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May 31: The Mecklenberg Declaration

31 May, 2013 in May 2013 by archivist | No comments

First in Declaring Independence

All Americans are familiar with the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776.  But precious few are familiar with the truth that in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, a declaration of independence from Great Britain was signed and sealed under the leadership of Presbyterians  a full thirteen months before July 4, on May 31, 1775.

Assembled in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 19, 1775 were 27 citizens, many of them members of the Presbyterian churches in the area. The chairman of the committee was Abraham Alexander, who was an elder of the Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church.  John Alexander, secretary of the committee, was an elder from Hopewell Presbyterian Church.  So was Hezekiah Alexander. Rev. Hezekiah Balch was the pastor of Poplar Creek Presbyterian Church. David Reese was also on the committee and a ruling elder from Poplar Creek. Adam Alexander and Robert Queary were elders from Rocky River Presbyterian Church, with Robert Irwin an elder from Steele Creek Presbyterian Church.

The proposed declaration, which was written by Ephraim Brevard, a members of the committee, was read before the assembly of the county in front of the courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It said:

I. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown to be exercised in these colonies, are null and void, and the constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended.    II. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under the direction of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers within their respective providences, and that no other legislative  or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these colonies.

The assembly cried out with a loud voice their desire to be independent of Great Britain, and to defend that freedom with their lives and fortunes. And many a life and fortune would be sacrificed before gaining that freedom. The first voice to be a free and independent people in favor of American freedom, came from the Presbyterians in North Carolina. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians justly have the honor of recognition in speaking first for liberty.

Words to Live By:  True God-fearing people recognize that there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations.  In that trust, we can go forth and stand for liberty for all.  And let us stand for that liberty in a day when challenges to that freedom of religion are being made each and every day.  Pray today, brothers and sisters,  for America.

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February 25: Old Mortality

25 February, 2013 in February 2013 by Wayne Sparkman | No comments

Old Mortality: Robert Patterson [ca. 1713-1801]

The purpose of this blog is to remind us of those saints who have gone before, and to recall something of our common history as Presbyterians, for regardless of our denomination, we are all connected, one with another. We learn from one another, are encouraged by one another, and are reminded to pray for one another.

dewittWmRAnd so it seemed very fitting when I stumbled across the content chosen for today’s post. Our entry for the day was to focus on the Rev. William Radcliffe DeWitt, (pictured in the photo at the right), who was born on this day, February 25, 1792, and who was for forty years the pastor of the English Presbyterian Church of Harrisburg, PA. Looking for more about his ministry, I was pleased to find among our church history collection a copy of The Centennial Memorial of the English Presbyterian Church, 1794-1894, with a section on DeWitt’s ministry at that church. That in turn led to the serendipitous discovery of the following poignant words which serve as the opening paragraphs for the chapter on that church’s history:

“Now go write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.”–Isaiah 30:6.

“Walter Scott has very touchingly told us of Old Mortality, a religious itinerant of his times. He was first discovered in the burial ground of the Parish of Gaudercleugh. It was his custom to pass from one graveyard to another, and with the patient chisel of the engraver clear away the moss from the grey tombstones, and restore the names and the lines that Time’s finger had well nigh effaced. It mattered little to him whether it was the headstone of some early martyr to the faith, or only love’s memorial to some little child. It was his joy to do the quiet and unbidden work of bringing again to the notice of men the history and the heroism of some of God’s nobility of whom the world was not worthy, nor less to honor the unknown ones who were laid to rest with unseen tears.

abeel_graveOur work to-day bears something of the same character. Like Old Mortality, we step softly and reverently among the graves of the past. Chisel in hand we pass from memory to memory. We clear away the gathered moss. We refurnish the ancient stones and read again the names of the departed, dropping here and there a tear as precious memories are awakened, and reminding ourselves anew of a fellowship that is only interrupted for a little time. The past is ours. We are its heirs. Its good comes down to us in an apostolic succession of benedictions. The links that bind us to past days and years are golden links. It is one of the choicest gifts of grace, that we may at the same time live three lives in one. Past memories and present experiences and future hopes do blend to make human life noble and attractive. Our holy faith commemorates the past, gladdens the present and brightens the future.”

[excerpted from “A Century Plant,” by Rev. Thomas A. Robinson, in The Centennial Memorial of the English Presbyterian Congregation of Harrisburg, PA, 1794-1894, George B. Stewart, editor. Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1894, pp. 192-193. This book is available on the Internet, here.

And as it turns out, there was a real person behind the Walter Scott’s character of Old Mortality.

oldMortality_lg“Robert Patterson was born circa 1713 on the farm of Haggis Ha, in the parish of Hawick and as a married man moved to the village of Balmaclellan. A stonemason by trade and owner of a small quarry, he spent most of his life touring the lowlands of Scotland visiting and maintaining Covenanter grave sites. His method of cutting or incising letters and the ability to get so much into a limited space makes his work very distinctive. He gained some fame as ‘Old Mortality,’ the character in the book of the same name by Sir Walter Scott.”

To read more of that account, click here.

Words to Live By: Perhaps it is by divine design, but no monument lasts forever. Our worship is not for the saints or for their graves, but for the Lord of glory, whose love moved their hearts to serve Him. We remember them because of their testimony to the truth of the Gospel.

“And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.’ ”
[Exodus 13:14, NASB]

 

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February 14: Rev. James Scrimgeour

14 February, 2013 in February 2013 by Wayne Sparkman | No comments

James Scrimgeour was born in the year 1757 in the vicinity of Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother, a member of the Secession Church, was known for her remarkable intelligence and piety, and raised young James in a godly home. Graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1772, James prepared for the ministry under the tutelage of the renowned John Brown of Haddington, and Rev. Brown came to have a high regard for Scrimgeour’s abilities and gifting for ministry. In 1782 he was licensed by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh.

Rev. Scrimgeour supplied pulpits in various parts of Scotland for several years and then was settled as pastor of the Associate congregation of North Berwick, in 1784. Here he remained until mental and physical exhaustion overtook him, removing him from the pulpit in 1794.

In 1802, Dr. John M. Mason visited Great Britain, with the goal of finding ministers who would immigrate to the United States. Rev. Scrimgeour, having largely recovered his health, was among those who consented to the proposal, and upon reaching America he was installed as the pastor of the Scottish Church, in Newburgh, New York. Here he labored from 1802 until 1812. He then answered a call to serve the neighboring church in Little Britain, NY, and remained in that post until declining health forced his retirement. He lived but a few months more, and died on February 14, 1825.

Sprague’s Annals of the Presbyterian Pulpit provides some great anecdotes about various ministers. One such story regarding Rev. Scrimgeour says a good deal about his worth as a preacher:

“Those who knew him in the earlier years of his ministry have told me that he was then one of the most popular preachers in the denomination to which he belonged,–the Burgher Seceders; and, from what I know of the taste of Scottish Christians, as well as from my own recollection of his manner in the pulpit, I can easily credit the statement, and various reasons might be assigned if it were worth while to dwell upon the point, why his ministrations were not so generally acceptable in this country as in his native land. Not to mention others, his strong Scottish accent, if not positively distasteful, would not be particularly pleasing to most Americans;…His own people, however, were strongly attached to him, and, in other congregations, containing a large Scottish element, as in that of his old friend Dr. Mason, of New York, in Newburgh, and elsewhere, his appearance in the pulpit always gave pleasure to his audience. When he visited these places, he very well knew that he would be required to preach, and he always went from home with an ample equipment–that is, with from fifty to a hundred sermons in his portmanteau. On one occasion an excellent lady of my acquaintance travelled some fifteen miles to hear Dr. J. M. Mason, who was expected to preach in one of the Associate Reformed congregations, back from Newburgh.  When she reached the church, to her great disappointment, she saw Mr. Scrimgeour ascend the pulpit. Her first impulse was to quit the place and return home, but the ‘sober second thought’ of the Christian kept her in her seat. You may well suppose that she was not in the most favorable mood for appreciating the preacher, (whom she had often heard) yet she afterwards declared that she went away quite captivated with the sermon, and fully persuaded that even Dr. Mason himself (whom she also knew) could not have better recompensed her for her long journey.”

Words to Live By:
To take a few words from a sermon by Moses Hoge,
“Do not expect too much from your Ministers.–Remember that they are men not angels. And were they even angels, they could do nothing for you without a diligent co-operation on your part. If the God of heaven has appointed Ministers to preach the gospel to you, will you not hear it and obey it, that you may not die but live for ever? Waste not the precious time given you for a much better purpose, in devising vain excuses. The time is not far off when you will be stripped of them all. And, surely, there cannot be a greater infatuation than to waste in this way your day of grace–the only season alloted for your repentance and amendment of life–the only season alloted for your preparation for an endless eternity.”

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May 31 : Mecklenberg Presbyterians Declare Independence

31 May, 2012 in May 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

 First in Declaring Independence

All Americans are familiar with the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776.  But precious few are familiar with the truth that in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, a declaration of independence from Great Britain was signed and sealed under the leadership of Presbyterians  a full thirteen months before July 4, on May 31, 1775.

Assembled in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 19, 1775 were 27  citizens, many of them members of the Presbyterian churches in the area. The chairman of the committee was Abraham Alexander, who was an elder of the Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church.  John Alexander, secretary of the committee, was an elder from Hopewell Presbyterian Church.  So was Hezekiah Alexander. Rev. Hezekiah Balch was the pastor of Poplar Creek Presbyterian Church. David Reese was also on the committee and a ruling elder from Poplar Creek. Adam Alexander and Robert Queary were elders from Rocky River Presbyterian Church, with Robert Irwin an elder from Steele Creek Presbyterian Church.

The proposed declaration, which was written by Ephraim Brevard, a members of the committee, was read before the assembly of the county in front of the courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It said:

I. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown to be exercised in these colonies, are null and void, and the constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended.    II. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under the direction of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers within their respective providences, and that no other legislative  or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these colonies.

The assembly cried out with a loud voice their desire to be independent of Great Britain, and to defend that freedom with their lives and fortunes. And many a life and fortune would be sacrificed before gaining that freedom. The first voice to be a free and independent people in favor of American freedom, came from the Presbyterians in North Carolina. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians justly have the honor of recognition in speaking first for liberty.

Words to Live By:  True God-fearing people recognize that there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations.  In that trust, we can go forth and stand for liberty for all.  And let us stand for that liberty in a day when challenges to that freedom of religion are being made each and every day.  Pray today, brothers and sisters,  for America.

Through the Scriptures:  1 Kings 1 – 4

Through the Standards: The fact of the perseverance of the saints

WCF 17:1
‘They, who God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”

WLC 79 — “May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state of grace?
A.  True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”

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