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June 29 : Marcus & Narcissa Whitman

29 June, 2012 in June 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

 A National Historic Site for Presbyterians

We may well wonder whether such a historic site would be  established in the twenty-first century, given our anathema and apathy toward spiritual matters in our land.  But it was set apart in the early part of the twentieth century by none other than the United States Congress and signed by President Franklyn D. Roosevelt on June 29, 1936.  It honored Presbyterian home medical missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who were martyred for their faith and deeds in 1847 by the very Indian tribe they had gone to evangelize and disciple.  (See August 18 and October 13, for other days regarding their godly faith and deeds.)

The Whitmans had joined the Henry Spaldings (also Presbyterian missionaries with a zeal to win native Indians to Christ) on a trip to the northwest territories.  Accompanying a group of fur traders, they had traveled west across the Continental divide.  The two missionary women were the first white women to do that.  Arriving near present day Walla Walla, Washington, they set up their medical center and mission church.  But growing tensions soon arose due to the presence of Western immigrants, many led by Marcus Whitman himself as “trail boss,” and a measles outbreak, which killed half of the tribe.  Blaming the deaths on the Whitmans, the Cayuse Indians massacred the Whitmans and eleven other people at the mission compound.

The bill signed into law creating the public national site and monument to the Whitman’s has some interesting words for a national historic site.  It reads in part that they “established their Indian missions and school, and ministry to the physical and spiritual needs of the Indians until massacred” by the Indians.

Marcus Whitman saved Oregon for the United States by  developing the Oregon Trail.

Words to Live By: What would you be willing to do for the sake of strangers outside of Christ in undeveloped countries of the world?  Not all of us are called to go, but all of us are to be willing to pray and support  those who are called to spread the unsearchable riches of Christ in these way.  Are you doing so now?  If not, consider beginning today to be “the support staff” of missionaries of the cross at home or in far away places.

Through the Scriptures: Amos 4 – 6

Through the Standards: Proof texts of the first commandment.

Exodus 20:3
“You shall have not other gods before Me.” (NASB)

1 Chronicles 28:9
“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.” (NASB)

Isaiah 43:10, 11
“‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He.  Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.  I, even I, am the LORD’ And there is no savior besides Me.'” (NASB)

1 Corinthians 8:4 – 6
“Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” (NASB)

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June 21 : Canyon Rescue : How Allan Spent His Honeymoon

21 June, 2012 in June 2012 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

Rescue on Their Honeymoon

The seminary president had finally tied the knot in marriage with his secretary Grace Sanderson.  The happy couple went west from the campus in Delaware to the Grand Canyon for their honeymoon.  It was a trip which included the joys of married love, the rapture of God’s creation in the Canyon, the thrill of hiking on  the trails of that part of the state of Colorado, the rescue of the World War II flyers who had crashed in their bomber over the Canyon . . . wait, the rescue of crashed flyers on their honeymoon?  Yet that was the experience of Allan and Grace MacRae on their honeymoon on June 21, 1944.

The event was widely reported in newspapers around the country. Even a year later, the daring rescue was still being talked about. We quote from an article written by the Rev. Donald E. Hoke (later to become one of the founding fathers of the PCA), that appeared in the June 1945 issue of Sunday magazine :

When he rescued three army airmen from the depths of the Grand Canyon last summer, the Philadelphia Bulletin headlined him as “Bearded, Bespectacled, Theological Bridegroom.”
The editor’s description was timely, but by no means exhaustive of the versatile mountain-climber’s talents and appearance. For by profession, Allan A. MacRae is a semitic scholar, archaeologist, teacher, and president of a fast-growing interdenominational seminary with a nation-wide influence.
Front page publicity sky-rocketed him into prominence last June when together with a veteran ranger he descended the heretofore unscaled north wall of the Grand Canyon (Ariz.) and led out three fliers who had been marooned in the inaccessible gorge for a week.
Pictures of him, looking more like a Forty-niner than a dignified theologian as he brought the men out, made the front page on all big city dailies and news reels, for the marooned fliers had been spot news for a week. And the circumstances surrounding his presence in the canyon made a human interest story the news hounds devoured.
For Allan MacRae and his bride of less than a month were honeymooning in the beautiful but desolate valley where he was drafted for the rescue….
Rushed to the opposite side of the canyon by army jeep, MacRae and a veteran ranger studied maps of the steep north wall and started down. Soon they discovered a narrow deer trail, invisible on air maps, and followed it 550 feet down the famous precipitous  Red wall. Camping over night at its base, they found the three men the following day and started back the miraculous route they had discovered.

Words to Live By:

Back in Wilmington, Delaware a few weeks later, MacRae was besieged with invitations to tell his story. At first he demurred, then decided that there might be an unparalleled opportunity to give a gospel message…
Like the fliers, all men are lost, in the abyss of sin. For them there is no way out. Their need? A revelation from above, like the messages parachuted to the marooned men. But it is not enough to then just know your lost condition, some one must help you out. And Jesus Christ, he concludes, is God’s rescuer to lost men—He descended to our level that He might bring us back to His.

Through the Scriptures: 1 Kings 20 – 22

Through the Standards: Proof texts of the law of God, in general

Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (ESV)

Micah 6:8
“He has told  you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (ESV)

1 Samuel 15:22b
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” (ESV)

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January 20: Charles Cummings

20 January, 2012 in January 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

Presbyterians in Southwest Virginia Declare Independence from England

In September of 1774, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to protest some British laws which were deemed to be injurious to the people of the American colonies. One of them had been to deem all territory north of the Ohio River to Quebec, a Roman Catholic province. With that protestation, these early risings of independence sent petitions to their British rulers, urging at the same time that the people of the colonies take action by boycotting certain British goods. All over the colonies, committees came together to discuss their collective responses to this call.

On January 20, 1775, a group of people representing southwest Virginia, met in the town of Abington, Virginia. A committee was formed, made up primarily of Presbyterians in two churches pastored by Charles Cummings. Their names deserve to be mentioned, as they were the key Presbyterian laymen of that area. They were, along with their rank, Colonel William Christian, Colonel William Preston, Captain Stephen Trigg, Major Arthur Campbell, John Montgomery, James McGavock. William Campbell, Thomas Madison, Daniel Smith, William Russell, Evan Shelby, and William Edmundson.

After discussion together, they as a body sent an address to the Second Continental Congress, soon to meet, which included the following words:

“We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but on the contrary, shall ever glory in being the loyal subjects of a Protestant prince descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise of our religion as Protestants and our liberties and properties as British subjects. But if no pacific measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of those inestimable privileges which we are entitled to as subjects, and to reduce us to slavery, we declare that we are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender them to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives.”

Here was no wild-eyed statement of revolution, but rather a carefully formulated statement of subjection to lawful authority, as long as the latter did not seek to take away the rights and privileges of its citizens, and thereby make them little more than slaves. It was thought that the wording of this declaration was essentially that of Presbyterian pastor Charles Cummings.

They were sent to the Second Continental Congress as the spirit of southwest Virginia with regards to the important issues of liberty and justice for all.

Words to Live By: “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22 (ESV);

“For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.” Proverbs 24:6 (ESV)

Through the Scriptures:Job 14 – 17

Through the Standards: Proof Texts of God and the Holy Trinity

Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” (NASV)

1 Corinthians 8:4 – 6
“Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” (NASV)

Acts 5:3, 4
“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? . . . You have not lied to men, but to God.'” (NASV)

 2 Corinthians 13:14
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” (NASV)

For further reading, see Virginia Presbyterianism and Religious Liberty in Colonial and Revolutionary Times, by Thomas Cary Johnson. Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1907.

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