Articles by davidtmyers

You are currently browsing davidtmyers’s articles.

October 13: James Power Smith

13 October, 2016 in October 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

Called to Be Faithful to God
by Rev. David T. Myers

Oh no, another post on yet another minister, you the reader might say. But this pastor was different. Yes, he pastored two churches in the south in the eighteen hundreds. But this shepherd of souls was unique in many ways. His name? James Power Smith.

Born in New Athens, Ohio on July 4, 1837 to a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Joseph and Eliza Smith, he had the example of his father on the challenges of being a shepherd of souls. It is not surprising that he felt called to that same profession. Attending Jefferson College in 1854 – 57, (and other sources say Hampden-Sydney College), he graduated and went to Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia in 1858. However, his studies there were interrupted by the War Between the States, or Civil War. Like many other young men, this Northern boy joined the Confederate Army, and specifically the Rockbridge Artillery of the Confederate States of America, which was filled with many other theological students. He would fight in it until 1863, when he would be asked to report to a Lt. General by the name of Jackson, Thomas J Jackson, Stonewall Jackson. For the rest of that “rebellion,” as the North would call it, he would find himself as Aide-de-camp of that command, and as such involved in the important scenes of the war.

Captain Smith was present when he heard that General Jackson was mistaken in the early morning darkness in Chancellorsville, having been shot by his own Confederate troops. Captain Smith became a litter bearer seeking to get the wounded officer to neutral ground. It was a harrowing move as several litter bearer were shot. Finally, they moved slowly but surely to an ambulance and finally to a military hospital, in a tent east of the battle field. Jackson’s left arm was amputated by Dr. Hunter McGuire with the light held by James Smith. Later on May 3rd, Captain Smith accompanied the wounded Jackson twenty-five miles by wagon to Guiney’s Station, where seven days later, the great general succumbed to his wound and died.

Captain Smith remained in the Confederate corps, serving under Richard Ewell, until the end of the war. Then returned to Union Seminary to resume his preparation for the ministry. Ordained upon graduation on this day, October 13, 1866 by Montgomery Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church U.S., he served one Presbyterian Church in what is now Roanoke, Virginia, before going to the Fredericksburg, Virginia Presbyterian Church for the next 23 years. During those years, he also served as an evangelist two years for the Synod of Virginia, was editor of the Central Presbyterian newspaper for 17 years, and Stated Clerk for the Synod of Virginia from 1871 to 1920. He went to be with the Lord in 1923, becoming the last soldier of the Stonewall Brigade staff to die.

Words to Live By:
Some of our readers, including this author, may not have agreed with his choice of country in those perilous days, yet we can rejoice for the years of his shepherding of souls during his long life and ministry. After all, that will be the record remembered in heaven when eternal rewards are handed out. Let us be faithful, wherever God’s Spirit calls us, to serve our Lord and Savior.

October 3: Clergy Appreciation Day

3 October, 2016 in October 2016 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

Remembering Those Who Proclaim the Word of God
by Rev. David T. Myers

On this day in Presbyterian History, we emphasize a general encouragement to honor the Bible-believing, gospel-preaching, faithful pastors who feed you the Word of God weekly in Presbyterian and Reformed congregations all over our United States. This month of October has been designated “Pastor Appreciation Month” with the second Sunday, October 9th, having a “Clergy Appreciation Day” attached to it.

There is biblical exhortation to appreciate our pastor-teachers. Hebrews 13:7 states “Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” (NASB)

This challenge is seen in an incident which happened to a long ago Presbyterian pastor  as he happened to run into a friend who was a neighbor of his. The pastor was the Rev. Robert Smith, ministering to the Scot-Irish members of Pequea Presbyterian Church in Pequea, Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century. On returning home after an exhausting trip to visit far-flung members of the church, he  happened to meet his neighbor whom he regarded as an excellent Christian.

So this Presbyterian pastor said to  his neighbor, “Friend, we have long been good neighbors and friends, but you have never come into our church.”

Brother Haines replied, “Robert, while I greatly esteem thee to be a friend and neighbor, I cannot conscientiously hear thee preach. Thou knows our society  condemns a hireling ministry, We believe only in those who preach by the Spirit.”

“Well,” said Dr. Smith, “I think I can say that we, too, follow the teachings of the Spirit.”

“Oh, no, friend Robert, thee knows that thee prepares thy discourses before thee enters the pulpit.”

“That is true,” said Dr. Smith, “but I can preach without any preparation.”

“Well then,” said Friend Haines, “I will try thee. Next first day, I will go to thy meeting house and will send up to thee thy text after thee has thee long prayer which I hear is thy custom.”

“I accept the condition,” answered Dr Smith, “and will expect to see you next Lord’s Day morning in church.”

Dr. Smith entered the pulpit the next Sunday, noted that his neighbor was present, and commenced the service as usual. Just before the sermon, a sexton handed a slip of paper to Dr. Smith in the pulpit with the words of Ezra 1:9 and the phrase “nine and twenty knives” written on it.  From the context, this was part of the treasures which Cyrus, king of Persia, returned to Jerusalem after the seventy years of captivity.

Dr. Smith announced the title of the sermon as “nine and twenty knives.” Then with great solemnity, he began by giving a brief sketch of the Babylonian captivity. God had chosen the Jews, he said, as his peculiar people, given them his laws by which to rule their lives, but when they became rich and powerful, they rebelled against God and did evil in the sight of the Lord. In judgment, Jerusalem was taken to Babylon as captives. But the righteous in captivity longed for Jerusalem and their beloved temple. God accepted their repentance besides the rivers of Babylon and put it into the heart of Cyrus to return them to the land. Among the sacred utensils returned with them were “nine and twenty knives,”  no doubt sacrificial knives for use in the temple worship.

From this, Dr. Smith drew the doctrine of special providence under trial—sin will surely bring punishment and misery but God is always ready to accept genuine repentance. He then made a personal application to his congregation: God knows those who are in his service; they surely will be raised to adore the temple above when time shall give place to eternity. The  friend was edified by the Word preached.

Every teaching elder has been challenged in similar ways. This author remembers a time when he was a pastor. Entering the pulpit one Sunday, a note revealed a plea by a member of the church which said, “I have invited my next door neighbor to hear you preach.  This had better be good!”  Whether it was or not, I never heard, but there are many challenges and trials in being a faithful pastor.

Words to Live By:
Readers and members of our Presbyterian congregations, pray much for  your pastor-teachers. They would appreciate it. But do more than that. Let them this month know that you are praying for them all throughout the year, that you love them in the Lord, and that you support them in their work. Do all this by speaking to them at the door or church office, or a card in the mail, or an email over the web, or a special gift card at a favorite restaurant in the area. Let them know that you are their friend and fellow worker in the Lord’s congregation, using your spiritual gifts for the glory of God and the edification of the church.

 

September 28: Effectual Unto Salvation

28 September, 2016 in September 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

The Purpose of the Bible for Unbelievers and Believers

Our post today concerns  that magnificent answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, at Question number 80, which asks and answers, “How is the Word made effectual to salvation?  A.  The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.”

Here we arrive at the first outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption, namely and especially ”the Word,” or the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Focus in with me on the first five words of this answer,  “The Spirit of God makes.”  We must never limit the work of the Holy Spirit, for He is God.  Yet the means which the Triune God has appointed is the Holy Spirit working through and by the Word of God to make it effective for salvation. Thus, it behooves us to always pray that the Holy Spirit apply the reading and preaching of the Word to ourselves and others.

Our Confessional fathers then remind us of the two methods associated with the Bible, namely, that of reading and preaching. Every time we read and hear the Bible, we need to ask and answer three questions, namely, what does it say, what does it mean, and what does it mean to me?.

There are two ways in which we can speak of the Bible being effectual. First, the Word of God “convinces and converts sinners.”  It convinces us that we are sinners.  It humbles our proud thoughts with respect to ourselves.  It convinces us that we cannot save ourselves. It convinces us that Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. In short, it drives sinners out of themselves and draw us and others irresistibly to the Redeemer.

The Word, through the Holy Spirit, then converts us.  We are changed from a child of the devil to a child of God.  We go from death to life, from a hater of the holy God to a lover of God.  We have a change of mind which leads to a change of action.

What this convincing and converting should produce in us at the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word of God, is a prayer for the effectiveness of the Bible in the lives and souls of the elect. Let us not simply sit at “zombies” in the chairs of our homes, or the pews of the church, when the Word of God is read in family devotions, or Sunday worship. Let us constantly be in prayer when the Bible is read, that it might bring forth spiritual fruit unto salvation, and holiness of life, and preparation for service.

Second, the Word also is an “effective means” of ”building us up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.”  There is a construction process going on around the Word of God. The Spirit of God is building spiritual stones in the temple of our hearts. The holiness of God is aimed at by the reading and hearing of the Word of God.  Comfort from the troubles of life is another profit achieved by the reading and hearing of God’s Word.  The Scriptures will expose the sins we should be putting to death. And it is in the Scriptures where we will find encouragement, not only for ourselves, but to others who need the comfort of God.

In summary, the reading of and listening to God’s Word, should never be a rote experience in our lives.  It is to be a living, changing progression in conversion and conduct.

Words to live by:  As a retired Presbyterian and Reformed  pastor, I once challenged the people of an evangelical and Reformed congregation by giving them a paper bag, so that they could smuggle their personal Bibles out of their homes on the Lord’s Day, use them in the church service, and then smuggle them back into their homes at the end of the Lord’s Day! It was an extreme suggestion (which no one did actually), and a humorous suggestion to get them to bring their Bibles to church.  I then followed it up with a Through the Bible reading plan in a year (the one I am using in this devotional guide) to make their Bibles a constant in their hearts and lives. It had its effect on the congregation, as some of them were saved, and others began to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Keep the Word of God before God’s people, by believing and living it yourselves, and encouraging others to be much in God’s Word, the Bible.

August 29: Church Planting

29 August, 2016 in August 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

What a Novel Idea!

This contributor has been involved in several church plants himself as well as participating in Presbytery church planting efforts in the Presbyterian Church in America.  So when a mission church, or for that matter, an organized church begins anew in a new building, there can be no better beginning service than that of a prayer meeting.   And yet that is exactly what happened in West Chester, Pennsylvania on August 29, 1956.  Moving into a new structure for their smaller congregation, the first service was a prayer meeting.

And to be sure, united prayer before the Sovereign God was needed for that Pennsylvania congregation. For that very same year, the national denomination of the Bible Presbyterian Church had a sizeable schism which could very easily have weakened what God’s Spirit  had already been accomplished in this city and church.  But God was faithful in giving wisdom to the congregation, enabling them to stay independent of the whole issue for a while.

The church had begun in 1938 as a core group of faithful and committed Christians left the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. over the apostasy in that once great church.  Beginning with just a nucleus of Christians, they were able to begin a church role of thirteen members, with help from pulpit supplies from Faith Theological Seminary.  They began as the Independent Church of West Chester.  One year later, they affiliated with the Bible Presbyterian Church.  Faithful pastors proclaimed the whole counsel of God and the church grew.  Evangelistic outreach was begun in the town, and people began to respond to the gospel.

Eventually, they affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which became the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. Since 1982, they became a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America.

Their allegiance to the Bible as God’s Word, inspired, inerrant, and infallible, remains the same since they began as a local church of Jesus Christ.

Words to live by:
There is a slogan which American business have often used, sometimes even painted  on the shell of a building, which said, “Build it, and they will come.”  That probably isn’t always the case, so it is more of a hope than anything else.  But in the framework of God’s church,  with the faithful proclamation of the Scriptures, the everlasting gospel, coupled with the sovereign God,  it is true, as this local church in West Chester Pennsylvania has experienced in the almost 75 years of its witness.  Praise  God for faithful churches, true to the faith once delivered unto the saints.

August 24: The Great Ejection (1662)

24 August, 2016 in August 2016 by davidtmyers | No comments

2000 Pastors Refused to Compromise

Suppose . . . just suppose now . . . that you as a minister, or your minister, had a certain time period to decide to renounce the ordination vows made at ordination, subscribe to a different set of doctrinal standards, promise to arrange the worship according to a different standard of worship, agree to be re-ordained by another ecclesiastical body, and do all this by a certain day, or be deposed by the spiritual authorities which had the approval of the government. Talk about change! And yet this was the way it was on this day in Presbyterian history, August 24, 1662 in the British Isles.

It was called officially The Act of Uniformity, 1662. Its longer title was “An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies and for the Establishing the Form of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Church of England.” It was broken up into five actions; (1) to have a complete and unqualified assent to the newly published book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.  (In passing, most preachers and people had not even seen this newly published book.) (2) to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine articles of the Church of England; (3) to renounce the Solemn League and Covenant; (4) To renounce any attempt to alter the government of the church or state; (5) to receive ordination at the hands of a bishop in the Church of England.

Combined with other acts of this Church, it excluded anyone who was not in compliance with the above from holding civil or military office. Students at Cambridge or Oxford would not receive any degrees from such study, if they refused this act.

And all this was to take place before August 24, which date was the celebration of St. Bartholomew Day. Students of church history remember, as they did then, that this was the day of the massacre in France when Huguenots were slaughtered by the Roman Catholics. So, this was a day remembered “Black” St. Bartholomew”s Day.

It is estimated that some 2000 ministers were ejected from their pulpits and parishes, including their manses, with Anglican priests put in their place. The majority were Presbyterian (1,816), Independents (194), and Baptists (19). A similar procedure was enacted in Scotland, with 400 ministers ejected from the pulpits and parishes. In future posts, we shall treat some of these ministers who were ejected on that day.

Words to Live By:
Two years ago, in 2012, there was a ministry event of reconciliation by the Church of England at the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection. We might be glad that such a meeting took place, but the real issue was, as Ian Murray put it, the issue on the nature of true Christianity. Let’s face it. True adherence to the gospel will require sacrifice. That is why all of us as believing Presbyterians need to be more in prayer and watchfulness for our respective Presbyterian denominations and local churches. What has been faithful and true in the past may not be the case for the present and future witness of your church, if church officers and members grow careless about the faith once delivered unto the saints. As Paul put it, “the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

Buy the Book:
If you can find either of these two volumes, Sermons of The Great Ejection (Banner of Truth, 1962) or Farewell Sermons (Soli Deo Gloria, 1992), they are well worth obtaining and reading, as they provide some of the gathered sermons preached by these pastors when torn from their congregations by the Act of Uniformity. As but a small sample, the following words are a portion of the sermon brought by the  Rev. John Whitlock on that fateful day. (time and space do not permit the full text)

REMEMBER, HOLD FAST, AND REPENT.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.—Rev. 3:3.

Beloved, when I entered on this verse in the course of my Friday Lecture, I little thought that I had so short a time to preach among you. I hoped I should have enjoyed some further opportunities for some few weeks, at least as long as the Act of Uniformity allows. But it has pleased God by His wise and holy providence to order it otherwise. I being suspended from preaching here from this day forward, for nonconformity. How far rightly or legally on man’s part, I shall not dispute, but leave to the righteous God to determine. I desire that both you and I may not eye man, but God, in this dispensation. I did not think to have preached my Farewell Sermon to you from these words, but having begun this text, and finding the matter of it so seasonable and suitable to this sad occasion, I shall by God’s assistance proceed in the handling of it.

Since it is probable that I shall preach no more to you, I judge it very seasonable to leave the exhortation in the text with you, to call upon you to remember what and how you have received and heard, and to hold fast those wholesome truths you have heard, and those precious ordinances (at least the remembrance, impressions, and gracious effects of them) that you have enjoyed and been privileged with. Also, to repent of those sins, which have provoked, and may further provoke God to come on us as a thief, to take away many of His ministers from among us. . .

. . . The silence of ministers calls aloud on us all to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It bids us to repent of our sins, the causes of God’s judgments. It calls on you to prize and improve ministers and ordinances, better, if God shall continue, restore or further afford them to you. Yes, ministers’ silence should cause people to speak the more and louder to God in prayer for the continuance and restoring of ministers and ordinances to them. When you do not hear so much and so often from God in preaching, let God hear the more and oftener from you in prayer. Ply the throne of grace. Give God no rest till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And as our silence should make you speak the more to God, so also the more and oftener one unto another in holy conference, to provoke to love and to good works. And I beseech you, brethren, pray for us. Whatever God may do with us, or whithersoever we may be driven, we shall carry you in our hearts; and when and while we remember ourselves to God, we shall never forget you, but present you and your souls’ concerns daily unto God at the throne of grace in our prayers. And we earnestly beg this of you, as you would remember what we have spoken to you in the name of the Lord, so you would remember us to God, and let us have a room and share in your hearts and prayers. When you get into a corner to pour out your hearts before God, carry us to God upon your hearts. Do not forget us, but lift up a prayer to God for us, your (we hope we may say) faithful, though weak, unworthy ministers, who have laboured among you in the Word and doctrine.

I shall say no more, but conclude with these two Scriptures: ‘And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified,’ Acts 20.32. The other Scripture is that request of Paul to, and prayer for, the Hebrews in Chapter 13.18-21: ‘Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’

« Older entries § Newer entries »