Stated Supply

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December 28: Lardner Wilson Moore

27 December, 2015 in Uncategorized by archivist | No comments

Lardner Wilson Moore was born on May 20, 1898, in Osaka, Japan. His father was the Rev. John Wallace Moore and his mother, Kate (Boude) Moore. His parents were among the very first Protestant missionaries to serve in Japan.

Lardener received his collegiate education at Austin College, in Texas, earning his BA there in 1918 and an MA in 1919. He then pursued his preparation for ministry at Union Theological Seminary, in Richmond, Virginia, where he earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1922.

Upon graduation from Seminary, Lardner then married Grace Eagleton, in Sherman, Texas on July 6, 1922. To this marriage, three children were born, including George Eagleton, John Wallace and Robert Wilson.

Moore was licensed and ordained on September 15, 1921 under the authority of Durant Presbytery (PCUS), being installed as a pastor of the PCUS church in Caddo, Oklahoma. Additionally, he served as Stated Supply for a smaller Presbyterian church in Caney, Oklahoma. These posts he held from 1922-1924. [Returning to the States from Japan in 1942, Rev. Moore was able to return to Caddo to conduct the funeral of a member of his former church]

But his heart was set on foreign service and in 1924 he began his career as a foreign missionary to Japan, remaining there until 1968.  A term of service in the US Army, from 1943 – 1947 had interrupted his work in Japan. In that military service, he was commissioned to oversee the translation work of a core group of Japanese Americans. At the conclusion of the War, he also served as a language arbiter during the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.

moore_1963_Grace_and_Lardner_Takamotsu_Japan_wborderIn the years following the War, he became president of Shikoku Christian College in Zentsuji, Japan, serving in that post from 1950 – 1957.

In 1968, Rev. Moore was honorably retired, and returning the United States, went on to serve as Stated Supply at a Presbyterian church in Antlers, Oklahoma, from 1969 to 1972. It was in 1973 that he was received by the PCA’s Texas Presbytery. Later, on October 31, 1981 he transferred his credentials into the OPC.

Rev. Moore died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1987, within a few months of his 90th birthday.

Words to Live By:
The Lord gifts all of us differently. To some, He gives a great facility with languages, thus equipping them to be particularly useful in the work of missions. If you know someone with such gifting, do all you can to help them along their way in serving the Lord. More than anything, pray for them, even now, long before they ever reach the mission field. Pray that the Lord will prepare them and that He will use them to advance His kingdom. Pray that they will stand strong in the Lord, firmly anchored in Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior.

Image source: The above right photograph of Lardner and Grace Moore was taken in Takamatsu, Japan in 1963. Photograph provided by Robert Landolt, nephew of Grace Moore.

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May 6, 2014: M. A. Pearson

6 May, 2014 in May 2014 by Wayne Sparkman | No comments

As Francis Schaeffer said, in the Kingdom of God, there are no little people. Rev. and Mrs. M.A. Pearson were two selfless servants in God’s vineyard, unknown to most, who labored in near poverty in order to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Cherokee nation. 

Missionary to Cherokees Called Home to Be With Lord

Mr. & Mrs. Manford Alpheus PearsonThe Rev. M. A. Pearson, minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church and missionary for many years to the Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, went to be with the Lord on Friday, May 6, 1955.

Mr. Pearson worked among the Cherokee Indians as a missionary from 1911 until his retirement in 1953.

Manford Alphaeus Pearson was born in Waverly, Kansas, June 26, 1876, graduated from Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1903, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1906. From his graduation from Princeton until he entered the mission field, he was a local pastor, having been ordained by the Presbytery of Neosho (PCUSA), on September 19, 1906, whereupon he served as Stated Supply from 1906-1907 for PCUSA churches in Altamont and Mound Valley, Kansas. From 1907 to 1910, he served other PCUSA churches throughout Kansas, in Chetopa, Toronto, Liberal, Seiling and Helena. Finally, in 1911, he began his life’s work with the Cherokee Indians, working initially under the auspices of the PCUSA’s Board of Home Missions. laboring with the Cherokee Indian Mission in Oklahoma.

Rev. Pearson withdrew from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1922 due to the prevailing modernism of the denomination. From 1922-1939, he continued his work with the Cherokee by associating with the Gospel Missionary Union out of Kansas City, Missouri. He was later received by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, of the Presbyterian Church of America (later the OPC), on November 2, 1936, and subsequently was among those who in 1938 left to form the Bible Presbyterian Synod.

Mr. Pearson, during the last few years of his ministry with the Cherokees, translated parts of the Old Testament, then the Gospel of John, and later the New Testament into their language. The Cherokees had the Bible, but their copies were wearing out and the Bible Society did not plan to print more. Moreover, there were some 400 errors in the translation. For these reasons, Mr. Pearson made the new translation in Cherokee.

Upon his retirement, he moved to the East and was a resident in “Evening Rest,” the Bible Presbyterian Home for the Aged in Delanco, New Jersey. While there he made a number of recordings for use in the Cherokee Churches he had established where as yet there was no missionary or minister to take his place. On May 6, 1955, Rev. Pearson died suddenly of a heart attack while a guest at the Bible Presbyterian Home in Delanco, N.J.

Pictured above right, Rev. M.A. Pearson and his second wife, Ella (Cooper) Pearson. Rev. Pearson’s first wife, Martha (Smith) Pearson, had died in 1933.

Upon Rev. Pearson’s death, an obituary was printed on the pages of The Christian Beacon, which included the following memorial from the BPC Minutes of synod:

“His funeral was held in the tablernacle of the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, N.J. Dr. McIntire stated that he had known Mr. Pearson all the years of Synod. Mr. Pearson often stated that he had belonged to Synod before the formation of our Synod. He was a real scholar. He had done a great work of translation in the Cherokee Old and New Testament. From 1911 on he had worked among the Cherokee Indians. He was stalwart for the faith. Mrs. Pearson showed Dr. McIntire Mr. Pearson’s prayer list which he kept in an old shoe box. It contained a detailed card filing system of B.P. Ministers, Independent Board missionaries, regional officers of the I.C.C.C. and many others connected with the whole sphere of our work with notes and clippings concerning each. He had a great burden of prayer for our movement. Synod then stood for a season of prayer led by the Rev. Charles E. Richter.”

[excerpted from The Christian Beacon, May 12, 1955]

I can only wish that someone had thought to preserve that old shoe box full of prayer lists and cards. What a testimony it would bear.

Words to Live By:
A poem greatly loved and much quoted by Mr. Pearson is Annie Johnson Flint’s “He Giveth More Grace.”

He giveth more grace when the burden becomes greater.
He sendeth more strength when labors increase.
To added affliction he addeth His mercies,
To multiplied trials—His multiplied grace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When strength seems to fail ere the day is half done;
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto man;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

For Further Study, see the Records of the Pearson Mission to the Cherokee, preserved at the PCA Historical Center.

Works published by Rev. M.A. Pearson:

The Gospel of John the Apostle. [Westville, Okla.], 1948. Cherokee; 83 p.; 19 cm.  Note: Cherokee version by M.A. Pearson together with the King James Version in English. Includes English note on pronunciation. In the syllabic script elaborated by S.A. Worcester.

[Genesis]. New York : American Bible Society, 1953. Cherokee; 400 p. 13 cm.  Note: Title on title page in Cherokee. English title from p. [3]. “Cherokee O.T. parts”–Title page verso. Includes: Genesis, Exodus, selections from Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah, and Jonah. Translated by M.A. Pearson. Text in syllabic script elaborated by S.A. Worcester.

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May 20: James Beverlin Ramsey

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

Tales of a Traveler

ramseyJames Beverlin Ramsey was born in Cecil county, Maryland on May 20, 1814. His collegiate education was secured at Lafayette College, a school in Easton, Pennsylvania founded in 1826 and which began holding classes in 1832. Thus Mr. Ramsey was apparently in the first class of graduates in 1836, where he was also valedictorian. He immediately entered Princeton Theological Seminary and remained there four years, which would entail the standard three year curriculum plus an additional year of post-graduate work. One of his professors at the Seminary, the eminent linguist Dr. J. Addison Alexander, stated that when Ramsey left the Seminary, he was qualified to teach any class in the institution.

Ordained by the Second Presbytery of New York on February 2, 1841, Rev. Ramsey was installed as the pastor of the Presbyterian church in West Farms, New York, a neighborhood in New York City, where he remained from 1841-1846. He remained in West Farms in 1846 while preparing for missionary work with the Choctaw Indians and also served as principal of the Spencer Academy, which was connected with that work, from 1848-1849.

From 1950 to 1853, he was Stated Supply for several New York churches, until he received a call in 1853 to serve the Presbyterian church in New Monmouth, Virginia, first as Stated Supply and then as pastor, 1854-1858. His final labors were spent as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, Virginia, 1858-1870. Declining health forced his resignation and he died in Lynchburg on July 23, 1871.

It may be interesting to note that the Old School/New School split of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. occurred during Ramsey’s first year at Princeton Seminary, that his first dozen years in ministry were spent in that region where the New School was strongest, and that his last two pulpits—the final eighteen years of his ministry—were in the South, in churches that were on the Old School side of the split.

Dr. Ramsey is today primarily remembered as the author of a commentary on the first eleven chapters of the Book of Revelation, which has been reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust. Included are a brief memoir of the author and an introduction by Dr. Charles Hodge. Published posthumously, the commentary was originally titled The Spiritual Kingdom (1873). Some of his other published works include The Deaconship: An Essay (1858); True Eminence Founded on Holiness: A Discourse occasioned by the death of Lieut. Gen. T.J. Jackson (1863); How Shall I Live? (1861-65); Questions on Bible Doctrine (1869); and Questions on Old Testament History (1879).

Words to Live By:
We should, all of us, be constantly open to the Spirit’s leading as He may bring opportunities to witness to others of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. Our witness to a dying culture matters more now than ever. The following, from Dr. Ramsey’s short treatise How Shall I Live?, gives an excellent example of how a mundane situation can be turned into such an opportunity:—

THE STRICT SEARCH

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? BE not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, not covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

A traveler in his journey crossed the frontier, and had to pass through the custom-house. The officers said to him, “Have you any contraband goods?” “I do not think I have.” was the answer. “That may be true,” said the officers, “but we cannot let you pass without examination. Permit us to search.” “If you please,” said the traveler, “but allow me to sit down while you perform your duty.”

They then began their search; and first examined his portmaneau. Afterward they turned to his person, and searched his pockets, his pocket-book, his boots, and his neck-cloth.

The examination being over, the traveler thus addressed the officers: “Gentlemen, will you allow me to tell you what thoughts this examination has awakened in my mind? We are all traveling to an eternal kingdom, into which we cannot take any contraband goods. If you had found any prohibited articles upon me, you would have taken them from me, and have fined me for it. Now, think how many careless travelers pass into eternity, laden with sins which are forbidden by the heavenly King. By these forbidden things, I mean deceitfulness, anger, pride, lying, covetousness, envy, evil-speaking, and similar offences, which are hateful in the sight of God. For all these, every man who passes the boundary of the grave is searched, far more strictly than you have searched me. God is the great searcher of hearts; and although the number of transgressors is very great, and their rank and station very different, yet not one can escape, for ‘every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.’

“The King of heaven, not willing any of us should perish, sent His only begotten Son to become our substitute to make a reconciliation for transgressors, and to clothe us with His righteousness, without which we cannot see His kingdom. This Messiah, or sent one, is Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who came down on earth on purpose to bear ‘our sins in His own body on the tree,’ to save all that believe on Him, to wash us from our spiritual pollution, and to clothe us with the spotless robe—the wedding-garment of His righteousness. And ‘they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,’ are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.'”

The custom-house officers listened with attention, and when he had finished, expressed the hope that they should be permitted to see and hear him again.

“Gentlemen,” continued the traveler, “whether we shall meet again on earth is uncertain. God only knows; but, as I am about to leave you, I will tell you something more—it is about TWO PLANKS. A preacher wishing to explain to his congregation what a dangerous delusion those persons are in, who seek salvation partly from the righteousness of Christ, said to them: ‘Supposing it is needful for you to cross a river, over which two planks are thrown. One is perfectly new, the other is completely rotten. How will you go? If you walk upon the rotten one, you are sure to fall into the river.

If you put one foot on the rotten plank, and the other on the new plank, it will be the same—you will certainly falll through and perish. So there is only one safe method left—Set both your feet upon the new plank.”

Brethren, the rotten plank is your own unclean self-righteousness. He who trusts in it must perish without remedy. The new plank is the eternal, saving righteousness of Christ, which came from heaven, and is given to every one who believeth in Him. Trust on this righteousness and you shall be saved; for the Scripture saith, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.”

To read more of How Shall I Live?, click here. An alternate edition is posted on the web, here.

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