To Be a Christian Attorney was his Highest Aspiration
by Rev. David T. Myers
Thomas Reade Roots Cobb was born at Cherry Hill, Jefferson Country, Georgia on April 10, 1823. While still a child, his parents moved the family to Athens, Georgia and he later attended the University of Georgia, graduating at the top of his class. From that day forward, Thomas Cobb aspired to be a Christian attorney.
His membership was in the Presbyterian Church in Athens. As a deeply religious man, he labored during the day as an attorney, and prayed in the church in the evenings. Whether working on behalf of the state of Georgia through the courts, or laboring in revival meetings, he was the same earnest worker. He was successful in implementing the reading of the Bible in schools in Georgia.
In the field of law, he was considered to be “the James Madison” of the South. Not only did he contribute to countless law documents for the state, he authored the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. It is written in his handwriting. He was the founder of the Georgia School of Law.
Like the majority of Southerners and even Southern Christians in that era, Cobb looked to the argument of States Rights in defense of Southern secession. Indeed, he wrote a large tome which sought to defend the practice of slavery. When elected to the Confederate Congress in 1861, he chaffed at the slowness of the legislative branch to prosecute the defense of the South. So he entered the Confederate army as a Colonel of the Georgia troops, which he called Cobb’s Legion. His troops fought in the battles of the Seven Days, Second Manassas, the Antietam campaign, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. At the latter battle, he fought as a Brigadier General.
It was in the last battle that he suffered a mortal wound. Assigned to guard the Sunken Road, an artillery shell burst near him and wounded him mortally. Within a few hours, he would die. There is a monument in that battlefield on the Sunken Road which tells of his death. Before his death, another Presbyterian military officer by the name of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, or Stonewall Jackson, would visit him and pray with him. Cobb is buried in Athens, Georgia.
He was survived by his wife, the former Marion Lumpkin, and four daughters in 1862. As recently as 2004, because of his stand on slavery, a controversy arose as to whether his home should be restored to a museum. It eventually was, and today can be visited in Athens, Georgia.
Words to Live By:
While we would oppose his stand on racial slavery, still we are left with the recognition that in other matters, here was a man who feared God and worked righteousness in his public and private life. For all of us, our Christian ideals are to be manifested outside the four walls of the church, indeed, into all of life, so that God’s name can be glorified, and God’s kingdom can be advanced.
Perhaps the most searching question in application might then be, “In my life, what sins am I blind to? How am I a creature of my culture? How and where is the Word of God not thoroughly and consistently worked out in my life?”
May God have mercy upon us all. We are, all of us, mired in sin and without hope before a righteous God, but for the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ alone.
For further reading:
We find that two articles on the legal profession were published in the Southern Presbyterian Review :
1. “Relations of Christianity to the Legal Profession,” by an anonymous author, SPR, vol. 5, no. 2 (July 1859): 249-270.
2. “Morality of the Legal Profession,” by Robert L. Dabney, SPR, vol. 11, no. 4 (January 1859): 571-592.
and two articles published in Princeton Seminary’s Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review :
3. “A Course of Legal Study, by David Hoffman, reviewed by Samuel G. Winchester, BRPR, 9.4 (October 1837):509-524.
4. “Professional Ethics and their Application to Legal Practice,” [review of An Essay on Professional Ethics, by George Sharswood], by an anonymous author, BRPR, 43.2 (April 1871): 286-304.
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How Many Have Ever Been Ordained on Their Birthday?
Frederick W. Evans, Jr. was born on April 9, 1924 in New York City to the Rev. Frederick W. Evans, Sr. and his wife Grace. He was educated at the College of Wooster, graduating with a B.A. in Classical Languages; honors from that institution included Phi Beta Kappa. Princeton Theological Seminary conferred the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1947 and he was ordained to the gospel ministry, on April 9, 1947 by the PC(USA) Presbytery of Troy (later incorporated into the Presbytery of Albany). One of his Princeton professors, the Rev. Joseph L. Hromadka, brought the sermon at the service of ordination.
Rev. Evans was installed in his first pastorate, Christ’s Presbyterian Church, in Catskill, NY on 10 February, 1948. He served there just over three years before accepting a call to the Bedford-Central Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NY, serving in this pulpit from 1951 to 1953. His last pastoral position within the PCUSA was at the Third Presbyterian Church of Chester, PA (1954 – 1955).
It was at the outset of this pastorate that he married Irene Payne, with the marriage taking place in Brooklyn on 15 May 1954. Rev. Evans and his wife have four children: William, now a professor at Erskine College and adjunct professor at Erskine Theological Seminary; John, an ordained pastor in the PCA and a missionary in Africa; and daughters Mary E. and Martha J.
The years at Third Presbyterian marked the culmination of his convictions regarding the theological decline of the PC(USA) and forced him to transfer his credentials. He had been a member of the Albany, Brooklyn-Nassau and Philadelphia Presbyteries of the PC(USA) from 1948 to 1955. In 1955 he requested the erasure of his name from the rolls of Philadelphia Presbytery.
His first three pastorates were within the Presbyterian Church (USA). His last three pastorates were in independent churches. Leaving the PC(USA), he first accepted a call to the Westover Church of Greensboro, NC, where he served from 1955 until 1964. From this post, he next moved to Indianapolis and the pulpit of Faith Missionary Church, serving there from 1965 – 1971. It was during his last pastorate, at the Walnut Grove Chapel of Indianapolis (1971 – 1990), that he began also working toward a doctorate, first receiving an MA in 1974 from Butler University and an S.T.M. in 1978 from Christian Theological Seminary, both of these institutions being located in Indianapolis. Westminster Theological Seminary then conferred the degree of Doctor of Ministry in May of 1984. Of special note was the graduation of father and son together at the same occasion, with son William receiving the M.A.R. degree.
In 1989, the Rev. Dr. Evans was received by the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA, and in July 1990 he retired from his pulpit at the independent Walnut Grove Chapel. In his petition for reception into the Great Lakes Presbytery, he noted:
Of note here is the sacrificial character of a true pastor, who put consideration for his congregation first ahead of his own needs. He would not take the least action that might be misunderstood.
Upon his death on 12 May 1992, the PCA Messenger commented on the Rev. Dr. Evans’ keen interest in church history. He authored four books during his lifetime. Two twelve-week study courses were entitled They Kept the Faith [a study bringing together faith and history] and They Sought a City! [a survey of American Church history]. Also published were Christ in the Psalms and The God Who Is [a study on the character of God, employing the pattern found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 4].
The Frederick W. Evans, Jr. Manuscript Collection is preserved at the PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
Frederick W. Evans, Jr. was born on April 9, 1924 in New York City to the Rev. Frederick W. Evans, Sr. and his wife Grace. He was educated at the College of Wooster, graduating with a B.A. in Classical Languages; honors from that institution included Phi Beta Kappa. Princeton Theological Seminary conferred the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1947 and he was ordained to the gospel ministry, on April 9, 1947 by the PC(USA) Presbytery of Troy (later incorporated into the Presbytery of Albany). One of his Princeton professors, the Rev. Joseph L. Hromadka, brought the sermon at the service of ordination.
Rev. Evans was installed in his first pastorate, Christ’s Presbyterian Church, in Catskill, NY on 10 February, 1948. He served there just over three years before accepting a call to the Bedford-Central Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NY, serving in this pulpit from 1951 to 1953. His last pastoral position within the PCUSA was at the Third Presbyterian Church of Chester, PA (1954 – 1955).
It was at the outset of this pastorate that he married Irene Payne, with the marriage taking place in Brooklyn on 15 May 1954. Rev. Evans and his wife have four children: William, now a professor at Erskine College and adjunct professor at Erskine Theological Seminary; John, an ordained pastor in the PCA and a missionary in Africa; and daughters Mary E. and Martha J.
The years at Third Presbyterian marked the culmination of his convictions regarding the theological decline of the PC(USA) and forced him to transfer his credentials. He had been a member of the Albany, Brooklyn-Nassau and Philadelphia Presbyteries of the PC(USA) from 1948 to 1955. In 1955 he requested the erasure of his name from the rolls of Philadelphia Presbytery.
His first three pastorates were within the Presbyterian Church (USA). His last three pastorates were in independent churches. Leaving the PC(USA), he first accepted a call to the Westover Church of Greensboro, NC, where he served from 1955 until 1964. From this post, he next moved to Indianapolis and the pulpit of Faith Missionary Church, serving there from 1965 – 1971. It was during his last pastorate, at the Walnut Grove Chapel of Indianapolis (1971 – 1990), that he began also working toward a doctorate, first receiving an MA in 1974 from Butler University and an S.T.M. in 1978 from Christian Theological Seminary, both of these institutions being located in Indianapolis. Westminster Theological Seminary then conferred the degree of Doctor of Ministry in May of 1984. Of special note was the graduation of father and son together at the same occasion, with son William receiving the M.A.R. degree.
In 1989, the Rev. Dr. Evans was received by the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA, and in July 1990 he retired from his pulpit at the independent Walnut Grove Chapel. In his petition for reception into the Great Lakes Presbytery, he noted:
“For better than thirty years I have been without formal denominational ties. At the time when I departed the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. for conscience’ sake I did not feel at liberty to seek membership in either the Bible Presbyterian Church, because of the McIntire influence, or in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, because of my premillennial convictions.
Since the early 1960’s I have been approached by a number of individuals in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, and more recently the Presbyterian Church in America, urging me to cast in my lot with them. This I have hesitated to do, not wanting to cause misunderstanding or difficulty for the various independent congregations I have served.
Plans now call for me to lay down my present pastorate in the Summer of 1990. Accordingly I do not feel that my becoming part of the PCA as an individual would create any serious problems for the Council and Congregation of Walnut Grove Chapel.
My motive in making application is simple. I have always subscribed to the Presbyterian principle of being in subjection to faithful brethren and feel that recent events in the religious world have only underscored the importance of accountability. In view of my Reformed convictions and persuasion of the rightness of Presbyterian polity, I believe that the PCA would afford me the opportunity to be subject to those who are true brethren in the Lord…”
[27 July 1989]
Of note here is the sacrificial character of a true pastor, who put consideration for his congregation first ahead of his own needs. He would not take the least action that might be misunderstood.
Upon his death on 12 May 1992, the PCA Messenger commented on the Rev. Dr. Evans’ keen interest in church history. He authored four books during his lifetime. Two twelve-week study courses were entitled They Kept the Faith [a study bringing together faith and history] and They Sought a City! [a survey of American Church history]. Also published were Christ in the Psalms and The God Who Is [a study on the character of God, employing the pattern found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 4].
The Frederick W. Evans, Jr. Manuscript Collection is preserved at the PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
The Rev. Harold Samuel Laird was one of the giants among the conservative Presbyterians in the early 20th-century. He was the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, Delaware and a leading voice in the struggle against modernism in the Church. What follows is his testimony, centered around the time of his wife’s death from a blood disease contracted early in April of 1958.
“So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.” – Ezek. 24:18.
The spring, summer and fall of 1958 will long stand out in my memory as a time of severe testing and trial. It was early in April that, in the infinitely wise and loving providence of our Heavenly Father, my life companion was smitten with a very rare blood disease, from which, though for about two months she seemed to be recovering, she really never did recover. She went home to be with the Lord, whom she so devotedly loved and so faithfully served, in the evening of the last day of September.
While those past six months were indeed a time of severe testing and trial, the experience they brought resulted in great spiritual blessing to my own soul, that possibly could not have come by any other means. At the beginning of the illness, when the condition was so critical that the doctors advised that I cancel all my immediate engagements, aware for the first time in our life together, of the possibility of her being taken soon and suddenly from my side, I began to pray earnestly for just one thing respecting her. That was that God would spare her to me. I knew that He was able to do this, for, if the Bible teaches anything concerning God, it teaches this, that “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above anything that we ask or even think.” Being fully aware of my unworthiness, I plead the mercy of God and poured out my heart to Him concerning my need of her continued companionship in my life. As I vividly pictured my life without her presence, I seemed quite persuaded that I could not go on without her.
One day, as I was pouring out my heart to the Lord, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was really not trusting the Lord. I was pleading with Him to heal my companion, because I knew that He was able and felt that I could not go on without her. I had been thinking only of the infinite power of God and had forgotten for the time the further revelation of His infinite wisdom and love. I began to see that He wanted me to trust His wisdom and His love, even as I was trusting His power. Immediately I began to alter my petition and prayed that He would heal her, only if in so doing He could glorify Himself more than in taking her from me. It was then that I began to come into real victory, the victory of faith–faith not only in the infinite power of God, but also in the infinite wisdom and the infinite love of God.
But it was what I witnessed during the last five weeks of that long illness, as I sat or stood day by day by her bed ministering to her as best I could in her isolation, that my own faith was strengthened by the testimony of her great faith.
Late in August, due to her apparent improved condition, the doctor gave his consent to my keeping an engagement, which she wanted me to keep, in Cicero and Chicago. It was upon my return from that engagement that I learned from the doctor that there were signs of the return of the old blood disease and that there was now no hope of recovery. I think it was upon my first visit with her, following my return from Illinois, that she was telling me of a conversation she had just had with the doctor before I entered her room. She had been witnessing to the doctor concerning her own conviction of the love of God for her. The doctor had responded with the query, “But isn’t that difficult to believe under certain circumstances?”, thinking no doubt of the long illness and great suffering to which, as her physician, he had been a daily witness. To his question she immediately replied, “No”, Doctor, “not when I remember that He died for my sins upon the cross.” It was then that I said to her, “That would have been the Apostle John’s answer, also, for you remember his word in his first epistle (I John 3:16): “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.” Here is one of the great declarations of the incarnation. It was God who shed His blood in the death of Christ on the cross. As the great theologian Anselm put it, “The incarnation was necessary, because God could not die, neither could mere man atone for the sins of men.” To be sure the incarnation is a great mystery. As someone else has said, “It is something to be acclaimed, not to be explained.” And my beloved companion was that day from her bed faithfully proclaiming the great doctrine of the incarnation.
It was soon after this, perhaps later the same day, that she asked, “Dear, is the doctor telling you anything that he is not telling me?” To this I replied, “Well he is telling me something that you already well know. That is that the old blood disease is back again.” I realized that she knew this, for she had already called my attention to the bleeding through her skin again. It was then that we remembered what I had read from the doctor’s medical book about that disease back in the month of April, as we discussed the strange disease one day in his office. The book stated that, if through treatment the blood did not quickly come back to normal condition, the patient would not recover and that the longest period any patient with that disease had ever been known to live was six months. Immediately she began to count from April to September–six months. Then she said, “This is the last month.” It was then that she asked me, “When are your meetings to begin in Pittsburgh?” When I told her that I was scheduled to begin there on Sunday, October 5th, she immediately remarked, “Then there is plenty of time, isn’t there?” She meant, of course, that there was plenty of time for her to go without interfering with my ministry of the Word of God.
Then it was that, being fully aware of the fact that she was very near the end of her life, she said to me, “Here I am just sixty-five years old and my life is all over. How short the span!” Then with increased earnestness, such as one sees only on the part of those who are speaking last words, she added, “Dear, plead with our boys and with all our loved ones that they give all that they have to Christ and give it now, for this life is short, and the world and all it has to offer is nought but vanity, and much of its pleasure and attractiveness is satanic.”
One day later on, as she thought of leaving me, she said, “Dear, I wish that you could go with me.” To this I replied, “I wish that I could, but God alone controls that. However, it will not be long until I join you, for I am sixty-seven years old.” Then she said, thinking of herself in heaven, where time shall be no more, . . It will not seem long to me, but it will seem longer to you. But you will be busy with what you love to do (my preaching and teaching of the Word of God) and the time will go faster for you.” There is no word of all she spoke that has meant more to me than that remark, for it proved to me that she knew that my love for her was great. Then she added, “We are going to have many more good times together, and it will not cost us anything.”
One Lord’s Day, still nearer the end, as I was feeding her what little she was able to eat, she asked me, “Are they having a sacred concert in the hospital?” “No,” I said, “why do you ask?” To this she replied, “I hear singing.” “What are they singing,” I asked. She replied, “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing.” Knowing well her appreciation of music, I then asked, “Is it good singing?” To this she replied, “Wonderful. It is like that which we used to hear at Ocean Grove.” She referred to the great chorus which we enjoyed there in the early days of our life together during the summers. Desiring to ascertain just how real this music was to her, I then asked her, “What is the accompaniment, organ or piano?” To this she replied, “Orchestra.” A little later she spoke again, asking, “Do you hear them singing now?” “No”, I said, “What are they singing now?” She replied, “They are singing, ‘Hallelujah! ‘Tis Done!” Then presently she began to sing along with those she said she heard, “Hallelujah! ‘Tis Done! I believe on the Son; I am saved by the blood of the Crucified One.” Then she began to cry, and I asked her, “Honey, why are you crying?” To this she replied, “Because it is so wonderful, and I am so happy.”
There are two poems that she had often heard me recite. Several times during those last weeks in the hospital she asked me to repeat them. She would say, “Recite again that verse about ‘stepping on shore’.” And I would recite the following:–
“Think of stepping on shore
And finding it Heaven!
Of taking hold of a hand
And finding it His hand!
Of breathing a new air
And finding it celestial air!
Of feeling invigoration
And finding it immortality!
Of passing from storm and tempest
To perfect calm!
Of waking and knowing
That I am Home.”
The other one that she loved and asked for again and again was that splendid poem by Dr. Maltby Babcock:–
“Why be afraid of death as though your life were breath!
Death but anoints your eyes with clay, O glad surprise!
Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the wheat?
Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies.
Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench,
Why not with happy shout run home when school is out?
The dear ones left behind! O foolish one and blind.
A day–and you will meet,–a night–and you will greet!
This is the end of Death, to breathe away a breathe
And to know the end of strife, and taste the endless life.”
In the providence of God the final illness came in the north in connection with a visit to our elder son’s home in Ohio, where we arrived on the evening of July 3rd, the evening when she was taken in our car with a severe coronary thrombosis. As early as the first week of July I had said to her, “Should you pass away here in the north, we shall bury in Wilmington, Dela. (the place of our ministry for nearly twenty-five years) and I shall take the service myself.” I could see that this pleased her. One day later, as we talked together about the funeral service, she said, “Dear, you will not talk about me in the service.” “No”, I replied, “I shall talk about your wonderful Saviour and your wonderful faith in Him.” I had already told her what a time I was having witnessing concerning the Lord to people as I spoke to them of her faith. Then it was that she said, “But it is nothing to be boasted of, for it is a gift from the Lord.”
How well do I realize that! How I thank God for MY faith, for it is the only thing that sustains and gives real victory in the midst of such experiences as are now mine. It is the victory of which the Apostle John wrote in I John 5:4, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even OUR faith.” When we remember that John was writing as a Christian to Christians, we understand that the faith of which he wrote here is the faith of the Christian. It is that faith that has as its ground and basis the one and only living and true God, who has revealed Himself in the Bible as the Triune God–Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Such is the faith which is the victory that overcomes this world. It is a faith in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and the Sovereign Ruler of it all. It is faith in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who being God became man that He might die on the cross for our sins according to the Scriptures. It is faith in God the Holy Ghost, our great Paraclete, who alone unites us to Christ and distinguishes us from the world, which is outside of Christ. This is the faith of which, in the familiar hymn, we sing–
“His banner over us is love,
Our sword the Word of God;
We tread the road the saints above
With shouts of triumph trod.
By faith, they like a whirl-wind’s breath,
Swept on o’er ev’ry field;
The faith by which they conquered death
Is still our shining shield.”
Harold S. Laird
Largo, Florida
Nov. 21, 1958.
[excerpted from The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate, 92.10 (December 1958): 117-119.]
“So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.” – Ezek. 24:18.
The spring, summer and fall of 1958 will long stand out in my memory as a time of severe testing and trial. It was early in April that, in the infinitely wise and loving providence of our Heavenly Father, my life companion was smitten with a very rare blood disease, from which, though for about two months she seemed to be recovering, she really never did recover. She went home to be with the Lord, whom she so devotedly loved and so faithfully served, in the evening of the last day of September.
While those past six months were indeed a time of severe testing and trial, the experience they brought resulted in great spiritual blessing to my own soul, that possibly could not have come by any other means. At the beginning of the illness, when the condition was so critical that the doctors advised that I cancel all my immediate engagements, aware for the first time in our life together, of the possibility of her being taken soon and suddenly from my side, I began to pray earnestly for just one thing respecting her. That was that God would spare her to me. I knew that He was able to do this, for, if the Bible teaches anything concerning God, it teaches this, that “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above anything that we ask or even think.” Being fully aware of my unworthiness, I plead the mercy of God and poured out my heart to Him concerning my need of her continued companionship in my life. As I vividly pictured my life without her presence, I seemed quite persuaded that I could not go on without her.
One day, as I was pouring out my heart to the Lord, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was really not trusting the Lord. I was pleading with Him to heal my companion, because I knew that He was able and felt that I could not go on without her. I had been thinking only of the infinite power of God and had forgotten for the time the further revelation of His infinite wisdom and love. I began to see that He wanted me to trust His wisdom and His love, even as I was trusting His power. Immediately I began to alter my petition and prayed that He would heal her, only if in so doing He could glorify Himself more than in taking her from me. It was then that I began to come into real victory, the victory of faith–faith not only in the infinite power of God, but also in the infinite wisdom and the infinite love of God.
But it was what I witnessed during the last five weeks of that long illness, as I sat or stood day by day by her bed ministering to her as best I could in her isolation, that my own faith was strengthened by the testimony of her great faith.
Late in August, due to her apparent improved condition, the doctor gave his consent to my keeping an engagement, which she wanted me to keep, in Cicero and Chicago. It was upon my return from that engagement that I learned from the doctor that there were signs of the return of the old blood disease and that there was now no hope of recovery. I think it was upon my first visit with her, following my return from Illinois, that she was telling me of a conversation she had just had with the doctor before I entered her room. She had been witnessing to the doctor concerning her own conviction of the love of God for her. The doctor had responded with the query, “But isn’t that difficult to believe under certain circumstances?”, thinking no doubt of the long illness and great suffering to which, as her physician, he had been a daily witness. To his question she immediately replied, “No”, Doctor, “not when I remember that He died for my sins upon the cross.” It was then that I said to her, “That would have been the Apostle John’s answer, also, for you remember his word in his first epistle (I John 3:16): “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.” Here is one of the great declarations of the incarnation. It was God who shed His blood in the death of Christ on the cross. As the great theologian Anselm put it, “The incarnation was necessary, because God could not die, neither could mere man atone for the sins of men.” To be sure the incarnation is a great mystery. As someone else has said, “It is something to be acclaimed, not to be explained.” And my beloved companion was that day from her bed faithfully proclaiming the great doctrine of the incarnation.
It was soon after this, perhaps later the same day, that she asked, “Dear, is the doctor telling you anything that he is not telling me?” To this I replied, “Well he is telling me something that you already well know. That is that the old blood disease is back again.” I realized that she knew this, for she had already called my attention to the bleeding through her skin again. It was then that we remembered what I had read from the doctor’s medical book about that disease back in the month of April, as we discussed the strange disease one day in his office. The book stated that, if through treatment the blood did not quickly come back to normal condition, the patient would not recover and that the longest period any patient with that disease had ever been known to live was six months. Immediately she began to count from April to September–six months. Then she said, “This is the last month.” It was then that she asked me, “When are your meetings to begin in Pittsburgh?” When I told her that I was scheduled to begin there on Sunday, October 5th, she immediately remarked, “Then there is plenty of time, isn’t there?” She meant, of course, that there was plenty of time for her to go without interfering with my ministry of the Word of God.
Then it was that, being fully aware of the fact that she was very near the end of her life, she said to me, “Here I am just sixty-five years old and my life is all over. How short the span!” Then with increased earnestness, such as one sees only on the part of those who are speaking last words, she added, “Dear, plead with our boys and with all our loved ones that they give all that they have to Christ and give it now, for this life is short, and the world and all it has to offer is nought but vanity, and much of its pleasure and attractiveness is satanic.”
One day later on, as she thought of leaving me, she said, “Dear, I wish that you could go with me.” To this I replied, “I wish that I could, but God alone controls that. However, it will not be long until I join you, for I am sixty-seven years old.” Then she said, thinking of herself in heaven, where time shall be no more, . . It will not seem long to me, but it will seem longer to you. But you will be busy with what you love to do (my preaching and teaching of the Word of God) and the time will go faster for you.” There is no word of all she spoke that has meant more to me than that remark, for it proved to me that she knew that my love for her was great. Then she added, “We are going to have many more good times together, and it will not cost us anything.”
One Lord’s Day, still nearer the end, as I was feeding her what little she was able to eat, she asked me, “Are they having a sacred concert in the hospital?” “No,” I said, “why do you ask?” To this she replied, “I hear singing.” “What are they singing,” I asked. She replied, “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing.” Knowing well her appreciation of music, I then asked, “Is it good singing?” To this she replied, “Wonderful. It is like that which we used to hear at Ocean Grove.” She referred to the great chorus which we enjoyed there in the early days of our life together during the summers. Desiring to ascertain just how real this music was to her, I then asked her, “What is the accompaniment, organ or piano?” To this she replied, “Orchestra.” A little later she spoke again, asking, “Do you hear them singing now?” “No”, I said, “What are they singing now?” She replied, “They are singing, ‘Hallelujah! ‘Tis Done!” Then presently she began to sing along with those she said she heard, “Hallelujah! ‘Tis Done! I believe on the Son; I am saved by the blood of the Crucified One.” Then she began to cry, and I asked her, “Honey, why are you crying?” To this she replied, “Because it is so wonderful, and I am so happy.”
There are two poems that she had often heard me recite. Several times during those last weeks in the hospital she asked me to repeat them. She would say, “Recite again that verse about ‘stepping on shore’.” And I would recite the following:–
“Think of stepping on shore
And finding it Heaven!
Of taking hold of a hand
And finding it His hand!
Of breathing a new air
And finding it celestial air!
Of feeling invigoration
And finding it immortality!
Of passing from storm and tempest
To perfect calm!
Of waking and knowing
That I am Home.”
The other one that she loved and asked for again and again was that splendid poem by Dr. Maltby Babcock:–
“Why be afraid of death as though your life were breath!
Death but anoints your eyes with clay, O glad surprise!
Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the wheat?
Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies.
Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench,
Why not with happy shout run home when school is out?
The dear ones left behind! O foolish one and blind.
A day–and you will meet,–a night–and you will greet!
This is the end of Death, to breathe away a breathe
And to know the end of strife, and taste the endless life.”
In the providence of God the final illness came in the north in connection with a visit to our elder son’s home in Ohio, where we arrived on the evening of July 3rd, the evening when she was taken in our car with a severe coronary thrombosis. As early as the first week of July I had said to her, “Should you pass away here in the north, we shall bury in Wilmington, Dela. (the place of our ministry for nearly twenty-five years) and I shall take the service myself.” I could see that this pleased her. One day later, as we talked together about the funeral service, she said, “Dear, you will not talk about me in the service.” “No”, I replied, “I shall talk about your wonderful Saviour and your wonderful faith in Him.” I had already told her what a time I was having witnessing concerning the Lord to people as I spoke to them of her faith. Then it was that she said, “But it is nothing to be boasted of, for it is a gift from the Lord.”
How well do I realize that! How I thank God for MY faith, for it is the only thing that sustains and gives real victory in the midst of such experiences as are now mine. It is the victory of which the Apostle John wrote in I John 5:4, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even OUR faith.” When we remember that John was writing as a Christian to Christians, we understand that the faith of which he wrote here is the faith of the Christian. It is that faith that has as its ground and basis the one and only living and true God, who has revealed Himself in the Bible as the Triune God–Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Such is the faith which is the victory that overcomes this world. It is a faith in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and the Sovereign Ruler of it all. It is faith in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who being God became man that He might die on the cross for our sins according to the Scriptures. It is faith in God the Holy Ghost, our great Paraclete, who alone unites us to Christ and distinguishes us from the world, which is outside of Christ. This is the faith of which, in the familiar hymn, we sing–
“His banner over us is love,
Our sword the Word of God;
We tread the road the saints above
With shouts of triumph trod.
By faith, they like a whirl-wind’s breath,
Swept on o’er ev’ry field;
The faith by which they conquered death
Is still our shining shield.”
Harold S. Laird
Largo, Florida
Nov. 21, 1958.
[excerpted from The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate, 92.10 (December 1958): 117-119.]
The 1837 division of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. left Dr. Asa Hillyer on the side of the New School. He deplored the schism, but never let it affect his fraternal relations with those from whom he was ecclesiastically separated. He recommended mutual forbearance and charity, and enjoyed to the end of his life, which was now near at hand, the unabated good-will and warm personal esteem of prominent men on both sides of the Old School/New School division.
In his final days, one of Hillyer’s last public efforts was a sermon preached before the Synod of Newark, taking as his text the words of Abraham to Lot:
“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee?” (Genesis 13:8-9).
Rev. Hillyer urged that there was ample room in our vast country for the fullest activity and expansion of both Assemblies [Old School and New School], and, holding up the noble example of the Hebrew patriarch, he said–
“Let all who have interest in the throne of grace, and all who love the Redeemer and the Church which he purchased with His own blood, unite their prayers and their influence for the spread of this benevolent, this heavenly principle. Beloved brethren, (he added), permit me as your elder brother, as one who has borne the heat and burden of the day, and whose departure is at hand, affectionately to press these remarks upon the Synod now convened. We are indeed a little band. Separated from many whom we love, we occupy a small part of the vineyard of our common Lord. But let us not be discouraged. Let none of our efforts to do good be paralyzed by the circumstances into which we have been driven. Rather let us with increased zeal and diligence cultivate the field which we are called to occupy, while we are always ready to cooperate with our brethren in every part of the land in spreading the Gospel of the grace of God, and in saving a wretched world from ruin.”
Words to Live By:
From what I have seen of his story, I suspect that Rev. Hillyer did not personally hold to the errors that were said to define the New School wing of the division. His continued fraternal relations with Old School men offers some proof of that. He was, in his own words, more “driven by circumstances,” as many numbered among the New School were. It is a mark of good Christian maturity to hold your convictions firmly, yet still be able to work alongside other Christians who may not share your every conviction or who may have other affiliations. Such fellowship may certainly have its limits, but much can often be accomplished within those constraints. Notice that phrase in Hillyer’s words, above—the Gospel of the grace of God. Without that foundation, there can be no true fellowship. But where we share that common ground of the Gospel of the grace of God, there—and there only—do we have a basis for praying together and working together.
Recently a friend was inquiring about the history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod, which in 1965 merged with the original group known as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church [not the current ongoing denomination]. As explained below, this message was presented by the Rev. Harry Meiners at the occasion of the merger of these two denominations, though our post today is a shorter previous version that Rev. Meiners had prepared in 1961. Perhaps another day we will post the longer edition.
THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA, GENERAL SYNOD : A Brief Historical Sketch.
by the Rev. Harry Meiners [pictured at right]
presented by Rev. Harry H. Meiners Jr. at the Uniting Service of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America; General Synod on April 6, 1965 forming the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.
At this historic Uniting Service the Stated Clerk of each of the two uniting churches has been asked to present a history of his respective church, limiting himself to eight minutes. My colleague has twenty-nine years to cover. The official history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Reformation Principles Exhibited begins with Adam and Eve! I shall endeavor, however to confine myself to a sketch of the past three hundred years.
The Reformed Presbyterian Churches in America are the lineal descendants of the Reformation Church in Scotland, and therefore, date back to the year 1560 for their origin. The General Synod and the Synod of today (divided in 1833) can, without one link broken, claim that they stand upon the platform of the Reformed Church in Scotland in those days of the second Reformation during the years 1638-1649. Then the Solemn League and Covenant was entered into, and the National Covenant of 1580 renewed.
These well-know covenants gave rise to the name “Covenanters,” so famous in Scottish history. Their persecution, from 1680 to 1688, forms a bloody page in the history of that country. The Sanquhar Declaration, made June 22, 1680, by Rev. Richard Cameron and his Covenanter followers, contains some of the germs of our own American Declaration of Independence. The Covenanters, loyal to King Jesus, could not accept the Erastian (Anglican or Episcopal) terms of the Revolution Settlement of 1668 – a position subsequently endorsed by the formation of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. The Reformed Presbytery was re-constituted in Scotland in 1743 by Rev. John McMillan and Rev. Thomas Nairn. From the middle of the seventeenth century, there had been an emigration from the Reformed Presbyterian Churches in Britain and Ireland to the then American colonies or plantations. Many of these Covenanters had been actually banished by their persecutor, and many more were voluntary exiles for the Word of God and the testimony which they held. They came at first to the Carolinas, and then spread through
Tennessee and Kentucky. By way of Philadelphia they spread themselves over the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Later they came to New York and spread out through that state and on to northern and western localities. In 1752 Rev. John Cuthbertson arrived from Scotland and labored for twenty years among these scattered people. Most of them did not join other organized and existing churches. The Reformed Presbytery of America was constituted in 1774, and then re-organized in the city of Philadelphia in the spring of 1798. The first Synod was constituted in 1809 in Philadelphia; it became a delegated body in 1823. There was an unhappy division in 1833, upon the question of civil relations. The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America is the group that maintained that because the United States Constitution does not officially recognize Jesus Christ as Head of the nation, the Christian should not vote nor hold public office. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod does urge its members to vote and to hold public office. Today there are other differences between these two bodies — but there are cooperative relations between them and perhaps someday they may again join and work together.
The Theological Seminary of the General Synod was founded in 1807 in Philadelphia. Foreign Missions work was begun in India in 1836 and continues to this day. In northern India we have two mission stations and five congregations of national Indian Christians. Today the church also conducts mission work in Seoul. Korea (begun 1959) and Houston, Kentucky (begun 1907).
For a number of years the church grew smaller. There were congregations that left when there was a proposal to unite with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Others left when some wanted to use a musical instrument in public worship–those who opposed this departed. Others left when Synod voted to permit the use of hymns as well as Psalms in worship services.
Today we are growing again. There are now 23 congregations in the U.S., comprising three Presbyteries. There are 33 ordained ministers in the U.S., one in Korea, 7 in India. Total communicant membership is 2,500 in the U. S. and 180 in India. In India the Saharanpur Presbytery comprises five congregations. In America churches are located in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois. Kansas, and New Mexico. The church does not have its own college or seminary, but two of its ministers are teaching–Dr. Gordon H. Clark at Butler University and Dr. Charles F. Pfeiffer at Central Michigan University. The church employs a General Secretary, its only full-time servant of the denomination at large. All other denominational officers are pastors of local congregations or elders.
Young people’s conferences are held each summer by the Pittsburgh and Western Presbyteries and the Philadelphia Presbytery sends many of its youth to the Quarryville Bible Conference. All Presbyteries in the United States have Women’s Presbyterials.
The denomination publishes an official magazine, The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate, now in its 99th year of publication. It is published monthly October to May and bi-monthly June to September at $2.00 per year.
Union with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has been worked on for several years, voted on favorably in 1964, and will be consummated in April, 1965. Thus these two churches hope to have a stronger witness to Biblical orthodoxy of a Reformed and Presbyterian nature in our generation.
October, 1961
Revised February, 1965
Rev. Harry H. Meiners Jr.
General Secretary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod.
THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA, GENERAL SYNOD : A Brief Historical Sketch.
by the Rev. Harry Meiners [pictured at right]
presented by Rev. Harry H. Meiners Jr. at the Uniting Service of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America; General Synod on April 6, 1965 forming the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.
At this historic Uniting Service the Stated Clerk of each of the two uniting churches has been asked to present a history of his respective church, limiting himself to eight minutes. My colleague has twenty-nine years to cover. The official history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Reformation Principles Exhibited begins with Adam and Eve! I shall endeavor, however to confine myself to a sketch of the past three hundred years.
The Reformed Presbyterian Churches in America are the lineal descendants of the Reformation Church in Scotland, and therefore, date back to the year 1560 for their origin. The General Synod and the Synod of today (divided in 1833) can, without one link broken, claim that they stand upon the platform of the Reformed Church in Scotland in those days of the second Reformation during the years 1638-1649. Then the Solemn League and Covenant was entered into, and the National Covenant of 1580 renewed.
These well-know covenants gave rise to the name “Covenanters,” so famous in Scottish history. Their persecution, from 1680 to 1688, forms a bloody page in the history of that country. The Sanquhar Declaration, made June 22, 1680, by Rev. Richard Cameron and his Covenanter followers, contains some of the germs of our own American Declaration of Independence. The Covenanters, loyal to King Jesus, could not accept the Erastian (Anglican or Episcopal) terms of the Revolution Settlement of 1668 – a position subsequently endorsed by the formation of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. The Reformed Presbytery was re-constituted in Scotland in 1743 by Rev. John McMillan and Rev. Thomas Nairn. From the middle of the seventeenth century, there had been an emigration from the Reformed Presbyterian Churches in Britain and Ireland to the then American colonies or plantations. Many of these Covenanters had been actually banished by their persecutor, and many more were voluntary exiles for the Word of God and the testimony which they held. They came at first to the Carolinas, and then spread through
Tennessee and Kentucky. By way of Philadelphia they spread themselves over the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Later they came to New York and spread out through that state and on to northern and western localities. In 1752 Rev. John Cuthbertson arrived from Scotland and labored for twenty years among these scattered people. Most of them did not join other organized and existing churches. The Reformed Presbytery of America was constituted in 1774, and then re-organized in the city of Philadelphia in the spring of 1798. The first Synod was constituted in 1809 in Philadelphia; it became a delegated body in 1823. There was an unhappy division in 1833, upon the question of civil relations. The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America is the group that maintained that because the United States Constitution does not officially recognize Jesus Christ as Head of the nation, the Christian should not vote nor hold public office. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod does urge its members to vote and to hold public office. Today there are other differences between these two bodies — but there are cooperative relations between them and perhaps someday they may again join and work together.
The Theological Seminary of the General Synod was founded in 1807 in Philadelphia. Foreign Missions work was begun in India in 1836 and continues to this day. In northern India we have two mission stations and five congregations of national Indian Christians. Today the church also conducts mission work in Seoul. Korea (begun 1959) and Houston, Kentucky (begun 1907).
For a number of years the church grew smaller. There were congregations that left when there was a proposal to unite with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Others left when some wanted to use a musical instrument in public worship–those who opposed this departed. Others left when Synod voted to permit the use of hymns as well as Psalms in worship services.
Today we are growing again. There are now 23 congregations in the U.S., comprising three Presbyteries. There are 33 ordained ministers in the U.S., one in Korea, 7 in India. Total communicant membership is 2,500 in the U. S. and 180 in India. In India the Saharanpur Presbytery comprises five congregations. In America churches are located in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois. Kansas, and New Mexico. The church does not have its own college or seminary, but two of its ministers are teaching–Dr. Gordon H. Clark at Butler University and Dr. Charles F. Pfeiffer at Central Michigan University. The church employs a General Secretary, its only full-time servant of the denomination at large. All other denominational officers are pastors of local congregations or elders.
Young people’s conferences are held each summer by the Pittsburgh and Western Presbyteries and the Philadelphia Presbytery sends many of its youth to the Quarryville Bible Conference. All Presbyteries in the United States have Women’s Presbyterials.
The denomination publishes an official magazine, The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate, now in its 99th year of publication. It is published monthly October to May and bi-monthly June to September at $2.00 per year.
Union with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has been worked on for several years, voted on favorably in 1964, and will be consummated in April, 1965. Thus these two churches hope to have a stronger witness to Biblical orthodoxy of a Reformed and Presbyterian nature in our generation.
October, 1961
Revised February, 1965
Rev. Harry H. Meiners Jr.
General Secretary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod.