Prepare to meet thy God.
Old church records are often quite scarce; recently the PCA Historical Center was able to acquire a copy of the 1868 Minutes of the Synod of Alabama. Within that record, we found a brief obituary for a fallen pastor, a man whose death reminds us all of life’s greatest duty. In trying times like these, wisdom says “Get your house in order.” And without doubt, first on that list we must make sure we are ready to meet the Lord.

Minutes of the Synod of Alabama, Oct’r 21st to 24th, 1868, pages 13-14.

“The Committee of Synod, appointed for the purpose, having failed in preparing an obituary of Rev. R.D. Russell, on motion, a minute was adopted, extracted from the minutes of the Presbytery of South Alabama, as follows:

In the providence of God, we are called upon to record the death of our beloved brother in Christ, the Rev. Robert D. Russell, a member of this Synod. He departed this life very suddenly, probably without a moment’s warning, on the 17th of April, 1867, in Geneva congregation.

He was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, in the year 1793. He made a profession of faith in Christ, when about 27 or 28 years old.

Believing it to be his duty to preach the gospel, he commenced at once to prepare himself for the work.

He pursued his literary and scientific studies in Greensboro’, North Carolina, and Chapel Hill. He pursued his theological studies at Prince Edward, Va. And was licensed to preach by Orange Presbytery. He removed to Alabama, and supplied the pulpit of Nanafalia [aka Nanapolia] church, now Geneva.

He was ordained to the full work of the ministry by the Presbytery of South Alabama.

He was afflicted, for many years, with a disease of the throat; and for the last few years he was prevented from preaching regularly, owing to general debility. At the time of his death he was preparing a sermon on the text, “Prepare to meet thy God.” He was thus called away from his labors meditating upon the great necessity of preparing for eternity.

Words to Live By:
By his sudden death we are forcibly reminded—to be also ready. So the Scripture says, “Prepare to meet thy God.” The verse is found in Amos 4:12.
Truly we are sinners, in great need of a great Savior. And praise God for this promise, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Praise God, that all who are found in union with Christ as Savior and Lord will undeniably be found ready to meet Him on that day.


Searching further, though the record is sparse, we did find a bit more about Rev. Russell’s life, ministry and death:


Rev. A.J. Witherspoon, of Linden, Ala., wrote:

He was an honest  and true man, thoroughly attached to his Church, somewhat singular in his mode of life, living most of his time like a hermit, with not a living soul on the place but himself. [he had never married]. Some time before he died he went to live with a nephew, A.D. Ross, Esq., at the latter’s earnest solicitation; here he was kindly received and well cared for.

The circumstances connected with his death were sad. The family with whom he lived were all absent but two daughters. On the day of his death they had promised to spend the day with a neighbor, and as no one would be left with him, he promised to dine with them. But he did not come, and on their return in the afternoon he was not at home, They supposed he had gone over to one of the neighbors, but on the next day, as he did not return, they feared that all was not right, and got some friends to search for him.

They found his body by the roadside some distance from the house. He had fallen in a fit, and from appearances had died instantly.

At the time of his death he was preparing a sermon for the next Sabbath, on the text, “Prepare to meet thy God.”

The Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer, volume 10, pp. 368-369.

THE SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST
by Rev .William Smith (1834)
“An Explication of the Westminster Shorter Catechism”

Q. 95. To whom is baptism to be administered?

A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, but the infants of such are as members of the visible church are to be baptized.

EXPLICATION.

Administered to any. –Performed, given, or dispensed, to any one.

Visible church. –The church on earth, as seen by men, which comprehends, or contains within its bounds, all those who openly profess the true religion with their lips, and who practise the outward duties thereof, in their lives. This is called the visible church, not only because it is seen by men, but also to distinguish it from the church invisible, of which those only are members, who have true religion in heart as well as in life, and who can only be seen and known by God himself.

Till they profess their faith in Christ. –Till those who are out of the visible church, such as Jews and heathens, &c. openly acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour of sinners, and declare their belief of the whole of the doctrines of his religion.

Till they profess obedience to him. –That is, till they show an outward subjection to all his ordinances, and leave off the practice of those sins which his Word and Gospel forbid.

ANALYSIS.

There are, in this answer, three things taught:

1. That baptism ought not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church. –Acts ii. 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.

2. That all those who process their faith in Christ, and declare their obedience or subjection to him, may be baptized. –Acts viii. 36, 37. And the Eunuch said, –What  doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. Acts ii. 33. Repent and be baptized. 3. That the infants of members of the visible church are to be baptized. –Gen. xvii. 10. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. Acts ii. 39. The promise is unto you and to your children. 1 Cor. vii. 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

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.]

Some years ago, while compiling the series of articles on presuppositionalism which appeared in THE BIBLE TODAY, I noticed the following article in the April 1949 issue which might have some contemporary interest. This particular article is a transcript of a radio message, the third in a series of five messages on the general theme “The Biblical Basis of Liberty.” These messages were delivered over the ABC Network in the spring of 1949, under the auspices of the American Council of Christian Churches.

What the Bible Teaches About Economic Liberty

DR. J. OLIVER BUSWELL JR.’S RADIO MESSAGE, MARCH 19, 1949.

THE Biblical doctrine of economic liberty begins in the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden before any sin had entered into the good world which God had made. Moses tells us, “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it,” Genesis 2:15. Here we have the elements of harmonious economic activity. It is in the spirit of the Scripture for us to expand the sentence in its setting, to include the tilling of the soil and the entire range of the cultivation of natural resources, as a normal activity for man.

The next step in the economic doctrine of the Bible is found in the third chapter of Genesis after man’s fall, after sin had entered into the world, after man had corrupted the holy character which God had given him. As a part of the disciplinary punishment for sin we read that God said, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Genesis 3:17-19.

Reflecting upon the symbolism which Moses here gives, it appears that one of the best disciplines God has given to a sinful race is the economic necessity of earning a livelihood. We need not look far to see many illustrations of the fact that hard work, the necessity of providing food, shelter, education and development for our children, is a stabilizing, integrating factor in human life.

The economic implications of the Mosaic law are too vast to examine in detail in a brief message of this kind. Suffice it to say that the principles of thrift, industry, provision for one’s family, and care of the unfortunate are all implied, or expressly taught. Much attention has been focused upon the law of the year of jubilee. Some have falsely supposed that a sort of communistic economic principle was implied. But nothing could be further from the facts. The import of the law of the year of jubilee was to keep the agricultural lands distributed among the families of the nation. Monopoly of natural resources was prevented. Fair opportunity for all was the end in view.

The prevention of monopoly of natural resources is a constant theme in the Bible from the time of Moses through to the end of the New Testament. Isaiah says, for example, “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room . . .” Isaiah 5:8. The clear implications of Isaiah’s teaching are in accordance with the principle of modern reform legislation keeping the natural resources of the land available for all.

The central text of the New Testament in the realm of economic doctrine is, I believe, Ephesians 4:28, in which St. Paul places before the church the Christian ideal of economic activity, namely, “Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” Here we have liberty, thrift, industry, saving, private property, and care for the weak and unfortunate all clearly implied as economic principles.

Some have taken their chief text for New Testament economic doctrine from the experiment in communism recorded in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. It is true that under the spiritual impulse of Pentecost, the Christian community in Jerusalem practiced economic communism. All who have carefully read the record have observed, however, that the community of goods was purely voluntary. The record makes it perfectly clear that there was no compulsion, and one who did not wish to contribute his property to the common fund was equally in good standing with one who did so contribute.

Beyond the immediate record, however, there are other facts in the New Testament which have not been so commonly understood. When Saul of Tarsus was converted and became the Apostle Paul, and when he began the establishment of churches throughout the great cities of the Roman world, with his keenness and wisdom, he instituted an economic principle diametrically opposed to the community of goods which the Jerusalem group had been practicing. In his earliest epistles, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he teaches individual thrift and industry, private property and individual responsibility, and he said most emphatically “that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” 2 Thess. 3:10. A moment’s reflection will show that Paul had seen the weakness of the Jerusalem practice.

When there was a famine in both Antioch and Jerusalem, Antioch, where Paul was in charge, had to feed Jerusalem where the communistic experiment had been going on. Thus the New Testament demonstrates the communistic experiment to have been a failure.

At the end of Paul’s life, we find his same doctrine of economic liberty clearly taught in his latest writings. With reference to the care of widows in particular, but with application to all dependents, Paul taught “But if any provide not: for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8)

Not only in the clear and direct teachings of the Scripture, but also in the prophetic portions, looking far on into the future and forecasting the conditions under the reign of the Messiah, the visible kingdom of God on earth, individual liberty and responsibility is the ideal. Both Isaiah and Micah, his contemporary, predict that when the Messiah of Israel rules over all the earth, and when all harmful pests and pestilences, noxious weeds and poisonous reptiles, are done away, when the “desert shall blossom as the rose” and when an “handful of corn” in the tops of the mountains shall bring forth fruit “like Lebanon,” in that day of economic peace and blessedness, “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; [not the public vine and fig tree] and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Micah 4:4

It is thus the ideal of the Scripture from beginning to end that economic liberty and economic responsibility shall prevail.

This does not mean that Bible believing Christians must necessarily oppose all social economic enterprise. We have no argument as to whether the government of society in general shall, or shall not, own and operate the public utilities. We do not claim Scripture sanction for detailed economic policies of State for all believers under all circumstances. What we claim is that the Bible teaches that the economic world at all times should be so organized that individual responsibility and enterprise will be free to engage in productive activities with honest hope of economic reward.

Some will say, “This theme seems remote from the gospel. It does not sound like Bible teaching.” Let me emphasize the fact that Bible teaching is practical teaching, and that there is much instruction in the Bible for the daily conduct of our lives; finally, and most important, let me point out that economic liberty taught in the Bible, economic liberty coupled with individual responsibility, is quite in harmony with, and is a necessary implication of, the gospel of God’s grace, offered freely to all mankind. Just as the “earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” and just as he has “given it to the children of men,” (Psalm 24:1 and 115:16), so the grace of God for salvation, for everlasting life, is free and boundless, and offered to all mankind “without money and without price.” As free as the air we breathe, as free as the rain which God sends upon us all, so free for all who will receive it is God’s saving grace.
WORDS TO LIVE BY:
Dr. Buswell’s conclusion provides us with a fitting Words to Live By:
Christ has come into the world to reveal the love of God for the race of mankind which has corrupted itself and gone the way of sin and confusion. If we obey God’s economic law, economic peace and harmony will prevail; if we accept God’s spiritual plan, we shall discover that “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13. See Joel 2:32)

Called to an Uncompromising Stand

One reward that comes from researching and writing these posts is the discovery of details previously unknown to the writer. Plus, with having to find something attached to a given date, we are often prompted to address people or events that we might have otherwise overlooked. Today we have one such example.

The name of George S. Christian shows up a few times among the collections preserved at the PCA Historical Center, and I’ve often thought of trying to find out a bit more about him. We have no known photographs of him, and from the few writings and items of correspondence that we have, there is enough to spark some interest and make us wish we knew more about the man. George Spaulding Christian was born in Philadelphia, PA, on April 16, 1917. He completed his undergraduate education at both Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1941. From there, he next attended the Princeton Theological Seminary, 1941-43, and completed his seminary education at Faith Theological Seminary, graduating with the Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1947. A gap in the biographical record may indicate a term of military service during the years 1943-1945. Further work was completed at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he earned the Th.M. degree in 1951.

Rev. Christian was ordained by the Presbytery of New Jersey (BPC) in June of 1948, but there is no record at hand as to where he might have served from 1948 until 1951, when he was called to serve as pastor of the Faith Presbyterian Church of Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania. This was an unaffiliated church, one of many which seemed to hover in the Bible Presbyterian orbit, but which never formally became part of the Bible Presbyterian Church. George served this church from 1951 until 1957. Then on April 23 of 1957, he transferred his credentials into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, being received by their Presbytery of New Jersey.

Again, the available record has a gap from 1957 to 1959. Leaving pulpit ministry for a time, he worked as an instructor at the Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1959 to 1965. The time from 1966 to 1983 is also lost to our record, but in 1984 Rev. Christian returned to pulpit ministry with a call to serve as teaching minister at the Emmanual Presbyterian church (OPC) in Morristown, New Jersey. He remained at this point until 1991, at which time we presume he retired. George breathed his last and entered glory on February 26, 2008, at the age of 90.

Words to Live By:
To quote George Christian: “From the writings of Charles Hodge, revered spiritual father of us all, let us see the significance of subscribing to the Westminster Confession of Faith ‘as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.’ Let us see reflected herein the answer which centuries of Presbyterian history gave to this question. Let us look into a matter settled long ago, a matter which admits of no question, of no doubt.”