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July 11: John Wanamaker, Merchant

11 July, 2016 in July 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

Sharing  Faith by Word and Deed

Everyone has heard of the name John Wanamaker, especially those in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That is where this retail giant began his department stores at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861.  But everyone may not know that John Wanamaker was a devout Presbyterian who shared his wealth and his Christian faith by word and deed.

Born on this day July 11, 1838, he began to work as an errand boy and shopkeeper’s helper.  At age 18, he became a Christian and began to attend Sunday School and church.  His congregation was Bethany Presbyterian church in Philadelphia.  In fact, at twenty-five, he was ordained as a ruling elder in the church.

He had some ideas which were unorthodox in the retail marketing field.  Using four principles, which were honesty, a fixed price for goods, a money back guarantee, and happy contented employees, he thought (and thought rightly) that customers would come. Workers were given free medical care, free education, recreational facilities, pensions, and profit-sharing plans. No wonder that unions could not get a foothold in his stores.

As his businesses grew with more and more stores in more than one city, he began to give large portions of his wealth to religious and moral causes.  The Young Man’s Christian Association and the Sunday School movement were among those receiving large support. He said once “I cannot too greatly emphasize the important and value of Bible study — more important than ever before in these days of uncertainties, when men and women are apt to decide questions from the standpoint of expediency rather than the eternal principles laid down by God Himself.

Words to Live By: When you consider the last sentence about Bible study, we might think that he had made it in the current year in which we find ourselves instead of back in the late 1800’s.  But a faith and life lived in the light of God’s Word the Bible makes everything relevant to every age.  Bible study still has its place in every believer’s life walk.  Buy a faithful Bible study, like the Reformation Study Bible, with a good biblical commentary, like Matthew Henry, and (oh yes) a notebook to record what the Spirit reveals to you through His Word, follow everything up with prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplications (A.C.T.S), and you will be able to decide questions from the standpoint of God Himself.

July 1: Rev. Horatio Howell

1 July, 2016 in July 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

Chaplain Gave the Ultimate Sacrifice

The Union chaplain was assisting the medical staff in the sanctuary of College Lutheran church on that chaotic day of July 1, 1863. Hearing shots outside on Chambersburg Street, he said to the surgeon working on one of the 140 wounded Union men inside, “I will step outside for a moment and see what the trouble is.” Walking through the door with Sgt. Archibald Snow, they both saw a Confederate soldier at the bottom of the church steps demanding them to surrender. Chaplain Howell began to explain that he was a non-combatant, when the Southern soldier let his rifle finish the conversation. Chaplain Howell fell dead on the top step of the church.

Horatio Howell was the Presbyterian chaplain of the 90th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment. He had graduated from Lafayette College and Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  After marriage with Isabella Grant in 1846, he served a couple of Presbyterian churches before entering the Federal army on March 13, 1862.  His reason was the wickedness of slavery, then being practiced by the Southern states. He believed that this practice of slavery would “reduce to the condition of brutes those whom God had created in his own image, and for whom Christ had died.”

He was the  regimental chaplain for the 90th Pa. Volunteer Regiment at this battle, which was  mauled on Oak Ridge of the battlefield by Southern troops of Robert Rodes.  He was 42 years of age when he died, and buried on the church grounds of what is now Christ Lutheran Church. After the battle, his remains were shipped to Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1889, in the first monument to honor a fallen Union chaplain, members of the Survivors Association of the 90th Pa. Volunteers along with personal friends of the lamented chaplain erected a memorial featuring an open bronze book at the foot of  the front stairs of the Lutheran Church.  Located on the same spot as the Confederate soldier who fired the fatal shot, the moment reads, “In memorium Rev. Horatio Howell, Chaplain 90th Pennsylvania Vol. was cruelly shot dead on these church steps on the afternoon of July 1, 1863  “He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou lifteth me up above those that rise up against me.”—Psalm 18:48; “he being dead yet speaketh”—Hebrews 11: 4

Also on this date:
July 1, 1643 marks the first gathering of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, considered by many to be the greatest gathering of theologians of all time.

Words to Live By: Armchair “generals” in later days point out that the chaplain’s uniform in the Civil War was an officer’s coat and a dress sword. This appearance thus confused the Confederate soldier who obviously had a chaotic day in this first day of the battle of  Gettysburg. It is difficult to rationalize in split seconds time what could or should be our action when our life depends on it. We need pray much for those of our citizens and fellow members who are fighting on far flung battlefields who are in harm’s way, that God will providentially guard His people and protect them from harm. And pray for their loved ones at home, and serve with love any of them who may be near you in location.

June 17: First Presbyterian Church, Leith, ND

17 June, 2016 in Uncategorized by davidtmyers | No comments

Their Plans Were Spoiled

As biblical separation took place in the mid thirties over the apostasy in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., more and more pastors and church members were struggling to hold on to their properties which they had built and paid for out of their own pockets.  This battle was expected.  They all knew that the Special Committee on Legal Procedure of the PCUSA had specifically stated that “the members of the individual Presbyterian Churches cannot by solemn resolution repudiate the authority of the PCUSA, then by subsequent resolution attempt to take their church property out of the denomination, even if their effort in so doing is unanimous.”

One church would be an exception to that rule.  The First Presbyterian Church in Leith, North Dakota, had voted unanimously on August 2, 1936 to renounce the oversight of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.  Their pastor, the Rev. Samuel Allen [1899-1954], had already done so, and was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of America, which later on became the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Despite this oneness of heart, the Presbytery of Bismarck brought suit in civil court against the leaders and people of the Leith congregation.  Their purpose was simple.  It was to gain possession of all properties of the church.  It took three years for the decision to come down from this court.  But it did come down.

On June 17, 1939, the civil court awarded the property to . . . the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church!  What made the difference between this case and all the other cases across the country?  In one word, unanimity of the congregation was the difference.   On that basis, the state court recognized that there was no schism on the vote.  And so they awarded the property to the congregation.

While there is no Orthodox Presbyterian Church today in Leith, North Dakota, there is still one in  Carson, the other preaching field of the Rev. Samuel Allen.  God has been faithful to the Presbyterian people of  faith in North Dakota.

Words to Live By:
In most cases in those years, the faithful people of God, along with their pastors, had to “let goods and kindred go” as they lost their church properties.  While there were memories associated with those buildings, there were far greater memories associated with their allegiance to the Word of God.  Let us follow their example always.

June 14: The Joining & Receiving (1982)

14 June, 2016 in June 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

The Peaceable Fruit of Biblical Ecumenism

In the Message to all Churches of Jesus Christ throughout the world, the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (originally named the National Presbyterian Church)  had specifically stated that they invited “into ecclesiastical fellowship all who maintain our principles of faith and order.”  It was then at the Fifth General Assembly of PCA, meeting in Smyrna, Georgia, that the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod sent a communication requesting closer relationship and engagement of cooperative ministries.

Two assemblies later in 1979, a small committee with a long name, namely, “The Ad Interim Committee to Discuss Areas of Agreements, Differences, and Difficulties with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES), and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America” was constituted by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).  They would meet many times in the two years of discussion with representatives of the various Presbyterian churches.

In June of 1980, at the Eighth General Assembly of the PCA, that body issued invitations to the aforementioned denominations to join the PCA.  The invitation was not to be a long courtship but rather a quick “tying of the knot” by simply merging into the PCA by a common commitment to the subordinate standards of the Westminster Assembly and the PCA’s Book of Church Order.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, citing exclusive psalmody and other considerations, pulled out of the discussions.  The invitation to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church came up to a vote of presbyteries in both bodies.   It failed by a narrow margin to arrive at the necessary vote by both assemblies, first by the PCA and then by the OPC.  Fraternal relations continue between both bodies.

For the remaining two denominations—the Presbyterian Church in America and the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod— joint General Assemblies were scheduled for their next national meetings at Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In the pivotal vote of the RPCES on June 14, 1982, they accepted the union by a majority vote of 322 in favor to 90 against.

By this union, the PCA received 164 churches, 416 ministers, 20,615 communicant members, 6,139 covenant children, Covenant Theological Seminary, Covenant College, a direct line to the Scottish Covenanters from the Reformed Presbyterian Church branch of the former RPCES, and the God-given experience of  recognized theologians, teaching and ruling elders in both churches. Elected as moderator of the PCA General Assembly that year was former RPCES scholar and minister, Dr. R. Laird Harris, from Covenant Theological Seminary.

The “marriage” has lasted now 34 years (as of 2016), with continued prayers and work to make it a lifetime of married bliss.

Words to Live By:
Here is true biblical ecumenism. We ought to unite together on the basis of the Word of God and the Westminster Standards with all churches which have that common basis.  By it, the Church is strengthened to meet the secular challenges of the age in which we live; the divisive character of too many a religious body in the eyes of the watching world is removed, and God’s people are built up in the holy faith. Work where God has placed you to make this a reality more and more.

June 9: Rev. Dr. James Crowell (1827-1908)

9 June, 2016 in June 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

We find an account of the person and ministry of the Rev. Dr. James Mcmullen Crowell for our post on This Day in Presbyterian History, courtesy of the Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church, by Alfred Nevin (1884).  And in that volume, we are told that Dr. Crowell was born on June 9, 1827 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a druggist and apothecary shop owner.

Nevin doesn’t give us much in the matter of his early years in either the home or the church, but there must have been a commitment to the Presbyterian church at some time.  He attended the College of New Jersey in 1848, graduating fourth in a class of eighty students.  He taught for one year at West Chester Academy after graduating, but soon found his next training at Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1851.  His faculty during his student days were Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, James Addison Alexander, James Waddel Alexander, and William Henry Green.  With spiritual mentors like these, he would be adequately trained for this life calling of the pastorate.

For six years, Rev. Crowell served the Lord as pastor of the Upper Octorora Presbyterian Church in present day Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Nevin says that “he was greatly loved by the congregation and prospered in his labors.”  Note: The readers of Today have one of the early buildings of this congregation in the heading of these posts.

Continuing his pastorate, James Crowell served for twelve years as pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church in his home town of Philadelphia. Again it was stated that he labored there as the preacher and pastor of the flock with great fidelity.

Two years were spent at St Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, where his spiritual labors were once again blessed by the Lord.

His last pastorate, from 1870 – 1882, was again taken up in his home town of Philadelphia,  at the Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, where he was described as being faithful in labor, and beloved by his flock.

What stands out to this author is that here we have a man of God committed to his pastoral calling, faithful, and as a result, fruitful in souls.  He was universally loved by the people of the Lord in these Presbyterian congregations.

Nevin concludes his treatment of James Crowell by stating that “he was a cultivated gentleman, an exemplary Christian, a good preacher, and highly esteemed by all who knew him.” (p. 167)

Words to Live By: 
To those followers of This Day in Presbyterian History whttps://ia800303.us.archive.org/34/items/memorialofwillia00crow/memorialofwillia00crow.pdfho are called to be pastors of the flock of God, our post today on James Crowell stands out as an exemplary undershepherd who obviously loved the Word of God, preached it in its fullness to the hearts and minds of the people of God in Presbyterian churches, and most importantly, lived its eternal principles and practices before the watching world.  Oh for teaching elders today to have his zeal for the God’s Word in their present ministries.

To read Rev. Crowell’s funeral sermon for ruling elder William S. Martien, click here. It was Martien, together with his brother Alfred, who was so prominent in the publication of literally scores of 19th-century Presbyterian classics.

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