May 2014

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May 11: An Entry in J. J. Janeway’s Diary

11 May, 2014 in May 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Lacking a sermon tied to today’s date, we will visit again today the always profitable diary of the Rev. Jacob J. Janeway, the Philadelphia pastor and close friend of the early Princeton professors.

 

J.J. JanewayMay 11. “By the blessing of God I perceive the necessity of acquiring more courage. I have in the last week made struggles to overcome my fear of the face of man. I endeavoured to shame myself out of it, to summon the energies of my soul, and blessed be God, I have gained ground. Oh! my soul, how shameful for thee, who hadst the Almighty Jehovah on thy side, to be afraid of any creature. Oh! to have no fear before my eyes but the fear of God. The Lord assist me in the sermon on which I am now laboring. May the Spirit give me such clear and penetrating views, that I may, with force, conviction, and effect, illustrate the happiness of the good man. For Christ’s sake—Amen.”  

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May 10: James Hamilton Dies in Ireland

10 May, 2014 in May 2014 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

Deposed by Man, but Not By God

They called them “precopalians,” which strange as it may sound (and spell!), was  defined as Scottish Presbyterians who were leading Anglican congregations in northern Island, or Ulster.  At one time, in the seventeenth century, there were 27 Presbyterian ministers in churches in Ulster, all there to pastor the large number of Ulster Scottish families in the area.

Our post today deals with the Rev. James Hamilton, who traveled before he was ordained to Ulster.  Even after graduation from the University of Glasgow, he went to Ireland where his uncle had vast acreage in the northern part of Ireland. In time, our young man was noticed by a Presbyterian minister by the name of Robert Blair, who encouraged James to enter the ministry. It was on March 3, 1626 that James Hamilton was ordained as a minister in the Church of Ireland by the Irish bishop Robert Echlin. Hamilton began his pastorate in the Ballywalter Church and stayed there for a decade. The church later on became a Presbyterian Church, perhaps by the solid doctrinal preaching of Pastor Hamilton, as he is listed at their first pastor.

The presence of so many Presbyterians in the Irish churches brought the inevitable clash between who was the head of the church—the king of England or the Lord Jesus. When the Church of Ireland sought to bring subservience to the former and urged that the Presbyterian ministers deny the National Covenant of 1638, which had just been signed, James Hamilton resigned. He offered, along with two other ministers, to debate the matter, but the bishop simply deposed him from the ministry. He was ordered to be arrested, but escaped from their hands.

Around this time, Hamilton with three other Presbyterian ministers and 140 Ulster Scots commissioned a sailing vessel known as the Eagle Wing to sail to America. However due to storms, a broken rudder, and other calamities, the ship had to return to Ireland. Hamilton traveled on to Scotland and became involved with the Covenanters. He eventually became the minister of the Presbyterian Church of Dumfrees, Scotland.

It is interesting that he returned to Ireland for various purposes, once even to administer the Solemn League and Covenant in Ulster. Why he was not arrested, we don’t know, other than the providential care of God watching over him. On one of his trips to Northern Ireland, his ship was captured by forces not conducive to his faith. He served 10 months in prison but was set free in 1645. Returning to Scotland, he was appointed by the General Assembly to be a chaplain to King Charles II, but wound up with another prison sentence in the Tower of London.  Oliver Cromwell eventually gave him his freedom.  He eventually retired in Edinburgh.

James Hamilton died this day, May 10, 1666.

Words to Live By: A learned and diligent pastor, his life and ministry was certainly filled with hardship and difficulty. Even in his married live to wife Elizabeth Watson, this union would produce 15 children, with only one living to adulthood and the rest dying in infancy. God’s servants have often lived in hardship and difficulty. Think of Paul’s description of his ministry in 2 Corinthians 6:4 – 10 and 11:23 – 27. James Hamilton was deposed from his office by man, but supported by God’s Spirit in his life and ministry, always faithful to live and work in God’s will.  Let us, dear readers, keep busy serving our God and King, leaving the results of that service  in the hands of the Lord.  Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that God causes all things (i.e. the sufferings of this present time) to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (NAS)

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May 9: Death of Dr. Charles R. Erdman [1866-1960]

9 May, 2014 in May 2014 by archivist | No comments

Dr. Charles Rosenbury. ErdmanIt was at the momentous Syracuse, N.Y. meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. where Dr. J. Gresham Machen was officially defrocked from the ministry of that denomination. That action in turn then prompted the founding of what was to become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Also in attendance at that General Assembly in Syracuse was one of Machen’s many adversaries, Dr. Charles R. Erdman, a man who was by all accounts staunchly evangelical. Yet he found himself in opposition to the course taken by Dr. Machen— he found himself siding with those very men who took a decidedly modernist and unbelieving approach to the Scriptures.

The Syracuse Herald gave some coverage of Dr. Erdman’s visit to his birthplace in Fayetteville, NY that year, noting:

“Dr. Erdman was born in Fayetteville, where his father was a Presbyterian minister, but when he was three weeks old, his parents moved to another charge.

“In spite of the short time Dr. Erdman was a resident of the Onandaga County village, however, he has frequently visited his birthplace and this week, before the adjournment of the General Assembly which he is attending, he will again visit his birthplace, he said Saturday.

“Dr. Erdman’s father, the Rev. William Jacob Erdman, preached in the same church, and lived in the same manse as did the father of Grover Cleveland, former President of the United States. His youngest daughter is the wife of Francis Grover Cleveland, son of the late former President.

“The greater part of Dr. Erdman’s boyhood was passed in Jamestown. He also lived in Chicago where his father was pastor of Dwight L. Moody’s church. He was graduated from Princeton University in 1886 and from Princeton Seminary in 1891. He holds [honorary] doctor’s degrees from Wooster College, Princeton University and Davidson College.

“For six years following his ordination in 1891 he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Overbook, Pa. Then he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, Pa., where he remained until 1906 when he became a Princeton professor.

“He became a member of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in 1906 and in 1926 was elected as president, an office he still holds. He was elected moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1925. In the same year he was moderator of the New Brunswick Presbytery. In 1910 he was a delegate tot he World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh and in 1922 to the National Christian Council in Shanghai.

“He is the author of many books, including The Ruling Elder, Sunday Afternoon with a Railroad Man, Coming to the Communion, Within the Gates of the Far East, The Return of Christ, The Lord We Love, The Spirit of Christ, The Life of D.L. Moody, and expositions of most of the books of the New Testament.

“Dr. Erdman’s wife was Miss Estelle Pardee of Germantown, daugher of a widely-known coal operator. His son, the Rev. Calvin Pardee Erdman, also a Presbyterian minister, has preached in Hawaii and California….

“The Erdmans have a summer home at Saranac Lake.”

Embedded in that newspaper account are a few clues for the observant reader as to why Dr. Erdman found himself an opponent of Machen. Erdman had become attached to the denominational board of foreign missions, and Machen had been critical of that Board for fielding missionaries who held low views of Scripture. Moreover, Erdman’s personal and family connection to D.L. Moody might indicate a faith and a theology that was more generally evangelical and less confessional or Reformed in nature. Politics may also have had a part. By familial connection with Grover Cleveland, Dr. Erdman may have been a Democrat, whereas J. Gresham Machen was decidedly libertarian in his views and more of a political free-thinker.

Words to Live By: Why some men make the decisions they do is often a puzzle beyond our understanding. In pondering this point, we realize how much we must seek to live humbly in the fear of the Lord, for there are times when it takes a clear head and a resolute faith if we are to stand fast on the sure counsel of God’s Word. Too many of us are shaped by our associations, much more so than we realize. Seek instead to be shaped by the Word of God. Live each day as honestly as possible, confessing your sin, repenting and seeking the Lord’s mercy and grace.

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May 8: Professor John Murray

8 May, 2014 in May 2014 by archivist | 1 comment

We Thank God  on Every Remembrance of You

MurrayJohnWhen Professor John Murray retired from Westminster to return to his beloved land of Scotland, he attended for the last time the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1966.  The delegates there gave a memorial to him which captured the man and his ministry perfectly when it simply quoted the Pauline expression, “We thank God on every remembrance of you.”  That said it all to their fellow minister.

Fast forward in your mind nine years to the Free Church of Creich in Scotland and its small cemetery where the remains of John Murray were being buried in 1975.  Five hundred people from all over the world had gathered to hear the memorial messages.  A prince of Israel  had indeed fallen on May 8, 1975.

Between these two events, John Murray had served his country in World War I,  where he had fought with the famous Black Watch regiment.  The loss of his eye came from that time of military service.

Education included the M.A. degree from Glasglow University in 1923.  Then his ministerial degree (the older ThB) and Th.M. came from Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States.  Returning to Scotland at New College at Edinburgh University, he returned to Princeton Seminary at a pivotal year, namely, 1929.   That year, Princeton’s Board of Trustees was reorganized and Westminster Theological Seminary was begun.  John Murray joined the faculty of Westminster Seminary.

From that time until his retirement in 1966, hundreds of students sat under this “saintly scholar.”  He really equipped the student saints to go forth and minister the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ on a sound foundation of Biblical truth.  John Murray also capsulized that same Biblical truth in several books he wrote.  It might be interesting to sum up those books, which this contributor used all during his pastoral ministry.

MurrayChurch officers in our Reformed churches  would do well to have a firm understanding of both Christian Baptism, and Divorce.   Both of course would be profitable to the Christian in the pew as well.   All those with the gift of evangelism, as well as Evangelism teams going out weekly, must have an understanding of the book Redemption Accomplish and Applied.  In fact, all Christians should read this book.  Then Principles of Conduct are a reminder of the Christian life.  If any book of the Bible is a “must” book to consider the themes of sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereign election, and service, the book of Romans fills those themes perfectly.  And Murray’s commentary on The Epistle to the Romans is just what is needed to comprehend the great apostle’s words and thoughts.

After John Murray retired in 1966, after having lived 68 years as a bachelor, he took a younger Scottish wife, Miss Valerie Knowlton on December 7, 1967.  Two children would be born to the union.

Words to Live By: John Murray had many “children of the faith” in his years in teaching in this Reformed school of the prophets.  Let them remember him in their current ministries as they pass on what they have heard to others also who will be able to teach still others in the history of the church.

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May 7: Hymnwriter Elisha Hoffman

7 May, 2014 in May 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Who Wrote This Hymn?

We often sing favorite gospel hymns without the slightest idea or even care as to who was the author of it.  Also, have you ever wondered just what circumstances produced the words of such hymns?

Consider the following hymns:  “Are you Washed in the Blood?,”  “I must tell Jesus,”  “Is your All on the Altar?,”  “What a Wonderful Savior,”  “Down at the Cross where my Savior died,”  “Leaning on the Everlasting arms,”  “Speed the Light,”  “Christ has for sin Atonement made,”  “Glory to his name,”  “Have Thine own way, Lord,”  and “Give Him the glory.”

Indeed, if we listed all the hymns which the Presbyterian minister Elisha A. Hoffman wrote, we would list another 1,988 hymns.  And this from a man who had no formal music education!

Elisha Hoffman was born on May 7, 1839 in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were Pennsylvania Germans, with his father a minister.   Elisha was educated in the Philadelphia school system.  During this time, he was converted.  He went to Union Seminary in New Berlin, Pennsylvania, completing a classical  education at that school.  As this was the middle of the Civil War, he enlisted after the battle of Gettysburg, but for some unexplained reason, only served for one month.  He married in 1866 Susan Orwig who died ten years later, leaving him with three young boys.  Ordained in the Presbyterian ministry in 1873, he went on to serve as pastor in three Presbyterian churches, with the longest being the First Presbyterian Church in Benton Harbour, Michigan.  He married a second time, which union produced a baby boy, in addition to his family.  She would be wedded to him until  he died at age 90 on November 25, 1929.

Often various pastoral situations prompted him to write hymns.  To two widowers who had lost their respective wives, and who were absolutely dismayed over it, he joined another Presbyterian elder, A. J. Showalter, of Dalton, Georgia,  in writing the words and music of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

When a woman was burdened down with troubles, and no words of comfort accomplished any relief for her, Rev. Hoffman said “You must tell Jesus . . . You must tell Jesus.”  She replied, “I must tell Jesus.  Yes, that is the answer.”  Elisha Hoffman went home and penned the words of the well-known hymn, “I Must Tell Jesus all my troubles and cares.”

The visible church is enriched by the spiritual gifts of music of this man, Elisha Hoffman, and thankful for the theology and experience which he gave to us over the years.

Words to Live By:  Whether in the congregation of the church you attend, or around the piano in some home or Bible study, why not have a hymn sing of the songs listed above in the historical devotional?  It will bless your heart and mind, and help you rejoice in the Lord who called this man to add to the worship of the church down through the ages.

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