This Day in Presbyterian History

The Beautiful Unity of Our Lives, Both Here and To Come.

The Rev. John Hall, D.D. [1806-1894], died at his residence, 224 West State street, Trenton, N. J., on the morning of Thursday, May 10th, 1894. He had for 53 years served first as pastor and in retirement as pastor emeritus of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, New Jersey. His funeral took place on Saturday, May 12th. At the house a short service was conducted at 10:30 A. M. by the Rev. John Dixon, D.D., after which the remains were taken to the First Presbyterian Church, where the funeral service was held. The church was appropriately draped in mourning. The body as it was carried into the church was preceded by the Rev. John Dixon, D.D., the Rev. Frank B. Everitt, the Rev. S. M. Studdiford, D.D., the Rev. Walter A. Brooks, D.D., the Rev. A. Gosman, D.D., and the elders, deacons and trustees of the church.

There, during the funeral service, Dr. John Hall [1829-1896], of New York City, made the following address :

Let us not forget the great purpose of a service like this; it is first of all for the acknowledgment of God, of His goodness, His wisdom and His grace. It is secondly, for the comfort of those who .shed the tears of natural affection because of the bereavement. And thirdly, it is for the edification of those who are gathered together here in sympathy with them in their sorrow, and in tender and loving memory of God’s servant who has been taken home to his heavenly rest. These things you will keep in mind, I trust, as you listen to the few sentences that it is my duty now to speak to you ; and I think you will be prepared to make some degree of allowance for the tender feeling that I cannot keep from my own mind as I think of the removal of him for whom I had so much affection and so much veneration. 

Dear friends, we frequently speak of the journey of life; and the phrase is very suggestive. The journey is sometimes long. It was so in this case, extending over eighty-seven years ; it is sometimes brief. There are frequently difficulties on the way ; part of the road is sometimes uphill ; there are frequently precipices, and there are sometimes perils; but the Christian has this advantage : he has the Lord for his leader, and his steps are directed, one by one, by that good leader; and the end is the eternal home, and into that home God has taken His servant. The journey is completed. Let the lesson be impressed upon your heart and mine that if we want to make this journey of life happily and successfully we must take this same Leader for our Guide, even the Lord Jesus. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us ; looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Life is sometimes spoken of as a battle, and the word is justified. There are many enemies, including the world, the flesh and the devil but thanks be to God, Christians are under a Leader; a competent leader. Christ is our leader in the battle of life. The armor of God is provided for us; we have to put it on, and to fight the good fight of faith, and the day will come when we shall say also, “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” His servant had gained this victory ; the fear of death had been put away; faith conquered. He was taught to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and when the end comes, when the battle is over, it is to take one’s place in the company from which there comes up the song, “Thou has redeemed us and made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign forever and forever.” 

There is another aspect, brethren, in which life may be looked at by us; it is the period of education for the eternal world into which we are going. The lessons are sometimes hard ; but the Christian has a blessed teacher. “Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” That is the Son of God speaking to us. Learn of Him, and when we come and sit at His feet we are put in the way of getting the training that we need for the life that is everlasting. When we are being educated in the world here for this life there are appropriate books put into our hands, and there are books provided for us, dear friends, as we think of the life that is to come. There is the great volume of Providence. We study the work that God does, and we see His attributes.

There is the great volume of Creation ; ” the heavens declare His glory, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” There is this work before me—the volume of revelation ; and as we study it we see Creation and Providence in a new and clear light ; and as we believe it, and take its truths to our hearts, the spirit of consecration is wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost, and we are prepared tor the joy and for the employments of that eternal world into which God is gathering His people.

Has it ever occurred to you what a beautiful unity is given to the life here, and the life beyond it, by being in the school of the Lord Jesus Christ? A text was read to you that suggested the idea “whether we live we live unto the Lord, or whether we die we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” Here He is training us, teaching us, educating us, sanctifying us as His children ; putting into our hearts the spirit of adoption; there we shall have the inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Need I tell you, dear friends, that these are the sources of true comfort and consolation when God takes from us those to whom we look with tenderness and gratitude and affection? I know how many of you there are here that have just these feelings toward our brother, whose course on the earth has closed. It is no wonder that you do so regard him ; his life from the beginning of it has been a process of happy and effective training; and it has been a blessing to many. He has served his generation by the will of God.

Words to Live By:
To say it again, “Has it ever occurred to you what a beautiful unity is given to the life here, and the life beyond it, by being in the school of the Lord Jesus Christ?” Our Savior watches over us, often in ways we will never know, at least in this life. Labor not to hinder that glorious work, as He trains, teaches, educates and sanctifies us as His children.

The full text of the Memorial for Rev. John Hall may be read here: https://archive.org/details/memorialrevjohnh00dixo/page/n8

Additionally, a number of works by the Rev. Hall can be found online at The Log College Press. These include:

Milton’s Familiar Letters (1829)

The Life of Rev. Henry Martyn (1831)

The Chief End of Man: An Exposition of the First Answer of the Shorter Catechism (1841)

The Scriptures the Only Rule of Faith: An Exposition of the Second Answer of the Shorter Catechism (1844)

Minor Characters of the Bible (1847)

The Sower and the Seed (1856)

The Examples of the Revolution (1859)

History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. From the First Settlement of the Town (1859)

Forty Years’ Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D.D. (1860, 1870)

Pastors according to God’s heart

What a worthy aim for the under shepherds of the  visible church of God!  The phrase is biblical, being taken from Jeremiah 3:15. It says “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.” (NASB)  And the text was the basis for the sermon preached by the Rev James Rogers, on this day, May 9, 1803, in constituting the organization of the Associated Reformed Synod of the Carolinas, meeting at the Old Brick Church, Fairfield County, South Carolina. 

Beginnings are historic. This author was one of five Presbyterian ministers who organized the Siouxlands Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America back in 1981. Those first meetings of this lower court were exciting to attend, as we planned the outreach of the witness into the broad Midwest part of our country. And this earlier beginning was, judging from the descriptions of the Rev. Robert Latham in the  “History of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South,” pp.  295 – 297. Listen to some of his words from that volume:

“Of these fathers of the Associate Reformed Synod of the Carolinas (now Associate Reformed Synod of the South), it may be safely said that they were men mighty in the Scriptures.  They all were men of more than ordinary natural abilities, and of rare intellectual and theological attainments in their day. … They were all instructive preachers.  They were pastors who fed the people of God ‘with knowledge and understanding.’” (p. 296)

Further,

“they (these pastors, seven in number) were bound together by the strongest possible ties.  In each other’s temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare they were deeply interested.  They had the same great and good cause—the salvation of immortal souls—at heart.  They had no private ends to accomplish; no individual purposes to effect.  Of them it may be truthfully said, ‘They took up their cross and followed Jesus.’  In all sincerely they endeavored to live at peace with each other and with all men. By the blessing of God, they lived in perfect harmony with each other. . . . They were devoted friends.” (p. 297)

Their names would be completely unknown by our readers today, but to simply list their names might be noteworthy.  They were James Rogers, William Blackstock, John Hemphill, James McKnight, Alexander Porter, James McGill and Robert Irwin.  Oh yes, they had ruling  elders join them in this regional church, who were named Charles Montgomery, Alexander Steward, Andrew McQuiston, Henry Hunter, Arthur Morrow, and Duke Bell.

All these are now dead, long dead. But by their self-sacrificing labors and godly example, they started the ministry in the South on this day, May 9, 1803.

Words to Live By: 
To dwell together in unity for the purpose of the gospel proclamation is a heartfelt prayer in many a church and denomination today.  But is it an accomplished fact in the days  in which we live? Sadly, we must confess that this is not the case. We need to return to the words of the prophet, in praying for shepherds  after God’s own heart, who will be more concerned in feeding the sheep of the pasture on knowledge and  understanding.  What a worthy prayer before the teaching elders of our readership would pray before stepping behind the sacred desk.  What a worthy prayer of the people in the pew to pray for their pastors as they stand behind the pulpit on the Lord’s Day. Lord, give us such pastors and people today in our churches of our land.

The folllowing brief account of the seventy-sixth annual commencement exercises of Princeton Theological Seminary, in 1888, turns more to a most interesting set of comments about the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, and is useful in that light alone for the picture it provides of the great Professor.

A Princeton Letter

The seventy-sixth commencement exercises of Princeton Theological Seminary were held on Tuesday, May the 8th [1888]. Princeton has prospered this year. Her catalogue records an attendance of 153 students. Some thirty-seven were in the graduating class. Of these, seven are going to the foreign field. Thirty-four are supplied with work, and the rest are not idle from lack of opportunity. The junior class was exceptionally large, containing 58 members.

The venerable Dr. Moffatt has retired after twenty-seven year’s connection with the seminary, and has been elected professor emeritus of history. Rev. Geo. T. Purves, of Pittsburgh, has been elected as his successor.

The college has taken Dr. Francis L. Patton from us to succeed Dr. McCosh. The seminary has lost a David in Dr. Patton, but gained a Solomon in Dr. Warfield, a man of war exchanged for a man of wisdom.

We are proud of Dr. Warfield. He entered upon a most difficult task when he undertook to fill the chair of Polemic and Didactic Theology after Dr. Archibald A. Hodge. He has succeeded. Not in Dr. Hodge’s way, but in his own way. The two men cannot be compared. They were cast in different molds. Their methods are not the same. Our ears are no longer tickled with so many apt illustrations and striking epigrams, but we now receive such clear, clean-cut definition, and patient repetition, that “though fools” we cannot err therein. He is quick in apprehending a question, and never non-plussed, “ready always to give an answer to every man.”

Dr. Warfield is a thorough scholar, but he is more than a scholar, he is a gentleman. This year the seminary faculty has taken great pains to impress upon the students that a Presbyterian minister should be a gentleman. Our new professor is an ever present example. However great may be the provocation, he ever exhibits the utmost gentleness.

“His heart is as soft as a woman’s. To a worm he would give the path.” Yet with all his delicacy of feeling are coupled the sterling qualities of a true manhood, which command the highest respect and reverence.

When the balmy days of Spring came, Dr. Warfield could often be seen walking with his wife about their little garden.

Now this is a small matter; we often see people walking in their garden and think nothing of it. But such a display of domestic feeling is so unusual in Princeton that the eye of the seminary student cannot but see, and his heart cannot but be affected at the sight.

One cannot but feel that the man who walketh in gardens is near to Him “that dwelleth in gardens.”

It was my intention to say something about the undercurrents of thought and of feeling among the students themselves, but my space being limited I shall reserve that for a future letter.

Wm. E. Bryce
May 18, 1888.
The Church at Work, 2.33 (24 May 1888): 4.

A Long and Faithful Ministry

John Rodgers was born in Boston on the 5th of August, 1727. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Rodgers, who had emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland just six years prior. When John was little more than a year old, he and his parents relocated to Philadelphia.

While still a child, he gave evidence of a deep love of knowledge and even a care and thoughtfulness about his eternal soul. It was under the preaching of Whitefield that he was first solidly impressed with the truths and duties of the Christian faith. On one occasion, when Whitefield was preaching in the evening, near the Court House on Market Street, young John was standing near him, holding a lantern to assist Whitefield. But Rodgers became so impressed with the truth to which he was listening that, for a moment, he forgot himself and dropped the lantern, breaking it in pieces. Years later, when Rodgers was settled in his first pastorate, Dr. Whitefield came to visit his house, and Rev. Rodgers related the incident to him, asking if he remembered it. “Oh yes,” replied Whitefield, “I remember it well; and have often thought I would give almost any thing in my power to know who that little boy was, and what had become of him.” Rev. Rodgers replied with a smile,—”I am that little boy.” Whitefield burst into tears, and remarked that he was the fourteenth person then in the ministry, whom he had discovered in the course of that visit to America, of whose hopeful conversion he had been the instrument.

When William Buell Sprague asked the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller for his recollections of Rev. Rodgers, this was Miller’s reply:

Rev. dear Brother: When you request me to prepare for your forthcoming biographical work some brief memorials of the late venerable Dr. Rodgers of New York, I feel as if I were called not to the performance of a task, but to the enjoyment of a privilege. If there be a man living who is entitled to speak of that eminent servant of Christ, I am that man. Having been long and intimately acquainted with him; having served with him twenty years as a son in the Gospel ministry; and having enjoyed peculiar opportunities of contemplating every phase of his character, personal and official; so my ardent attachment and deep veneration of his memory make it delightful to record what I knew with so much distinctness, and remember with so much interest.

“My acquaintance with Dr. Rodgers began in 1792, when he was more than sixty years of age, and when I was a youthful and inexperienced candidate for the ministry. He recognized in me the son of an old clerical friend, and from that hour till the day of his death treated me with a fidelity and kindness truly paternal. And when, next year, I became his colleague, he uniformly continued to exercise toward me that parental indulgence and guardianship which became his inherited friendship, as well as his Christian and ecclesiastical character.

“Without attempting in this connection to enter into the details of his history, which I have already done at large in my “Memoir” of this beloved man, I shall content myself with recounting in a brief manner those features of his character which I regard as worthy of special commemoration, and which rendered him so conspicuous among the pastors of his day.

“One of the great charms of Dr. Rodgers’ character was the fervour and uniformity of his piety. It not only appears conspicuous in the pulpit, dictating his choice of subjects, his mode of treating them, and his affectionate earnestness of manner; but it attended him wherever he went, and manifested itself in whatever he did. In the house of mourning it shone with distinguished lustre. Nor was this all. He probably never was known to enter a human dwelling for the purpose of paying an ordinary visit, without saying something before he left it to recommend the Saviour and his service. Seldom did he sit down at the convivial table, without dropping at least a few sentences adapted to promote the spiritual benefit of those around him…

“Another quality in Dr. Rodgers which, next to his piety, contributed to his high reputation, was prudence, or practical wisdom. Few men were more wary than he in foreseeing circumstances likely to produce embarrassment or difficulty, and in avoiding them…

“He was remarkable also for the uniform, persevering and indefatigable character of his ministerial labours. In preaching, in catechising, in attending on the sick and dying, in all the arduous labours of discipline and government, and in visiting from house to house, he went on with unceasing constancy, year after year, from the beginning to the end of his ministry…

“The character of Dr. Rodgers’ preaching was another of the leading elements of his popularity and usefulness. The two qualities most remarkable in his preaching were piety and animation. His sermons were always rich in evangelical truth; and they were generally delivered with solemnity and earnestness which indicated a deep impression on his own heart of the importance of what he uttered…

“Dr. Rodgers was eminently a disinterested man. Few men have ever been more free from private and selfish aims in acting their part in the affairs of the Church, than he…

Dr. Rodgers was further distinguished by a punctual attendance on the judicatories of the Church. He made it a point never to be absent from the meetings of his brethren, unless sickness or some other equally imperious dispensation of Providence rendered his attendance impossible. And when present in the several ecclesiastical courts, he gave his serious and undivided attention to the business which came before them, and was always ready to take his full share, and more than his share, of the labour connected with that business…”

Dr. Samuel Miller continued a bit further with his recollections, but we will leave him there. If you would like to read Miller’s Memoir of Dr. Rodgers, it can be conveniently found on the Web, here. Dr. Rodgers lived a long life, and was blessed to minister to the Lord’s people for some sixty three years. He died on May 7th, 1811.

Words to Live By:
Piety, the depth and consistency of holiness in a Christian’s life, is something particularly requisite in the life of a pastor. Dr. Rodgers was noted, not simply for his piety, but for how that character worked itself out in so many facets of his life. Now more than ever, before a watching world, Christians must be careful to live out to the full the Christian life, and pastors must be leaders in this witness.

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”—James 1:22-25, KVJ.

Added Note: The following seven works by Dr. Rodgers can be viewed at the Log College Press web site: https://www.logcollegepress.com/authors-or#/john-rodgers-17271811-1/  —

The Divine Goodness Displayed in the American Revolution (1784)

A Draught of the Form of the Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1787)

The Nature and Advantages of the Fear of the Lord (1791)

A Caution Against Declension in the Ways of Practical Piety (1791)

The Value of the Soul (1791)

The Danger of Losing the Soul (1791)

The Faithful Servant Rewarded (1795)

Remembering a Great Educator

Why, or how, would a teacher so impress himself upon his students as to be so fondly remembered even decades later? Our post today hints at some of the clues:

Catching up on our calendar, it was just yesterday, May 5th, in 1885 that a Memorial Tablet was unveiled in commemoration of the life and ministry of the Rev. John Holt Rice, D.D. Addresses at the unveiling and dedication of the plaque were delivered in the chapel of the Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, by the Rev. Benjamin Mosby Smith, D.D. and by the Rev. Theodorick Pryor, D.D.

“The day was auspicious and at the appointed hour a large and deeply-interested audience had assembled to attend upon the exercises of the occasion. . . After prayer by the Rev. Dr. j.J. Bullock, and a hymn of praise, the Rev. Dr. Smith withdrew the curtain that veiled the mural tablet, and exposed to the view of the expectant audience the chaste memorial to Rev. Dr. Rice. Professor Smith then gave a sketch of the life of Dr. Rice—specially of his earlier years and of his connection with the Seminary.”

Neither man spoke for very long on this occasion. As mentioned above, Rev. Benjamin Smith gave a more biographical address, while Dr. Pryor spoke on the “Character and Services” of Rev. Rice, “spoken with reverence and fervor.” After prayer by the Rev. Dr. William Brown, the memorable services were closed with the benediction, pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Bullock, and the audience slowly dispersed.”

Early on in Dr. Pryor’s remarks, he provides some of the fullest answer to our opening question:

“My best opportunity for becoming thoroughly acquainted with Dr. Rice was enjoyed when, as a student of the Seminary, I became a member of his family. His table talk and familiar conversations were full of instruction. Though sick and largely confined to his chamber, he still carried on the instructions of his classes. His sofa was literally covered with books. I remember finding him on one occasion sitting on that sofa reading Calvin’s Institutes in the original. He remarked, “Calvin wrote as pure Latin as Cicero.”

“His moral character was without blemish or imputation; his heart was one of large and tender benevolence. He was free from jealousy and envy. I cannot recall a single remark in disparagement of any of his brethren. The text of the sermon he preached as Moderator of the Assembly,—“Speaking the truth in love,”—is a just index of his character. He was ever firm in maintenance of the truth, but he spoke it in love.
 
“In my opinion, a characteristic feature of his mental constitution was the faculty of intense and persistent application, and a power of concentration of thought almost to the burning point. Dr. Rice deemed any matter worthy of attention, worthy of his whole attention; therefore, in conversation or debate, there was a steadfastness of gaze, as though he would look the man through and through. He shrunk from no difficulty of investigation. I heard him remark that no man would ever accomplish much who was not willing to grapple with the most difficult problem for the sake of the pleasure arising from its solution.

Words to Live By:
From all of the above, we would conclude that it is not so much what a teacher or pastor might teach, though that is certainly important, but the memories we take away have more to do with the character of the teacher. In short, we can think of the godly character of a pastor or seminary professor as simply the proof and reality of what they are teaching—has the truth of the Scriptures so suffused their life that it is exemplified in all that they say and do?

And how are we doing in our own lives? Is the Gospel making inroads? Are we living out the truths of Scripture before the watching world? Attention to these matters is the greatest compliment we can pay to our pastors and teachers. Our Savior and Teacher deserves nothing less, than that we should be serious about living the life He has enabled us to live.