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 >:: -INFLUENCE OF PRESBYTER I ANISM UPON CIVIL LIBERTY- x- 
 
 An Address 
 
 r Delivered at First Presbyterian Churchy 
 Raleigh^ North Carolina, 
 Sunday, August 6, 1922. 
 
 By Frank Nash. 
 
 '/C '.V- -/C 
 
THE FLOWERS COLlEenON 
 
 INFLUENCE OF PRESBYTER I AN ISM UPON CIVIL LIBERTY 
 
 There is in the Constitutions of some of the 
 States a section to this effect: "A frequent re- 
 currence to fundamental principles is absolutely 
 necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.'' 
 This i^ a recognition by the makers of these Con- 
 stitutions that there are immutable principles 
 even iri the science of government, and that they 
 are not to be modified by the lapse of time, or 
 varied by changing conditions- If this is true in 
 the science of government, much more is it true 
 in the history and growth of the Chin^ch. My ad- 
 dress this morning, then, is largely an appeal to 
 some of the fundamental principles of the 
 Presbyterian Church, and its subject is the 
 Influence of Presbyterianism upon Civil Liberty* 
 Within the limit assigned myself, I can deal v/ith 
 it only in broad outline. 
 
 More than 400 years ago there was born in Noyon, 
 France, July 10th, 1509, a man, John Calvin, the 
 influence of whose philosophy did more to make 
 America free, and to found its government upon a 
 representative republic based upon equal suffrage, , 
 than that of any other man. He builded better than 
 he knew in his form of church government. The 
 individual congregation is the base, with its v/ill 
 determined and its officers elected by universal 
 suffrage; next, the presbytery, composed of pastors, 
 ex-off icio, and ruling Elders selected by the Sess- 
 ions of the various congregations composing it, and, 
 third and last, is the General Synod, or Assembly, 
 composed of representatives chosen by the various 
 presbyteries c Thus we have a representative, 
 federal republic, based upon local self government. 
 That is the Presbyterian Church as Calvin con- 
 ceived it, and that is the Presbyterian Church as it 
 is today, and stated in ultimate terms, it is what 
 our National Government is today ♦ 
 
 This great theologian and philosopher "was of 
 middle stature; his complexion was somewhat pallid 
 and dark. His eyes, to the latest clear and lus- 
 trous, bespoke the acumen of his genius. He v/as 
 sparing in his food and simple in his dress ;he took 
 but little sleep ^ and v/as capable of extraordinary 
 
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 efforts of inte3ilectual toil^ He had a most re- 
 tentive memory and very keen power of observat- 
 ion. He spoke without rhetoric, simply, directly, 
 but v/ith great v/eight. He had many acquaintances, 
 but few close friends. His private character was 
 in harmony with his public reputation and position. 
 If somewhat severe and irritable, he was at the 
 same time scrupulously just, truthful and stead- 
 fast. He never deserted a friend or took an unfair 
 advantage of an antagonist, and on fitting occas- 
 ion he could be cheerful and even facetious among 
 his intimates. It is said of him, 'God gave him 
 a character of great majesty,' and Beza said, 'I 
 have been a witness of him for sixteen years, and 
 I think I am fully entitled to say that in this 
 man there was exhibited to all an example of the 
 life and death of the Christian, such as it 
 will not be easy to depreciate, such as it will 
 not be easy to emulate.*" 
 
 He wrote his Institutes when he was only 26 
 years of age. Of this, the Ency. Brit, says, "It 
 may be doubted if the history of literature pre- 
 sents us with another instance of a book written 
 at so early an age, which has exercised such a 
 prodigious influence upon the opinions and prac- 
 tices both of contemporaries and of posterity." 
 And again, "His system had an immense value in 
 the history of Christian thought. It appealed to 
 and evoked a high order of intelligence, and its 
 insistence on perscnal individual salvation has 
 borne worthy fruit. 3o also its insistence on 
 the chief end of man, 'to know and do the will of 
 God, ' made for the strenuous morality that helped 
 to build up the modern v;orld. Its effects are most 
 clearly seen in Scotland, in Puritan England, and 
 in the New England States, but its influence was 
 and is felt among peoples that have little desire 
 or claim to be called Calvinist." 
 
 John Kno'X, his co-laborer, and if not his dis- 
 ciple, certainly in thorough accord with him, 
 carried this Calvinistic philosophy to Scotland 
 and to England. There it took root, flourished 
 and attained a vigorous growth. No single influence. 
 
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 to the present day^ has more affected the character 
 cf the peoples of those countries and their descend- 
 ants in other lands o It v/as the direct cause of the 
 establishment of the Commonwealth^ under Cromv/ell^ 
 It contributed scarcely less to the Revolution of 
 1688^ by which the power of the monarch v/as limit- 
 ed and adequate safeguards were provided for the 
 liberties and private rights of the subject. 
 
 At one time in France^, toO;, Calvin^ s doctrine 
 bade fair to te received by a majority of the 
 common people. In that country was^ hov/ever^ an 
 all pov/erful Roman Hierarchy;, supported by an ab- 
 solute monarch. Both of these soon realized that 
 Calvinism was their deadly foe, and that neither 
 of them, could long exist, if the French people 
 became thoroughly indoctrinated with its tenets* 
 So from the nature of things there must be a life 
 and death struggle between these opposing principles. 
 All the weapons of absolute pov/er v/ere then wielded 
 against Calvinism^ that it might be destroyed^root 
 and branch;, even to the culminating atrocities of 
 the m.assacre of St. Bartholom.ew and the • • 
 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ^ and thus the 
 soberest and best citizenry of that country were 
 either slain or driven to foreign climes. I have 
 alv/ays felt that had the leaven of Calvinism been 
 permitted^ in france, to leaven the whole lump of 
 its population;, the history of the world since 
 would have been v/holly changed. 
 
 I have not time or space to trace the migration 
 of Calvinists from the . old to the new worlds nor 
 have I time to set out its causes and its provo- 
 cation. I can deal only with its results along 
 large lines. Freedom of conscience;^ religious 
 freedom in its broad sense, v/as the principal im- 
 pulse to this migrationo Their faith had been 
 tried in the fiery furnace of persecution^ yet it 
 *'had no huj^tc'' Instead, it had become fixed^more 
 vital and so more vivifying, 
 
 V/e soon find them in possession of and dominat- 
 ing the v/hole of Nev/ England. V/e find them spread 
 over western Pennsylvania and Maryland;, Piedmont 
 
 / 
 
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 Virginia, North Carolina^ South Carolina and 
 Georgia. The Huguenot hranch of this migration 
 came to New Jersey, Delav/are and South Carolina^, 
 while smaller colonies of them were to be found 
 in Pennsylvania, Vl?:'giniap North Carolina and 
 Georgia. The influence of these was greater than 
 their numbers ^ To Nev/ York came many Dutch Cal- 
 vinists, and in the colonies south of Nev/ York 
 to South Carolina, were smaller settlements of 
 these religionists, ^i^/hat I have said elsewhere 
 of the Scotch-Irish is applicable to all these 
 Calvinist immigrants, 
 
 "The church and the school house have always 
 been, and alv/ays will be, the mainstay of this 
 admirable race. They realized, as few other 'races 
 of men have realized it, that the church without 
 the school house was a fosterer of superstition, 
 v/hile the school house without the chujr^ch was a 
 promoter of irreligion and infidelity. So, close 
 by their churches they built their school houses, 
 and over the doors of both they inscribed in 
 living letters, ^The Lord He is God.' This, it 
 seems to m.e, is the key to their character and 
 the secret of their greatness*" 
 
 No less applicable to them, too, is the vivid 
 language of Froude in describing the influence 
 of John Knox over the character of the Scotch: 
 "No grander figure can be found in the entire his- 
 tory of the Reformation in this island than that 
 of Knox - the one man v/ithout v/hom Scotland, as 
 the modern worldhas knov/n it, would have had no 
 existence, Kis was the voice which taught the 
 peasant of the Lothians that he was a free man, 
 the equal in the sight of God of the proudest 
 peer or prelate that had trampled .on his f ore- 
 ' fathers. He was the one antagonist v/hom Mary 
 Stuart could not soften, nor Maitland deceive; 
 he it v;as that raised the poor Commons of this 
 country into a stern and rugged people, who might 
 be hard, narrow, superstitious and fanatical, but 
 v/ho nevertheless v/ere men whom neither king^ 
 noble nor priest could force again to submit to 
 tyranny." 
 
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 The College of NEW JERSEY, located at 
 Princeton, was at this time a training school for 
 Presbyterian ministers, under Dr. Samuel Davies, 
 and later, 1768, under Dr. John Wither spoon, a 
 descendant of John Knox^ These young preachers 
 went into the outlying settlements, first as 
 traveling missionaries, and later, as located 
 pastors. Their coming meant much more than a 
 series of sermons at certain set and stated times.. 
 It meant the erection of school houses where they 
 had not been before, and the training of the 
 youth of the country in all that v^ould render^ 
 them useful men and women. It meant the selection 
 by the people themselves of a competent leader 
 and adviser in all the higher and better things 
 of life* Says Dr. Raper, "These bright , vigorous 
 and independent men brought with them ideas which 
 have exercised the profoundest influence upon all 
 phases of our life and thought - upon our religion^ 
 our politics, our industry and our education. They 
 deserve at the hands of the historian and at the 
 hands of our people a thousand times more con- 
 sideration and veneration than we have ever though-:, 
 to pay them." 
 
 Presbyterianism then has been at all times a 
 protest against the assumptions of priest craft 
 on one hand and the tyranny of kings and lords on 
 the other. Indeed, from the very nature of things, 
 where Presbyterianism and the principles upon 
 v/hich it is founded are dominant, there can be no 
 tyranny *of church or state. Where they are not 
 so strong, this great hearted minority would prefer 
 death or expatriation to submission. Vlhen then 
 Great Britain assumed the right, which the people 
 of this country were not willing to yield to her, 
 of taxation without representation, these Presby- 
 terians who had been so indoctrinated v/ith the • 
 right of representation as embodied in their form 
 of church government, were the most vigorous of 
 protesters against this form of tyranny, and were 
 the first v/hen their demands were not granted to 
 urge complete separation from the mother country 
 and absolute independence for themselves. They 
 endured with utmost stanchness tte sufferings and 
 privations, the reverses and hope deferred, of the 
 
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 succeeding long drawn out years of conflict, and 
 v/hen victory came, turned their thoughts to the 
 organization of a more permanent form of govern- 
 ment • 
 
 I must not be understood to claim that the 
 makers of the Federal Constitution derived any 
 conscious aid from the plan of government pe- 
 culiarly the heritage of the Presbyterian Church. 
 There are striking likenesses betv/een the two 
 plans in broad outline, but there are also minor 
 differences v/hen they are examined in detail. 
 The Convention of 1787 realized fully that the 
 Constitution it was making, to be acceptable to 
 the people, must embody in it their traditions, 
 their customs and their laws. It had come almost 
 to an impasse in considering the great problem, 
 how to create a national government strong enough . 
 to be effective in its sphere of action, without 
 impairing the rights and powers of the states, 
 v;hen Benjamin Franklin arose and said that the 
 longer he had lived the more convincing proofs 
 he has seen of the truth that God governs in the 
 affairs of men. If a sparrow can not fall to 
 the ground without His notice, it is not probable 
 that an Empire could arise without His aid. Sec- 
 onded by Roger Sherman, he now moved that hence- 
 forth the business of the Convention should be 
 opened every morning with prayer. The fragment- 
 ary record does not . show that the suggestion was 
 adopted, but it was a recognition by these great 
 men of a cardinal principle of Presby terianism, 
 the Superintending Providence of the Almighty in . 
 all the affairs of men and nations » The differ- 
 ences in the Convention were soon reconciled, 
 v;ith the result that a Senate was provided for 
 which represented the States and a House, which 
 represented the people. This is a reflection to 
 some degree of the Presbyterian System - the 
 people represented in the churches and presby- 
 teries, and the presbyteries in the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 Again, when individuals are subjected to the in- 
 fluence of great principles, they react upon 
 
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 them, and are reflected in their habit of thought 
 and in their conduct. They, thus, become instinct- 
 ive ideas to the individual, upon which he sub- 
 consciously acts. In this sense the influence of 
 the Presbyterian form of government upon the Con- 
 vention of 1787 may have been great, hov/ great, 
 we have no m.eans of determining. We do know that 
 many of its members were Presbyterian, or had been 
 subjected to Presbyterian influence • 
 
 Having thus seen the large part that Presbyter- 
 ianism played in the securing of our liberties and 
 the establishment of our government upon a firm 
 basis, what part is it to play in the future 
 against the foes of both? If it is to be a great 
 part it must hold fast to the faith once delivered 
 to the saints. It may adopt the machinery of 
 modern life, but its faith must not be dimmed by 
 its materialism^ or its intelligence beclouded by 
 its fallacies. It must remember that while it 
 is its duty to take part in every good word and 
 work, that is not its main mission, for, to it, as 
 the Bride of Christy the Saviour,, are commit'cea 
 the Oracles of God, Here, it seems to me, is the 
 point of danger for the Church at the present 
 time and for the future. Religion is not a system 
 of morals, it is not a philosophy, it is not a 
 science, but it is a conscious relation betv/een 
 man and God, and the expression of that relation 
 in human conduct. 
 
 The existence of this relationship manifests 
 itself, first, in the due and loving performance 
 of one's obligations to his fellov/ man; second, 
 in the due and loving performance of one^s obli- 
 gations to God the Creator, to God the Saviour, 
 and to God the Comforter ^ and Sustainer: thirv.., 
 but greatest of all, the performance of God's 
 obligations to His creature and servant. In the 
 first instance this relationship is moral; in the 
 second, it is spiritual, and in the third, it is 
 mystical. In the last instance is most seen the 
 insidious and corrosive effect of modern brutally 
 frank materialistic literature upon churches and 
 church members. A religion that has not its 
 
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 miracles and its mysteries is not a religion at 
 all, but a philosophy. The man v/ho views the 
 phenomena of life only from thie standpoint of 
 their material manifestations, can stand on no 
 common ground with the Christian. As v/ell expect 
 sympathy between the mole, which in darkness 
 pursues his subterranean v/ay, and the bird that 
 from the topmost bough of some tal 1 tree greets 
 the rising sun with his song of praise » The 
 mole can not be convinced that there is a sun, 
 because the ordinary phenomena of nature that come 
 v/ithin his ken do not show its existence, but the ' 
 bird knov/s that there is a sun, because it has 
 experienced the enlivening warmth of its rays. 
 Ah, those old Presbyterians, our ancestors, call 
 them hard and narrow and superstitious if You 
 v/ill, yet with their ^'Thus saith the Lord^ ' they 
 solved the riddle of time and eternity. To them, 
 life was a walking in the fear of " God. To them, 
 death was its final sacrament, in v/hich Christ, 
 the Saviour, v/as to keep His part of the covenant, 
 so they met it v/ith the sublime but childlike 
 faith of John, the Revealer, or of David, the- 
 Shepherd King, 
 
N.C 204 299A v. 1 nos.1-23 
 
 CALL NUMBER 
 
 ^ 
 
 VoL 
 
 Date (for periodical) 
 
 204 299A v.l nos.1-23 
 
 303286