To Stand Before the Majesty and Power of Our Omnipotent Lord

Several years ago we found some letters among the Papers of Allan A. MacRae that shed further light on J. Gresham Machen’s love of mountain climbing and especially his love of the Alps. Machen was able to visit and climb in the Alps several times, with his last visit being in the summer of 1935.  A letter from Machen to MacRae details that trip and shares something of their mutual love of mountain climbing. In 1933, Machen had prepared a talk on mountain climbing and this address has been reprinted several times. We even found a letter that MacRae wrote to his mother, recounting a social gathering where Machen gave a trial run of his newly prepared address.

All of the above is detailed online at at the PCA Historical Center’s web site.

But with all that information, even in Machen’s own Mountains and Why We Love Them, I don’t think I’ve seen anything that comes closer to giving some glimpse of explanation—that provides in short compass what must surely strike to the heart of Machen’s love of the Alps—than this brief, eloquent paragraph by George Stillman Hillard, from his Six Months in Italy (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 4th edition, 1854):

“The pen and pencil may attempt, and not unsuccessfully, to represent the soft gradations of the beautiful or the abrupt contrasts of the picturesque, but they are alike powerless and paralyzed before the awful grandeur of the Alpine Heights, where there is neither life nor motion; where a stern, unsmiling sublimity has moulded every form, and stamped upon the scene the frown of a perpetual winter. There is nothing in the ordinary aspect of nature that prepares us for what we see when we have entered the region of perpetual snow. Here is no hum of insects, no rustle of foliage, no pulse of vitality. There is no provision for animal life in the pitiless granite, ice, and snow, that make up the landscape. The solitary eagle, whose slow circling form is painted on the dark sky above, seems but a momentary presence, like ourselves, and not a part of the scene. Nature is no longer a bounteous and beneficent mother, but a stern and awful power, before which we bow and tremble; and the earth ceases to be man’s farm and garden, and becomes only a part of the solar system.” 

[excerpted from The Presbyterian Magazine 9.4 (April 1859): 190.]

Perhaps more than anything else I have ever seen, Hillard’s description provides some hint as to why Machen so loved the Alps–in short, all else was removed, so far as possible, and he stood simply before the majesty and power of an omnipotent God.

Over 175 years ago, it appears that Presbyterian congregations were largely ignorant of the Church’s own Standards.  Are we much better off today?

“The Presbyterian Board of Publication have issued a correct edition of the Confession of Faith, and they are now selling it at the lowest possible rate, without any regard for pecuniary profit ; their principal aim being to circulate it widely through the Church.—It will be readily admitted that every Presbyterian should be at least partially acquainted with the standards of his own church, and yet how many are there who have never made these the subject of a days study?  It is wholly inexcusable in pastors to have families under their care who are not provided with the Confession, especially when a little exertion on their part, might supply the defect.  Will not Pastors and Sessions at once resolve that every family in the Presbyterian Church in the United States shall, before the expiration of two years, be provided with the Confession of Faith of our Church?”

[excerpted from The Charleston Observer 14.8 (11 April 1840): 2, col. 3.]

The world is indebted to the church for everything noblest and best in her free institutions.  Freedom is under perpetual obligations to her.  Enforcement of organic law must exist, whether in church, state or nation; otherwise, everything rushes to ruin in all society.  It is the glory of the Calvinistic church, and not her reproach, that she “enforced” her denominational law in favor of Presbyterian “doctrine, order and worship,” giving thereby to the nations their most precious inheritance.  “By these,” says Mr. Buckle, “the dying spark of freedom was kindled into a blaze.”  “To John Knox,” says Froude, “England owes a debt for liberty it cannot pay.”  “Calvin’s principles,” says Henri, “are immortal and immovable in both government and doctrine.”  “Thousands were debtor to him,” says the judicious Hooker, “as touching divine knowledge, yet he to none but only to God—a founder of the French Church, incomparably the wisest it ever had since the hour it enjoyed him.”  “Geneva,” says Montesquieu, “is the mother of modern republics, and should celebrate with festivity the day on which Calvin entered the city.”  “Calvin,” says Bunsen, “spoke for all times and all men;” and in the language of Motley, “Europe owes her political liberty to Calvinism.”  “The Institutes,” says Guizot, “are one of the noblest edifices ever erected by men.”  Bancroft declares that “Calvin, bowing to no patent of nobility, but that of the elect of God, made Geneva the impregnable fortress of popular liberty;” and adds that the very “first voice” raised for liberty in this land, both civil and religious, “came from Presbyterians,” and that “he who will not honor the memory and influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.”  Is it in John Calvin we glory?  God forbid; but in God we glory, who gave us John Calvin.  What kind of an argument is it that would impeach all this glorious record as an “oppression of the conscience” through “sectarian law.”—Foreign paper.

[excerpted from The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter 15.4 (April 1877): 113.]

From THE PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE, IV.2 (February 1854): 94.

DR. ALEXANDER’S LAST SERMON.

It was in the First Presbyterian Church at Princeton, and on the 20th of July, 1851. The Sabbath was one of the most beautiful I ever saw. The harvest was just over, and the farmers, who made up the country portion of the congregation, had finished reaping the fruits of their year’s toil, and had carefully housed their crops. Many of them were present with their faces bronzed by the harvest suns. Judge, therefore, the appropriateness of Dr. Alexander’s subject. His text was I Cor. iii. 9. “Ye are God’s husbandry.” I can, of course, give but an imperfect outline; but he said:—”These words apply to the Church universal, or its members taken individually. The agriculturalist who wishes to raise a good crop does four things:
1. He prepares the ground.
2. He sows the best seed he can procure.
3. He takes care of the grain when growing.
4. He reaps and stores away the harvest.

So, in spiritual things it is necessary for us :
1. To make ready our hearts to receive the impressions of the truth—to come to Christ repenting of all our sins, and asking forgiveness of them for his sake.
2. We must plant the good word of God; and
3. We must cultivate the good seed by prayer, self-examination, and the use of all the means of grace. We must learn the precepts the Bible lays down, and practice them in our walk and conversation. As the husbandman is never free from solicitude and care until he gets the cropt stowed safely away, so the spiritual man can never cease to watch or relax his diligence till life is over.
4. He will reap his reward, to some extent, here, but the great reward shall be hereafter.”

HIS TOMB.

Dr. Alexander’s tomb has the following inscription :

Sacred to the memory
of
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER
Doctor of Divinity
and
First Professor of the Theological
Seminary in this place :
Born in what is now Rockbridge county,
Virginia, April 17th, MDCCLXXII :
Licensed to preach the gospel
October 1st, MDCCXCI :
Ordained by the Presbytery of Hanover
June 9th, MDCCXCIV :
A Pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward
for some years :
Chosen President of
Hampden Sidney College in MDCCXCVI :
Pastor of the Third Presbyterian
Church in Philadelphia in MDCCCVII :
Professor of Didactic and Polemic
Theology in MDCCCXII :
He departed this life
In the faith and peace of Christ,
October 22d, MDCCCLI.

[He forbade all words of praise upon his tomb.]—PRESBYTERIAN.

Image source : The Alexander Memorial. New York: Anson D.F. Randolph & Company, 1879.

A Sermon After the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
by Rev. David T Myers

For all of our subscribers, they probably can remember where they were, and what they were doing when the infamous “Nine-eleven” hijackers crashed their people-loaded airplanes into the Twin Towers in Manhattan, New York. Such a terrorist catastrophe as that is not easily forgotten. In response, Christians all over the country opened up their churches for prayer and consolation over such a terrible event. In addition, ministers on the following Lord’s Day sought to give some sense of the terrible event in the light of God’s Word, the Bible.

This author was one of those pastors who sought to teach God’s people in his Presbyterian congregation of how all this fit into the sovereignty of God. In so doing, I was not alone in American history in trying to make sense of what our God and King has allowed to occur at desperate times. Such was also the case in 1865 at the close of the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. On the following Sundays, the clergy of the land, including many Presbyterians, gave messages on this tragic event. Some sermons are found here.

Of the sermons following that murder of our chief executive which this author has read, the one by church historian and Presbyterian pastor Rev. Dr. William Sprague of the Second Presbyterian Church in Albany, New York on this Lord’s Day, April 16, 1865, stands out. He had five points, of which we will only summarize from the sermon.

First, he portrays how manifest it is that clouds and darkness were found around Jehovah’s throne in the assassination of this sixteenth chief executive of the United States. By this, he speaks of “the demon in human form” who would engage in this terrible act of murder.

It is interesting that at the time of his sermon, he was in the dark as to who this “demon” was. It was only later that the culprit’s name was revealed to be a known Washington, D.C. actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth, who led a small band of people to engage in this plot.

Dr. Sprague speaks of “the adoration of the unsearchable depths of divine counsel” and urges his listeners to “reverently await for the light from God’s throne to illuminate” the matter before the nation and church.

Next, he brings out the full depravity of the human heart being illustrated by this murder. He applies all this as a warning to the members of his congregation, and especially the youth of the Albany church to deny sin in their hearts before it breaks out into sinful actions.

Third, he acknowledges such an event teaches all people everywhere that no one has the ability to look into the future. He briefly surveys the progress of the Civil War, noting that at that time in 1865, Abraham Lincoln had seen the defeated capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond Virginia, in person, after the rebel forces there had abandoned it. He has sat in the chair of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It looked as if the Confederacy would soon surrender. Yet he spoke the truth of James 4 that “we will never know on what ground the next step may place us.” He urged that all his members to “keep their hearts filled with the love of God.”

Fourth, he observed “the strange commingling of good and evil, of joy and sorrow which affects human life” on this earth. On one hand, the people in the North were rejoicing that the cruel war may soon be over. On the other hand, this event had just taken place which brought with it uncertain times.

Last, he rebuked his listeners for having put too much confidence in an arm of flesh, and charging us to trust in the living God only.

This was a most interesting point in his sermon of this author. He cautioned his listeners against the idolatry of leaders and generals. He acknowledges the temptation of the political and military leadership conducting battles in the spirit of practical atheism, with not enough trust in God.

In application, he urged his listeners to not despair of the divine aid which was available to them during this sad time and charges them to lift their eyes upward.

Words to Live By:
When there is a national event such as this, God’s pastors and people ought to see it in the light of God’s Word, the Bible. Certainly, God was not surprised by the murder of Abraham Lincoln. It was within His permissive will to occur. We need to see the events of history, even those unpleasant events to our minds and hearts, all within His sovereign will, and trust in Him all the more for life and liberty.