STUDIES IN THE WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM
by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn

Q. 57. — Which is the fourth commandment?

A. — The fourth commandment is, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Q. 58. — What is required in the fourth commandment?

A. — The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word; expressly one whole day In seven to be a holy Sabbath to himself.

Scripture References: Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12; Isa.56:2-7.

Questions:

1. How does this commandment apply to worship?

This commandment speaks of the time of worship and naturally follows the first three commandments. The first spoke of the object of worship, the second of the means of worship, the third of the manner of worship.

2. How can one decide what times should be kept for public worship?

The only times that are to be kept for public worship are the times appointed in the Word of God. It is not right before God to add other times, or holy days, to the Word.

3. What does the Bible tell us is the time set aside for worship?

The Bible teaches that one whole day (a day of twenty-four hours) is set aside for the worship of the holy God.

4. What is meant by the word “Sabbath”?

The word “Sabbath” is a Hebrew word, signifying “rest”, as is taught in Heb. 4:9.

5. Why does our question call it a “holy Sabbath”?

It is a “holy” Sabbath because it has been consecrated and set apart by God.

6. Is this particular commandment a part of the ceremonial law or the moral law?

This particular commandment is a part of the moral law and is to be kept by all nations and throughout all generations. It has never been annulled. The Lord Jesus Christ gave testimony to it. He is our Lord and He is also “Lord of the Sabbath”. (Luke 6:5)

A COMPROMISE OF THE CHURCH

In the church of today there are many compromises. In many denominations it is becoming evident that the teaching of the Word of God is less and less recognized as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. It is to the shame of the church that this is true. However, there is another dangerous compromise taking place in the church. This is the compromise allowed in the realm of Sabbath observance, a compromise that is allowing secularism to make great inroads in the church.

It would seem that the commandment, in its practical application, has in effect been rewritten by many to read: “Remember one hour on Sunday morning to keep it holy.” In many churches of today it has been rewritten again to read: “Remember one hour early on Sunday morning to keep it holy”, the convenient early morning service enabling a person to get his “keeping of the commandment” out of the way so he can enjoy the rest of the day in recreation and pleasure. To this type of person the Church means very little, and to the church this type of person means very little.

Church history has quite a lesson to teach us in this regard. Church historians have reported many times that there is a connection between the lack of keeping the commandment the Sabbath and the lack of power in the church. It is the right that such a connection should exist. The Christian’s primary reason for observing the Lord’s Day is the spiritual blessings and privileges that flow from it. They flow from it because the Christian is keeping the commandment of his Lord, a commandment that abides to this day.

The prophets of old spoke out against Israel for her sins and included the “profaning of the Sabbath” as one of the sins which was bringing judgment on the nation. Indeed, such prophets are needed today! Christians are looking more and more to the week-end as an invitation to the secular pursuits, rather than an invitation to the spiritual pursuits. Lip service, by attending one service, is not enough. The Christian Sabbath is a spiritual bulwark to the individual and to the nation. It has been so ordained by God.

Published By: The SHIELD and SWORD, INC.
Vol. 4 No. 53 (May 1965)
Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn, Editor

There was a good deal of serious scholarship which arose from among the early leaders of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Bible Presbyterian Synod. And of the many who accomplished so much in their study and defense of the Scriptures, the Rev. Dr. R. Laird Harris was easily among the most notable of these scholars.

Robert Laird Harris was born on 10 March 1911 in Brownsburg, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Delaware in 1931, a Th.B. from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1935 and a Th.M. from Westminster in 1937. He was licensed in 1935 by the New Castle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA), and ordained in June 1936 in the Presbyterian Church of America [the original name of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC)] at that denomination’s first General Assembly.

He left the OPC late in 1937 to join the newly formed Bible Presbyterian Church. Harris then received an A.M. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941, and was later part-time instructor in Hebrew there from 1946 to 1947. He obtained his Ph.D. from Dropsie in 1947. Biblical exegesis was Dr. Harris’s field and he taught this for twenty years at Faith Theological Seminary, first as instructor (1937 – 1943), then as assistant professor (1943 – 1947) and finally as professor (1947 – 1956).

Dr. Harris served as moderator of the Bible Presbyterian Synod in 1956, the year in which the denomination divided. Harris defended the validity of church-controlled agencies against those who insisted on independent agencies, and he was one of many faculty members to resign from Faith Seminary that year. He became at that time one of the founding faculty members of Covenant Theological Seminary. He was professor there and chairman of the Old Testament department from 1956 until he retired from full-time teaching in 1981. He remained an occasional lecturer at Covenant, and was also a lecturer in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan and a visiting professor in India, Hong Kong and Germany following his retirement, while also working on further revisions to the New International Version translation of the Bible.

He remained active in church leadership, serving as chairman of the fraternal relations committee of the Bible Presbyterian Church, Columbus Synod during the late 1950s, when discussion began concerning union between the BPC, Columbus Synod and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod. He remained on that committee through 1965, seeing the effort through to the culmination of ecclesiastical union with the creation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). In 1982, the RPCES joined the Presbyterian Church in America and Dr. Harris was elected moderator that year for the 10th General Assembly of the PCA.

Harris was not only a teacher and church leader, but a prolific author as well. He published an Introductory Hebrew Grammar, the prize-winningInspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, and additional works such as Your Bible and Man–God’s Eternal Creation. He was editor of The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament and a contributing editor to the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, and wrote articles for the Wycliffe Bible Commentary and Expositor’s Bible. Also, as noted above, Dr. Harris served as chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation that produced the New International Version of the Bible .

Dr. Harris’ first wife, Elizabeth K. Nelson, died in 1980. He later married Anne P. Krauss and they resided for some time in Wilmington, Delaware before declining health prompted a move to the Quarryville Retirement Home in Quarryville, PA. Dr. Robert Laird Harris entered glory on 25 April 2008. The funeral service for Dr. Harris was conducted on 1 May 2008 at the Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church, Quarryville, PA, and internment was on 2 May 2008 in the historic cemetery adjacent to the Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church, New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Words to Live By:
For those who enter upon the study of the Scriptures, especially at the academic level, there is a hidden pitfall. It is a deadly danger which ultimately springs from pride and the imposition of human intellect upon the very Word of God. By God’s grace, Dr. Harris avoided this pitfall and to his dying day, his heart remained humble before the Lord his God. The Puritan theologian John Owen, in his Biblical Theology, gives an excellent summary of both the problem and the proper, necessary approach that any scholar must maintain in the study of the Scriptures:

“Wherever fear and caution have not infused the student’s heart, God is despised. His pleasure is only to dwell in hearts which tremble at His Word. Light or frivolous perusal of the Scriptures is a sickness of soul which leads on to the death of atheism. He who would properly undertake the study of the Bible must keep fixed in his memory, fastened as it were with nails, that stern warning of the Apostle in Hebrews 12:28-29, ‘Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.’ Truly, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ If this fear is not experienced in the study of the Word, it will not display itself in any other facet of life.’
— Biblical Theology, by John Owen (Soli Deo Gloria, 1996), pp. 699-700.

William Morrison, a son of Daniel and Janette (McFarland) Morrison, was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in the year 1748. Raised in near poverty, William overcame difficult circumstances to obtain a good education and eventually was able to prepare for the ministry, studying under the guidance of the Rev. Robert Annan, who was then living near Philadelphia.

By God’s providence, Rev. Morrison came to be the pastor of the congregation in Londonderry, New Hampshire, being installed as their pastor in 1783. And here he remained till the close of his life. Some eight days before his death, he preached a funeral sermon for a member of his congregation, preaching on the text of Psalm 39:4, “Lord, make me to know mine end.” The next week, while visiting a nearby school, he became ill. Then within a few days, the illness turned grave and it was apparent that the end was near. “On Sabbath morning, he said to his wife—’You know that the Sabbath has always been my best day, and my employment then my best employment. But this is the last Sabbath I shall spend on earth. In a short time, I shall be spending an everlasting Sabbath.’ He added with a smile,—’Will not that be a blessed exchange?’ Late that same day, he died, just as the words “Come, come, Lord Jesus,” had passed from his lips,—on March 9, 1818,at the age of seventy.

In his funeral sermon, the Rev. Dr. Daniel Dana said of Rev. Morrision:

“Dr. Morrison ranked well with the excellent preachers of his day. It was in the pulpit that his perceptions, his acquisitions, and the energies of his mind had full scope, and the affections of his heart poured themselves forth in a tide of devout and benevolent feeling. His sermons were full of Gospel truth; were luminous and instructive; faithful and searching; awfully alarming to the wicked, yet encouraging to the sincere, and tenderly consoling to the mourner in Zion. His prayers were no less impressive than his sermons. Replete with reverence and affectionate devotion; the breathings of a soul apparently in near communion with God; full yet concise; adapted to occasions and circumstances; they could scarcely fail to impress and edify the hearers. His manner in the pulpit was peculiar. It had something of patriarchal simplicity; something of apostolic gravity and authority. Yet it was mild, affectionate and persuasive. It indicated a mind absorbed in Heavenly things, deeply conscious of its awful charge, and anxiously intent to fasten eternal truths on the hearts and consciences of men.”

“As a Pastor, Dr. Morrison was faithful, assiduous and tender; instant in season and out of season; watching for souls as one that must give account; and finding his delight in the discharge of the most laborious and exhausting duties of his office. Little did he spare himself, even in those closing years of life, in which his emaciated form proclaimed the ravages of disease; and infirmity, combined with age, seemed to demand repose. Without exaggeration, it may be said that he was truly the father of his beloved people. He rejoiced in their joys, sympathized in their sorrows, counseled in their perplexities, adapted himself to their infirmities, and, without sacrificing dignity, or independence, or faithfulness, ‘became all things to all men.’ that he might promote their spiritual good.”

Words to Live By:
It has been said that pastors are often a good mirror of the congregation they serve. Lord, give us pastors with hearts that burn with the Gospel of grace, who long to serve Your people, to see them raised up in greater maturity in Christ as Savior and Lord. But first, Lord, make us to be a people who hunger and thirst after the righteousness which is found in Christ alone.

We will have to look for other opportunities to talk about Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, but for now it will have to be enough to introduce him to our readers. He was the third son of the Honorable John Breckinridge and his wife Mary Hopkins (Cabel) Breckinridge. Robert was born on March 8, 1800 in Cabell’s Dale, Kentucky. In that era it was not uncommon for particularly brilliant young men to enter college at an early age, and Robert graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1819. He then turned his attention to the study of law and was admitted to the Bar at Lexington, Kentucky in 1824. Wasting no time, he pursued political office and was elected to the Lower House of the Kentucky legislature in 1825 and was re-elected to that office three times.

But God had other plans for this bright young man. In the winter of 1828-29, he came to faith in Christ at a meeting in Frankfort, Kentucky. He immediately decided to quit the practice of law and also to give up public office. In the Spring of 1829 he made a public profession of his faith and became a member of the McChord Presbyterian Church, Lexington, KY. Shortly thereafter he moved his membership to the Mount Horeb church in Fayette county and became an elder in that church late in 1829.

Nevin’s Encyclopedia continues in its account of his life, stating that

“In the Summer of 1830 he felt bound to appear once more before the people of his native country, to defend and commend the laws of God and Christian morality in the matters of the abolition of negro slavery and the transportation of the mails on the Sabbath day. He honestly, in the fear of God, pleaded with his countrymen in behalf of these great interests of God and men, and when the cause which was dear to him met with defeat, publicly and privately retired once more from public life.”

At this point in time, R. J. Breckinridge had no sense of a call to the ministry. That came later, on the occasion of  a large revival meeting held on his own farm, in the fall of 1831. Friends had been putting the idea before him, but he had strong misgivings, and it was not until this meeting that he resolved to preach the Gospel. Coming under care of the West Lexington Presbytery, he was licensed to preach in the Spring of 1832. He attended the General Assembly that year as a ruling elder, and proceeded on to Princeton to attend seminary. That time of study however was cut short about five months later when he accepted a call to serve the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, where his brother John had been the pastor. Breckinridge was received by the Presbytery of Baltimore and ordained in late November of 1832.

The alert reader will note that there are several unusual, perhaps even troubling aspects in this story thus far. The sudden change of membership from one church to another, and the quick election to serve as a ruling elder, plus the lack of grounding in his education in Seminary, as that too was cut short. Admittedly R. J. Breckinridge was a brilliant man who had already accomplished much in life. And times were different then; seminaries were still somewhat new in America–Princeton had only been founded in 1812.

Yet there was at that time, and remains to this day, a provision in nearly all Presbyterian denominations which makes allowance for a man of unusual gifts, such that some or perhaps even all of a seminary education might be excused. It is rare for a Presbytery to make use of this clause, but it is there in the Books of Church Order of most Presbyterian denominations.

In the PCA, this “extraordinary clause”, as it is often called, is found in Chapter 21, section 4 of the Book of Church Order. After stating that the candidate for ordination should usually be a graduate of both a college or university and a theological seminary, the BCO states in paragraph “h” of BCO 21-4 :

“The extraordinary clauses should be limited to extraordinary circumstances of the church or proven extraordinary gifts of the man. Presbyteries should exercise diligence and care in the use of these provisions in order that they not prevent the ordination of a candidate for whom there are truly exceptional circumstances, nor ordain (nor receive from other denominations (BCO 13-6) a person who is inadequately prepared for the ministry.”

Words to Live By:
Rightly understood, it should be realized that it is a terrible thing to enter the ministry of the Gospel, as a pastor accepts a greater responsibility before the Lord. “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” (James 3:1, NASB). A man should first have good assurance that he is in fact a Christian, and then second, that he is growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, before even considering a call to shepherd the Lord’s people. He should have affirmation in these things from others, and he should be able to see the Lord’s provision, both in means and opportunity.

Here’s to our Stated Clerks!

Back Creek Presbyterian Church, located in Mount Ulla, Rowan county, North Carolina, was organized in 1805, and is now a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. In the same year that the church was organized, church members George and Catherine (Barr) Andrews welcomed a child into their family, with the birth of Silas Milton Andrews on March 11, 1805.  Young Silas later took his college education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, graduating in 1826. He worked as a teacher for several years before entering the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1828 and was regularly graduated in the Fall of 1831.

Mr. Andrews was licensed to preach by the New Brunswick Presbytery on February 2, 1831. Shortly after graduating from Princeton, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia on November 16, 1831 and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Doylestown, PA, with concurrent duties over a congregation still remaining at Deep Run, PA. The Doylestown church had originally begun in Deep Run, organized by the efforts of the Rev. William Tennent, and this church was first mentioned in the records of the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1732.  For forty-nine years Rev. Andrews labored in this one charge, without interruption, until the day of his death. The succession of pastors preceding him included William McHenry, Hugh Magill, James Latta, James C. Greer, Uriah DuBois and Charles Hyde.

One source tells us that Rev. Andrews was single-minded in his focus, “concentrating all his efforts on his charge, and taking very little part in outside affairs, gathering in from time to time large numbers of converts, and training and edifying his people in the way of truth, holiness and duty.” Perhaps to make ends meet during those early years when the congregation was smaller, Rev. Andrews also operated a private classical academy in addition to his pastoral duties. Rev. Andrews died on March 7, 1881.

This was a quiet and unassuming man, not one who sought attention for himself, not one given to pride or ostentation. He was a good scholar, fair and even-handed in his judgment, and he was a rather good preacher who knew the Scriptures well. From mid-October, 1848 until the reunion of the Old School and New School wings of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in 1870, Rev. Andrews served as the Stated Clerk of the Synod of Philadelphia. He brought both care and attention to detail to his work, and had excellent penmanship as well.

Words to Live By:
Now here’s something you don’t think about often : We might from time to time be reminded to pray for our pastors, but when was the last time someone exhorted you to pray for our Stated Clerks? The record of the Church that they help to create is particularly crucial in future years, and each of them must exhibit that same character of meticulous care and accuracy if they are to do their work properly. Clearly this is not a work that just anyone can do, and do well. They are a rare breed.

For Further Study:
Apparently Rev. Andrews only wrote one work that was ever published, The Sabbath at Home, which was issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication in 1836 and then reprinted twice, in 1837 and 1840. That book can be read online, here.

There was also a student’s journal which was preserved and later transcribed and published in 1958 as Mister Andrews’ School, 1837-1842. Transcribed and illustrated by Ellen Swartzlander and published in Doylestown, PA by the Bucks County Historical Society. The book is about 126 pages in length, and some 58 libraries around the country hold copies, so it should be easy to obtain via interlibrary loan.