A Rich Heritage in Carlisle, PA
by Rev. David T Myers

Early colonial Presbyterians in the years before the American Revolution knew all about Cumberland County in Pennsylvania. This county, at one time, extending all the way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was the objective for the tens of thousands of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians coming across the ocean from Scotland directly, or through Ulster, Ireland and then onto the shores of the new continent. Countless of them after a time in Cumberland County continued to travel west while others of them turned south to what would become the Southern states. But there were those who stayed right in the rich farmlands of Central Pennsylvania, and specifically in and around Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Those who were Presbyterians in doctrine and life in Cumberland County set their attention to continue the faith of their Presbyterian fathers. It was said that as they settled down in the area, the trinity of home, school, and the church was set up in orders of importance.

In the home, the husband and father of usually large families, like eight to twelve children, had the responsibility to rear his family in the things of the Lord. That included a home religion centered around the Bible, which was usually the Geneva Version. Daily family “altars” were set up in the confines of the home, with the father being the spiritual leader. If the Presbyterian pastor found this practice being neglected, he would appoint a near-by more spiritual husband and father to take over this religious practice in their home! It was that important to the spiritual health of the family.

Usually there would be a shelf in the family home which had the Bible on it, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms,The Psalter for Singing, Pilgrims Progress, Thomas Boston’s “The Four-fold State”, and the “Saints Everlasting Rest” – all for spiritual reading and study by the members of the home.

The School, whether in a home school setting or a nearby one-room school, would enforce these guides for instruction, including even the Bible and the Westminster Standards as part of their curriculum.

The Church was the public expression of religious life as well. So in Carlisle, at first, the Meeting House at the springs, along with a graveyard, was established in 1741, which place continued to 1758. Then in 1758, the congregation moved to the city square at Carlisle, Pennsylvania to build their sanctuary. While it wasn’t until 1772 that the building was finally finished, it resides there yet today.

Our focus today centers on this day, January 12, 1833, when Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle was established with a petition to the Carlisle Presbytery to begin a separate church. Such a petition was granted by the Presbytery immediately. The records state that this was an outreach of First Presbyterian in that the increasing numbers in attendance could be siphoned off to a second church. However the building was also very close to the New School – Old School Division in the ranks of Presbyterianism which took place nationally between 1837 and 1870. If it was simply a case of increased growth, then it is strange that Second Church simply moved one block south of the present First Presbyterian congregation – hardly far enough without giving the appearance of a competing congregation.

Both churches exist today in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) Of significant interest, there is also a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America in Cumberland County, near Carlisle, appropriately named the Carlisle Reformed Presbyterian Church. Two ruling elders from First Presbyterian Church and two ruling elders from Second Presbyterian Church have made the PCA congregation their church home. They recognized that the PCA congregation in Cumberland County in both faith and life is the Reformed and Evangelical successor to the Scotch-Irish immigrants who came to this area back in the early days.

Words to Live By:
The books which made up the Presbyterian and Reformed faith which were found in every Presbyterian home of the 18^th century are still available today. Contact your local Reformed bookstore for them.

Pray for the Man Who Prays for You

It was on this day, January 11th, in 1818, that the Rev. John Mathews brought a sermon at the ordination of Wells Andrews. The full title of the sermon:—

The Duties of the Pastoral Office: A Sermon, delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, at the Ordination of Wells Andrews, January 11, 1818, before the Presbytery of Winchester. (Alexandria: Printed by Corse & Rounsavell, 1818)

Time and history have erased our recollections of who these men were, but the sermon has been preserved and is available to us today, for how we may profit from it. The sermon concludes with a fine exhortation to the congregation to pray for their pastor. It is that portion that we reproduce here today. For those who may want to read the whole of this sermon, please click here. But for now, we will simply present the conclusion to the sermon offered that day by Rev. Mathews.

And having charged the newly ordained pastor, Rev. Mathews turned to charge the congregation:—

It was mentioned that your pious people would help you with their prayers : shall we be permitted to ask the members of this congregation, is this intimation true? Shall we let it remain for the support and encouragement of your pastor, or shall we recall the promise, and tell him, that if he is determined to undertake the duties of this office, he must not expect the assistance of your prayers? Do not your hearts with all the warmth of pious affection, reply—NO! Let it remain : we will verify the promise : we will pray for him. We see the arduous task, the numerous and difficult duties he is about to undertake on our account, and we will support him with our prayers. Be it so : the promise shall not be recalled. God is witness to the pledge you have given.

But will you not support and encourage him by all other means in your power? Parents, will you not aid him by your instructions, your example, by the prudent exercise of your parental authority in training up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; in teaching them to love and reverence religion?

Beloved youth, what encouragement will you give? Will you embrace religion, become the disciples of Jesus Christ, dedicate yourselves to the service of God in the morning of life, and thus animate the heart of your pastor with the precious hope that when your fathers and mothers are laid in the grave, you will be ready, and willing to fill their places in the church, and support the worship of God? or will you, neglecting religion, pursue the pleasures and amusements of the world, and thus deprive him of this hope?

Dear little children, you are interested in the transactions of this day. When you see us lay our hands on the head of this man, and pray for him, remember that we are then appointing him to teach you the knowledge of God and religion. Wherever you see him then say to yourselves—this is the man who is to pray for us, and teach us the way to heaven : There may you, your parents, and your pastor finally meet, and spend eternity in ascribing salvation, and glory, and honor to God and the Lamb. Amen.

Words to Live By:
And with that, we are reminded to pray for those who are in authority over us. Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2 are often taken to apply largely to magistrates or those in civil authority. But how much more should we pray for those in spiritual authority over us?

“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;” – (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

The Important Ministry of Ruling Elders

With a lineage from the Mayflower, Samuel Miller was born in 1769.  Reared in a family of nine, in the home of a minister, he was home schooled and eventually studied at the University of Pennsylvania.  After prayer and fasting, he decided to enter the Christian ministry.  With his minister father, his home schooling in theology was a natural arrangement, and he was soon ordained to be a Presbyterian minister.  Serving as the pastor of a New York city congregation, he became convinced of the need to ordain ruling elders just as the church had long ordained teaching elders.

On January 10, 1809, he presided over the first ordination of ruling  elders in a congregation in New Jersey.  That same year, he preached a sermon on “The Divine Appointment, the Duties, and the Qualifications of Ruling Elders.”  This theme eventually became a book in 1831.  This fundamental conviction was communicated to countless students when Samuel Miller was appointed to be the second professor at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1813.  Hear him as he enunciates his position:

“And as the members of the church session, whether assembled in their judicial capacity or not, are the pastor’s counselors and colleagues in all matters relating to the spiritual rule of the church, so it is their official duty to encourage, sustain, and defend him in the faithful discharge of his duty.  It is deplorable when a minister is assailed for his fidelity by the profane and the worldly, if any portion of the eldership either takes part against him, or shrinks from his active and determined offense.  It is not meant, of course, that they are to consider themselves bound to sustain him in everything he may say or do, whether right or wrong, but that, when they believe him to be faithful, both to truth and duty, they should feel it is their duty to stand by him, to shield him from the arrows of the wicked, and to encourage him as far as he obeys Christ.”

[Above right: Title page of Miller’s work on the ruling elder, as it appeared in the 1832 reprint.]

Words to Live By: “It is the elder’s official duty to encourage, sustain, and defend (the teaching elder) in the faithful discharge of his duty.” – Samuel Miller

The Root of the Presbyterian Apostasy?

When church historians evaluate the history of American Presbyterianism, the publication of the “Auburn Affirmation” will stand out in importance like the nailing of Luther’s ninety-five theses on the Wittenberg Germany church door in 1517.  Except this Affirmation, unlike that of the German reformer, constituted a major offensive against biblical Christianity.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1923 had repeated the earlier high court’s affirmations of five essential truths which made up the fundamentals of Christianity.  They were the inerrant Scripture, the Virgin Birth, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His literal bodily resurrection from the dead on the third day, and supernatural miracles.  However the very next year, on January 9, 1924, one hundred and fifty Presbyterian elders issued an affirmation in Auburn, New York which stated that these five fundamentals were not necessary and essential doctrines for the church.  Eventually the number of ministers to sign it would increase to 1,294 ordained ministers, about ten per cent of the clergy on the rolls of the Presbyterian church.

[« The Auburn Affirmation as it appeared in its first edition, including a list of 150 signers.]

The Auburn Affirmation used many familiar terms on which unsuspecting Christians might be deceived.  Thus, it affirmed inspiration, but denied Scripture to be without error.  It affirmed the incarnation, but denied the Virgin Birth.  It affirmed the atonement, but denied that Christ satisfied divine justice and reconciled us to God.  It affirmed the resurrection of Christ, but denied Jesus rose from the dead with the same body in which He was crucified.  It affirmed Jesus did many mighty works, but denied that He was a miracle worker.

The tragedy of this Affirmation was that not one of its signers were ever brought up for church discipline by their respective presbyteries.  This sin of omission hastened the apostasy of the church, as many of the signers would later find placement in every agency of the church.

Words to Live By:
“Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common salvation.  [But] I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort [you] to contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints [the faith which is that sum of Christian belief which was delivered verbally to the holy people of God”] Jude v. 3 (Amplified)

For more on the Auburn Affirmation—the text of the document, along with links to a number of biblically conservative responses—click here.
Some of those many conservative responses to the Auburn Affirmation include :

• 1924 – J. Gresham Machen, “The Virgin Birth” [while Machen does not refer here to the Affirmation, it is difficult to think that he did not have it in view.]
• 1925 – David S. Kennedy, “Liberty Within Evangelical Bounds”
• 1925 – J. Gresham Machen, “Shall the General Assembly Represent the Church?”
• 1925 – David S. Kennedy, “An Inclusive Christian Church”
• 1932 – H. McAllister Griffiths, “The Heretical ‘Auburn Affirmation’: A Menace to the True Peace and Purity of the Presbyterian Church.”
• 1935 – Gordon H. Clark, “The Auburn Heresy“
• 1942 – Daniel S. Gage, “The Auburn Affirmation“
• 1944 – Wm. Childs Robinson, “The Effect of the Auburn Affirmation“
• 1944 – Rev. Willis Thompson, ” ‘Timely Topics’ and the Auburn Affirmationists”
• 1944 – Daniel S. Gage, “Dr. Lingle and the Auburn Affirmation”
• 1946 – Wm. Childs Robinson, “The Liberal Attack Upon the Supernatural Christ“

John Calvin stated it well, “Humility is an unfeigned submission of our heart, stricken down in earnest with an awareness of its own misery and want. For so it is everywhere described by the Word of God.” (Institutes, III. 12. 6).

“To God’s Glory” : A Practical Study of a Doctrine of the Westminster Standards.
by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn

THE SUBJECT : Humility

THE BIBLE VERSES TO READ : Micah 6:8; Luke 14:10; 22:26; Rom. 12:3; James 4:10; I Peter 5:5.
(Other references within the article.)

REFERENCE TO THE STANDARDS : Confession of Faith X.1 & 2; XII; XVI.3; Larger Catechism Q. 67; 73; 74; Shorter Catechism Q. 31; 34; 86.

When Martin Luther was asked what was the first step in religion, he replied it was humility. When he was asked what was the second and third he answered in the same way. The characteristic of humility is an important one in the life of every professing believer.

As those of us who are committed to the Reformed Faith think of the great doctrines of Effectual Calling, of Adoption, and of Good Works, we should show the fruits of humility in every area of our lives! He saved us by His grace and adopted us as His children. He enables us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Therefore, how could we show forth anything but humility?

It was a favorite expression of Whitfield’s that “nothing sets a person so much out of the Devil’s reach as humility.” He said further, “Those that have been most humbled, make the most solid, useful Christians. It stands to reason, the more a man is emptied of himself, the more room is there made for the Spirit of God to dwell in him.”

The Apostle Paul understood the grace of humility. In II Corinthians 12:11 he stated his way to humility well : “. . .  I be nothing.” Someone once outlined the areas which Paul thought he was nothing. These should help to alert all of us to examine ourselves in the light of Paul’s standard in God’s Word.

1. Regarding his preaching :
“Not with wisdom of words (I Cor. 1:17)
“Not with excellency of speech” (I Cor. 2:1)
“Not with enticing words” (I Cor. 2:4)
“Not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth” (I Cor. 2:13)
2. Regarding his power : (II Cor. 4:7)
3. Regarding his thinking : (II Cor. 3:5)
4. Regarding his resources : (II Cor. 1:9)
5. Regarding his receiving credit : (II Cor. 13:7)
6. Regarding how he labored : (I Cor. 15:10)
7. Regarding his life : (Gal. 2:20)
8. Regarding spiritual attainment : (Phil. 3:12-13)

How did Paul manage to have such attitudes that were all to God’s glory? Or, even more important, how can we manage to have such attitudes to the glory of God? Paul’s secret, and our secret, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Note some words from our Lord :

1. “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.” (John 7:16)
2. “And I seek not mine own glory.” (John 8:50)
3. “I seek not mine own will.” (John 5:30)
4. “For I have not spoken of myself.” (John 12:49)
5. “I am not come of myself.” (John 7:28)

Many other examples could be given of our Lord. And Paul knew that the secret was to enthrone Christ in his heart. It is only then that the service for the Lord becomes as selfless as possible for His servants. And it is only then that the servant receives abundant grace. (James 4:6-7).

The grace of humility is founded in a true sense of our weakness, unworthiness, and sin. As we think of our pride, our impure thoughts and imaginations, our hasty words, our impatience, our temper, our harsh judgments of others, our lack of love, we have no right to be proud and every right to be humble.

The Puritans held that if others knew us as God knows us, we would hide ourselves in shame. But the same is true in regard to our Lord and our relationship with Him. He knows our hearts, He knows the deep crevices we keep hidden from others and even from ourselves. And the closer we live to Him the more conscious we are of sins and this should motivate us to true humility.

John Calvin stated it well, “Humility is an unfeigned submission of our heart, stricken down in earnest with an awareness of its own misery and want. For so it is everywhere described by the Word of God.” (Institutes, III. 12. 6).

How we need to recognize before our Lord how unfit we are to do His work in and of ourselves. There is no room for pride. There is no reason for us to think we are something when we are nothing. Any ability we might have is God-given. And results in His work that may take place are by His grace.

We dare not go about attempting to establish our own righteousness. Rather, we should submit ourselves unto the righteousness which is of God and know that we have nothing to glory in before Him. If we are called, we are called by His grace. If we serve, we serve by His grace. If we have hope, we have it by His grace.

Mark it well. We are insufficient, we are weak in ourselves. It is only when we become humble in mind and soul and begin to live for His glory that He will exalt us. We should practice daily the grace of humility.