The Comfort of the Scriptures. A Devotional Meditation
by the Rev. David Freeman, Th.M.

[excerpted from Christianity Today, 3.9 (September 1933): 14-15.]

” … I count not myself to have apprehended
. … ” “I press toward the mark.
…. . “-Philippians 3 :13, 14.

How true these words are to the experience of every child of God. They strike a responsive chord in our hearts, especially at the beginning of a new year. These words were uttered after years of devotion to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ and after much labor for the Kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul filled his years with suffering and noble effort for his Lord. He did not live merely to pass the time away as do those who live only to spend their years aimlessly and hopelessly.

O, shame upon us if we have lived merely to pass the time! Christ did not live that way. When He came to the end of His course He said, “I have finished the work servant Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.”

But the past with all its devotion and labor is nothing for us to glory in. A Christian can only say after a review of the things that are behind, “I count not myself to have apprehended.” Over the written chapters of our lives we place the word “FAILURE” because it is all so different from, and comes so far short of what God has required of us. In our prayer at the close of this year there should be this confession, “O God we have sinned and come short of thy glory.”

That is the way Paul felt about it. But did Paul need to feel that way in view of his singular devotion to Christ? Yes. The devoutest saint always feels that way because he measures himself with the rule of God’s which thou gavest me to do.” And His true righteousness. Any want of conformity to that is sin and for sin, we stand before God in penitence.

Forgive Lord! How miserably we have failed!

With such a confession upon our lips our souls grasp the Saviour. In the acknowledgement of our unworthiness lies our hope in Christ. The prize is ours because our need of Him is so great. He will give Himself in all His mercy and love us, even as He did to those who pressed toward Him in their infirmities, when He trod among men. We “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Such a going after Christ is not something produced by any form of natural exertion. It is of Christ Himself who worketh in us, “both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

For all the days to come our highest desire is to rest and abide in Christ. This will show itself by our walking before the Lord in holiness.

Christ will accept a resolve of faith like that and bring to ultimate victory the issues of such a life.

“Lord, Thy mercy still entreating,
We with shame our sins would own,
From henceforth, the time redeeming,
May we live to Thee alone.”

How One Church Came To Be

In August of 1986 a group of families began meeting together in a home; these families were concerned about doctrinal issues in their denomination and in their particular church. They were particularly concerned about the move away from the Bible as the standard for faith and practice. Many churches and individuals known by these families had left their denomination for the Presbyterian Church in America(PCA), which had been formed in 1973 due in part to doctrinal concerns within increasingly liberal presbyterian denominations. At their particular church, a move to the PCA had been considered but was voted against by a narrow margin. These families wanted to start a church that was committed to the authority and infallibility of Scripture, to the Reformed faith and confessions, to missions, and to taking a stand against abortion.

In the Spring of 1987 a Steering Committee was formed and the group became a Mission of North Georgia Presbytery, PCA. The first eight members were received on August 23, 1987. Eight more members were added on December 12, 1987. Initially various men affiliated with Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship (PEF) provided preaching for the mission church. In November 1987 the meeting place was moved to the McDonough Women’s Club in downtown McDonough.

On September 18, 1988 the church voted to become incorporated and to borrow funds to purchase property at the intersection of White Drive and Highway 155 in Stockbridge. The church closed on the property on December 16, 1988. The Rev. Donald J. Musin became the first pastor of The Rock Presbyterian Church in May, 1989. He served as a part-time pastor. Also in 1989 one of the houses on the property was renovated to become the sanctuary.

In November 1989, the congregation moved to the new church building and became a particular church with approximately 35 members. The mission of the church was “to provide and serve the community with a friendly, conservative, evangelical, Bible-centered, Reformed church.”

The founding goals of The Rock were:

1. To be a church where the Bible is preached and taught, and where believers can fellowship, worship, and be built up in the faith.
2. To care for one another, as Christ cared for his church; attempting to integrate each with his gifts and needs to the body, leaving none out.
3. To be fervent in faith that believes everything in Holy Scripture; fervent in prayer, fervent in holiness of life and thought, and fervent in doing all things for the glory of God.
4. To have an outreach ministry to the unsaved, unchurched, sick, shut-in, handicapped, elderly and youth.
5. To encourage the reading, studying and memorizing of God’s Word, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms for the gathering and perfecting of the saints.
6. To be involved in missions:
7. To give 10% of all offerings to the Mission to the World.
8. To increase to 50% of offerings for all missions.
9. To hold an annual missions conference.
10. To help plant other PCA churches in nearby areas.

In July 1990 the church completed the land purchase and now owned 8.5 acres and the two houses which sat on the property. Remodeling began on the second house for use as a pastor’s office and Sunday School rooms and was completed about March 1991. In the Fall of 1992, Rev. Musin accepted a position as President of the Atlanta School of Biblical Studies. After a pastoral search process of almost one year, The Rock called Rev. Mark Rowden as the first full time pastor of the church in October 1993. From 1994 until 2001, the church continued to meet in the renovated houses. The church became debt free in 1996.

In 2001 the Session approved the building of a new sanctuary. After a year of planning with architects and builders, the church broke ground on its new building in April 2002. By early 2003 the new sanctuary was complete and the church held its building dedication service on January 26, 2003. Also in 2003, the church hired its first music minister, Mr. Terry Himebook, who significantly expanded the music ministry of The Rock. During the summer of 2005 the Session decided to form a vision and strategic planning committee to develop new vision and purpose statements for the church and a plan for implementation over the next five years.

Rev. Mark Rowden served as pastor of The Rock from 1993-2005. In 2006, Grace Community Church, a PCA church in McDonough, GA considered a motion to join The Rock. In May, 2006, the Vision Committee presented the vision, mission, and purpose statements, which were approved and adopted by the Session and the Congregation. In the summer of 2006, Grace Community Church decided to split, with approximately half the members of the church joining The Rock in August, 2006. That joining included some members who were originally members of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, an historic Presbyterian church originating in Atlanta whose heritage and history is now joined with The Rock.

In 2007, the church called Rev. Chad Bailey as its pastor.  Also in 2007, the church completed its vision planning process by approving a strategic plan to guide the church in fulfilling its mission and achieving its vision.

Since 1989 The Rock has stood for Biblical, reformed doctrine and held firmly to the authority and infallibility of Scripture and the truths of the Reformed faith. As we continue our life and ministry together, we hope and pray that we will continue to fulfill the vision of our founders, serving our community with a friendly, evangelical, Bible-centered, Reformed church, even as we seek to:

Magnify the Lord our God
Mature together in Christ
Minister to others in His name
Make Him known at home and abroad
So that in all things Christ might be preeminent.

May it be so, and to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

From the History page of The Rock Presbyterian Church, Stockbridge, Georgia.

Our post today is from a publication celebrating the centennial anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio on December 11, 1899. On that occasion, one of the addresses was brought by the Rev. J. Ross Stevenson. Alert readers will recognize that name as the man who followed Francis L. Patton as president of Princeton Theological Seminary and who, since he was at the helm there from 1914-1936, can be seen as presiding over the early days of the Seminary’s theological decline. Yet I find no problem with what Rev. Stevenson has to say in this address below. His actions and beliefs in later years will have to be a study for another time.

PRESBYTERIANISM AND REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
by The Rev. Prof. J. Ross Stevenson, D.D.

[https://archive.org/details/centenarysouveni00dayt/page/n17/mode/2up]

“Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalm 85:6).

This prayer of the psalmist has repeatedly been the supplication of God’s people down through the ages, and is to-day ascending up on high from many an earnest heart. It looks backward and forward, and, in the light of past experience, contemplates a quickening of the Lord’s followers as something greatly to be desired. The history of any church, the history of the whole kingdom of redemption, bears witness to the place and power of revivals of religion as the means appointed of God to gather his people out from the world, build them up in grace, and equip them for his service. Whatever prejudice there may be against such spiritual awakenings, no matter what evils may be discerned at times in connection with seasons of special religious interest, however much it may be contended that the growth of the church should be steady and constant, without dependence upon extraordinary times of refreshing, the fact remains, which cannot be questioned, that revivals have marked God’s dealings with his people down through all their history.

Just as there have been times of spiritual declension, when the life of the church has fallen to the lowest ebb, when her pulse-beat could scarcely be felt, and she has lain prostrate, helpless, inactive, so there have been seasons of special interest and growth, when the quickening life of God has pulsated through the heart of the church, and she has been stirred to vitalized activity; when the tone and standard of piety have been elevated among the followers of Christ, and the true light of the Shekinah has hovered around them, and inquiring souls have flown as a cloud, and have taken refuge in the wounds of Christ. In the time of the apostles we read of churches which left their first love, which became lukewarm in the service of the Master, churches in which there were only a few who had not defiled their garments so that the God of Israel might well say of them, as of his ancient church, “My people are bent to backsliding from me”; while, on the other hand, we behold the more pleasing picture of Pentecost with its extensive effusion of the Holy Spirit, or of that work in Ephesus, when mightily grew the word and prevailed so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord.

However much we may deplore the fact, the career of the church has not been a regular and constant advance. Her course in the world has been compared to a ship at sea, becalmed at times, then tossed about on boisterous waves, driven back it may be by unfriendly gales, and then borne forward by favorable tides and propitious winds, so that in the main there has been a marked progress. Not only have the periods of largest growth and greatest efficiency been revival seasons, as we call them, but as another has truthfully said, “The history of redemption has been a continuous record of spiritual declensions, succeeded and overcome by great and wonderful spiritual revivals.”

In such awakenings, Presbyterianism has taken a leading part. Some may challenge this assertion under the impression that the Calvinistic preacher is coldly intellectual and afraid of emotional outplay; that to his mind a sigh, a tear, a contrition has not half the value of the conviction that God hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. He is supposed to be rendering a literal obedience to the advice of the archbishop in Robert Elsmere, who in the light of all his experience had only this counsel to give to a bishop, “Place before your eyes two precepts and only two : One is, Preach the gospel; and the other is, Put down enthusiasm.” It must be admitted that in connection with many of the great historic revivals there has been a contagious spasmodic excitement, not grounded in intelligent conviction, which Presbyterians have deplored, and to which they are much opposed to-day. Such excitement often attended the preaching of such Puritan divines as Jonathan Edwards, the Tennents, George ‘ Whitefield, to say nothing of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers of the West. But I am sure all of us are agreed that there is a proper enthusiasm which the faithful preaching of the gospel is sure to arouse. It did so in the time of the apostles when conscience-stricken hearers were constrained to cry out, What shall we do? And that enthusiasm which is generated and maintained by the truth of God, is congenial to Presbyterianism and our Church has ever sought to foster it.

This is just what might be expected, when you consider that for which the Presbyterian Church stands. We do not seek to exalt a system of doctrine, or a form of government, or a directory of worship as an end in itself. We recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as the only head of the church, and in our standards we seek to define the oracles, the ordinances and the ministry which he hath given for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world. In our beliefs, in our fundamental principles and aims, we endeavor to exalt the religion of Jesus Christ, going back to the Scriptures as our rule of faith and obedience, placing great emphasis on the evangelical principle of the Reformers, that the Spirit of God maketh the reading and the preaching of his holy Word an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners, driving them out of themselves unto Christ, conforming them to his image and building them up in grace.

True Presbyterianism stands for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and proclaims with no uncertain sound those very truths of sin and grace which God has revealed and which he always blesses in large spiritual awakenings. We would not contend that our Church has always been true to her trust and her mission, nor that the ministers of our denomination have always with the power of the Spirit faithfully declared the whole counsel of God to sinful men; nor would we depreciate in the least the great and noble work for God which our sister churches have accomplished and are accomplishing. Yet it is a simple fact of history that Presbyterianism has the strongest affinities with genuine revivals of religion, and has been wonderfully used of God in promoting them.

In illustration of this, let me remind you first of all, that the Presbyterian Church is the direct fruitage of that great revival of religion which swept over Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and which we commonly call the Reformation. No matter what emphasis we may put upon the intellectual, the ecclesiastical, the social, the political significance of that momentous movement, we must not ignore its preeminently religious intent and power. Its leaders were men of God, who had passed through a deep religious experience. Burdened with a sense of sin, they had sought relief in mediaeval Catholicism, and had sought in vain. Turning in revolt from the errors and corruptions of a degenerate church, their attention was called to the plain teachings of God’s Word, to the simple gospel of Christ, and they found light and peace and comfort in those saving truths which a formal and worldly church had lost sight of. And when they proclaimed the biblical doctrine of sin and salvation by grace, it went flaming through the heretical, sacerdotal, and ceremonial rubbish which had accumulated through the centuries, and set all Europe on fire. Luther, the hero of the Reformation, by his sermons as by his theses sought to recall the people from their backsliding and bring them into fellowship with the Father through the justifying merits of Jesus Christ. Zwingli, from the old cathedral pulpit in Zurich, preached Christ and him crucified, and made the moral desert of that city to blossom as the rose. Knox, in Scotland, Crammer and Latimer, in England, sought to revive the church by reaffirming the great evangelical principles declared by Christ and his apostles. And truly the Spirit of God was at work, convincing of sin, glorifying Christ, transforming human lives, and nourishing them with the soul-satisfying truth of God.

[To read the rest of this address by J. Ross Stevenson, click here.

The Second U.S. House Chaplain was a Presbyterian

As a matter of fact, the first three chaplains to the United States House of Representatives were all Presbyterian, with the Rev. Samuel Blair, Jr. being number two.

Samuel was born at Faggs Manor, Cochranville, Pennsylvania.  Immediately our readers should recognize the name of Samuel Blair as being related to the New Side pastor and evangelist of that famous church in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Now called Manor Presbyterians, its history goes back to 1730.  It is now a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. But Samuel Blair Sr. was one of the leaders of the First Great Awakening in the colonies.  This is his son.

Attending the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), Samuel Blair Jr. graduated with honor at age nineteen.  Staying in the town of Princeton, he tutored for several years.  licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle in 1764, he was called to Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts in 1766.

In one of those “hard providences” of history, on his way up to Boston, he suffered a shipwreck, being actually cast into the Atlantic Ocean. His lost all of his clothes in that tragedy and all of his sermon manuscripts. This incident greatly depressed him and brought some major health problems to him.

He stayed on as one of the two pastors of Old South until 1769, when due to ill-health, he resigned and moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he planned to devote his remaining years to study. But God wasn’t through with him yet in active service. On December 10, 1790, he was appointed as the second Presbyterian chaplain to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.  He would stay in that post for two years.

What a fitting close of ministry for a theologian, preacher of the Word, evangelist, and pastor.

Words to live by:  God always gives sufficient grace to those who need it in His work.  We may  have great weakness, but He is ever strong.  We may feel utterly inadequate, but He is all-sufficient.  Believer, trust in His strength always and then push out into His kingdom.  He will provide what you need for your effective ministry to the saints of God, and to say nothing for those who are in need of saving grace.

‘Though He slay me, as He did my children, I will trust in Him.’

The biographies of faithful pastors make for some of the most rewarding reading. One example would be Samuel Brown Wylie’s Memoir of the Rev. Alexander McLeod [1774-1833], a beloved pastor who is widely considered the patriarch of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Another account of Rev. McLeod’s life and ministry is found in William B. Sprague’s volume on the Annals of the Reformed Presbyterian Pulpit. In this later account, offered by the Rev. Gilbert McMaster, we have a valuable portion on dealing with the death of a child.

We join Rev. McMaster’s account here:—

Dr. McLeod sensibly felt the ills of life, but he evinced under them the most meek and quiet spirit. As an illustration of this, I may be allowed to give the following extracts from a letter dated December 9, 1815, shortly after being bereaved of two amiable and beloved children by scarlet fever:—

” Your favour reached me at a time in which private grief overcame the force of public interests. On Tuesday morning, my fine daughter breathed her last. She now lies beside her younger sister, where not the fever nor the storm shall disturb them. Blow upon blow falls upon my offending head and my deceitful heart. You know how long I have desired a release from this body of death and world of trials; but my God—for yet I shall call Him mine—refuses my wishes and my prayers, and beats me on the sorest part, by slaying my beloved babes, one by one, before my eyes. I have seen in the tortures of my infants the hatred of the Divinity against sin; and my works and my prayers,, my knowledge and my experience, start up before my alarmed conscience, as a thing in which I cannot hope. Decked in their impurity and imperfection, it is I who have sinned more than these afflicted children who are torn from my bleeding heart; and both the experience and the labour of my life are a burden instead of a pillar on which my soul can rest. Oh, my brother, how inestimable is that word of truth upon which the faith of God’s elect may and doth rest! To that word I refer my all. It is my only comfort, and, resting upon the offer of the gift of God, I say,—’ Though He slay me, as He did my children, I will trust in Him.’ Excuse these effusions of a wounded spirit. You know the feelings of a father.”

Such was the Rev. Dr. Alexander McLeod. Yet he was but a man—great and good indeed, but still a man. The sun has his spots, and my illustrious friend had his imperfections. They were, however, only such as are incident to our diseased nature in its present state;—the occasional manifestation of the remains, in the saint, of ” the old man,”—” the body of sin and death,” where the graces and virtues that constitute the Christian character were greatly predominant and confessed of all.