This Day in Presbyterian History

READING OWEN FOR THE FIRST TIME

I had not read much of John Owen until recently, and like many, found his writing difficult to wade through. Dr. R.J.K. Law’s edited edition makes all the difference, and it has been a delight to read these volumes in the new boxed set from Banner of Truth. With every few pages it seems there is some shining example like this:—

“Only a steady view of Christ by faith will graciously revive from inward spiritual declensions and decays and fill with fresh springs of grace, even in old age. This truth is confirmed by Scripture, and is the joyful experience of multitudes of believers.

There are two things that elderly Christians, who have for many long years believed and lived by faith in Christ, long for when they are nearing eternity. The first is, that all their spiritual backslidings will be healed and that they may be spiritually revived and recovered from all the spiritual declensions and decays to which they were liable in their daily walk with God. The other is, that they may flourish in holiness and fruitfulness to the praise of God, the honor of the Gospel, and the increase of their own peace and joy. They value these things more than all the world. They cannot stop thinking about them and longing to experience more of them.

Those who have no interest in these things, whatever their claim to faith in Christ, are completely ignorant of their true condition. For it is the nature of grace to grow and increase to the end. Like rivers, the nearer they come to the ocean, the more is their water content increased, and they flow more swiftly. So will grace flow more freely and fully the nearer it approaches the ocean of eternal glory. Where this is not so, there is no saving grace. Paul tells us that ‘though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day’ (2 Cor. 4:16). This is of great comfort in our old age. The weaker our physical bodies become, the greater is our spiritual renewal. This promise gives great strength to elderly believers.

Owen continues. . .

There is often a late Spring in the year, a Spring in Autumn. It is faint and weak but useful to the farmer for it is a clear sign to him that if his ground is not barren it will flourish afresh towards the end of the year. So God, the good farmer, looks for the same from us, especially if we have had a summer drought in our lives (Psa. 32:4). True, the late spring does not produce the same fruit as does early spring but it is evidence that the ground is in good heart and puts forth what is right for that time of year. It may be that the graces which were active in a person newly converted will not abound in the late spring of old age. But those graces which are right for that time of life will flourish, such as spirituality, heavenly mindedness, being weaned from the world and readiness for the cross and for death. These are necessary even in old age, to prove that we have a living power of grace and to show by this that God is indeed ‘our rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.’

—John Owen, The Glory of Christ. (Abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K. Law. Banner of Truth, 2020), pp. 147-148, 152.

Warrior Presbytery Leaves the Southern Presbyterian Church

[text from an article in The Southern Presbyterian, vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1973):

Twenty-one churches and five ministers were dismissed, at their own request, from Tuscaloosa Presbytery (PCUS), on Tuesday, February 13, 1973 at Linden, Alabama. The Presbytery included the phrase “with their property” in each of the actions. It also passed a legally worded “quit claim” to cover all the churches dismissed. The congregations of these churches had voted to request this, most of them unanimously. The parent group is the Presbyterian Church in the United States, formed in Augusta, Georgia in 1861.

The Presbytery Meeting was, for the most part, congenial and quiet. There was a spirit of understanding and of helpfulness among the men of opposing sides. At the close, several shook hands and expressed Christian love for one another and wished the blessings of God upon the other. The Moderator of this meeting was a revered minister of the Presbytery who had recently retired, Rev. John Preston Simmons of Aliceville. His prayers and general spirit were used by God to bring about this separation in relative peace and clam.

Only one church and minister were disappointed. Although they were dismissed, the action was contested by a complaint addressed to Synod and will have to be settled before the action can become effective (under the rule that one-third of the members of Presbytery supported the complaint).

This is action is parallel to that which brought into being the first Presbytery in the Continuing Presbyterian Church, Vanguard Presbytery. The new Presbytery in West Alabama will be named Warrior because most of the churches are in or near the basin of the Black Warrior river.

Ministers and Churches of this new Presbytery include William C. Dinwiddie, pastor of Greensboro, Akron, and Newbern; Virgil Pino, pastor of Uniontown, Gastonburg, and Faunsdale; Willard W. Scott, pastor of Brent; Cecil Williamson, Jr., pastor of Crescent Hill and Valley Creek; and Charles L. Wilson, pastor of Aliceville and Pleasant Ridge. The following churches are at present without a pastor : Cedar Grove (Epes), Coatopa, Emelle (pastoral relation was severed at the time of dismissal), Gainesville, Geneva, Myrtlewood, Sumterville (Bethel I), Oxford, Linden and York.  The action which was suspended by the complaint involved Woodland Heights Church and William H. Rose, pastor.

This is the action for which much prayer has been made. The men insist that this is a positive action intended to preserve Biblical Faith and Presbyterian Order. It is a part of a much larger move planned by many churches and ministers across the South under the leadership of four organizations of conservative churchmen.

Words to Live By: Division is always something to be entered into with great trepidation. Schism can be defined as a sinful, prideful division. But there is a division that truth itself requires. Jeremiah Burroughs, a Puritan especially noted for his efforts at healing divisions, said that “It is not enough that we are one, unless we are one in Christ” and “The division that comes by truth is better than the union that comes by error.” The measure of a biblical separation will always be one where there is brokenness over our own sins as well as over the sins of the Church, when staying would require us to sin.

Today’s post is an aside, a powerful pastoral prayer that I came across in my reading, one that is so very apt for our day.

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT IN TROUBLING TIMES.

It was on August 24, 1662, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, that some 2000 ministers in England were forced to step down from their pulpits, prohibited from preaching and from the work of ministry to their flocks. In British church history, this event is known as the Great Ejection. And of those 2000 faithful pastors, many of their final sermons were gathered up and published. Here below are the concluding words of one of those faithful men, the Rev. John Whitlock:

            The silence of ministers calls aloud on us all to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It bids us repent of our sins, the causes of God’s judgments. It calls on you to prize and improve ministers and ordinances better, if God shall continue, restore or further afford them to you. Yea, ministers silence should cause people to speak the more and louder to God in prayer for the continuance and restoring of ministers and ordinances to them.
            When you do not hear so much and so often from God in preaching, let God hear the more and oftener from you in prayer. Ply the throne of grace. Give God no rest till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And as our silence should make you speak the more to God, so also the more and oftener one unto another in holy conference, to provoke to love and to good works.
            And I beseech you, brethren, pray for us. Whatever God may do with us, or whithersoever we may be driven, we shall carry you in our hearts; and when and while we remember ourselves to God, we shall never forget you, but present you and your souls’ concerns daily unto God at the throne of grace in our prayers.
            And we earnestly beg this of you, as you would remember what we have spoken to you in the name of the Lord, so you would remember us to God, and let us have a room and share in your hearts and prayers. When you get into a corner to pour out your hearts before God, carry us to God upon your hearts, Do not forget us, but lift up a prayer to God for us, your (we hope we may say) faithful, though weak, unworthy ministers, who have labored among you in the Word and doctrine.
            I shall say no more, but conclude with these two Scriptures: “An now, brethren, I commend you to God, and the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified,” (Acts 20:32).
            The other Scripture is that request of Paul to, and prayer for, the Hebrews in chapter 13:18-21: “Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

—John Whitlock, Sermons of the Great Ejection (Banner of Truth, 1962), pp. 197-198.

An Auspicious Date Indeed

It was on this day, February 10th in 1645 that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland officially adopted the Westminster Assembly’s document titled The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government.

In Charles Hodge’s Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, he states “In this directory it is declared, that the ordinary and perpetual officers of the church are pastors, teachers, and other church governors and deacons.” Certainly the Presbyterian form of government was already in place and practiced in Scotland before this date, but by the adoption of this Westminster document, the Kirk of Scotland endeavored to bolster a uniformity of church government among the churches of England, Scotland and Ireland.

While not exactly easy reading, here below is the text of the 1645 General Assembly’s resolution:

The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government

ASSEMBLY AT EDINBURGH, February 10, 1645,
Sess. 16. ACT of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the KIRK of SCOTLAND, approving the Propositions concerning Kirk-government, and Ordination of Ministers.

THE General Assembly being most desirous and solicitous, not only of the establishment and preservation of the Form of Kirk-government in this kingdom, according to the word of God, books of Discipline, acts of General Assemblies, and National Covenant, but also of an uniformity in Kirk-government betwixt these kingdoms, now more straitly and strongly unite by the late Solemn League and Covenant; and considering, that as in former time there did, so hereafter there may arise, through the nearness of contagion, manifold, mischief to this kirk from a corrupt form of government in the kirk of England: like as the precious opportunity of bringing the kirks of Christ in all the three kingdoms to an uniformity in Kirk-government being the happiness of the present times above the former; which may also, by the blessing of God, prove an effectual mean, and a good foundation to prepare for a safe and well-grounded pacification, by removing the cause from which the present pressures and bloody wars did originally proceed: and now the Assembly having thrice read, and diligently examined, the propositions (hereunto annexed) concerning the officers, assemblies, and government of the kirk, and concerning the ordination of ministers, brought unto us, as the results of the long and learned debates of the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster, and of the treaty of uniformity with the Commissioners of this kirk there residing; after mature deliberation,, and after timeous [i.e., in good time or sufficiently early] calling upon and warning of all, who have any exceptions against same, to make them known, that they might receive satisfaction; doth agree to and approve the propositions aforementioned, touching, touching Kirk-government and Ordination; and doth hereby authorized the Commissioners of this Assembly, who are to meet at Edinburgh, to agree and to conclude in the name of this Assembly, an uniformity betwixt the kirks in both kingdoms, in the afore-mentioned particulars, so soon as the same shall be ratified, without any substantial alteration, by an ordinance of the honourable Houses of the Parliament of England; which ratification shall be timely intimate and made known by the Commissioners of this kirk residing at London. Provided always, That this act be no ways prejudicial to the further discussion and examination of that article which hold forth, That the doctor or teacher hath power of the administration of the sacraments, as well as the pastor; as also of the distinct rights and interests of presbyteries and people in the calling of ministers; but that it shall be free to debate and discuss these points, as God shall be pleased to give further light.

Words to Live By:God has ordained that the Church should be overseen, first at the local level, by spiritually mature men. Local congregations in turn are connected one to another and represented by these same elders, first regionally, and then on a wider scale, most commonly nationally. See Acts 15 for an example of this wider court of the Church. Pray for the Church. Pray that our leaders in the Church would study to carefully maintain God’s intended order for the Church. Pray that both we and our elders would remain humble and obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ, in all things seeking His will and not our own.

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. — (Acts 14:23, KJV)

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— (Titus 1:5, ESV)

“Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” (Gen. 13:2, ESV)

William E. Dodge, who became a prominent elder in the Presbyterian Church, was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 4, 1805, his father being a cotton manufacturer, near Norwich, in that State. After attending the common school, William worked awhile in his father’s mill, and then, the family having removed to New York, the lad of thirteen entered a wholesale dry goods store, where he remained until he attained adulthood. From that point he engaged in the same business, but on his own account, and continued in this line until 1833, when he became a member of the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co. This firm was engaged in the importation of tin plate, pig tin and copper, and soon became the largest company in the country pursuing this trade. Mr. Dodge retained an interest in the company until 1881, and even up until the time of his death would frequently visit his old office.

Mr. Dodge was both shrewd and industrious, and his business career was one of almost unbroken prosperity. As time progressed, he became interested in many other enterprises, and was director in a number of railroad and insurance corporations. He was one of the largest owners of lumber lands, lumber and mill interests, in the United States, possessing large tracts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, West Virginia, Texas, and Canada. He was also extensively interested in the development of coal and iron interests throughout the country.

It was, however, as a Christian and philanthropist that Mr. Dodge was most distinguished. He early became interested in the Temperance movement, and his consistency was proved by his resignation from the Union League Club, because it served wine at its banquets. He was president of the American National Temperance Society and the Temperance Christian Home for Men. He was also a Trustee of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a Director of the Presbyterian Hospital, a Trustee of Lincoln University, and Vice-President of the American Board of Foreign Missions. He was a devoted friend of the Sabbath, and resigned his directorship of the Central Railroad of New Jersey because the company began to run trains on Sundays. The education of the freedmen greatly interested him, and he assisted many societies, working in their behalf. His contributions in some years averaged $1000 a day, while for several years before his death they never fell below $200,000 annually.

His life was one of cheerful industry. Nothing in the way of duty was irksome–rather, it was a pleasure to be enjoyed, and the smile, so genial and loving, with which his friends were always greated, was merely an honest reflection of his heart. Immersed in business that assumed wide range and vast proportions, he kept his soul serene in the light of heaven, so that the cares of the world, the love of money, and sordid greed had no dominion over his buoyant spirit. More than the Presidency of the Chamber of Commerce, he loved the Sunday-school room, the House of God, the prayer meeting, and the chamber of the suffering whose wants he might relieve. His delight was in making glad the hearts of the poor.

Mr. Dodge’s whole career was exceptionally one of success, honor and usefulness. He died at his residence, in New York, on February 9, 1883, leaving, by his will, $360,000 for religious and charitable purposes. His demise was greatly lamented, not only by his own denomination, but by the friends of education, virtue, morality and religion, of every name, and he left a record that is lustrous with all that is noble and excellent in human character in its highest development.

Words to Live By:
Yesterday we spoke of the need to use our resources sacrificially, to the glory of God. Providentially, here today is an example of such a one who lived quite successfully, but who also gave freely of his time and substance. Again we have to ask the question, How am I using the resources that God has given me? The world of business is an honorable calling for a Christian, but it is a terrible thing to be trapped by the cares of the world, the love of money, and sordid greed. The best way of avoiding those traps is to recognize from the start that it all belongs to the Lord, and to be actively, daily, engaged in meeting the needs of others. Or as one dear saint, a very prosperous and generous man, used to say, “I just keep trying to out-give God.”

[Our post today is drawn somewhat freely from Alfred Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia, with the entry for the Hon. William E. Dodge appearing on pages 192-193 of that work.]