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.]
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 SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST by Rev. William Smith (1834)
Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?
A. The sacraments of the New Testament are, baptism and the Lord’s supper.
ANALYSIS.
In this answer, we are told that the sacraments of the New Testament are two in number :
1. We are first informed that baptism is one of these sacraments. –Mark xvi. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
2. That the Lord’s supper is also a sacrament. –1 Cor . xi. 23, 24. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread –This do in remembrance of me.
In February 1549, after an imprisonment of 19 months, Knox obtained his release from the French galleys. Since he probably obtained his freedom due to the intercession of King Edward VI or the English government (they had been negotiating for the release of English and Scottish protestant prisoners in exchange for French prisoners), he came to London, and was favorably received by Archbishop Cranmer and the lords of council. He remained in England for five years, during which time he was first appointed preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle.
At Berwick, where he labored for two years, he preached with his characteristic fervor and zeal, exposing the errors of Romanism with unsparing severity. Although Protestantism was the official position of the Church of England since the reign of Henry VIII, there were many loyal Roman Catholics (papists), even in the high ranks of the clergy. The bishop of John Knox’s diocese, Dr. Cuthbert Tunstall, was an avid Catholic. Knox was accused of asserting that the sacrifice of the Mass is idolatrous, and was cited to appear before the bishop to give an account of his preaching. On April 4, 1550, Knox entered into a full defense of his opinions, and with the utmost boldness proceeded to argue that the mass is a superstitious and idolatrous substitute for the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. (vol. 3 of History 54,-56). The bishop did not venture to pronounce any ecclesiastical censure.
The fame of the preacher was only extended by this feeble attempt to restrain his boldness. From a manuscript discovered in the 1870’s titled, “The practice of the Lord’s Supper used in Berwick by John Knox, 1550,” we now know that the very beginning of Puritan practice in the Church of England in the administration of the Lord’s Supper is to be found in the practice followed by Knox at Berwick, inasmuch as he substituted common bread for the bread wafers, and gave the first example of substituting sitting instead of kneeling in the receiving of communion.
“It was during this time [1553] that John Knox developed a theology of resistance to tyranny. He began smuggling pamphlets into England. The most significant of these was the Admonition to England. With this move, he had stepped into new territory, going further than any Reformer had previously gone.”–Francis Schaeffer, from A Christian Manifesto
Words to Live By: We Presbyterians owe much to John Knox and we would profit greatly from taking up a fresh study of his life and writings. 2014 was the 500th anniversary of his birth, and so we had many posts last year on facets of his ministry. In his time, he stood resolutely for the Scriptures and was greatly blessed of God to bring about real change in his nation. Even now God has placed among us those who can and are speaking with bold testimony to the eternal truths of the Gospel. We need not name them. We cannot name them all. But we can all remember to pray for those whom the Lord will use for His glory in these trying times. May the Lord give us strong voices to faithfully declare His Word.
Psalm 20 The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright. Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call.
Family & Private Daily Scripture Readings, Morning and Evening: