dollars for
endowment. Pennsylvania Presbyter^', ten years later, when it
accepted the control of Waynesburg College, determined to raise
an endowment, and again the mark was set at thirty thousand dol-
lars. When the institution was handed over to the Synod's con-
trol, the plan already adopted by the presbytery was continued.
The congregations were canvassed by agents. In the General
Assembly of 1853 the Committee on Education reported that the
funds for the endowment of this school were in part already raised.
A similar report next year says the endowment then secured was
from three thousand to five thousand dollars. In 1855 fifteen thou-
sand dollars was reported, and the next year the Minutes state that
540 ' Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
nearly thirty thousand dollars had been recently raised. The re-
port of 1863 places the sum at twenty-five thousand dollars; that
of 1865 at thirty-five thousand dollars. In succeeding years still
larger sums were reported.
Up to 1881 all the endowment raised for this institution was by
the sale of scholarships, A perpetual scholarship was sold for one
hundred dollars, and a full course scholarship for thirty dollars.
These scholarships were transferable, and could be used immedi-
ately. Ten or twenty thousand dollars raised in this way would
create scholarships enough to crov/d the college with students
without yielding an income large enough to support one teacher.
"It was," says Dr. Miller, "certainly an error to allow students to
use these scholarshijDS before a sufficient fund had been secured to
support the required number of professors. As it was, the plan
left no tuition fees, and but little in the stead." Purchasers were
not required to pay actual cash for the scholarships, but only gave
their notes, with the privilege of retaining the principal so long as
they paid the annual interest. This interest often proved hard to
collect, and many of the notes re]5orted from time to time as en-
dowment proved worthless. President Miller's sketch, written in
1878, says: "Any thing like an exact estimate of the amount of
reliable endowment at this time can not be given, though the
amount is certainly not less than at any previous period, recent
additions fully making up for losses during the last three years of
financial failures."
The year 1881 was observed by Pennsylvania Cumberland Pres-
byterians as a sort of denominational jubilee. Fifty years before,
the missionaries sent by the General Assembly began their work in
that field. The Pennsylvania Sj'uod had recommended that an
effort should be made to raise a sum sufficient to complete the en-
dowment of three professorships as a fit offering to commemorate
this semi-centennial year. Thirty thousand dollars was afterward
fixed as th.e sum to be raised "as a semi-centennial offering."
Mainly through the persistent efforts of the Rev. P. H. Crider,
cash and notes reaching this amount were secured. Efforts fur-
ther to increase the endowment are still continued, and the finan-
cial condition of the school is now more hopeful than ever before.
Chapter XLV.] lylNCOLN UNIVERSITY. 54I
Up to the year 1878 over two thousand students had been en-
rolled in the several classes and departments of Waynesburg Col-
lege. In the years which have followed hundreds of others have
been added to the list. This school is not only a center of educa-
tion and culture, but it has exercised a permanent and wide-spread
religious influence. It has been the center of numerous revivals,
in some of which nearly every student has been enlisted either
as a worker or a convert. Speaking of the importance of the
work and influence of Waynesburg College, President Miller says:
"The money put into this institution, the prayers of the church
in its behalf, and the labors and sacrifices of those who have been
its faithful instructors, have been indeed as the ' handful of corn
in the earth on the top of the mountain, ' the fruit of which already
shakes like Lebanon. Standing like a bulwark and a lighthouse
on the eastern border of our denomination, it seems to me not
only indispensable to the synod that controls it, but in some meas-
ure as involving in its future career the destiny of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church. ' '
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.
Lincoln University was founded in the year 1864 by the Synods
of Indiana, Sangamon, Central Illinois, Illinois, and Iowa. The
civil war then raging had so divided the country that it was no
longer practicable or indeed possible for the churches of the North-
west to patronize the schools in the South. These churches were
compelled to establish schools for the education of their children.
Long before the war attempts were made in various parts of
the country north of the Ohio to found schools of a high order.
In the States of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa
academies and colleges were started, and many of them accom-
plished much good in the cause of Christian education. At Vir-
ginia, Illinois, Union College did good ser^dce for a number of
years. The same may be said of Cherry Grove Seminary and
Mt. Zion Academy in Illinois, and Delany Academy, in Indiana.
When the States of the North-west established public schools,
these academies for the want of sufficient endowment were forced
to suspend operations. At the beginning of the war the free
542 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
schools were in full blast, and they were at that time very popular.
Private and deiiominatioiial schools were almost entirely deserted.
The churches of all denominations saw that if they would have
the education of their children under their own care, they must
build schools which could compete with and even surpass tlie
schools of the State. Long years of struggle and anxiety passed
away. Good men prayed and wrestled with the grave problem
before them. At the meetings of presbyteries and synods, and in
private gatherings, the siibject of education was discussed.
In the darkest days of our civil strife the good men who stood
by the church in the North-west did not abandon the cause of
Christian education. It has often been charged against Cumber-
land Presbyterians that they oppose education. P>ut no better
evidence of their devotion to this cause can be given than the
repeated and heroic struggles they put forth in the North-west
in behalf of higher education. There was scarcely a presb\'tery
in all that region that did not attempt to establish a school of
hidi orade. All their efforts were not successful, nor were all of
them wise and judicious, but the zeal of the people is to be com-
mended if their judgment is not.
The war caused our people to feel more keenly and deeply than
ever before the need of schools, and, at a time when thousands
were faltering and ready to give up, the idea of founding Lincoln
University was conceived. It is not known who was the first to
suggest the idea. It is probable that the suggestion grew out of
many anxious and prayerful conferences of brethren. There were
at that time a number of educated and devoted ministers in the
territory here mentioned. Among this number none stood higher
than the Rev. Azel Freeman, D. D. He lived at Newburgh, Indiana,
and was engaged in teaching in Delany Academy as its principal.
He was a man of great and earnest piety, a most devout Christian
scholar. He was always an ardent supporter of the cause of learn-
ing. The Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., a man of great energ}' and
activity, was editing a paper at Alton, Illinois, the IVesiern Cum-
berland Presbyterian. He earnestly advocated the establishment
of schools for the better education of the rising ministr>\ The
columns of his paper were open for the discussion of this subject.
Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 543
Dr. Freeman wrote many articles on the importance of a well-
endowed school in the West.
It was in the Synod of Indiana, I think, that the suggestion of
a school under the combined patronage of the five synods was first
made. It is probable that the resolution passed by that synod was
written by Dr. Freeman. At any rate he was one of its most en-
thusiastic advocates, and it was due to his sagacity and urgent
appeals that the measure got before the Synods of Illinois and
Iowa. When the proposition was once made, it became ver}^ pop-
ular. All over the three States the matter was discussed with great
earnestness and approved with great unanimity.
Commissioners were appointed in the fall of 1864 to prosecute
the work. They wrote and talked in the interest of the new move-
ment. By order of the synods they advertised for bids for the
location of the institution. Several places were put in nomination.
Newburgh, Indiana, and Mt. Zion, Cherry Grove, Virginia, and Lin-
coln, Illinois, were the most prominent places in the contest. The
commissioners visited each of the rival towns and heard the proposi-
tions of the people. Lincoln was finally chosen as the most eligible
and suitable location for the new school. The citizens of that en-
terprising and flourishing young town made a very generous offer.
They agreed to erect a building worth not less than thirty thousand
dollars. The commissioners on their part pledged the church for
fifty thousand dollars endowment. The agreement was that the
school should not begin operations until the money was all raised.
A board of trustees was appointed and a charter was obtained.
The institution was chartered as a university — a great mistake.
Agents were sent into the field to secure endowment. The plan
for endowing the institution was devised by the board of trustees.
They had had but little experience ^n the work of building and
endowing universities. They adopted the plan of selling scholar-
ships, in order to secure the needed fund. Scholarships giving
very great advantages were sold at very low figures. A two hun-
dred dollar scholarship was made practically perpetual. It secured
the tuition of one scholar at a time in the literary department.
Five hundred dollars procured a scholarship admitting the pupil to
all the departments of the proposed university. The liberal terms
544 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
of the scholarships and the inflated condition of the currency made
it very easy to sell them. Many bought them under the impression
that they were making a good investment. The agents soon suc-
ceeded in raising in notes the sum agreed upon. Dr. Freeman did
excellent service in this work of securing endowment. He raised
about thirty thousand dollars of the fifty thousand. The Rev.
James Ritchey, of Indiana, was also a very active and successful
agent. Richard M. Beard, Esq., from first to last, was perhaps the
most successful agent in the field. There was a great deal of en-
thusiasm in this work, and it was done in a very short time.
In the meantime the people of Lincoln began work on the
building. In the year 1865 the corner-stone was laid. The gov-
ernor of the State, Gen. Richard J. Oglesby, delivered the oration
at the laying of the corner-stone. It was a grand day in the his-
tory of the church in the North-west. It is due to the people of
Lincoln to say that they did far better than they agreed to do. In-
stead of a thirty thousand dollar house, such as they had agreed to
build, they laid the foundation for a building, which when com-
pleted cost about sixty thousand dollars. By far the greater part
of this sum was given by the people of the town.
It must be remembered that the currency was badly inflated at
the time the work was undertaken. The money contributed to the
endowment was not worth more than fifty cents on the dollar.
Many who subscribed in flush times had to make their payments in
hard times. This caused a great falling ofl" in the collections.
Many who had pledged contributions failed in business, and many
others failed to pay. The trustees, howe^'er, did not stop at fifty
thousand dollars. Agents were kept in the field nearly all the time
for years. They more than made good the losses.
The school was opened iif the year 1866, on the i6th day of
November. The faculty consisted of the Rev. A. Freeman, D.D.,
President; the Rev. S. Richards, A.M., Professor of Ancient Lan-
guages; the Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, A.M., Professor of INIathe-
matics; J. B. Latimer, A. B., Professor of Natural Sciences; ]\Irs.
Mary E. Miller, Matron, and Teacher of English Literature. The
school was co-educational from the first. The course of study laid
down by the first faculty was full and complete. Young ladies
Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 545
were admitted to all the classes on terms exactly the same as those
required of the young men.
The first year was typical in the history of the institution.
During that time nearly all the main features of the school were
outlined by its able and scholarly faculty, and particularly by its
noble president. It is due to Dr. Freeman more than to any other
man that the policy which has ever since guided the faculty in the
management of the school was developed. The organization of
classes, the formation of literary societies, the foundation of the
library, the rules and the government of the institution were all
developed by that most devout scholar and teacher and his assist-
ants. He was at the head of the institution four years and during
that time he showed a zeal and devotion to the school which has
never been surpassed by any man in the church. He perhaps
placed too many restrictions upon students. But the law of kind-
ness was on his tongue, and he governed by love. He was driven
from his great work by the unwise clamors of a few who were too
zealous of orthodoxy. He held views not unlike those held by the
professors of Andover Seminary in Massachusetts. These views he
never sought to propagate. As a teacher of youth he never in-
flicted his theological opinions upon any one. If he had been at
the head of a theological seminary there might have been some
excuse for the war that was made upon him. After serving the
institution most satisfactorily for four years, he retired without a
word of remonstrance, and pursued a course worthy of all admi-
ration.
He was succeeded by the Rev. J. C. Bowdon, D.D., who was
pastor of the church at Evansville, Indiana. Dr. Bowdon was a
man of great vivacity, most genial manners, and fine intellectual
powers. He ruled by a method entirely different from that em-
ployed by his predecessor. He made but few rules, and yet he was
universally loved and obeyed. He gave the institution a new im-
petus in the line of culture. Dr. Freeman was a man for thorough
scholarship; Dr. Bowdon gave more thought to culture and social
life. He made the faculty and the school the center of the social
life of the community. He inspired young men with an ambition
for the highest social as well as literary culture. He taught more
35
546 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
by example than by precept. Never was there a more genial or
more companionable man. He had a vast fund of humor and wit
ever at ready command. He was a preacher of strong powers, and
wherever he went he made a profound impression for the cause he
represented. He had a great power over a popular audience. It
was due to him largely that the school gained a wide popularity
throughout the entire church. He was born and educated at the
South, and he had hosts of friends and admirers in everj^ part of the
denomination. His brief career ended before he had time to de-
velop his purposes. He died while in office in the year 1873 among
his old friends in Mississippi, and^ there he was buried. He was
loved as few men are ever loved.
The Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, D.D., LL.D., was elected to fill
the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Bowdon. He entered upon
the duties of his office in the year 1873, and continued in that posi-
tion until June, 1887. President McGlumphy was a good executive
and an admirable teacher. During his administration an effort was
made to start a law school and also a theological department. The
Hon. R. C. Ewing, of Missouri, a son of Finis Ewing, was elected
Professor of Law. He organized classes and had a number of
pupils. About fourteen young men entered the school and studied
through one year. The tuition was necessarily small and the
attendance was not large. The want of funds compelled the
trustees to suspend this school. About the same time the depart-
ment of theology was opened, with the Rev. S. Richards, D.D., as
Professor of Systematic Theology. There were but three or four
pupils, and no money to support the teacher, and the undertaking
had to be abandoned.
During this time the currency of the countr}' had resumed a
more healthy condition. Interest on money began to go down.
No tuition was paid by students. The cheap scholarships that
were sold to secure endowment were at the command of all who
wished to use them. They drove tuition out, and it was impossible
to increase the number of the faculty at a time when the number
of the students was nearly double what it ought to have been.
Nearly all the schools in the country' where the patronage of the
university came from had enlarged their faculties, and had put into
Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.
547
their courses of study new departments. The competing schools
had the advantage in wealth, and the people soon began to take
advantage of the better opportunities that were offered them else-
where. The trustees had no money to employ additional teachers,
and none to procure libraries, apparatus, and museums. The result
was a great falling off in attendance. Efforts were made time and
again to increase the endowment. Most of the patrons had schol-
arships, and they did not see the necessity for more money. After
years of struggle against odds and difficulties, President McGlum-
phy resigned.
The work of this institution, however, has by no means been a
failure. It has more money now than any school in the church.
There are nearly one hundred thousand dollars secured to the
university, most of which is productive. There are many friends
of the institution who are determined to stand by it. It has grad-
uated some of the best scholars in the church. Its graduates take
high rank in the ministry of the denomination. Several of them
have been graduated in theology at Lebanon, Tennessee, Union
Theological Seminary, New York, and elsewhere. A number of
the graduates are prominent teachers in some of the best schools
of the country. Hundreds of former students of this institution
are useful members of the church. Two of them are missionaries
in foreign lands, and two others have been accepted by the Board
of Missions for the work in Japan, and are now preparing for their
departure to that country.
The institution has always maintained a high standard of schol-
arship. No school in the church has more conscientiously adhered
to the course of study laid down in its catalogue. No student
can graduate who does not maintain a high grade of scholarship
throughout the entire course.
Among the members of the faculty who have done valuable
service in the institution should be mentioned Professor A. R.
Taylor, A.M., Ph.D., who is now principal of the State Normal
School of Kansas. For ten years he filled the chair of natural
sciences with great ability. His enthusiasm in the class-room, his
devotion to his pupils, and his accurate learning made him one of
the most useful men in the church. As a disciplinarian and a
548 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Christian educator he has had but few equals in the denomination.
Under his instruction the natural science department became very-
popular, and his classes were always filled with the most eager and
enthusiastic pupils. In 1882 he resigned to take charge of the
important institution of which he is the successful president.
Another successful teacher in the university was Professor
William Mariner, who for many years was a shining light in Cum-
berland University. He occupied the chair of Latin four years.
His exact and painstaking scholarship and his rigid adherence to
college methods did much to elevate the scholarship of this young
and promising institution of the church. It was only the want of
funds that compelled the board of trustees to accept his resignation.
He was a man of great and varied general information, and he in-
spired young men and women to study that they might reach the
high standard of learning to which their preceptor had attained.
Since his resignation he has lived in Washington Territor}-, but in
whatever sphere he lives and labors he carries with him the true
scholarly spirit, and surrounds himself with an influence which
brings him honor and respect. The Rev. B. F. McCord, A.M.,
Ph.D., filled the chair of Mathematics for fourteen years. He is a
man of fine ability, correct literary taste, and excellent scholarship.
He was graduated at the State University of Indiana, where he
ranked at the head of the large class of which he was a member.
In the school-room he was master of his subject. He taught with
great enthusiasm and inspired his pupils with a love of study. In
the summer of 1887 failing health caused him to seek relief from
the work of the class-room in the less wearing duties of a business
life.
Among the trustees there are several men whose self-sacrificing
devotion to the institution deserves special mention. While the
trustees have made mistakes, it will readily be granted by all who
know the history of the school that they have been guided by the
most unselfish motives in all their transactions. For nearly twenty
years Col. Robert B. Latham was a member of the board — during
the greater part of the time its president. He was always ready
to make any sacrifice in his power to promote the good of the uni-
versity. Being the best known citizen of the town and the county
Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 549
in which he lived, and still lives, he gave the school a good name
throughout the State. His interest in the town and the community
was alwa}-s great, and every enterprise calculated to promote the
welfare of his fellow-citizens secured his zealous support. He has
always been a firm friend of the cause of education, and has given
much wise counsel and }ears of earnest service to Lincoln Uni-
versity. He gave liberally of his means to secure the location of
the school, and was ever ready to lead in any thing calculated to
help the university. For j'ears his beautiful and spacious house
was thrown open with the most generous hospitality on Commence-
ment occasions to receive the students, the faculty, and their friends.
Not being a member of the Cumberland Presb}'terian church, he
deserves this honorable mention as a friend and generous benefactor
to one of its most important enterprises.
The Hon. William B. Jones, for many years treasurer of the
board of trustees, deserves respectful mention for the great interest
which he has ever showed in the prosperity of the school. He
labored hard for years to keep the finances in good condition.
Much of his time was generously devoted to the interest of the
college. He has frequently written for the church papers in be-
half of the institution. Mr. George W. Edgar, an elder in the
Lincoln congregation, has been a member of the board of trustees
since the school was first organized. He has given freely of his
money in the support of the college, and has been very liberal with
his time in looking after the building and grounds. His home has
always been open to the friends and patrons of Lincoln University.
There are many other persons whose labors have contributed to the
prosperity of the institution. It would require more space than
can be given to the subject to record the deeds of all who are wor-
thy of special mention. Such men as Samuel C. Parks, James A.
Hudson, A. C. Boyd, the Rev. W. C. Bell, and the Rev. F. Bridg-
man have ser\^ed as trustees with great fidelity and usefulness.
Among the endowmg agents who have from first to last been
engaged in working for the college must be mentioned the Rev. J.
A. Chase, the Rev. Jesse S. Grider, and the Rev. J. C. Van Patten.
They all did good work at various times. The Rev. J. S. Grider
acted as agent but one year, but during that time he did a very
550 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
valuable work. He secured in notes and bequests about thirty-five
thousand dollars. One bequest of ten thousand dollars obtained
by him has already been realized. It was made by Mr. Alfred
Br}'an, of Logan county, Illinois, who was for many years an active
elder in the congregation known as Sugar Creek.
Lincoln University has been in existence but little over twenty
years, but it may be safely said that no school in the church has
done a better work in that time. It has graduated in the literary
department alone just i86 pupils. These men and women are for
the most part members in the Cumberland Presbyterian church,
and in the General Assembly and our missionary boards, and in
all the councils of the church, their influence is felt and acknowl-
edged.
The foregoing sketch of Lincoln University is furnished for this
volume by the Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., Ph.D., who became Pro-
fessor of Natural Science in that institution in the fall of 1868. He
served in that position two years. In the fall of 1871 he was elected
to the chair of Greek and Latin. He filled this important position
with great ability until 1883. He did much to build up the inter-
ests of the institution and to promote thorough classical scholar-
ship among the students. After nearly fifteen }'ears of faithful and
valuable service as a member of the faculty, he resigned and ac-
cepted his present position as editor of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian at Nashville, Tennessee. >f
In June, 1887, President McGlumphy and the entire faculty
of this institution resigned. Subsequently A. E. Turner, A.M.,
Professor of Natural Sciences, was re-elected, and he has resumed
the duties of that chair. Theodore F. Brantley was also re-elected
to the chair of Greek and Latin, but did not accept it. Albert
McGinnis, A.M., was elected Professor of Belles-Lettres, and vice-
president, and he is at this time (October, 1887,) acting president.
Albeit T. Davis, A.B., of Hyde Park, Mass., was chosen Professor
of Greek and Latin, I. W. P. Buchanan, A.B., Professor of Mathe-
matics.
The full list of teachers in the Literan,' and Scientific depart-
ment from the organization of this institution to the present time
is as follows:
Chapter XLV.] TrIXITY UNIVERSITY. 551
Presidents and Professors 0/ Menial and Moral Philosophy. —
Rev. A. Freeman, D.D., Rev. J. C. Bowdon, D.D., Rev. A. J.
McGlumphy, D.D., LL.D.
Professors of Mathematics. — Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, A. ]\I. ,
Rev. B. F. McCord, A.M., Ph.D., I. W. R Buchanan, A.B.
Professors of Ancient Languages. — Rev. S. Richards, D.D,,
Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., Ph.D., William Mariner, A.M., Theodore
Brantley, A.M., and Albert T. Davis, A.B.
Professors of Natural Sciences. — J. F. Latimer, A.I\I., Rev. D.
M. Harris, A.M., A. Pv. Taylor, Ph.B., O. A. Reach, Pli.B., Rev.
W. J. McDavid, A.M., Charles R. Krone, A.M., and A. E. Tur-
ner, A.M.
Professor of Belles-Lettres. — Albert McGinnis, A.M.
Professors of Elocution.—^. S. Hamil, A.M., Mrs. E. W. Felt,
Rev. L. P. Marshall, A.B.
Matrons., and Teachers of E7iglish Literatiire. — Mrs. M. E.
Miller, Miss Minerva Lindse}^, ]\Irs. C. E. W. Miller, and Miss S.
J. McCord.
Tutors.—]. R. Starkey, A.M., A. H. Mills, A. M., A. E. Tur-
ner, A.M., and M. A. Montgomery, A.M.
There are four literary societies connected with the university —
the Neatrophean, the Amicitian, the Amasagacian, and Athenian.
The first two are for ladies, and the others for gentlemen.
The property and assets of the university consist of :
A campus and buildings worth $ 60,000
Furniture, library, and fixtures 5,000
Endowment fund invested and otherwise available 60,000
Endowment, good, but not yet available .... 40,000
Total property and assets $165,000
TRINITY UNIVERSITY.
The history of Trinity University furnishes one of the finest
illustrations of magnanimous compromise for the sake of concen-
tration that our church ever had. When this institution was
founded, there were under the control of our people three small
colleges in different parts of Texas, and these all agreed to com-
bine their resources into one institution, and leave the selection of
552 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
the location to the three synods which the church then had in that
State. The sketch here given of the consolidated institution is
partly from the ]3en of Dr. E. B. Crisman. He says:
In 1866 the Texas, Brazos, and Colorado Synods of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church, feeling the necessity of an institution of learning
of high order within their bounds, by concert of action, appointed each
a committee to consider jointly the propriety of establishing such an
institution at that time. The committee so appointed met for consulta-
tion at Dallas in December, 1S67; and, coming to the conclusion that the
immediate establishment of such an institution was not only proper but
entirely practicable, concurred in a report to their respective synods
recommending its early location, and advising that the claims of no
point to the location should be considered unless the sum of twenty-five
thousand dollars had first been raised as a bonus.
Upon the reception of this report the synods, respectively, appointed
another committee of four each, to act jointly in selecting a location for
the contemplated institution, with instructions that after making the
location, they should take the steps necessary to put the school into
active operation. Four points — Dallas, Waxahachie, Round Rock, and
Tehuacana — raised the prescribed bonus, and solicited the location.
The commissioners then visited each of these places, and after
several meetings and conferences they unanimously selected Te-
huacana hills as the location offering the best advantages. Colonel
Boyd, who lived at this place, had offered to give fifteen hundred
acres of land, besides other property, including buildings which
would answer for temporary use. There was then no town at
Tehuacana. The place is six miles from the railroad, but is in
some respects all the better for that. What disadv^antages belong
to such a location could all be overcome by an ample endowment.
Health, morality, and freedom from temptations ought to weigh
more than all the advantages afforded by a large city.
The Rev. W. E. Beeson, D.D., was the first president of Trin-
ity University, and its first session was begun September, 1869. It
was from the beginning open to both sexes.
Wild lands and lands at Tehuacana were subscribed for the en-
dowment of this school, and estimated then at figures far beyond
what was fotmd afterward to be their value. The figures at which
this endowment was at first counted were eighty thousand dollars.
Chapter XLV.] TrINITY UNIVERSITY. 553
Three buildings liave succeeded each other in serving the purposes
of this institution. The first was a large frame building, donated
by Colonel Boyd. The second was a much larger stone building,
but utterly destitute of any architectural pretensions. The third,
now about finished, is an enlargement of the second by an ap-
proved architect. It is said to be a fine structure.
In the first catalogue (1869-1870) were enrolled the names of
one hundred students. The patronage afterward grew to four hun-
dred and twenty. Then dissensions entered the field .where that
happy spirit of concentration had reigned, and the patronage began
to decline. It is now, however, increasing once more, and the en-
dowing agent is pushing his work. The endowment is now re-
ported at fifty-three thousand dollars. Much of it is unproductive
at present, being invested in wild lands. As these lands are not
taxed, they should by all means be held till the country fills up,
when they will become very valuable.
Dr. Beeson resigned in 1S77, and, after an interregnum, the
Rev. B. G. McLeskey, D.D., was chosen as his successor. In 1885
Dr. McLeskey died. Iv. A. Johnson, one of the professors, was
called temporarily to discharge the duties of president, and in the
summer of 1887 he was elected permanently to that ofiice. The
number of teachers in this institution is generally sixteen.
One of our college presidents from another State some years
ago visited Trinity University, and published the following state-
ments :
There are several considerations which add to the importance of
that enterprise. First among these is the character of the young people
at Trinity University. Though I have been accustomed all my life to
meeting college students, I never met an assembly of young people
who showed more promise of usefulness than those I saw at Tehuacana.
For the sake of these dear young people we should endow and sustain
this college. Another fact which presses upon me is the vast future of
Texas. No other State in America is no\v growing as fast. No other
has such resources for maintaining a vast immigration. Nine hundred
immigrants a day, all the year round, pour into these vast vacuums, and
yet the limitless wastes of rich prairies scarcely feel the difference.
What a future this State is to have! Now, God in his goodness ena-
bled our church to beg-in here with the besfinningf. There was Cum-
554 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
berlancl Presbyterian blood shed at the Alamo. Our pioneer preachers
were out on those vast plains as soon as Houston or Crockett were;
our history mingles with the records of the State's early struggles. We
have a chance to grow with the State's growth, and when the popula-
tion of Texas swells to ten millions, as it soon will, the Cumberland
Presbyterian church ought to be planted strong and sure as one of the
mighty powers of Christ's kingdom in that empire. We are strong
enough there now to endow a college amply. Will we be true to our
opportunities and our duties ?
The present endowment agent of Trinity University, Dr. E. B.
Crisman, is a man of great energy, an alumnus of Cumberland
University, who knows the value of real scholarship. If Texans
will second his earnest efforts, he will soon place the endowment
upon a footing which will itself attract liberal donations in all
future time.
An editorial in one of our church papers, in 1885, makes the
following statements about Trinity University:
This institution stai'ted out with the full and hearty co-operation of
the entire churcli in the State. It has for a number of years been re-
garded by many, both in the church and out of it, as one of the leading
institutions in the State. It has matriculated as many as four hundred
and twenty-five students a year. It has given instruction to not less
than eighty young ministers, twenty-one of whom received diplomas.
In its various departments some two thousand students from all parts
of Texas, and some from other States, have received instruction. . . .
Qiiite a number of its graduates now occupy prominent positions of
trust and honor. Some of the leading young ministers of the church
in Texas are from the ranks of its students. The fruits of its work are
to be seen in the increased enterprise and vigor of the church, and in
the advanced stand it is taking among other denominations in the State.
This institution has taken the halter of cheap scholarships in
its very worst form. There is but one redeeming feature in the
Trinity scholarships, and that is that there are not very many of
them. The fewer the better.
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 555
CHAPTER XLVI.
OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
Whoever would effectually serve the interests of religion must befriend the
cause of education. — S. G. Burney, D.D.
THE four leading institutions of learning whose history is
sketched in the last two chapters are not the only schools
that have grown up under the patronage of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church. Though this church had its origin amono- the
pioneer settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee, far from literary
and commercial centers; though its first members were hardy and
simple-hearted backwoodsmen, who gave more attention to the
felling of forest trees and the opening of farms in the wilderness
than to books; though the scholastic training of many of its first
preachers did not meet the requirements of the rigid Presbyterian
rule; yet its ministers and people have ever been the friends and
promoters of liberal education.
We have seen how efforts to establish schools were joined to
the evangelistic and pastoral labors of our first missionaries in
Pennsylvania and Ohio. The same thing was true wherever Cum-
berland Presbyterian congregations grew up. In Indiana and Illi-
nois, in Missouri and Arkansas, as well as in Kentucky, Tennessee,
and Texas, our people were pioneers in the work of establishing
schools. Cherry Grove Seminary, near Abingdon, Knox County,
Illinois, a Cumberland Presbyterian institution, opened its doors to
students in 1842, but a little while after the Congregationalists
from New England laid the foundations of Knox College in the
same county. Spring River Academy was doubtless the first high
school ever opened in south-western Missouri. It was founded by
Ozark Presbytery, and went into operation under the superintend-
ence of the Rev. J. B. Logan, in November, 1844. Delany Acad-
emy flourished at Newburgh, in southern Indiana, before any other
556 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
school of similar grade had been established in that part of the
State. Such pioneer institutions sprang up wherever our people
gained a foothold.
It is true that many of these pioneer schools had but an ephem-
eral career. The methods and policy adopted were not always the
wisest. Many of our people did not have a very correct under-
standing of what was needed in the founding of an institution of
learning. But the history of these efforts shows that the first Cum-
berland Presbyterians did not lack the spirit of education. The
report prepared in 1855 by the Rev. S. G. Burney, chairman of the
Committee on Education, and adopted b}' the General Assembl)-,
declares that:
The founders and early friends of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church were disinherited of their church patrimony, and deprived of
the benefits of those literary institutions which they and their ancestry,
by their money and prayers, had contributed to establish. These tem-
ples of knowledge were closed against them, and against their sons and
successors in the ministry. It is not, tlierefore, strange that they were
not profoundly learned in this world's wisdom. The wonder is, rather,
that they were learned at all. What is now considered a demonstra-
tion of an increased educational interest, or " waking up," is only the
development of a spirit which has always existed. . . . The fact is, and
probably will not be questioned by any who have inquired into the
subject, that the Cumberland Presbyterian church has not only taken
the initiative, but has actually accomplished more for the cause of edu-
cation in the great valley of the West than any other association what-
ever, in proportion to numbers and resources.
We have had schools which flourished for a while under the
name of colleges, but which never had any endown:ent, and have
long ago ceased to exist. Some of these were supplied with such
meager facilities as to make their pretentious titles most inappro-
priate. But while we should protest against calling every little
school a college, we are not to forget that even one or two earnest
teachers in a log-cabin may do a valuable work. Ever}' one of
these schools, however meager its resources or brief its career,
doubtless wrought out some good results. The report on educa-
tion adopted by the General Assembly of 1S71, and signed by Dr.
Richard Beard, chairman of the committee, contains these words:
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 557
This church commenced, in its ecclesiastical capacity, the work of
education in 1826. It has had reverses and disappointments; still much
has been done. . . . The great want with us in this work has been to
give a practical direction to our eflbrts. We have not had the experi-
ence of ages to guide us. We have not had foundations laid by prede-
cessors upon which we could build. We have had to work out our
own experience; we have been compelled to lay our own foundations.
The wonder is that we have succeeded so well.
If the church could grasp the true theory of graded scliools and
thorough preparatory academies, and would build them wherever
needed, and refrain from assuming for them the titles and preroga-
tives of colleges, and make each grade tributary to the next higher,
all parts of the church would reap immense advantages from such
a policy. But if every little town starts its academy, and every
academy tries to teach college classes, then we shall never have
either college or university. Neither shall we ever have any acad-
emies of high reputation. Show me the academy with mixed
studies that can stand beside the Phillips Academy, or the Bing-
ham, or the Philadelphia Pligh-school.
The Minutes of the General Assembly show not only that our
people have always been enlisted with great earnestness in the
work of education, but also that, more than forty years ago, the
importance of concentrating the efforts of the church on a few
leading institutions, and of building up a graded system of prepar-
atory schools, was recognized and insisted on by our most thought-
ful men. Robert Donnell was chairman of the Committee on Edu-
cation in 1845. '^^^^ report which he presented to the General
Assembly, and which was adopted, declares that it would "greatly
enhance the prosperity of the higher institutions . . . under the
auspices of the denomination to encourage inferior schools through-
out the bounds of the church;" and recommends "to the presby-
teries, ministers, and all members of the church," a school system
which was to embrace: "First, schools in the bounds of every con-
gregation; second, a presbyterial school in the bounds of every
presbytery. These," continues the report, "crowned by the uni-
versity at Lebanon, and the colleges at Princeton, Beverly, and
Uniontown, would constitute a system of education worthy of the
558 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
best efforts of the church." In the establishment of congrega-
tional schools our people were advised to co-operate with other
Christians. It was recommended that "every congregation and
every session should struggle to keep up a school in its bounds at
all events; should strive to arouse others to co-operate, but main-
tain a school under any circumstances." It was suggested, also,
that the presbyterial schools might in this way set up an advanced
standard of education, "thus, better than by any other method,
qualifying the students to enter the university and colleges."
The necessity of adopting this graded system of schools was for
several years urged by the successive General Assemblies. From
the Minutes we learn that, in 1846, "numerous congregational,
presbyterial, and synodical schools" had been planted and were
enjoying a high degree of prosperity.
In 1847 t^^ most gratifying progress of the educational work
under the auspices of the church was reported. In 1848 the report
of the Committee on Education, of which Dr. F. R. Cossitt was
chairman, contained these words:
We are gratified to find the cause of education winning the favor
and enlisting the efforts of your people almost throughout your bounds.
Various and valuable improvements have been made in the institutions
heretofore existing, and several new seminaries have been put in oper-
ation, and there is cheering evidence to believe that the time is not dis-
tant when the recommendation of a former General Assembly will be
carried out, and every congregation will sustain its school, and every
presbytery and synod its seminary. These preparatoy schools, acting in
their vocation of fitting students for college and university, will become
so many tributary streams supplying the fountains. There can be but
little doubt that the system of education heretofore so wisely recom-
mended, and now being in many parts efficiently conducted, will greatly
advance the interests of the church.
In 1849 t^^^ recommendation favoring congregational and pres-
byterial preparatory schools was approved and renewed by the Gen-
eral Assembly. The report, which was presented by Milton Bird,
chairman of the Committee on Education, says:
We must be faithful to this cause. ... Its importance is such as
requires us to be more determined, vigoi'ous, and consecrated in our
efforts than ever, in order that it may be increasingly advanced by the
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 559
upbuikling of our seminaries, the enlarged endowment of our colleges,
and the constant augmentation of the number of our students.
But in spite of the wise recommendations of the General As-
sembly, new colleges, as well as new academies and high schools,
soon began to announce themselves. In 1851 the names of three
colleges not mentioned before appear in the General Assembly's
Minutes; in 1853, three others, one of them a college for young
ladies, were added to the list; in 1854, two others, one for ^'oung
ladies exclusively; in 1855, two more colleges were announced; in
1856, one more; in 1858, one; in 1859, three; and in i860, two.
As early as 1851 the General Assembly began to protest against
this tendency to multiply schools with collegiate pretensions. The
report adopted that year says:
We suggest the necessity of much prudence and caution, lest in the
eagerness to build up colleges the church squander its means, paralyze
ils energies, and ultimately fail of raising its institutions to the high
standard desired. To build a college worthy of the name is the result
of years of patient endurance and unremitting energy, requiring the
concenti'ation of means and of effort. ... If such an enterprise, when
fairly undertaken, fails to succeed, such failure, besides proving disas-
trous to those immediately concerned, involves the reputation of the
church under whose auspices it was commenced.
In 1855 the General Assembly declared that "one college in
each State, judiciously located and well endowed, with primary
and preparatory schools so placed as to meet the local interests of
the church," was fully commensurate with, the needs of the de-
nomination. In 1856 the report of the Committee on Education,
adopted by the General Assembly, after commending the "zeal
shown in the upbuilding of institutions of learning," adds these
words:
Yet your committee would respectfully suggest that you commend
again . . . sound discretion, lest by the multiplication of the places of
learning the force of a general educational effort be distracted, and insti-
tutions already established be left to be impoverished and paralyzed, to
pine and perish. Reason and sound policy seem most clearly to indi-
cate that it would be the better plan to cluster around our older seats
of learning, and cause them, by our patronage and money, fully to meet
the wants of the church.
560 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
In 1859 t^^^ General Assembly again warned our people against
the danger of attempting to build up too many schools, declaring
that " it is better to encourage co-operative efforts on the part of our
congregations, presbyteries, and synods to establish a few church
institutions of the highest order, than to divide means and influence
in efforts to establish a large number of small church schools."
We learn from the General Assembly's Minutes that there were,
in 1849, "sixteen chartered institutions belonging to the church,
together with a number of other male and female high schools
under the patronage of, and partly belonging to, the Cumberland
Presbyterian church." In 1856, the report on education, adopted
by the Assembly, says: "There are now under the control of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church, in whole or in part, and all fully
subserving its educational interests, about thirty institutions of
learning of high order. Invested in these we find a capital of
some $331,725; employed in the same seventy-eight teachers, and
under a course of training two thousand four hundred and fifty
pupils." The next year "thirty-six or more institutions of learn-
ing of high order" were reported, in which there were "about six
thousand pupils, taught by one hundred and twelve professors."
In i860 the names of twenty -nine schools and colleges were
reported to the General Assembly. The list included "one univer-
sity, fifteen colleges, and thirteen academies, institutes, and semi-
naries," and the report says that there were "various other high
schools, taught and patronized by members of our church, yet not
controlled by any ecclesiastical body." The names of the colleges
reported at that time, not including Cumberland University, were:
Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; Beverly College,
Beverly, Ohio; Ewing and Jefferson College, Blount County, Ten-
nessee; Princeton College, Princeton, Kentucky; Bethel College,
McLemoresville, Tennessee; Chapel Hill College, Dangerfield,
Texas; Missouri Female College, Boonville, Missouri; Larissa
College, Larissa, Texas; Cane Hill College, Washington County,
Arkansas; McGee College, College Mound, Missouri; Columbia
College, Eugene City, Oregon; Union College, Virginia, Illinois;
Union Female College, Oxford, Mississippi; Cumberland Female
College, McMinnville, Tennessee; Bacon College, Texas.
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 561
Chapel Hill College, Missouri, was for some reason omitted from
this list. This school is mentioned in the Assembly's Minutes for
1849 ^s ^ chartered institution with several professors. In 185 1 it
reported one hundred and forty students and nine thousand dollars
endowment. It was under the care of Missouri Synod, and the
Rev. Robert D. Morrow was its president in 1853. ^^ ^^54 it re-
ported two professors and forty students. In 1855 i^ ^^^ "good
college buildings free from debt, four instructors, and one hundred
students." It doubtless did a good work in its day, but the details
of its history have not been obtained.
Of the fifteen institutions enumerated in the foregoing list,
Waynesburg College was probably the only one which continued
its work without interruption during the civil war; but four of
the others still exist as Cumberland Presbyterian schools, viz. :
Bethel College, Cane Hill College, Union Female College, and the
Cumberland Female College. Efforts were made after the war to
revive several of the others; and some of them in these latest strug-
gles, before becoming finally inoperative, did valuable work. To
give any thing like a full history of all of our dead schools and col-
leges would require a volume. Therefore a brief sketch of three
of the number, one a co-educational college and two seminaries for
young ladies, is all that is here attempted.
McGEE COLLEGE.
Among the Cumberland Presbyterian schools which accom-
plished an important work, and then, for lack of endowment,
ceased to exist, McGee College, College Mound, Macon County,
Missouri, was one of the most useful. It was first known as
McGee Seminary, and was under the care of McGee Presbytery,
but was afterward transferred to McAdow Synod. In the spring of
1853 it reported seventy students. James Blewett, A. B. , was then
principal. It was opened as a college in October, 1853, ^^^ ^^^
Rev. J. B. Mitchell became its president. For many long years he
and his faithful co-workers toiled here under immense difficulties
to train up consecrated workers for the church. In 1859 the faculty
was composed of eight members, and the school had two hundred
and three students, seventy of whom were females.
36
5^2
Cumberland Presbyterian History.
[Period VI.
The work of this institution was suspended during the civil
war. With the beginning of the year 1866 its doors were re-
opened for the reception of students. In 1867 a full faculty was
elected, and Dr. Mitchell resumed liis work as president. For
seven }-ears this college continued to do a valuable work. In 1869
it was reported as "enjoying a larger prosperity than at any former
date." In 1872 it had two hundred and seventy-three students,
twenty-nine of whom were preparing for the ministry.
The following list of prominent teachers in this institution is
furnished by Dr. Mitchell :
rROFKSSORSIlIP.
DATE.
.T. n.
J. H.
Miss
S. M,
G.S.
A. 15.
Azel
.1. M.
J. K.
B. E.
J. S.
W.J
V.\
F. T
J. T.
Miss
Miss
Mitchell, P.T)
Blewett, A.B
R. A. Hagiin, M.A
, Wcedin, A.M
Howard, A.B
. .Starke, A.M
Freemnn, A.M
, Howard, A.B
Campbell
Ciitlnio, A.M
Howard, A.M
. Patton, A.B
uielle, A.B
. Slicetz, A.M
Miti^hcll, A.B
S.J. McCord, B.S
M. T. Jleiulersoii, B.A..
I'residont, Hliotoric, Logic .Tiid Ethics
Ancient l.anguages and Mathematics
Natural Soicnct and ICnglish Literature..
Ancient Languages and C'heniistry
Mathematics
Ancient and Modern Languages
Natural Science
Ancient Languages and Mathematics
Natural Science and English Literature..
Latin and Greek
Natural Sciences
Mathematics
Modern Languagesand Hebrew
Assistant Latin and Greek
Assistant Latin and Greek
Assistant Natural Science
EnL'lish Literature
18.")3tol874.
185310 18.5.1.
l«.i3tol8o6.
18.")4 to 18.56.
18.^6 to 1861.
18.57 to 1801.
18.58 to 18S1.
ISGGtolSCV.
18GG to 18G7.
18G7 to '874.
18(;7 tol874.
Ks;;7 to 1874.
18G8 10 1874.
1.S71 to .
1872to]S74.
lS7:ito 1874.
1873 to 1874.
This institution had a revival of religion among its students
almost every year. After the war it had a S}'Stem of free boarding
for candidates for the ministry, differing somewhat from the Camp
Blake plan at Cumberland University. The details are thus given
in the catalogue for 1869:
The trustees of the college furnish rooms and stoves therein to all
known to be preparing for the ministry in the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church. Their meals are furnished by families at reasonable rates.
The presbyteries sending probationers meet this expense, either by for-
warding the money, or by furnishing supplies at cash rates. A com-
mittee here receive these funds or supplies, and appropriate them as
directeil, free of charge.
This institution gave instruction to thousands of pupils who
have made valuable men and women, filling positions of honor
and usefulness in church and State, and in the different callings
and professions. Among those who, from first to last, attended its
classes were more than one hundred and thirty young men prepar-
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 563
ing for the ministry in the different Christian denominations. Not
less than fifty- three of these are still actively preaching the gospel,
while several others have died in the service. Some of the best
preachers in our own denomination received their literar)'' training
wholly or in part in this school. Among these are the Rev. J. S.
Howard, of Hernando, Mississippi, for many years President of
Union Female College, Oxford, Mississippi; the Rev. D. E. Bush-
nell, D.D., of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; the Rev. W. O. H. Perry,
President of Odessa College, Missouri; the Rev. H. R. Crockett, of
Bethany, Illinois; the Rev. J. E. Sharp, of Marshall, Missouri; the
Rev. W. B. Farr, D.D., Ph.D., of Westport, Missouri; the Rev. A.
D. Hail, missionary to Japan ; the Rev. S. H. McElvain, Fort Smith,
Arkansas; the Rev. A. h. Barr, Alton, Illinois; the Rev. B. P. Ful-
lerton, of Kansas City, Missouri; and many others. The work of
McGee College as a Cumberland Presbyterian school finally ended
in June, 1874.
GREENVILLE SEMINARY FOR YOUNG LADIES.
This school was located at Greenville, Kentucky, and was imder
the care of Green River Synod. It had property worth forty thou-
sand dollars and in 1858 was in successful operation, with a full
corps of teachers, and with good prospects of increasing usefulness.
Under several able men its work was carried on for many years.
The financial management and support of the school were con-
nected with a joint stock company. Complications arose, and the
school was transferred to an individual, and finally, in 1879, under
circumstances which fully justified this course, it was transferred
by him to a member of the Methodist church.
GREENWOOD SEMINARY.
This was a school for young ladies, and was founded by N.
Lawrence Lindsley, LL-D., after he resigned his professorship in
Cumberland University. He located his school in the midst of his
fine estates near Lebanon, Tennessee, and conducted it from the
first on a unique plan. The number of young ladies was limited
to just sixteen, and no one was ever received without a thorough
previous investigation. The pupils were as thoroughly cut off
from outside associations as it was possible for them to be. Dr.
564 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
lyindsley and his assistants had the whole training of these pupils
in their own hands. The largest private library in Tennessee was
that of Dr. Lindsley. His correspondence with literary gentlemen
both in America and Europe was also extensive. His death and
that of his wife put an end to Greenwood Seminary.
Four colleges have already been named which, after suspending
their work during the civil war, were revived and continue still in
operation. A brief sketch of each of these will be in place here:
UNION FEMALE COLLEGE.
The incipient steps toward the founding of this institution were
taken by Hernando Synod in 185 1. The synods of Mississippi and
Union, and afterward, in 1853, the synod of West Tennessee joined
in this undertaking, and commissioners were appointed to decide
upon a location for the new college. This combination was the
result of a proposition from Bethel College that these four synods
should enter into an agreement to co-operate in establishing two
schools: Bethel College for young men, and a college for young
ladies. A school known as Oxford Female Academy, controlled
by a local board of trustees, had been chartered at Oxford, Missis-
sippi, in 1838. The Rev. S. G. Burney, D.D., was elected princi-
pal of this school in 1852, and still held this position wdien the
synodical commissioners met in 1853. The property belonging to
this academy and other valuable donations by the citizens of Ox-
ford were tendered to the new college on condition that it should
be located at that town. The commissioners accepted this propo-
sition, and the college was opened in the fall of 1853 with Dr. Bur-
ney as president. The institution received its new charter as Union
Female College, February 4, 1854. In 1856, at a cost of twenty-
five thousand dollars, a new brick building fifty by one hundred
feet, and three stories high, was added to the old one, a two-storv'
brick thirty feet square. With its enlarged field this institution
became one of the educational powers of Mississippi, and, before
the war, was making some progress in securing endowment. Dr.
Burney resigned in 1859 or i860, and was succeeded by the Rev.
R. S. Thomas, D.D., who continued in charge of the institution
until its work was suspended by the war.
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 565
The school was not re-opened until the autumn of 1865, when
the Rev. C. H. Bell, D. D. , was elected president. The institution
rapidly regained its former prosperity, but owing to the prostration
of Southern finances, no effort was made to renew the work of
soliciting endowment. It is high time that this work was resumed
and pushed to a happy completion. From the catalogue of 1870
we learn that ' ' This institution is held by a board of trustees,
under a charter from the State, for the benefit of the public, and
is authorized to confer the highest educational honors. The prop-
erty is supposed to be worth about thirty-five thousand dollars. ' '
In 1873 Dr. Bell resigned the presidency, and was succeeded by
R. J. Guthrie, A. M., who continued in charge of the school two
years. His successor, the Rev. J. S. Howard, A. M. , entered upon
his duties as president in 1875, and served for twelve years, resign-
ing June, 1887, W. I. Davis, A.M., succeeded him, and is still in
charge. Two hundred and twenty-seven young ladies have gradu-
ated from this college, and more than one thousand others have
here received their education. This institution has struggled with
the usual difficulties incident to unendowed schools, and has at
times been much involved in debt, but it is now entirely free from
incumbrance, and in a better condition financially and otherwise
than at any time in its past history. It is now owned and con-
trolled by the synod of Mississippi.
CUMBERLAND FEMALE COLLEGE.
This institution was located at McMinnville, Tennessee, in 1850,
and is now under control of Middle Tennessee Synod. Good build-
ings and handsome grounds, free from debt, were secured, and the
first session opened in 1851. Apparatus and library were partially
provided, but no endowment has ever been furnished. The location
of this institution is one of the most healthful in the world. Ro-
mantic scenery adds to its attractions. A strong local support, that
indispensable requisite, has always been enjoyed by this enterprise.
No college ever succeeds without vigorous backing in the com-
munity where it is located. Our church at McMinnville, and our
churches in the country around the place are strong enough to
make the college feel their presence.
566 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
The institution has had five presidents: The Rev. A. M. Stone,
1851 to 1855; the Rev. J. M. Gill, 1855 to 1857; D. M. Donnell,
A.M., 1857 to 1871; A. M. Burney, A.M., 1871 to 1880; N. J.
Finney, A.M., 1880, to the present time (October, 1887). Its high-
est prosperity has been reached under the present administration.
Additions to the handsome buildings have been recently made.
The patronage has always been good, but at no time have its pros-
pects been brighter than at present.
President Finney, is one of the very best graduates Cumber-
land University ever educated. He is an earnest Christian, a ripe
scholar, an indefatigable worker.
BETHEL COLLEGE.
Bethel College was organized in 1851, and has done valuable
work for the Church. Two interesting and precious facts con-
nected with the inner life of this institution deserves special men-
tion. The first is the intense religious interest which has been
mingled with its educational work. Revivals of great power
almost every year, bringing the pupils into the army of Christ,
have been led and fostered by the faculty. As one of these seasons
for protracted meetings approached, the young Christians in the
college by mutual agreement each took an unconverted friend or
comrade with him to secret prayer. Nearly all these comrades
were led to Christ before the meetings closed.
The other special feature of the work of Bethel College is con-
nected with the struggles of young men who had no money. The
faculty and the surrounding community adopted their own peculiar
method of encouraging this class of students. Their method was
not to give the boys money, but to show them how to get along
with little, and earn that little themselves. Poor students were
encouraged to live in the "camps " or cabins which had been erected
on the ground near the college building, where the camp-meetings
were held. These students did their own cooking; work was given
them so as to enable them to earn wages while going to college.
The students who supported themselves in this way, not only stood
as high in the respect of the community as the wealthiest, but
often far higher.
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 567
The Rev. J. M. B. Roacli roomed in one of these camps, pre-
paring his own meals, and serving as college janitor. He was hon-
ored by the college and by the whole community above the ver>^
wealthiest students, and he deserved it. Though poor he was never
a beneficiary ; and his brief career after he graduated — alas, so brief!—
was as heroic and as independent as was his life in Bethel College.
He was not the only noble graduate of that institution. Its alumni
in all parts of our denominational field are efficient and honored
laborers for the Master. This school at first admitted only young
men and boys to its classes, but is now a co-educational college.
There is a lesson from the experience of Bethel College about
concentration. When some good brethren of West Tennessee
Synod proposed to establish this institution, others opposed it on
the ground that the church already had in Tennessee one college
for the education of young men. These objectors were, however,
outvoted, and the new enterprise was inaugurated. In a short time
a small fragment of West Tennessee Synod, less than a presbytery,
opened another school with a collegiate name, right in the field of
Bethel College, using the very same arguments which had been
used in favor of establishing that institution. Then the Bethel
men became eloquent in their pleading for concentration, and sent
special agents to Hernando and Mississippi Synods to try to dis-
suade them from a scheme which they were discussing looking
toward the establishment of a college for young men. The agent
sent to one of these synods succeeded in effecting an agreement by
which the matter was compromised, and the founding of the rival
college prevented. That compromise has continued until the pres-
ent time, from 1853 to 1887.
Bethel College had one regular graduate at the end of its first
collegiate year. There were six in its senior class the second year,
and in the years following the classes continued to grow. Before
the war this school had the best telescope to be found in any of our
colleges. While the great conflict was raging, some soldiers carried
this instrument off to the camps, believing that they had captured
a brass cannon! When railroads drew the town, McLemoresville,
away from the college, it pulled up stakes and moved to McKenzie,
Tennessee, where it still continues its work.
568 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
It is said that the first president of this institution, the Rev. J.
N. Roach, used to employ the switch as an instrument of discipline,
not sparing even young men. He was regarded by the trustees as
a master disciplinarian. But when he used the switch he often
took the pupil with him into the woods, where he would pray with
him awhile, and then whip awhile. After whipping and praying
had alternated in one case for some time, he appealed to the stu-
dent, asking, "What more can I do for you?" The answer was,
"I think you would better pray again."
This president practiced the most rigid system of espionage on his
pupils. Many a night he would be out nearly all night, watching
to catch the boys in their mischief He required the professors to
take night and night about with him in these vigils. Whatever
may be said against such a method of discipline, it was certainly
popular in that community.
The succession of presidents in Bethel has been : the Rev. J. N.
Roach, A.B., the Rev. C. J. Bradley, the Rev. Azel Freeman, D.D.,
the Rev. Felix Johnson, D.D., the Rev. B. W. McDonnold, D.D.,
the Rev. J. S. Howard, A.M., the Rev. W. W. Hendrix, D.D., W.
B. Sherrill, A.M., the Rev. J. L. Dickens, A.IM. This institution
now has two hundred and thirty students enrolled; sixteen of these
are preparing to enter the ministr)-'.
CANE HILL COLLEGE.
As has been seen in a former chapter, efforts to establish an
institution of learning on Cane Hill, Arkansas, were begun by our
people as early as 1834. As there were then no State schools,
all educational enterprises were carried on by personal effort. The
influence of several private schools, conducted by teachers of good
attainments, gave impetus to the educational spirit already among
the people. They thought that they must have a college. Like
many others, they supposed that a building a little better than the
ordinary school-house, with two or three educated teachers, would
constitute a college. Accordingly a brick house was built, and in
1852 a charter was secured from the legislature, and Cane Hill Col-
lege was opened at Boonsboro, Washington County, Arkansas.
This school was put under the care of the Arkansas Synod, and
Chapter XLVL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 569
the Rev. Robert M. King, of Missouri, was elected president. He
was assisted by Prof. S. Doak Lowry. After laboring efficiently for
several years, Mr. King resigned, and moved back to Missouri.
Professor howry was then in charge of the school, and was assisted
by Prof James H. Crawford and Prof Pleasant W. Buchanan. An
effort was made to raise endowment by scholarships, and the Rev.
W. G. L. Quaite was appointed endowing agent. He secured in
donation notes and scholarship pledges several thousand dollars,
but the wreck and ruin wrought by the war, which soon followed,
rendered all these utterly valueless.
Before the war a new building, worth about six thousand dol-
lars, was erected. In March, 1859, the Rev. F. R. Earle, of Green-
ville, Kentucky, accepted the presidency, and was formally inau-
gurated in the following June. He found the college in good
working order. At the close of the collegiate year, in June, 1859,
two young men, S. H. Buchanan and J. T. Buchanan, were regu-
larly graduated, receiving the first diplomas ever issued by the
college. At that time, also, the first catalogue was issued, S. H.
Buchanan was employed as tutor for the next session. In June,
i860. Prof Lowry resigned. The Rev. W. P. Gillespie was after-
ward elected to fill the vacancy. The school prospered until 1861.
Then came the war, by which its work was suspended. The col-
lege buildings, with a valuable little library, and some apparatus,
were completely destroyed by fire in November, 1864.
One house belonging to the college, and formerly used as a
boarding-house for young preachers, escaped the flames. After the
war closed the president returned, and began to teach and preach in
this building. In 1868 a new frame building, worth about five
thousand dollars, was erected on the old foundation, and in Septem-
ber the president, assisted by Prof James Mitchell, opened school
in this new house. In September, 1869, Prof J. P. Carnahan was
added to the teaching force. In 1874 Prof. Mitchell retired, and
accepted a more lucrative position in the State University. Prof
Harold Bourland was employed to fill the vacancy. He remained,
however, for only one session.
In 1875 the trustees resolved to admit pupils of both sexes and
the Rev. H. M. Welch was chosen as principal of the department for
570 Cumberland Preseyteriax History. [Period vi.
young ladies. In 1879 ^^'o^- Welch retired. In the four years fol-
lowino-, Mrs. Earle, Miss Welch, Miss Moore, and Mrs. Whittenberg
were employed as teachers whenever the patronage demanded it.
In 1883 Prof. Carnahan retired, having taught fourteen years.
The president then had entire control of the work until 1885,
when he, too, resigned, and the Rev. J. P. Russell was called to
take charge. He taught two terms and a half In the second ses-
sion of his administration the college building was burned. In this
emergency the Methodists of the village generously tendered the use
of their church, and this, with a small dwelling-house rented for
the occasion, furnished room for the school, and the work went on.
After the resignation of Mr. Russell, Dr. Earle again undertook
the labors and responsibilities of the work. In 1886 a new build-
inof on a new foundation was erected. This is better than either
of the former buildings. In 1887, the president, assisted by two
good teachers, opened school in the new building, with a good pat-
ronage and a fair promise of success. Excepting the two and a
half sessions taught by Mr, Russell, and the vacation enforced by
the civil war. President Earle has been in charge of the school from
March, 1859, until the present time. In all that time he has been
the only pastor of the congregation worshiping in the college chapel.
Within this period thirty-four young men and young women have
graduated. Of these all but three are living, and are doing good
work, several of them as ministers. A large number of students
who did not finish the college course have gone forth from this school
to their life work. The institution still lives. It has property worth
at least eight thousand dollars. It is situated, however, right under
the shadow of a heavily-endowed State university, which furnishes
practically free tuition, and therefore labors at a disadvantage.
The limits of this volume will not permit the introduction here
of the history of all the schools founded by Cumberland Presbyte-
rians since the close of the war, and now doing a good work. A
brief notice of three or four of them is all that can be attempted.
WARD'S SEMINARY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
This school was founded by W. E. Ward, D.D., in 1865, who
began the work when the country round him was still covered with
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 57I
the ruins tlie war had made. He had visited all the principal col-
leges for young ladies in America, thoroughly acquainting himself
with modern methods. He made a brave beginning, and soon
attained the highest rank as an educator. A long-tried son of the
church, and giving the most liberal advantages to the daughters of
its ministers, he commanded the hearty co-operation of our people
in this private enterprise. From the first the school took high
rank, and still maintains it. Over two hundred teachers have
received their education at this institution. While laboring in this
school, and securing its great success. Dr. Ward has been alive to
the best interests of the church, taking an active part for over
fifteen years as a member of our Board of Publication, as well as
in the building up of our church in Nashville. The seminary is
now in the prime of its career, and no doubt will go on to a greater
success. It teaches one valuable lesson — that great enterprises
must have time and patience, and a head to work out, through
long years, the consummation they set out to make. The first
year this school had one hundred and eight pupils. The patronage
steadily increased, until in 1883 the number enrolled was three
hundred and fifty-four. Its largest graduating class, that of 1884-
1885, numbered fifty-six. The total number of graduates sent
forth by this school up to 1887 was eight hundred and eighty.^
SPRING HILL INSTITUTE.
This school was founded by the Rev. J. L. Cooper, just after
the war. It is located in Kemper County, Mississippi. Though
private property it is regarded as one of our very useful institutions.
Without any high pretensions, it goes steadily and earnestly on in
its work of usefulness. The aim of Mr. Cooper was to establish
an institution according to his own ideas, and place it out of the
reach of contaminating influences. In carrying out his plan he
' Since this sketch was written, Dr. Ward has passed from his earthly toil to his
reward. In the summer of 1S87 he sought relief from severe illness, caused by over-
work, in a voyage to Europe. After his arrival in England he grew worse and sailed
for home, but died on shipboard in mid-ocean. July 20th, 1SS7. His death brought
sorrow to the hearts of his pupils and his brethren throughout the church, and at
Nashville was mourned as a public calamity. The school he founded continues its
work with undimished success.
572 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
followed the example of N. Lawrence Lindsley, LL.D., of Green-
wood Seminary, and placed his academy in the center of his own
large area of land, so that he could control every lot and every set-
tlement upon the premises. He has carried forward this enterprise
successfully. His corps of teachers is always full, and the patron-
age of the school always about equal to the number it is able to
accommodate. Of the results of co-education, after a pretty thor-
ough test, Mr. Cooper speaks thus:
We have tried our plan of a male and female school for three years,
and success has crowned our efforts thus far. Here brothers and sisters
meet in the same chapel at roll-call and at prayers, after which the sister
takes her seat in the study hall, and the brother retires to his boarding
room. When the bell calls them to recitation, they again meet and
recite to the same teachers; and, thus, all the stimulants to neatness of
'dress, puiity of language, ease of manner and address, and high intel-
lectual endeavor, growing out of contact with the other sex under
wholesome restraints are secured. By having separate boarding-houses,
and by holding the reins of government firmly, yet kindly, we find the
school much more easily controlled than either a male or female school
separate.
Several of our best living ministers were educated mainly at
Spring Hill; some of them in the same classes with their wives,
for married preachers are still thronging all our schools.
LOUDON HIGH SCHOOL.
Though it has only a modest name, this institution teaches a
full college course. It was established by East Tennessee Synod,
in 1869, at Loudon, Tennessee. It has had a very respectable fac-
ulty of real scholars. It has aimed to secure endowment, but its
field is too circumscribed to give large hopes of success. Amid
beautiful scenery, with historic surroundings, in ample buildings,
the school presents a most fascinating exterior. Of its inner life
the writer has no information.
EDUCATIONAL WORK IN MISSOURI.
The church in Missouri suffered a great loss by the closing of
McGee College, in 1874. But our people did not become dispirited.
It was decided to resume educational work and to profit by the dis-
asters of the past. Several valuable schools had been lost by the
Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 573
want of permanent endowment, hence the synods of the State
agreed to co-operate in raising one hundred thousand dollars as a
permanent endowmenc fund, and not to open another college until
that amount should be secured, this being considered a safe nucleus.
The work of securing money has been going steadily forward for
several years, and at this time it is believed that the one hundred
thousand dollars has been fully provided for by the educational
commission of the co-operating synods. The contemplated insti-
tution will, therefore, no doubt be founded in the near future.
Notwithstanding this action of the synods looking toward the
founding of one central college for Missouri, several schools, con-
trolled mainly or entirely by Cumberland Presbyterians, have been
kept in operation in the State. Stewartsville Seminary, a private
enterprise, under the charge of the Rev. W. O. H. Pern-, had since
1863 been doing a good work. In 1879 it was chartered as Stew-
artsville College, and in the years following it sent forth about
twenty graduates. On account of the loss of its buildings by fire,
its work was, in 1887, brought to an end. Prof Perry has recently
taken charge of Odessa College, a school established by the citizens
of Odessa, Missouri. Ozark College, at Greenfield, in the south-
western part of the State, belongs to Ozark Presbytery, and has
grown into an institution of considerable importance. The Rev.
A. J. McGlumphy, D.D., LL/.D., formerly president of Lincoln
University, Illinois, has recently taken charge of this school.
CHEAP SCHOLARSHIPS.
As so many of our colleges have committed themselves to
cheap scholarships, and as circumstances in the past compelled the
writer of this history to make an exhaustive investigation of all
the questions connected with this plan for securing endowment, it
may not be improper to give some of the general conclusions
reached in that investigation.
The scholarship plan strikes a fatal blow at the only depend-
ence any unendowed college has for support. Tuition fees may
keep up a faculty for a little season, but for an unendowed college
to adopt a scheme which reduces or destroys tuition fees is suicidal.
The scheme of limited scholarships aims at endowing the college
574 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
by defrauding three generations of teachers. "If we can only
struggle through the limited period, then we will have a safe
endowment." Yes, if — but O what a long and fraudulent if it is!
"If we can only find professors to teach for us without adequate pay
for a few years, then all the scholarships will have expired, and we
shall have a safely invested endowment." As respectable and
competent professors can not be secured without pay, the few
years must be struggled throiigh with such teachers as will work
on less than one fourth an adequate salary. In some cases, long
before the limited period expires the institution dies. In other
cases the trustees save its life by a breach of trust — using the prin-
cipal of these scholarships to retain the faculty. In still other
cases the principal is so reduced by agent's fees, losses on invest-
ments, and other processes, that the institution finds itself bound
to teach, without pay and without endowment, as many students
as are likely ever to seek instruction within its walls. It then
repudiates its scholarships, having no alternative left. By this
process so many of the real friends of the institution are alienated
that all prospects for real endowment are sadly diminished. Even
the voluntary surrender of these scholarships, in view of obvious
necessities, lessens the prospects of securing real endowment after-
ward.
In well-known cases a large number of scholarship claims have
been bought up at low rates by trustees residing near the college.
Though the original form of these scholarships did not allow them
to be rented, yet these trustees, being the law makers of the insti-
tution, and having now a private interest to serve, have met to-
gether and enlarged the privileges of these claims so that they
could be rented for a session at a time. Then these trustees, being
on the ground, have underbid the faculty for the patronage of
such students as would have paid the highest tuition!
The scholarship scheme appeals to \^Tong motives. It goes to
men with offers and inducements of a financial character. They
are asked to make an investment of money with an eye to future
profits, not as a gift to the blessed Lord. All the high motives
which influence earnest Christians to liberality and self-sacrifice —
love for church and the ministry', love for the Master and the souls
Chaptci XLvi.] Other Schools and Colleges. 575
for whom lie died — arc sunk into the low, sordid hope of making
a profitable investment of a few hundred dollars. No Abbot Law-
rence will ever be developed among us by these sordid appeals.
To the mistaken schemes for securing endowment by cheap schol-
arships is it chiefly due that no very large donations have ever been
made by any one man to any of our colleges.
Let two agents start side by side, one to work for a college
which never appeals to sordid motives, which asks only for unin-
cumbered endowment, and the other for an institution which has
adopted the plan of cheap scholarships; and, other things being
equal, the former will secure far more money than the latter. The
difference will grow immeasurably great if the former agent repre-
sents a college which is out-and-out and forever all for Jesus, and
justly bases all its appeals for help on love to Christ's kingdom;
while the other represents men, corporations, or towns, which have
private axes to grind while pretending to ask assistance in the
name of the sacred cause of religion.
The church educates its members by the methods it adopts.
The agents whom it sends forth to solicit money are educators.
Under those perverted methods employed in securing endowment
funds through scholarships, and by kindred schemes for raising
money for missions, or to sustain the work in our congregations,
we have encouraged a species of giving which is in many cases a
sham and a cheat. There are those who think themselves the
most devoted Christians on earth, who have not learned the first
lesson in consecration and self-denial.
The scholarship evil is but one of the many substitutes which
men are prone to adopt instead of the divine plan of raising money
for the Master's kingdom. Some of these substitutes might be in-
nocent enough in themselves if they were not used to crowd out
God's own appointed method of training a church to give system-
atically and from principle.
Is there no supreme love to Christ? Is there no heart so full
of devotion to him that its utmost possible gift would be gladly
bestowed, and which weeps bitter tears because it has no more to
offer? Once an agent of one of our colleges was accosted by the
wife of a wealthy man. Her husband was not a Christian, and
576 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
though he controlled vast estates, he dealt out money to his wife
with a sparing hand. When she was alone with the agent she said
to him: "My heart is nearly breaking because I can not do some-
thing for my Savior through your institution. I believe that work
is sacred to my Redeemer, but I have only one thing in the world
which I am at liberty to give you without asking my husband:
that is my diamonds. I have a full set that cost a large sum. I
want the Savior to accept the poor little offering, and use it in
training men to preach the gospel." That was giving to Jesus.
^''O si sic omnes.''^
Chapter XLVII.] PUBLICATION. 577
CHAPTER XLVII.
PUBLICATION, NEWSPAPERS, REVISION, AND
TEMPERANCE.
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrongs which need resistance,
For the future in the distance.
— Dr. GniJirie.
FOUR subjects which belong to more than one period of this
history have been reserved for this special chapter. They are
Publication, Newspapers, Revision, and Temperance.
PUBLICATION.'
Cumberland Presbyterians manifested very early their apprecia-
tion of the printing press. The founders of this church, before
the organization of its first presbytery, sent forth to the world,
"The Remonstrance of the Council," an "Address to the Christian
Reader," and probably other short publications. The first official
document issued by our people was probably the "Circular Letter,"
published in 1810, by which the church announced and vindicated
its own existence. Old Cumberland Synod at its first meeting,
held in October, 1813, at Beech meeting-house, Sumner county,
Tennessee, appointed a committee to prepare a complete account
of the rise, histon,', and doctrines of Cumberland Presbytery, to
be published in Woodward's third edition of Buck's Theological
Dictionary'. This account was accordingly prepared and published.
When the synod of 1814 adopted the Confession of Faith, Cate-
chism, and Discipline, Finis Ewing and Hugh Kirkpatrick agreed
with the synod to print the bbok at eighty-seven and one half
cents per copy, "upon good writing paper, neatly bound and let-
tered. ' ' It is not certain that this contract was ever carried out.
The Confession was probably not printed until seven years later.
'This sketch of the pubh'shins: work of the church was prepared bj J. M. Gaut,
Esq., President of the Board of Publication.
37
578 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
The oldest copy now known to be extant was printed at Russell-
ville, Kentucky, in 1821, by Charles Rhea. This was the first book
ever issued by Cumberland Presbyterians.
For the first ten or fifteen years of the church's existence, its
preachers were too intent on bringing sinners to Christ to think of
ecclesiastical machinery ; but in course of time they began to think
more of the equipments of the church. The first step looking to-
ward a publishing department was taken by the synod in 1825. lu
adopting the plan of old Cumberland College, the synod provided
that the commissioners should be authorized to connect with it, if
they thought expedient, a printing office, to publish a "periodical
paper," books, tracts, etc. This was not deemed expedient how-
ever.
The aspirations of the young church seem to have been kin-
dled in a number of directions about this time. The synod at its
meeting in 1823 required each presbytery to report its history to
the synod. All of the twelve presbyteries, except two, complied;
and these documents were filed with the clerk of the synod, and
the presbyteries were ordered to continue their reports. In 1824
the synod appointed a committee to collect materials for a church
history. In 1825 i^ niade arrangements for publishing the lectures
which Finis Ewing had delivered in his school in Missouri. A
committee wds appointed to secure from the records of the Presby-
terian church the history' of the Cumberland Presb}'terian preach-
ers who had been connected with that church. It also appointed a
committee, consisting of Samuel King, Robert Donnell, and James
B. Porter, to compile a hymn book. This committee made the
compilation and by authority published the book, and sold six
thousand copies ; ultimately, in 1848, the plates of this hymn book,
with the committee's debts, were transferred to the Board of Pub-
lication.
The Assembly of 1845, carrying out the spirit of resolutions
adopted in 1843, provided for the committing of its business trans-
actions to the care of boards. A Board of Publication was created,
called a "Publishing Association." A constitution was adopted,
prescribing its powers and duties, and making it a sort of stock com-
pany. The members of the board were Richard Beard, Milton
Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 57^
Bird, H. A. Hunter, Le Roy Woods, J. F. Wilkins, Wm. Miller,
James M. Rogers, and Alonzo Liverniore. It seems to have been
a cumbersome piece of machinery ; and was never called together
even for organization until -about two years after its creation, and
the very day before the Assembly abolished it. The Assembly of
1847 appointed a simple Committee of Publication, consisting of
five members, the Rev. Milton Bird, the Rev. Laban Jones, and
Ruling Elders T. E. McLean, A. M. Phelps, and James E. Strat-
ton, and instructed them to procure a charter of incorporation.
This board located its work at Louisville, Kentucky, where Milton
Bird lived, and who sooner or later was president, corresponding
secretar}^, publishing agent, book editor, and salesman.
The business of the board was carried on at Louisville, from
1847 to 1858. A general statement of its history during this period
has been given on pages 313-316 of this volume. Only a few de-
tails will be added. During the years 1848 and 1849, about $2,900
was donated to it, and the sales amounted to about $1,400. In
1850 Dr. Bird resigned as publishing agent, and the Rev. Le Roy
Woods was appointed in his stead. After this the donations
dropped down to a few hundred dollars per year, and the main de-
pendence was upon sales. Up to 1853 the total donations were
reported at $3, 129.76, and the assets then amounted to $3,725.62,
showing an increase of $595.86. The agent was paid $500 for five
sixths of his time. The printing was done by contract. Difficulty
was experienced in getting frequent meetings of the board, a quo-
rum not living in Louisville. Complaints were made by several
General Assemblies because the board failed to report fully or
in due time, and, on one occasion, because it did not report at
all. A memorial from the Pennsylvania Synod was presented to
the Assembly of 1850, praying a removal of the "Book Concern"
to a place farther eastward. The prayer was refused. It is quite
remarkable that two reports of the board, doubtless written by Dr.
Bird, announce business principles whose soundness it has required
years of sad experience to enable our own and other churches to
appreciate. He condemned the extending of credit and the con-
tracting of debts. He opposed the fixing of too low prices on the
books, the clamor to the contrary notwithstanding. He protested
c8o CUMBERI.AND PRESBYTERIAN HiSTORY. [Period VI.
against the keeping up of depositories at the risk and expense of
the board, and favored, instead, agencies conducted by the jiresb)-
teries or individuals. He opposed changes in the location of the
board, and recognized the need of a book editor, and the necessity
of paying for manuscripts. The books then most needed were, in
his opinion, a treatise on our theology, a church history, biograph-
ical sketches of our ministers, children's books, and doctrinal and
practical tracts.
But all of this good preaching against the credit system was
followed by some very bad practice on the part of somebody. By
1854 the board had become largely indebted to its printers, Morton
& Griswold, Louisville, Kentucky. This debt, according to the
board's statement, was more than $2,000. There was due on
sales of books for 1853, ^^56, and for 1854, $1,042 — about one third
of the entire amount of the sales. The board became alarmed and
reduced the salary of the agent, and he resigned. The Rev. Jesse
Anderson was appointed in his stead.
The Assembly of 1854 gave some very pointed orders about re-
porting, and abstaining from the credit system. As measures of
relief, it recommended the employment of soliciting agents and
colporteurs, and an inciease in the price of the books. It recom-
mended further that none but an experienced book-keeper should
be appointed agent. The board's report for that year is not clear,
but the Assembly's committee reported the assets at about 1:4,500,
and the debts about $2,500. A committee of three was appointed
to audit the books of the board. Resignations became frequent
about this time. The number of the members of the board was
increased to seven. There was no improvement, howevei", in the
financial results, and the Assembly of 1857 passed a resolution to
wind the business up. Thus ends the first period of the board's
history. Its assets at this time, as reported to the Assembly of
1858, amounted to $4,913.88. In this estimate, however, were in-
cluded notes and accounts due the board, amounting to $2,795.22,
worth not more than fifty cents on the dollar. The remainder of
the assets consisted of plates, books, and a small amount of cash.
The liabilities amounted to $1,189,44. The actual net assets were
therefore supposed to be about $1,310.00. During that period
Chapter XLVII.] PUBLICATION. 581
there had been published about thirty thousand volumes, consist-
ing largely of hymn books and Confessions of Faith. The sales
had amounted to about $11,000. The books of the church con-
sisted of the Hymn Book, Social Harp, Confession of Faith, the
Manual, Ewing's Lectures, Donnell's Thoughts, Guide to Infant
Baptism, Infant Philosophy, and A Commentary on the Sixth
Chapter of Hebrews.
The General Assembly of 1858, which convened at Huntsville,
Alabama, appointed a special committee on publication, including
some of its best men. They were Richard Beard, chairman, R.
Burrow, M. B. Feemster, H. B. Warren, R. L. Caruthers, A. J.
Baird, Milton Bird, and Isaac Shook. In accordance with the
recommendations of this committee, a complete re-organization of
the publishing work of the church took place. A permanent
" Committee of Publication" was provided for, to consist of three
practical business men, known to be devoted to the interests of the
church, and "located contiguous to each other." This committee
was to appoii:.t a general agent, and require him to give bond. It
was instructed ' ' to adopt all necessary means ' ' to raise money, ' ' by
subscription or otherwise," to carry forward the work of publica-
tion. The agent was to be paid a sufficient salary to justify him
in giving as much time as was necessary for the vigorous prosecu-
tion of the work. The committee was not to involve itself in debt
or extend its business beyond the means under its control. The
members were to be subject to removal by the General Assembly.
The committee was to have power to fill vacancies in its mem-
bership, occurring between the meetings of the Assembly, subject
to the confirmation of the next Assembly. It was instructed to
secure a charter of incorporation. Its location was to be deter-
mined by a committee of seven, who were to receive propositions
from various places with the view of establishing a general book
depository and store, and ultimately, if the prospects should justify,
"a house of publication." The men appointed to constitute this
permanent committee were Elder Andrew Allison, the Rev. W. E.
Ward, and the Rev. Wiley M. Reed.
The committee was located at Nashville, Tennessee, and the
Rev. Wiley M. Reed was chosen its chairman. The Rev. W. S.
583 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Ivaugdon was appointed general agent. He went to Louisville and
took charge of the assets. All the stereotype plates, except those
of the catechism were lost in the manner stated on page 315 of this
history. The assets removed to Nashville consisted of the plates
of the catechism, books valued at $641, and notes and accounts,
which, after paying the debts, yielded about $900. In i860 the
board was chartered by an act of the legislature of Tennessee.
One thousand dollars was borrowed to publish the hymn book,
which had been revised by a committee consisting of the Rev. A.
J. Baird, the Rev. J. C. Provine, and Elder N. Green, Jr., appointed
by the Assembly of 1858. The lenders of this money were the
Hon. Robert L. Caruthers, Judge N. Green, Sr., the Hon. Horace
H. Harrison, the Rev. Carson P. Reed, John Frizzell, Esq., and
others whose names can not now be ascertained. Most of the
money thus loaned was subsequently donated to the board. E.
Waterhouse, Sr., donated the money with which the Confession
of Faith was stereotyped.
The publishing work of the church was suspended by the war
till 1863, when it was transferred to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Of
the publishing committee appointed at that place, Joseph Pennock
was made chairman, and the Rev. S. T. Stewart, the publishing
agent. The assets, when removed from Nashville, amounted to
$5,892.25, less debts amounting to $2,254.69. A new committee
was appointed in 1865, consisting of the Rev. I. N. Car\', the Rev.
S. T. Stewart, and Alexander Postley. The business was for a time
under the management of Mr. Stewart. The printing and selling
were afterward done on commission by Davis, Clark & Co. , of Pitts-
burg. This arrangement was continued until the work was again
transferred to Nashville. This was done b)' order of the Assembly
which met at Memphis, in 1867. The Rev. A. J. Baird, the Rev.
L. C. Ransom, and Ruling Elder D. C. Love, were then appointed
the members of the board.
The Assembly had recommended that a book editor and pub-
lishing agent should be employed, who should be ex officio a mem-
ber of the board. It also appropriated to the publishing work
$2,460 from the interest on the Finley Bequest. This, added to
the assets received from Pittsburg, made the total resources
Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 583
$5,217.74. The Rev. J. C. Provine, D.D., was chosen book editor
and publishing agent. The receipts from sales during ten months
were $6,971.24. Although the General Assembly had passed a
resolution calling the attention of the presbyteries to the necessi-
ties of the board, and requesting them to have collections taken up
in the congregations for the cause of publication, yet the donations
for the entire year amounted to only twenty dollars. The expendi-
tures for the ten months were just equal to the donations and the
receipts from sales. The next Assembly re-adopted the "quarterly
system" of collections. During the following year only thirty -five
out of twelve hundred congregations took up collections for the
cause of publication — ten of them in Missouri, and nine in Tennes-
see, and not exceeding three in any other State. The total dona-
tions were $391.75. This, with the receipts from sales, amounted
to $9,807.13. Thus the net profit for the year was a little more
than $380.
The report of the board to the Assembly of 1869 set forth in
appealing terms the need of more books for the church, and the
need of more money with which to produce them. Attention was
called to the board's condition of absolute dependence on other
publishing houses for its printing. The Assembly resolved to raise
fifty thousand dollars to place the enterprise on a firmer and broader
basis. It also increased the number of members composing the
board to five. In 1869, Dr. Provine resigned his position, and W.
E. Dunaway was elected publishing agent. The report to the
Assembly of 1870 showed a marked increase in donations, sales,
profits, and assets. The appointment of an agent to raise the fifty
thousand dollars was recommended. A store was opened January
I, 1871, for the purchase and sale of religious and literary books, in
connection with the sale of the church's own publications. Rev. T.
C. Blake, D. D., was employed in 1871 as financial agent to raise the
fifty thousand dollars. Exclusive of his compensation and ex-
penses, he secured $7,107.47. By permission of the Assembly of
1873, this money, with accrued interest, was used for the purposes
of publication, with the understanding that a certain portion, sup-
posed to have been contributed expressly to build or buy a publish-
ing house, should be appropriated, with interest, to that purpose,
584 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
whenever a sufficient sum was secured. The treasurer still holds
the agent's notes for the same.
In August, 1872, the Rev. M. B. DeWitt, D.D., was made
soliciting agent and book editor, and became editor of the Sunday-
school periodicals, and of the Theological Medium. He continued
his editorial work in these several departments until the fall of
1879, when he resigned, and other arrangements were made.
During the year 1872 the board purchased of Dr. T. C. Blake
the Sunday-school Gem and the Theological Medium for $2,500,
the board filling out the unexpired subscriptions of each. As early
as 1851 a memorial from IVIackinaw Presbytery had called the at-
tention of the General Assembly to the necessity for a Sunday-
school paper, and of a missionary paper. The committee on pub-
lication to whom the memorial was referred, reported favorably,
but the whole subject was referred to the next Assembly. When
the next Assembly met, no action was taken in regard to this mat-
ter. The Gem had when purchased 15,000 subscribers, and the
Medium 1,180. The number of subscribers to the latter dimin-
ished during the succeeding year to 525, and in 1879 it had ceased
to be self-sustaining. Then the board, by order of the Assembly,
filled out its unexpired subscriptions and donated this quarterly to
the theological faculty of Cumberland University. The subscrip-
tions to the Ge7n increased during the year 1873 to 24,000. Its
patronage has since been divided with Our Lambs^ the publication
of which was commenced by the board in 1877, ^^^^ both together
have now (1887) a circulation of about 35,000.
Prior to 1874 the church never owned a newspaper. Once, on
condition of being allowed to appoint the editors, it made a private
newspaper its organ, but left the ownership still in private hands.
After a very unsatisfactory experience in pursuing this plan, the
whole newspaper business was again left to pri\'ate enterprise.
Several evils, however, seemed to be inseparable from this s}-stem
of independent church journalism. At some periods newspapers
multiplied beyond the prospect of support, and their quality often
deteriorated in proportion to the increase of their number. There
were frequent controversies and rivalries among them, and at times
some of them were arrayed against leading enterprises of the
Chapter XL VII.] PUBLICATION. 585
church. Owing to lack of financial support, however, man}' of
these publications were short-lived, and it happened not infre-
quently that two or more of them were forced to consolidate.
In the Assembly of 1852, the Rev. J. N. Roach read a paper on
the subject of a religious journal under the control of the Assembly.
The Assembly of 1858 adopted a resolution favoring a consol-
idation of all the church papers owned and published by individu-
als. In 1868 a memorial from Princeton Presbytery was presented
to the Assembly, asking that the Board of Publication should be
directed to begin the publication of a religious journal for the
church. The report of the Committee on Publication, adopted by
the Assembly, approved the proposed step, but did not recommend
immediate action because of the board's lack of money. Another
memorial on this subject was presented to the Assembly of 1873
by Bell Presbytery, and, in its report to that Assembly, the board
expressed the opinion that an effort should be made to bring about
a consolidation of the existing newspapers. The report of the
Committee on Publication, adopted by the Assembly, favored the
measure, setting forth the reasons therefor at considerable length.
Expressing a desire that the church should not enter into competi-
tion with the owners of the existing papers, it recommended that
the board should be "instructed to negotiate with them, and, if
possible, procure their interests in their respective publications at
reasonable rates. ' '
To the Assembly of 1874 the board reported that it had been
found impracticable at that time to purchase the papers then in
existence. That Assembly adopted a report, which said: "It is the
sense of this General Assembly that fair terms should be offered to
the proprietors of the present weekly church papers, not to be less
than the estimate fixed by disinterested parties mutually chosen,
and should the terms thus offered be not accepted, the board will
report to the next General Assembly its views on the propriety of
establishing a weekly newspaper for the church." The owners of
the Banner of Peace and Cimiberland Presbyterian declined to
submit their property to the valuation of disinterested parties,
stating that the property was not for sale. By private negotiation,
however, in the fall of 1874, "the good will" of the Banner of
586 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Peace was purchased by the board from the Rev. S. P. Chesnut,
D.D., for ten thousand dollars. Soon afterward, the board pur-
chased of Brown & Perrin the good-will of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian^ together with a printing press and other machiner)-, for
thirteen thousand dollars. The machinery was supposed to be
worth about three thousand dollars. The good-will of the Texas
Cnniberland Presbyterian was purchased of the Rev. J. H. Wofford
for twenty-five hundred dollars.
All the papers were consolidated at Nashville, Tennessee, at the
total cost of ^25,500, the Board of Publication agreeing to fill
out the unexpired subscriptions of- the three papers. The consol-
idated paper was first called the Banner-Presbyteria7i^ but the
name proved unsatisfactory, and was changed to the Ctimberland
Presbyterian. Rev. J. R. Brown, D. D. , was chosen sole editor, and
continued in that position till July ist, 1883, when Rev. D. M.
Harris, D.D., was made joint editor. Dr. Brown's connection with
the paper ceased April ist, 1885, when Dr. Harris was made editor
in chief. The Rev. J. M. Howard, D.D., at this time became asso-
ciate editor of the Ciunberland Presbyterian and book editor.
After the purchase of the three weekly papers, the former owner
of one of them, and one of the joint owners of another, became
interested in the publication at the same places of papers similar in
character to those sold. It was contended that such action not
only involved disloyalty to the church, but also impaired the "good-
will " purchased by the board, and was in violation of the contract.
These questions gave rise to extended discussion in the church, and
to deliverances by four General Assemblies, What principles,
if any, are settled by these deliverances, it would perhaps be un-
profitable now to discuss.
The subscriptions to the papers, when consolidated, amounted
to about seven thousand five hundred. The consolidated paper
now has a circulation of about fifteen thousand. The price of
the consolidated paper is two dollars. It furnishes about twice as
much reading matter as any one of its predecessors. It has grown
steadily in influence and usefulness. Thus the church has one large
weekly to which all our people can justly look with satisfaction —
strong, able, and under the church's own control.
Chapter XLVII.] PUBLICATION. 587
In 1874 the board began the publication of a monthly journal
Sunday Mornings for the use of Sunday-school teachers, officers
and advanced pupils. It attained a circulation of about twenty-
eight hundred, but from considerations of economy was discontin-
ued in 1879. It was followed in the same year by The Com7nents
a Sunday-school quarterly, and in 1885 a quarterly of lower grade
was commenced, called The Rays of Light. These two publica-
tions have now a combined circulation of about thirty-five thou-
sand.
Since 1879 Rev. R. V. Foster, D.D., has been the editor, except
during a short interval, of the Commcnis^ Rays of Light ^ and Lesson
Leaf He was also the editor of the Gem and Onr Lambs until
July, 1883, when they were committed to the editorial manage-
ment of Mrs. Caroline M. Harris.
Mr. W. E. Dunaway was business manager of the board from
1870 to the latter part of 1874, when he resigned and was siicceed-
ed by Rev. T. C. Blake, D.D., who filled this position until failing
health compelled his resignation in October, 1878. November i,
1878, John M. Gaut was made corresponding secretary, and, at
the request of the board, took temporary charge of the business,
exercising a supervisory control over it. He continued in this
position till December i, 1880, when T. M. Hurst was appointed
agent and business manager. Mr. Hurst's resignation took place
May, 1886, at which time John D. Wilson was elected agent.
The assets of the board gradually increased from $5,217, in July,
1867, to $81,879.05, May I, 1887. Their valuation approached
this latter sum during some of the previous years, but, as was after-
ward ascertained, they were largely overvalued. The liabilities
also increased from nothing in 1867, to $12,390.53 in 1887, having
at times during the intervening years been larger than that. The
indebtedness in 1879 was so great and the receipts so small that
the board was very seriously embarrassed. Without the individual
credit of several members of the board freely extended for several
years, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to have
averted a suspension of business. An extension of time had to
be asked of its creditors, a general retrenchment of expenses
was made, and its income largely increased by an increase in the
588 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
subscribers to the periodicals. In this way the house was greatly
relieved. A large burden of debt continued upon it, however,
till 1884, when the church by donations in sums of ten dollars,
in response to what was known as "the Uncle Josh Proposition,"
generously contributed upward of ten thousand dollars to pay oflf
the indebtedness. The originator of this proposition was Mr.
Joshua D. Spain, of Nashville.
Since 1867 the books published by the board have increased
about threefold, and a large number of valuable pamphlets have
been issued.
It is curious to note how long the church has been in realizing
its desire for certain publications. A committee was appointed
in 1824 to collect materials for a history of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. In 1847 the General Assembly resolved to
have such a history written, and a committee was appointed to
do this work. In 1848 this committee reported progress. The
necessity for such a history was urged in the report of the Board
of Publication in 1850. The Rev. H. S. Porter, D.D., of Memphis,
Tennessee, began the writing of the church's history, but died be-
fore the work was finished. In 1856 his widow tendered to the
General Assembly his incomplete manuscript and the papers which
he had collected. The donation was accepted and a committee
appointed to engage a competent person to complete the work.
Then the enterprise seems to have slumbered. In 1884 — sixty
}'ears after the initial effort — the board took the step of which this
volume is the result.
The Assembly of 1852 appointed Rev. Milton Bird to prepare
for publication "a copious abstract" of the Minutes of the Coun-
cil, of Old Cumberland Presbytery, of New Cumberland Presb}'ter\^,
of Cumberland Synod, and of the several General Assemblies from
the first to that date; and the Board of Publication was authorized
to publish the same. This abstract was prepared and is still in
existence. Why it was not published is not known. In 1858 the
stated clerk was requested to publish an abstract or digest of these
records; and the next Assembly by resolution inquired what he had
done toward complying with this request. In 1869 a resolution
was adopted, recommending that the Board of Publication should
Chapter XLVII.] PUBLICATION. 589
have a digest 01 the Assembly's deliverances prepared and pub-
lished as soon as practicable. A subsequent Assembly appointed
the board and the stated clerk to do this work. The stated clerk,
Hon. John Frizzell, prepared such a digest, and the Assembly of
1878 appointed a committee to review it, and ordered its publica-
tion if it was approved. The Assembly of 1885 appointed another
committee to take this matter in hand. This committee reported
in 1886, when the whole subject was referred to the next Assembly.
That Assembly appointed the Hon. John Frizzell to complete the
work, and it will doubtless be ready for the press early in 1888.
The preparation of a hymn and tune book was recommended
by the Assembly of 1869. The manuscript of such a work was
presented to the Assembly of 1870 and referred to the Board of
Publication. The board, fearing that the selections were not
adapted to the wants of the church deferred publishing the book.
In 1873 the Assembly again expressed itself in favor of such a
publication. In that year the Rev. A. J. Baird, D.D., of Nashville,
proposed to undertake the compilation of such a work, asking
as his only compensation that the board should furnish his church
with a supply of the books. The proposition was accepted, and
after many months of painstaking labor, his manuscript was
ready to be presented to the General Assembly of 1874. By this
General Assem.bly it was referred to a committee for examination.
It was slightly amended by this committee, and abridged by the
author. Then the revised manuscript was approved by the Assem-
bly of 1875, and the first edition of the work was published by the
board in 1876.
The long, faithful, and arduous labors of one of the late hon-
ored presidents of the board, the Rev. W. E. Ward, D.D.', deserve
special mention. From 1858 to 1879, excepting the years when
the Pittsburg committee was in charge, he taxed an already over-
burdened heart and brain with the additional cares and responsi-
bilities of this struggling institution.
The following list contains the names of all who have ever
served as members of the board or the Committee of Publication,
and shows, with approximate accuracy, the time of each member's
service. Except in a few instances, it has been found impossible
590
Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
to ascertain exact dates. Most of the dates here indicated show
when the several elections, resignations, or deaths are first men-
tioned in the board's annual reports.
Rev. Milton Rinl
Ilev. Lillian Jones
F. K. McLean
A.M. Phelps
James L. iStratton
Rev. S. M. Aston...
Rev. S. B. Howard
E. 0. Trimble
Charles Miller
Rev. B. Hall
Rev. F. G. Black
Rev. Lc Key Woods
A. F. Vox
Rev. Caleb VVeedip
F. P. Dotheridsc
P. N. Frederick
Andrew Allison
Rev. W. K. Ward
Rev. W. F. Ward
Rev. Wiley M. Heed
Joseph Penuock
Rev. S. T. Stewart
Samuel Morrow
Alexander Postley
T. C. Leazear
Rev. I. N. Gary
Edward De Barrenne
Itev. A.J. Baird
Rev. L. C. Ransom
David C. Lovo
,Tohn Frizzell
Terry H. Cahal
John M. Gaut
W. C. Smith f.
Wni. Porter
P. H. Manlove
R. L. Caruthers, Jr
Travis Winham
W. F. Ni.sbet
Thos. W. Campbell
E. Waterliouse
Rev. R. M. Tinnon
Isa<ae T. Rhea
Rev. J. P. Sprowls
John H. Reynolds
Rev. W. J. Darby
Rev. J. C Provine
II. Parks, .1r
W. T. Baird
rom 1847 to lS.5o
" \sn to .;
" 18l7 to 185-1
" 1^47 to 1852
" 1847 to
" to 1851 or 1852
" 1851 or 1-52 to 1856
" 1852 to 1857
" 1854 to 1858
" 1855 to 1856
" 1856 to 18.58
" 1856 10 1858
" 1856 to 1857
" 1856 to 18.58
" 1857 to 1858
" 1857 to 858
" 1858 to 1862
" 1858 to 1862
" 1867 to 187y
" 18.58 to 1862
" 1862 to 1865
" 1862 to 1867
" 1862 to 1865
" 1862 to 1867
" 1862 to 1865
" 1865 to 1867
1867
" 1867 to 1870
" 1867 to 1867
" 1867 to 1874
" 1869 to 1881..,
Vice-president and President.
President, Treas., Cor. Sec.
Secretary.
" 1870 to 1872..
" 1870— now a
" 1872 to 1880..
member.
" 1874 to 1876
" 1876— now a
" 187'.) to ISSl
member.
Secretary.
Secretary.
" 1879 to 1883
" 1881 to 1886
" 1881 to 1887
" 1881 to 1885
" 1882tol8S4
" 188.3 to 1887
Secretary.
" 1884 to 1886..
" 1886— now a
" 1887— "
" 1887— •'
" 1887— "
" 1887— "
member.
Secretary.
Secretary.
NEWSPAPERS.
The church's first paper, as has been seen, was the Religious
and Literary Intelligencer. Its publication was begun by Cossitt
& Lowry, at Princeton, Ky. , early in 1830. It was moved to
Nashville in 1832, and its name changed to the Revivalist. In
1834 its name was changed to the Cumbei'land Presbyterian. In
1839 its publication, after a brief suspension, was resumed at
Springfield, Tennessee, where it expired in May, 1840. Its editors
from first to last were F. R. Cossitt, David Lown.', and James
Smith; assistants, T. C. Anderson and John W. Ogden.
Chapter XLVII.] NEWSPAPERS. 59I
The Banner of Peace — 1S40 to 1S74.
In March 1840, Dr. Cossitt, at Princeton, Kentucky, began the
issue of a monthly pamphlet with this title. It was removed to
Lebanon, Tennessee, January, 1843. Soon after this it was changed
to a weekly. In 1850 the Rev. W. D. Chadick, D.D., bought this
paper and continued its publication at Lebanon, at the same time
purchasing and consolidating with it The Ark^ a monthly, hitherto
published at Athens, Tennessee, by Rev. Robert Frazier. Then he
took Rev. David Lowry into partnership, both as proprietor and
editor. He and Lowry sold the Banner of Peace to the Rev. Isaac
Shook and the Rev. J. C. Provine. The paper was then moved to
Nashville, where it remained till it was absorbed by the consol-
idated paper in 1874. Its succession of editors, after its removal to
Nashville, was as follows: J. C. Provine, W. S. Langdon, W. E.
Ward, J. C. Provine, J. M. Halsell, T. C. Blake, S. P. Chesnut.
Some of the articles which appeared in the Banner of Peace were
afterward collected and published in book form. Mahlon's Let-
ters, by Dr. A. J. Baird, is one example. Others might well have
been preserved in a similar manner.
Church Papers in Pennsylvania.
A Cumberland Presbyterian newspaper was started in Pennsyl-
vania before John Morgan began the publication of the Union and
Evangelist^ but no record of its name or its work has been found.
It is alluded to sarcastically by Smith in his editorials. It ran a
very brief course. In 1840 the Union and Evangelist began its
career at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. After some time the Rev. J.
P. Weethee became assistant editor. The next year Morgan died,
and Milton Bird continued the publication for a short time at
Uniontown. He then moved his paper to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,
and changed its name to the Evangelist and Observer. In 1846
we find the paper back at Uniontown, and its name changed to
The Cumberland Presbyterian. Afterward the Rev. A. B. Brice
became associate editor along with Bird. In 1847 Brice bought
out Bird's interest, and continued to publish the paper at Union-
town till 1850. Then he removed to Brownsville and associated
the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson with himself in the editorial work.
592 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
In 1857 the Rev. William Campbell was editor, and in i860 the
paper was issued from Waynesburg. In 1863 we find the name of
the Rev. A. B. Miller, D. D., as editor, and after a while the name
of Azel Freeman, associated with Dr. Miller's.
In November, 1868, Dr. ]\Iiller sold out his subscription list to
Dr. J. B. Logan, of Illinois, and Pennsylvania for more than eight
years had no Cumberland Presbyterian paper. In May, 1877, at
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the Rev. Philip Axtell began the publi-
cation of The Religioits Pantagraph^ a large weekly. It was con-
tinued until November, 1878, when its subscription list, which had
reached eleven hundred, was transferred to the St. Louis Observer.
During a part of the year 1881, a small monthly, the Semi-Centen-
nial.^ was issued at Pittsburg by IMr. Axtell, but its publication was
suspended before the year closed.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Pulpit.
This was a monthly devoted to the publication of sermons.
The first number was issued at Nashville, Tennessee, in January,
1833, by the Rev. James Smith. The first volume contains three
sermons from Finis Kwing: one on the atonement, one against
slavery, and one on Christian union; two sermons each from David
Lowry, Robert Donnell, and Abner McDowell; and one each from
Hiram A. Hunter, James Guthrie, George Donnell, William Ral-
ston, Laban Jones, David Foster, Isaac Shook, David Morrow,
John W. Ogden, James Smith, Richard Beard, A. G. Gibson,
Robert Sloane, J. L. Dillard, David M. Kirkpatrick, Alexander
Anderson, and C. P. Reed. One of the sermons furnished by
Robert Donnell was preached at the Rev. William ]\IcGee's funeral,
and the one contributed by John W. Ogden, was preached at the
funeral of the Rev. William Barnett. Richard Beard's contribution
was a sermon on The Church. It abounds in poetical quotations.
These sermons show what was the character of the preaching in
Cumberland Presbyterian pulpits during the first two decades of
the church's histor}\ In all of them there is the utmost plainness
and directness of manner. Reading them reminds us of Moody
and his stirring appeals to sinners. In Donnell' s sermon, preached
at the funeral of William McGee, we are told that there were conver-
sions under almost every sermon that IMcGee ever preached. That
Chapter XLVII.] NEWSPAPERS. 593
statement calls up a remark which the writer, when only a child,
heard Robert, Donnell make to the Rev. Samuel McSpeddin. He
used something like these words: "Brother McSpeddin, there is
something wrong. I have now preached two sermons in succession
without witnessing one single conversion." How many sermons
in succession do our preachers now deliver without witnessing a
conversion ? How many preach without either expecting or pray-
ing for conversions ? Some have set times in the future, and look
forward to the protracted meeting season, when they expect and
pray for conversions; and they grind their ecclesiastical organs to
entertain and hold their congregations together the rest of the
year.
The Ark — 1S41 to 1S50.
In September, 1841, the Rev. Robert Frazier began the publi-
cation of The Ark^ at Athens, Tennessee. This was a monthly.
It at first had three special departments: i. Doctrinal, 2. Eccle-
siastical, 3. Moral. An historical department was afterward added.
One thing might have been safely predicted in advance of all Fra-
zier's editorials. He would run in no ruts. He called no man
master. There was a boldness and vigor about his writings which
constituted their chief charm. Oftener wrong, perhaps, than right
in the positions he took, it is manifest at least that he wa« honest
and thoroughly in earnest in all these positions. He was fearless,
too, attacking every thing in the chitrch which he believed to be
wrong. His paper earnestly advocated the divorce of the church
courts from all secular enterprises.
The Texas Presbyterian.
In November, 1846, the Rev. A. J. McGown issued the first
number of this paper at Victoria, Texas. It was a large four-page
weekly. Its location was several times changed. After publishing
this paper nine years as a private enterprise, he tried to induce his
synod to take charge of it. In this, however, he was not success-
ful, and so he continued to plead for the interests of the Texas
churches in its columns. Not only was the paper valuable to the
local interests, but some of the best materials for a history of the
jDrogress of the church in other fields have been gathered from arti-
cles published in it. It is asserted by some that this was the first
38
594 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
Protestant newspaper ever published on Texas soil. McGown and
his paper received strong commendations from mem.bers of other
churches, from old soldiers of San Jacinto, and from authors of
stately volumes.
Texas Cumberland Presbyterian — Texas Observer.
The Texas Cumberlattd Presbyterian was not the same paper
McGown edited, but a new enterprise, undertaken after his death.
Its publication was begun by Rev. J. B. Renfro and Rev. J. H.
Wofford, at Tehuacana, April, 1873, and it was continued until the
Assembly's consolidation scheme absorbed all the private news-
papers of the cliurch. The sale of this paper to the church was
accomplished in December, 1874. Wofford had previously bought
out Renfro' s interest. In 1879 Mr. Wofford began the publication
of a new paper, the Texas Observer^ at Tehuacana. This paper
has changed owners and editors several times, and the place of
publication has also been frequently changed. It is now issued as
the organ of Trinity University by a stock company. Under this
arrangement Dr. E. B. Crisman and the Rev. J. S. Groves were
until recently the editors. The Rev. W. B. Preston has lately be-
come editor. Its name has been changed to the Texas Climber-
land Presbyterian.
The Watchman and Evangelist — 1850 to 1859.
Milton Bird, after he sold the Cumberland Presbyterian^ at
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to the Rev. A. B. Brice, moved to Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and, in 1850, started the Watchman and Evan-
gelist there. After several changes of editors, this paper was, in
1859, consolidated with the Missouri Cicmberland Presbyterian^
and moved to St. Louis.
Papers in Missouri and Illinois.
St. Louis, Missouri, and Alton, Illinois, have for a long time
jointly constituted an important newspaper center for our people.
In May, 1852, at the earnest solicitation of a number of Missouri
ministers and leading laymen, the Rev. J. B. Logan began the
publication of the Missouri Cinnberland Presbyterian at Lexing-
ton, Missouri. He had the promise of five hundred subscribers to
begin with, and the list was to be increased to one thousand by the
Chapter XL VII.] NEWSPAPERS. 595
close of the year; but he began with three hundred. In a year he
moved the paper to St. Louis. In 1858 or 1859 ^^i^ Watchman and
Evangelist^ published at Louisville by A. F. Cox, and edited by
the Rev. Milton Bird, D. D. , was united with the Missouri Cuni-
berlajtd Presbyterian^ and the consolidated paper was called the
St. Louis Observer. Dr. Bird was for a time its editor. Mr. Cox
afterward bought this paper. About the beginning of the war the
list was sold to the Ctunberla7id Presbyterian^ then published at
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
About 1 86 1 the Rev. J. B. Logan began the publication of the
Western Cumberland Presbyterian^ at Alton, Illinois. It was
continued under this name until November, 1868, when it became
the Cumberland Presbyterian^ its proprietor having purchased
from Dr. A. B. Miller, of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, the paper
bearing this latter title. The Rev. J. R. Brown became joint
editor and also joint projorietor of this consolidated paper. In 1874
it was sold to the Board of Publication by Brown and Perrin, and
removed to Nashville, Tennessee.
In September, 1875, the publication of Our Faith was begun
at Alton. This was a monthly, and the Rev. J. B. Logan, D. D. ,
was its editor. It was continued about a year and a half, when it
was merged into the St. Louis Observer. The latter was a weekly
paper, and the Rev. W. B. Farr, D. D. , was made its editor. The
Rev. W. C. Logan afterward became associate editor. Mr. Logan
and the Rev. J. R. Brown, D.D., are its present editors.
The Ladies' Pearl — 1S52 to 1S84.
This was a monthly magazine for women. Its publication was
commenced at Nashville, Tennessee, by W. S. Langdon and J. C.
Provine, in 1852. It was the testimony of Dr. Herschel S. Porter
that this magazine did more to develop the talents of the women
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church than all other agencies
put together. Hosts of sprightly writers were called out who knew
nothing of their own powers till the Pearl developed them. J. B.
Logan, J. R. Brown, John Shirley Ward, J. M. Halsell, and S. P.
Chesnut were all at one time or another editors of this magazine.
Dr. Chesnut finally sold it, and Cumberland Presbyterians ceased
to have any periodical specially for ladies.
596 Cumberland Presbyterian Histor.y. [Period vi.
The Pacific Observkr.
In i860, at Alamo, California, the Rev. T. M. Johnston started
the first Cumberland Presbyterian paper on the Pacific coast. It
was first called The Presbyter^ afterward The Pacific Observer. At
first it was issued monthly, but was soon changed to a weekly. It
was removed to Stockton, and was of good size and well printed.
The subscription price was four dollars a year. The isolated con-
dition of our feeble churches in California gave a poor prospect for
sufficient patronage to sustain such a paper; but Johnston perse-
vered, though at a heavy pecuniary loss. He felt that the paper
was a necessity to the church in that country; and he spared
neither toil nor money in the struggle to meet the pressing de-
mand. An editorial in the Baniier of Peace commended this Cal-
ifornia paper and its self-sacrificing editor in these words:
One of our best exchanges is the Pacific Observer, edited by Rev.
T. M. Johnston, Stockton, California. It is not only a credit lo the
head and heart of its noble proprietor, but to the Cumberland Presby-
terian church. Brother Johnston is one of our purest and most efficient
ministers; and it would, perhaps, be safe to say that no one else would
have made the sacrifices he has to sustain our cause in the far West.
In 187 1 this paper was bought by Dr. D. E. Bu.shnell, and
moved from Stockton to San Francisco, where it ran a short course
and then ceased to exist. Its fruits, however, still live.
The Theological Medium — 1845 to 1SS4.
In 1845, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the Rev. INIilton Bird
issued the first number of the Theological Medium. It was at first
a monthly, devoted to theological discussions. Its first article was
a discussion of the subject of election, by the Rev. Albert Gibson.
It frequently published sermons. Its location was several times
changed. Finally it was changed into a quarterlv. It passed
through various hands. Dr. T. C. Blake owned and edited it
a while. Then it was bought by the Board of Publication, and the
Rev. M. B. DeWitt was its editor. After this the theological pro-
fessors in Cumberland University were its proprietors and editors.
Then W. C. Logan, of St. Louis, Missouri, in whose hands it died,
was its owner and editor. Its name had, in the meantime, under-
Chapter XLVIL] NEWSPAPERS. 597
gone some transformations. Its last name was the Cumberland
Presbyterian Quarterly. *
The doctrines and policy of the church were ably discussed in
this quarterly. So, also, were many questions of general interest.
Nearly all our best scholars and writers were at one time or another
contributors to its pages. Its files furnish a striking record of the
views and the progress of our people, and indicate a gratifying
unity of doctrine and harmony of feeling. No arguments against
the inspiration of the Bible, no clerical infidelity, no "scientific
apostasy from the faith " is to be found in any of these productions
of our writers. Solid, old-time views on all the great leading doc-
trines greet us everywhere as we peruse these pages. The doctrine
of the plenar)' inspiration of the whole Bible, of the eternal pun-
ishment of the finally impenitent, of the vicarious atonement of
Christ, of the spiritually dead state of the unconverted, and, there-
fore, of the absolute necessity of regeneration and of justification
by faith, together with all the other standard doctrines of our Con-
fession of Faith, are ably enforced. Some little differences in
minor matters there are, of course, but there is a general unity in
sound and orthodox teaching. We find, too, in these files many
able articles from recognized leaders on the necessity of holy living.
Prominent among those pleading for holiness of life were Samuel
McAdow and Dr. Beard.
Cumberland Presbyterians have had in all over fifty periodicals,
and over one hundred editors. There have been six newspaper
centers in the Cufnberland Presbyterian church: one in Kentucky,
one in Tennessee, one in Pennsylvania, one in Texas, one at Alton
or St. Louis, and one on the Pacific coast. The Rev. F. Lack's
paper in the German language, and some occasional publications
in the Japanese tongue, are the only periodicals ever published
by our people not in the English language. There have been
transient issues of some sort in the Choctaw language and, per-
haps, in the Cherokee, but no regular periodicals. The church
has an important work to do in furnishing a periodical literature
for our children and young people. Our Sunday-school publica-
tions are doing great good, and have a most inviting field of use-
fulness to cultivate.
598 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
REVISION OF THE CONFESSION OF FAITH— 1S54 AND 1883.
From the first there was dissatisfaction with the arrangement
of the chapters of our Confession of Faith. Besides this, there
were in the book scraps of the Westminster Confession that be-
longed naturally to the rejected system of fatality, and were hard
to fit into the system held and preached with great unanimity by
our ministers. This fault of our first Confession was freely admitted
by the men who compiled the book. Strong statements to this
effect, from Ewing in particular, exist now in manuscript, to be
filed in the library of Cumberland University. In spite of these
admissions, not only the original compilers of the book but a great
number of younger men feared to open the door of revision, lest
too great innovations should be made. What greatly strengthened
these fears was the fact that one or two strong men in the church
who rejected vital points in our system of doctrines were acknowl-
edged leaders among revisionists.
In 1852 the following paper was submitted to the Assembly by
the Rev. Samuel Dennis:
Whereas, It is believed by many, whose opinions deserve respect-
ful consideration, that in order to a more clear, definite, and literal ren-
dering of the distinctive tenets of Cumberland Presbyterianism, a
revision of the Confession of Faith and Form of Government is neces-
sary; and, whereas, it is believed that such revision can be safely under-
taken by this General Assembly; therefore.
Resolved^ i. That a committee of nine be appointed by this General
Assembly, whose duty it shall be to take under consideration every part
of the Confession of Faith and the Form of Government, and report
the result of their labors to the next General Assembly.
2. That said committee shall have no power to diminish any chapter
or section, or add thereto, only in so far as they may esteem it necessary
to present the doctrines and government of the church in as literal,
clear, and unambiguous manner as possible; and they are hereby for-
bidden to introduce a new chapter or section, unless they shall esteem
an additional section to the sixteenth chapter of the Form of Govern-
ment necessary to carry out the provisions of said chapter; nor shall
they be permitted to add foot-notes.
After considerable discussion, this was negatived. The yeas and
nays being called stood, yeas, 14; nays, 69.
Chapter XLVIL] REVISION. 599
But the revisionists were not to be put down, even by so decided
a vote. The very next year they came with a synodical memorial,
asking for revision. The Assembly of 1853 yielded so far as to
appoint a committee to prepare a revised Confession. As soon as
this was done, the Banner of Peace closed its columns against the
discussion of the question. Its editor was a revisionist, but Milton
Bird, who was opposed to revision, kept the columns of his paper
open to this discussion. The committee prepared a new creed,
and printed it and the creed of 18 14 in parallel columns. This
was a very fair and satisfactory mode of presenting the case. This
amended Confession was reported by the committee to the Assem-
bly of 1854. It contained no new doctrines, but presented a re-
arrangement of the order of the chapters. A few objectionable
phrases were struck out, and words more in keeping with the gen-
eral method of presenting our doctrines in the pulpit substituted.
The first, second, fourth, seventh, twelfth, sixteenth, seventeenth,
eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty -first, twenty - second,
twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-
seventh, and twenty-ninth chapters of the Confesssion were pre-
sented unchanged.
On the question of accepting this report and of submitting the
proposed amendments to the presbyteries, speeches were made by
Dr. S. G. Burney and the Rev. Reuben Burrow in favor of the
revision; and by Dr. Richard Beard and Judge R. L. Caruthers
against it. Very deep interest was felt in the discussion. Robert
Donnell, who helped to prepare our first Confession, was present
and took sides with the opposers of revision. There was not time
during the sitting of one Assembly thoroughly to examine and dis-
cuss the proposed amendments. Men feared evils which these
changes did not involve. When tlie vote was reached there was
a very large majority against the new book.
One of the strangest things in all the history of the church took
place after that. A synod went so far as to pass a vote of cen.
sure upon the Assembly for refusing to refer that revised Confession
to the presbyteries, and published its action in the Banner of
Peace.
An effort to revise our Form of Government has already been
6oo Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
alluded to. It engaged the attention of every General Assembly
from 1867 to 1874. A committee consisting of Richard Beard, S.
G. Burney, J, H. Coulter, R. L. Caruthers, and John Frizzell was
appointed in the year first named, and reported to the Assembly of
1868 a revised Form of Government and Discipline, which was
approved and submitted to the presbyteries. Fifty-eight of the
one hundred presbyteries reported action on it, and but eight of
these approved the revision as a whole; twenty accepted parts of
it, while twenty-eight rejected the whole. A new committee, con-
sisting of F. G. Black, H. D. Onyett, A. Templeton, C. H. Bell,
and Nathan Green w^as however appointed to perfect this work of
revision. By the order of the Assembly of 1870, fifteen hundred
copies of this new committee's report were printed and the whole
matter referred to the next Assembly. Much of the time of the
Assemblies of 187 1 and 1872 was spent in discussing and amending
this proposed revision. Twenty-one chapters, composing a new
Form of Government, were approved by the Assembly in 1872, and
submitted to the presbyteries. Thirty-se\'en presbyteries voted in
favor of these chapters, and forty-two against them, while twenty-
five presbyteries were not heard from. By the Assembly of 1873
the same matter was referred back to the presbyteries to enable
them to review their action. But in 1874 but forty-three presby-
teries reported in favor of this revision, while forty-six voted against
it. The matter was then indefinitely postponed.
In 1881 a memorial was presented to the General Assembly,
again asking for a revision of the Confession of Faith. That As-
sembly ajjpointed two committees, one to revise the book, and
another to revise this revision. The first committee consisted of
S. G. Burney, A. Templeton, and John Frizzell ; the second, of C.
H. Bell, J. W. Poindexter, A. B. Miller, W. J. Darby, and R. L.
Caruthers. These committees early in 1882 published the result
of their work in the Ciimbe7'la7id Presbyterian^ presenting a " Re-
vised Confession of Faith, and Government." This report was
also printed in pamphlet form, and mailed to all the ministers of
the church. It was introduced by a statement, signed by all the
members of the committee who participated in the work, setting
forth in a very forcible manner the reasons whv the revision was
Chapter XLVIL] REVISION. 60I
thought desirable. This introduction gave the following account
of the work of the committees:
The first committee met at Lebanon, Tennessee, November i8,
iSSi, all the members being present, and continued its labors until the
evening ot the 24th, holding three sessions daily, Sunday excepted.
The second committee convened November 25, 1881, at the same place,
Ministers C. H. Bell and W. J. Darby, and Ruling Elder R. L. Caruth-
ers being present; and continued its labors one week, holding three
sessions daily, Sunday excepted. By request the first committee was
present with the second at its meetings, and participated in its delibera-
tions. The discussions were full and free, evincing a wonderful harmony
of opinion. Some preferences as to verbal form had, of course, to be
surrendered. This, however, was always done in the true spirit of
compromise, and in no instance was there a negative vote. Mindful of
the fact that the committees were appointed not to make a new Con-
fession, but to revise the old one, we have studied not to transcend our
authorit}'; and we have no hesitation in saying that we have not changed
a single doctrine fundamental to your scheme of theology, or any of its
logical correlates.
It was announced that the object of publishing this report before
the meeting of the Assembly was " to secure to the committees the
benefit of the suggestions and criticisms or objections" that any
person might wish to make before the revised book should be finally
presented to the Assembly. The secretaries of the two committees
published the following statement:
The committees feel that they have discharged the trust assigned
them by the General Assembly with a conscientious regard to its impor-
tance, but they will meet again for a final revision previous to the meet-
ing of the Assembly. Any suggestion forwarded to them in the mean-
time will be carefully considered before the matter is submitted to the
Assembly.
The discussion of this report and of questions connected with
it was excluded from the church paper until after the meeting of
the Assembly of 1882, the editor assigning the following reasons:
The report being yet in the hands of the committee, and incomplete,
it of course is not yet presented for adoption, and is not legitimately
before the church for discussion. . . . To enter upon a general discus-
sion of the report while it is in this incomplete state would not be justice
to the committee nor profitable to the church, as it would be necessary
6o3 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
to go over the whole ground again. . . . We want the report consid-
ered and the issue met on its merits, which can not be done now. . . .
The work is incomplete and in the hands of a committee, and has not
been considered by the General Assembly. Therefore the time for a
discussion in the paper has nut come.
It probably would have been well, in order to remove all possible
grotinds of dissatisfaction or complaint, to have allowed those not
in favor of revision to state their objections in the church paper,
even before the report was submitted to the Assembly. There
would have been no injustice to the committees in this. They
wotild have been helped rather than hindered by the suggestions
which such a discussion would have called forth. There was really
no danger of any angry or distracting controversy. A full and im-
partial discussion at that time, while it could not have changed the
final result, would have satisfied the few who were opposed to the
new book. But these few really had no serious ground of com-
plaint. The committees called for suggestions from the whole
church, giving every man in the denomination a chance to file his
objection or record his protest; and in the Assembly, and afterward
in the papers and before the presbyteries, the fullest possible oppor-
tunity for discussion was afforded. The Assembly of 1882 made
considerable changes in the proposed book, and then referred it to
the presbyteries, requiring them to accept or reject the new Confes-
sion as a whole.
There were some who thought final action should have been
deferred another year, to give time for further suggestions and
amendments, but the majority thought otherwise. A large por-
tion of the new book is the work of the Assembly of 1882. As a
system it differs from the old in nothing but its omissions. It con-
tains no new doctrines. No original Cumberland Presbyterian
could reject the new Confession.
Improvements, which an anti-revisionist is obliged to admit,
are found in very many places. For example the order of subjects
in our first Confession is Justification, Adoption, Sanctification,
Saving Faith, Repentance; while the order in the revised book is
Repentance, Faith, Justification, Regeneration, Adoption, Sanctifi-
cation. Every old-time Cumberland Presbyterian recognizes the
Chapter XLVII.] REVISION. 603
landmarks of our theological system in the second arrangement,
but not in the first. Throughout the new book, harmony with our
pulpit theology is clearly discernible.
The only just grounds for complaint against the new book are
in its omissions, and in its loose and hastily written portions.
After all. Confessions of Faith are smaller, far smaller matters now
than they were in the preceding century. The Bible, studied as a
book, without reference to creeds, is very different from the Bible
studied in the light of a particular creed. The Bible as a book is
what our International Sabbath-school System puts us all to study-
ing. The Bible as a book will, it is hoped, one day be studied in
all our theological schools. It is the utter abuse of creeds to use
them as candles for studying the Scripture. They have their ap-
propriate place, but that place is a very subordinate one.
The report of the committees contained no list of proof-texts,
and there is no record of such a list ever coming before the Assem-
bly. These proof-texts were not, therefore, submitted to the pres-
byteries, and are left by the committees just where they ought to
be left, as mere suggestions and nothing more. They are helpful,
and there their mission ends. So too the preface is properly left in
the same loose connection with the creed. It is not and should not
be a part of our doctrines. It was very properly never referred to
the presbyteries, and contains historic statements which may be
questioned without incurring the charge of heresy. Whether we
think it good or bad, true or false, is a matter of no importance.
One thing that did go down to the presbyteries and meet their
approval, and now stands as a law of the church, was improperly
or by oversight omitted from the stereotyped book, though it was
in the earlier and cheaper edition. It is this:
It being hereby distinctly understood and declared that those who-
have heretofore received and adopted the Confession of Faith approved
by the General Assembly in 1829, and who prefer to adhere to the doc-
trinal statements contained therein, are at liberty to do so. [First
(printed) edition of new Confession, page 137. See also Assembly's
Minutes, 1882, page 36.]
This is the edition on which the presbyteries acted. This item
went far toward satisfying the anti-revisionists.
6o4 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
The presbyteries voted almost unaniinously in favor of the
adoption of this new creed. There has been nothing like this
nnanimity in all ecclesiastical history. It amazed and silenced
those who were opposed to revision. Most of these determined at
once to acqniesce. A few may still be unhappy about it, but even
they are bound to admit that the new creed is by no means what
they apprehended that it would prove to be.
After Paul came as an appendix to the apostleship, God sent
Peter (one of the fathers) to write a few words, in his old age, to
let the churches know that he indorsed what this fiery apostle to
the Gentiles had taught in his epistles. So, in 1883, God in his
goodness allowed John L. Dillard, who was a full-grown man be-
fore our church was organized, in 1810, and who was a companion
in the gospel with all the first Cumberland Presbyterian ministers,
to speak in terms of approval of the doctrinal teachings and the
spirit of the church in this generation. He not only saw and read
the new creed, but expressed himself as well pleased with it. It is
not likely that such an old watch-dog of our orthodoxy could be
deceived.
TEMPERANCE.
Among the items taken down by the author of this history
from the lips of the Rev. Thomas Calhoun, in 1845, was the fol-
lowing: "Samuel King was the first man I ever heard come out
publicly against even the moderate use of whisky. He refused to
ask a blessing at a public dinner because the table had whisky
on it." In the Minutes of Elk Presbytery for April, 1816, page
21, Vol. I., are resolutions pledging all the members to total absti-
nence, and binding them to enforce this rule to the utmost among
their people, and wherever else their authority or influence ex-
tended.
Our church papers have all been agreed in their opposition to
intemperance and the whisky traffic. Whatever else they may
have differed about, they all have spoken with one voice on this
subject. It would be hard to determine which of our one hundred
editors has been the most outspoken against whisky and in favor
of temperance. Those now in the editorial work are all earnest
advocates of total abstinence and prohibition, but they are not
Chapter XLVIL] TEMPERANCE. 605
more earnest or outspoken on this subject than was David Lowr}^,
who belonged to the first editorial corps of our first church news-
paper.
Tlie Rev. Le Roy Woods gave in the Cumberland Presbyterian
the following reasons for going to the legislature of Indiana,
in 1855:
The facts in the case are these. I had given up m}' place as pub-
lishing agent, and had taken a very active part in the temperance cause,
which has agitated our State from one end to the other. I was a mem-
ber of the State convention, which resolved to ignore all party ques-
tions and make the passage of a prohibitory law the issue at the polls.
I had advocated the same in a convention in our own county, and
strongly advocated the nomination of a temperance ticket for the county
in the event of the politicians refusing to do so. They did refuse, and
we had no alternative left us but to have our county represented by
men opposed to our whole temperance scheme, or nominate a ticket of
our own. This we determined to do. When we came to look over
the ground and see the difficulty, we had some trouble in finding men
who would assume the responsibility of pleading the claims of our
cause before the public. In this dilemma the convention, without a
single dissenting voice, demanded of me that I should accept the nom-
ination and make the canvass. No one but myself knows the struggle
which it cost me to obtain my own consent. Nothing but my deep
solicitude for the cause of temperance, and a sense of duty to our com-
mon country, could have induced me to accept this expression of confi-
dence on the part of so many of my fellow-citizens. On the day of
my nomination, and throughout the whole canvass, I publicly refused to
be a politician. I made the race exclusively on the question of " Search
and Seizure," no other question ^vas discussed.
He was elected on this prohibition ticket, called the "Search
and Seizure" ticket.
When our church had but three presbyteries, and drinking
whisky was as common as drinking coflfee is now, each of these
presbyteries declared it to be an offense worthy of discipline to
make, sell, give away, or drink intoxicating liquors. Our church
courts have kept up these utterances, only making them stronger
and stronger as the years have passed away. All of our recent
Assemblies have declared it to be the duty of Cumberland Presby-
terians to co-operate in all lawful efforts to secure the prohibition
6o6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks. The Assem-
bly of 1 85 1 passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Assembly that to
make, buy, sell, or use as a beverage any spirituous or intoxicating
liquors is an immorality; that it is not only unauthorized, but forbidden
by the word of God. We do, therefore, recommend to the several
churches under our care, to abstain wholly from their use.
The Assembly of 1853 adopted a report which, after setting
forth the evils of intemperance, asks:
What is the duty of the church iclative to this important question.'*
We believe there is but one answer. It is the duty of the Christian to
use every reasonable effort within his power to advance the glorious
cause of temperance. If he fails in this he fails in one material branch
of his duty, and will be held accountable for the failure. We regard
the efforts now being made in the temperance cause as requiring the
co-operation of the church, ... as one of the means of reforming and
finally converting the world; and the failure of church mem.bers thus
to co-operate amounts to a sin against light and knowledge. So far as
our information extends, this branch of Zion is discharging her duty in
this great work with commendable zeal.
The efforts which Christians should use for the furtherance of this
work consist not alone in abstaining from the use of ardent spirits, and
being Washingtonians or Sons of Temperance. The true and devoted
advocate of temperance will labor for the enactment of such laws as
will prohibit the making, vending, or use of intoxicating liquors.
To this preamble the following resolutions were added:
1. It is incompatible with the character of a Christian, and particu-
larly the Christian character of a Cumberland Presbvterian, to use or in
any way to encourage the use of ardent spirits as a beverage.
2. If he fails to use reasonable efforts to bring about, by legal enact-
ments or otherwise, an entire prohibition of the liquor traffic, he acts
beneath his duty as a professor of religion.
3. Christians not only have duties to discharge to the church and
the world as Christians, but also to their government and society as
citizens.
4. In discharging the latter duty they should be governed by the
broad principles of Christian philanthropy, advocating the extermina-
tion of alcoholic drinks . . . by the enactment of prohibitoiy laws for
that purpose, with such penalties as will cause those laws to be re-
spected and enforced.
Chapter XLVIL] TEMPERANCE. 607
With some slight verbal changes, this preamble, accompanied
by the same resolutions, was adopted by the Assembly of 1854.
Time after time the Assembly and subordinate judicatures have
called on all our ministers and churches to pray for the overthrow
of the whisky traffic. Sunday-schools have been again and again
urged to teach the doctrine of total abstinence and prohibition.
Men who sell intoxicating spirits have repeatedly been declared
unfit for church membership.
In 1876 the managers of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibi-
tion made provisions to allow whisky to be sold on their grounds.
Our General Assembly that year, by a unanimous rising vote, pro-
tested against this action as " a flagrant violation of the moral and
Christian sense of the American people," and appealed to the Cen-
tennial Board of Finance to revoke this license, adoptmg the fol-
lowing resolution:
Resolved^ That we do hereby earnestly recommend that all the
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church refrain from patron-
izing the Centennial Exhibition until the ruling of the Board of Man-
agers be changed on this subject.
The Assembly of 1884 appointed "a day of special prayer for
divine guidance in the selection of discreet and godly men by the
great political parties" in the national conventions then approach-
ing. It urged that greater prominence should be given to the
subject of temperance in Sunday-schools, and that temperance
meetings for children should be held. It indorsed the various
societies organized to promote the temperance reform, enumerating
"the several State Temperance Alliances, the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, the Order of Good Templars, the Young
Men's Christian Association, and the Band of Hope."
In 1885 the Assembly declared "the manufacture or sale of
ardent spirits as a beverage inconsistent with Christian character
and the high relation of church membership;" and in 1886 the
cause of prohibition was indorsed in this strong language:
Recognizing the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as the
source of very great evils, we re-affirm our unflinching devotion to the
cause of absolute constitutional prohibition, and we are glad to note
that other ecclesiastical bodies are taking high ground on this subject.
6o8 Cumberland Pi<.KSBVTiiRiAN History. [Period vi.
The Assembly of 1887 declared "that the failure or refusal of
any professed follower of our divine :^Iaster to use his profession in
favor of, to pray for, labor for, and vote for such legislation as will
free the country and God's church from this drink curse, is incon-
sistent with the teachings of holy Scripture and the example of our
Savior. ' '
David Lowry, in an article published not long before his death,
adduces an array of testimonies to prove that the use of fermented
wines was forbidden at the Jewish passovers,' presenting Jewish
instructions about the time and the manner in which the pass-
over wine should be prepared, and denying that Christ made fer-
mented wine or wine that would intoxicate. He showed that all
the direct utterances of the Bible on this subject condemn strong
drink in the most unmistakable terms. Incidental mention of har-
lots and of thieves there are, in which the sacred writer does not
stop to express condemnation, but in every direct declaration con-
cerning their character and their deeds they are condemned. Of the
same nature are all the Bible utterances about strong drink. Many
incidental mentions of it we find, but in even,^ case where its char-
acter is directly pronounced upon, it is either condemned or pro-
hibited, or both. All persons are forbidden even to look upon the
wine when it is red.^ We are forbidden to induct into the ministry
any man who is given to wine-drinking. 3 Such is the tone gen-
erally of the direct declarations of God's word.
By the grace of God the sober people of the laud are determined
to give the matter no rest until the manufacture and sale of intox-
icating drinks are as thoroughly prohibited by law as are theft and
- murder.
The following anecdote concerning the Rev. J. ]M. Berr}^, which
appeared in one of our church papers, is given as a fitting close for
this chapter:
Abraham Lincoln was once the partner in a. little store with
William Berry, the Rev. J. M. Berry's son — his prodiofal son. After
Lincoln had retired from the "store," and had gained considerable
* It was an offense punishable bj death to be found with leaven in the house.
Leavened or fermented wine would have incurred that penalty. — Ex. xii. 19.
= Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. 3i Tim. iii. 3; Titus i. 7, S.
Chapter XLVII.] TEMPERANCE. 609
notoriety as a lawyer, some women banded together and broke up a
grog-shop which had become an intolerable nuisance to the neigh-
borhood. They knocked in the heads of the barrels and kegs, and
smashed the bottles. When the dram seller threatened them with the
law or violence, one of the women said to him: "Be quiet, for we
are determined to knock in the head of every thing that has liquor in
it; and your own head is in danger." Lincoln volunteered to plead the
cause of the women. The case was tried in the town where the Rev.
J. M. Berry lived. A large crowd had collected to hear the pleading.
The evils of intemperance were so eloquently presented as to touch
most of those present, and many were bathed in tears. " There," said
the speaker, pointing his long bony finger toward Mr. Berry, "is the
man who years ago was instrumental in convincing me of the evils of
trafficking in and using ardent spirits." Tears ran in streams down the
aged preacher's cheeks. His thoughts at that time were probably
something like this: "O my ruined boy! I lost you, but saved your
partner. Thank God my labors were not in vain in the Lord."
39
6io Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
NEW FIELDS, EVANGELISTS, PROGRESS, REFLECTIONS.
Springs of life in desert places
Shall thy God unseal for thee;
Qiiickening and reviving graces,
Dew-like, healing, sweet and free.
—F. R. H.
PIONEER missionaries of the Cumberland Presbyterian churcli
have penetrated to almost all the Territories of the West. The
lack of an adequate home mission fund has crippled the efforts of
our people to establish congregations, but in spite of the lack of
strong support from the churches in the older States, a good work
has been done in many towns and country places in these new
fields.
COLORADO.
As soon as the Territory of Colorado was open to white settlers,
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers and private members joined
the tide of emigration that flowed thither. The Rev. B. F. Moore
was perhaps the first of our preachers to make his home in this
Territory. He was there and at work when the Rev. J. Cal. Lit-
trell and the Rev. S. D. Givens arrived in the fall of 1870. The
Board of Missions rendered some little assistance to Littrell and
Givens, whose work in that Territory was crowned with great
success.
In November, 1870, these three ministers, Moore, Littrell, and
Givens, organized the Rocky Mountain Presbyter}'.' This presby-
tery had at first but one congregation under its care. The mission-
aries traveled from house to house, laboring among the families of
the emigrants, and holding meetings wherever they could gather
the people together. In 1872 there were six congregations, one
hundred and nine members, and one hundred and forty-eight
' Sketch furnished by stated clerk, the Rev. W. W. M. Barber.
Chapter XLVIIL] NEW FlELDS. 6ll
pupils in the Sunday-schools. The church property in the pres-
byterial bounds was valued at five thousand dollars. In the year
ending May, 1874, Littrell traveled over five thousand miles, and
preached one hundred and eighty-seven times. There were four
congregations in his field of labor.
The Rev. T. H. Henderson was laboring as missionary at Col-
orado Springs in 1874. In 1875 the Board reported that this mis-
sion had been taken under its care. The congregation then had a
"good church edifice finished and paid for, and a small organiza-
tion of energetic and liberal members." The Rev. P. A. Rice, who
succeeded the Rev. T. H. Henderson as missionary, had also re-
signed. After^vard the Rev. J. H. Steele, the Rev. J. Cal. Littrell,
and the Rev. W. A. Hyde successiveh^ served as missionaries here.
To the Assembly of 1881 the board announced that this mission
had been declared self-sustaining.
The city of Pueblo was a point of interest to Cumberland Pres-
byterian pioneers, and a good beginning in denominational work
was made there mainly by private enterprise. Then the congrega-
tion was adopted by our board as a mission. A comfortable church
was built and paid for. When the Board of Missions made its re-
port in 1 886, this congregation had a membership of twenty, and
church property valued at $3,500.
NEW MEXICO.
In 1875 that zealous pioneer, the Rev. J. Cal. Littrell, published
the following account of an exploring trip made by him in New
Mexico:
Through the kindness of my congregations and friends at home, I
was granted time to visit Colfax County, New Mexico. I had been
for over a year receiving earnest requests from the people there, urging
me to visit them and preach to them. This I have done during the past
twenty-five days. I found large communities gospel hungry. Tliey
have no preaching, no Sunday-schools, no assembling together on the
Sabbath dnv. I preached where the gospel had never been proclaimed
before. Some had not heard a sermon for more than ten years. We
were blessed witli gracious outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Christians
were made liappy in a Savior's love afresh, and some for the first time
learned the joy of believing. Men of the world wept and trembled.
There was much earnest pleading for help. Many said: "Won't you
6i3 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
come and preach to us, or scnil some one ? We arc poor, but we will
do all we can." I thank God that I went, although it was a hard trip,
and I received less than my expenses. I have the assurance that I did
them some good. I met several Cumberland Presbyterians. O that
the missionary spirit would fire some fiiithful and efficient man to go
into that field! It is extensive, and white unto harvest. I traveled four
hundred and fifteen miles, and received one dollar and fifteen cents.
No attempt has been made to plant Cumberland Presbyterian
churches in New Mexico.
NEBRASKA.
Before Nebraska was a home for white settlers it was part of
the great highway to the Pacific. Fur traders, soldiers, daring
adventurers, and miners had their regular routes of travel across
its wide plains, and their posts for supplies along its water-courses.
Along with these travelers were some of our own people, as well as
along with the very first permanent settlers on this soil. Like
most pioneers, however, they published no history of their labors.
It is by no means to be presumed that their lives were destitute of
adventures. Indian difficulties and Indian massacres we know
there were, and questions growing out of some of these came up
for discussion and decision before the national authorities ten years
after Nebraska became an organized Territory of the United States.
When all became peaceful, it did not follow that Indians were
no longer Indians. It is said that when the kind-hearted Quakers
of Philadelphia heard that the Nebraska squaws wore no bonnets,
they immediately sent an ample stipply. On the reception of
these, the Indian braves held a council and decided to use the bon-
nets for "crow cushions," bound upon the persons not of the
squaws, but the warriors!
The men who organized and managed the celebrated express
company for overland passengers and freight from the ' ' States ' ' to
California before the war, were members of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church. The histor\- of this enterprise with the biog-
raphies of the men who planned it and carried it out, wotild, if
published, form a volume of thrilling interest. Large-hearted,
brave, adventurous men they were, and all the West teems with
stories of their wonderful energy and liberality. This company
had one of its important stations in what is now Nebraska City.
Chapter XLVIII.] NEW FlELDS. 613
The following account of the introduction of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church in the Territor}' of Nebraska was written in
1868 by the Rev. R. S. Reed, then pastor at Nebraska City, and
published in the Banner of Peace :
I am not positive, but believe tliat the first sermon by a Cumberland
Presbyterian minister in Nebraska was preached in the spring of
1S58 or 1859, by tlie Rev. Robert Renick, of Missouri. It occurred in
this way: Alexander Majors, Esq., formerly of Independence, Missouri,
and for many years a ruling elder in our church at that place, had set-
tled in Nebraska City, and was extensively engaged in the freighting
business. The rules by which he governed his teamsters — usually a
rough class of men — were peculiar to himself, but of very extensive
notoriety in this Western country. Among other wholesome require-
ments, drunkenness and profanity were positively prohibited under
penalty of immediate dismission from service without pay. These rules
were strictly enforced; and, in addition, it was Mr. Majors' custom to
rest on the Sabbath, and hold prayer-meetings with his men. These
meetings he usually conducted himself, often delivering extempore ex-
hortations, in which he was not a little gifted. Sometimes a minister
in the company preached, and in this way it is possible that some Cum-
berland Presbyterian minister preached in this Territory before Father
Renick.
A wave of moral influence was started through the untiring efforts
of Mr, Majors, whose effects will be seen and felt in eternity. But
few men, if any, have such moral power in this country as that which
he exercised. Would to God we had many more such elders. About
the time to which reference has been made, he induced Father Renick
to come to Nebraska City, paying him a good salary out of his own
pocket to preach to his men while in camp. Father Renick came and
preached for some months in a beautiful grove adjoining the city and
known as the "Outfitting Grounds." Mr. Majors expected to secure
the organization of a Cumberland Presbyterian church, but Father
Renick returned to Missouri, and the purpose was abandoned for the
time. About this time one or two camp-meetings were held near this
city by Mr. Majors, and perhaps some other Cumberland Presbyterians,
m connection with brethren of the Methodist Episcopal church. Gra-
cious revivals were enjoyed at these meetings, and many sinners were
converted.
The first Cumberland Presbyterian church organized in the Terri-
tory of Nebraska was at Nebraska City. The great civil war, and espe-
cially the troubles in Missouri consequent upon this war, had brought
quite a large emigration to this city. Among these emigrants were
6i4 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
quite a number of Cumberland Presbyterians and Southern Meth-
odists, wlio were as sheep without a shepherd. Business had called
Mr. Majors and a few others here prior to this. The most of these
united, temporarily, with the Methodist Episcopal church; but such
were the political influences brought to bear in this church and from
the pulpit during the exciting times of war, that it was impossible for
them to live in peace here. They accordingly quietly withdrew. It
was then proposed to find a home in the Presbyterian church (O. S.).
The Rev. J. G. Dalton, a worthy brother and member of the Lexington
Presbytery of our church, being here at the time, did, by invitation,
occupy the pulpit of that church for a few months. But such was the
discourtesy with which the proposition to unite with that church was
treated, that our brethren felt they could not find a congenial home with
that people.
It was, perhaps, about this time that the Rev. O. D. Allen, from
Missouri, gathered up a few Cumberland Presbyterians in the neigh-
borhood of Rock Bluff, about eighteen miles above Nebraska City, and
preached for them for a time. About the same time, perhaps a little
later, the Rev. Mr. Starnes, of Missouri, commenced operations near
Brownsville, some thirty miles below Nebraska Cit)'. His labors have
since resulted in the organization of a respectable congregation of Cum-
berland Presbyterians.
Our people at Nebraska City, driven from the Methodist Episcopal
church, and denied sympathy and encouragement when they sought to
unite with the Presbyterian church, were shut up to the necessity, as
were our fathers, of an independent organization. Then the question
came up, What kind of church should be organized — Cumberland
Presbyterian, or Methodist Episcopal, South.'' The number of mem-
bers was nearly equally divided between the two. The Rev. George
W. Love, a minister in the latter church, very .generously proposed
that all should unite in the organization of a Cumberland Presbyterian
church. The Rev. C. B. Hodges, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister,
was sent for, and, on the i6th day of July, 1S65, the organization was
eftected, and the names of fifty-four members were enrolled. Five
elders were elected, and Mr. Love was selected pastor temporarily. He
and Mr. Hodges alternately and conjointly occupied the pulpit until the
fall of 1866, during which time two extensive revivals of religion were
enjoyed, in which many souls were converted and added to the church.
A large and flourishing Sabbath-school has been in successful operation
ever since the organization of the church.
On the 38th of October, 1866, 1 took charge of the church, devoting
all my time to its interests. On the 15th of December, 1867, a new and
beautiful brick edifice, built entirely by the liberality of our own church
Chapter XLVIIL] NEW FiELDS. 615
and some friends in the city, was dedicated. But many of our mem-
bers from Missouri were here only temporarily, so that by the time we
entered the new church, although about one hundred had been added
since the organization, we were reduced to about fifty. Soon after
entering the new church we were blessed with a powerful work of
grace, and quite a number were added to the membership.
A sketch written in 1886 by another faithful worker in this
field gives some of the same facts, but in different connections:
During the late civil war, many persons from Missouri and other
border States came to Nebraska. Among these were some Cumber-
land Presbyterians. Russell, Majors & Co., the noted overland freight-
ers, had established their headquarters in Nebraska City. Mr. Majors,
being a Cumberland Presbyterian, and well acquainted in Missouri, had
induced some ministers of that denomination to locate here. Among
these were Robert Renick, C. B. Hodges, James G. Dalton, and Martin
Hughes. A large, two-story frame building had been erected by Mr.
Majors for a store-room. This building was used also as a place of
worship by the few scattered members of our church in the city.
Here a series of meetings was held, resulting in a revival. Some
time afterward it was decided to organize a church. On the i6th day
of July, 1S65, the first Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized
by Rev. C. B. Hodges. The Rev. G. W. Love became pastor, but was
soon followed by the Rev. C. B. Hodges, who was very efficient in
building up the church during his six months' pastorate.
In the spring of 1866, Rev. R. S. Reed, of Salem, Illinois, accepted
a call from this church, and entered upon his work on the aSth of Octo-
ber the same year. Under his management the church prospered
greatly, both in its spiritual and financial interests. A beautiful house
of worship was erected on the corner of Tenth and Laramie streets,
and dedicated December, 1S67. The work on this building was begun
the first year of Mr. Reed's pastorate. In October, 1869, after three
years of faithful service, he resigned.
In November, 1869, the Rev. J. B. Green, of Kentucky, took charge
of this church. During his pastorate, the work so well begun by his
predecessor has gone steadily on. There has been no change of pastor
since 1869. For a number of years this congregation has been on a
sound financial basis, and out of debt. The Sunday-school was organ-
ized in July, 1865, and has prospered from the first, doing a good work.
Some time after the organization of the Nebraska City church, a
congregation was organized near Brownsville, Nemaha County. After
a few years it built a good brick house of worship. This church has
6i6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
had several pastors, and is now under the care of the Rev. B. J. John-
son. Eight or ten years ago, a congregation, known as the Weeping
Water church, was estabHshed in Cass County. Some of its members
had been connected with the Nebraska City church. This congrega-
tion has recently been merged into a new one, and is now known as the
Factoryville church. A few years ago this church erected a neat frame
meeting-house, and now holds services twice each Sabbath. The Rev.
R. F. Powell is the pastor.
Later a congregation, first known as Harmony, was formed six miles
west of Nebraska City. This organization was finally moved to the
village of Dunljar, and it is now known as the Dunbar church. Its
members have built a substantial frame house, and services are held each
Sabbath. The Rev. R. A. Williams is now its pastor. Two or thi'ee
other smaller congregations have been organized more recently.
All Nebraska was formerly included in the Leavenworth Presby-
tery, and in the Missouri Synod. In 1S73 Leavenworth Presbytery
was divided and the Nebraska Presbytery formed. The first meeting
of this new presbytery was held at Harmony church on the 6th day of
March, 1S73. Rev. J. B. Green was the first moderator. The following
ministers composed the presbytery: B. J. Johnson, J. B. Green, I. Wayne
Snovvden, J. C. Hamilton, and Aniasa Rippetoe. Four congregations
were represented at this meeting.
The missionary operations in this State have been mainly supported
by home contributions. But little help has ever been received. The
Board of Missions has never had a missionary or a mission in this State.
Rev. R. F. Powell, under appointment from the board, labored for a
few months, but his work was mostly confined to Kansas. The denom-
ination has lost much in not giving more attention to this important
territory. The Nebraska City congregation was never a mission church,
but has been self-sustaining from its organization.
At the Assembly of 1886, the Nebraska Presbytery reported six
ordained ministers, thirteen churches, four hundred and seventy-
eight members, and four hundred and eighty-eight pupils in the
Sunday-schools.
WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
In 1872, the Rev. H. W. Eagan went to the new Territory of
Washington. Without assistance from the Board of Missions he
began his labors at the town of Walla Walla. W^ith no house of
worship, no organized congregation, and no private estate to rely
on, he determined to cast himself upon the Lord for support, and
give himself to the ministr)' among the pioneers. He preached
Chapter XLVIII.] NEW FlELDS. 617
faithfully, and God put it into the hearts of the people to furnish
him a temporal support. A working congregation was gathered,
and a good church house built and paid for. When this faithful
pioneer was no longer able to meet the growing demands of the
work, an appeal was made to the Board of Missions for assistance.
In answer to this call, the Rev. W. W. Beck was, in 1886, com-
missioned and sent to Walla Walla as missionary. To the General
Assembly that year, this church reported sixty resident and sixty-
six non-resident members, and church property valued at five thou-
sand dollars.
The Rev. A. W. Sweeny has spent most of his life in the far
West. In one of his letters, written in 1874, and published in the
church paper, we get a glimpse of his work in Washington Terri-
tory. Describing one of his meetings, he says:
The Rev. H. W. Eagan, of Walla Walla, came on Monday. That
night a large number of the anxious came forward. Some were con-
verted every night during the week. The second Sabbath came. At
night fifty-five came to the altar. We could not close the meeting.
We were there the next Sabbath. At night forty-five were at the altar,
and there were eleven professions. So we spent two weeks at that
meeting. Certainly there had never been before, in this part of the
country, such a deep religious interest felt.
The same letter shows how these pioneer missionaries went forth,
trusting God for a support. Mr. Sweeny says:
The Rev. E. P. Henderson and myself visited Waitsburg and held
a meeting, two years ago last September and October. He remained
until spring with the little congregation which we organized here. I
then took charge of it. I was alone, bishop, circuit rider, preacher,
and exhorter. In the fall Brother Eagan came. God sent him. I gave
him part of my field. Forty dollars a year was all the salary that he or
I positively knew of. God has supported him. He has not lacked for
any thing. The Rev. R. H. Wills came recently. I turned over to
his support all but three of my contributing members of Waitsburg
congregation. The way looks dark. What are we to do .'' A question
often asked, and easily answered. Go forward, trust in God, and he
will open the way. The additions at our camp-meeting will make up
my loss by dividing with Brother Wills. I am slowly learning to "have
faith in God." At Brother Eagan's basket meeting with his country
congregation there were nine additions. So you see we have encour-
agement in this new country. God be pi'aised!
6i8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
We now (1887) have in Washington Territor)- one presbytery,
the Walla Walla, with twelve ordained preachers, four candidates
for the ministry, eleven congregations, six hundred members, and
five hundred pupils in the Sabbath-schools.
There are some ministers and members of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church in Montana Territory, but no presbytery has
been formed.
EVANGELISTS.
In the last twenty years, not only in the Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church, but throughout all Christendom, the work of evan-
gelists, both lay and clerical, has been among the wonderful things
connected with religious activity and development. We have had
our full share of those remarkable preachers. There seems to be a
special movement in this direction, brought about by the Spirit of
the living God. While there have no doubt been abuses, yet the
great harvest of souls among those who were ready to perish is far
too precious to permit us to doubt that God is in this work. One
thing of special value is the use which these evangelists make of
the Scripture. This is true pre-eminently in the work of our own
evangelists, the Rev. R. G. Pearson and Dixon C. Williams.
One of our aged ministers once traveled some distance to attend
the meetings of the Rev. R. J. Sims, another Cumberland Presby-
terian evangelist. There was an immense congregation. The
evangelist made a very simple, earnest address with no loud tones,
violent gestures, or exciting appeals. The talk was conversa-
tional, and in subdued accents. Then the speaker asked those
occupying the four pews in front of the pulpit to vacate them, to
accommodate the penitents. To the aged preacher, who sat behind
the evangelist, this seemed a foolish proceeding. "Four seats in-
deed!" thought he. "If one mourner comes forward it is more
than I expect." The evangelist said: "Let all who want to be
saved here to-day come quietly to these seats." In a few moments
all the four seats were filled; then four more were called for and
filled; then two more. The visiting preacher was amazed — almost
frightened. He continued with that evangelist a week, and watched
him closely, to find out how all this was accomplished. The first
day and night he found that the evangelist spent about six hours
Chapter XLVIIL] EVANGELISTS. 619
alone in prayer, and that lie gathered two or three chosen ones to
join him in short, special prayers. This was the daily programme.
The secret of his success was that God was with him..
It is true that this evangelistic work puts into the hands of the
pastors greatly increased labors in organizing and training converts.
But this is not a valid objection. It would be inconsistent in par-
ents to object to their children being coi^verted in early life, because
the duty of training the little believers rests upon fathers and
mothers, and involves much prayer and patient labor; hardly less
inconsistent is it for pastors to object to the sudden conversion of
large numbers in their congregations. Would it be better to risk
the eternal loss of all these souls than to have the pastor's labors
and embarrassments multiplied ?
In the Cumberland Presbyterian church this modern method of
evangelistic work began in 1873. For several years our people had
just one evangelist at large. He visited nearly all the States in
which the church had a membership, spending twelve years in this
work. His was purely a life of faith, so far as the support of his
family was concerned. He had no assurance of compensation, no
contract with man, and no private means of his own; but neither
he nor his family suffered for any of the necessaries of life. Such
a life of trust brings a laborer into closer relations with God than
any other life. It by no means includes the neglect of teaching
the people their duty about money. In 1880 the church had
twelve of these evangelists at large — men who "reported only to
God." This does not include ministers sent out by synods or pres-
byteries.
Lay evangelists were a part of the original machinery' of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church. At first these were selected and
commissioned by the presbytery, choice being made of men who
had shown some fitness for the work. Of late years this custom
had fallen into desuetude. One little experiment on the old plan,
which was made a few years ago by Bethel Presbytery, in the
Choctaw country, was thus described at the time by the Rev. W.
S. Langdon in the Banner of Peace :
Some time since the Rev. I. Folsoni furnished an account of the
proceedings of Bethel Presbytery. The business was conducted in the
620 Cumberland Presbyterian History, [Period vi.
Choctaw language. It seems to have been a very spiritual meeting, and
resulted in much immediate good. One item that I did not notice when
I first read it, now stril-:es me more forcibly than any thing else in the
record. This is probably because the subject is one that has occupied
my thoughts a great deal recently. Here is the item : " During the
meeting of the presbytery, loud Macedonian cries came up from differ-
ent parts of the Nation. At first we w-ere utterly at a loss to know what
to do, as we had more fields already than we were able to supply, and
as some of us were advanced in years, and were becommg infirm. For
some time we remained silent, in deep, prayerful reflections. So, on the
following day, after asking counsel of God, the presbytery determined
to send forth the elders and deacons, and appoint exhorters to go and
read the holy Scriptures to the people, sing and pray with them, and
exhort in their meetings, until ministers could go round and baptize con-
verts and organize them into churches according to the apostolic usage."
Here, I think, we have a perfect copy of the "Apostolic usage."
Our Indian brethren have taken a step in the right direction, and have
set their white brethren an examj^le that it would be well for them to
consider. Has not the Christian church departed from the plan of
ministerial labor and church extension devised by the great Head of
the chuixh ?
For three hundred years the disciples and their successors operated
upon a plan similar to that set forth in this extract from the proceedings
of this Choctaw Presbytery. They went forth and preached, organizing
churches, administering sacraments, and ordaining elders. Then they
proceeded to some other place, leaving the new church members to
conduct their own services. These services were very different from
those held in the churches in this day. Then they met to study the
Scriptures and learn what their duties were, and inquire what was the
will of God concerning them. Their meetings were religious sociables.
It was the privilege of every member to take part, under the rules pre-
scribed by the apostles. Once in a while some of the ministers came
round, and corrected any errors into which the converts had fallen,
preaching to them and strengthening them by words of counsel. The
people were thus aided and encouraged in their religious work, and they
helped the preacher in his.
The error of the ministry for fifteen hundred years has been that it
has taken the work of Bible-readings, religious discussion, and personal
exhortation too much out of the hands of the people, and substituted
sermons instead.
Lay preaching, but without presbyterial appointments, has been
a prominent part of the evangelistic work of recent years. Among
Chapter XLVIII.] PROGRESS. 62 1
our own lay preachers are Dixon C. Williams and General A. P.
Stewart. General Stewart has never abandoned his secular busi-
ness to go out as evangelist, but has preached a great deal. While
he was chancellor of the University of Mississippi, he spent
most of his vacations holding meetings, and these meetings were
owned of Heaven, resulting in the conversion of many souls. Mr.
Williams, familiarly known as "Dixie" Williams, gave up his
business and his pleasant home, leaving his young wife and little
children behiufl him, in order to devote his whole strength to
preaching.
One of our old preachers, who knew Williams from childhood,
speaks thus of him and his work:
When Dixie first became a church member, his Ufe was a disap-
pointment. He is of the stock to which Thomas Calhoun belonged,
and I hoped he would become a preacher. I was troubled to find
his life not what I hoped for. Then Hammond came along, and Dixie
got worked over, and went to holding meetings in the by-ways and
hedges. I went to hear him. I had been all the time thinking of my
former disappointment. He rose, and, with deep feeling, made confes-
sion about past failures, and declared his fixed determination, by God's
grace to be what he professed — out and out the Lord's. He is doing
just that, and the Lord is using him. It is a curious fact that both in
the early and the recent history of Cumberland Presbyterians, our most
successful preachers have been Christians worked over.
Many of our evangelists prefer the plan of "reporting only to
God," and never publish any accounts of their meetings. It is,
therefore, not easy to obtain details of their work.
OUR DENOMINATIONAL PROGRESS.
In 1810 there were three Cumberland Presbyterian preachers ;
no churches. In 1812 we had eight preachers and thirty-three
congregations. In 1829 there were eighteen presbyteries, and a
General Assembly was organized. The number of ministers and
churches at that time is unknown. In 1842 there were fifty-three
presbyteries; other statistics unknown. In i860 the church had
ninety-seven presbyteries, and not less than fifteen chartered col-
leges. The total membership was estimated at one hundred thou-
sand, twenty thousand of whom were colored people. In 1887,
623 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
notwitlistanding the loss of all its colored members and ministers,
the church had one hundred and nineteen presbyteries, fifteen hun-
dred and sixty-three ministers, two thousand five hundred and forty
congregations, and over a hundred and forty-five thousand members.
The small number of candidates for the ministry and licentiates
— less than one third the number of ordained ministers — is a dis-
couraging feature in our recent denominational statistics. The old-
time plan of going to God with fasting and prayer, and asking him
to call more men to the work of the ministry should be revived.
There was a time when parents solemnly asked the Lord to lead
their own sons into this sacred calling. It would be well if such
personal prayers were still daily offered by parents. In nearly
every thing else our progress is most hopeful. In giving money
systematically to missions and other church work there is steady
and encouraging growth. In a few years more, at the present rate
of advancement, our people will not be ashamed of financial com-
parisons. There is a heresy of the pocket and the life which is worse
than heresy in the creed. The Moravians, it is said, are the freest
of all people from this practical heresy — this financial disloyalty to
Jesus. It would be well if a good large Moravian element could
enter into our membership.
A most hopeful sign of progress is the increasing number of
regular pastors. A far larger proportion of our congregations now
have permanently settled ministers, giving their whole time to the
work, than at any former period. Another most potent auxiliary
to church progress is* the very large circulation of the church paper.
Never before was so large a number of our members reached through
our own weekly organ. If its subscription extended to ever}' family
in the church, all our congregations and all our enterprises would
be quickened into new life.
Another auxiliar\' to this progress is the improved condition of
our theological school. The encouraging success of the endow-
ing agent gives promise that this school will soon be furnished with
a full faculty, and equipped with all needed facilities for its work. •
When this is done, will not Dr. Beard bend over the battlements
of heaven and weep tears of rapture over the realization of his
hopes and the answer to his prayers ?
Chapter XL VIII.] REFLECTIONS. 623
Some comfort in our deficiencies and hope for our future growth
may be derived from comparisons. The Presbyterian church in
America in 18 19 was about one hundred and fourteen years old —
that is, about thirty-seven years older than ours is to-day. At that
date it had, in all America, eleven synods and fifty-three presbyte-
ries. It had no Board of Publication and no Board of Foreign
Missions. Its Board of Domestic Missions was only two years old.
It is true that this slow progress may have been caused in part by
the revolutionary war, and adverse influences in colonial times;
but there were difficulties and hindrances in the early days of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church scarcely less embarrassing.
In a letter written by Rev. John L. Dillard, in 1883, when he
was over ninety years old, he says. "I think the outlook of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church is very bright. I think increasing
attention is paid to experimental and spiritual religion. So far as
I can learn the facts, God is greatly blessing the work of our min-
istry." On the subject of doctrines, also, this veteran gives utter-
ance to the belief that our people are maintaining the original
purity and soundness of the faith.
We have a far larger number of real scholars now than ever
before; but our spirituality will not stand comparison with that
which once made all our pulpits a blaze of fire. A young preacher,
talking recently to one of our old men, used something like these
words: "Doctor, how is it that so few of our preachers ever have any
earnest, spiritual conversations with each other. You and Dr. M.
are about the only ministers I think of now who ever seem to de-
sire such conversation. ' ' All this was vastly different once. John
Barnett used to say that he made it an invariable rule to speak at
least a few words for Jesus in every conversation he held with his
fellow-men. Something for Jesus, some little word for eternity in
every conversation, every letter, every visit, would make a vast dif-
ference in the aggregate influence of a life-time.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS.
In preparing such a history as this, an author necessarily studies
many subjects which he can not discuss in his book. The impres-
sion on his own mind is far broader and deeper than that which
624 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
lie can convey to his readers. Some few thoughts growing out
of these unrecorded impressions are now to be presented. Our
people will perhaps be startled by the declaration that Ewing,
King, and Mcx^dow were not the first Cumberland Presbyterians.
Yet in a very important sense this declaration is true. Every sa-
cred principle, for which the men of 1800 struggled and suffered,
had been strusfsrled for and suffered for in the Presbvterian church
of Scotland before any white man's cabin stood on the soil of
Tennessee.
The study of Hetherington is like reading over again the his-
tory of McGready's difficulties. It was the injected element, thrust
by the State into the true Presbyterian church, which opposed re-
vivals, which objected to laymen leading in prayer, which tram-
pled down the rights of presbyteries, as Lyle's synodical commis-
sion did. It was the same old struggle, when field meetings in
Kentucky took on the form they bore so long ago in the land of
our forefathers. The same old struggle between a hide-bound
fatality and a liberalized Calvinism had sprung up in almost every
revival the Presbyterians of past generations ever had. The same
struggle to reach the perishing masses, without being held back by
conditional red tape, had involved revival Presbyterians in contro-
versies long before the Cumberland Presbyterian church was born.
Oar church was raised up to be the conservator of evangelical,
liberal Presbyterianism.
The first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers all belonged to
the Scotch-Irish race. They were soldiers' sons, ecclesiastically,
and they felt bound to walk erect, but none the less were they gen-
uine Presbyterians. Their true kinsmen, ecclesiastically, must
ever be sought in the liberal party of the Presbyterian church.
There have always been two schools or shades of doctrine among
Calvinists. Of later years there are many minor shades, but even
in the Westminster Assembly there were two shades of doctrine.
Our doctrines are no new element in Presbyterianism. There has
been a scarlet thread of the same sort running through the whole
woof from the first. The doctrine of grace, a belief in the divine
influence of the Holy Spirit extending to all hearts, and the divine
longing for the salvation of all lost sinners, has in every age been
Chapter XLVIII.] REFLECTIONS. 625
found in the church. When liberal Calvinists work in revivals,
they become practically Cumberland Presbyterians. We have not
even added any new measures, except it be camp-meetings. Itin-
erant evangelism, and even lay evangelism were among the earliest
measures adopted by the revival party in the Scotch Presbyterian
church.
Our church is a conservator of the best and holiest elements of
revival Presb}-terianism. The mother church is our debtor in these
things. We are her debtor, too, in many things. From the lib-
eral element in her doctrines our theology is derived — the Bible
system, which makes salvation the gift of God, while it makes
death the wasfcs of sin. We are indebted to her for our whole
system of church government, and for that revival policy which
rests on God's truth and God's Holy Spirit given in answer to
prayer, and not on any human device. We are also indebted to
her for the s}-stem of settled pastorates. Though it was impossible
for our preachers and congregations to adopt this system at first,
we have ever clung to it in theory, and are now struggling to estab-
lish it throughout the denomination.
We owe the mother church a large debt also in the matter of
ministerial education. Even the abuse and misrepresentations of
our methods and policy by some of her writers did us great service.
That some of our presbyteries had drifted into laxness can not be
called in question, but the v/orthy example of the Presbyterian
church through her whole history has all the while been calling us
to higher things. Her schools and her literature have been trumpet
voices in our hearing. Above all else her theological schools have
been precious examples to our people. Cumberland Presbyterians,
in their efforts to make their seminar}^ all that it should be, find
great help in the history of similar institutions built by Presbyte-
rians. When our young men have sought better facilities than our
own school could furnish, they have nearly always gone to the
schools of liberal Calvinists — seldom or never to those of the Meth-
odists. The number of such young men has been very large.
Our natural and historic affinities are with the Reformed churches.
We have taken our place in the Presbyterian Alliance; now, let us
maintain it. If there are driftings in another direction they prom-
40
626 Cumberland Presuvterian History. [Period vi.
ise no good to our cause. Let us hold to our anchorage. Let us
clint>- to the system of doctrine which has been so blessed of Heaven
in our denominational career. Let us have done with the battles
about decrees. Fatality is nowhere preached now. There is no
use in forever fighting it. Organization, drill, work, missions,
progress, souls immortal, are the prizes now to be struggled for;
and in most of this work the Presbyterian church will furnish
models for our imitation.
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 627
CHAPTER XLIX.
ANECDOTES.
Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
— Lozvell.
THE sources from which these anecdotes are derived are the
church papers, and manuscript accounts written by eye-wit-
nesses. The incidents described in the manuscripts are so numer-
ous that it is impossible to put them all in this short chapter.
Selections have been made of such only as give the greatest prom-
ise of usefulness. These anecdotes belong to all periods of the
church's history. We begin the list with those dating farthest
back, but are not careful to preserve any exact chronological order
afterward.
ANECDOTE OF MRS. SAMUEL KING.
The v/ife of Rev. Samuel King was a daughter of Joseph Dixon,
of the Presbyterian church. Her son, the Rev. R. D. King, pub-
lished the following anecdote of his mother. The scene of this
incident was ]\Irs. King's girlhood's home, in the wilds of Ten-
nessee. The people were exposed to attacks from hostile savages,
and every settlement had its fort:
On one occasion, early in the morning, something attracted Mr.
Dixon's attention in the direction of the fort to which he helonged.
He immediately took his rifle in his hand, and cautiously proceeded
about one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards from the door of his
cabin. His manner was so unusual as to attract little Anna's attention.
She stood in the door watching her father with a throbbing heart,
though she knew not why. Suddenly a band of savage warriors
sprang from where they had been concealed, and, in a moment, Joseph
Dixon lay a corpse.
The savages, with hideous 3'ells, rushed for the house. Anna's only
safety now lay in flight. She determined to reach the fort, which was
628 CUMBKRLAND PrESBYTKRIAN HiSTORY. [Period VI.
six miles distant. Willi a sagacity and determination that far surpassed
her years, she commenced her flight. Soon she heard the band of sav-
ages yelling behind her; but she evaded them, and after a while all but
one of the Indians ceased their pursuit. The race between the two at
last became a silent race for life, in which a child in her twelfth year
fled from a young athletic warrior. Often the blood-thirsty pursuer
would hurl his tomahawk with all his power, at his intended victim; yet
each time it fell harmless, not at her feet, but far beyond her.
As they approached the fort, the man who was on guard saw the
race and threw open the gate. Just as the little girl sprang in, the
cruel and determined savage poised himself steadily, and as the last
fearful act of his life, hurled his tomahawk at her as she lay Glinting
from exhaustion. But, as before, the weapon missed its aim, and fell
far beyond her. At the report of the sentinel's rifle, the pursuer fell
dead twenty or twenty-five steps from the gate of the fort.
A TIMELY ARRIVAL.
The Rev. Le Roy Woods published the following incident con-
nected with the history of the church in Pennsylvania:
Morgan's health, never very robust, had, by travel and incessant
labor, become very much impaired, and he had arranged to leave Penn-
sylvania for the South at the close of the Waynesburg meeting. Aston
remained in Washington County. This would leave Bryan alone. De-
cember had come, the cold was becoming intense, and Morgan had to
leave. The hearts of these two men, ^lorgan and Bryan, had become
knit together as the hearts of Jonathan and David. The idea of being
separated, especially at this time, was very painful. It had been
arranged that they should spend the night together at the house of a
Mr. Jennings, one mile out of Waynesburg, and that one of them
should preach in this private residence. The religious interest was still
very deep, and at an early hour the house was filled. Every room was
crowded; the hall and the stairway were packed with people, anxious
to hear. Morgan was too ill to sit up, and was compelled to leave the
room, and lie on a bed up-stairs. Bryan was expected to preach.
Just before service began a stranger came to the gate. His clothing
and appearance indicated that he was a traveler on a long journey.
His apparel was rather plain and somewhat worn. He was evidently
suffering from the severe cold, and the fatigue of the day's travel. He
inquired for the Rev. A. M. Bryan. Who was this stranger ? What
was he, and what did he want with the minister ? These thoughts
passed through the minds of all, and all were anxious for an explana-
tion.
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 629
Bryan came to the door. One g.lance at the stranger, and in an in-
stant he was at the gate, grasping the hand of the new-comer, and bid-
ding him to alight and come in. He then introduced him as his dear
friend and fellow-laborer from Kentucky, the Rev. Milton Bird. Bryan
was relieved; Bird would preach. Bryan ran up stairs to tell Moro-an
that Bird had come just at a time when help was indispensable. They
both wept for joy, thanking God and taking courage. Bryan would not
now be left alone.
Morgan was too ill to come down to take part in the service. He
was intensely anxious to hear the man who was to take his place when
he was gone. He said: " 1 listened closely, but I heard but little of the
prayer; I was disappointed, I felt discouraged, I tried to pray God to
help the new preacher. The first part of the sermon I lost entirely. I
grew more despondent. But as the discourse progressed, and the
speaker began to warm with his subject, I could hear an occasional sen-
tence. I was favorably impressed. As he pr.oceeded, and I began to
hear more distinctly, I became more deeply interested. I found myself
sitting on the side of the bed. In that position I could hear every sen-
tence, and my feelings became more deeply enlisted. I went to the
head of the stairway; I was delighted. There was thought, there was
reason, there was the Bible, there was logic in every sentence. His
words were falling like burning coals on the hearts and consciences of
his hearers. The close was a most happy one. I went back to my bed,
weeping tears of joy, and feeling that our cause was safe in the hands
of such men as Bryan and Bird."
A QUARREL SETTLED BY A SONG.
The following was also published by the Rev. Le Roy Woods:
On a certain occasion, when a large congregation was assembled to
hear Mr. Bryan preach, a dispute arose between the Presbyterians and
our people, in reference to which were entitled to the use of the house
at a certain hour. Many present forgot the proprieties of the time and
place, and the controversy became very hot and unchristian in spirit.
In the midst of their wrangling and contention, Mr. Bryan rose up in
the pulpit and began to sing, in a clear, solemn voice the hymn.
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
The effect was wonderful. Before the first stanza was completed,
the storm of passion was stilled, and all were silent. Before "the sweet
singer" had completed the closing lines,
And God who called me here below
Shall be forever mine,
630 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
tears in many eyes proclainied the deep emotion of the audience. At
the close of the hymn, the difficulty was amicably and lovingly adjusted,
and the two denominations continued to occupy the house with uninter-
rupted good feeling and harmony.
CONQUERED BY KINDNESS.
This camp-meeting anecdote was published in one of the church
papers :
Once at a camp-meeting, before the first service coini'ncnced, a
huckster wagon drove up. The man had given great trouble at a meet-
ing held by members of another denomination a few weeks before, and
had been fined heavily for disturbing religious worship. The Rev. J. Af.
Berry proposed that all the preachers and people present should visit the
huckster in a body. This plan was adopted, and Mr. Berry began a
friendly conversation with the huckster. The man stated that he did
not wish to create any disturbance, and that he did not sell intoxicating
hquor. !Mr. Berry said " Our intention is to worship God." He pointed
out the good effects of religion. "Now," said he to the huckster, "if
you intend to do no harm, but wish to do good, will you not jiromise
us that you will attend preaching when we do, and, when the services
are not going on, supply those who wish to purchase any thing you
have for sale?" "Yes," said he, " if you will agree that I may take my
position near the camps, so that I may be in sight, should any one be
disposed to disturb my W'agon." This also was agreed to. " But," said
Mr. Berry, "the Sabbath is not our time, and none of us have the right
to buy or sell on that holy day. You will also agree not to wound the
feelings of the good people, and sin against God, by keeping ojDen
on the Sabbath." The man agreed to this also. He kept his word in
every particular, and wept like a child under preaching. On Sabbath
he carried his cakes around in armfuls, and distributed them gratui-
tously among the camp-holders and their children. On Monday morn-
ing he left us. He reported that Cumberland Presbyterians were all
gentlemen.
THROUGH HEAD AND PIEART.
When Samuel j\I. Aston was preaching in Pennsylvania he visited
one of our churches in which a learned Universalist had proved
too powerful in argument for the session and the pastor. When
told of the case, Aston replied: "I will shoot him through the
head Sunday morning, and through the heart Sunday night."
At the servdce Sabbath morning Aston' s sermon sw^ept away all
the arguments of the Universalist, till he writhed and groaned in his
\
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 63I
seat. At night, Aston' s presentation of Christ's dying love to lost
sinners melted the poor man to tears, and won him to a personal
trust in Christ alone for salvation.
TARDINESS CURED,
The Rev. Samuel M, Aston begun his labors with a Pennsylvania
congregation whose people were rather noted for their tardiness in
attending the services. When he had preached once or twice, and
had discovered how slow the people were, he announced that there
would be services the next Sabbath at 10:30 o'clock precisely.
The people did not notice, particularly, the emphasis he placed on
the last word. The next Sabbath, punctual to the minute, Mr.
Aston arose and began the services, though not more than a dozen
members of his usually large congregation were in attendance.
His discourse was a little shorter than usual, and his congregation
was dismissed and the people on their way home by 11:30 o'clock.
It was ^musing to see the tardy worshipers coming in. Some
arrived just as the preacher was closing his discourse, some during
the last hymn, and some just in time for the benediction; while
the latest stragglers met the returning congregation, and turned
homeward without reaching the church. On the next Sabbath, at
10:30 o'clock precisely, the people were all in their seats, waiting
for the services to begin.
"the root of the matter."
Here is a little picture of Dr. Beard's as a school-boy, drawn by
himself in an article in the Banner of Peace. It shows that if a
student has "the root of the matter" in him, he will somehow
find the road to noble attainments.
I made up my mind to preach. It was a great trial, but I had, in a
great measure, to "let the dead bury their dead." In the course of the
winter I had the opportunity of spending a few weeks at what seemed a
good school. A young man, who was preparing for the Methodist min-
istry, was teaching in one of our congregations, and I bought Murray's
English Grammar and turned in with him. His stock of knowledge,
how^ever, was soon exhausted, and I had not learned much about the
grammar. But in the following spring a good old patriarchal elder of
the church heard of my case. He lived within four miles of one of the
best schools in the country. He proposed to board me a few months
632 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
gratuitously, if I could stand the walk to that school. I thought of
nothins: but beinjj able to stand it. A neiafhborinjj conjjreeation made
& o 0000
me up seven dollars and a half for the purchase of necessary books.
I bought Cumming's Geography and Atlas, Ferguson's Astronomy
Abridged, Watts' Logic, and the whole set of Murray's Practical Ex-
ercises, Key, etc., and set myself earnestly to work for the summer.
My reader will perhaps smile, but I can not help it; this was my liter-
ary outfit. I think I had the root of the matter in me. I walked the
four miles in the morning, and back in the evening, over a hilly road,
day in and day out. I literally committed to memory large portions of
Watts' Logic. I studied every thing with a mind to it; I had crossed
the Rubicon; my heart was upon the ministry. I did a good work that
summer. My testimonials from that school are still in my possession —
fifty-three years old. They were read at the following meeting of the
presbytery by one of the old men, and pronounced very good.
ANECDOTE OF THE REV. R. D. MORROW.
One of tlie church papers many years ago published the follow-
ing anecdote: •
About the year 1S20 the legislature of ^Missouri was m session at
the town of St. Charles. The Hon. John Miller, a Cumberland Pres-
byterian, was the representative from Ilow^ard County. The Rev. Mr.
R., who was then regarded as the giant of the Baptist church in Mis-
souri, visited St. Charles, and 2:)reached to the legislature on this text:
"For I say unto you. That except yom- righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven." The next day the Hon. Henry S. Guj-er, of
St. Louis, also a member of the legislature, approached Mr. Miller, and
criticised the sermon, remarking that Mr. R.'s views of law were un-
sound, and that, before a competent jurv, his reasoning could easily
be torn into fragments. Mr. Miller replied: "We have a little circuit
rider up in our country who can 2:>reach law which you can not tear to
pieces." A few weeks afterward, on returning to his room, Mr. Miller
found that his "little circuit rider " — the Rev. R. D. ISIorrow — had called
to see him. It w^as arranged for Morrow to preach in the Senate cham-
ber. Mr. Miller took special pains to notify Mr. Guycr to attend. The
hour arrived, and a promiscuous crowd of law-makers and law^ violaters
had assembled. When the preacher entered the door, and walked down
the long aisle of the chamber, dressed in plain homespun jeans, with
his saddle-bags on his arm, all eyes were turned to get a view of !Mr.
Miller's circuit rider. jSIr. Morrow's unprepossessing appearance caused
many eyes, among them Mr. Guyer's, to be turned upon Mr. Miller,
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 633
with an inquiring glance, as mucli as to say, "Is that your law
preacher?" The services proceeded. Strange as it may seem, Mr.
Morrow, without any kno ledge of what had passed on the former
occasion, announced the sam, subject upon which Mr. R. had preached.
In a few minutes the audience was spell-bound, and for one hour many
hearts were made to burn within them, while the preacher opened up
God's glorious plan of justification and redemption. Even Mr. Guyer
could not refrain from emotion; and as they walked out of the chamber
he said to Mr. Aliller, "That law will do; I can't pick any flaws in that
man's views of law."
THE RULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH.
When the Rev. R. D. King lay dying the members of his con-
gregation resolved to visit him in a body. King was notified of
their coming; and, when his beloved flock were gathered around
him, he had them bring him his Bible and prop him up in bed.
Taking a text, he then proceeded to preach them a sermon. The
voice was feeble; the body was sinking into the grave; but his soul
was filled watli God's Spirit; and an unconverted woman that day,
in that chamber of the dying saint, found Jesus and salvation. He
had been in the ministry sixty-two years, and winning souls had
been his riiling passion through all these years. For that work he
had patiently borne the most wonderful hardships, and he rejoiced
on his death-bed that he had been counted worthy of suffering such
hardships for Christ's sake. So, greatly to his delight, God used
him even in death in bringing one more soul into everlasting light.
O happy servant he whom his Master finds thus watching! King's
death was at his Texas home, in 1883. He was then past his three-
score and ten, and glad to meet his summons home to heaven.
COMFORT THROUGH FAITHFULNESS.'
In Mississippi, forty years ago, there was a young lady who, in
her childhood, had professed conversion, but had afterward fallen
into doubt. Her doubts grew upon her, and at the annual camp-
meeting she sought counsel of the preachers and other Christians,
and struggled alone in prayer to God for light and comfort. But
she found no relief; the darkness was not dispelled, but grew
' This and the following incident are furnished by the Rev. J. G. Boydstun, of
Mississippi.
634 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
thicker. Finally she settled it in her heart that she had com-
mitted the unpardonable sin, and was hopelessly lost. Along with
this conclusion came also the determination to spend all the rest of
her life in laboring to keep others from falling into the same
lamentable condition. When the usual call for mourners came at
the next service, she began to act on her resolution. Going to
a seat filled with unconverted young ladies, she told them that she
was herself hopelessly lost, but she wanted her young friends to
escape so bitter a destiny. One of them rose and went to the
mourner's bench, saying she felt as if a lost spirit had been sent
from the dead to warn her. Others followed her example. The
despairing messenger still went with her warnings among the
young people, and at last a large number of her associates were
among the happy converts. Then all her doubts forever vanished,
and from that day slie has lived in the sweet assurance of her own
salvation.
ANECDOTE OF THE REV. F. M. FINCHER.
]\Tany years ago the Methodists were holding a camp-meeting
in the neighborhood where the Rev. F. M. Fincher, of the Cum-
berland Presb\-terian church, lived. The meetinor drafr^red throuofh
its allotted time without any conversions. The campers advised
the presiding elder to close the meeting. The congregation was at
that time gathered in front of "the stand." The elder asked IMr.
Fincher to say a few words, intending then to close the meeting.
Fincher rose and stood for some moments in front of the stand,
silently weeping. Then he quoted Jeremiah ix. i: "O that my
head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears," and pro-
ceeded to make an earnest exhortation. The Holy Spirit was
poured out; mourners were called; conversions followed. The
meeting was protracted, and was given over almost entirely into
Fincher' s hands. There was a great spiritual victory whose fruits
still abide.
]Mr. Fincher and the Rev. John Nicholson, of the same presby-
tery, were comrades in toil, and their labors were often blessed with
gracious results similar to those just described. To this day the
people of Mississippi remember a sermon preached by Nicholson,
when he was so worn down with toil that he could scarcely stand
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 635
on his feet. Ever}' sentence from his lips went like an arrow to
the people's hearts. At the close of that wonderful sermon a little
boy led the prayer, and people said it was an angel's voice pleadino-
for sinners. This boy afterward became a minister of the gospel.
A MISSOURI CAMP-MEETING.
The year 1854 was onp of great drouth in some parts of Missouri,
the severest ever known to the people of that State. It continued
from June 1S54 to IMay 1855. Trees died, stock perished, people
were in extreme suffering for lack of water. The "Salt Fork"
Cumberland Presbyterian church had a pretty large membership.
About one third of these members wanted to hold their annual
camp-meeting, drouth or no drouth. The other two thirds ear-
nestly objected, and positively refused to co-operate. Only three
families were willing to move to the encampment. Still the
minority resolved to hold the meeting. They secured the services
of the Rev. J. B. I\Iorrow, and the Rev. P. G. Rea. They got
permission to use a dry well near the camp-ground. From a big
spring, three miles distant, they hauled water in barrels and filled
the well. By keeping a wagon constantly running all through
the meeting, they kept a supply of water in this reservoir. At first
only a few people were present. Part of the few were rowdies who
attended for the purpose of making disturbance, and for several
days resorted to various methods of interrupting the services. At
last some of them went so far as to pretend to be seeking religion.
The instructions which these pretended mourners recei\-ed were
such as to m.ake their ears tingle. Finally they became so
frightened at the solemnity of the meeting, that they ran away.
Then their leader began to feel real* conviction, and sought his
Savior in good earnest. In spite of drouth, opposing members,
and lawless rowdies, God blessed his faithful servants with a gra-
cious revival. About seventy conversions were counted among the
results of the meeting.
THE BARN MEETING.
In 185 1 there was in Saline County, Missouri, a neighborhood
which had no church of any denomination. The Rev. P. G. Rea
made arrangements to hold an out-door meeting in a oTove near a
636 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
large barn in that neighborhood. Rain setting in, the services were
held in the barn. There was good interest, and the meetings were
continued two weeks. One of the mourners was a bright little
girl whose father was an unconverted man. This father feigned
to be sick, and kept away from the meetings more than a week,
but his wife was praying for him. At last, on Sabbath, he ventured
to attend. That day his daughter was still a mourner, but before
the services ended she was converted. Then she went to her father
and asked him to seek his Savior. He promptly agreed to do so,
and went with her to the mourner's bench, where he also found
peace in believing. Though now old, he still maintains a consist-
ent Christian life. This meeting in the barn was the origin of the
Mt. Horeb church.
A TRIAL AND A TRIUMPH.
In Logan County, Kentucky, in the great revival of 1800, a
youthful daughter of George McLean became a Christian. Her
father was at that time a gambler, distiller, and man of the world
generally. The daughter, Elizabeth, was a disturbing element in
the godless revels of the family. The father tried through several
of her associates to win her back to a worldly life. Then, as now,
the dance was relied upon as the entering wedge to divide asunder
the Christian and the Savior. But all efforts to entangle Elizabeth
in this snare of Satan utterly failed. Then her father changed his
tactics. As she would not go to balls, he resolved to have one at
his own house. When the guests were assembled, and all in-
ducements had failed to make her dance, he said to her: "You
profess to go by your Bible. The Bible commands you to obey
your parents. I now order you positively to dance the next set
with me, your father." She obeyed, but spent the time while she
was dancing in solemn prayer to God for the conversion of her
father. Her face was pale, her countenance sad, her eyes were
filled with tears. All present felt impressed by her conduct. Her
father broke down, publicly asked her pardon, and began to pray
for salvation. He never rested until he became a rejoicing Chris-
tian. Other members of the family were brought into the fold.
Year after year McLean was found in his tent at old Mt. ISIoriah
camp-ground, ready to co-operate with Chapman and Harris in
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 637
their annual camp-meetings. The family all became Christians,
and have all of them made their record among the best workers
of our church. When it became necessary for him to move to an-
other neighborhood, where there was no camp-ground, Mr. McLean
established one. He built five camps, and agreed to furnish all the
provisions if his neighbors would occupy his camps and feed the
people. Elder A. J. McLean was his son, and the Rev. George D.
McLean, of precious memory, was his grandson.
ANOTHER DANCING INCIDENT.
In 1867 in a Tennessee town lived a beautiful and wealthy lady
who was fond of dancing. There was a revival in the town, and
the only daughter of this fashionable lady was among the converts.
She wanted to join the church, but her parents opposed. The
pastor visited them, and discussed the question very earnestly with
them. They said: "No; she shall not join. You would not let
her dance, and we intend her to be a society woman. ' ' They car-
ried their point. A society v/oman she became. She is still a
society woman, but the scene of her sad career has changed. She
now leads a life of shame in the great city, and the mother lives
with her daughter. The tree is known by its fruits.
A WAR INCIDENT.
At the battle of Murfreesboro, Rev. W. P. McBryde, who was
afterward chaplain, went along with his regiment. After the
great battle was over, he found a bullet hole in his shoe, another
in his haversack, and another through the back of his coat. A
ball had torn off the front part of his vest pocket. Another had
passed between his sleeve and breast, cutting the coat. Taking
out his Bible from his side pocket for his regular scripture reading
that night, he found a bullet hole through the Bible. And yet
McBryde himself had received no woimd. Some will say all such
things are the result of chance, or of nature's laws; and some of
us prefer seeing the protecting hand of a loving Father shielding
a life for which he still had other uses.
A CASE OF FASTING AND PRAYER.
The Rev. R. G. Sims was holding a meeting in Arkansas.
Two sisters were attending, one a Christian, the other not. The
638 Cu:\[r>ERLAXD Prespa-teriax History. [Period vi.
Christian sister asked Sims what he thought about fasting. He is
an earnest believer in its efficacy. He gave the young lady inci-
dents pointing to the divine blessing on fasting as a means of grace.
She resolved to observe a protracted season of fasting and prayer
for her sister's conversion. At the closing hour of her appointed
fast she was seated beside that sister in the church. Up to this
time no indications of any answer to her prayer had been given.
The unconverted sister had made no public demonstration of inter-
est or concern; but now she rose to her feet, and, extending her
hand, said very quietly: "Your prayers are answered; I am saved."
Going through the congregation in the same quiet way, she com-
municated the same intelligence to her friends and acquaintances.
Her life since that day gives evidence of genuine conversion.
A GAINSAYER CONVERTED.
At one of Mr. Sims' meetings, a woman who ridiculed experi-
mental religion, carried her Bible to church and made a vigorous
canvass among the mourners, trying to prove that the minister's
teachings about repentance, and faith, and the love of God in the
heart were unscriptural and false. She was nois}-, insolent, and
persistent, vSinis inquired about her, and learned that her parents
were good IMethodists. Taking an elder with him to the grove,
the two joined in prayer to God for the fulfillment of the promise
made in Psalms Ixxiv. 10-12. The meetings Avent on, and the
mocker pursiied her opposition. Then her daughter was among
the rejoicing converts. The mother railed on her, argued with
her, but the daughter, after hearing respectfully all that her mother
had to say, replied calmly: " I can not but testify to what I know
and feel in my own soul. I know I am happy in Jesus." At this
the mother fell prostrate and began praying for salvation. She
continued to seek, until she was enabled to testify before tlie whole
congregation that she now knew for herself the reality of that
spiritual experience which she had ridiculed. ]\Iembers of her
church then interfered, and took her home. They said she was
crazy. Her husband was absent, driving stock to market. They
wrote to him that his wife had lost her reason. He sacrificed his
stock, and hurried home, expecting to find his wife a hopeless
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 639
wreck. To liis delight lie found lier in her right mind more than
she had ever been before. After a few daj's' observation he went to
the church of which he and his wife had both been members, and
asked them to take his name off their rolls.
A BAND OF ROWDIES CONQUERED.
At one of the meetings which Mr. Sims held in Arkansas, a
band of unconverted men determined to break up the meeting.
Sims went to God in fasting and prayer. The wife and daughter
of the ringleader of the band became deeply concerned about their
souls, and went to the mourner's bench. This enraged the wicked
man. At the next service he took his stick and went with his
family to church, declaring it to be his purpose to beat the preacher
with his stick. Sims, who had just ended one of his seasons of
fasting and prayer, made his usually solemn though simple talk,
and then started through the congregation to the spot where the
man with his stick was seated. There was a power in the preach-
er's presence which made this boastful opj)oser of religion tremble.
Along with this power, given in answer to prayer, the minister
showed that fearlessness which the conscious assurance of divine
protection always imparts. As Sims approached, the ruffian re-
treated, leaving the church and going to his home. The wife and
daughter were converted that day, and when they entered their
house they found the wicked man prostrate in prayer. He was at
last converted and went to work for other lost souls. He held
prayers in his family, and gave of his money freely to the cause of
Christ. Other violent opposers were also reached by the Holy
Spirit, and became part of the praying band.
THE KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH.
When the Rev. W. H. Crawford was young in the ministr}^, he
and another minister held a series of meetings not far from his
home in East Tennessee. The congressman for that district was
present. While this man was very popular, he was not a Chris-
tian, and his presence was a terror to the young preachers. During
the sermon, however, the preacher forgot the fear of man, and pro-
claimed with power the plain truth of God. The congressman was
in tears. Seeing this, Mr. Crawford went to him when the sermon
640 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
closed, and said: " Mr. C, you need no argument from me to con-
vince you that you ought to be a Christian." He answered: "I
do not." The preacher said: "There is one thing more that you
ought to know, if you do not already know it. You are standing
in the way of others."
The congressman rose to his feet, and speaking aloud, said: "I
want it distinctly understood that I will stand in the way of no-
body. If you want to be Christians, come along with me to the
mourner's bench." Grasping a prominent friend in each hand, he
led the way to the place of prayer. There were sixty conversions
there that day, including nearly all the adult sinners of the neigh-
borhood. A church was organized, a house built, and Crawford
was called to be pastor of the new flock. In this relation he re-
mained for many years. The congregation still lives.
A PRESBYTERIAN ELDER CONVINCED.
At this meeting just described, there was a Presbyterian
elder who had been bitterly prejudiced against "the Cumber-
lands." When, however, he saw the conversion of the congress-
man, and after that the conversion of his own children, his preju-
dices were all swept away, and he became as demonstrative in his
religious raptures as any one else at the meeting. This elder, like
thousands of others in that day, had been taught to believe that
" Cumberlands " and "New Lights" were one and the same, and
that our church had no written creed, but was opposed to Confes-
sions of Faith.
A CHRISTMAS PARTY.
The unconverted young men of an East Tennessee neighbor-
hood met to decide how to enjoy the approaching Christmas.
After some conversation it was proposed to send for the Rev. W.
H. Crawford, have a meeting, all of them agreeing to seek their
souls' salvation. The proposition was adopted, and a petition was
drawn up stating that they desired Mr. Crawford to come and hold
a meeting with a view to their conversion. They all signed the
petition. Mr. Crawford complied with their request. At the first
service he read the petition to the congregation. One dear (3ld
Methodist shouted when he heard the paper read. The meetings
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 64I
were wonderfully successful. About one hundred conversions were
reported. Among these were all but one of the young men who
had signed the petition. One declared it to be a mere joke. He
mocked at the meeting, and opposed it A few days afterward, in
the same church at a public meeting, he was attacked with a sud-
den illness, and fell dead from his pew.
TWO CASES CONTRASTED.
On the last day of one of our great camp-meetings in the olden
time, a preacher was going silently about among the people, talking
with the unconverted. One of the persons whom he approached
was a young man named Joe. After some preliminaries Joe said:
"I have deliberately made up my mind to wait till the Providence
camp-meeting, two weeks from now, and then to seek religion."
Afterward the preacher had a conversation with a young lady who
was also unconverted. She said, "I don't intend to leave this
camp-ground till I find my Savior. ' ' She kept her word. When
the last service was over and the congregation was dismissed, she
refused to go away. Some friends remained with her, and at two
o'clock that night she found peace in believing. The next week
she and Joe both died. Joe said, with his last breath, "Lost, for-
ever lost!" The young lady, with her last breath, proclaimed the
joys of salvation. Her face was radiant with heavenly light even
until the pulses ceased to beat.
A DEFEAT CHANGED TO VICTORY.
Bethel and Shiloh were the names of two camp-grounds in
West Tennessee where the beloved Robert Baker used to win
many a triumph as God's own chosen minister. After Christ
called Baker home, there was one camp-meeting at Bethel which,
though attended by even larger congregations than usual, seemed
to be an utter failure. The last day of the meeting came. The
campers loaded their wagons to return to their homes. They were
disappointed and sad. Never before had Bethel camp-meeting
closed without any conversions. Parents were there who had been
looking fondly to that meeting as the time when their unconverted
children would be brought to the Lord. There were many bowed
heads and heavy hearts. Although the wagons were all loaded
41
642 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period \'i.
and every thing ready for going home, still all seemed reluctant to
leave the encampment. Men were seated silently abont the camps;
women were weeping. Mrs. Lon. Bigham was one of the best
Christians in that neighborhood. She sat with her head bowed
upon a table, not weeping, but praying. After a while her prayers
grew articulate. Then they became audible. Others seated about
also began to pray. In a few moments there was a girdle of
prayer around the encampment. It was not social prayer, but
each one prayed apart. Some lay prostrate, some were on their
knees, and some were seated. After a few moments more I\Irs.
Bigham's voice rang with the accents of victory. God had given
her assurance that her prayer v/as accepted. The power of the
Spirit touched the unconverted, and soon in every tent there was
some poor sinner seeking salvation. Outside, scattered here and
there, were little groups of praying ones bowed together with some
anxious inquirers after salvation. No dinner was eaten. At night
the wagons were unloaded, and public services were held. Before
that meeting closed the names of more than two hundred converts
had been enrolled. Among these converts were several vounof
men wdio afterward became ministers of the gospel.
A mother's prayers.
About forty-eight years ago the grandmother of the Rev. J. N.
McDonald was living with her son, Alexander McDonald, in Xer-
million County, Illinois. She was a devoted member of the Pres-
byterian church, but her son was not a Christian. She, however,
kept up regular family worship with her son's household. E}i and
by her pra}-ers became very personal. She pleaded for tlie conver-
sion of her son. He did not like this, and expostulated with her.
She told him that she would agree to refrain from such direct
prayers on condition that he v/ould go at once for the Rev. 'Mr. Ross
(a Cumberland Presbyterian minister), and have him come and
hold a meeting there in their own house. There was no meeting-
house in the neighborhood. The ground was then covered with
snow, but with some reluctance and misgivings the condition was
accepted. Ross came and held the meeting. A gracious revival
was the result. Many persons were converted, and a Cumberland
Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 643
Presbyterian church was organized with forty members. The first
name on its roll was Mrs. IMcDonald's. That church still exists.
Nearly all the members of that branch of the McDonald family,
wherever they are now scattered, are Cumberland Presbyterians.
A JEW CONVERTED.
Many years ago Mr. D. , a thriving Hebrew merchant, lived in
a Tennessee town. The services of the Rev. C. A. Davis, D.D.,
were secured to hold a series of meetings in 'the Cumberland Pres-
byterian church. This Jewish citizen attended the meetings and
became an ardent admirer of the preacher. One day Dr. Davis
discussed the prophecies which point to Christ as the Messiah of
the Old Testament. D. was present, and gave close attention. As
the proofs were brought nearer and nearer to a demonstration, the
sweat rolled from D.'s face. At last the preacher closed up the last
link in the chain of his argument. The Jew saw it all like a flash
of lightning. In an instant, right in the midst of the sermon, he
cried out at the top of his voice, "O thou son of David, have
mercy upon me." He became an earnest Christian, and his whole
family followed him into the Cumberland Presbyterian church,
where he maintained a consistent membership until the day of his
death.
L. c. ransom's discipline.
While L. C. Ransom was pastor at Memphis, Tennessee, a lady
who had been an active and faithful member in his congregation
attended the theater. Afterward she began to have some anxiety
about what her pastor would say on the subject. Finally she made
up her mind to put on a bold face. She would resent any attempts
to lecture her as an interference with her private rights, and assert
her ability to judge for herself what was proper conduct for a church
member. Her first meeting with the pastor was in his study alone.
He met her kindly, took her cordially by the hand, and, bursting
into tears, turned away and hid his face from her sight. She then
and there resolved never again to attend the theater.
presentiment of death.
In 1871 the Rev. A. J. McGown was attending the meeting of
Trinity Presbytery. He preached Friday. Saturday he was again
644 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi.
appointed to preach. When he rose in the pulpit those who had
long known him say that they never before saw on his face such an
expression of solemnity. He commenced by saying: " Brethren, I
feel impressed that this is to be my last sermon, and I want to take
this text, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to ever}'
creature.' " The sermon was one of great power. He returned
after services to the house of Mr. Murchison, where he took his
bed, from which he rose no more.
INDEX.
A.
Adair, Rev. Wayman, enters the ministry, 162; in Mississippi, 259.
Alabama, planting churches in, 155; an incident, 161; beset with
trials, 162, 163.
Alabama Presbytery, manner of organization, 158; a hard field, 159;
its candidates, 161; condemning the convention, 236.
Allegheny Presbytery, when organized, 291.
Allen, Joseph W., an incident of, 455.
Allen, Rev. O. D., 614.
Alton (111-), Board of Missions, 382, 441.
Anecdotes, 627-644.
Anderson, Rev. Alexander, written discourse of, 48; licensed, 49;
gifts of, 54; prayer answered, 55.
Anderson, Rev. Jesse, publishing agent, 580.
Anderson, Rev. Dr. S. T., missionary to Trinidad, 479-4S1; return of,
4S2; professor in Waynesburg College, 539.
Anderson, Rev. Dr. T. C, biographical sketch of Rev. George Don-
nell, 145, 146; assistant editor, 231; in Ohio, 298; an incident,
305; professor in Cumberland University, 509, 510; president,
511; resignation, 516.
Anti-Revival Party, 61.
Ark, The, 593.
Arkansas, planting of church in, 18S— 200.
Arkansas Presbytery, when and where constituted, 195; no quorum,
196; extension, 196; meetings, 197.
Armstrong, Rev. J. C, missionary to Turkey, 335; commissioned to
go to the North-west, 338; an incident, 338; organizes churches,
339; glimpses of his work, 339, 340. 443-447.
Ashmore, Rev. H. H., extract from manuscript of, 172; incidents of,
424, 425.
(645)
646 Index.
Aston, Rev, S. M., sent to East Tennessee, 145; in Pennsylvania, 284;
in Ohio, 299; anecdotes of, 630, 631.
Austin (Texas), 458.
AxTELL, Rev. Philip, editor The Religious Pantagraph and Semi-
Centennial^ 592.
B.
Bacon, Rev. Sumner, rejected as a candidate, 263; first Protestant to
preach in Texas, 264; adventures of, 263-266; hcensed and
ordained the same day, 266; at a meeting of Mississippi Synod,
268.
Baird, Rev. Dr. A. J., compiler of hymn book, 589; corresponding
delegate, 449, 450; instructor in Greene Academy, 528; author
of Mahlon's Letters, 591; death, 467.
Baker, Rev. Mr., 429.
Baker, Rev. Robert, sent to East Tennessee, 145; to West Tennes-
see, 149; 641.
Baker, Rev. Robert W., missionary to the Indians, 330; principal of
Armstrong Academy, 330.
Balch, Rev. Mr., opposition of, 39, 80.
Baldridge, Rev. W. H., testimony of, 32.
Banner of Peace, 238, 389, 591.
Barnett, Rev. John, first sermon in Illinois, 168; lease of, 216.
Barnett Presbytery, when organized, 185; its original members,
185.
Barnett, Rev. William, biographical sketch of, 92; won to missions,
136; in West Tennessee, 150.
Baxter, Rev. Dr., testimony of, 23, 24; jerks, 47.
Beard, Rev. Dr. R., testimony of, 36; sketch of Rev. W. Harris, 95;
sketch of Rev. Robert Bell, 141; sent to Forked Deer circuit,
149; 222: elected president of Cumberland College, 224, 227; his
assistants there, 227; closed his work at, 22S; in charge of Sharon
Academy, 259; a corresponding delegate, 317, 318; anti-slavery
record, 412, 413; 450; page in Assembly's Minutes set apart to,
458; professor in theological department Cumberland University,
514, 515. report on education, 556; anecdote of, 631, 632.
Index. 647
Beck, Rev. W. W., 617.
Beech Church, 15; historic interest, 121. '
Beesox, Rev. Dr. W. E., president of Trinity University, 552; resig-
nation, 553.
Bell, Rev. Dr. C. H., address of, 475; in St. Louis, 471; lectures in
'Theological School, 506; president of Union Female College,
565; president Board of Missions, 476.
Bell, Rev. Robert, at school, 6; testimony of, 17; biographical
' sketch, 91; prepares constitution for first missionary society, 139;
sent as an evangelist, 130; school opened, 133; convictions as
to education, 134; government aid secured, 134; could not be
driven away, 135; his correspondence, 136-140; mission closed,
140, biographical sketch by Rev. Dr. Beard, 141; sent to Hunt's
Sprnig, 156.
Bell, Rev. R. S., missionary to the Indians, 330; 441.
Berry, Rev. J. M., anecdotes of, 306, 608, 609, 630.
Bethel College (Tcnn.), 566-56S; origin of, 566; struggles of young
men, 566, 567; a lesson on concentration, 567; its succession of
presidents, 568.
Bethel Presbytery (Indian), when organized, 389; 476, 477.
Best, Rev. James, in Logansport (Ind.), 474.
Beverly College (Ohio), origin of, 531, 532.
BiDDLE, Rev. J. G., professor in Cumberland College, 227; at Win-
Chester, Tenn., 228.
Big Spring Church, origin, 121 ; Rev. Thomas Calhoun first pastor,
133.
Bird, Rev. Dr. Milton, reply to the Presbyterian, 46; paper of, 339,
' 240; arrival in Pennsylvania, 283, 628; editor of the Union and
Evangelist, 291; opening sermons, 311, 391; chairman Commit-
tee of Publication, 314; chairman of Committee on Fraternal
Correspondence, 318; clerk of General Assembly, 320; opposed
to concentration, 362; opposed to abolition of synods, 389; editor,
595, 596; professor In Madison College, 529; publishing agent,
579; sermon of, 391; report of, 558; death of, 449; 629.
Black, Rev. F. G., at Lebanon, Ohio, 29S; in Cincinnati, 323, 377.
Black, Rev. W. H., in St. Louis, 472; not admitted to Pan-Presbyte-
rian Council, 462; report of, 463.
648 Index.
Blackijuun, Rev. Dk., " tokens," 19; revivals, 24; a revival meetino-,
43; "jerks," 47; a leader in East Tennessee, 143; mission to the
Indians, 128.
Blackwell, William, a specimen elder, 18S.
Blake, Rev. Dr. T. C, secretary Board of Missions, 313; established
the S. S. Gem, 3S9; agent Cumberland Universitv, 513, 515;
editor Baymcr of Peace, 591; editor of the Theological AJcdium,
596; publishing agent, 587; financial agent Board of Publication,
583; stated clerk General Assembly, 459.
Bone, Rev. Dr. M. H., began his work, 1:^2; an incident, 154; as agent
visits Ohio and Pennsylvania, 273; president Board of Education,
316; organized church at Lebanon, Ohio, 298; two incidents, 373,
377-
Books, of fourtn period, 367; names and cnaracter of, 367-369; new,
461.
Boone, Daniel, 5.
BowDON, Rev. Dr. J. C, 435; president of Lincoln University, 545.
Bowling Green (Ky.), a great revival, 301; an incident, 377; school
(col.), 437, 455.
BoYDSTUN, Rev. J. G., 633.
Bradley, Rev. C. J., president Bethel College, 56S.
Braly, Rev. Frank M., an incident, 183, 184.
Braly, Rev. J. E., in Oregon, 343; incidents by the way, 343, 344;
arrival in California, 349, 350; 353.
Brice, Rev. A. B., editor Cumberland Presbyterian (Uniontown),
591. 594-
Brown, Col. Joe, 3, 109,
Brown, Rev. Dr. J. R., editor, 460, 595; author of "Lights on the
Way," 489; editor Cumberland Presbyteriaji, 586; editor St.
Louis Observer, 595; editor Tlie Ladies'' Pearl, 595.
Brownsville (Neb.), 615.
Bryan, Rev. Dr. A. M., appointed to visit Pennsylvania, 274; first to
work in Pittsburg, 283; at IMeadville (Pa.), 2S9; his work in
Pittsburg, 290; anecdotes of, 290, 62S, 629.
Buchanan, Rev. Andrew, as a preacher, 196; a fearless hero, 199.
Buchanan, Rev. John, his work and influence, 305.
Index. 649
Buchanan, Rev. Dr. S. H., 472; tutor in Cane Hill College, 569.
BuiE, Rev. Daniel, first to settle in Missouri, 175; last days of, 375.
BuNYAN, Rev. John, quotation from, 67.
BuRNEY, A. M., president Cumberland Female College, 566.
BuRNEY, Rev. Dr. S. G., on abolition of synods, 370, 3S9; president
Union Female College, 564; report on education, 556.
Burney, Rev. W. S., abundant in labors, 259.
Burrow, Rev. A. G., chaplain, 430.
Burrow, Rev. Dr. Reube.m, sent to Missouri, 179; an incident, iSo;
small salary, 183; physical power, 193; an incident, 194; visit to
Pennsylvania, 274; camp-meeting, 281 ; an incident, 282; on sanc-
tification, 370; infant justification, 370; rights of presbyteries, 370.
Bushnell, Rev. Dr. D. E., quotation from, 354; 440; editor Paciiic
Observer, 596.
c.
Calhoun, Rev. Thomas, an incident, 30; prayer of, 31; an incident,
33; answer to prayer, 35; camp-meeting, 89; biographical sketch
of, 91; life work, 123; first evangelistic tour, 128; in East Ten-
nessee, 143; glimpse of pioneer life, 147; through West Tennes-
see, 149; at Hunt's Spring, 156; public confession, 246; first
president Board of Missions, 312; testimony of, 604.
Calhoun, Rev. T. P., secretary Board of Missions, 313.
California, planting of churches in, 348-356; first Protestant preach-
ing in, 350; fascinations of, 355; difficulties, 355, 356; advantages
of, 356.
California Presbytery, when and where organized, 352; original
members, 353.
Campbell, Rev. Dr. W., editor Ctimbcrland Presbyterian (Pa.), 592.
Campbell, Rev. Dr. W. S., 436.
Camp-meetings, first in Christendom, 13; description of, 14; order of
the day, 15; held in churchless communities, 117; an example, 117;
first held in East Tennessee, 147; "old Shiloh," in Carroll County,
149; first held in Illinois, 171; iu Missouri, 184; in Texas, 265; in
Pennsylvania. 279, 282; in Arkansas, 192; in Ohio. 293; in Iowa,
337; "died a lingering death," 370; colored people at, 433, 434.
Cane Hill Church (Ark.), 19S, 199.
650 Index.
Cane Hill College, "a school for Jesus," 199; its first board of trust,
304; our oldest school, 305; building destroyed by fire, 569, 570;
charter procured, 56S; both sexes admitted, 569.
Cane Ridge (Ky.), meetings at, 44.
Cane Ridge (Tcun.), 17.
Cakmichaels (l*a.), church at, 2S7; Greene Academy. 52S.
Caknahan, Rev. John, labors in Alabama, 156; in Arkansas, 189-,
first Protestant sermon, 189; a solitary standard-bearer, 190
Caiiolinas, Synod of the, 10.
Caruthers, Judge Abram, professor in law department Cumberland
University, 512.
Caruthers, Hon. R. L., president trustees Cumberland University,
509,513.
Catechism, examination in, 116.
Cave Spring, camp-meeting at, 31.
CiiADiCK, Rev. W. D., missionary in Chattanooga, 474; agent Cumber-
land University, 514; editor Bannei- of Peace, 591.
Chapel Hill College, 561.
Chapman, Rev. Alexander, an incident, 33; special prayer, 35;
answer to prayer, 36; first exhortation, 56; biographical sketch
of, 93; in Indiana, 164; a camp-meeting, 16S; a missionary tour,
171; visits Pennsylvania, 274.
Chapman Presbytery, ordination b}-, 31.
Chase, Rev. J. A., agent Lincoln University, 549.
Chattanooga (Tenn.), mission in, 474; convention at, 3S3.
Chautauqua, assembly at, 31.
Cheap Scholarships, 573-576.
Cherokees, mission to, 476; first church organized, 477; first presby-
tery, 477; schools, 478.
Cherokee Presbytery, organized, 477; items o. interest, 47S, 479.
Cherry Grove Seminary, 555.
Chesnut, Rev. Dr. S. P., editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor The
Ladies' Pearl, 595.
Chick a saws, mission to the, 476.
Chico, Judge, 476.
Index. 651
Choctaws, mission to the, 476.
Choctaw Presbytery, proceedings of a, 619, 620.
Church, The, change of name, 320.
Church Erection, the Board of, its organization, 316.
Church Papers, The, difficulties connected with our first paper, 229-
239: Rcligloics and Literary Intelligencer^ 229; moved to Nash-
ville— TJie Revivalist^ 230; changed to Cumberland Presbyte-
rian, 231; assistant editor, 231; plans of Assembly's committee,
232; Smith's conditions accepted, 233; paper suspended, 234;
proposed consolidation, 365; a sample argument used, 365, 366;
pioposition failed, 367; debates, 371; papers in Pennsylvania, 591,
Church Trials, an unusually large number, 371.
Circuits, extent of, 54.
Colbert, Levi, a Chickasaw chief, 131, 132, 140; a letter of, 137.
Colesbuug Presbytery, when organized, its extent, 340.
College, Cumberland, convention of delegates, 61; necessitv of
establishing a, 201; theory of manual labor, 201, 214; a printing
establishment with, 202; commissioners to locate. 214; "on
credit," 214; doubters as to location, 215.
Colorado, 610.
Colorado Springs, self-sustaining, 611.
Concord Church (Pa.), 282.
Concord Church (W. Tenn.), 302, 303.
Confession of Faith, necessity for, 98; outline statement of doctrine,
9S-100; adheicnce to the word, 100; synod's committee, 100;
Robert Donnell's memoranda, 100, loi ; Dr. C. H. Bell's exhibit,
101-103; much in the Westminster Confession left unchanged,
104; additions, 104; guards against abuse, 104, 10^; medium the-
ology taught, 106; diagram of representative creeds, 107; com-
mittee appointed to revise, 4^8; consideration of revision, 459;
transmitted to presbyteries, 4=59; declared adopted, 459.
Controversies, on doctrinal questions, 369, 370; on rights of presbv-
teries, 370; abolition of synods, 370; tone greatly improved, 370;
revision of Confession of Faith, 370; in the newspapers, 371;
Dr. Cossitt and the Presbyterians, 372.
Convention, The, 233-236; the defense of, 235; resolution to publish
a paper at Lebanon, Tenn., 234.
652 Index.
CooiMiii, Rev. J. L., general missionary, 42S; work of, 438; principal
of Spring Hill Institute, 571, 572.
Cornwall, Rev. J. A., fust Cumberland Presbyterian minister in
Oregon, 343; difficulties of, 345, 346; first Oregon church organ-
ized by, 346.
CossiTT, Rev. Dk. F. R., president of Cumberland College, 202, 225;
his assistants, 225; etlitor Banner of Peace ^ 23S; 274, 275; presi-
dent of Board of Missions, 312; in favor of Japan, 335; in favor
of concentration, 362; president of Cumberland University, 509;
report on education, 55S.
Coulter, Rev. J. II., 41S; in St. Louis, 470.
Council, The, sent commissioners to Kentucky Synod, 68; organiza-
tion and agreement, 82; struggle for reconciliation, S2-84.
Craighead, Rev. Thomas B., 7; testimony of, 8; opposition of, 15;
opposition to revivals, 39.
Crawford, Rev. C. H., 440.
Crawford, Rev. John, pioneer in Illinois, 168; autobiography of, 169;
an incident, 170.
Crav/ford, Rev. N. J., missionary to the Indians, 477.
Crawford, Rev. W. II., three anecdotes of, 639, 640.
Crideji, Rev. P. 11., 441; agent Waynesburg College, 540.
Crisman, Rev. Dr. E. B., agent Trinity University, 554; editor Texas
Observer, 594; secretary Board of Missions, 476; sketch of Trin-
ity University, 552.
Cumberland, country of, i, 9; first school in, 5.
Cumberland Church (Ohi(j), when organized, 298.
Cumberland Presbyterian, The, name changed to, 231; committee
to form stock company for, 234, 235; location of, 460; in Penn-
sylvania. 3S9, 591.
Cumberland Presbytery, opposition to heresy, 44; created, 56; ex-
tent of, 56; two parties in, 77; refusal of majority to submit, 78;
right to originate process, 79; failed to appeal, 82; dissolved by
order of Kentucky Synod, 82; re-organized, 84; no charges
brought against its members, 84; Dr. Ely's testimony, 85; op-
position, 85; first meetings, 86; last effort at reconciliation, 86;
purchase of a librar\\ 86, 115; adjustment of "union" diflicul-
ties, 87; dealing with probationers, 87; regard for the Sabbath,
Index. 653
87, 88; ordained missionaries, 90; its school of science and divin-
ity, 00; heroism required, 90; biograpliical sketclies of ministers,
90-93; names of licentiates, 92; names of candidates, 92; union
desired, 93; epithet "Cumberland Presbyterian," i, 114.
Cumberland Presbytery (Nashville), its members, 94; its boundaries,
94, III; manner of representation, no; fast days, in; plan of
work, 113, 113; in favor of a school, 116; established circuits in
West Tennessee, 148.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, name of, i, 114; origin of, 10;
spiritual powder, 28; its high calling, 74-76; a separate church
not aimed at, 93; origin of the name, i, 114; difference in growth
in two States, 173; great transition period, 207; extent of in 1S29,
207; two parties in, 363; mushroom colleges, 362; attitude on the
slavery question, 410-419; conservative spirit of, 419.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church (colored), 432-439; claims of,
437, 438; representative from Greenville Presbytery, 436; eccle-
siastical separation, 434,435; growth of, 437, 46S; prosperity of,
436, 437; school at Bowling Green (Ky.), 437; committee to co-
operate with, 435, 459.
Cumberland College, openea, 215; agents and debts, 215; proposi-
tion to lease, 216; joint stock company formed, 217; transfer
threatened, 217; board of trust appointed, 217, 218; report of com-
mittee on education, 218; commission meets, 218; accepted the
offer from Lebanon, Tenn., 21S; report of the commission, 219-
23 1 ; the Assembly's decision, 231, 222; protest, 223; plan presented
by the minority of the committee on education, 223; friends
resolve to keep it alive, 233; its useful career, 334; ceased to be a
Cumberland Presbyterian institution, 224; glimpses of its inner
history, 234-33S.
Cumberland College (California), 353.
Cumberland Female College, 565, 566.
Cumberland Presbyterian Pulpit, 592.
Cumberland University, 509-526; a new charter, 510; re-opening
after the war, 515, 516; Camp Blake, 518; changes, 511; faculty,
509, 510, 534; great pi-osperity, 513, 514; Finley bequest, 517;
Murdock library, 51S; pro-rata salaries, 510; purchase of Ca-
ruthers building, 516, 519; law department, 513, 513, 515, 535;
theological department, 514, 531; law concerning, 522, 533; trus-
tees of, 509; war closed the departments, 515; struggles with life
insurance companies, 520; table of statistics, 523, 524.
654 Index.
CuMMiNGS, Rev. Charles, first preacher in Tennessee, 6.
CuNNiNGliAiM, Rkv. W. N., missionary and educator, 35^.
D.
Dalton, Rev. J. G., 614, 615.
Dancing, Assembly's deliverance, 460.
Dahuv, Rev. Dk. W. J., his pami:)hlet history, 165, 167; 457, 460, 488.
Darnall, Rev, Dr. W. II., missionary in Chattanooga, 474.
Davidson, Rev. Dr., 7, 40, S3.
Daviess, Joe, 2.
Davis, Rev. Dr. C. A., 643.
Davis, W. I., president Union Female College, 565.
Delany Academy (Ind.), 543, 5=^5,
Delany, Rev. II. F., sermon of, 31; an incident, 153.
Dennis, Rev. Du. Samuel, a paper by, 598.
De Witt, Rev. Dr. INI. B., chaplain, 430; 435; soliciting agent Board
of Publication, and editor of various periodicals, 5S4, 596; super-
intendent of Sunday-schools, 456.
Dickens, Rev. J. L., president Bethel College, 568.
DiCKERSOX, Rev. J. II., missionary, 477.
Dickey, Rev. Dr. C. A., 450.
DiLLARD, Rev. Dr. John L., first; itinerant, to West Tennessee, 148;
approval of revision, 604.
Doctrines, 73; committee to prepare synoj^sis of, 98: comparison of
creeds, 106, 107; test at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 108.
Donnell, D. ]SI., president Union Female College, 566.
DoNNELL, Rev. George, sent to East Tennessee, 145; not paid, 147.
Donnell, Rev. Rohert, an incident of, 29; his covenant, 34; an agent,
60; camp-meeting in Alabama, 89; biographical sketch, 92; in
Nashville, 137; president Board of Missions, 132; first evangelist
in East Tennessee, 143, 141; sent to Hunt's Spring, 156; doubts
as to location of Cumberland College, 215; defends the conven-
tion, 236; visits Pennsylvania, 274; last letter, 320; organized
church in Memphis, 373; a prayer and a vow, 412; 557.
Index. 655
DoNNELSON, Col., 2.
DooLEY, Rev. Linville, a faithful minister, 351; 440.
DooLEY, Rev. O. D., 440.
Drennan, Mrs. A. M., arrival in Japan, 494; school opened, 495;
classes for young men, 495-
DuFFiELD, Miss Bettie A., arrives in Jaj^an, 500; work with Miss
Orr, 500.
DuXAWAY, W. E., i^ublishing- agent, 5S3.
Dunbar (Neb.), 616.
DuRANT, Elder, facts from the life of, 376.
DuvALL, Rev. C. P., 472.
E.
Eagan, Rev. H. W., pioneer, 616, 617
Earle, Rev. Dr. F. R., president Cane Hill College, 569, 570.
Edgar, Geo. W., trustee Lincoln University, 549.
Education, without books, 5.
Education, The Board of, its organization, 316; instruction to ap-
point agent for theological school, 522.
Education, INIinisterial, 48-65; questions of that day still debated,
57; errors concerning, 57; slander refuted, 58; held in esteem,
proof, 58-61; a curious inconsistency, 61; a change, 62; licens-
ing catechists, 64; woman's sphere, 64; the necessity of, recog-
nized, 201.
Elk Presbytery, organized, 93, 94; original members, 94; manner of
representation, no; its extent, in; plan of work, 112, 113; first
to move in Indian missions, 129; mission work in southern Ala-
bama, 157; favored a Board of Missions for the whole church, 132.
Estill, Rev. Milton, organized first church in Texas, 269.
Estill, Capt. Wallace, account of Gasper meeting, 12.
Evangelists, 618-631; work began, 619; lay evangelists, 619-621;
error of the ministry, 619, 620.
Evangelical Lutheran Church, correspondence with, 458.
Evansville (Ind.), 167; Assembly at, 44S, 456.
656 Index.
EwiNG, Rev. Finis, at school, 6, 7; testimony of, 27; an anecdote of, 28:
before Transylvania Presbytery, 48; licensed, 49; testimony in
favor of an educated ministry, 59; biographical sketch of, 91;
testimony concerning sanctification, 104; settled in Missouri, 178;
opened school of the prophets, 17S; sermon on slavery, 411;
emancipated his slaves, 410.
EwiNG, Hon. R. C, jorofessor in law dejoartment in Lincoln Univer-
sity, 546.
F.
Factoryville (Neb.), 616.
Faru, Rev. Dr. W. B., editor Sf. Louis Observer, 595.
Fast Days, appointed, 319.
"Fencing" the Tarle, iio.
Ferguson, Rev. Dr. Fergus, visit of, iS; 452, 453.
FiNCHER, Rev. F. M., anecdote of, 634.
Finney, N. J., president Cumberland Female College, 566.
First Preachers, privations of, 3; unconverted, 7; testimon}- in favor
of an educated ministry, 59, 60; preferred the wilderness, 1S7;
thorough preaching, 118, 119.
FoLSOM, Rev. Israel, 32c; devotion to his people, 330, 331.
Foster, Rev. David, biographical sketch of, 92; extract from letter,
139; ordered to East Tennessee, 145.
Foster, Rev. Dr. R. V., editor Sunday-school periodicals, 5S7.
Fraternal Correspondence, a committee on, 317; correspondence
with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian (New School)
church, 317-319; with General Assembly (Old School), 319.
Frazier, Rev. R., editor The Ark, 593.
Frazier, Rev. Samuel W., a missionary to Texas, 269.
Freeman, Rev. Dr. Azel, professor in Cumberland College, 227, 228;
professor in Madison College, 529, 531; principal Delany Acad-
emy (Ind.), 542; president Lincoln University, 544, 545; presi-
dent Bethel College, 568.
Frizzell, John, stated clerk, 449, 456; resigned, 459; moderator Gen-
eral Assembly, 459; appointed to prepare a digest, 5S9.
Index. 657
FuLLERTON, Rev. B. P., ill Kansas City, 473.
FuQUA, A. ]., 435.
G.
Gallagher, Rev. James, narrative of, 15; testimony of, 25; discus-
sion by, 37.
Gasper River, meeting at, 13; medical treatment of "the jerks,", 47;
commission met at, So; of historic interest, 121.
Gaut, J. M., corresponding secretary Board of Publication, 5S7.
General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian churcli, first
meeting, 207, 20S; college, paper and the "book concern" sources
of anxiety, 20S; home missionary work a bright feature, 209; re-
solved to co-operate witli the American Board, 209; benevolent
enterprises receive indorsement, 209; opposition to statistics, 209;
fast days declared, 3 10; few appeals, 210; few exciting debates,
210; declaration against making, selling, or giving away ardent
spirits, 211; theological department postponed, 21 1 ; biennial in-
stead of annual meetings, 212, 311; growth of synods and pres-
byteries, 212; passing away of the fathers, 213; the credit system,
213; large bodies not competent to manage financial enterprises,
213; its organ, 230; struggle and controversy, 232; 2:)hins of com-
mittees, 232; committee of investigation church paper, 239;
opening sermon of 1843, 311; great speech of 1845, S^-^'i i^iis-
sionary work of the church, 312; a Committee on Publication,
313; report of the board unsatisfactory, 314; new committee, 314;
Board of Education organized, 316; Board of Cliurch Erection
organized, 316; Committee on Fraternal Correspondence, 317"
319; a complete history of the church, 319; day of meeting
changed, 320; ratified the formation of California Presbytery,
353; from 1861 to 1S70, 380; smallness of that of 1S61, 380; tem-
porary committees aj^pointed, 381; committees rc-organized in
1S63, 382; meetings in Lebanon, Ohio, and Evansville, Ind., 383;
distressing condition of affairs, 382, 383; convention at Chatta-
nooga, 3S3; convention at Selma, Ala., 383, 384; convention at
Memphis, Tenn., 384; Assembly at Owensboro, Ky., 3S4; mission
boards at Lebanon, Term., and Alton, 111., re-organized, 3S4;
Pacific coast committee taken under care of, 384; Assembly at
Memphis, 38^; a Committee on Organic Union, 38:5; Board of
Publication re-organized at Nashville, 385; Assembly at Aiur-
freesboro, Tenn., 387; Boards of Missions consolidated and
located at St. Louis, 388; a sharp discussion, 388; a compromise,
42
658 Index.
389; new presbyteries, 3S9; consolidation of synods, 389; action
in regard to slavery, 417, 41S; at Nashville, 448, 459; at Evans-
ville, 44S; at Iluntsvillc, 449, 45S; Austin, Texas, 45S; Jefferson,
Texas, 455; Lebanon, 455; Lincoln, 455; McKeesport, Pa., 459;
^Memphis, 456; semi-centennial, 456; action concerning the Pan-
Presbyterian Council, 464; on co-operation in foreign missions,
c;o4; on dancing, 460.
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, testimony of, 128;
apology of Kentucky Synod, 67; deliverance of, 68, inquiries to,
68; disapproved tlie action of Kentucky synod, 80.
General Synod, its management of Cumberland College, 201; minor
matters, 202, 203; expediency of organizing a General Assembly;
203: strong feeling in favor of a delegated synod, 204; minor
rules and transaction, 204, 205; resolved into four synods, 205;
necessary changes in Form of Government, 20!:5; synodical
period, 205; final adjournment, 206; Minutes lost, 310.
General Reflections, 623-626.
Georgia, planting of the church in, 357; extent of the work in, 358.
Gill, Rev. Dr. J. M., 41^9; president Cumberland Female College, 566.
Gillespie, Rev. E. J., 440; in St. Louis, 471.
Gillespie, Rev. Jacob, manuscript of, 347; a pioneer in Oregon, 348.
Gilliam, Rev. F. M., in St. Louis, 470.
Givens, Rev. S. D., 610.
GooDP.\sTURE, Rev. A. H., 417.
Gordon, Rev. Dr. M. L., missionary to Japan, 480, 4S2-484.
Goshen, 121; an incident, 126.
Greene Academy, work of, 528.
Green, Rev. Dr. J. B., sent to Kansas, 361; 441; 615.
Green, Nathan, reminiscences of, 518, =^19; work of, 521.
Green, Hon. Nathan, Sr., professor in law department Cumberland
University, 512.
Greenville Seminary, 563.
Greenwood Seminary, 563.
Grider, Rev. J. S., agent Lincoln University, 549,
Groves, Rev. J. S., editor Texas Observer^ 594.
Index. 659
Guthrie, Robert, 7.
Guthrie, Rev. J. S., extract from letter, 139; sent to Hiwassee circuit,
145; sent to West Tennessee, 149; in Alabama, 161.
Guthrie, R. J., president Union Female College, 565.
Guthrie Presbytery, when organized, 3S9.
H.
Hail, Rev. A. D., accepted as a candidate, 482, 484, 485; ordained to
mission work, 4S5; sailed, 4S5; general mission work, 486; letter
from, 4S8; translations by, 489; author of principles governing
mission work, 493; in America, 503.
Hail, Rev. J. B., accepted as a candidate, 482, 484, 485; sailed for
Japan, 4S5; first baptism, 487; translation by, 489.
Hall, Rev. Ben-j., 441.
Hall, Rev. Dr. Thomas, an incident, 55.
Halsell, Rev. J. M., editor Banyier of Peace, ^C)\\ editor The Ladies^
Pearl, 595.
Harris, Mrs. C. M., editor The Gem and Our Lambs, 587.
Harris, Rev. Dr. D. M., professor Lincoln University, 550; editor
Cumberland Presbyterian, 550, 5S6.
Harris, Rev. William, prayer of, 35; biographical sketch of, 92;
dedication of his grandson, 95; pen pictures, 96; first in Indiana,
164; in Pennsylvania, 2S4.
Hawkins, Rev. A. W., in Logansport (Ind.), 473.
Hays, Rev. Dr. J. S., address of, 453-455.
Henderson, Rev. E. P., 617.
Henderson, Rev. J. T. A., a pioneer, 176; an incident, 287; pastor of
Hopewell (Pa.) church, 2S9; in Sedalia (Mo.), 473.
Henderson, Rev. Dr. Robert, an orderly meeting, 43.
Henderson, Rev. T. H., 611.
Hendrix, Rev. Dr. W. W., president Bethel College, 568.
Henson, J. C, 418.
Hess, Mrs. Margaret, memoir of, 3.
66o Index.
Hess, Rev. N. J., an incident, 148.
Hill, Rev. Hugh B., in Ohio, 299; pastor Oak Grove (Tenn.) church,
303; an incident, 373.
Hill, Rev. H. H., in Ahibama and Mississippi, 259.
Hodge, Rev. Dr. Charles, on Old Side views, 8; on "the jerks," 47.
Hodge, Rev. William, pastor at Shiloh, Tenn., 13; testimony of, 47.
Hodges, Rev. C. B., 614, 615.
Hogan, Rev. David, incident of, 477.
Hopewell Church (Enfield, 111.), first organized, 171.
Hopewell Church (Iowa), organized by Rev. J. C. Armstrong, 339.
Hopewell Church (Pa.), its origin, 288.
Hopewell Presbytery, when and where organized; its original
members, 150.
Houghton, Rev. A. H., sent to northern Iowa and southern Minnesota,
340; 441.
Howard, Rev. Joseph, second church in Iowa organized in his house
by Rev. Cyrus Haynes, 336.
Howard, Rev. Di{. J. M., editor Ctunberland Preslyteriaii^ 5S6.
Howard, Rev. J. S., president Union Female College, 565: president
Bethel College, 568.
Hudson, Rev. G. G., arrival in Japan, 502; report of, 4S7.
Hudson, Rev. S. E., 41S; influence of, 528.
Hughes, Rev. Martin, 615.
Humphrey, Rev. J. F., appeal of, 439.
Hunter, Rev. Dr. H. A., testimony of, 28; professed religion, 133;
an incident, 153; touching accounts, 166; 417, 425.
HuNTSviLLE (Ala.), Assembly at, 449.
Huntsville Presbytery, when organized, 389.
Hurst. T. M., publishing agent, 587.
Hutchinson, Elder, 7.
Hutchinson, James, statement of, 52, 53.
Hyde, Rev. W. A., 611.
Hymn Book, The, its history, 315, 316.
Index. 66 i
I.
Illinois, planting of churches, i6S; first sermon, 168; first church, 171;
hardships, 172; first presbytery, 173; papers in, 594.
Illinois Presbytery, when organized; its original members, 173.
Indiana, planting churches, 164; date of first churches, 165; hard-
ships, 166; early camp-meetings, 167.
Indians, mission to the, 12S; societies formed for special work among
the, 129; a constitution for a ladies' missionary society, 129; an
organization in Russellville, Ky., 129; arrangements for a school
among the, 130; the Chickasaw Nation never at war with our
people, 130; traditions of Tombigbee River, 131; establishment
of a school, treaty signed, 132; government aid for, 134; Rev.
William Barnett won, 136; hardships, 139; programme of duties,
140; mission closed, 141; Lowry's mission to the Winnebagoes,
3H-
Iowa, origin of the church in, 336; first church in, 336; ruffianism, 337;
sufferings of pioneer preachers, 340,
Iowa Presbytery, when organized, 337; original members, 337.
IsH, Rev. T. A., a letter from, 350, 351,
J.
Jackson's Purchase, the work in, 150, 151.
J ARM AN, T. N., tutor Cumberland University, 510.
Jefferson (Texas), 455; an incident, 445.
Jenkins, Rev. J. E., allusion to pamphlet by, 165.
Jerks, The, 46, 47.
Johnson, Rev. B. J., 616.
Johnson, Rev. Dr. Felix, 431; president Bethel College, 56S.
Johnson, Rev. James, autobiography of, 376.
Johnson, L. A., president Trinity University, 553.
Johnson, Rev. Neil, in Iowa, 337; in Oregon, 345; his journey, 346.
Johnson, Rev. Robert, statement of, 436.
Johnston, Rev. T. M., editor Pacifc Observer, 596; 354, 355.
Jones, Hon. W. B., trustee Lincoln University, 549.
662 Index.
K.
Kansas, beginning of work in, 35S; opened to white settlers, 359; a
descriptive letter, 359; first church organized, 360.
Kansas City, self-sustaining, 473.
Kansas Presbyteuy, when and where organized, 360; original mem-
bers, 360; prohibition, 360; strength of, 361.
Kentucky Synod, commission of investigation, 77; commission met,
77; no right to originate process, 79; Dr. Davidson's concession,
79; General Assembly of 1807 disapproves, 80; place of meeting
unfortunate, 80; revised its actions, 83; extent of, 44; charges
brought by, 67; terms laid down by, 68; exciting controversies, i.
Kentucky Synod (Cumberland Presbyterian), date of formation, 320;
disappears from rolls, 390.
King Presbytery, when organized, 389.
King, Richard, conversion of, 7? AS-
KING, Rev. R. D., autobiography of, 157; an incident, 159; sent to
Missouri, 179, 180; closed his life in Texas, 181, 194; ordained,
191; hardships in Arkansas, 193; in Louisiana, 261; anecdote of
his mother, 637; ruling passion strong in death, 633.
King, Rev. R. M., president Cane Hill College, 569.
King, Mrs. Samuel, anecdote of, 627, 628.
King, Rev. Samuel, at school, 6; evangelistic tour, 34; before Tran-
sylvania Presbytery, 49; first against whisky, 54; an agent, 60;
biographical sketch, 91; 94, 124, 126; sent to the Indians, 129;
moved to Missouri, iSo; sketch of, 185; visitation by order of
Assembly, 211; in Louisiana, 261; attitude on temperance, 604.
KiRKPATRiCK, Rev. Hugh, biographical sketch of, 92; heroic endur-
ance, 148.
Knoxville Presbytery, when organized, 147; its original members,
147.
L.
Ladies' Pearl, The, 389; 595.
Langdon, Rev. W. S., financial agent Committee of Publication, 315;
rule for newspaper discussions, 370; in St. Louis. 471 ; publishing-
agent, 583; editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor Ladies' Pearl,
595; description of lay evangelism, 619.
Index, 66^
Lansden, Rev. Abner W., sent to East Tennessee, 145.
Latham, Col. R. B., trustee Lincoln University, 54S, 549.
Latta, Rev. E. C, description of meeting, 352; 440.
LouGHRAN, Rev. Cornelius, a Presbyterian minister, 273; changed
relation, 2S3.
LouGHRAN, Rev. J., president Waj'nesburg College, 533; resigned, 534.
Lawyer, Rev. F. P., ordained missionary to Mexico, 506.
Lay Exhorters, 53, 54; activity needed, 64.
Leavenworth Presbytery, organization of, 360, 3S9; strength of,
361.
Leavitt, Miss Julia, arrived in Japan, 490; work at Osaka, 500, ^01;
at Shingu and Tanabe, 501.
Lebanon Board of Missions, 441, 442, 447.
Lebanon Church (Ohio), organization, 29S; Rev. Dr. M. H. Bone its
first pastor, 29S; work of Rev. F. G. Black, 298; church bell, 29S,
399; an incident, 377? 37^-
Lebanon Presbytery, crossed the mountains to hold its meeting, 147.
Lebanon (Tenn.), 455.
Lincoln (111-), 455.
Lincoln University, origin of, 541-544; a charter, 543; endowment,
543, 544; co-educational, 544; efforts to establish law and theo-
logical departments, 546; decline in attendance, 546, 547; work
of, 547; trustees, 54S; faculty resigned, 550; list of teachers, 551.
Lindley, Rev. Jacob, a Presbyterian minister, 273; report of first
camp-meeting, 380; autobiography of, 285; at the meeting of his
presbytery, 2S6; becomes a Cumberland Presbyterian, 286; his
work in Ohio, 292, 293; at Beverly, 296; incidents, 394, 295.
LiNDSLEY, Rev. Du. J. Berrien, services rendered by, S6.
Lindsley, Dr. N. Lawrence, professor in Cumberland University,
510, founder of Greenwood Seminary, 563.
Little Rock (Ark.), self-supporting, 473.
LiTTRELL, Rev. J. Cal., 610, 611.
Logan, Rev. Dr. J. B., secretary Board of Missions, 475; editor, 543,
594' 595' i" charge of Spring River Academy, 555; editor 7Vie
Ladies' Pearly 595.
664 Index.
Logan, Rev. W. C, editor St. Louis Observer, 595; editor Theological
Medium, 596.
Logan Presbytery, organized, 94; original members, 94; its extent,
hi; plan of work, 112, 113; ladies' missionary society, 132; mis-
sionaries sent to other States, 132; districts and missionaries, 164;
fast days, 165; condemning the Nashville convention, 236.
LoGANSPOKT (Ind.), 473.
Loudon High School, 572.
Louisiana, planting the church in, 261; first church organized, 261.
Louisiana Presbytery, when organized, 261; original members, 261;
dissolved^ and again revived, 262; Sumner Bacon licensed and
ordained by, 266.
Love, Rev. G. W., 615.
LowRY, Rev. David, professor in Cumberland College, 225, 226;
editor, 230; missionary to the Winnebago Indians, 324—327;
appeals for missions, 32S; organized first Protestant chuich in
Iowa, 336; in favor of concentration in the North-west, 337;
reply to Dr. Wilson, 62; testimony on temperance, 608.
LowRY, S. DoAK, in charge of Cane Hill College, 569.
Lyle, Rev. John, bearer and defender of Minutes of Kentucky
Synod, S3.
M.
MacCrae, Rev. Dr., quotation from, 71.
Madison College, work of, 52S, 529, 531,
Majors, Alexander, pioneer in Nebraska, 613.
Mariner, William, professor in Cumberland University, 513; pro-
fessor in Lincoln University, 54S.
Marshall, Mrs. Mary, a pioneer worker, 199, 200.
Mattox, Rev. G. N., work of, 423, 424.
McAdow, Rev. Samuel, two sermons, 36; night spent in prayer, 84;
biographical sketch, 90; sermons, 105; settled in Illinois, 174.
McBryde, Rev. W. P., an incident, 637,
McCallan, Rev. J. B., an incident, 302.
McCord, Rev. B. F., professor in Lincoln University, 54S.
Index. 665
McCoRKLE, Rev. Archibald, a Missouri pioneer, 183.
McCrosky, Rev. E. J., in Chattanooga, 474.
McCuTCHEON, Rev. J. F., 429; an incident, 429, 430.
McDaniel, Rev. Hiram, in Arkansas, 195.
McDonald, Alexander, a mother's prayers, 642, 643.
McDoNNOLD, Rev. Dr. B. W., president Cumberland University, 516;
Life Insurance Companies, 520, 521; president Bethel College,
568.
McDoNNOLD, Rev. James, first itinerant in West Tennessee, 14S; "a
circuit rider" in Texas, 270.
McDoNNOLD, Rev. Philip, wonderful career, 96.
McGee College, 561; list of teachers, 562; importance of, 562, 563;
names of nicn educated at, 563.
McGee, Rev. John, 12, 16, 17.
McGee Presbytery, when organized, 173, 17S; "intermediate meet-
ing," 191.
McGee, Rev. William, biographical sketch of, 91,
McGhee, Rev. Z. M., first to settle in Georgia, 358.
McGiiirk, Dr. N. II., 479; missionary, 480.
McGinnis, Albert, professor in Waynesburg College, 53S; professor
and acting president Lincoln University, 550.
McGlumphy, Rev. Dr. A. J., professor in Waynesburg College, 535:
professor in Lincoln University, 544; president of Lincoln Uni-
versity, 546; jDresident Ozark College, 573.
McGov/N, Rev. A. J., heroism and integrity of, 267; an incident, 268;
at Mississippi Synod, 268; returns to the United States, 371; a
jDresentiment of death, 643, 644.
McGready, Rev. James, statement of, 8; friends of, 9; covenant of,
10; work began, 11; singing hymns an offense, 41.
McKeesport (Pa.), 459.
McLean, Rev. Ephraim, a true hero, 55, 56; ordained, 84; biograph-
ical sketch, 91; perplexed on the slavery question, 412.
McLean, George, a trial and a triumph, 636, 637.
McLean, J. S., 417.
McLeskey, Rev. Dr. B. G., president Trinity University, 553.
666 Index.
McLiN, Rev. D. W., biographical sketch, 92; in IlUnois, 171.
McMuKRAY, Mrs. Elizabeth, narrative furnished by, 13.
McMuRRAY, Rev. J. M., agent Cumberland University, 511, 513.
McPherson, Rev. C. G., professor in Cumberland University, 509,510,
McSpeddin, Rev. Samuel, at school, 6, 7; testimony about, 8; about
the origin of the revival, 17; his character, 95.
Meek, Rev. J. J., 418.
Memphis, 456.
Methodists, no opposition from, 26.
Mexico, vvoik in, 504-506.
Miller, Rev. Dr. A. B., 450; tutor in Waynesburg College, 533; pro-
fessor in, 534; jDresident of, 536; his life w^ork, 536, 537; editor
Ciunbei'land Presbyterian (Pa.), 592, 595.
Miller, Rev. Barnett, 435.
Miller, Mrs. M. K. B., work of, 533, 537.
Miller, Rev. Dr. Samuel, letter of, 30; his ninth letter and its an-
swer, 43; correction of, 45.
Milligan, Rev. Mi:., resolutions of, 436.
Ministerial Relief, Board of, organized, 458, 460.
Ministry, preaching on a call to the, 115.
Missions, v/ork of synods and presbyteries, 322; city missions, 322,
469-475; Winnebago Indians, 334-327; two young ladies sent out
under the A. B. C. F. M., 338; appeal of Rev. David Lowry, 328;
his report, 328, 329; work among the Indians pressed, 330-332;
a growing feeling for our own board, 332; first foreign mission-
ary, 333; from 1S60 to 1S70, 440-447; home mission work, 440,
441,475; foreign, 441; progress of, 469; v;ork of city missions,
469-475; a list of growing mission churches, 475; missions
among the Indians, 476-479; mission to Trinidad, 479-481; work
in Japan, 482; first convert baptized, 487; first official report, 487;
extended preaching tour, 488; need of denominational literature,
489; book and tract store opened, 490; arrival of Miss Orr and
Miss Leavitt, 490; the annual report, 491; first elders, 492; prin-
ciples governing mission policy, 493; liberality of, 494; great
fruitfulness, 495-498; Corea, 496; names of m.issionarics, 502;
great gain to the home churches, 503; co-operation with other
churches, ^o\\ the Missionary Record^ 506; systematic giving,
506, 507; home churches can not live without, 507, 508.
Index. 667
Missions, Board of, organized 313; not chartered until 1845, 133, 209;
no paid officers at first, 312; first president, 312; secretary with
salaiy, 312; appeal for Liberia, 334; in favor of China, 335; Rev.
J. C. Armstrong appointed to Turkey, 335; sends Rev. P. H.
Crider to lovi^a, 339; resolved to establish a mission at St. Cloud,
Minn., 340; Bell's mission closed, 141; board located in St. Louis,
388; discussion over the plans of, 388.
Missionary Record, The, 506.
Mississippi, planting the Church in, 253; a slander denounced, 254;
vacating the Choctaw and Chickasaw country, 254; speculation
rife, 255.
Mississippi Presbytery, when and where organized, 256; original
members, 256; an incident, 258.
Mississippi Synod, when organized, extent, 258; organizes Louisiana
Presbytery, 258; Texas Presbytery, 258, 268; new presbyteries
created and dissolved, 258; Oxford and New Hope organized,
258.
Missouri, origin of the church in, 175; first sermon, 17^; home supply
of ministers, 181; noble women, 181; camp-meetings, 1S4, 635;
a pioneer scene sketched, 188; educational work in, 572, 573;
papers in, 594.
Mitchell, Rev. Dr. J. B., 450; president McGee College, 561.
Miyosmi San, at Cumberland University, 502.
Modrall, Rev. N. P., 418.
Montana, 618.
Moody, D. L., an illustration from, 28; record of, 63.
Moore, Rev. A. A., sent to Kansas, 361.
Moore, Rev. B. F., first in Colorado, 610.
Moore, Rev. William, sent to the Indians, 129; interesting incident,
136; sermon by, 161; his grave, 162.
Moorman, Rev. R. A. A., an incident, 378.
Morgan, Rev. John, becomes a preacher, 156; visits Pennsylvania,
274; account of work, 275; camp-meetings, 281, 293; an incident,
281; began the publication of the Unioit and Evangelist^ 2<)\\
visits Ohio, 292, 293; a distillery closed, 293; professoi" in Madison
College, 529; incident of, 530; death, 291.
Morris, Rev. Dr. E. D., corresponding delegate, 456, 467.
668 Index.
MoRuisox, Rev. Dr. James, 452.
Morrow. Rev. J. B., 635.
Morrow, Rev. R. D., sent to Missouri, 175; punctuality, 176; report,
177; opened School of the Prophets, 17S; anecdote of, 632, 633.
MoTHERAL, Rev. N. W., in Chattanooga, 474.
Mourner's Bench, its use and abuse, 42.
Mountain View Church, 353.
Mt. Moriah, first congregation organized as a Cumberland Presbyte-
rian church, 125; historic sketch, 125, 126.
Mt. Zion, first church organized in Indiana, 166.
Muddy River, meeting at, 11.
Murray, Rev. Gibson W., account of, 160.
N.
Nashville, jail of, ^\ Robert Donnell began preaching in, 127; much
opposition, 127; Assembly at, 448.
Nebraska, early settlers, 612; not supported by the Board of Mis-
sions, 616.
Nebraska City, first Cumberland Presbyterian church organized,
613-615.
Nebraska Presbytery, when and where organized, 616.
Nelson, Rev. David, testimony of, 24.
Nelson, Rev. Dr. IL A., 450.
Newburg Church (Ind.), 167.
Nev/ Fields, 610.
New Hope Church, an historic place, 123, 124.
New Hope Presbytery, when organized, 258; efficiency and energy
of, 259; united with Columbus Presbytery, 259.
New Lebanon Church (Mo.), 178; when organized, 187.
New Lebanon Presbytery, facts from Rea's history, 375; resolu-
tions in favor of the Maine law, 375.
Newman, Rev. A. M., death of, 131.
New Mexico, 611, 612.
Index. 669
Newspapers, 590-597.
Nicholson, Rev. John, a sermon by, 634.
North Carolina, missionary work in, 357.
o.
Oak Grove Church, its annual camp-meetings, 303.
Ogden, Rev. Benjamin, 7.
Ogden, Rev. John W., agent Cumberland College, 215; corresponding
editor, 236; in Louisiana, 261; as agent visits Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania, 273.
Ohio, origin of tlie church in, 293; John Morgan visits Athens, 293,
293; his preaching closes a distillery, 293; first camp-meeting in,
293; first church in, 394; first camp-meeting, 294; itinerants ap-
pointed from Pennsylvania Presbytery, 296; work at Senecaville,
297; not strong in numbers, 300.
Ohio Presbytery, pra3'er for a revival, 10.
Oregon, origin of church in, 343, 343; Whitman's massacre, 344; f;icts
concerning emigration, 344, 345; first church in, 346; manuscript
sketch by Rev. Jacob Gillespie, 347.
Oregon Presbytery, when organized, original members, 347; resolved
to have a college, 347.
Organic Union, a committee appointed to confer with a committee
from the Presbyterian church, South, 3S5; Presbyterian deliver-
ance on the subject, 3S6; meeting of committee in Nashville,
449-451; plan of, 450; response of Presbyterian committee, 4^1;
agreement that negotiations should continue, 4^1; action of the
Cuml^erland Presbyterian Assembl}', 451 ; two ideas to be con-
sidered, 451.
Orr, Miss Alice M., arrived in Japan, 490; work in the out stations,
500, 501.
Osaka, Japan, first sermon preached in, 4S6; first converts, 4S7; second
church organized, 503.
Osj^ORN, Rev. A. G., a chaplain, 434.
Our Denominational Progress, 631-623; a discouraging feature,
622; hopeful signs, 622; comparison, 633.
Our Lambs, 5S4.
670 Index.
Oxford Presbytery, when organized, 25S.
Ozark College, 573.
Ozark Synod, 390, ^
P.
Pacific Presbytery, when and where organized, 353.
Parks, Rev. R. C, a native Cherokee, 477.
Pastors, none in the first and second periods, 89; transition from mis-
sionary evangeHsts to, 242; opposition to, 242; a growing senti-
ment in favor of, 243; the difference between pastors and evan-
gelists, 244; their difficult calling, 245; mistakes and false views
concerning, 246; their duty and their compensation, 249; robbed
by the churches, 249-253.
Pattox, Rev. Daniel, sent to South Alabama, 158; in Missouri, 185;
glimpse of his w^ork, 186; an account of las.t meeting of General
Synod, 203.
Pearson, Rev. R. G., evangelist, 618.
Pennsylvania, origin of church in, 273; visited by Bone and Ogden,
273; invitation and visit of our missionaries, 273-277 i fi'st Pres-
byterian ministers to open their churches, 277; first Cumberland
Presbyterian church, 278; first camp-meeting, 279; reports in
church papers, 283: formation of a presbytery, 283; examples of
our noblest congregations, 287-390.
Pennsylvania Presbytery, when and where organized, 284; original
members, 284; its rapid growth, 290; appointed itinerants for
Ohio, 296.
Pennsylvania Synod, when and where organized, 291; its prosperous
condition, 291; action of, 417, 528; resolutions, 531 ; Waynesburg
College under control of, 534; semi-centennial, 540; memorial
from, 4S0; pledges of, 483, 485.
Perry, Rev. W. O. H., president of Stewartsville College, 573; presi-
dent Odessa College, 573.
Phelps, Rev. Dr. Austin, quotations from, 71, 73. ,
Pierson, Rev. Dr. B. H., 151, 304.
Piner, Rev. F. D., superintendent of Burney Academy, 330.
PiNEY, 121
Index. 671!
Pittsburg (Pa.), temporary location of Committee of Publication, 382;
committee discontinued at, 3S5.
Pittsburg Church, when organized, 290.
Planting of Churches, 143.
Porter, Rev. James B., power in preaching, 32; his education and
conversion, 56; biographical sketch, 91.
Powell, Rev. R. F., 616.
Prairie Grove, first church organized among the Cherokee Indians,
477-
Presbyterian, The, its charges against Cumberland Presbyterians, 45;
its statement corrected, 46.
Presbyteries, organization of new, 468.
Presbyterian Alliance, constitution of, approved, 45S; delegates
elected to, 458; relation of the Cumberland Presbyterian church
to, 461, 462; delegates refused admittance, 462, 463; wide-spread
interest in, 463; delegates appointed to, 464; result of the appli-
cation, 464-466; rejDort to the General Assembly, 466.
Presbyterian Church, divisions in, 39, 40; propositions for union
with, 385-387, 449, 453; our debts to, 625.
Presbyterian Church (South), considering a change in standard of
education, 63; negotiations for union with, 385—387.
Presbyterians, Scotch Irish, church erected by, 6.
Preston, Rev. W. B., editor Texas Observer, 594.
Prime, Rev. Dr. S. Iren,^us, recommendation of, 479.
Provine, Rev. Dr. J. C, secretary and treasurer of Board of Educa-
tion, 316; author of deliverance of Assembly, 1866, 405; book
editor and publishing agent, 583; editor banner of I'eace, ^(^i;
editor 77^c Ladies' Pearly 595.
Publication, 577; first book published, 578; first step toward a pub-
lishing department, 578; arrangements made for publication of
books, 578; hymn book, 578; Board of Publication created, 578.
Publication, Board of, committee appointed, 313; programme
changed, 314; management often changed, 314; new committee
located at Nashville, 314; inheritance from the Louisville Board,
315; charter secured, 315; missing stereotype plates, 315; re-or-
ganized, 385, 387; debt paid, 461; periodicals purchased by, 460;
its origin, 578; its first members, 579; a Committee of Publication,
672 Index.
579; book editor chosen, 583; assets and liabilities, 587; located
at Louisville, 579; difficulties, 579, 5S0; chartered, 582; moneys
donated to, 583; permanent committee chosen, 581; transferred
to Pittsburg, Pa., 582; re-organized at Nashville, 582; publication
of newspapers, 5S4, 5S5; papers purchased, 585, 586; books pub-
lished, 588, 589; names of members of, 590.
Pueblo, 611.
Pyatt, Jacob, an incident, 190.
Q.
QuAiTE, Rev. W. G. L., agent Cumberland College, 224; agent Cane
Hill College, 569.
R.
Ransom, Rev. L. C, editor Southern Observer^ 384; a sermon by, 385;
in St. Louis, 469; discipline, 643.
Rea, Rev. J. W., sent to West Tennessee, 149.
Rea, Rev. P. G., interesting facts from, 375; correction of Hon. R. C.
Ewing's dates, 375; a barn meeting, 635, 636.
Red Riveu, meeting at, 13; of historic interest, 120.
Reed, Rev. R. S., secretary of Board of Missions, 475; in Nebraska,
613,615.
Reed, Rev. Wiley M., chairman Committee of Publication, 315;
speech of, 404.
Renick, Rev. Robert, a pioneer, 613, 615.
Republican Valley Presbytery, strength of, 361.
Revision of Confession of Faith, 59S-604; a demand for, 598; a
committee appointed, 599; its report, 599; a synod's vote of cen-
sure, 599; appointment of committees and their work rejected
by the presbyteries, 600; the two committees of 1881, 600; work
of the committees, 601; changes made by the Assembly of 1882,
602; grounds of complaint, 603; proof texts, 603; preface, 603,
an omission, 603; its adoption by the presbyteries, 604; record
of the vote on, 459.
Revivals, prayer for, 10; revival of iSoo a genuine work, 20; extent
of, 26; opposition to, 39; a cause of division, 40; churches closed
against, 40; personal violence, 40; hyper-Calvinism logically op-
posed, 41; objections to measures used, 42, defended, 42, 43;
Index. 673
Rezner, Miss Rena, arrived in Japan December, 18S6, 502.
Rice Rev. David, his removal to Kentucky, 6; testimony of, 7; a ser-
mon by, 20, 21 ; opposed to revival "measures," 42; visit to Mc-
Gready's field, 48; a favorble report, 49; a letter on education and
answer, 49.
Rice, Rev. Green P., an incident, 170, 171; first sermon in Missouri,
175-
Rice, Rev. P. A., 611.
Richards, Rev. Dr. S., a chaplain, 426; professor in Lincoln Univer-
sity, 544. 546-
Ridley, Hon. Bromfield L., professor in law department Cumberland
University, 512.
Riley, Prof. Philip, an incident, 227.
Roach, Rev. J. M. B., struggles of, 567.
Roach, Rev. J. N., president Bethel College, 568; 585.
Roark, Rev. Amos, first delegate to the General Assembly from
Texas, 269; return to the United States, 271.
Robinson, Rev. Calvin, 476.
Rochester, Rev. Dr., diagram of progress, 26.
Rocky Mountain Presbytery, its organization, 610.
Ross, Rev. R. L., a liberal helper in church work, 259; an incident,
260, 261.
Round Prairie Church, first in Kansas, 360.
Rush, John R., delegate to Presbyterian Alliance, 462,
s.
Sacramento Presbytery, strength of, 356.
Sacramento Synod, name changed, 390.
Schaff, Rev. Dr. Philip, Westminster Confession, 72, 73.
Schools and Colleges, 555, 556; importance of a lower grade of,
557; multiplication of colleges, 559; warnings of the Assemblies,
559' 5^°' names reported, 560.
Scott, Rev. Dr. W. A., left the church, 240; in Louisiana, 261.
Sedalia (Mo.), 473.
43
674 Index.
Selma (Ala.), temporary Committee on Missions for the South at, 384,
convention at, 383, 3S4.
Shakers, attitude of the first Cumberland Presbyterian ministers
toward the, 25.
Sharp, Rev. J. E., in Kansas City, 472,
Sharp, James H., professor in Cumberland University, 511.
Shelby, Rev. Aaron, his lease of Cumberland College, 216.
Sherrill, W. B., president Bethel College, 568.
Shiloh Church, 13; meeting at, 14; identical vv^ith De Sha's, 18.
Shook, Rev. Isaac, secretary of Board of Missions, 312; his mission-
ary magazine, 312: his resignation, 313; agent of Board of Pub-
lication, 315; visit to Mississippi, 255; an incident, 257; pastor at
Columbus, Miss., 258; in Ohio, 298; story of the "stars falling,"
304-
Shouting, origin of, 18; opposition to, 41.
Sims, Rev. R. J., an evangelist, 618; a case of fasting and prayer, 637;
a gainsay er converted, 638; a band of rowdies conquered, 639.
Simmons, A. M. C, 435.
Sloan, Rev. Robert, a circuit rider, 181; died in Missouri, 196.
Slavery, relation of Cumberland Presbyterians to, 410; relation of
first ministers to, 410; a sermon by Ewing, 411; McAdow op-
posed to, 411; some preachers perplexed, 412; men forced to
become slave owners, 413; attitude of The Revivalist, 413-416;
attitude of the Cumberland Presbyterian, 416; report of the
Assemblies of 1848 and 1851 on the subject, 416-418.
Small, Rev. J. M., work of, 353.
Smith, Rev. Hugh R., services of, 182.
Smith, Rev. James, editor, pastor, and stated clerk, 230; resignation,
232; continued as editor, 233; call for convention, 233; in the
convention, 234; re-appearance of paper, 235; attitude on the
college question, 237; ubiquitous, 238; his inconsistent course, 239;
history by, 16.
Smith, Rev. John C, appointed missionary, 134.
Smith, Rev. J. J., missionary, 477.
Smith, Rev. Dr. J. T., 450.
Smyrna, 121, 122.
Index. ' 675
Soldiers, preaching to, 420; chaplains in Confederate armies, 420, 421,
426; in the Union armies, 423-426; programme of services, 428.
Sonoma Academy, 353, 354.
Spain, J. D., 5SS.
Sparks, Rev. S. INI., goes to Pennsylvania, 2S4.
Speer, Rev. Dr., narrative of, 15, 26, 46.
Springfield (Mb.), Assembly at, 451-453.
Springer, Rev. Dr. F., chairman Committee on Correspondence, 458.
Spring Hill Academy, the first school in Cumberland, 5, 6.
Spring Hill Institute, aim and origin of, 571.
Spring River Academy, 555.
Sprowls, Rev. Dr. J. P., chairman of Committee on Correspondence,
45S.
Statistics, prejudice against, ii6; Dr. Burrow opposed, 117; 468.
Steele, Rev. A. J., v^ork in Alabama, 156.
Steele, Rev. J. H., 611.
Stephens, Rev. A. H., in Sedalia, 473.
St. Louis, mission work in, 469-472.
Stewart, Gen. A. P., professor in Cumberland University, 511; offered
the presidency of University, 516; evangelist, 621,
Stewart, Rev. S. T., publishing agent, 5S2.
Stewartsville College, 573.
Stone, Rev. A. M., president Cumberland Female College, 566.
Stone, Rev. Barton W., 44.
Sunday Morning, 5S7.
Sunday School Comments, 587.
Sunday-School Gem, The, 3S9; 584.
Sweeny, Rev. A. W., 617.
Synods, consolidation of, 467.
Synod, First, when and where organized, 94; a sketch of its members,
94; report of committee to prepare statement of doctrine, 98, 99;
old customs, 109-119; manner of representation, no; effort to
organize a presbytery in South Alabama, 157; plan for a school
adopted, 201.
676 Index.
T.
Tate, Rev. Robert, his work and death, 269.
Taylou, a. R., professor in Lincoln University, 547; principal Kansas
State Normal School, 547.
Tehuacana, site of Trinity University, 553.
Temperance, 604; early attitude of the church on, 604; church papers
a unit, 604, 605; utterance of the church courts, 605-607.
Tempeeton, Rev. Dr. A., in Chattanooga, 474; anecdote of, 35S.
Tennessee Presbytery, when organized, 159; an intermediate ses-
sion of, 159; resolved to establish and endow a college, 363.
Texas, planting the church in, 263; first Protestant sermon in, 264; first
camp-meeting, 265, 269; the revolt of, 267; first church organized,
269; first Protestant minister ordained, 271; rapid growth, 272;
table of dates, 272.
Texas Cumberland Presbyterian — Texas Observer, 594.
Texas Presbytery, when organized, 26S; original members, 26S;
decided measures adopted, 269; elders sent to help to organize
churches, 270; incidents, 270; a period of darkness, 271.
Texas Presbyterian, The, 593.
Texas Synod, when organized, 271; its presbyteries, 371.
The Theological Medium, 3S9, 5S4, 596, 597.
Theological School, efforts to establish a, 363; location at Lebanon,
Tenn., 363; action of Bethel College, 363; action of General As-
sembly, 364; new missionary life awakened in, 506; more than a
department of the University, 531, 533; laws binding on pro-
fessors in, 532; co-education, 533; first, 178, 179; no theological
department in Cumberland College, 211, 212.
The Pacific Observer, 31^4, 596.
The Watchman and Evangelist, 594.
Thomas, Rev. Dr. R. S., principal Union Female College, 564.
Thomas, Rev. S. Y., sent to East Tennessee, 146; pioneer in West
Tennessee, 150; his labors in Concord church, 303.
Tokens, their use dropped, 109.
Tombigbee Presbytery, when organized, 15S.
Topp, Col. John S., an anecdote of, 354.
Index. 677
Transylvania Presbytery, 48, 49; division of, i, 56.
Trinity University, origin of, 551, 552; endowment, 553; importance
of> 553' 554-1 its work, 554.
The Rays of Light, 587.
Tulare Presbytery, strength of, 356; when organized, 389.
U.
Union Female College, founding of, 564.
Union Presbytery (Presbyterian), 4.
Union Presbytery (Pa.), when and where organized, 291.
Union Synod, name changed, 390.
Uniontown Church (Pa.), one of the first in Pennsylvania, 287.
V.
Van Patten, Rev. J. C, agent Lincohi University, 549.
Venezuela, as a mission field, 480, 48 1.
w.
Walla Walla (W. T.), 616, 617.
Walla Walla Presbytery, 618.
Ward, John Shirley, editor TJie Ladies' Pearl, 595.
Ward, Rev. Dr. W. E., appointed a delegate to Presbyterian Alliance,
^62; agent Cumberland University, C514; an incident, 51^; founder
Ward's Seminary, 570, 571; president Board of Publication, 589;
editor Banner of Peace, 591.
Ward's Seminary, 570, 571.
War Record, 391; sermon by Rev. Dr. Milton Bird, 391-395; resolu-
tions in 1861, 395; report in 1862, 396, 397; in 1863, 398, 399; the
deliverance of 1S64, 399, 400; protest, 401-403; resolution of 186=^,
403; action of Southern conventions, 404; secession of Oxford
Presbytery, 404; Chattanooga convention, 404; determination to
avoid schism, 405; deliverance of 1866, 40^; resolutions of Penn-
sylvania Synod, 406; deliverance of 1867, 407; report of 186S,
408-410.
678 Index.
Warren, Rev. J. II., superintendent Sunday-schools, 456.
Washington (Tenn.), work of first evangelists at, 143.
Washington Territory, 616-618.
Watkins, Rev. R. O., first candidate for the ministry in Texas, 268;
driven from his work, 270; first Protestant minister ordained in
Texas, 271.
Watson, Rev. Benjamin, reflections of, 374; his history, 374, 375.
Waukon Church (Iowa), organized, 339.
Waynesburg Church (Pa.), organized, 283.
Waynesburg College, 527-541; founded, 533; charter granted, 534;
passed under control of Pennsylvania Synod, 534; its relation to
the Cumberland Presbyterian church, 534; labors of Dr. Miller
'".536, 537; of Mrs. Miller, 537; work of, 537, 538, 541; pro-
fessors and teachers, 533, 535, 53S; theological dei^artment, 538,
539; endowment, 539, 540.
Weekly Papers, consolidation of, 460, 585, 5S6.
Weethee, Rev. J. P., 528, president of Madison College, 529; presi-
dent Beverly College, 532; president Waynesburg College, 535.
Weir, Rev. Edmoxd, missionary to Liberia, 333; commissioned to
raise funds, 333; work in Liberia, 334, 335; 441-443.
Weir, Rev. J. C, a jDioneer in Alabama, 162.
Weir, Rev. Moses T., seeks separate organization for colored people,
435; at Warrensburg Assembly, 436.
Westminister Confession, reservations in adopting, 66; meaning of
the word "fatality," 66: doctrinal difficulty, 67; ecclesiastical de-
liverances in 181 1, 68; proposed substitute for, 69; doctrines not
accepted as of old, 70; difficulties of liberal defenders, Ji; utter-
•ance of Rev. Dr. MacCrae. 71; protests coming from Calvinists,
71-73; the third chapter rejected, 73.
West Tennessee, 148-160; an Incident, 377.
West Virginia, a small beginning, 357.
Whatley, Rev. A. II., missionary to IMexico, 504, 505; work com-
menced, 505, 506.
W^HITE, Rev. A. W^., his work under Christian Commission, 423.
White, Rev. J. G., evangelist in Iowa, 337; missionary at St. Louis,
469.
Index. 679
Wichita Presbytery, strength of, 361.
Williams, Dixox C, evangelist, 6i8, 621.
Williams, Rev. R. A., 616.
Wills, Rev. R. H., 617.
Wilson, Rev. A. M., 441.
WiLSOx, John D., publishing agent, 587.
Wilson, Rev. Dr. J. L., statement of, 63; one of the commission, Si.
Winchester, Rev. G. L., his work as chaplain, 427, 431.
Woman's Board of Missions, organization, 457, 487, 4S8; its success,
457; first Board of Missions a Woman's Board, 457; arrival of
Miss Orr and Miss Leavitt in Japan, 490; arrival of Mrs. Dren-
nan, 494; the girls' school opened, 495; Mrs. Drennan's classes
for young men, 495; arrival of INIiss Duffiekl, 500; arrival of Miss
Rezner, 502; names of missionaries, 502.
Woods, Rev. J. W., work as chaplain, 426.
Woods, Rev. LeRoy, his journey to Pennsylvania, 284; his marriage,
285; publishing agent, 579; testimony concerning first Presbyte-
rian preachers, 527, 528; reasons for going to the legislature, 605;
incidents furnished by, 529, 628, 629.
Y.
Yager, Rev. C, in California, 351, 440.
Young, Rev. A. A., a pioneer, 1S5.
Young, Rev. T. E.. 435.
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