In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Presbyterian Board of Publication was created, with its first work being the publication of a number of tracts and treatises. As more and more tracts were published, they were eventually gathered together and issued as bound volumes, best known by their spine title, PRESBYTERIAN TRACTS. [The contents of these volumes have been indexed, here.] In volume 5 of these PRESBYTERIAN TRACTS, we find Tract no. 65, a sermon extract from one of George Whitefield’s sermons. While Whitefield was himself an Anglican, his work in the American colonies figured closely with some of the early ministry of Presbyterians in this country. We can even note that upon his death, he was buried in a crypt at the Old South Presbyterian Church, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Regrettably, no further information is given in the book as to the source of this particular sermon portion:—
JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

“Thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.”—Ezekiel xvi. 14.

Give me leave to ask you one question: Can you say, The Lord our righteousness? Were you ever made to see and admire the all-sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness, and excited by the Spirit of God to hunger and thirst after it? Could you ever say, My soul is athirst for Christ, yea, even for the righteousness of Christ? O when shall I come to appear before the presence of my God in the righteousness of Christ! Nothing but Christ! nothing but Christ! Give me Christ, O God, and I am satisfied! my soul shall praise Thee for ever.

Was this ever the language of your hearts? and, after these inward conflicts, were you ever enabled to reach out the arm of faith, and embrace the blessed Jesus in your souls, so that you could say, “My beloved is mine, and I am His?” If so, fear not, whoever you are. Hail, all hail, you happy souls! The Lord, the Lord Christ, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you, who is he that condemneth you? Christ has died for you, nay, rather, is risen again, and ever liveth to make intercession for you. Being now justified by His grace, you have peace with God, and shall, ere long, be with Jesus in glory. For there is no condemnation to those that are really in Christ Jesus. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or life, or death, all is yours, if you are Christ’s, for Christ is God’s. My brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! O think of the love of Christ in dying for you! If the Lord be your righteousness, let the righteousness of your Lord be continually in your mouth. Talk of, O talk of, and recommend, the righteousness of Christ, when you lie down, and when you rise up, at your going out and coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift, as well as of the giver! Show to all the world, in whom you have believed! Let all by your fruits know that the Lord is your righteousness, and that you are waiting for your Lord from heaven! O study to be holy, even as He who has called you, and washed you in His blood was holy! O think of His dying love! Let that love constrain you to obedience; having much forgiven, love much. Be always asking, What shall I do to express my gratitude to the Lord, for giving me His righteousness? Let that self-abasing, God-exalting question, be always in your mouths, “Why me, Lord? why me?” why am I taken and others left? why is the Lord my righteousness? why is He become my salvation, who have so often deserved damnation at his hands?

But I must turn a little from congratulating you, to invite poor Christless sinners to come to Him, and accept of His righteousness, that they may have life. Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are new before me! how shortly must all be ushered into eternity! and yet, O cutting thought! were God now to require all your souls, how few could really say, The Lord our righteousness?

And think you, O sinners, that you will be able to stand in the day of judgment, if Christ be not your righteousness? No, that alone is the wedding-garment in which you must appear. O Christless sinners, I am distressed for you! the desires of my soul are enlarged. O that this may be an accepted time! That the Lord may be your righteousness! For whither would you flee, if death should find you naked? O think of death! O think of judgment! Yet a little while, and time shall be no more; and then what will become of you, if the Lord be not your righteousness? Think you that Christ will spare you? No, he that formed you, will have no mercy on you. If you be not of Christ, if Christ be not your righteousness, Christ Himself shall pronounce you damned. And can you bear to think of being damned by Christ? Can you bear to hear the Lord Jesus say to you, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Can you live, think you, in everlasting burnings? Is your flesh brass, and your bones iron? What if they be? hell-fire, that fire prepared for the devil and his angels, will heat them through and through. And can you bear to depart from Christ? O that heart-piercing thought! Ask those holy souls, who are at any time bewailing an absent God, who walk in darkness, and see no light, though but a few days or hours; ask them, what it is to lose a sight and presence of Christ? See how they seek Him sorrowing, and go mourning after Him all the day long! And, if it be so dreadful to lose the sensible presence of Christ for a day, what must it be to be banished from Him for all eternity?

But this must be, if Christ be not your righteousness. For God’s justice must be satisfied; and unless Christ’s righteousness is imputed and applied to you here, you must hereafter be satisfying divine justice in hell-torments eternally; nay, Christ Himself shall condemn you to that place of torment. And how cutting is that thought? Methinks I see poor, trembling, Christless wretches, standing before the bar of God, crying out, Lord, if we must be damned, let some angel, or some archangel, pronounce the sentence; but all in vain. Christ Himself shall pronounce the irrevocable sentence. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, let me persuade you to close with Christ, and never rest until you can say, “the Lord our righteousness.” Who knows but the Lord may have mercy on, nay, abundantly pardon you? You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins. For are you sinners? so am I. Are you the chief of sinners? so am I. Are you backsliding sinners? so am I. And yet the Lord (for ever adored be His rich, free, and sovereign grace!) the Lord is my righteousness. Come, then, O young men, who (as I acted once myself) are playing the prodigal, and wandering away afar off from your heavenly Father’s house, come home, come home, and leave your swine’s trough. Feed no longer on the husks of sensual delights; for Christ’s sake arise, and come home! your heavenly Father now calls you. See, yonder the best robe, even the righteousness of His dear Son, awaits you. See it, view it again and again. Consider at how dear a rate it was purchased, even by the blood of God. Consider what great need you have of it. You are lost, undone, damned for ever, without it. come then, poor guilty prodigals, come home; indeed, I will not, like the elder brother in the gospel, be angry; no, I will rejoice with the angels in heaven. And O that God would now bow the heavens and come down! Descend, O Son of God, descend; and, as Thou hast shown in me such mercy, O let Thy blessed Spirit apply Thy righteousness to some young prodigals now before thee, and clothe their naked souls with Thy best robe!

And what shall I say to you of a middle age, you busy merchants, you cumbered Marthas, who, with all your gettings, have not yet gotten the Lord to be your righteousness! Alas! what profit will there be of all your labour under the sun, if you do not secure this pearl of invaluable price? I see, also, many hoary heads here, and perhaps the most of them cannot say, The Lord is my righteousness. O grey-headed sinners, I could weep over you! your grey hairs which ought to be your crown, and in which perhaps you glory, are now your shame. You know not that the Lord is your righteousness; O haste then, haste ye, aged sinners, and seek an interest in redeeming love! Alas, you have one foot already in the grave, your glass is just running out, your sun is just going down, and it will set and leave you in an eternal darkness, unless the Lord be your righteousness. Flee, then, O flee for your lives! Be not afraid. All things are possible with God. If you come, though it be at the eleventh hour, Christ Jesus will in no wise cast you out. Seek then for the Lord to be your righteousness, and beseech Him to let you know how it is that a man may be born again when he is old!

But I must not forget the lambs of the flock. To feed them, was one of my Lord’s last commands. I know He will be angry with me, if I do not tell them that the Lord may be their righteousness; and that of such is the kingdom of heaven. Come, then, ye little children, come to Christ, the Lord shall be your righteousness. Do not think that you are too young to be converted. Perhaps many of you may be nine or ten years old, and yet cannot say, The Lord is our righteousness; which many have said, though younger than you. Come, then, while you are young. Perhaps you may not live to be old. Do not stay for other people. If your fathers and mothers will not come to Christ, do you come without them. Let children lead them, and show them, how the Lord may be their righteousness. Our Lord Jesus loved little children. You are His lambs; He bids me feed you. I pray God make you willing betimes to take the Lord for your righteousness.

“The Church which alters its voice with the changing age, and speaks not to eternities, but to the times and does not know or care whether Christ lived and died and rose again from the dead or not, is a Church whose voice will be lost on the screaming hurricane of time.”
–Rev. Clarence Macartney


1933
Mrs. Buck Resigns; Board Accepts “With Deep Regret”
[excerpted from Christianity Today, 4.1 (May 1933): 34-36.

Pearl S. Buck, famous missionary novelist on May 1st resigned as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church.  Her resignation was accepted by the Board “with deep regret.”  Her resignation was followed by that of Mrs. Henry V.K. Gillmore, a member of the Board, who quit in protest of the acceptance of Mrs. Buck’s resignation.

The action of the Board was minuted as follows:

“A letter was presented from Mrs. J. Lossing Buck, of the Kiangan Mission, requesting to be released from responsible relationship to the Board.  The Board had hoped that this step might be avoided, but in view of all the considerations involved and with deep regret it voted to acquiesce in her request.  The Board expressed to Mrs. Buck its sincere appreciation of the service which she has rendered during the past sixteen years and its earnest prayer that her unusual abilities may continue to be richly used in behalf of the people in China.”

The following sentence, however, was used in publicity:

“After various friendly conversations and without appearing before the Board, Mrs. J. Lossing Buck has requested that she be permitted to retire from active connection with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and at its meeting on Monday the Board accepted her resignation with
regret.”

Following the meeting comment became widespread.  Mrs. Gillmore made a statement in which she said as quoted in the New York Sun:

“My resignation is merely an open and public declaration of my liberal principles.  It does not mean that I am at war with the Presbyterian Church, and I am happy to say there is a very large, liberal element in the Presbyterian Church today.  There is also a very conservative element.  Each side has a right to its opinions, but if there is to be progress and tolerance, those of us who hold so dearly to such ideals must make our stand public.  That is all.

“I certainly wish to correct the impression that the Board meeting was a stormy or unfriendly one.  There was nothing but the most friendly discussion, even when Mrs. Buck’s resignation came up for a vote.  Mrs. Buck had written a very tactful letter, giving largely as her reasons for resigning that her literary work was requiring most of her time.  Mrs. Buck has been financing her own work, and has not been accepting money from the Board for a number of years now, and her work has been highly praised.

“I felt that the Board, therefore, should have refused to accept her resignation, to show appreciation to Mrs. Buck for this generous contribution, and to indicate clearly and openly that the Presbyterian Church is a liberal and tolerant body, according its members freedom of opinion.  I made a brief speech to this effect, but other members expressed the opinion that it would be better to accept the resignation for various reasons. . .”

Mrs. Buck was quoted in news dispatches as saying that she harbored no
resentment.

“I feel just as I did before,” said Mrs. Buck.  “Of course I didn’t know I was such a nuisance to the Board before all this came up, and certainly I shouldn’t want to continue a nuisance.  One wouldn’t like to stay with any organization that one was a nuisance to, would one?

“You see, I never did do the evangelical sort of thing anyway.  I was a teacher, and I haven’t even been teaching for three years or so.

“So I expect to go back to China, and to continue my life just where I left off, only without the formal title of missionary.  By my life I mean my writing, which takes up a great deal of my time indeed, and my job of being a wife and a mother.

“I’m still devoted to China, and I imagine I always shall be.  China is my home, and I am happy there.  I’m sure all this will make no difference to me, or to my friends.

“Nor do I harbor any resentment at all about the tangle or its results.  You see I’m still a Christian.  I’m a Christian by conviction and shall continue one.  My status as a missionary or as a lay member has nothing to do with that.

“Am I still a Presbyterian?  Surely–oh well, I don’t think that’s very important.  I don’t go in for creeds and that sort of thing so very much.  I’m just a Christian.

The Board of Foreign Missions, had, of course, refrained from saying why it accepted Mrs. Buck’s resignation.  But Mrs. Buck herself seemed to have hit the nail on the head when she called herself a “nuisance” to the Board.  Indeed it was obvious that the Board never would have dismissed her on doctrinal grounds, only wished to be rid of an embarrassment.  This view was confirmed in a statement made in Youngstown, Ohio, by Dr. W.H. Hudnut, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church there, outstanding Modernist and member of the Board of Foreign Missions.

“I cannot blame her for resigning,” said Dr. Hudnut.  “That was the best way out of it.  It was the fair thing for her to do, not only for herself but also for the Church, if she was going to be a bone of contention.”

“She is a magnificent woman,” said Dr. Hudnut.  “. . . In her private life, she is an unusually fine woman and has a right to her own opinions on the mission.”

He declared that he believed Mrs. Buck never would have been tried by the Mission Board on a heresy charge if she had not resigned.

A bland denial that Mrs. Buck quit because of the doctrinal issue was, however, made in Atlantic City on May 4th, by Dr. C. Franklin Ward, secretary of the General Council of the General Assembly.  According to news dispatches he said:

“Mrs. Buck has withdrawn solely because her literary interests take so much of her time that she cannot serve along the lines laid down by the Foreign Missions Board.

“She has to come back to the United States on business connected with her writing, and the Board cannot treat one missionary differently, in the matter of granting leaves, from others.  Doctrinal discussion had nothing to do with her dropping out.

Observers were quick to point out that this was in amusing contradiction to Mrs. Buck’s own idea of why she resigned, although it was conceded that she had tactfully mentioned her literary work in her letter
.
PROBABLE RESULTS
What would be the result of Mrs. Buck’s resignation?  Would it slow up the movement for Board reform?  At first it seemed that it would.  Moderator Kerr, speaking from Tulsa, said that he believed the resignation would “end the whole controversy.”  When, however, the fact came out that the Board had only accepted the resignation “with deep regret” and when it was made clear that the Board had put no pressure on Mrs. Buck, opinion veered sharply the other way.  The case against Mrs. Buck was only a part of the case against the Board.  But the Board, trying to keep on good terms with everyone, evidently displeased both Modernists who thought it should have stood by Mrs. Buck and Evangelicals who saw in the action final proof that the Board had refused to stand up for the faith of the Church.  Speaking before the Elders’ Association of the Presbytery of Jersey City, the Rev. Clarence E. Macartney, D.D., Minister of the First Church of Pittsburgh, said:

“The Church which alters its voice with the changing age, and speaks not to eternities, but to the times and does not know or care whether Christ lived and died and rose again from the dead or not is a Church whose voice will be lost on the screaming hurricane of time.”

Dr. Macartney quoted Mrs. Buck’s article as follows:

“What Christ is materially I do not know, and what if He never lived, what of that?  Whether Christ had a body or not, whether He had a time to be born in His life and a time to die as other men have is of no matter now.  Perhaps it never was of any matter.”

Then he declared:

“Sad as is this denial of Christ’s living, there is something sadder, that is to have leaders of the missionary work of the Presbyterian Church tell us, as some who protested have been told, that this missionary served without any honorarium.

“The implication would seem to be that unbelief is not a serious thing as long as it does not cost the Church anything financially.”

The Board was excoriated for its action by Dr. Machen in a statement issued after the resignation had been made public.  It said, in part:

“In attempting to evade a perfectly plain issue by accepting ‘with regret’ the resignation of Mrs. Pearl S. Buck the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has added still further to the contempt into which it has brought the Presbyterian Church in many ways . . .

“What every supporter of the Board has a right to know is whether the Board tolerates the radically anti-Christian views of Mrs. Buck or whether it is true to the Bible and to the Confession of Faith of the Church.  Mrs. Buck raised that issue with admirable clearness.  The Board has sought to evade it, as it has sought to evade the same issue when it is raised in many other ways.  But Bible-believing Christians are no longer going to be deceived.”

1936
Pearl Buck’s Picture of Her Parents
[excerpted from Christianity Today 7.4 (August 1936): 98.]

A recent letter from a Presbyterian U.S. missionary is quoted in Presbyterian of the South.

“Some of you have mentioned reading ‘The Exile’ by Pearl Buck in the Woman’s Home Companion.  A friend has been sending that magazine to us here, as no one in the station took it, and we have been reading it, too.  We have all been very much wrought up over the way she has pictured her mother and the way she has maligned the Christian character of both her father and mother.  Several of the missionaries are still living here in this station who were here when the Sydenstrickers lived here, and they and others in the Mission who remember her, testify as to her vital faith in her Saviour, her devotion to Him, her loyalty to His Word, and her zeal and love for the Chinese people.  It is our personal opinion that Pearl is attributing to her mother the conflict that must be going on in her own heart, and trying to excuse herself for some of the things she has done.  Her father did have some of the peculiarities she has pictured, but I think all would agree that he was one of the best and most faithful evangelists that have been on the field, and they both did a splendid work in giving the true Gospel to the Chinese people.  It is a travesty that she has given to the world, this picture of her own father and mother and of the work that they were enabled by the help of the Holy Spirit to accomplish. Some of her descriptions of conditions in this land are true, and if the book had been written in the right spirit could have been a wonderful testimony to the work being done by the true servants of the Lord.  Let us pray for her, that she may some day be truly made into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

THE SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST
by Rev. William Smith (1834)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 97


Q. 97. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?

A. It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience, lest coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

EXPLICATION.

Worthily partake. –Receive the Lord’s supper, or eat the bread and drink the wine, with hearts properly prepared for it.

That they examine themselves. –That they make a strict inquiry into the state of their souls, and try their own characters by the word of God.

To discern the Lord’s body. –To understand fully what is meant by the bread and wine in this holy ordinance; that the one represents or signifies the body of Christ, which was broken, and the other his blood, which was shed for the salvation of his people.

To feed upon Christ by faith. –To receive Christ, to become intimately united to him, and to derive blessings from him by trusting in him.

Repentance. –New obedience. See Explic. Q. 87.

Coming unworthily, –Approaching to the Lord’s table without a fit or suitable temper of mind.

Eat and drink judgment to themselves. –Expose themselves to God’s displeasure, by eating and drinking thus unworthily, and thereby draw down a punishment upon themselves instead of a blessings.

ANALYSIS.

We are here taught three things respecting the manner of partaking the Lord’s supper:

[Text missing from this copy] is necessary to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper, and that it must extend to five points: –

(1.) Worthy receivers, before coming to the Lord’s table, must examine themselves of their knowledge. –1. Cor. xi. 28, 29. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (that is judgment) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

(2.) That they must also examine themselves of their faith. –2 Cor. xiii. 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.

(3.) That they must likewise examine their repentance. –1 Cor. xi. 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

(4.) That all worthy receivers, before coming to the Lord’s table, must also examine themselves of their love. –1 Cor. x. 17. For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

(5.) That they must also examine themselves of their new obedience. –1 Cor. v. 8. Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

2. This answer teaches us, in the second place, why knowledge and faith are necessary to a worthy partaking of the Lord’s supper:–

(1.) It shows us that knowledge is necessary to discern the Lord’s body. –1 Cor. xi. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or judgment) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

(2.) That faith is also necessary to feed upon Christ. –John vi. 57. He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

3. We are here also taught in the third place, the danger of an unworthy partaking of this holy sacrament, that those who do so, shall eat and drink judgment, or punishment, to themselves. –See 1 Cor. xi. 29. as quoted above.

At the PCA Historical Center, our research library is a vital part of our collections. In particular, this library provides context and background material for the records and manuscript collections that are the focus of the Historical Center. As such, the library consists largely of works about American Presbyterianism, but in recent years, we’ve also begun to add materials from foreign shores, with an understandable emphasis on Presbyterianism in Scotland.


Just a few years ago, I was able to add an original photograph from 1860 to our collection, one in which all of the then-living moderators and ex-moderators of the Free Church of Scotland are shown seated together. It is an amazing photograph.


I was pleased then when early today, a friend pointed to the web site of the Free Church of Scotland, where they have displayed the work of a Turkish artist who has colorized this same photo from 1860. The artist is named Tolga Unker, and as the FCS web site states, he is, “a Turkish based artist with a keen interest in Scottish church history, has used his talents to bring to life a black and white photograph of Free Church of Scotland Moderators captured in 1860. The digitally colourised image, taken in New College on Edinburgh’s Mound, shows nine moderators who served from 1848-1860.


So take a look at the photo now preserved at the PCA Historical Center, and in the second image below, from the back of the photo, look over the key which identifies the subjects of the photo. Below that, we’ve added a bit more information, including the life dates of each of the men pictured. Then finally, click the link (below) which takes you to the Free Church site. Open that link in a new tab and then jump back and forth to compare the photos.


https://freechurch.org/news/turkish-artist-gives-life-to-old-photograph


You will probably notice that our photo is slightly different, a second shot taken by the photographer that day. But note especially how colorization brings the subjects to life. And lastly, as you ponder this group of faithful servants of the Church, let this remind you to pray for your pastors, elders and teachers. These are trying times, and they need your support.

Pictured, as per the key published on the reverse, with their year of service as moderator:
1848 – Dr. Patrick Clason, Buccleuch Parish Church, Edinburgh [1789-1867]
1850 – Dr. Nathaniel Paterson, Glasgow [3 July 1787 – 25 April 1871]
1853 – Dr. John Smith, Glasgow [? – ?]
1854 – Dr. James Grierson, Errol [? – 5 May 1875]
1855 – Dr. James Henderson, Glasgow [1797 – 1874]
1857 – Dr. James Julius Wood, Dumfries [1800 – 1877]
1858 – Dr. Alexander Beith, Stirling [13 January 1799 – 11 May 1891]
1859 – Dr. William Cunningham, Edinburgh [2 October 1805 – 14 December 1861]
1860 – Dr. Robert Buchanan, Glasgow [1802 – 1875], moderator in 1860
For that date range 1848-1860, three former moderators were not present for inclusion in the photograph, namely Drs. Mackintosh Mackay [1793-1873], of Dunoon (1849), Alexander Duff [15 April 1806 – 12 February 1878], Calcutta (1851) and Angus Makellar, who had died the year previous to when the photograph was taken [22 June 1780–10 May 1859], Edinburgh (1852).