This Day in Presbyterian History

[excerpted from THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, Vol. XXXI, No. 23 (5 June 1852):  89, column 5.]

THE FAMILY OF PRESIDENT EDWARDS.

It was an unspeakable privilege in the view of the late President [Jonathan] Edwards, that when surrounded by a young and growing family, and when his duty to his people, especially in seasons of revival, necessarily occupied his whole attention, he could safely commit his children to the wisdom and piety, the love and faithfulness of their mother [Sarah Pierpont Edwards]. Her views of the responsibility of parents were large and comprehensive. “She thought that, as a parent, she had great and important duties to do toward her children before they were capable of government and instruction. For them she constantly and earnestly prayed, and bore them on her heart before God, in all her secret and most solemn addresses to him; and that, even before they were born. The prospect of her becoming a mother of a rational, immortal creature, which came into existence in an undone and infinitely dreadful state, was sufficient to lead her to bow before God daily for His blessing on it; even redemption and eternal life by Jesus Christ. So that, through all the pain, labor, and sorrow which attended her being the mother of children, she was in travail for them that they should be born of God.

She regularly prayed with her children, from a very early period, and, as there is the best reason to believe, with great earnestness and importunity. Being thoroughly sensible that, in many respects, the chief care of forming children by government and instruction, naturally lies on mothers, as they are most with their children at an age when they commonly receive impressions that are permanent, and have great influence in forming the character for life, she was very careful to do her part in this important business. When she foresaw or met with any special difficulty in this matter, she was wont to apply to her husband for advice and assistance; and on such occasions they would both attend to it, as a matter of the utmost importance. She had an excellent way of governing her children; she knew how to make them regard and obey her cheerfully, without loud, angry words, much less heavy blows. She seldom punished them; and in speaking to them, used gentle and pleasant words. If any correction was necessary, she did not administer it in a passion; and when she had occasion to reprove and rebuke, she would do it in a few words, without warmth and noise, and with all calmness  and gentleness of mind. In her directions and reproofs in matters of importance, she would address herself to the reason of her children, that they might not only know her inclination and will, but at the same time be convinced of the reasonableness of it. She had need to speak but once; she was cheerfully obeyed; murmuring and answering again were not known among them. In their manners they were uncommonly respectful to their parents. When their parents came into the room, they all rose instinctively from their seats, and never resumed them until their parents were seated; and when either parent was speaking, no matter with whom they had been conversing, they were all immediately silent and attentive. The kind and gentle treatment they received from their mother, while she strictly and punctiliously maintained her parental authority, seemed naturally to beget and promote a filial respect and affection, and to lead them to a mild, tender treatment of each other. Quarreling and contention, which too frequently take place among children, were in her family wholly unknown. She carefully observed the first appearance of resentment and ill-will in her young children, toward any person whatever, and did not connive at it, as many who have the care of children do, but was careful to show her displeasure, and suppress it to the utmost; yet not by angry, wrathful words, which often provoke children to wrath, and stir up their irascible passions, rather than abate them. Her system of discipline was begun at a very early age, and it was her rule to resist the first, as well as every subsequent exhibition of temper or disobedience in the child, however young, until its will was brought into submission to the will of its parents; wisely reflecting, that until a child will obey its parents, he can never be brought to obey God.

[emphasis added.]

Preacher McIntyre
by David T. Myers

In his young years in Scotland, his classmates called him “preacher McIntyre.” That was because his early years were subject to serious impressions. Growing up, he became an apprentice to a shoemaker in Glasgow, Scotland. This “job” was followed by the task of shepherding sheep in the Highlands of the country. John McIntyre would never forget the spiritual lessons of that calling, even many years later.

At the age of twenty years, he made a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It was said that his faith was tested by trying circumstances. One such example of those circumstances was, after his marriage, he emigrated to North Carolina. On the long ocean voyage, they buried overboard their first born child. In fact, unnamed domestic affliction and trouble rolled over the couple greatly, until they moved to South Carolina.

In attending camp meetings of the Great Revival, for a while he doubted his conversion. But God was at work in his life and he was able to recover his hope of eternal life. Pressing on in his spiritual life, he began to desire serving the Lord as an ordained minister. He was now in his early fifties, and friends opposed his desire. After all, he was not in his twenties. He had only a limited education. But John persisted in a laborious study and application of the requisite courses of theology. As a result, he was licensed to preach on September 25, 1807. For the next thirty years, he supplied pulpits at Presbyterian congregations – in Philadelphia, Bethel, Lumber Ridge, and at St. Paul.

His death took place on this day, November 11, 1852, at the age of one hundred and three years of age!

It was said that he was per-eminently devout, prayerful, vigilant of the interests and welfare of the church, was ready for every emergency, and shrank from no duty of religion. About the only thing he questioned was why God should delay so long to call him home!

Words to Live By:
Scripture reminds us in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, that every believer has at least one spiritual gift. We are to speak or serve our God with that spiritual gift. See 1 Peter 4: 10, 11. Have you discovered your spiritual gift yet? And are you developing it by education and experience? Have you dedicated it to the Lord of the church? And are you doing it, to God’s glory and the benefit of the church to which you belong? “Preacher McIntyre” discovered his gift late in his life, and despite the doubt of many of his church friends, developed it, dedicated it to the Lord Jesus, and did it to God’s glory and the good of the church.

“The Right Way to Hold Your Noses”

Our post today is drawn from the Minutes of the 156th General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (1978), pp. 122-123, and from the BULLETIN of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, vol. 6, nos. 3-5 (March-May 1940), page 26.

Dr. T. Norton Sterrett was born in Persia of missionary parents, November 10, 1912. After the age of two, he grew up in the United States. He received the B.A. from Columbia Bible College and from Wheaton College, and the Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary.

He was married in 1938 to Eloise Fain and two children were born to this marriage, Eloise Anne and Gerald Fain. He and his family went to India as mis­sionaries under the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Mis­sions in 1939. In the initial work in India, he engaged in general village and city evangelism and Bible teaching.

Following the year of 1949, Dr. Sterrett worked among the college students of India under the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Since 1954 he has carried on similar work under the Union of Evangelical Students of India. He was the Director of the Asian Bible Study Center of South India from 1967 through 1972. One of his fellow workers in India says:

“Dr. Sterrett had a commitment to India as a servant of the Indian people in true humility. He never tried to impose foreign structures or cultural values on the Indian Church or Indian people. … He had a con­sistent and steady burden for Bible teaching which would generate Bible students who could teach others. . . . Their interest was further than the students of India. The Indian church at large and other evangelical bodies were within their concern. . . . Let me thank IFES for sending such a faithful ambassador of the Gospel. . .

After 36 years of service in India, the Sterretts returned to the United States (1975) and he worked on the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Nyack, N.Y., from July, 1975, until his death. A host of Indian Christians, as well as members of the body of Christ around the world, thank God for the faithfulness of His servant, T. Norton Sterrett.

The following is a portion of a letter sent back from the mission field by Rev. Sterrett:—

Cawnpore, U. P., India.
Feb. 24, 1940.

Dear Friends:

“We come to tell you the right way to hold your noses.” This may seem queer sort of language to use in preaching the Gospel, and yet those are nearly the exact words used by our language teacher, Mr. Das, not long ago, when speaking to a group of Indian villagers. Why? Well when we had talked to them of the way of salvation through Christ one of them spoke up to say that what we said might be true but it didn’t make much difference; one could hold his nose by reaching from the front with one hand or else by reaching around his head with the other; it is the same nose. That is to say, perhaps one can have salvation through Christ, but we can also reach God through Hinduism, through Islam, or anything else. This is an all too prevalent idea, for Hinduism seems able to absorb nearly anything else and still call it Hinduism. But oh, the solemnity of the words, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

[emphasis added]

Words to Live By:
Indeed, there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is His alone to bestow, and He has declared that His only provision is through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus our Messiah. We believe this, but are we living accordingly? Are we living out our remaining days in such a way that we declare, both in word and deed, the truth of these words?

Princeton [i.e., the College of New Jersey] graduates its first class

The history of early Presbyterian education is substantially the history of Princeton College. When Mr. Tennent died in 1745 his school was closed. Yet such had been its usefulness that the Synod of New York immediately, in 1746, took steps to perpetuate that institution of learning. It was located first at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and Jonathan Dickinson was its first president. The students, except those of the village, boarded in the family of the president. Dr. Dickinson died shortly, and the school was removed to Newark in order to be placed under the care of Rev. Aaron Burr, so that he might accept the presidency without resigning his pastorate. The first class of six young men graduated November 9, 1748.

In 1753 Rev. Gilbert Tennent and Rev. Samuel Davies were appointed by Synod to visit England and solicit aid for the college. In the face of very great prejudices against them and the theology which they represented, after a year’s canvass in England, Scotland and Ireland, they had secured widespread sympathy and public endorsement of the enterprise. They succeeded, financially, far beyond their expectation. The total sum raised must have approached, if it did not pass beyond, twenty-five thousand dollars.

Words To Live by:

Presbyterians have always sought and promoted an educated, thoroughly trained pastorate. The challenges presented by the world, the flesh and the devil require that much. Moreover, the Gospel ministry is not to be entered into lightly, and deserves our best efforts. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.—Deut. 6:5. If this command is true for believers, how much more so for those who would shepherd the Lord’s people?

Always a Timely, and Needed, Reminder

[from The Charleston Observer 14.40 (21 November 1840): 1, col. 5-6.]
by “Y.E.K.”

Called to a great work he needs your prayers; “He is an ambassador for Christ; a steward of the mysteries of God, to declare his course; to preach the Word, instant in season, and out of season.” he stands in the place of the Divine Redeemer, to publish His message of mercy, and to urge its acceptance upon mankind. He is appointed to proclaim the mind of the Most High, to declare His law, to utter His threatenings, to speak His promises, to press His claims, to do it truly and faithfully. To accomplish this, he “must give attendance to his preaching, to exhortation, to doctrine, not neglecting the gift he has received with prophecy and the laying on of hands of the Presbytery, meditating continually on these things, that no man may despise his attainments.  This is to be done too, in opposition to the views of many who would have him always among his people; and in preaching a thorougly extemporaneous man, and also in the midst of multiplied and various calls upon his time and attention. He must also “be an example to the flock in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity; in doctrine, showing uncorruptness; in meekness, instructing them that oppose themselves, holding fast the faithful word.”

What knowledge, wisdom and grace, are requisite for all this? How must the heart glow with the love of God! What humility, and patience, and kindness are necessary!  What firmness and decision, tempered with what meekness and love! How must the minister be rooted, and grounded in the truth! What spiritual discernment ppossess, what unquenchable love to souls! What a heavenly mind—a Christ-like temper and a holy life; and who shall possess these without large measures of the Spirit of truth and grace? and this is a gift bestowed in answer to prayer.

Then Christian, pray for that gift to thy minister. Remember too, his work is trying. He is tried, among other things, by the carelessness and inaction of the church—by the apathy and unbelief of his impenitent hearers. Perhaps at the very moment some are complaining of his lifelessness, and look abroad for foreign aid, he is mourning in his closet the spiritual dearth among his people, and beseeching the God of heaven to revive his work, and to render his labors, though he feels personal unworthiness, more efficient and successful.  As he surveys the fruitlessness of his field of labor, his heart almost faints within him. What need of supporting grace.  Christian, seek it in his behalf by prayer.

Think too, of the diversity of opinion and feeling among his people. Lift up your eye. Behold the eager anxieety to catch at something new and strange.  Mark the jealousy and suspicion which exist between brethren. What shall he do? How keep his heart right, and pursue the right course? How stand amid conflicting views, unawed by fear; unwarped by prejudice; meek though bold, and speak the truth as it is in Christ? Who needs your prayers, if he does not need them?

Then think he is a man, liable to the errors, and frailties and sins of men. He is not infallible. He is not all-wise, nor all-prudent, nor all holy. A human being, is he called to these duties and trials. An angel might sink under them, what shall he do?—How much grace does he need? Then what need of prayer in his behalf? Christian, cease to dwell upon his imperfections and proclaim his foibles; go to your closet, and if you can pray, pray that God would anoint him anew for his work. Should you and your brethren do it, you might expect him to be far holier, far wiser, far more efficient and successful. Then, too, your own improvement and happiness call upon you to do this. The connection between the labors of your pastor, and the welfare of the Church is intimate and obvious. You in fact allow it. Therefore you provide for those labors. You erect houses of worship, you employ preacher, you attend to hear. To build up the Church what need that preaching be correct, spiritual, discriminating, earnest; that it be in demonstration of the spirit and with power.

Could the preacher come each Sabbath laden with knowledge, imbued with love, and attended by the Holy Ghost—could he go thus from house to house, and meeting to meeting, how much might be accomplished. Souls would be fed and nourished. The thoughtless be aroused, the fearful encouraged, the doubting confirmed.  Many would arise to new activity in the divine life. Sinners too must feel its influence. God hath constituted the preaching of the Gospel His power and wisdom unto salvation.  Infinite consequences are depending. That Gospel is a savor of life or of death. With God’s blessing it may raise the soul from sin to holiness. It may save it from hell and bear it to heaven. Here is the grand reason after all, to pray for ministers. Their personal difficulties and trials are of small account.—It is that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified; that it may hasten on its way, making glad the city of our God, and bearing salvation to the lost.

If you would love that Gospel, if you would see it triumph, if you love the souls it was given to save, and him who gave it, never forget to pray for your minister. “Finally brethren, pray for us;” then the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.