The penultimate paragraph in this brief essay provides an interesting contrasting argument when compared with the previously posted editorial by Dr. Samuel G. Craig. Where Craig argued that the PCUSA was within its rights to prohibit membership in parachurch organizations, here Dr. Robinson correctly notes that earlier PCUSA examples contradict such a ruling. On another subject, it might also be useful to compare Robinson’s essay with D.S. Kennedy’s comments in respect to the first of the Preliminary Principles.
Liberty of Conscience
By the Rev. Prof. William Childs Robinson, Th.D.
[Christianity Today 5.11 (April 1935): 261. – Note: This was the original magazine by this name, 1930-1949, not the one that continues today.]
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to His word, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship.”
This teaching from the Confession has always been dear to Presbyterian hearts. It is rooted in Jesus’ statement, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” Matt. 15:9. It echoes Calvin’s conviction that “it is necessary to destroy everything which diminishes the honor of God and to that end every rule except His Word.” It reiterates the famous sermon of Alexander Henderson to the memorable Scottish Assembly of 1638: “It is not obedience to follow the humours of men that go out of this line.”
The true interpretation of the words of the Confession may be seen by the petition which the Westminster Divines addressed to Parliament requesting the adoption of their book of discipline. This petition asserts that they do not ask for “an arbitrary or unlimited power: for how can that power be called arbitrary which is not according to the will of man, but the will of Christ; or how can it be supposed to be unlimited which is circumscribed and regulated by the exactest law?”
Dr. John Witherspoon experienced the rigors of arbitrary church government under the “moderates” of Scotland. Therefore, when he came to organize the American General Assembly, he wrote as its preliminary principles: “That all church power, whether exercised by the body in general, or in the way of representation by delegated authority, is only ministerial and declarative; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and manners; that no church judicatory ought to pretend to make laws, to bind the conscience in virtue of their own authority; and that all their decisions should be founded upon the revealed will of God.” Further that the Church is to exercise censure by “observing in all cases the rules contained in the Word of God.” In entire accord with these principles which still form part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., our Southern Presbyterian Church has expressly defined an ecclesiastical offence as “anything in the principles or practice of a church member professing faith in Christ, which is contrary to the Word of God.”
The sense of each of these authorities is that Presbyterians regard that only as “an offence,” which is contrary to the teaching of God in His Word. And yet we have the anomalous situation in the Northern Presbyterian Church of Dr. Machen and other members of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions being tried for violating the commandments of men. There is room for difference of opinion as to the wisdom or advisability of organizing this Board. Into that question the writer has no desire to go. But as the cited authorities show, those who have organized this Board have not been guilty of committing a Presbyterian offence. It has not been shown that they have acted contrary to the Word of God.
Just a little over a hundred years ago while the General Assembly was supporting the interdenominational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at least two independent boards were organized by Presbyterians. The Presbyterians of South Carolina and Georgia organized the Southern Board of Foreign Missions; while those of Virginia and Pennsylvania organized the Western Foreign Missionary Society. Not only were these Presbyterians never disciplined; but the last named was eventually taken over by the General Assembly and is now the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Dr. Thornwell opposed the whole board system as without Scriptural warrant. Would he have been disciplined had he done what then Southern Church has since done, namely, organized an executive committee instead of a board?
Regardless of what one may think of the Independent Board, he can but regard the effort to discipline these men as an invasion of liberty of conscience.
[Robinson, William Childs, “Liberty of Conscience,” Christianity Today 5.11 (April 1935): 261.]
While Strong in Convictions, He was Mild in their Utterance
by Rev. David T. Myers
What does one do when your congregation takes one side of a national political issue, and you, the pastor of the congregation, takes the other? Such was the question of the Rev. John Henderson Symmes in 1862 in Cumberland, Maryland.
Symmes was born in Vermont in 1801. He received his preparatory education in the schools of his region before studying theology in the Philadelphia Seminary in Pennsylvania. This was unusual in that he had not yet gone to college. Nevertheless, he was licensed in 1827 by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Then he went to an undergraduate school and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1830. Filling various empty pulpits in New England and Pennsylvania, he finally was ordained in 1831 as a home missionary in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He was the pastor of several churches in Pennsylvania and New York before he became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cumberland, Maryland in 1845. That was where his troubles would begin.
Maryland was a border state in the civil war which divided the nation of America in 1861. Some twenty-thousand Marylanders fought for the Confederacy, with tens of thousands more fighting for the Union. Often from the same county of Maryland, brothers fought against brothers, and fathers fought against sons. So it wasn’t at all unusual for this Presbyterian pastor, even though he had been their spiritual shepherd for seven years, to be at odds with the families of wealth and influence on this matter of the War Between the States. They were Confederate in their allegiances. He was a strong Union man. So on April 2, 1862, he resigned from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Cumberland, Maryland.
To further prove his loyalty to the North, he became the chaplain of the Second Regiment of the Maryland Volunteer Infantry, serving as spiritual guide to the soldiers of that Civil War unit. This military outfit would serve their nation until the end of the conflict, fighting in fifteen battles and countless skirmishes. Two hundred and twenty-six men became casualties of their three-year term of service. Chaplain Symmes was with them til the end of the civil war.
In 1867, he continued on his civilian pastorate at a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania. He departed this life in 1874.
In Glasgow’s history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, Rev. Symmes is described as possessing a kind and genial disposition. He was a most eloquent preacher, and drew for the instruction of his listeners many truths for their edification. But the best description is that which forms the title of this historical study, namely, “while strong in his convictions, he was mild in the utterance of them.”
Words to Live By: Strong convictions! But mild in his utterance of them! May we have many more, even you reader, who will have this said of you by others. Consider Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26 “And the Lord’s servants must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (ESV)
by Rev. David T. Myers
What does one do when your congregation takes one side of a national political issue, and you, the pastor of the congregation, takes the other? Such was the question of the Rev. John Henderson Symmes in 1862 in Cumberland, Maryland.
Symmes was born in Vermont in 1801. He received his preparatory education in the schools of his region before studying theology in the Philadelphia Seminary in Pennsylvania. This was unusual in that he had not yet gone to college. Nevertheless, he was licensed in 1827 by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Then he went to an undergraduate school and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1830. Filling various empty pulpits in New England and Pennsylvania, he finally was ordained in 1831 as a home missionary in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He was the pastor of several churches in Pennsylvania and New York before he became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cumberland, Maryland in 1845. That was where his troubles would begin.
Maryland was a border state in the civil war which divided the nation of America in 1861. Some twenty-thousand Marylanders fought for the Confederacy, with tens of thousands more fighting for the Union. Often from the same county of Maryland, brothers fought against brothers, and fathers fought against sons. So it wasn’t at all unusual for this Presbyterian pastor, even though he had been their spiritual shepherd for seven years, to be at odds with the families of wealth and influence on this matter of the War Between the States. They were Confederate in their allegiances. He was a strong Union man. So on April 2, 1862, he resigned from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Cumberland, Maryland.
To further prove his loyalty to the North, he became the chaplain of the Second Regiment of the Maryland Volunteer Infantry, serving as spiritual guide to the soldiers of that Civil War unit. This military outfit would serve their nation until the end of the conflict, fighting in fifteen battles and countless skirmishes. Two hundred and twenty-six men became casualties of their three-year term of service. Chaplain Symmes was with them til the end of the civil war.
In 1867, he continued on his civilian pastorate at a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania. He departed this life in 1874.
In Glasgow’s history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, Rev. Symmes is described as possessing a kind and genial disposition. He was a most eloquent preacher, and drew for the instruction of his listeners many truths for their edification. But the best description is that which forms the title of this historical study, namely, “while strong in his convictions, he was mild in the utterance of them.”
Words to Live By: Strong convictions! But mild in his utterance of them! May we have many more, even you reader, who will have this said of you by others. Consider Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26 “And the Lord’s servants must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (ESV)
THE PRESBYTERIAN EVANGELISTIC FELLOWSHIP
by Clifford Hodges Brewton
The Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship (PEF) was begun on April 1, 1958, when the Reverend William E. Hill, minister of the large Hopewell, Virginia, Presbyterian Church, resigned his twenty-ninth year pastorate to answer God’s call to full-time evangelism.
The new organization at once was recognized as unique. At the time of its formation, it was the only organization of its kind that existed primarily to serve the local church.
It was not to be an evangelistic association, centered as most are, in the personality and ministry of one evangelist, but rather a team of evangelists—specialists who assist churches in the work for God and the gospel. PEF was brought into existence to serve the local church in training and doing Biblical evangelism anywhere, at any time, in accordance with the needs of any group or organization.
In 1964 PEF was incorporated, and a year later, a second evangelist was added to the staff. By 1969, there were ten evangelists and PEF had a total budget of $183,930. As time went by, staff members were added t the growing team of specialists, and in 1970, one of PEF’s best years thus far and with an increased budget of $281,993, foreign evangelism was begun with the formation of the Executive Committee on Overseas Evangelism (ECOE), which during its existence channeled over $1 million into world missions.
Through ECOE and PEF, evangelistic crusades have been conducted in nineteen countries, including France, Brazil, Greece, Columbia, England, Guadeloupe, India, Ireland, Southern Ireland, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad, Zaire and Uganda.
In India, a home for the elderly has been established, which is now run by a Methodist evangelist, and in addition to the churches started in the United States, a strong Baptist Church has been established by a PEF evangelist in Dublin, Ireland.
There is an international, interdenominational flavor about PEF. The goal is not to try to produce Presbyterians, but as Presbyterians, those who work with PEF minister and work on behalf of people in the name of Christ for the glory of God.
Perhaps the most outstanding achievement of the decade of the seventies was the role played by PEF in the establishment of a new Presbyterian denomination. After many years of sincere efforts to call a major Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, to faithful allegiance to the Bible, many churches and ministers decided to form a new body.
Words to Live By:
It was just a year or so ago that the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship was renamed and became the Reformed Evangelistic Fellowship, with the name change intended to indicate that the organization is Reformed in its theology, but not tied to any specific denomination. The Rev. Rick Light has served as director of the organization since 1999. Parachurch organizations have proliferated in the 20th century, and it is undeniable that many, many of them have done a good work in the Lord’s kingdom. Alongside the work of the Church, we have an embarrassment of ministries to pray for, so much so that you can likely find a work specific to the burden of your heart. The main thing is to pray–pray for the Church and pray for the works that share your own heart’s concern, and support them as well, first the Church and as funds allow, these
Who Was That Man?
A graduate of the school, he later served for twenty-four years as a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary. But history remembers the man primarily for a series of letters that he wrote under a pseudonym. Indeed, a fair amount of his published work dealt with the Roman Catholic Church, in which he had been raised in Ireland.
Nicholas Murray was born on Christmas day in 1802, in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1818, at the age of 16, serving as a apprentice printer at Harpers in New York City, to support himself. It was during this time that he came under conviction of his sins, responded to the Gospel, and left the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, it was a sermon delivered by the Rev. John Mitchell Mason that the Lord used to bring young Murray to saving faith. Subsequently he sat under the preaching of the Rev. Gardiner Spring for a year and a half. In time he was able to graduate from college and then at Princeton prepared for the ministry. As pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, he became a prominent figure in the Old School wing of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., even serving as Moderator of the Sixty-first General Assembly, in 1849.
For several years Rev. Murray had considered a project of writing a series of letters, presenting his own experience in the Roman Catholic Church and how he was led to leave it. Friends encouraged him in this effort, and eventually the letters began to be published on the pages of The New York Observer, under the pseudonym of Kirwan. The actual Kirwan had been an Anglican Dean and like Rev. Murray, had himself once been a Roman Catholic. Murray probably took up the pseudonym out of respect for this Anglican preacher.
The first series consisted of twelve letters, published in serial fashion between February and May of 1847. These were quickly gathered up as a book and published, with more than ten thousand copies sold in the first edition. Another edition soon followed, then the work was translated into German, and eventually there were more than a hundred thousand copies in circulation. Few publications of that day exceeded these numbers. As Murray’s biographer stated, “It is certainly safe and just to say that no writings on the Roman Catholic question have excited so much attention since the Reformation, or have been so widely read by the masses of the people.”
A second series of letters began to appear in newspapers in October of 1847. This second series, less popular among Protestants, was actually more effective among Roman Catholics. Both series had been addressed to the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, the Rev. John Hughes, though Hughes ignored the appearance of the first series, and only upon publication of the second series did Bishop Hughes compose any response. Rev. Murray continued to write on this subject until about 1852. The Rev. Nicholas Murray died on February 4, 1861, and it was on March 31, 1861 that the Rev. James Baird brought a memorial address in his memory. A large biographical memoir was issued the following year by the Rev. Samuel Irenaeus Prime.
Words to Live By:
The Lord brought this young man across an ocean in order to save him. No obstacle is too great for our God. The Lord works sovereignly, where and when He will, extending His grace and mercy to the least of men and to the greatest of sinners. He raises up the most unassumingly and unlikely, to do great works for His glory. Only in eternity will it be revealed the extent to which the Lord has used each of His children in extending His kingdom.
For Further Study:
Murray, Rev. Nicholas, Letters to the Rt. Rev. John Hughes, Roman Catholic bishop of New York (1851).
Baird, Rev. James, A Discourse delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, Carleton, City of St. John, N.B., on Sabbath, 31st March, 1861: In Memory of the late Rev. Nicholas Murray, D.D., author of the “Kirwan Letters” &c., who opened the above church nearly four years ago.
Prime, Samuel Irenaeus, Memoirs of the Rev. Nicholas Murray, D.D. (“Kirwan”).
A graduate of the school, he later served for twenty-four years as a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary. But history remembers the man primarily for a series of letters that he wrote under a pseudonym. Indeed, a fair amount of his published work dealt with the Roman Catholic Church, in which he had been raised in Ireland.
Nicholas Murray was born on Christmas day in 1802, in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1818, at the age of 16, serving as a apprentice printer at Harpers in New York City, to support himself. It was during this time that he came under conviction of his sins, responded to the Gospel, and left the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, it was a sermon delivered by the Rev. John Mitchell Mason that the Lord used to bring young Murray to saving faith. Subsequently he sat under the preaching of the Rev. Gardiner Spring for a year and a half. In time he was able to graduate from college and then at Princeton prepared for the ministry. As pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, he became a prominent figure in the Old School wing of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., even serving as Moderator of the Sixty-first General Assembly, in 1849.
For several years Rev. Murray had considered a project of writing a series of letters, presenting his own experience in the Roman Catholic Church and how he was led to leave it. Friends encouraged him in this effort, and eventually the letters began to be published on the pages of The New York Observer, under the pseudonym of Kirwan. The actual Kirwan had been an Anglican Dean and like Rev. Murray, had himself once been a Roman Catholic. Murray probably took up the pseudonym out of respect for this Anglican preacher.
The first series consisted of twelve letters, published in serial fashion between February and May of 1847. These were quickly gathered up as a book and published, with more than ten thousand copies sold in the first edition. Another edition soon followed, then the work was translated into German, and eventually there were more than a hundred thousand copies in circulation. Few publications of that day exceeded these numbers. As Murray’s biographer stated, “It is certainly safe and just to say that no writings on the Roman Catholic question have excited so much attention since the Reformation, or have been so widely read by the masses of the people.”
A second series of letters began to appear in newspapers in October of 1847. This second series, less popular among Protestants, was actually more effective among Roman Catholics. Both series had been addressed to the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, the Rev. John Hughes, though Hughes ignored the appearance of the first series, and only upon publication of the second series did Bishop Hughes compose any response. Rev. Murray continued to write on this subject until about 1852. The Rev. Nicholas Murray died on February 4, 1861, and it was on March 31, 1861 that the Rev. James Baird brought a memorial address in his memory. A large biographical memoir was issued the following year by the Rev. Samuel Irenaeus Prime.
Words to Live By:
The Lord brought this young man across an ocean in order to save him. No obstacle is too great for our God. The Lord works sovereignly, where and when He will, extending His grace and mercy to the least of men and to the greatest of sinners. He raises up the most unassumingly and unlikely, to do great works for His glory. Only in eternity will it be revealed the extent to which the Lord has used each of His children in extending His kingdom.
For Further Study:
Murray, Rev. Nicholas, Letters to the Rt. Rev. John Hughes, Roman Catholic bishop of New York (1851).
Baird, Rev. James, A Discourse delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, Carleton, City of St. John, N.B., on Sabbath, 31st March, 1861: In Memory of the late Rev. Nicholas Murray, D.D., author of the “Kirwan Letters” &c., who opened the above church nearly four years ago.
Prime, Samuel Irenaeus, Memoirs of the Rev. Nicholas Murray, D.D. (“Kirwan”).
An Early Tract of Francis Schaeffer
Baptism
Pictured at right is an early tract, or rather, a printed sermon by the Rev. Francis A. Schaeffer. This sermon was part of a series titled “What We Believe,” a series preached in the early months of 1947. In fact, this sermon can be dated exactly, as there is a statement on the inside front cover of the publication, stating that it was a message preached in St. Louis on 30 March 1947. Given the length of the tract, it must have been a long sermon, or perhaps more likely, it may have been revised for publication.
The date of the sermon is also interesting, in that it would be one of the last sermons preached there in St. Louis by Rev. Schaeffer, for he very soon began began a tour of Europe, in preparation for his later move to Switzerland. The original purpose in moving there was to plant churches and to establish chapters of Children For Christ, a ministry which Schaeffer had begun in St. Louis just a few years earlier.
The outline of Dr. Schaeffer’s argument for infant baptism is as follows:
INTRODUCTION
IMMERSION
• Baptistic Arguments
INFANT BAPTISM
• Salvation by Faith Alone
• Covenant Is Immutable
• Covenant Is Primarily Spiritual
• The Outward Sign
• Sign Applied to Infants
• New Testament Practice
• Church History
• Baptistic Arguments
CONCLUSION
Questions Asked Publicly of Parents Before Infant Is Baptized
While this message was not included in the five volume Works of Dr. Schaeffer, still this title has remained in print and is currently available in a nicely reformatted edition from the PCA Bookstore. The content of that edition remains the same, but for the deletion of an opening statement by Dr. Schaeffer, and that statement provides the historical context of the sermon as originally delivered:
In the almost three and a half years that I have been your Pastor, I have not preached on the subject of Baptism, but now we come to this subject in our series of sermons on “What We Believe.”
Words to Live By:
Faithful pastors seek to equip their congregations with what they need to live the Christian life in an humble, yet purposeful way, always seeking to honor our Savior, living lives that are a reflection of the holiness of God. Sound doctrine, which is simply the teaching of Scripture, is an integral and necessary part of that equipping that we so clearly need.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
–Ephesians 6:13-18
Family & Private Daily Scripture Readings, Morning and Evening:
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- Psalms 28-29 (Secret) 21 August, 2024The secret reading for 21 August 2024.
- Romans 11 (Family) 21 August, 2024The family reading for 21 August 2024.
- Jeremiah 50 (Secret) 21 August, 2024The secret reading for 21 August 2024.
Family & Private Daily Scripture Readings, Morning and Evening:
- ConfigurationHow to configure the M'Cheyne RSS feeds to your own preferences.
- Psalms 28-29 (Secret) 21 August, 2024The secret reading for 21 August 2024.
- Romans 11 (Family) 21 August, 2024The family reading for 21 August 2024.
- Jeremiah 50 (Secret) 21 August, 2024The secret reading for 21 August 2024.