June 2014

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June 10: Persecution Produces a Presbytery

10 June, 2014 in June 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Some of our past posts published here on This Day in Presbyterian History have given us portions on the life and ministry of Francis McKemie, in the context of the beginnings of the Presbyterian church in America.  What informed Presbyterians know is that this founder of American Presbyterianism was ordained in Ireland as a Presbyterian minister, which itself was formed in 1642.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Under King James I, large numbers—literally tens of thousands—of Scottish Presbyterians emigrated in 1610 to the region now known as Northern Ireland. What they found was a barren land, laid waste by the Irish wars in the late 1500’s. These Scottish immigrants must have taken a deep breadth as they viewed their new surroundings, and wondered what they had gotten themselves into when they decided to leave Scotland.  But James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery, the two founding fathers of the Ulster Scot movement, knew that these Scot immigrants were just what was necessary to populate and transform the land. With courage and determination, they plowed, planted, and eventually built the region into an agricultural and industrial nation. They also rebuilt some 15 churches which had been destroyed in previous decades. These were a people who lived out their biblical faith; they were a people whose convictions equipped them to meet great challenges.

The first Presbyterian minister to Ulster was the Rev. Edward Brice who came over in 1613.  Others would join him, even as the early church in Ireland would be more Prescopalian, to coin a word, than Presbyterian.  Presbyterian ministers labored within the confines of Episcopal churches at first.  Such a combination could not continue forever however, which was made clear on August 4, 1621, when the Five Articles of Perth were passed in the old country, and applied there and in Ulster.  It was simply an attempt to conform Scottish worship to the Anglican pattern of worship.  The attempt did not go well!

God’s Spirit was also at work during these times.  There were three religious revivals which renewed the graces of Christ in believers, thus bringing God’s elect into the kingdom. These three revivals were known as the Stewarton Revival, the Six Mile Water Revival, and the Kirk O’Shotts Revival. Each in turn served to prepare Church members for some hard trials in later decades.

The first time of trial took place in 1639.  The Black Oath was introduced in Ulster on May 21.  It specifically rejected the National Covenant of Scotland, which had been signed in 1638. Those who were asked to sign the Black Oath were to reject the National Covenant, and swear loyalty to King Charles I.  Some of the Ulster Scots signed the Black Oath, but most refused.

That trial continued on until October 23, 1641 when there was literally an “open season” for the persecution of Irish Protestants and Presbyterians carried out by Roman Catholics.  This author chose not to amplify the gross details of the massacre, but it is horrible to the extreme.  Estimates of those murdered were from 40,000 to 300,000.  Finally, someone thought it best to call for military help from Scotland.  Major General Robert Monro came with a Scottish army of 2500 soldiers to defend the harried residents of the Kirk.

But our post ends on a positive note, for from this Scottish army came the beginnings of the Presbyterian Church.  Each Scottish regiment had a Presbyterian chaplain.  Further, in each regiment, could be found what we would today call ruling elders. Then on Friday, June 10, 1642, in Carrisckfergus, Ireland, a meeting was held to constitute this Presbytery.  Present were Presbyterian chaplains Hugh Cunningham, Thomas Peeples, John Baird, John Scott, and John Aird.   Four other elders joined them to establish Sessions of Elders.

Rev. John Baird preached the first Presbytery sermon from Psalm 51:18, “By your favor do good to Zion, Build the walls of Jerusalem.”  Rev. Thomas Peeples was elected as Stated Clerk, a position he held for the next 30 years.   A flood of applications came from all of Ulster to join the Presbytery.  By 1660, there would be 80 congregations, 70 ministers, 5 Presbyteries, and 100,000 members.  And from them would come countless people immigrating to the land in which you and I live today.

Words to Live By: What stands out to this author is how the Lord prepared His people by not only heaven-sent revivals of the church,  but also through His preserving and sustaining care, in raising up His church despite terrible persecution of it.  How we can be thankful that this same God is still the God of providence, who guides and guards His people today.

 

 

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June 9: “Errors and True Doctrines” (1837)

9 June, 2014 in June 2014 by Wayne Sparkman | No comments

Unlike immediately prior years, the General Assembly of 1837 was controlled by the Old School wing of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Taking advantage of their numbers, they took the action of removing from the denomination the Synods of Utica, Geneva, and Genesee, in New York, and the Western Reserve Synod in Ohio. The primary complaint of the Old School Presbyterians was the teaching of a modified Calvinism, labeled “Taylorism.” And with the excision of these four Synods, they hoped to remove the Taylor doctrine from the Church. Old School Presbyterians had also come to oppose the 1801 Plan of Union, a cooperative arrangement with Congregationalists. Here too, the removal of New School votes from the Assembly made it that much easier to repeal the Plan of Union.

Sixteen charges of theological error were leveled at the New School men by the Assembly of 1837. And no sooner were those charges laid on the table, than the New School responded in prompt reply with the document initially known as Errors and True Doctrines. Later that same summer, in subsequent conference, the New School men issued a revised version of this text under the name of the Auburn Declaration. With this document, the New School men sought to affirm their orthodoxy. Or as one historian summarized it,

“The Declaration thus adopted became, not indeed a creed, but an authoritative explanation of the interpretation given to the Westminster Symbols by the leading minds in the New School Church, as organized in 1838. It was in 1868 indorsed by the General Assembly (O. S.) as containing ‘all the fundamentals of the Calvinistic Creed,’ and this indorsement was one among the most effectual steps in bringing about the reunion of the two Churches in 1870. The document is rather a disavowal of imputed error than an exposition of revealed truth, and must be understood from the anthropological and soteriological controversies of that period of division now happily gone by.”

ERRORS AND TRUE DOCTRINE.
[submitted as a protest to the General Assembly, June 8, 1837]

First Error.—“That God would have prevented the existence of sin in our world, but was not able, without destroying the moral agency of man; or, that for aught that appears in the Bible to the contrary, sin is incidental to any wise moral system.”

True Doctrine.—God permitted the introduction of sin, not because he was unable to prevent it, consistently with the moral freedom of his creatures, but for wise and benevolent reasons which he has not revealed.

Second Error.—“That election to eternal life is founded on a foresight of faith and obedience.”

True Doctrine.—Election to eternal life is not founded on a foresight of faith and obedience, but is a sovereign act of God’s mercy, whereby, according to the counsel of his own will, He has chosen some to salvation; “yet so as thereby neither is violence offered to the will of the Creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established;” nor does this gracious purpose ever take effect independently of faith and a holy life.

Third Error.—“That we have no more to do with the first sin of Adam than with the sins of any other parent.”

True Doctrine.—By a divine constitution, Adam was so the head and representative of the race, that, as a consequence of his transgression, all mankind become morally corrupt, and liable to death, temporal and eternal.

Fourth Error.—“That infants come into the world as free from moral defilement as was Adam when he was created.”

True Doctrine.—Adam was created in the image of God, endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. Infants come into the world, not only destitute of these, but with a nature inclined to evil and only evil.

Fifth Error.—“That infants sustain the same relation to the moral government of God, in this world, as brute animals, and that their sufferings and death are to be accounted for on the some principles as those of brutes, and not by any means to be considered as penal.”

True Doctrine.—Brute animals sustain no such relation to the moral government of God as does the human family. Infants are a part of the human family,and their sufferings and death are to be accounted for, on the ground of their being involved in the general moral ruin of the race induced by the apostacy.

Sixth Error.—“That there is no other original sin than the fact, that all the posterity of Adam, though by nature innocent, will always begin to sin when they begin to exercise moral agency; that original sin does not include a sinful bias of the human mind, and a just exposure to penal suffering; and that there is no evidence in Scripture, that infants in order to salvation, do need redemption by the blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Ghost.”

True Doctrine.—Original sin is a natural bias to evil, resulting from the first apostacy, leading invariably and certainly to actual transgression. And all infants, as well as adults, in order to be saved, need redemption by the blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Ghost.

Seventh Error.—“That the doctrine of imputation, whether of the guilt of Adam’s sin, or of the righteousness of Christ, has no foundation in the Word of God, and is both unjust and absurd.”

True Doctrine.—The sin of Adam is not imputed to his posterity in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities, acts, and demerit; but by reason of the sin of Adam, in his peculiar relation, the race are treated as if they had sinned. Nor is the righteousness of Christ imputed to his people in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities, acts, and merit; but by reason of his righteousness, in his peculiar relation, they are treated as if they were righteous.

Eighth Error.—“That the sufferings and death of Christ were not truly vicarious and penal, but symbolical, governmental, and instructive only.”

True Doctrine.—The sufferings and death of Christ were not symbolical, governmental, and instructive only, but were truly vicarious, i.e., a substitute for the punishment due to transgressors. And while Christ did not suffer the literal penalty of the law, involving remorse of conscience and the pains of hell, he did offer a sacrifice which infinite wisdom saw to be a full equivalent. And by virtue of this atonement, overtures of mercy are sincerely made to the race, and salvation secured to all who believe.

Ninth Error.—“That the impenitent sinner is by nature, and independently of the renewing influence or almighty energy of the Holy Spirit, in full possession of all the ability necessary to a full compliance with all the commandments of God.”

True Doctrine.—While sinners have all the faculties necessary to a perfect moral agency and a just accountability, such is their love of sin and opposition to God and his law, that, independently of the renewing influence or almighty energy of the Holy Spirit, they never will comply with the commands of God.

Tenth Error.—“That Christ does not intercede for the elect until after their regeneration.”

True Doctrine.—The intercession of Christ for the elect is previous as well as subsequent to their regeneration, as appears from the following Scripture, viz. “I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”

Eleventh Error.—“That saving faith is not an effect of the operations of the Holy Spirit, but a mere rational belief of the truth or assent to the word of God.”

True Doctrine.—Saving faith is an intelligent and cordial assent to the testimony of God concerning his Son, implying reliance on Christ alone for pardon and eternal life; and in all cases it is an effect of the special operations of the Holy Spirit.

Twelfth Error.—“That regeneration is the act of the sinner himself, and that it consists in change of his governing purpose, which he himself must produce, and which is the result, not of any direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the heart, but chiefly of a persuasive exhibition of the truth, analogous to the influence which one man exerts over the mind of another; or that regeneration is not an instantaneous act, but a progressive work.”

True Doctrine.—Regeneration is a radical change of heart, produced by the special operations of the Holy Spirit, determining the sinner to that which is good, and is in all cases instantaneous.

Thirteenth Error.—“That God has done all that he can do for the salvation of all men, and that man himself must do the rest.”

True Doctrine.—While repentance for sin and faith in Christ are indispensable to salvation, all who are saved are indebted from first to last to the grace and Spirit of God. And the reason that God does not save all, is not that he wants the power to do it, but that in his wisdom he does not see fit to exert that power further than he actually does.

Fourteenth Error.—“That God cannot exert such influence on the minds of men, as shall make it certain that they will choose and act in a particular manner, without impairing their moral agency.”

True Doctrine.—While the liberty of the will is not impaired, nor the established connexion betwixt means and end broken by any action of God on the mind, he can influence it according to his pleasure, and does effectually determine it to good in all cases of true conversion.

Fifteenth Error.—“That the righteousness of Christ is not the sole ground of the sinner’s acceptance with God; and that in no sense does the righteousness of Christ become ours.”

True Doctrine.—All believers are justified, not on the ground of personal merit, but solely on the ground of the obedience and death, or, in other words, the righteousness of Christ. And while that righteousness does not become theirs, in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities and merit; yet, from respect to it, God can and does treat them as if they were righteous.

Sixteenth Error.—“That the reason why some differ from others in regard to their reception of the Gospel is, that they make themselves to differ

True Doctrine.—While all such as reject the Gospel of Christ do it, not by coercion but freely—and all who embrace it do it, not by coercion but freely—the reason why some differ from others is, that God has made them to differ.

Philadelphia, June 8th, 1837.

[signed by]:
George Duftield, E. W, Gilbert, Thomas Brown, Bliss lbirnan, N. S. S. Beman, E. Cheever, E. Seymour, George Painter, F. W. Graves, Obadiah Woodruff, N. G. Clark, Robert Stuart, Nahum Gould, Absalom Peters, Alexander Campbell.

The New School protest having been lodged, the official reply was brief and dismissive:

ANSWER

Mr. Plumer offered the following resolutions, which were adopted, viz.

1, Resolved, That the paper just offered, purporting to be a protest, though it contains several important mis-statements of facts, and much extraneous matter, be admitted to record without answer; the lateness of the period at which it is offered rendering it inconvenient to answer it, and the character of the paper rendering another disposition of it proper and necessary.’

2„ Resolved, That duly certified copies of this paper be sent to the respective Presbyteries to which the signers of the protest belong, calling their attention to the developments of theological views contained in it, and enjoining on them to inquire into the soundness of the faith of those who have ventured to make so strange avowals as some of these are.

Dr. Beman moved, that the attention of all the Presbyteries be directed to this protest.

The motion was lost.

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June 9:

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

June 8: Pray for Those in Political Authority

8 June, 2014 in June 2014 by archivist | No comments

“We need to get away, often, from the human standpoint, and to come up into communion with Him who sitteth supreme above the water-floods, and who sees times, and laws, and governments change, in the continued repose of His own eternal serenity. It does us good to let our troubled spirits take refreshment and rest in the bosom of God, while we are commending to Him both rulers and people, and asking Him to stay public tumults, and to rebuke violence in high places, and low places; to ride on every whirlwind and direct every storm.”


Tomorrow we will have a post concerning a document presented in defense of the orthodoxy of the New School Presbyterians. Originally lodged as a protest on June 8, 1837, under the title of “Errors and True Doctrines,” this document later became known as the Auburn Declaration. But not wanting to get away from our practice of presenting a sermon on the Lord’s Day, we will put that off till tomorrow, and for today, consider the following sermon from 1856, on the great subject of prayer for those in civil authority. I have edited this somewhat for length. To read the full sermon, click here.

 

 

A SERMON ON PRAYER FOR RULERS,

delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago.

Sabbath Morning, June 8, 1856,

by Rev. R.W. Patterson, pastor of the church.

(Chicago, 1856).

1 Timothy 2:1-4
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.“

The duty of prayer is one which is much insisted upon in the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle, in the words just read, exhorts that, first of all, as a primary duty, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made. And he would not have a part only of our fellow creatures chosen as the objects of our petitions at the throne of the Heavenly grace. He calls upon us as believers in the universal Supremacy and Providence of God, to remember in our intercessions all men, of every class, whether they be friends, enemies or strangers. And he names, as specially entitled to our sympathies and supplications, kings, and all that are in authority, or in stations of preeminence. Then, he assigns reasons for compliance with this precept, which are of the most weighty character. The passage might well be made the foundation of a discourse touching the great duty of prayer and thanksgiving in general; but it calls our attention, in particular, to the importance of prayer for those of our fellow-men, to whose hands civil and political power is entrusted. And this special topic, always appropriate for our serious consideration, appears to press itself upon our thoughts and hearts with peculiar urgency at the present time.

Let me, therefore, invite your attention this morning, to the DUTY of prayer for rulers, and for all who possess political power, and to SOME REASONS for an earnest performance of this duty, especially in the present circumstances of our beloved country.

I. The Word of God habitually recognizes the rule of kings as proper to be regarded with reverence and submission in ages of the world when the monarchical form of government was almost everywhere established, and when the general condition of human society scarcely admitted of any freer and more desirable system of government. It is, of course, not to be inferred from this recognition of royal authority, that the right of kings is affirmed by a Divine sanction, as a right to be maintained in all the more advanced stages of social and civil progress in human history. The Bible does not meddle directly with existing forms of civil government. It authorizes civil rule in some form as an “ordinance of God,” but leaves it to human prudence and to the orderings of Divine Providence, together with the silent working of revealed principles in the minds and hearts of men, to determine, from time to time, what particular form of government shall be established and sustained for the benefit of each Commonwealth or Nation. When, therefore, the Apostles exhort their readers to “be subject to the higher powers,” to “honor the king,” and to “pray for kings and for all that are in authority,” they only point out the fit application, in formerly existing circumstances, of the great principle, that it is the duty of Christian people to respect, and commend to God in their supplications, the men who are providentially entrusted with the political rule and supremacy under which they live. These precepts are in principle and spirit, but not in a literal sense, applicable to us, under the republican form of government which God has providentially secured to us. We may respect and pray for kings, only as rulers remote from us, to whose hands are committed the public and civil interests of other nations. The general principle which has been defined as involved in the Scriptural precepts touching this subject, would require us to reverence, and remember before God, as our own rulers, those whom we ourselves, as a people, have placed in authority, and, with them, all the sovereign citizens, in whose hands the civil power ultimately resides. “The powers that be” and “are ordained of God,” in our country, are the people, and those persons whom the people select to rule over them under the guidance of the Constitution and laws already established. We may, then, regard our text as enjoining upon us the frequent presentation of earnest petitions to the God of Nations in behalf of all those in our land who possess and exercise civil authority in any form, but especially for those who are actually appointed to rule over us. This duty is already recognized, no doubt, with more or less distinctness, by every person among us who believes that God hears prayer. But it may be useful to notice a few points at which difficulty, or positive error, is liable to arise in some minds with respect to what is implied in the offering of prayer for those who possess civil authority. Let me then say,

1. That we are not required to prayer for the sovereign people, or for our rulers, in any such form or manner as would imply a sanction of their mistakes or wicked doings. God’s requirements are not in conflict with each other. His laws are supreme. No majorities among communities; no action of public legislators; no decisions of judicial courts; no decrees of supreme executives, can make that to be lawful and right which GOD ALMIGHTY has forbidden; or that to be wrong and unlawful which He has required. “We ought,” said the Apostles to the Jewish rulers, “to obey God, rather than man;” (Acts 5:29; see also Acts 4:18-20; Daniel 3:13-18.) thus affirming the principle, that where we must either disobey God or men, we ought always to prefer allegiance to our Infinite Make, and consent, if need be, to suffer the penalties of unrighteous human laws. And we read in the Word of God heavy condemnation against “the throne of iniquity which frameth mischief by a law,” and against those men who “gather themselves together against the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.” Now we know that God never contradicts Himself. “He cannot deny Himself.” He does not, therefore, require us to pray for the success of either people or rulers in their efforts to carry out and establish false principles. He abhors wrong and injustice, and would spurn from His mercy seat any invocation of help for those who would so legislate, or so administer laws, as to make war upon the truth or upon the rights of men. It may even be our duty to pray that the wicked counsels of those who are in authority should be turned into foolishness, like the counsel of Ahithophel. “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” And every petition we offer to the Most High should consist with a supreme concern for the ultimate triumph of our Redeemer’s Kingdom of peace and righteousness, and for the triumph of true Christian liberty throughout the earth. It is our duty to pray that our rulers, and all the people, may be restrained from wrong-doing, and not prospered in any selfish designs or mistaken devices. “The voice of the people is” not “the voice of God.” For all men are fallible, and liable to be selfish and passionate, and wicked. Rulers are not infallible, but are often arbitrary, unjust and oppressive; and they can only be the objects of God’s gracious benediction, so far as they acknowledge, in practice, the great law of impartial love, and the Supremacy of Him who sits on the Throne of Universal Dominion. It may, therefore, be our duty to pray against their policy and measures, while we pray for their persons and for the renovation of their characters. The early Christians prayed for their persecutors who were in power, but never for the success of their malignant designs.

2. Again : It is obvious, that the precept which we are considering, does not imply any obligation to submit passively to wrong and injustice on the part of our rulers, where legitimate modes of relief are available to the suffering subjects. We may not speak evil of rulers, as such. We may not despise their authority, even when it is wielded against the right. We may not, on Christian principles, resist the powers which God has evidently ordained.

3. It is almost needless to remark, after what has been said, that the shaping of our petitions for those who possess civil authority, whether they be citizens or constituted rulers, must be determined by the particular features of the case as it stands before us. It is of course our duty to pray for the personal good of every man, whether he occupy one station or another in life. But besides this, it is our duty to pray for those who possess civil authority, with special reference to their official trusts and responsibilities.

II. We are now brought to notice some reasons why it becomes us to pray for all who possess authority, whether as free citizens or as official rulers, and especially at the present time.

1. And the first consideration which I would suggest is an obvious one, but still one of fundamental importance. God teaches us to expect that He will hear and answer appropriate prayer for public, as well as for private interests. This is implied in the very fact that we are required to offer petitions for those who are in authority. The precept contained in our text in relation to this subject only follows the tenor of many precepts in the Old Testament, having the same general end in view. Thus the Psalmist exhorted all saints to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” And Jehovah counseled His people, by the prophet Jeremiah, to “seek the peace of the city whither they had been carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it.” But why pray for such interests but because God has the hearts of kings, and of all men, in His hands, and turns them as the rivers of water, whithersoever He will? He may not see it wise to do all the particular things which we ask in relation to the public weal; but He is never sought in vain, by those who honor His supremacy and rightly trust in Him.

2. Let me remark further, that prayer for those who possess and exercise civil power, is specially adapted to fit us for our duties in time of trial and public conflict. When we commune only with our own hearts and with the minds of our fellow-creatures, we surely give place to feelings which have their origin in the depravity of our common nature. Left to ourselves, we cease to support even right principles from right motives; our passions gain the mastery over our conscience and our benevolence; and we forget to love the wrong-doer as a creature of God, and to think of him as an instrument of Providence, while we indulge a sinful indignation against his person, and against all who sympathize with him. We need to get away, often, from the human standpoint, and to come up into communion with Him who sitteth supreme above the water-floods, and who sees times, and laws, and governments change, in the continued repose of His own eternal serenity. It does us good to let our troubled spirits take refreshment and rest in the bosom of God, while we are commending to Him both rulers and people, and asking Him to stay public tumults, and to rebuke violence in high places, and low places; to ride on every whirlwind and direct every storm. It helps us to exercise forbearance and possess our souls in patience, and to take our steps with discretion, to feel that we are allying ourselves more and more with the Infinite One, whose counsels run from all eternity past into all eternity to come. It was this that enabled all the ancient worthies to be calm in times that tried men’s souls, and to sustain with holy firmness the unchangeable principles for which they lived and died. Prayer to GOD ALMIGHTY for those who are in authority, reminds us that they are but men, and must die as soon as He shall breathe upon them; and that they, and we, and the whole nation, are in His hands, like clay in the hands of the potter. And this ought to fill us with solemn concern for all who bear responsibilities as God’s instruments and agents, in positions involving official trust.  Habitual intercession with God for those who are in authority, prepares us to recognize with hearty thanksgiving, their good acts and wise measures, and to deplore their mistakes and public offenses more in grief than anger. The man who prays much for his rulers cannot be their personal enemy, however he may feel bond to expose their errors, or to withstand their unrighteous measures. And the meek spirit which true prayer begets and cultivates, always tends to turn away wrath, even in those who are accustomed to make passion and caprice their supreme lawgiver in seasons of excitement and conflict.

3. Think, in the next place, of the preciousness of the interests that are at stake in the wise, or unwise, administration of our public affairs.

Never before was there a nation with such an ancestry, and such an early history; with such a social and political life, and such a progressive development, as those which distinguish and make proud the people of this great confederacy. What a treasure of national memories have we, to quicken the pulsations of our hearts on every glance at the past! What an inheritance of constitutional liberty and unfettered religion have our fathers left us, as the fruit of their sacrifices and blood! What a present of actually achieved greatness and power, and of advancing prosperity, and self-development, do we live in! What a future of enlargement and glory seems to have been almost ensured to us!

4. Let it not be said, that our interests as a people are not in special peril. Let it not be said, that the bonds which cement us together are too strong to be sundered; or that God will not forsake us after having done so much for us. We are environed by peculiar perils. The history of the world proves to us that general ignorance and corruption among the people are fearful causes of deterioration and decay in any nation,—that luxury and intemperance beget weakness,—that pride and self-sufficiency presage disaster,—and that expansion of territory and the consequent rapid multiplication of diverse interests, are liable to cause great commonwealths to fall by their own weight. And the Word of God assures us that the nation and people that will not serve Jehovah SHALL PERISH—so that ungodliness may be set down as a sure cause of destruction to any persistently wicked nation.

Now, the question is, who but God can so preside in this conflict of opposing interests and principles, as to save us from the horrors of internecine war, and establish our civil and religious freedom on a basis that can never be shaken? Who but God can give us all the wisdom and forbearance, combined with due moral decision, which we need in this critical process? Who but God can save us from hasty and destructive adventures on either side, in our sectional strifes, and open the eyes of the blind ere it be too late to retrace their downward steps? Who but God can give to the Church the needful moderation, as the great conservator of peace and of true boldness in times of peril?

There is hope in prayer. God can show us how to dispose peacefully of present issues, and how to inaugurate a policy that shall in the end take away from our nation all our chief occasions of fear, and make every bondman civilly and spiritual free. Let us, therefore, seek His face. Let us plead with Him for all our rulers and for all the people. Let us look to Him for those interpositions by which the foundations of our glorious Union may be established on the basis of true and changeless principles, and its arches be made as firm as the vault of heaven. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

[emphasis added]

A sermon on prayer for rulers, delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, on Sabbath morning, June 8, 1856 – Patterson, R. W. (Robert Wilson), 1814-1894.

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June 7: “We love him for the enemies he has made.”

7 June, 2014 in June 2014 by archivist | No comments

Clarence Macartney’s Pulpit Comments upon Machen’s Suspension from the Ministry:

Comments by Dr. C.E. Macartney on the Suspension of Dr. J. Gresham Machen from the Ministry of the Presbyterian Church.  Made at the Morning Service at the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, June 7, 1936.

            The moderator elected this time at the General Assembly is Dr. Masters, an able moderator and the most conservative we have had since two moderators well known to this congregation.

            Dr. Machen seems to have a great many enemies.  When Senator _________ nominated Grover Cleveland the second time for the Presidency in the Democratic Convention at Chicago, he brought the throng to their feet with his historic utterance, “We love him for the enemies he has made,” so although Dr. Machen has a great many enemies he has not a few friends who love him and respect him for the kind of enemies he has made.

            The General Assembly suspended Dr. Machen from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church.  He is not suspended from the Communion of the Church but he is stripped of all the prerogatives of a minister.  He cannot perform any of the duties of his office within the Presbyterian Church until such time as he shall obey the mandate of the General Assembly of 1934.  Since he will never do that it means the withdrawal from the Church of Dr. Machen.

            Having been his classmate at Princeton and knowing him much better perhaps than some of his enemies, I am glad in this public way to testify my affection for him, my confidence in the purity of his character and the sincerity of his motives, my admiration for his pre-eminent scholarship, his superb intellect, and his clear discernment of the unbelief and apostasy which is spreading within the Christian Church, and my deep regret and sorrow that such a man should be lost to the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.  At other crises in the history of the Church notable figures have been suspended from the ministry or voluntarily have withdrawn from the Communion of the Church because they were charged with unbelief, but here we have a man suspended from the Ministry of the Presbyterian Church who is known throughout the world as a fearless and able defender of the Faith of the Gospel.  The suspension of Dr. Machen from the Ministry of our Church will do him no injury; it will only increase his influence and add to the far-flung echo of his voice.  He is suspended from the Ministry of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America but few if any will think of him as suspended from the Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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