This Day in Presbyterian History

The School & Family Catechist
by Rev. William Smith (1834)




Q. 86.  What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A.  Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

EXPLICATION.

Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace. –Faith, as here described, is called a grace, because it is a gift freely bestowed, by the favor of God, upon the sinner, who has no merit of his own, to give him any claim to it.  This faith is called a saving grace, because wherever it is, the work of salvation is begun, which God will assuredly complete in due time.  This saving grace is called faith in Christ, because he is the only object on which it rests.

As he is offered to us in the gospel. –That is we are to receive Christ in all his offices, as our prophet, our priest, and our king, and as an example, that we should follow his steps; in all of which, he is offered to us in the gospel.

ANALYSIS.

The information here received, respecting faith in Christ, may be divided into five parts:

1.  That it is a saving grace. –Heb. x. 39.  We are not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

2.  That it is by faith, that we receive Jesus Christ. –John i. 12.  As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.

3.  That by it we rest upon him. –Matt. xi. 28, 29. 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; for I am meek, and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

4.  That by this faith, we are enabled to receive and rest upon CHRIST ALONE for salvation. –Acts.    iv. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  Eph. ii. 8. By grace are ye saved, through faith. 5.   That it receives and rests upon Christ, as he is offered in the gospel. –Rom. x. 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (or the gospel).

Bethel’s Second Pastor, 1782 – 1789

Bethel Presbyterian Church, in Clover, South Carolina, ranks as one of the oldest churches in the PCA, having been founded in 1764. Francis D. Cummins was Bethel’s second pastor serving from 1782 – April 17, 1789 He was born in 1752 near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were Charles Cummins and Rebecca McNickle Cummins who were from Northern Ireland. When Francis Cummins was in his 19th year, his family moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The neighboring college, then Queens Museum, afforded him the opportunity for his higher education. It was there that he graduated about the year 1776.

Francis Cummins was an active and zealous Patriot in the Revolutionary War. He was present at the reading of the Mecklenburg Declaration in 1775. After leaving college he was engaged chiefly in the business of teaching. He was for several years a preceptor at Clio Academy, a respectable German Seminary in Rowan County (now Iredell County), North Carolina. While Mr. Cummins was engaged in teaching, he studied theology under the direction of Dr. James Hall. Francis Cummins was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Orange on December 15, 1780. During the year 1781 he preached at various places and in the spring of 1782 accepted a call from Bethel Church where he was ordained at the close of that year.

Rev. Cummins was one of the original members of South Carolina Presbytery when it was set off from Orange Presbytery in 1785. In the spring of 1788 while residing at Bethel and serving both as pastor and teacher of the youth, he was elected by the people of the York District as a member of the South Carolina Convention called to decide upon the Constitution of the United States. Although all his colleagues were for rejecting it, Rev. Cummins voted in its favor. Sometime between 1782 and 1789 Bethel Academy was organized by Rev. Cummins. The first school was built about one and a half miles north of the church. Education and religion were closely associated in the early days of the church. It was a common practice that the minister of the church also taught in the school. In 1788 the old Presbytery of South Carolina held its seventh session at Bethel. This was perhaps the first Presbytery meeting ever held at Bethel Church. Rev. Cummins was the Moderator.

Rev. Cummins was married to Sarah Davis. They were the parents of eight children. Mrs. Cummins died December 10, 1790. Rev. Cummins married the second time in October 1791 to Sarah Thompson.

After leaving Bethel Rev. Cummins was the pastor at several churches in the western part of South Carolina. In 1793 he was appointed by the Presbytery to collect facts in regard to the early history of all the churches at that time. These records were received and approved by the Presbytery.

In 1803 Rev. Cummins moved to the state of Georgia. He was the first minister to preach at Salem Presbyterian Church (formerly named Liberty Presbyterian Church), Philomath, Georgia in their new location.

Rev. Cummins was the first rector or principal of the Meson Academy, Lexington, Georgia. In 1920 Meson Academy became Oglethorpe County High School.

Rev. Cummins had a great vigor of constitution. He was an admirable scholar and a well-read theologian. He was uncommonly gifted in prayer, was vivid and clear in his conceptions, having great power of condensation in the use of language. In stature he was above the common size with broad shoulders, expanded frame, large limbs, a high forehead and a deep-toned, guttural voice.

In January 1832 he was attacked with influenza which terminated his life. He died on February 22, 1832, and is buried in the Greensboro City Cemetery, Greensboro, Georgia.

A while back, when searching for an obituary (not found) in an old issue of THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, I came across this interesting brief article concerning pastor, the congregation and the original edifice of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. My primary interest is in the first few paragraphs. After that, well, you’ll have to read it for yourself.

THE OLD ARCH STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

The instrumentality of Whitfield in the erection of the ancient square edifice, that once stood on the north west corner of Arch and Third streets, is probably known to some of your readers, as well as the fact, that the people worshipping there, were styled “new lights,” and that sundry opprobrious epithets were applied to the memorable Gilbert Tennent, their pastor. I have sat in the old square house, more than once, and well remember when it was succeeded by the oblong building that occupied the site, until after the settlement of the late Dr. Cuyler, in the pastoral office.

There was no cellar under the original house, and the remains of the venerable and beloved Tennent were deposited beneath the brick floor, and so remained until the contemplated change in the place of worship was effected. The new edifice was furnished with a cellar; and being well suited to storage, was often perverted to the strange use of a place of deposit for the article that manufactures paupers so rapidly. In this cellar were deposited the remains of Tennent, a suitable brick enclosure having been made for the purpose.

The late Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was a warm personal friend and admirer of Mr. Tennent, was sorely grieved, that such a disposition had been made of the venerated dust of his favorite preacher. Horrified at what he deemed a kind of sacrilege, the following impromptu, pronounced while in conversation with a lady who was then a member of Arch street Church, gave vent to his feelings. The lady who is yet living, and who penned the memorable lines at the time of utterance, favored me with a copy, some months ago; and as they are well worth a place in your useful paper, they are forwarded for insertion. They represent the spirit of the departed saint, roused by the resurrection trump, as quitting his heavenly abode, to visit earth in search of his body, and run thus :

The trumpet sounds, the sleeping dead arise,
And Tennent’s spirit quits its nature skies;
To his dear church it wings its favor’d way
To seek reunion with its kindred clay,
Where is my body? cries the reverend saint,
“Lo here, good Sir, the Sexton, “no it ain’t,”
“My body rested under my church floor
That body rises from a liquor store!”

Your readers are aware, the Dr. Rush hated intemperance and all its relations.

PAUL.

[excerpted from THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, 31.6 (7 February 1852): 21, column 5.]

The Rev. John Witherspoon’s works really do need to be dusted off and brought to greater public attention. As one proof of the usefulness of his works, we present this short article today. Sprinkle Publications did reprint Witherspoon’s Works a few years ago, and copies are still available, though those volumes haven’t gathered too much attention and we’re the poorer for that neglect.

THE DOWNWARD COURSE OF SIN.

1. Men enter and initiate themselves in a vicious practice by smaller sins. Heinous sins are too alarming for the conscience of a young sinner; and therefore he only ventures upon such as are smaller, at first. Every particular kind of vice creeps in this gradual manner.

2. Having once begun in the ways of sin, he ventures upon something greater and more daring. His courage grows with his experience. Now, sins of a deeper die do not look so frightful as before. Custom makes everything familiar. No person who once breaks over the limits of a clear conscience knows where he shall stop.

3. Open sins soon throw a man into the hands of ungodly companions. Open sins determine his character, and give him a place with the ungodly. He shuns the society of good men, because their presence is a restraint, and their example a reproof to him. There are none with whom he can associate but the ungodly.

4. In the next stage, the sinner begins to feel the force of habit and inveterate custom; he becomes rooted and settled in an evil way.—Those who have been long habituated to any sin, how hopeless is their reform! One single act of sin seems nothing; but one after another imperceptibly strengthens the disposition, and enslaves the unhappy criminal beyond the hope of recovery.

5. The next stage in a sinner’s course is to lose the sense of shame, and sin boldly and openly. So long as shame remains, it is a great drawback. But it is an evidence of an uncommon height of impiety, when natural shame is gone.

6. Another stage in the sinner’s progress is to harden himself so far as to sin without remorse of conscience. The frequent repetition of sins stupefies the conscience. They, as it were, weary it out, and drive it to despair. It ceases all its reproofs, and, like a frequently discouraged friend, suffers the infatuated sinner to take his course. And hence,

7. Hardened sinners often come to boast and glory in their wickedness. It is something to be beyond shame; but it is still more to glory in wickedness, and esteem it honorable. Glorious ambition indeed!

8. Not content with being wicked themselves, they use all their arts and influence to make others wicked also. They are zealous in sinning, and industrious in the promotion of the infernal cause.—They extinguish the fear of God in others, and laugh down their own conscientious scruples. And now,

9. To close the scene, those who have thus far hardened themselves, are given up by God to judicial blindness of mind and hardness of heart. They are marked out as vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. This is the consequence of their obstinacy. They are devoted the judgment they deserve.

Reader! view it with terror. — Dr. Witherspoon.

[excerpted from The Evangelical Guardian, 4.10 (February 1847): 461-462.]

Revival Values
By George W. Ridout

[excerpted from THE PRESBYTERIAN (19 February 1925): 8-9.

The history of the Christian church is featured ever and anon with the story of great and significant revivals of religion.

In 1847, the denominations confessed that “there is a flatness over the churches, revivals are rare, and conversions few, while the power of godliness among professors of religion is low.” About the same time, Dr. Chalmers, in The North British Review, speaking of Scotland, said: “As things stand at present, our creeds and confessions have become effete, and the Bible a dead letter, and the orthodoxy which was at one time the glory, by withering into the formal and lifeless, is now the shame and reproach of all our churches.”

The widespread revivals of religion in 1857 and 1859 woke up the churches, kindled new fires, and re-established vital religion in both America and the old country.

Moody taught that there are four things essential to the promoting of a revival: (1) We must believe in revivals ; (2) [text obscured]; (3) We must pray for a revival; (4) We must work for a revival.

Dr. Robert Boyd, when pastor in Chicago long ago, had a church which was signally blessed with a continuous ingathering of souls. At one of his morning services, he said, at the close: “Brethren, so far as I can learn, there has not been a conversion in this church for the past four weeks. I would like all who are concerned for the salvation of souls to meet me this afternoon for special prayer.” A large number met the pastor in prayer and in that service an infidel bookseller was converted and the fire was started afresh.

Mr. Sankey tells the story of a man who was visiting one of the big cathedrals in England. A verger was showing him through and pointing out with admiration the beautiful windows and statuary. The American very suddenly turned to his guide and said, “Do you have many conversions here?” Amazed at such a question, the verger turned to him and said, “Conversions? Conversions! Why, my friend, what kind of a place do you think this is? Do you lake this to be a Wesleyan chapel ?”

The work of converting men and turning them from “darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” appears to have dwindled down alarmingly in the average church. We need another revival of religion to bring back to the churches the power of conversion.

Talmadge tells this incident in connection with his Tabernacle: “In the winter of 1875, we were worshipping in the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We had great audiences, but I was oppressed by the fact that conversions were not numerous. On Tuesday, I invited to my house five old, consecrated. Christian men. These men came, not knowing why I had invited them. I took them to the top of the house. I said to them: ‘I have called you here for special prayer. I am in agony for a great turning to God of the people. We have vast multitudes in attendance, and they are attentive and respectful, but I cannot see that they are saved. Let us kneel down and each one pray, and not leave this room until we are all assured that the blessing will come, and has come!’ It was a most intense crying unto God. I said, ‘Brethren, let this meeting be secret,’ and they said, ‘It shall be!’ The next Friday night came the usual prayer-meeting. No one knew what had occurred on Tuesday night, but the meeting was unusually thronged. Men accustomed to pray with great composure broke down under emotion. The people were in tears. There were sobs and silences and solemnity of such unusual power that the worshippers looked unto each other’s faces as much as to say: ‘What does this mean?’ And when the following Sabbath came, although we were in a secular place, over four hundred arose for prayer, and a religious awakening took place that made the winter memorable.”

Robert Hall has said: “The prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the great Jehovah yields. Prayer is the sovereign remedy.” John Foster said: “More and better praying will bring the surest and readiest triumph to God’s cause. The church has its sheet anchor in the closet, its magazine stores are there.”

“Restraining prayer, we cease to fight,
Prayer makes the Christian armor bright;
And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.”

1. Let us close with a few propositions. Revivals of religion are not inconsistent with intellectual activity and learning. Think of the Wesleys—Oxford men; Jonathan Edwards, one of America’s greatest metaphysicians; Chalmers, of Scotland; Baxter, Howe, Charnock, Owen, and others of former days, and Pierson, Peck, Odin, and Torrey, of modern times.

2. Revivals of religion are not inconsistent with a methodical and symmetrical ministry. Think of Theodore Cuyler, the great pastor of Brooklyn, and J. O. Peck, the remarkable pastor-evangelist of Methodism.

3. Revivals of religion are not inconsistent with good psychology and sound philosophy. At this point we are again reminded of Jonathan Edwards. Finney illustrates this fact, also. Moody was by no means a philosopher, but no man had a keener sense of the psychological moment, and all effective soul-winners learn this art.

4. Revivals of religion are not inconsistent with good reason and sound sense. Nature has her revivals and freshets and outpourings. Business men seek after revivals in trade and learn the art of acquiring them and bringing them to pass. The church is not urging anything unreasonable when she calls upon her people to pray and work for a revival of religion. Indeed, the church that enjoys frequent revivals of religion is the church that keeps most intensely alive its spiritual life and adds to its communion new converts.