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 Centennial Sermons 
 and Papers 
 
 Cumbtrland PrMbyt«ri«n Church 
 
 
JUL 13 m^ 
 
 BX 8976 .A3 1911 
 Cumberland Presbyterian 
 
 Church. General Assembly 
 Centennial sermons and 
 
 TLarje^ra 
 
Centennial Sermons and Papers 
 
 delivered at the 
 
 One Hundredth Anniversary 
 
 of the organization of the 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
 
 before the 
 
 Eightieth General Assembly • 
 
 Dickson, Tenn., May 19-24, 1910 
 
 Compiled by R. L. Baskette 
 
 THE CUMBERLAND BRESS 
 
 Nashville. Tennessee 
 1911 
 
I'W VMl'-'^nj 
 
 Copyright by 
 
 R. L. BASKETTE 
 
 Nashville. Tenn. 
 
 1911 
 
 
 "•ft t •""*"v.:..jV"f(J 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SECTION I 
 Sermons Page 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Moderator's Sermon 13 
 
 Rev. J. T. Barbec 
 
 Tenting on the Old Camp Ground 27 
 
 Rev. J. S. Hall 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterianism Defined 38 
 
 J. L. Goodknight, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 A Discourse on the Origin and Doctrines of the 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church . .49 
 
 Rev. A. C. Biddle 
 
 Some Things the Bible Teaches about the Holy Spirit. 63 
 Rev. J. W. Duvall 
 
 Paul's Estimate of the Lord Jesus Christ 83 
 
 H. Clay Yates, D.D. 
 
 Our Needs and Our Ability to Meet Them 129 
 
 Rev. J. D. Lewis 
 
 The Keys of the Kingdom 151 
 
 Mrs. Bessie Copeland Morris 
 
 SECTION II. 
 Historical Papers 
 
 The Immortal Trio __ 177 
 
 Rev. J. W. Duvall 
 
 Historical Review of Publication of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church 189 
 
 R. L. Baskette 
 
 History of the Board of Ministerial Relief of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church 243 
 
 J. W. Wyckofif 
 
 History of Sunday Schools and Young People's Work 
 
 OF THE Cumberland Presbyterian Church 253 
 
 Rev. Thomas Ashburn 
 
 History of the Woman's Board of Missions 259 
 
 Spiritual Progress 285 
 
 Rev. J. L. Hudgins Rev. T. C. Newman 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Sermons and Historical narratives contained in this 
 volume, were delivered before the Eightieth General As- 
 sembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which 
 convened at Dickson, Tenn., in May, 1910. This occasion 
 was the Centennial Anniversary of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church, which was organized by Rev. Finis 
 Ewing, Rev. Samuel King and Rev. Samuel McAdow in 
 Dickson County, Tennessee, on Sunday morning, Febru- 
 ary 4, 1810. A short statement of the events that preceded 
 the organization of this important branch of the Church of 
 Jesus Christ, would not be out of place here. 
 
 In 1796 Rev. James McGready, a minister of the Presby- 
 terian Church, emigrated from North Carolina to Logan 
 County, Kentucky. He became the pastor of three small 
 congregations, or ^"societies" as they were called in that 
 day and time. The names of the three societies were Gas- 
 per, Red River and Muddy River. After his arrival Mr. 
 McGready found that there prevailed throughout the Cum- 
 berland country, a great spiritual dearth. Worldliness, 
 drunkenness and atheism were in full sway. This humble 
 backwoods preacher set himself to check the sway of sin, 
 and combat with satan for supremacy. He found a faithful 
 few in Gasper church, who had not bowed to the great 
 Baal of sin, and who were ready to join with him in an 
 effort to shed the light of the gospel in the wilderness. 
 Mr. McGready formulated a covenant, for his faithful fol- 
 lowers to sign, and it was as follows : 
 
 When we consider the word and promises of a compas- 
 sionate God, to the poor lost family of Adam, we find 
 strong encouragement for Christians to pray in faith to 
 ask in the name of Jesus, for the conversion of their fellow 
 men. None ever went to Christ, when on earth, with the 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 case of their friends that was denied, and, although the 
 days of his humiUation are ended, yet for the encourage- 
 ment of his people, he has left on record, that where two 
 or three agree upon earth, to ask in prayer, believing, it 
 shall be done. Again, whatsoever you shall ask the Father 
 in my name, that will I do, that the Father nvay he glorified 
 1)1 the Son. With these promises before us, we feel encour- 
 aged to unite our supplications to a prayer-hearing God, 
 for the outpouring of his spirit, that his people may be 
 quickened and comforted, and that our children and sinners 
 generally, may be converted. 
 
 Therefore, we bind ourselves to observe the third Satur- 
 day of each month, for one year, as a day of fasting and 
 prayer, for the conversion of sinners in Logan County, 
 Kentucky, and throughout the world. We also engage to 
 spend one-half hour every Saturday evening, beginning at 
 the setting of the sun, and one-half hour every Sabbath 
 morning, at the rising of the sun, in pleading with God to 
 revive his work. 
 
 To this beautiful covenant, Mr. McGready and his little 
 band affixed their signatures, and thus solemnly pledged 
 themselves to God and each other, with an humble reliance 
 on the promises of the heavenly Father ; both preacher and 
 people betook themselves to humble and fervent prayer. 
 At this time Mr. McGready began to preach what was 
 believed to be a new theology, repentance, faith and re- 
 generation. However, the belief was erroneous, for nearly 
 two thousand years before, a lowly Gallilean, preached the 
 sqme doctrine for the first time, to a sin-cursed world. A 
 favorite subject with Mr. McGready was from Daniel 5: 
 27: 'TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balance, and art 
 found wanting." An enlightening influence of the Holy 
 Spirit, attended his discourses, and many members of the 
 Church became secretly convinced, that their hope was that 
 of hypocrites, which shall perish.» In the spring of 1797, 
 during a sacramental meeting at Gasper church, a lone 
 
INTRODUCTION. ^ 
 
 woman, was savingly converted. History has failed to 
 record the name of this daughter in Israel. She went from 
 house to house, and from community to community, telling 
 the people the joy of salvation, and holding prayer meet- 
 ings. Following this there was a great outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit, on the three congregations. 
 
 From this beginning, resulted the great revival of 1800, 
 which spread over the entire Western country. While the 
 revival was in progress, it was bitterly opposed by what 
 was. known as the "anti-revival party" which was composed 
 of strai'ght-laced Presbyterian preachers, who only knew 
 and believed the horrible doctrines of predestination and 
 reprobation. A few years later Cumberland Presbytery 
 was . set up by the Synod of Kentucky. There was great 
 need of ministers to preach to the scattered churches, the 
 harvest w^as plenteous, but the laborers were few. Then 
 Cumberland Presbytery commenced to ordain men to the 
 ministry, who were lacking in the knowledge of the dead 
 languages, and who adopted the Confession of Faith of 
 the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.-; only so far as they be- 
 lieved it to be in conformity to the Holy Scriptures. They 
 specially excepted to the doctrines of fatality. 
 
 For this, charges were made before the Synod of Ken- 
 tucky, and the members of the presbytery were cited for 
 trial. The synod demanded that the men who had been 
 ordained be turned over to them for examination, thus 
 abusing and violating the constitutional rights of the pres- 
 bytery. The revival ministers refused to accede to these 
 illegal demands, and for so doing, Cumberland Presbytery 
 was dissolved and the ministers prohibited from preaching 
 the Word of God. But these men received their call and 
 commission toi. preach a free salvation, from a higher 
 authority than the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 
 
 They continued their labors, and their efforts were owned 
 and blessed of God. For five years they endeavored to get 
 the church courts of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., to 
 
S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 review and reverse the illegal action of Kentucky Synod. 
 Their efforts for a redress of wrongs and for a reconcilia- 
 tion were unavailing. They ceased to meet as a presbytery, 
 but held their meetings as a "council." x\t a meeting of the 
 council at Ridge Meeting House, in Sumner County, Ten- 
 nessee, in the fall of 1809, it was seriously proposed that 
 they constitute a presbytery. However, at this meeting 
 some of the leading spirits deserted the council, among 
 them was IMr. AIcGready. The council adjourned with the 
 understanding that they would convene again at the Ridge 
 Meeting House, in March, 1810, and that unless three 
 ministers had constituted a presbytery before that time, 
 that the council would be dissolved. One of the leading 
 spirits in the great work of spreading the gospel in the 
 wilderness, was Rev. Finis Ewing. He was a man filled 
 with the Holy Spirit, and one of those indomitable char- 
 acters, who knew not what defeat meant. In February, 
 1810, Ewing realized that the time was near at hand for 
 the meeting of the council, and that unless the presbytery 
 was constituted before that time, that all hope would be 
 gone. 
 
 On Friday, February 2, 18 10, Ewing left his home near 
 Russellville, Ky., and set out for the home of Rev. Samuel 
 King, one of the revival preachers. He laid his plans before 
 Mr. King, and that day the two proceeded to the home of 
 Ephraim McLain, a young man who had been licensed to 
 preach by the dissolved presbytery. They spent the night 
 with young McLain, and explained to him the nature of 
 their journey, it^oung McLain readily agreed to accom- 
 pany them, and lend all the assistance possible. On the 
 morning of February 3, they saddled their horses and 
 started for the home of Rev. Samuel AFAdoo, in Dick- 
 son County, Tennessee. They reached the home of Mr. 
 M'Adoo about sundown, and stated the nature of their 
 visit. They were in conference and prayer until late at 
 night. Mr. M'Adoo said he could not make up his mind as 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 to what would be right to do, under God. They agreed to 
 separate, and each one to go off into the forest and pray 
 alone for light and guidance. Ewing and King soon ob- 
 tained the light for which they sought, and returning to 
 thei humble log cabin 'which was the home of Mr. M'Adoo 
 found young McLain at the door, engaged in prayer. The 
 three waited through the long hours of the early Sabbath 
 morning, for the return of Mr. M'Adoo. The air was 
 crisp and frosty and as they paced to and fro to keep 
 warm, they saw Mr. M'Adoo approaching rapidly. The 
 glow on his face told the story. As soon as he reached 
 them, he said: "I have received light and guidance, and 
 am ready to constitute a presbytery." After a frugal re- 
 past they assembled in the south room of the house, and 
 with prayer and earnest supplications constituted the first 
 presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After 
 this was done, young McLain was ordained into the full 
 work of the ministry. Then these faithful men of God 
 started forth to bear the message of a "whosoever-will" 
 gospel to a dying world. Nearly two thousand years be- 
 fore, on an April Sabbath morning, the lowly Gallilean, 
 who first preached the doctrines that Cumberland Presby- 
 terians believe, arose from the grave, and sweet, faithful 
 Mary Magdalene, became the messenger to bear to the 
 world the story of a risen Christ. 
 
 The record made by some historians, to the effect that 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized as a 
 result of a schism in the Presbyterian Qiurch, U. S. A., 
 is untrue. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was never 
 at any time a part of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 
 The men -who organized it under the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit, were not at that time connected with any denomina- 
 tion. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was born of 
 God, for a special purpose, and that purpose will not be 
 fully accomplished, until the redeemed in Christ assemble 
 
10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 round the great white throne, and join the hosts of heaven 
 in songs of thanksgiving and praiSe to Jehovah. 
 
 It was, therefore, proper that in the good year 1910, 
 Cumberland Presbyterians should come together near the 
 spot where their church had been o^anized, to celebrate 
 the Centennial Anniversary, of one of the most blessed 
 branches of the Church of Jesus Christ. A perusal of these 
 pages will show that Cumberland Presbyterian preachers 
 can still preach with the same zeal and power, that made 
 such a glorious record for the fathers and founders of 
 the Church. 
 
 To the memory of that noble band of men and women 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, who have gone 
 on before, and who now bask in the sunlight of God's love, 
 over beyond the broad, dark river, this volume is dedicated. 
 
 R. I.. Baskf-ttr. 
 . Nashville, Tcnn., T911. 
 
SECTION I 
 
 SERMONS 
 
REV. J. B. BARBEE 
 RETIRING MODERATOR 
 BOWLING GREEN, KY. 
 
MODERATOR'S SERMON. 
 
 REV. T. T. BARI5EE. 
 
 My sermon for this occasion is in two parts. The first 
 part shows, briefly, the necessity of the organization of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church — making the atonement, 
 the basis of my remarks — taking for my text Rom. 52 : 
 12-18. The second part gives some facts connected with 
 the Church and our personal work as members thereof. 
 Text, Matt. 14: 28-29. 
 
 My brethren, we have come to the Centennial of our 
 Church. One hundred years ago, the fourth day of last 
 February, the Lord, through his embassadors — Ewing, 
 King and M'Adoo^ — organized it not far from where we 
 are now assembled. God has always chosen special men to 
 do special work. They are fortunate men to whom God 
 gives a big task. They are God's men, doing the great 
 things He wants done. In 18 10 it became necessary to 
 organize fhe Cumberland Presbyterian Church, for tzuo 
 reasons, if no more. 
 
 In the first place, it was necessary that the doctrine of 
 an unlimited atonement — a who-so-ever-will gospel might 
 be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations 
 that God is no respecter of .persons; "but in every nation, 
 he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted 
 with him." First text, "Wherefore as by one man, sin 
 entered into the world and death by sin, and so death 
 passed upon all men, for all have sinned. For as by one 
 man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the 
 obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." So we 
 see the necessity of the atonement, arose from the offense 
 of one man. We, as a Church, believe the object of the 
 atonement was, as far as possible, to counteract the in- 
 fluence of this one offense, of this one man. We also be- 
 
14 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Heve that if the effects of the fall extended to the whole 
 human race, the whole race would be contemplated in the 
 provision of salvation. He who made the atonement, is 
 unlimited in resources. 
 
 The benevolence of God in the 'great work of human re- 
 demption, has no respect of moral character. It looks only 
 on conditions. If the first Adam represented the race in 
 such a sense, that the evils of the fall, extended to all, may 
 we not conclude that such a connection was established 
 between the second Adam and the same race, so as to open 
 the way to all, for a restoration from those evils. In Rom. 
 5 : i8 Paul says : "Therefore as by the offense of one, judg- 
 ment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the 
 righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto 
 justification of life. If it was open to all, then of course 
 the atonement was sufficient for all. 
 
 But let us reason some from analogy. The theory of a 
 full provision conformed to the ordinary operations of 
 divine providence. The atmosphere which surrounds the 
 earth, so necessary to animal and vegetable life, fills every 
 space and is unstinted in its influence. The showers 
 for all the fruits of the earth, are bountifully supplied to 
 all. The Savior said : "The father maketh his sun to rise 
 on the evil and the good and sendeth the rain on the just 
 and the unjust." David said : "The Lord is good to all, 
 and his tender mercies are over all his works." Why should 
 not the provisions of divine grace be furnished upon the 
 same scale of magnificence and liberality, which we find in 
 the operations of providence? Both providence and grace 
 proceed from the same great heart. 
 
 But there is another argument I wish to bring, which 
 sustains our theory of vmlimited atonement, viz. ; We be- 
 lieve that the theory of a full provision, is in conformity 
 with the best? feelings of the Christian heart. We consider 
 this an exponent of the gospel. The Christian heart re- 
 ceives its impressions from the word and spirit of truth. 
 
MODERATOR'S SERMONS 15 
 
 Every true Christian lieart longs for the salvation of the 
 whole race of man. Such a heart feels, there is a love in him 
 of unmeasured height and depth and length and breadth 
 —a love which passeth knowledge. Such a heart feels there 
 is an infinite fullness in our merciful Redeemer. Such a 
 heart bears testimony from its own experience of the ability 
 of Christ for every possible exigency of the human race — 
 that he is able to save to the uttermost all "zvho ivill come 
 unto God by him." In John 3: 16 we have the epitomy of 
 the gospel. "God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten son, that zvliosocver believeth in him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life." i Tim. 2: 3, 4, "For this is 
 good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who 
 will have all men to be saved — and come unto the knowl- 
 edge of the truth." 2 Peter 3 : 9, "The Lord is not slack 
 concerning his promise, as some men count slackness ; but 
 is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should 
 perish, but that all should come to repentance." Isaiah 
 55 : 7, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous 
 man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord, who 
 will have mercy upon him and to our God, who will abund- 
 antly pardon." Rev. 3 : 20, "Behold, I stand at the door 
 and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, 
 I will come into him and sup with him and he with me." 
 Rev. 29: 17, "And the Spirit and the bride say come and 
 let him that heareth say come, and let him that is athirst 
 come and zvho-so-ever-will let him take the water of life 
 freely. He that believeth shall be saved and he that be- 
 lieved » of shall be damned." Acts 10, "To him gave all the 
 prophets to witness that through his name, whosoever be- 
 lieveth on him, shall receive remissions of sin." "God sent 
 not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that 
 the zvorld, through him, might he saved." John 3: 17. The 
 Jews at Antioch rejected the word of the Lord as preached 
 by Paul and Barnabas and judged themselves unworthy of 
 saJvation. 
 
l6 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 Nothing can be plainer than these Scriptures, that God 
 sought to save ail men. He saw all sinners doomed to per- 
 ish and he sent his son to save them. It is the sinner's 
 choice and not God's, that he goes to hell. When God made 
 man, he gave him an independent will, that made him a re- 
 sponsible agent. There was nothing back of that will when 
 man willed to sin it was man that willed, and not God. 
 So when the whole race was lost in sin, God saw fit in his 
 infinite mercy to offer in Christ salvation to all men. This 
 was no sham offer — the thought is blasphemy. His offer 
 was with a wish to save all. Man lost in sin is utterly im- 
 potent to do good. All good in him must come from God; 
 as the sinner receives divine grace. God offers man this 
 saving grace and urges him to accept it. If he accepts; 
 it is man's will and not God's that accepts — and vice versa. 
 To say that "God makes one man to accept and another to 
 reject" by not making him to accept is to give the lie to 
 che Scriptures. Man's independent will is constantly ap- 
 pealed to ;';/ every invitation of the gospel. It was God's 
 will, that man's will should be independent. When a sin- 
 ner seeing his lost condition cries to God for help, there is 
 no merit — hence the act of a sinner's will in saying yes, to 
 God's grace, is not an act of holiness. It is seeking relief 
 from God, as God presses relief upon him. 
 
 The moment the sinner says yes, God's grace comes in 
 and saves. It does not mar God's sovereignty that he gave 
 man an independent will. The sinner has no power to do 
 good, but he has power to accept grace. The Westminster 
 Confession of Faith, with all of its revisions, and declaratory 
 statements and added chapters, does not teach an unlimited 
 atonement, a who-so-ever-will gospel. As proof that it does 
 not teach such a doctrine, we offer in evidence the third 
 chapter in that confession. I will recall only a part : 
 
 "By the decree of God for the manifestation of his glory, 
 some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, 
 and others foreordained to everlasting death. These men 
 
^MODERATOR'S SERMON. 17 
 
 and angels thus predestinated and foreordained are par- 
 ticularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is 
 so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or 
 diminished." 
 
 "Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God 
 before the foundation of the world was laid, according to 
 his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret council 
 and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto 
 everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, with- 
 out any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance 
 in either of them, or an_y other thing in the creature, as 
 conditions, or causes moving him thereunto ; and all to the 
 praise of his glorious grace. As God hath appointed the 
 elect unto glory, so hath he by the eternal and most free 
 purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto, 
 wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam are 
 redeemed by Christ, and effectually called unto faith in 
 Christ by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, 
 adopted, sanctified and kept by his power through faith 
 unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, 
 effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified and saved, 
 but the elect only." 
 
 But the ex-Cumberlands who went from us, because they 
 were not of us, say — that the revision, revised and eliminated 
 fatalism from the confession so that it no longer teaches 
 such a doctrine. But their .testimony is not good, they are 
 not competent witnesses. The Bible says: "In the mouth 
 of two or three witnesses every word may be established." 
 I will introduce four witnesses to prove that they have not 
 eliminated anything. Tlie first witness that we put up is 
 the Northern Assembly. It is said what that Assembly says 
 is absolutely true. If it says that white is black, its sure 
 black. That Assembl}- said by resolution, which has not 
 been rescinded, "That in connection with this whole subject 
 of union, places on record its judgment that the revision of 
 1903 has not impaired the integrity of the system of doc- 
 
i8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 trine contained in the confession." Air. Webster says "im- 
 pair means diminished in (juantity, value or strength." In- 
 tegrity means "wholeness, uprightness, purity." If the re- 
 vision of 1903 has not les.sened in cjuantity, value or strength 
 of the confession, then, of course, it remains the same as 
 before the attempted revision with all of its doctrines of 
 fatality in full force. In 1906, in answer to an address from 
 the Cumberland Assembly, the Northern Assembly said : 
 "We had not heard until your communication announced 
 it, that anybody had claimed, or induced others to believe 
 t!iat the Presbyterian Church. C. S. A., had abandoned the 
 Westminster Confession of I-'aith ; this is not so." 
 
 Second witness is the declaratory statement, which says : 
 "This doctrine of the decrees as taught in the third chapter 
 is held." The third witness is Dr. Warfield, of Princeton 
 Theological Seminary, and a member of that church. He 
 says "the revision of 1903 liolds the doctrine of the decrees 
 as found in the third chapter, that the doctrine taught in 
 that chapter i.s, not repudiated, or modified, f)r qualified, or 
 in any way weakened or diluted, but is simply held. Re- 
 affirmation could not be more exi)licit." The fourth witness 
 is the Supreme Court of Missouri. That court, in comment- 
 ing on the declaratory statement concerning the third chaf^ 
 ter, says: "The language is in plain English, and the court 
 is presumed to be able to understand English, whether it 
 a])pears in a contract or Confession of Faith." If they have 
 not impaired their confession, nor abandoned it, and they 
 say they have not. is it not the same as when our fathers 
 repudiated it in 1810? 
 
 It was the fatalism in that old confession which caused 
 our fathers to reject it in 1810, and that with other reasons 
 is why one hundred and twenty-five thousand of our mem- 
 bership could not, and would not, be merged into the North- 
 ern Presbvterian Church. We believe the way of salvation 
 has been opened to all men, and all are invited to come and 
 be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
MODERATOR'S SERMON. i^ 
 
 In the second place, we Ijelieve it was necessary to or- 
 ganize the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, that she might 
 •give her testimony to the great truth of the final preserva- 
 tion of the believer in Jesus Christ. We, as a church, be- 
 lieve that salvation is certain to all who believe in, and 
 accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. We do not believe it 
 possible for any to be lost who have been born again. 
 Paul in Rom. says : "Where sin abounded grace did much 
 more abound." 
 
 As sin drags man down, grace lifts him up. not simply 
 placing him back where he was l)efore the fall, a servant 
 under law, but grace lifts him above Adam, yea, above the 
 angels. It makes the believing sinner an ecjual heir with 
 Jesus Christ. It takes him from under law and puts him 
 under g'race. Sin hath no more dominiori over him for he 
 is not under law, but under grace. Rom. 6: 14. If not 
 under law, not under sin; if not under sin, not subject to 
 death. Jesus said in John 14: 19: "Because I live ye shall 
 live also." "Whosoever liveth and believcth in me shall 
 never die." And John 5: 24, we have: "X'^erily, verily, I 
 say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on 
 him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come 
 into judgment, but is passed from .death unto life." The 
 believing sinner is taken out of the death kingdom and put 
 into the life kingdom. He shall never die, because he has 
 the life of Christ, i John 3:9: "He that is born of God 
 doth not commit sin (condemning sin) for his seed re- 
 maineth in him and he cannot ' sin because he is born of 
 God." Believing this keeps us out of the z-Vrminian Church, 
 and made it necessary to organize the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian iChurch in order that such people as we might have a 
 home. This church has weathered many a storm. She has 
 led thousands to the cross, and will lead thousands niore to 
 the fountain of living waters. She had to fight her way 
 through to the present. Her greatest enemy has always 
 been the Northern Presbyterian Church. In 1904 and 1905 
 
20 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 she came near being put out of business by the U. S. A. 
 Church, assisted by some of our former leaders, who be- 
 trayed us. But Hudgins, Eshman, Havron, Fussell, Dale, 
 Smith, Buchanan, McCleland, Keller, Parker, Prendergast, 
 Reister and a host of others just as loyal and brave, came to 
 the rescue and gave the advancing Calvinistic hordes such a 
 check, that by 1906 there was strength sufficient to bid de- 
 fiance to those who thought they had completely annihilated 
 us. God had determined that the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church should be ])erpetuated, and he commissioned Lewis, 
 Ashburn, Padget, Biddle, Brown, Goodknight, Baskette, 
 Zwingle, Co])eland, Duvall, Robison, Goodpasture and 
 Price, and hundreds of others just as loyal and true to 
 meet the betrayers and save the church, he had brought into 
 existence one hundred years ago through Ewin-g, King and 
 McAdow. The men who stood by the church were looked 
 upon by the former leaders, as "very ordinary men without 
 brains or money^" but God called them to stand as a break- 
 water against the on-coming flood of Calvinism. Right well 
 did the little band of Spartans do their work. The yellow 
 jackets in Korea never displayed greater courage in fight- 
 ing the Russians. This little band of Cumberlands, with one 
 thousand to one, against them, have displayed such hero- 
 ism, sacrifice and devotion to what they believe to be right, 
 that they have won the admiration and esteem of the whole 
 world. 
 
 The second part, text, Matt. 14: 28, 29: "If it be thou 
 bid me come to thee on the water, and he said come." This 
 chapter gives an account of one of the great miracles of 
 Christ, that of feeding five ttousand men, with five loaves 
 and two fishes. After they were fed, he constrained his 
 disciples to enter their boat and cross to the other side of 
 the sea. Then he sent the multitude avv-ay, and he himself 
 went in the mountain to pray. He must have prayed all 
 night for he went unto his disciples at the fourth watch of 
 the night walking on the water, the disciples were troubled. 
 
MODERATOR'S SERMON. 21 
 
 they thought he was a spirit. He said unto them, "Be of 
 good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." Then Peter said in the 
 language of the text, "If it be thou, bid me come to thee 
 on the water." And he said, "Come."' This Bible story 
 seems to say three things to us : 
 
 1. Don't go until you are invited. Don't try to walk on 
 the water till Christ bids you do so. Don't try to be an 
 apostle until God marks that out as your destiny. Don't 
 try to revise the Bible we have until you are sure God wants 
 it done, and wants you to do it. Don't try to establish a 
 new church in the world till like, Ewing and M'Adoo, 
 God leads up to it, then you will have a church like the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the gates of hell cannot 
 prevail against. Don't try to preach the gospel till the 
 divine call comes, then vou can preach and sinners will be 
 saved. And whatever else you do, don't try to merge one 
 church into another church, till God orders it done, then 
 you will be more successful than those who recently at- 
 tempted such a thing and made such a stupendous failure. 
 To attempt such things in cold blood is to meet with defeat 
 and shame. There is enough of the ordinary in God's work 
 to keep us busy until he bids us drop the usual and take 
 up the unusual. 
 
 2. This story further tells us to go- when we are invited. 
 When we are sure Christ bids us walk on the water we 
 should not hesitate one moment. Had Havron failed to 
 send forth his flying artillery from Tennessee, and Buchanan 
 his little howitzer from Missouri, and A. N. Eshman and 
 others had failed to put up the cash at the right time, God 
 only knows what would have been the result. But thanks 
 be to his holy name, they did not fail. Such men never fail. 
 It is always safe to do what God says do. He w411 see us 
 through. Moses said, "Who am I, that I should go to 
 Pharaoh. God said, sav unto hiiu. T am that T am hath 
 sent thee." When they tried to silence Amos, the prophet, 
 he replied, "The Lord said unto me. Go prophesy." The 
 
22 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Lord's prophets always have the right of way. God sent 
 Paul on his missionary tours and sermons fell from his lips 
 with burning power. No man could stand before him. 
 I'estus cried out, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; mucli 
 learning hath made thee mad." Agri])pa cried out, ".\lmost 
 thou persuadest me to be a Christian," and, when he rea- 
 soned of righteousness, temperance and judgment, Felix 
 cried out, "Go thy way for this time, at a convenient season 
 1 will call for thee." 
 
 It is disastrous to decline such a divine call. Men have 
 neglected a call to preach and mourned over it all their lives. 
 Laymen have neglected some great oppr)rtunity, and never 
 been happy afterward. There are men in our church, who 
 have ^t supinely down and watched the battle rage in all 
 its fury, and never lifted hand to strike nor gave a dollar 
 to save the church they profess to love. There rings out an 
 awful peal from heaven. "Woe to them who are at ease in 
 Zion. Curse ye Aleroz said the angel of the Lord, curse 
 ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to 
 the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord again.st the 
 mighty." 
 
 3. We mav ask for an invitation to do something of con- 
 sequence. Say like Peter,, "Bid me come to thee on the 
 water," and see what will come of it. Perhaps he will not 
 bid us, but it will do no harm to try. Not every one is 
 capable of unusual things, but perhaps we are, it is worth 
 while to ]mt it to the test. Ewing, King and APAdoo di 1 
 not know that thev were capable of organizing the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Chm-ch, and starting it on its world- 
 wide mission of soul-saving, but they went to (iod in an all- 
 night prayer meeting and got their commission before 
 breakfast to organize. And none but foolish men. blinded 
 by the god of this world, and crazy after larger things, 
 would ever even think of trying to blot. her fair name from 
 the roll of churches. It is perfectly legitimate to put our- 
 selves on the market. INlodesty is an excellent virtue, but 
 
^lODERATOR'S SERMON. 23 
 
 \vc must not let it keep us from doing what we are capable 
 of doing. Paul says, "Covet earnestly the best gifts." We 
 may not get them, but will be more likely to, if we desire 
 them. David was not noted for his modesty. He said. "I 
 will go and fight with this Philistine." And God took him 
 at his own estimate and gave him the victory. Peter was 
 not noted for his modesty, he jjut himself forward and God 
 accepted him for large service. The men who do great 
 things are men who are in line with (jod's providence, and 
 men who are looking for big jobs, b'aith in Christ must be 
 supplemented by faith in ourselves. A man never does any- 
 thing great unless he thinks he can. To doul)t yourself is 
 to doubt God. He works through us. We can fit ourselves 
 for the unusual and stand ready and see what will come 
 of it. God wants men. great men, men he can trust for 
 great tasks. The greatest opportunity ever ofi^ered to any 
 church is now before the Cumberland Church. O, for a 
 bapti.sm of fire to set her going. 
 
 God has generally chosen trained men for great under- 
 takings. Our church has been in course of training for one 
 hundred years, are we not now ready for the unusual? H 
 we want to draw lightning from the skies we must send up 
 our kites. We may not get it, but will be more likely to, 
 than if we sit and wait for it to come of its self. We must 
 keep on sending up our prayers and not be afraid of the 
 winds and waves if they do beat hard against our little 
 craft. Jesus is close by us with his eye upon us ready to 
 conje aboard and land us safely. 
 
 This was not the only unusual thing that occurred in 
 Peter's life. He preached at Pentecost and three thousand 
 people were saved. He preached to the household of Cor- 
 nelius and the Holy Ghost fell on all who heard the word. 
 It would be glorious if such a thing could occur to-day. and 
 such would occur if the i)eople here were in like condition 
 with those people. They had been fasting and praying, and 
 it brought God out of liis hiding place. There is a tradition 
 
24 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 that Peter finally suffered himself crucified with his hea.. 
 downward because he felt himself unworthy to die as his 
 Master did. Such men are needed to-day. Great evils need 
 crying against, mighty manifestations of divine power are 
 called for, he who is ready will get the job. 
 
 As I meditate on the past, present and future of this so- 
 called happily consummated union, and see its awful wrtck- 
 age, with its blood-lDespattered followers chopped into un- 
 recognizable bits by an inspired host who carry the sword 
 of the Lord Gideon as they move on in triumphal proces- 
 sion, I am dazed. I had rather be a poor man, living away 
 in the lonely hills in a board-covered cabin, with the Avild 
 vines growing over my door with wife at my side knitting 
 the hours away, yea, I had rather die and my life go out in 
 speechless, dreamless night, never to be thought of again 
 than be one of the leaders of this awful tragedy. 
 
 The report that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has 
 been reunited with the Presbyterian Qiurch, U. S. A., is a 
 malicious falsehood. Such a thing could not be, from the 
 fact that it never was a part of that church, and none are 
 more familiar with the situation than those who made the 
 statement. The Cumberland Church is a child of God, born 
 on the fourth dav of February, 1810, and has from that day 
 to this, had her separate existence. Here are her represen- 
 tatives from all parts of the country, even from far away 
 California, gathered to celebrate this, her one hundredth an- 
 niversary, and to engage in the work of this, her eightieth 
 General Assembly. This makes eighteen assemblies which 
 your present, unworthy moderator has attended, and I say 
 to you, my brethren, that this is the finest body of men that 
 my eyes ever beheld. And our women — well, let rocks and 
 hills their lasting silence break, and all harmonious human 
 tongues the Savior's praises speak, for giving to the Cum- 
 berland Church such noble women. 
 
 But wdiere is that immortal trio, Ewing, King and M Adoo 
 to-day? Where is Donnell. Calhoun. Morgan, Bryant, 
 
MODERATOR'S SERMON. J5 
 
 Ikard, Uird, JJurrow lUake. J luiitcr, Bone, McDonald 
 and DeWitt, and thousands of others who gave their lives 
 to the Cumberland Cliurch, and have long since gone. They 
 are in the General Assembly and church of the first-born in 
 heaven. And Chadick, Gill, Miller, ^McLeskey, Gregory, 
 Rudolph, Buchanan, Foust and others who fought so brave- 
 ly with us in this awful struggle and fell on the firing line 
 are gathered with them reporting the progress of the battle. 
 As we fall, one by one, and go up, the cry will ring out 
 from the old warriors above, tidings from the field below, 
 I thank God, yea, I am happy because my lot has been cast 
 with such noble people. And now I close by saying, the 
 Cumberland flag is up never to come down, and in the lan- 
 guage of our invincible Ilavron, cur batteries now trained 
 upon the crumbling walls of the U. S. A. citadels shall 
 never cease firing until they, through their regular con- 
 stituted and authorized agencies, salute our ecclesiastical 
 colors. And the salute must be a recognition of the dis- 
 tinctive system of doctrines enunciated by Ewing, King and 
 M'Adoo on the fourth day of February, 1810, in the little 
 old log house in Dixon County, Tennessee. 
 
 This being the time and place to which the seventy-ninth 
 General Assembly stands adjourned to meet, a quorum be- 
 ing present, we will now constitute by prayer led bv the 
 Rev. W. J. Larkcv. of Texas. 
 
REV. J. S. HALL 
 MUSCOGEE, OKLAHOMA 
 
TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND. 
 
 REV. J. S. HALL. 
 
 There is, it is said, a large stone, that marks the union 
 of three states, \'irginia. North CaroHna and Tennessee. 
 A man seated upon that stone on a Sabbath morning of 
 June, 1773, might have seen below him, at the pebbled-feet 
 of the mountains, in a rich and fertile valley, the first meet- 
 ing house ever erected upon Tennessee soil. That church 
 was erected by that hardy and glorious race, the Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians. This church was built of logs, forty 
 by eighty feet. It was covered with clapboards. These 
 Scotch-Irish settlers had a profound reverence and love for 
 the Sabbath. Peep into these cabins early on Sabbath morn 
 ing. Every child is in its place reciting the catechism. This 
 is the race of whom the Irishman said ; that when the potato 
 crop failed, "they lived on the Shorter Catechism and the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 When I came upon this old plot of ground to-day where 
 the fathers and mothers of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church worshipped God in the old camp-meetings or nearly 
 a hundred years ago; and where we came in 1907, with 
 bleeding hearts, to hold our first General Assembly, after 
 our sad betrayal, and looked upon this vast nmltitude of 
 happy sons and daughters of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, gathered from the North and the South, the East 
 and the West of this, the greatest of nations, I was like 
 the Queen of SheDa when she had seen the greatness and 
 the glory of King Solomon, I cried out, "Behold, the half 
 was not told me." 
 
 My mind was carried back along the shining pathwav of 
 our church's history to February 3, 1810; and I saw Finis 
 
28 CEXTEXXIAL SERMOXS AXD PAPERS. 
 
 Ewing, Samuel KiiT^^^ and Ephraini McLean, a licentiate, 
 proceeding' to the unpretentious home of Samuel M'Adoo 
 only a few miles from this place, and propose to him the 
 ];lan of constituting a new and independent Presbytery. 
 Mr. JM'Adoo replied that it was a measure of too great 
 importance to be decided hastily, and requested that he be 
 given some time for reflection and prayer. It was a subject 
 of momentous importance, involving" interests both for time 
 and eternity, and he knew the only source from which he 
 could get light and strength in this extremity. In the after- 
 noon of the same day on which the proposal to constitute 
 was made to him, he retired to a grove near his humble 
 dwelling,' and there with none present but himself and his 
 God, he sought from heaven the decision of the doubtful 
 question. There in earnest supplication he lingered, until 
 the dews of the midnight had fallen upon him, and yet he 
 was undecided. He returnel to his house to find Ewing, 
 King and McLean wrestling in prayer with God, that he 
 might be 'given light upon this important and vital question. 
 All thought and desire for sleep was forgotten, and they 
 continued to plead at a throne of rich grace, for that an- 
 swer that could come alone from above. Ju.st before the 
 dawn of the next,' day, Mr. M'y\.doo returned to the grove 
 where he had spent the evening before. He continued in 
 prayer until the sun had come from behind the eastern 
 hills, and had flooded the world with the light and glory of 
 a new day ; when the Son of righteousness rose and drove 
 back the clouds of doubt from his mind and answered his 
 prayer. He returned to his house with his face shining with 
 glory and cheerfulness. His eyes raised to heaven, the tears 
 en his cheeks, and clapping his hands. He told his brethren 
 lliat God had answered the doubtful question ; that he be- 
 lieved that an allwise i)rovidence had si:)ared his life to he! > 
 the church throw off the shackles of Calvinism. "I am 
 row," said he. "ready to constitute, and to ordain this young 
 brother, IMcLean, before we adjourn.'' So immediately on 
 
TENTING OX THE OLD CAMP GROUND. 29 
 
 the fourth day of I^^bruary, i8iO, they constituted the firs 
 presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and 
 ordained Mr. McLean, before adjourning. Thus the great 
 est church in the world, to-day, came into existence. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF THEIR SOWING. 
 
 When Ewing, King and M'Adoo constituted an indc 
 pendent presbytery, and tlius launched the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church, with her Medium Ground System ot 
 Theology upon the stormy sea of ecclesiasticism, various 
 prophecies were made of what would be the result of their 
 act. Some prophesied that the church which they had or- 
 ganized would be short-lived, and very soon be numbere 1 
 with the things of the past. Others said, that they would 
 soon run into the wildest of errors and schism. One hun- 
 dred years have rolled by. One of the greatest Civil Wars, 
 chronicled in the history of any nation upon earth swept 
 over her while in her infancy ; and while the Methodist, 
 Baptist and Presbyterian churches were being rent asunder 
 by party spirit, and were passing unchristian resolutions 
 against each other, Milton Bird, that grand old servant of 
 God, who has long since received his crown of glory and 
 mansion at the right hand of God, preached a sermon at the 
 General Assembly of our church at St. Louis in May, 1861, 
 from the text: "Let brotherly love continue." At the close 
 of the sermon of this old servivor of the revival of 1800, 
 Our General Assembly passed this resolution : "By the grace 
 of God assisting us, we we will always endeavor to cherish 
 the true principles and pure spirit of Christianit}' ; that 
 with this enthroned in our hearts we can, and will, walk in 
 love and live in peace in the bonds of an unbroken brother- 
 hood." From that good hour to this, we have known no 
 North, no South, no East, no West, but thank God we are 
 brethren. All this has only proven that none of those 
 prophets were endowed with the ken of ancient prophecy ; 
 for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has been con- 
 
:,() CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 stantly and rapidly growing from that day until this ; and it 
 now has as few .signs of decay, and dissolution, and as many 
 flattering prospects of enlarged usefulness, as any other 
 branch of the Lord's living Zion. And instead of running 
 into the wildest of errors and schism, we have a Scriptural 
 System of Theology, whose clearness and soundness, we 
 challenge investigation and comparison. Even our most 
 deadly enemies have been forced to say, that the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church has the best confessional state- 
 ment extant. 
 
 Guided by the hand of the unseen pilot, she has success- 
 fully weathered every storm. Her crew are honest-hearted 
 men and women of God, who esteem doctrine anrl princijile, 
 and religious liberty far above money and prestige. No 
 church on earth can boast of a richer heritage than ours. 
 Ewing, King, M'Adoo, McLean, Thomas Calhoun, Hugh 
 Kirkpatrick, Robert Donnell, Milton Bird, A. J. Baird! 
 C), brethren, I had thought to call the roll of the honored 
 dead of our church, but it is too long. Their tongues are 
 stilled in death, but their works do follow them, God has 
 blesSed the labors of her consecrated ministry in the salva- 
 tion of many thousands of souls. Every protestant denomi- 
 nation in the United States has received into their folds of 
 the fruit of their labor of love. I go farther and say, that 
 almost every home in this good land of ours, be it ever so 
 humble, or ever so palatial, has been enriched and made 
 happier and better through the instrumentality of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church. She. has already landed her 
 many thousands on the banks of eternal bliss, and more 
 than a hundred thousand to-day are her happy passengers. 
 
 FATHERS OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The fathers of the Cumberland Presb}terian Church were 
 men of great faith and spiritual power. The power that 
 they possessed was not that frail human power that comes 
 from education and refinement, that the theolo-gical semi- 
 
TEXTTXG ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND. 31 
 
 naries are giving to the young ministers of our da}', and 
 sending them forth strangers to that power alone that can 
 make men ministers of God. The fathers of our church 
 beHeved in an educated ministry, but they were thoroughly 
 convinced of the fact that an educated ministry unsancti- 
 fied by the Holy Spirit was dangerous and a failure. Realiz- 
 ing this to be true, they tarried in prayer in the silent groves 
 and in their closets, until he that said to the first ministers 
 of the gospel more than eighteen centuries before: "Ye 
 shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
 you ;" had given them the old time Pentecostal Baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost and power. The blessed paraclete that 
 could take th'e humble fishermen from their boats, and the 
 despised tax gatherers from their offices, and make them 
 the sons of thunder. 
 
 I relate one or two incidences to illustrate the power of 
 the Holy Ghost that accompanied the labors of the fathers 
 of our church. At Cave Springs Camp Groimd, Overton 
 County, Tennessee, the Chapman Presbytery was in session. 
 The camp-meeting, which was in progress at the same time, 
 was unusually large. At the Sunday morning service some 
 youn-g ministers were to be ordained to the full work of the 
 ministry. Not only the great shed, but the whole lot around 
 the shed was filled with people anxious to see and to hear. 
 When the presbytery gathered around the young ministers 
 to lay their hands upon their heads and pray, the congre- 
 gation rose to their feet to see the ceremony. The prayer 
 was offered by that grand old servant of God — Thomas Cal- 
 houn. His pleading with God for the Holy Spirit's power 
 to be given those young men impressed every heart, as 
 they listened with new and grander ideas of the divine iliis- 
 sion of the gospel ministry. Then the prayer shed a start- 
 ling flash of light on a holv partnership and union between 
 a truly spiritual preacher and God. Then came another 
 flash sweeping out over the dark masses of fallen men and 
 women before him to whom God was sending the gospel 
 
2-i CEXTEXXTAL SRR]\rOXS AND PATERS. 
 
 of his Son. (), the gospel ! how that prayer revealed and 
 transformed it to the eyes and hearts of that multitude of 
 lost souls, the love of God in the gospel of his Son. The 
 prayer went on, and the people standing near the preacher 
 sank down sobbing to the earth. The prayer continued and 
 the next circle of that mighty throng of lost souls sank in 
 like manner, to the ground weeping. Then burning sen- 
 tences flowing from his pleading heart, filled with the power 
 of the Holy Spirit went up to the throne of God for a lost 
 world, and the next circle of that vast congregation sank to 
 the ground sobbing and weeping". Finally all under the old 
 shed was bowed to the earth. Still the earnest, pleading, 
 thrilling prayer of this old servant of God seemed to gather 
 strength and power for a mightier 'gathering of the lost, 
 and strong men, hardened in sin, and standing far out from 
 under the shed, trembling and pale with conviction, sank 
 down to the ground weeping over their sins. 
 
 When at last the prayer closed, not only those under the 
 shed, and in the lot around the shed were prostrate, but 
 all around, and back even in the camps, men lay upon the 
 ground weeping and praying. Nobody rose when the amen 
 was uttered. The remaining ceremonies were performed 
 on their knees in choking, sobbing whispers. 
 
 Then there was a pause. O, that pause ! Then the old 
 man of God, the grand survivor of the revival preachers 
 of eighteen hundred, uttered one little sentence, "Ye are 
 called of God, to your work;" and leading the way, he and 
 the other preachers went among the prostrate crowd tellin^;' 
 them of a Savior who died to save the lost. 
 
 Again this same old servant of God was preaching the 
 funeral sermon of the Rev. Robert Donnell. Vast crowds 
 of people had gathered to pay their last tribute of respect 
 to this noble man of God. A heavy rain was seen to be 
 approaching. The lightning was flashing, and the thunder 
 was rolling. The rain had already begun to fall. The 
 people began to be restless. The old servant of God asked 
 
TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND. ;,;, 
 
 the people to bow their heads for a moment while he prayed. 
 He raised his hands and stretched them out toward the 
 threatening cloud and prayed God not to allow the rain 
 to disturb their solemn worship. Then turning to the con- 
 gregation he assured them that God woul 1 not allow the 
 rain ta come upon their saddles. The cloud parted, and it 
 rained all around hard and long, but none fell on the shed, 
 or on the multitude of horses which stood with saddles on 
 them in the adjacent grove. 
 
 CONSECRATED MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 The fathers and mothers of our church were consecrated 
 men and women. Consecration, with us, to-day, seems to 
 mean but very little. To them it meant the giving of them- 
 selves to God, their families, and all that they had. and 
 ever hoped to be, for the salvation of the loss. Conse- 
 cration and devotion to duty, to them, was much like 
 the consecration and devotion of the early disciples 
 of our Lord, after the baptism of the Holy Ghost at 
 Pentecost. They entered into solemn covenants of con- 
 secration to God, and faithfulness in His service, and 
 these covenants were held with great sacredness, and were 
 carried out with such faithfulness as to show that they 
 were in earnest. 
 
 Robert Donnell wrote on the fly leaf of his Bible: "And 
 now, O Lord, I consecrate myself, my talents, whether one, 
 or five, my tinie, my influence, my all to thee." A few years 
 later, wdien his little daughter died, he was away from 
 home in Alabama holding a camp-meeting. Writing to his 
 wife on receiving this sad intelligence he said : "But for 
 my appointments to preach, I would set out immediately 
 to see my dear, afflicted wife. I have, however, given my- 
 self to the Lord to serve in his vineyard, and I am not at 
 liberty, like men of the world, to leave my Master's work." 
 
 Again, when Samuel King was in his sixtieth year the 
 General Assembly asked him to make an evangelistic tour 
 
.14 CENTENNIAL SER^fONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 among the weak churches of the frontier. Without hesita- 
 tion he mounted his horse and made a grand tour through 
 Tennessee, Kentucky, ^Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mis- 
 sissippi and Alabama. lie was absent from liis family on 
 this tour nearly two years. Do you say these men did not 
 love their families? If you do, it is plain that you are a 
 stranger to their consecration and devotion. 
 
 Pardon me, but my address to-day would be incomplete 
 and selfish if I should fail to honor our consecrated moth- 
 ers that stood back of the fathers of our dear church, and 
 bore the cares and responsibilities of their homes. They 
 never forgot to pray for their husbands away from honu' 
 in the service of God. Go read the biographies of these 
 blessed women of God, and you will not wonder that these 
 men of God preached with power. O. God, of heaven, who 
 gave us thv Son. Thou who hast given us the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian' Church in whicii to labor for thee. This day 
 baptize us with the old-time power of the Holy Ghost, that 
 thou didst baptize the fathers anrl mothers of our church 
 with ; and consecrate us these sons and daughters — thy serv- 
 ants and handmaids to thy service as of old. 
 
 A CHILD OF PERSECUTION. 
 
 Early in the history of the church we read that Herod 
 stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church, and 
 that he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword, 
 and because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded 
 further to take Peter, also. Thus the record discloses to us 
 the beginning of a long and cruel persecution of the early 
 church by heathen Rome ; which did more to establish the 
 truths and doctrines of the Christian religion, than any 
 other thing that could have happ«ned to it. 
 
 Nearly eighteen hundred years after her Master had suf- 
 fered death at the hanc-s of the persecuting Jews; the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Qiurch was born.. Not in a manger, 
 like her ATaster, but in the humble dwelling of an old serv- 
 
TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND. 35 
 
 ant of God. From her birth to this good hour, she has been 
 the object of bitter and relentless persecution by every de- 
 nomination upon the American continent. They have as- 
 sailed her doctrines with all their martialed hosts, only to 
 be defeated, and the weakness of their theological positions 
 made prominent to the world. The Presbyterian Church in 
 the United States of America, has been the most deadly 
 enemy of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Like Herod 
 of old, she tried to slay the young child in its infancy. She 
 has never failed to improve every opportunity for persecu- 
 tion, and her destruction ; and the more wicked and cruel 
 the persecution, the more she has rejoiced in it. The early 
 ministers and members of our church were branded by her 
 in her highest courts as heretics, and refused the common 
 courtesies of Christian fellowship and the communion of 
 saints. But like Israel of old in Egypt, the more she per- 
 secuted us the more we grew. Seeing that an open perse- 
 cution was fruitless, and unapproved by the world, she be- 
 gan to pretend to be very friendly toward us, and even 
 claimed to be our mother, and to love us with the tender- 
 ness of a mother. Some of us had come to believe that 
 she was sincere in her pretensions ; but all this whi^e .'^he 
 was secretly plotting our destruction. In h^ebruary, 1904, 
 the leaders pf our church, whom we loved and confided in, 
 met the leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
 States of America in St. Louis, and after days of plotting 
 and planning, they entered into such a conspiracy against our 
 dear church, that eternity alone can reveal its blackness and 
 treachery. Our brethren whom we had thought to be hon- 
 est and true surrendered us unconditionally, property and 
 all, into the hands of our rejoicing enemy. Then began one 
 of the most heroic struggles, by a weak church, for life and 
 liberty of consciencCj against a rich and powerful denomi- 
 nation, that the world has ever witnessed. In spite of our 
 protests, and ])leadings for justice and ri-ghteous treatment; 
 at Decatur, 111., in May, 1906, they declared the plan for 
 
30 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 our destruction matured, and adjourned our General As- 
 sembly sine die, and the' conspirators of our church, headed 
 by Ira Landrith, were sent to Des Moines, Iowa, exulting 
 over their crime, bearing presents to the General Assembly 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. 
 But thank God the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had 
 one hundred and six loyal sons at Decatur, whose love for 
 right and religious liberty would not permit it to stay ad- 
 journed. Driven from our own church, they assembled in 
 Grand Army Hall, and continued the existence of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church, by electing Hudgins, Modera- 
 tor, and Padget, Stated Clerk, and filling such other offices 
 as had been made vacant by their renouncing our Confes- 
 sion of Faith. One long and loud shout of thanksgiving 
 went up to the God of Ewing, King, and M'Adoo, from the 
 Lakes to the Gulf, and from h'lorida to California, for men 
 who loved right and a clean conscience, more than money 
 and prestige. 
 
 Before our rejoicing had ceased, and we could begin the 
 reconstruction of our scattered forces ; came the sweeping 
 Landrith injunction. I challenge the past and the present 
 history of the church of Jesus Christ to show a more wick- 
 ed, cruel and un-Christian persecution. We were enjoine 1 
 from using the name, or any part of the name of our church 
 in our services. We were forbidden the use and sale of 
 our Confession of Faith, and copyrighted books. For sixty 
 long and dark days the great Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 prohibited the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Tennes- 
 see from having Sunday school and the regular services. 
 Under this injunction our ministers could not preach a 
 funeral sermon, or bury our dead in the name of our be- 
 loved church, without being arrested for contempt of court, 
 and being dragged before a magistrate. There is nothing in 
 the persecutions of heathen Rome that surpasses this. To- 
 day they are lawing us in a dozen states for churches and 
 property bequeathed us by men and women who loved their 
 
CU.MBERLAND PRESBYTERTANISM DEFINED. Z7 
 
 church and gave their money and property for its per- 
 petuation. In their greed for gain and our destruction, they 
 may take every church house from us, and leave us home- 
 less and without a foot of dirt upon which to erect a house, 
 but the Cumberland Presbyterian Church will live on and 
 more than retrieve her loss, and 'glorify and honor her God 
 in the salvation of souls. It was said that when they were 
 trying ]\Irs. Surrat, at Washington, unjustly, for the murder 
 of '\\v. Lincoln. The lawyer who was defending her said 
 to the lawyer who was prosecuting her so vigorously and 
 unjustly: "Sir, for this unrighteous persecution, when you 
 come down to die. you shall hear the rustling of the gar- 
 ments of this innocent woman." Time rolled on, and when 
 lliis lawyer was blhid in death his nurse said he kept say- 
 ing to her, "Whj.t woman is that, whose garments I hear 
 rustling as she wa'ks around my bed?" There is a just 
 God in heaven; and when John M. Gaut, and Ira Landrith, 
 and W. J. Darby, come down to die, they shall hear the 
 rustling of the garment, ard the pleading voice of the poor 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church that had done them no 
 injury, but Avhich they persecuted so cruelly an 1 unjustly. 
 
 HER FUTURE BRIGHT. 
 
 O ! fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, the past 
 six years have been years that tried our hearts and our 
 faith. Sometimes the lamp of hope burned very dimly, 
 and our hope was almost gone ; but to-day I bring you the 
 glad news of the coming of a brighter . day. Already the 
 signs of its coming have begun to pencil the clouds that 
 hang over us with its glorious light. "Weeping may en- 
 dure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Lift 
 up your eyes and look upon the fields, for they are white 
 unto the harvest. Already the shouts of victory are com- 
 ing up from every humble congregation of our beloved 
 cliurch, from her remotest borders. Our preachers, as of 
 old, are seeking the baptism of the Lloly Ghost and of 
 fire. Our members are tarrving in their closets for the 
 
38 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 power and consecration that was upon the membership of 
 a hundred years ago ; and the fields that are white unto 
 the harvest, are bein'g gathered for the Master. If she has 
 landed her thousands, she will land her many thousands 
 more. 
 
 O, bretiiren and sisters, lift up your eyes and look out 
 upon the stormy sea of time, and you can see the ships 
 homeward bound! Among them I see a most beautiful 
 ship. Her sails are unfurled to the breezes, upon her mast 
 is unfurled the old whosoever banner. Her captain is 
 King Jesus. Aboard are her many thousands of passen- 
 gers, singing the song of Moses the servant of (lod, and 
 of the Lamb. It is her last voyage. I look out and I see 
 the shining port of heaven. I see Ewing, King and M'Adoo 
 her builders, and the mighty host of the redeemed which 
 she has landed long years before, coniing down to the 
 harbor to greet her with crowns of glory upon their 
 heads, and palms of victory in their hands. She drops 
 her anchors, and furls her sails. It is the 'grand old ship 
 Cumberland. She will sail the wild seas no more. The 
 tempests may sweep o'er the wild, stormy deep, but safe in 
 heaven we will rest evermore. 
 
 There is but one fond ambition in my poor life, and if 
 it is wrong forgive it. I want to serve "my Master as best 
 I can, and when I fall in death, and you come to carve 
 my simple epitaph upon the unpretentious slab that is to 
 mark my last resting place. I ask not that you carve upon 
 it that I was great and covered with honor, for that would 
 be untrue. But carve upon it, "Here lies an humble soldier 
 of the cross, who fell at his post in the Cumberland Pres- 
 bvterian Church." 
 
REV. J. L. GOODKNIGHT 
 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY — STATED CLERK 
 
 LINCOLN, ILL. 
 
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAXISM DEFINED. 
 
 J. L. GOODKNIGHT, D. D.^ LL.D. 
 
 There are only three great fundamental systems of doc- 
 trine under Protestantism. Each of these is a distinct 
 doctrinal system and has nothing in common with either 
 of the others. These three doctrinal systems are Calvin- 
 ism, Arminianism and Cumberlandism. 
 
 Cumberlandism is different from these other two in each 
 and all the essential doctrines of Christianity. I shall first 
 state these several fundamental doctrines in their order. 
 
 I. Sin IX Its Effi^cts Upon the Hum.vn Race. 
 
 1. It effects upon Adam as race head. 
 
 2. The relation of Adam to his posterity in sin. 
 
 3. Man's ability and inability under sin. 
 
 II. The Life and Death of Jesus Christ. 
 
 1. What it did on God's side as God stands related. 
 
 2. What it did on man's side for man — as man stands 
 related. 
 
 3. What advantage came to man througli the life and 
 death of Jesus Christ. 
 
 4. Wherein man's inability lies under the gospel, and 
 the extent of his inability; the extent of man's ability un- 
 der grace. 
 
 III. The Meaning of Repentance Under the Gospel. 
 
 I. God's part in repentance^quickening the soul to a 
 •sense of sin. 
 
 ce — acting freely — no compul- 2. ]\Ian's ]')art in rcpcntan 
 sion — all voluntary. 
 
-10 CENTEN.NIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 IV. Faith Under the Gospel. 
 
 1. God imparted ability and its extent. 
 
 2. Man's ability to exercise faith. 
 
 3. Faith as an instrument — consequences flowing" from 
 its exercise by man — a n:eans to an end. 
 
 V. Regeneratiox Under the Gospel. 
 
 1. The part man has in regeneration. 
 
 2. The part God has in regeneration. 
 
 3. The effects of regeneration on man— his state after 
 regeneration, subjectively. 
 
 4. His relation to God after regeneration. 
 
 5. His relation to sin after regeneration. 
 
 VI. The Chrlstl\n Under Grace. 
 
 1. Calvinism: Final perseverance of the saints. 
 
 2. Arminianism : The possible apostasy of the Christian 
 in this world. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism : The preservation of believers by 
 Christ. 
 
 the logical steps of cumberlandism. 
 
 1. Sin and its efifects — ]\Ianward and Godward. 
 
 2. Redemption for and from sin — Godward. 
 
 3. Redemption from sin — Manward. » 
 
 4. The Holy Spirit — Godward. 
 
 5. The Holy Spirit — ?^Janward. 
 
 6. The meaning of repentance — ^lanward and Godward. 
 
 7. Faith : Historic and Saving — Manward and Godward. 
 
 8. Man regenerated — Godward and Manward. 
 
 9. Man's adoption — Godward and Manward. 
 
 10. Man's justification — Godward and Manward. 
 
 11. The Christian preserved through the power of Christ 
 — Godward and Manward. 
 
 12. The Christian's works — Godward and Manward. 
 
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANISM DEFINED. -i' 
 
 I. The Doctrine of Sin. 
 
 1. Calvini-sm — ]\Ian is totally depraved. He has lost all 
 spiritual ability. Cannot put forth an acceptable spiritual 
 act. He is a spiritual corpse ; spiritually dead ; absolutely 
 spiritually insensible to spiritual truth. 
 
 2. Arminianism — Man is not totally- depraved : has power 
 to put forth spiritual acts ; he can perform acts in them- 
 selves acceptable to God ; perform meritorious acts ; has the 
 power to exercise saving- faith ; can become a Christian by 
 his own acts; can put himself in such relation to God that 
 God can save him. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism — Man is depraved in all the parts of 
 his being' ; sin affects his whole spiritual and physical being. 
 He has the original faculties and powers of his whole be- 
 ing, but his being is biased to sin ; he sins and of himself 
 he cannot do otherwise. He is blind to spiritual truth. He 
 cannot truly discern spiritual things. He rolls sin as a 
 sweet morsel under his tongue. 
 
 n. Man's Ability Under Sin. 
 
 1. Calvinism — The sinner is spiritually dead; his spirit 
 is as dead as his body would be without life. He has no 
 ability to do anything. Can put forth no act acceptable to 
 God until God regenerates him. He is truly totally de- 
 praved. A lifeless spirittial corpse. 
 
 2. Arminianism — The sinner has ability to do all the 
 necessary acts in order to be saved. He has the power to 
 repent, believe, and exercise faith to the saving of his soul. 
 He can of himself lay hold savingly of Christ and of him- 
 self let go of Christ. He has all sufficient ability to save 
 himself under the gospel by appropriating the gifts of 
 grace. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism — The sinner bv the Holy Spirit is 
 made to see he is a lost sinner. The Holy Spirit co-operat- 
 in'g he is able to do whatever is necessary in order to be 
 
42 • CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 saved. God aids him in giving him the abiUty to do and 
 he is left absokitely free to act or not to act ; to become a 
 Christian or not become, (lod imparts to him the abiUty 
 and leaves him free to exercise this ability. It is man and 
 God jointly. 
 
 4. Calvinism: No ability. Arminianism : Man ability. 
 Cumberlandism : Gocf-given man ability. 
 
 5. Calvinism : God saves. Arminianism : Man saves. 
 Cumberlandism: God and man jointly saves. 
 
 6. Cumberlandism expanded — Man left to himself is un- 
 able to free himself from sin. lint he is not spiritually dead 
 on the one hand like Calvinism. Nor is he able to put forth 
 a saving spiritual act on the other hand like Arminianism. 
 But the Holy Spirit enables him to both see and do those 
 things on his part necessary to bring him into a saved state 
 under grace. Calvinism: tiod is primary. Arminianism: 
 Man is primary. Cumberlandism: God and man jointly 
 do it all ; a joint activity ; God acting with man joining in ; 
 man acting with God joining in. This makes it honoring 
 alike to God and man. 
 
 REPENTANCE. 
 
 1. Calvinism — The sinner cannot repent so long as he is 
 a sinner ; he must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit to be 
 able to repent ; he is made a new creature in order to re- 
 pent. 
 
 2. Arminianism — The sinner repents. Has the ability to 
 give up and turn; from his sins. The Holy Spirit confirms 
 what he does. Alan repents then God saves through the 
 sinner's faith in Jesus Christ. God does the regenerating 
 work, yet man performs all necessary thereto. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism^The sinner repents because he has 
 been convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit. He is a Holy 
 Spirit convicted sinner. Hence he comes under the con- 
 demnation of the Holy Spirit fur his sins. He sees his 
 sins and his relation to God because of his sins. He comes 
 
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANISM DEFINED. 43 
 
 by his own convictions where he must choose between his 
 sins, a sinful hfe, or forsake his sins, the sinful life, and 
 •give himself to Christ for the service of God. Here is a 
 joint work of the sinner and God. God imparts all the 
 ability for free moral action and man is responsible for all 
 his moral acts, because the sinner has the power and ability 
 to act. His God-given ability measures his condemnation 
 for his failure to right moral action. 
 
 IV. Faith Under Grace. 
 
 1. Calvinism — The sinner cannot exercise faith, for faith 
 comes after regeneration. A man must be regener?^ted be- 
 fore he can exercise faith that has any spiritual value, ef- 
 ficiency or efifectiveness. The sinner cannot exercise sav- 
 ing faith. Only the regenerated can exercise saving faith. 
 God by an arbitrary act must regenerate the sinner without 
 his consent or assent before he can exercise saving faith or 
 any other kind of faith or perform any act acceptable to 
 God. A dead soul cannot act ; the sinner is dead, says Cal- 
 vinism ; spiritually dead ; must have a spiritual soul resur- 
 rection of the sinner before he can exercise faith. 
 
 2. Arminianism — The sinner can believe. He has all the^ 
 powers of all acts that belong to a free moral agent in a 
 free moral government. He can do whatever God demands 
 and commends because of his own inherent ability so to do? 
 Hence, he can exercise a saving faith in Christ. He has the 
 inherent and self-sufficient ability. The human can per- 
 form the act which will put it in touch and bring it into 
 harmony with the divine. Saving faith is of man. Hence 
 man alone could and can put it aside and can undo all it 
 may do or has done. Faith stands as a prerequisite means 
 to bring the soul into a regenerate state and experience. 
 ]\Ian does all save regeneration, and he can undo regenera- 
 tion by his own acts. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism — God gives man the spiritual power 
 to exercise faith unto salvation, but does not act for him. 
 
4^1 CENTIvNNIAL SER.MOXS AND PAPERS. 
 
 God holds man responsible for this exercise of faith. It is 
 a joint work of God and man. God gives the ability; the 
 sinner must choose to exercise this ability. "He that be- 
 lieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." 
 
 V. Regeneration. 
 
 1. Calvinism — God works without any consultation or 
 co-operation on man's part. An act of God whereby He 
 takes the sinner absolutely dead in sin and resurrects him 
 into spiritual life. God's act of regeneration is not preceded 
 by any acts of the sinner as conditions thereto. God must 
 alone regenerate the sinner before the sinner can act 
 spiritually to any degree or in kind. Regeneration is in 
 order that repentance and faith may be exercised by the 
 sinner. (Whereas regeneration is the consequence of them 
 and in no sense is regeneration a condition or means to re- 
 pentance and faith. Wiiile man is passive in the act of re- 
 generation by God. yet man consents thereunto. The work 
 is a perfect work, for all who are regenerated are thereby 
 made a new creation in Christ Jesus and thereby become 
 the spiritual children of God; heirs of Good and joint heirs 
 with our Lord Jesus Christ.) 
 
 2. Arminianism — Regeneration is a work performed by 
 God, but made contingent upon the sinner's accepting it 
 for a time. It is such a work upon the soul that the sinner 
 cannot do, but he can undo. It is a conditional work. Man 
 determines the conditions upon which it may be done and 
 whether he will allow God's w^ork to abide. Regeneration 
 is a temporary work, dependent upon the whims and wdll 
 of a human being as to whether this one allows God's work 
 to stand. Man can of his own free volition undo the work 
 of regeneration and make God's work in the soul void. He 
 can mock God, defy God and make void God's work. Yea, 
 work wherein the sinner had surrendered to God. Regene- 
 ration is an incomplete, time-contingent and man-contingent 
 
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANTSM DEFINED. 45 
 
 state of the soul under grace. To-day a saint regenerated ; 
 to-morrow an apostate Christian devil. Herein you have a 
 state of grace wherein man is the sovereign not God. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism — Regeneration is the absolute work 
 of God. It is the spiritual work of God upon a spiritually 
 quickened human soul. The sinner by his repentance and 
 faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, passes himself 
 over to God as a perfectly passive agent submitting willing- 
 ly to God to be regenerated — made "a new creature" and 
 "new creation in Christ Jesus." The sinner is thus born 
 into a new spirit existence or state, so that he passes from 
 a spiritual death unto a spiritual life ; so much so that he is 
 born again and is a new creature in Christ Jesus. While 
 man is passive, it is a passivitv of his own choosing. He 
 is not compelled thereto without his consent. He submits 
 to be made this new creation. It is not an arbitrary act of 
 God without the sinner's assent and consent. The sinner 
 chooses to comply with the conditions necessary to regene- 
 ration. Then it is that God performs the sovereign and 
 miraculous act of regenerating the soul. This is an act 
 which only God can perform, and the effects of which no 
 human or devil can undo. Here is a work wrought by the 
 mighty power of God which no soul ever wants undone. 
 Only God can make alive the sinner ; no regenerated soul 
 ever wants to go back to death and hell. For here you 
 have the joint work of God and man. Man of God-given 
 ability prepares and fits himself therefor and then submit- 
 ting himself thereto. God alone can regenerate and create 
 anew, the man sinful soul as it be, and man only can will- 
 ingly submit himself to God that he may be remade, re- 
 newed, and created in Christ Jesus, in all the parts of his 
 spiritual being. Here is the work which no regenerate 
 si)irit ever wants undone ; one which no other human being 
 or devil can ever undo. It is performed with man's assent 
 and consent for all time and eternilv. 
 
46 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 VI. Man Regenerated Under Grace. 
 
 1. Calvinism- — Here comes the illogical doctrine of "the 
 final perseverance of the saints." The remaining in a state 
 of certain grace is made contingent upon the human ability 
 to perseverance. A soul elected from all eternity to be 
 saved and is regenerated without its consent by a sover- 
 eign act of God ; done without assent, consent or volition 
 of the soul ; without the spiritual knowledge of the soul, 
 that it would be regenerated, thus brought into a state of 
 grace — and then such a soul is left to its own fate con- 
 tingent upon its own perseverance. The finality of an elect- 
 ed, regenerated, sanctified, justified and adopted soul made 
 in time contingent upon the personal actions of the soul 
 itself. A new spiritual life |)ut in a state of spiritual proba- 
 tion under grace, yet by a sovereign and predetermining 
 act of God predestinated from all eternity to be saved upon 
 the simple decree of God. The most illogical, unphilo- 
 sophical and un-Scriptural view of the fate of a regenerated 
 soul that could possibly be formulated. 
 
 2. Ariuinianism — Mere you have human agency su- 
 preme. Man can undo the regenerating work of God at 
 any time. Man is a shuttlecock of spiritual uncertainty 
 between the state of the saved soul and the soul unsaved. 
 He can change his regenerated relation to God of his own 
 free and absolute volition at his own pleasure and con- 
 venience. He cannot be certain of being saved until he is 
 dead. His salvation in time is absolutely contingent wholly 
 upon the individual and inherent powers in himself to re- 
 main in 'grace or to apostatize most freely at any time. 
 The soul's final salvation in time is conditioned upon the 
 human. Man is sovereign over God in his power to undo 
 God's work and render null and void God's work of re- 
 generation. The soul can have no assurance of its state 
 under regeneration because it is always a human contin- 
 gent in time. The human is supreme. The human cannot 
 
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERTANISM DEFINED. 47 
 
 surrender to the Divine so as to make the Divine supreme 
 in the making the soul in a saved state a certainty. God 
 is prechuled from making salvation sure in time. 
 
 3. Cumberlandism — The soul is under grace and not 
 under law. In regeneration there was a perfect work. 
 Man assented and consented to this work of God upon the 
 soul. By regeneration a deathless spiritual life was im- 
 parted and implanted in the soul. The power to live a 
 spiritual life was imparted to the whole spiritual being of 
 the individual. There was a joint spiritual partnership 
 formed between the soul and Jesus Christ. The soul fully 
 surrendered itself to Jesus Christ as the only one having 
 power to save it from sin and the dominion and power of 
 sin, and bring it into a permanent state of salvation under 
 grace. Jesus Christ freed the soul from the power and 
 dominion of its own sinful nature by regeneration and 
 freed it from the power and dominion of the devil. 
 
 The same Christ power that regenerated the soul and 
 brought it into the saved state, is pledged and accepted to 
 keep the soul and bring it into a 'glorified state and confirm 
 it in heavenly righteousness. The keeping power of Christ 
 and the soul's co-operation in working out "its to be" 
 glorified state, are the two things which make its final 
 state secure in time. God's work in regeneration is such a 
 perfect w^ork that neither the soul, nor men, nor devils 
 can undo it. The soul will not undo it and the devils can- 
 not undo it. It is the joint work of God and man consent- 
 ing and co-operating freely. The soul has become so 
 changed in its very nature that it holds on to God through 
 faith in Jesus Christ aided by the constraining power of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 4. Final Comparisons — Calvinism says the predestinated 
 and elected soul after regeneration is dependent upon the 
 human agency — salvation ma<le certain through human 
 contingencv. 
 
48 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Arminianisni says the regenerated soul is dependent 
 i:pon human free agency with the power to undo the work 
 (lone by God in regeneration and that man is made cer- 
 tain in holiness only at and after death. 
 
 Cumberlandism says the regenerated soul is made cer- 
 tain of salvation in the moment of regeneration in this 
 world and confirmed in sinless perfection at and after 
 .leath. 
 
REV. A. C. BIDDLE 
 WARRENSBURG, MO. 
 
A DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES 
 
 OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 REV. A. C. BIDDLE. 
 
 "Cry thou, saying. Thus saifh the Lord of hosts: I am 
 jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion zvith a great jealousy." 
 Zech. 1 : 14. 
 
 In this passage God is said to be jealous — very 
 jealous. I shall not stop to define jealousy. We all 
 know what it means. We are jealous only when we love. 
 God loves his church ; but hates her enemies, hates *her 
 defections, and hates her coldness. The church is here 
 spoken of under the figure of Zion, of Jerusalem. The 
 church is an organization. A church may have either a 
 human or a divine warrant; but God's church must have 
 a divine warrant. Godj is jealous for his church ; not your 
 church, nor my church, but his church. Denominational- 
 ism is neither a necessary nor an arbitrary concomitant to 
 his church ; it belongs to the human organization. God's 
 church is organized under one head, even the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; its door is entered by faith, and its crown is won 
 by service. Denominationalism simply marks the difference 
 between the various systems of belief and ecclesiastical 
 polity. We see, therefore, that there may be a wide dif- 
 ference between what essentially constitutes his church, 
 and what constitutes the church militant ; and what con- 
 stitutes your church, or my church, as separate denomi- 
 nations. God does not love a church simply from senti- 
 ment, or because it is a church ; but because it conforms 
 to those principles laid down for Jiis church. God is very 
 jealous for his church. 
 
 I have said that a church is an organization. I go fur- 
 ther, and say that a church is an organized body of be- 
 
so CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 lievers. There are two essential characteristics in every 
 true church : it must be called out, and it must believe in. 
 It is a body of believers. It enters the kingdom by faith, 
 and lives and serves just as it believes. Our Lord kept 
 saying over and over he that believeth is saved. The word 
 "believe" at first meant very much the same as "to live 
 upon," and the believer was. therefore, one who lived in 
 Christ, lived for Christ, lived toward Christ. We see, 
 therefore, how the believer is saved, because he lives in 
 Christ, and daily practices the presence of the Christ. Now, 
 if a man be a believer he must believe in something — he 
 must believe some what. As he enters the kingdom by 
 believing, and continues to abide by a life of faith, it is 
 very important that he know him whom he believes, and 
 be able to make a clear statement of what he believes. 
 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is one amon-g 
 many churches — bodies of organized Christian believers, 
 and like every other church, it has its peculiar and dis- 
 tinctive doctrines. I am a Cumberland Presbyterian, a min- 
 ister in that church, and a believer in her doctrines. I am 
 here to-day, moderator, and brethren of the Assembly, to 
 say not one harsh word against the believer in any other 
 church ; but only to comfort and strengthen the believer in 
 my own. I pray God's richest blessing upon him who is 
 conscientiously a Catholic, or a Baptist, or a Presbyterian. 
 I am not called to tear down, and destroy, but to build up 
 and to quicken. My business is not to proselyte from other 
 beliefs, but to promulgate my own. No true Cumberland 
 Presbyterian robs another's hive, but rather delights in 
 gathering the honey from the dew-laden flowers left a-field 
 in the providence of God. And so I come to you to-day 
 with the story of the original and the crystalization of those 
 doctrines which you all so dearly love, and so faithfully 
 teach, and which mark Cumberland Presbyterianism as a 
 distinct theological system, and peculiarly evangelical and 
 Scriptural. 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 51 
 
 It is not necessary, Moderator, for me to recite again 
 the historic origin of our beloved church. This has re- 
 peatedly been done on this centennial occasion, and better 
 and more eloquently than I could ever hope to do. It is 
 not of the beginning of your great church I speak, but of 
 the beginning and codification of your 'great system of 
 doctrines. I onlv refer to this history in order to illuminate 
 the great truth that your system of doctrines was forged 
 by the Holy Ghost, just as your church was born in a great 
 revival. 
 
 'In 1797, in Logan County, Kentucky, there were three 
 churches, Gasper River, Little Muddy and Red River, and 
 these three churches were under the care of Transylvania 
 Presbytery in the Presbyterian Church. Rev. James Mc- 
 Gready was the preacher, and under his preaching, there 
 came a gracious awakening during that same year. Other 
 and contiguous settlements caught the holy fire, and soon 
 the great revival was general throughout what was then 
 known as the Cumberland country. ^len and women by 
 the hundreds, and at almost every religious service, were 
 convicted deeply and pungently of sin, cried aloud to God 
 for mercy, and made profession of faith in Jesus Christ 
 with such manifestations of joy as to become the grounds 
 for the charge of irregularity. In 1802 -Synod divided 
 Transylvania Presbytery, forming two presbyteries, Tran- 
 sylvania and Cumberland. As grew the power and influ- 
 ence of the revival, so also grew the opposition to it, until 
 in 1806 a commission of Synod dissolved Cumberland 
 Presbytery. Then followed four years of discouragement, 
 of weary waiting, of petitions to the General Assembly 
 and prayers to Almighty God ; and then came the morning 
 of the fourth of February, 18 10. 
 
 Brethren, history repeats itself. Gavel of Synod of 1806 
 dissolves Cumberland Presbytery ; and gavel of Assembly 
 in Decatur in 1906, declares "this Assembly adjourned 
 without day !" The aim of the one was to destroy the re- 
 
52 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 vival party in Cumberland Presbytery, and the aim of the 
 other was to destroy the revival church, the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church ! But this aim was frustrated in either 
 case in the mercy and providence of God. This church evi- 
 dently brought into being in the deep purposes of God, 
 and born in such a revival, was not predestined to such a 
 death. The fire still burns, and this church will still con- 
 tinue to live until the Holy Spirit shall cease to operate 
 through the word upon the hearts and minds of men, and 
 we refuse to hear his calL 
 
 I come now to speak plainly, earnestly, of its system of 
 doctrines. We cannot be too strongly impressed with the 
 fact that a church is as its beliefs. It is an organization, 
 an organized body of believers, and that organization must 
 be gathered about a definite system of belief. Believing 
 error and doing right is neither logical nor Scriptural. It 
 will not stand the Scripture test. A right belief is both 
 the Scriptural as well as the scientific basis of a right life. 
 By the law of the kingdom a man must believe first, and 
 then he is saved ; not be saved first and then believe. Keep 
 in mind always that faith is the door to any salvation, and 
 a church is as her doctrines. But our fathers in 1800 did 
 not have any definite, clear statement of belief. They had 
 repudiated other systems because of certain errors, and 
 were without any definite form of creed. In truth, they 
 were not looking for a creed, nor seeking to lay the 
 foundations for a sound theological system ; they were 
 preaching the everlasting gospel, and trying to save the 
 lost. They were not creed building, they were serving God 
 and saving men. They were not in the school of philosophy, 
 but in the school of the Spirit. The Spirit had been prom- 
 ised to every believer, to lead him into all truth, and they 
 were glad to follow. A doctrine which the Holy Spirit 
 used in the salvation of men, they incorporated in their 
 creed, and that doctrine which he could not use they re- 
 pudiated. They reasoned, and I also reason, that there 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 53 
 
 could not have been such an awakening Avithout the Holy 
 Spirit ; the doctrines he uses with so gracious effect and so 
 glorious power must be sound doctrines, and the doctrines 
 he does not so use must at least be nonessential. And thus, 
 as I firmly believe, the Holy Spirit guided our fathers, 
 while engaged in the work of saving men, into that clear 
 and Scriptural statement of doctrines found in your Con- 
 fession of Faith, and which is now known among systems 
 of faith as distinctive Cumberland Presbyterianism. Every 
 tenet of your faith is clearly and sanely Scriptural ; every 
 statement of doctrine was forged red hot in the fires of a 
 great awakening; and over and over again your system 
 has been tried and proved in the needs of Christian evangel- 
 ism. So it was that the first statements of our doctrines 
 were repudiativej and not constructive. In formulating the 
 practical working doctrines of the glorious revival in which 
 they were engaged, our fathers had no place for philos- 
 ophies nor for nonessentials. Spirit-led, they repudiated 
 the errors in other creeds, and magnified those doctrines 
 which the Spirit was using daily in the salvation of men. 
 When I made the statement that our Confession of Faith 
 was at first simply repudiative, I did, not mean that it was" 
 even at first simply an elimination, or that it was the result 
 of elimination, or the result of a revision-of any or all other 
 creeds. Cumberland Presbyterianism is, therefore, a crys- 
 tallization, and not a revision nor a deduction. Some have 
 charged that we are Calvinists, and some that we are Ar- 
 minians. Not long ago a member of another church said 
 to one of my people : "O I know your doctrines pretty 
 well. You have no doctrines that you did not get from the 
 ]\Iethodists or Presbyterians." That woman did not know; 
 she only was voicing the charges brought against our 
 church by interested thousands in other churches. She 
 and they ought to know better, and it is your business and 
 mine to see that they shall come to a knowledge of the 
 truth, as the truth alone can make them free. Cumb'^^rland 
 
54 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Presbyterianism is not a revision, nor a philosophical de- 
 duction, nor even a restatement of old and other beliefs. 
 It is not even akin to either Arminianism nor Calvinism. 
 It is distinctively, log-ically, and best of all, Scriptu rally, a 
 system in and of itself. Like all others which can truly be 
 called doctrinal systems, Cumberland Presbyterianism is a 
 crystallization ; and like all other cr_\st;illizations, it crystal- 
 lizes about a specific axis, {'"or example, the system known 
 as Arminianism crystallizes about the free will of man. The 
 system known as Calvinism crystallizes about the absolute 
 sovereignty of God. While that system known as Cumber- 
 land Presbyterianism crystallizes about the all-redeeming 
 love of God. 
 
 In order to see more clearly that place designed in the 
 purpose and providence of God for this system known as 
 Cumberland Presbyterianism, let us take a hasty, though 
 comprehensive, glance of all the steps of religious belief 
 down to the present day. All religions are divided into 
 four great generic classes. Idie first in time was — 
 
 1. Dualism; a religion which held that there were reign- 
 ing at one and the same time two Gods ; both an evil deity, 
 and a beneficent deity. 
 
 2. Polytheism; a religion "which held that there were 
 many Gods — a god for every condition — known and un- 
 known gods. 
 
 3. Pantheism; a religion which taught that everything 
 was God; and of course denied the personality of the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 4. Monotheism; a religion which holds that there is but 
 one God, the Father Almighty. This is the religion of the 
 Jew and the Christian. 
 
 This, I believe, is a comprehensive view of all religions. 
 In the 'growth of enlightenment in the race one would 
 naturally look to see the better gradually displacing the 
 worse, the outworking of the law of the survival of the 
 '.ttest, even in the matter of religions. And so it was and 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 55 
 
 is. Monotheism has displaced duaHsm, and polytheism, and 
 pantheism, and has become the religion of the wisest, and 
 most powerful nations of the world. And just as mono- 
 theism has pushed aside the errors of the past and has 
 crystallized about the one great truth that there is one God 
 — God the Father Almighty, God the Son, and God the 
 Holy Ghost — so Cumberland Presbyterianism has repudi- 
 ated the errors of the other doctrinal systems, and, magni- 
 fying the essentials of c:ur holy religion, it stands forth 
 unique, short, consistent, Scriptural, and Spirit-sealed, a 
 claimant for the crown amorig all other creeds. I make no 
 apology for what I say here to-day. I am a Cumberland 
 Presbyterian with all my heart, and a teacher of her doc- 
 trines with all my mind. And while I am a denomination- 
 alist, and recognize the right of the church to demand de- 
 fense at the hands of every member, I honor a call to the 
 defense of the truth more than I honor a call to the de- 
 fense of any faith. I am jealous for my church, it is true; 
 but I believe with all my heart that I am more jealous for 
 the truth. 
 
 And now, beloved, just as I said and showed that there 
 were or had been, four great religions in the world, and 
 monotheism had displaced the others, so I now wish to 
 show that there are four phases, and only four phases, of 
 evangelical monotheism : Pelagianism, Arminianism, Cal- 
 vinism and Cumberland Presbyterianism. I do not design 
 this order to be accepted as chronologically correct. It does 
 not matter. It does matter that what I say about them shall 
 be the truth. I did not make their creeds ; I am not re- 
 sponsible for their statements. I only read what they have 
 published to the world in the pulpit, in the press, and in 
 their authorized organs of propagation. I do not think 
 that any one will have the hardihood to deny the truthful- 
 ness of what I shall say. I believe that, generallv speaking, 
 all Christian believers belong to one or other of these four 
 phases of monotheism. Either he is a Pelagian, or an Ar- 
 
50 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 minian, or a Calvinist, or then he is a Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian. Let us make a comparison of these four systems 
 of behef. Each of these is a distinct doctrinal system. A 
 doctrinal S}stcm is a crystallization. Each crystallization has 
 its own peculiar axis. As copper will not crystallize about 
 the same axis as coal,soPelagianism has a different axis from 
 all the others ; and all the others a dififerent axis from Pela- 
 gianism. What is Pelagianism? It is not simply the doc- 
 trines taught by Pelagius. It is more. It is one of the 
 four great phases of Christian belief. Pelagius systema- 
 tized it, codified it, amplified it, and the Christian world 
 gave this system or j^hase of belief his name. And so is it 
 true of Calvinism, and of Arminianism. Calvin and Ar- 
 minius taught and amplified the respective systems given 
 their names. Pelagianism is that phase of Christian be- 
 lief that holds that all men arc lost except the baptized! 
 Baptism, water baptism, is the core of Pela-gianism. You 
 will find Pelagians in the Catholic Church, and in the 
 Presbyterian Church, and in the Methodist Church. Now 
 and then vou will hear a Cumberland Presbyterian saying: 
 ■'Yes, I believe in salvation by faith in the Son of God, 
 but I do not believe that a man is exactly safe until he 
 is baptized." That man is not a Cumberland Presbyterian. 
 He is a Pelagian. He divides the efficacy of his salvation 
 between the Christ and the water. He is a Pelagian. Now, 
 what is Arminianism? Arminianism is that phase of Chris- 
 tian belief that holds that all men arc lost till death! That 
 is the core of Arminianism. It magnifies the will and work 
 of the creature. Apostasy is always possible, and, there- 
 fore, always to be feared. As long as a man lives he may 
 be lost at any moment, if he shall fall away ; but he is never 
 really safe until he is dead. The core of Arminianism is 
 that all men are lost until they die. And then, what is Cal- 
 vinism? Calvinism is that phase of Christian belief which 
 holds That all men are lost except the elect! Predestina- 
 tion is the corner-stone of this structure — the core of this 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 57 
 
 system. Everything hangs on the decree of God, and no 
 place is found for the exercise of human choice. Around 
 the doctrine of election as the center, all the tenets of this 
 system circle, and they who hold to it have the hardihood 
 to boast of its sanity and Scripturalness. The core of Cal- 
 vinism may thus be stated : All men are lost but the elect ! 
 And now, what of the fourth of these phases of Christian 
 belief? What is Cumberland Presbyterianism? Cumber- 
 land Presbyterianism is that phase of Christian belief which 
 holds, That all men are lost, except the believer! And that 
 is the core of Cumberland Presbyterianism. Take the pub- 
 lished standards of the churches representing- either one of 
 these phases, and you will find that but for the core, the 
 axis, the dominant doctrine, the whole system would be- 
 come inconsistent, and would g'o to pieces. So is it with 
 Cumberland Presbyterianism. Our book has no other doc- 
 trine. Believing honors God the Father, glorifies God the 
 Son, satisfies God the Holy Ghost, and saves man the sin- 
 ner ! "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." "And the Spirit and the 
 bride say, Come ! And let him that heareth say, Come ! 
 And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let 
 him take the water of life freely." I do not wonder that 
 your church is called the Who-so-ever-will Church ! All 
 men are lost except the believer. That is the core of your 
 Confession of Faith, and the crown of your doctrinal sys- 
 tem ! 
 
 Hear me once more as I attempt, by comparison with the 
 \Vestminster standards, to give to Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rianism its true doctrinal position among the systems of 
 Cliristian belief. During the struggle arising about the at- 
 tempted merging of the Cumberland Presbyterian Qiurch 
 into the P^resbyterian Church, U. S. A., it has been fre- 
 (|uently argued that both churches are Presbyterian and 
 dmuld unite; tiiat the hard doctrines of the Westminster 
 
5S CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 system had been modified, and, therefore, it becomes pos- 
 sible for them to unite, to the glory of God, and with honor 
 alike to both churches. Brethren, you may revise a doc- 
 trine, or amend a creed, but you cannot revise a system. 
 Restatement is only another way of statement. To change 
 a system is to destroy that system. The Presbyterian 
 Church officially claims that it has only revised as to inter- 
 pretation and has not touched its system. Even the most 
 casual "glance at the authorized statement of the doctrines 
 of the se])arate churches should have been sufficient to 
 satisfy anv court, that revision as to statement could not 
 .satisfy the difference between the systems. Compare the 
 five points of Calvinism with the five essential doctrines of 
 Cumberland Presbyterianism, and the difference will ap- 
 pear just as it is. The five points of Calvinism (and I am 
 not the author of the term ; their own writers boast of 
 them) — the five points of Calvinism are: 
 
 1. Particular Predestination. 
 
 2. Limited Atonement. 
 
 3. Natural Inability. 
 
 4. Irresistible Grace. 
 
 5. Final Perseverance of the Saints. 
 
 This is a clear statement of the Calvinistic system of 
 doctrine. These five points of Calvinism have been likened 
 to the fingers on the human hand. The hand represents 
 the power of the individual, and as the thumb is the con- 
 trolling binding member, so particular predestination is 
 the doctrine which controls all the other doctrines. Cal- 
 vinism is a philosophical system, and all other tenets logic- 
 ally fall in line and uphold the statement that, "By the 
 decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some 
 men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, 
 and others foreordained to everlasting death. These an- 
 gels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are 
 particularlv and unchangeablv designed ; and their number 
 's so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. sg 
 
 or diminished." Now count off in like manner the five 
 points of Cumberland Presbyterianism. And these are : 
 
 1. God loves all men. 
 
 2. Christ died for all men in the same sense. 
 
 3. No man can save himself. 
 
 4. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 5. Preservation of the believer. 
 
 And just as no true Calvinist denies either the pres- 
 ence or the relative position of any of the tenets ascribed 
 to his system, so no true Cumberland Presbyterian but 
 gladly admits and boasts the order and essential harmony 
 of this system. It is logical, it is philosophical, it is Scrip- 
 tural, it is evangelical, it is true. 
 
 And then, again, it has been said that we are occupy- 
 ing a middle ground between Arminianism and Calvin- 
 ism ; that ours is a via media, a middle way. This is not 
 true, as I see it. Cumberland Presbyterianism is as far 
 removed from either of these systems as they are from 
 each other. Our system is not half-way between them. A 
 hali-way Methodist does not make a good Cumberland 
 Presbyterian, and a half way Presbyterian is no better. 
 I believe this is a better illustration : Take an equilateral 
 triangle : place Calvinism at one angie of the base, and 
 Arminianism at the other, and Cumberland Presbyterian- 
 ism at the top, and you shall see the correct position, con- 
 fessedly the "best doctrinal system extant." 
 
 I ask you to bear with me yet a little, in a brief re- 
 capitulation. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was 
 born in a great religious awakening, in a gracious and soul- 
 saving revival, and not in a theological or political dispute. 
 Our fathers were not creed builders or creed seekers. Your 
 wonderful doctrinal system was the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 It was forged by the Holy Spirit in the fires of a great 
 evan-gelical pentecost, and word for word has been tried 
 in the revival experiences of a hundred years. Your con- 
 fessional statement of that system is learned, logical, sim- 
 
60 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 pie, forcible, unstilted, Scriptural. God is jealous for 
 his church, and hitherto has been working through provi- 
 dence and by his Spirit to make "all things work together 
 for good to them who love the Lord." He is not the 
 author of evil or of error, and in his own good time will 
 displace the error with the truth. Revision and restate- 
 ment are in the air, and every change in the creeds of 
 Christendom fur the past fifty years has been toward the 
 position occupied by Cumberland - Presbyterianism. And 
 this position and this system, my beloved, is your heritage; 
 and I ])ray that each individual Cumberland Presbyterian, 
 in the strength of a holy life, and in the force and virility 
 of a broad Christian charity, may prove true the saying: 
 A church is as its beliefs. "Therefore, my beloved breth- 
 ren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the 
 work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor 
 is not in vain in the Lord.'' 
 
 Hear me just one word more. The sixty-six books of 
 the Bible compose what is known as the canon of Scrip- 
 ture. These books were not written at one and the sarme 
 time, either in the history or in the development of revela- 
 tion. But there comes a time when the last line is to be 
 written, and the last word is to be spoken. John is out 
 on the lonely isle of Patmos, an exile for the gospel's sake ; 
 and I see the old, and worn, and battle-scarred divine 
 gazing wistfully each day into the brightening east, and 
 holding out his pleading hands toward heaven, as he prays : 
 "Dear Lord, let this be the day of my departure! Bid thy 
 weary servant to come to thee, and heaven, and rest. I 
 have written until mv brain and hand are wearied with 
 writing. Dear Lord, to-day bid thy servant home." But 
 the spirit answers him : "Not yet, John ; not yet. Seal 
 not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time 
 is at hand. ... I am the root and offspring of David, the 
 bright and morning star. Give poor, dying men another 
 call to the kingdom, John, and make it plainer still, John, 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 61 
 
 that God loves all men ; that Christ died for all men ; that 
 the Holy Spirit regenerates every man who wills to be 
 saved. Make it plain, John, Give them one more call unto 
 life. I can almost see the fires of a sacrificial love burning 
 in the old servant's eyes as -he grasps the pen and writes : 
 "The spirit and the bride, say, Come. And let him that 
 heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst Come. And 
 whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
 And thus was the canon of Scripture closed. So was it in 
 the forming the canon of creeds. Many creeds had been 
 written. Men said there is no need for another word ; 
 these creeds cover all the ground ; there is no logical place 
 for another system ; the last line in creed-making has been 
 written ; close the canon. But the Spirit said. Do not seal 
 the book, for the time is at hand. Make it plain, and 
 plainer still that God loves all men, and will have all men 
 to repent, and be saved through Jesus Christ his Son. 
 And our fathers began in the revival of 1800 antl wrote 
 while the Spirit worked, and worked while the Spirit 
 wrote ; and this is the writing : We believe in one God — 
 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost — 
 one God in three persons, the adorable trinity. We believe 
 in the sovereignty of God, in the fall and free will of man, 
 in redemption by the Son, and in regeneration by the 
 Holy Ghost. We believe in the providence of God, in the 
 purity of his church, and in the parity of her ministry. 
 We revere the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God, 
 and hold that these Scriptures do clearly teach : That God 
 loves all men ; that Jesus Christ tasted death for every 
 man ; that the Holv Ghost strives with all men ; and that 
 faith is the one condition of salvation to all men. We be- 
 lieve that infants dying in infancy are saved through 
 grace ; that water baptism is not for the remission of sins, 
 but is the Scriptural symbol of a separation from sin ; and 
 that every believer should invoke the aid of all public and 
 private means of grace to keep himself unspotted from the 
 
62 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 world. We believe in the life of faith, in the fruits of die 
 Spirit, in the final overthrow of evil, and in the present 
 preservation and ultimate glory of the believer. These 
 truths we hold and teach as a church, as we believe they 
 are held and taught in the holy Scriptures, to the glory 
 of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of God the 
 Holy Ghost ! Amen ! 
 
 Aud thus, as I believe, to this good day the canon of 
 creeds is closed. 
 
REV. J. W. DUVALL 
 SALISBURY, MO. 
 
SOME THINGS THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 REV. J. W. DUVALL. 
 Ill-: IS A PERSON. 
 
 In an important matter, we must' not take things for 
 granted, but prove them if we can. If we cannot prove 
 them we must reject them, or take them as the opinions 
 of men. If they can be proven, then we must accept them 
 or be guiltv of the sin of willfully rejecting the truth. 
 The burden of proof must be drawn from the word of 
 God. The Bible is the only infallible book out of all the 
 million of books in the world. It is not my purpose to 
 attempt to prove the Bible is the word of God. I take it 
 for granted you all believe it. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. 
 
 If he is a person we ought to know it. He is not an it, 
 nor an influence, nor an attribute, nor a characteristic, nor 
 an emotion, he is a person. He is a be. If the Holy Spirit 
 is a Divine Person and we know it not, then we are rob- 
 bing him of the love, reverence and worship that is due 
 him. If he is not Divine, then to worship him is idolatry. 
 He is either a person or he is not. He must be a person, 
 for the use of the personal pronoun is used in connection 
 with him. Now God made no mistakes in the Bible, for 
 this book is his word. God always tells the truth. We 
 must believe the Bible or we make God a liar. 
 
 We have in John 15: 26, "But when the Comforter is 
 come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
 the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father. 
 He shall testify of me." John 16: 7. 8, 9, 13, 14, "If I go 
 not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I 
 
64 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 depart, I will send him unto you. And when he i.s come, 
 he will reprove the world of sin, and of rightccmsncss, 
 and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. 
 Ho.w^beit when he. the Spirit of truth is come he will guide 
 y(ju into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself; but 
 whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he sliall 
 show you things to come. He shall glorify me : for he 
 shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Did you 
 notice in these verses the Holy Spirit is called he nine 
 times. Did Jesus make a mistake when he called the Holy 
 Spirit he? If some man had said this we might have had 
 some room to doubt, for we might have thought in his en- 
 thusiasm he said he, in place of it, but we know Jesus 
 made no mistake. The Holy Spirit is said to come. To 
 coine means motion. He moves of his own accord, then 
 he must have will, and moves as he wills. He testifies of 
 Christ. He assured the disciples that all Jesus said was 
 true. He reproves. This implies a knowledge of right and 
 wrong. He guides. Many are the times when men come 
 to the parting of the way. and do not know which is the 
 right way, or the wrong, but the Holy Spirit knows and 
 will guide into all truth those who wish to know the truth. 
 He speaks, not of himself, but of Jesus. He hears, and 
 whatever hears must have life. Some of you have looked 
 manv times upon the faces of the dead. Speak to a dead 
 bodv. Does it -hear you? No. Why not? Is it because 
 there are no ears on that body? Certainly not, for they 
 are as prominent as thev ever were, but because there is no 
 life in that body. If the Holy Spirit hears, he must have 
 life. If the personal pronoun is applied to the Holy Spirit, 
 he must be a person. God does not make mistakes. When 
 in speaking of men and women lie uses the ])ersonal 
 pronoun, then, when he speaks of the Holy Si)irit 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 65 
 
 and says he or him, we must conclude the Holy Spirit is 
 a person. 
 
 Another reason for believing the Holy Spirit is a person 
 is that personal qualities are applied to him. Knowledge is 
 one of these, i Cor. 2: 10, 11, "But God hath revealed them 
 unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, 
 yes the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the 
 things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him, 
 even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
 of God." Man is an inquisitive being, he wants to know 
 things, therefore he begins to use the powers in him that 
 he may know. He not only wants to understand the pres- 
 ent, he wants to look into the future. He desires to look 
 into things that unaided reason cannot comprehend. Many 
 a child has torn his top to pieces that he might see what 
 was on the inside. Now men are only boys grown tall, 
 and still have that inquisitive spirit. They desire to look 
 beyond this world and see far into the spirit-world, that 
 they may behold what lies in that better land for all who 
 have been true to God, but they have not been able to see. 
 God has not left us in ignorance, he has made or revealed 
 some of the things of the better world. Paul says, "Eye 
 hath not seen." God has prepared a wealth of beauty for 
 the eye ; sky, earth and sea teem with fair forms from the 
 Creator's hands. ^Much of our knowledge comes to us 
 through sight, but the natural eye does not see spiritual 
 things, these things are in the region that sight does not 
 enter. They belong to the invisible. We do not know them 
 by hearing for "ear hath not heard." There are many 
 sounds in the world that cheer us and drive away black 
 doubt, and ugly thoughts, but by none of the powers God 
 has given us do we discern the things God has prepared 
 for them that love him. They are revealed to us by the 
 Holv Spirit. The Spirit then must know. He must under- 
 stand the mind of the Lord. He does. He knows, spirit 
 can only touch spirit. Our inner being lies open to God, 
 
66 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 he knows the secret springs of our Hves. The Spirit knows 
 the mind of the Lord, and because he does he reveals God's 
 mind to us. The word search does not mean the Holy 
 Spirit has to study as we do, to know things, for he knows 
 the deep things of God. Things, not theory, not specula- 
 tion, but reality. Deep, because the human mind cannot 
 discern them, but none the less real because we do not 
 discover them. There are some things so deep the human 
 intellect cannot get down to the depth of them. There are 
 some depths of the sea so deep the most daring pearl diver 
 will not attempt to descend to them, because he cannot 
 reach the depths and live. Then should we think it strange 
 there are depths, in the knowledge of God, that are beyond 
 our fathoming? There are depths in the love of God we 
 will never l)e able to fathom, but the Holy Spirit will en- 
 able us to see the very bottom of these depths. Through 
 the revelation of the Spirit we learn of the things God has 
 in reservation for those who love him. 
 
 WILL IS ASCRIBED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 "He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind 
 of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints 
 according to the will of God." Rom. 8: 27. Love is 
 ascribed to the Spirit. Rom. 15: 30, "Now I beseech you 
 brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love 
 of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayer 
 to God for me.'' If the Holy Spirit did not love us, he 
 would not do any of the many things he does for us. The 
 Holy Spirit can be grieved. Eph. 4: 30, "And grieve not 
 the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the 
 day of redemption." You cannot grieve an influence, or 
 an attribute, for an if neither feels nor reasons. You sec 
 now^ the Holy Spirit is not these. You cannot grieve one 
 who does not love you. One may detest your act, but he 
 is not grieved. He may say you ought to be severely 
 •■finished, or imprisonecf, or hanged. He may be ready to 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. ^j 
 
 head a mob and deal with you without mercy, but he is 
 not grieved unless he loves you. Parents are grieved when 
 their children sin, but they are not going to say they ought 
 to be hanged. We grieve the Holy Spirit by our indolence! 
 The Spirit sees so much to do, and he knows we can do it, 
 and we do it not. or if we do it, we do it in such an in- 
 different spirit we grieve him. You teach, or rather you 
 have a class in Sabbath school, but you let the pleasures of 
 society or the business interest crowd all thought of the 
 lesson or class out of your mind until nearly the hour to 
 teach the lesson, and then there is so little time left for 
 study, you do not see clearly one idea in the lesson. You 
 run over the lesson with the class, but you do not give 
 them one thought to carry away, the class goes home dis- 
 appointed, and you feel out of humor with the class and 
 yourself, and the Holy Spirit goes away grieved. Many a 
 minister has grieved the Holy Spirit by not thoroughly 
 preparing his sermon. The weather may be unusually 
 warm, and the preacher discovered it required greater 
 effort to prepare the sermon than he was willing to make. 
 His mind would not take hold of the subject with a zest, 
 and then the thought came, it is so hot, the people will 
 not come out. Only the faithful will be there, and not all 
 of them, for already some have gone in search of a cooler 
 climate. The hymns are announced in a tone that says, I 
 do not care whether you sing them or not. The Scriptures 
 are read in a monotone so that neither the reader, noi 
 listener gets the meaning". The prayer is dry, and destitute 
 of gratitude, and of earn.est entreaty. The sermon, if it 
 can be called a sermon, is made u]) of common jilacc plati- 
 tudes. When the last amen is said, the preacher says, thank 
 the Lord the services are over ; but the people are disgusted, 
 and the hungry souls go awav unfed, and the sinner leaves 
 the church disappointed, and it may be with the determina- 
 tion not to 'go tcy church any more, or there is nothing in 
 the church that is worthy of his attention, and the Holy 
 
68 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Spirit goes away grieved. Let us decide now we will iievei 
 grieve the Holy Spirit by our indifference, or in any otlu « 
 way. 
 
 The holy spirit speaks to men. Rev. 2: 7. "He that 
 hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the 
 churches." If you would know what he said to the churches 
 in the days of the Apostle John, read the letters to the 
 seven churches in Asia. All he said then is applicable now. 
 
 He intercedes. Rom. 8: 26, "Likewise the Spirit also 
 helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should 
 pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh inter- 
 cession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." 
 He realizes our needs and he pleads with God the Father 
 for us. John 14: 26. "But the Comforter who" is the Holy 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall 
 teach you all things and bring all things to your remem- 
 brance." Men need to be taught. In the Holy Spirit we 
 have an infallible teacher. He does not teach with uncer- 
 tainty for he knows. 
 
 The holy spirit directs us wh.\t to do. Acts 13: 2, "As 
 they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit 
 said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work where- 
 unto I have called them." The contest shows they were 
 to be missionaries. When thev were on their second mis- 
 sionary tour the Hol)^ Gho.st forbade them preaching the 
 word in Asia. Acts 16: 6, 7, "Now, when they had gone 
 throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were 
 forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. 
 After they were come to Alysia, they assayed to go into 
 Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not." The Holy 
 >])irit, not only calls to a specific work, but says where you 
 shall not preach. Paul knew he was not to remain in Asia. 
 He went in the opposite direction and found an open door. 
 
 The holy spirit appoints to office. Acts 20: 28, "Take 
 I'.eed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock, over 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 69 
 
 which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed 
 the church of God." 
 
 The holy spirit is rebelled against and vexed. Isa. 
 63: 10, "But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit: 
 therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought 
 ag^ainst them." Heb. 10: 29, "Of how much sorer punish- 
 ment, suppose ye, shall be thought worthy, who hath trod- 
 den under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood 
 of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing 
 and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" The Holy 
 Spirit can be lied to. Acts 5 : 3, "But Peter said, Ananias, 
 why hath satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy 
 Ghost?" The Holy Spirit can be blasphemed. Matt. 12: 
 31, 32, "Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and 
 blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." 
 If such a thing could be he is greater than the Son, for all 
 sin ^against him may be forgiven, but blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost is unpardonable. You must conclude with me 
 ^ the Holy Spirit is a person. 
 
 Perhaps you believe this theoretically, but how many be- 
 lieve he is a person just as much as Jesus is? 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT IS DIVINE. 
 
 Can this be proven ? I think so. As proof of this, Divine 
 attributes are ascribed to him. Heb. 9: 14, "How much 
 more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
 Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your 
 consciences from dead works to serve the living God." The 
 Spirit here is said to be eternal. If he is eternal, he is un- 
 created. If he is uncreated he is self-existing, if he is 
 self-existing he is God. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. 
 Psa. 130: 7-10, "Whither shall I 'go from thy Spirit, or 
 whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to 
 heaven thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, 
 thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and 
 
70 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even then shall thy 
 hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." God 
 only fills immensity. Man cannot get away from the pres- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit. If then he is everywhere at the 
 same time he is God. 
 
 Till-: HOLY Sl'IRIT I.S OMNI.SCIRXT. 
 
 I Cor. 2: lo, II, "But God hath revealed them unto us 
 by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the 
 deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of 
 man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the 
 things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of (iod.'' 
 In this verse we are taught the Spirit knows all things. 
 If the Si)irit is allwise he is God. The Holy Spirit teaches 
 all things. John 14: 26, "But the Comforter, which 
 is the Holy Ghost, whom the I-'ather will send in my name, 
 he shall teach you' all things." God only knows all things, 
 and as one cannot teach what he does not know, and as the 
 Holy Spirit teaches all things he must be Divine. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT CREATES. 
 
 Job ^^ : 4, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the 
 breath of the ■Almighty hath given me life." Man with 
 material can build things, but he cannot^ create, that is he 
 cannot bring things into existence, but the Holy Spirit can, 
 therefore he is God. The Holy Spirit imparts life. John 
 6: 63, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." To quicken means 
 to make alive. He raised Jesus from the dead. Rom. 8: 11, 
 "But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead 
 dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
 also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth 
 in you." The Holy Scriptures were given by the Holy 
 Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in olden 
 times by the will of man, but holy men of God 'spoke as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It takes a divine 
 mind to know the mind of God. The Holy Spirit knows 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 71 
 
 the mind of God. Statements in the Old Testament ap- 
 pHed to God, are in the New Testament appHed to the 
 Holy Spirit. Isa. 6: 8-10. This is quoted by Paul and 
 applied to the Holy Ghost. Acts 28: 25-27, "And when 
 they agreed not among" themselves, they departed, after 
 that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy 
 Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, Go 
 unto this people, and say. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall 
 not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive." 
 Also Psa. 95: 8-1 1, "Harden not your heart, as in the pro- 
 vocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. 
 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my 
 work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, 
 and said. It is a people that do err in their heart, and they 
 have not known my ways. Unto whom I swear in my 
 wrath, that they should not enter into my rest." In Heb. 
 3 : 7-9, we have the same words accredited to the Holy 
 Ghost. "Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if 
 ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the 
 provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 
 when your fathers tempted me. proved, and saw my works 
 forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that genera- 
 tion, and said, they do always err in their heart ; and they 
 have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they 
 shall not enter into my rest." In the commission the Holy 
 Spirit is put on an equality with the Father and the Son. 
 ?\iatt. 28: 19, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
 (jhost." In the Apostolic benediction the three are equal. 
 2 Cor. 13: 14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, 
 be with you all. Amen." In Acts 5: 3, "But Peter said, 
 Ananias, why hath satan filled thine heart, to lie to the 
 Holy Ghost?" Ananias is' charged here with lying to the 
 Holy Ghost and in the same chapter. Acts 5 : 4, "Thou 
 
"72 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 hast not lied unto men, but unto God." My conclusion is 
 the Holy Spirit i.s God. ' 
 
 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR MAN. 
 
 He convinces the sinner of sin. "And when he is come, 
 he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
 of judgment'' John i6: 8. The word rendered reprove, 
 means to ])ut to shame, to convince. The Holy Spirit 
 makes the sinner see, he is a sinner, condemned by the law 
 of God. How many does he convince? The world. Who 
 is the world? All the people living then, that have lived 
 since, are living now and will ever live. Has he done this? 
 Yes. Are there not millions of people who have never 
 heard of the Savior? Yes. Then the Holy Spirit has not 
 convinced them has he? If they have not been made to see 
 they are sinners, then the tloly Spirit has not reproved the 
 world of sin. If then they do not do wrong intentionally, 
 and have never heard of God's offer of salvation, they are 
 not sinners are they ? But do they not know they are sin- 
 ners? All people know they are sinners. The nation or 
 tribe or clan, has not been discovered, that does not offer 
 some kind of sacrifice or do some kind of penance. Why? 
 Because they know they are sinners. The Holy Spirit 
 made them know they were sinners. The heathen make 
 their offerings hoping to obtain relief from sin. The Holy 
 Spirit does not consult men, whether he will reprove them 
 or not, but does so of his own accord and in his own way. 
 He makes a man see he is a sinner even when the man does 
 not want to believe he is a sinner. This is one of the times 
 the Holy Spirit does not consult the will of men. He makes 
 them see they are sinners that they may desire deliverance 
 from sin. The atonement is co-extensive with the reproof. 
 The Holy Spirit would not reprove a man if there was no 
 chance of pardon for that one, for that would be doing a 
 useless work, and it is a fact God never did a useless thing. 
 The Holy Spirit reproves all men that they may be saved. 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. ' 73 
 
 He reproves because he loves all men. "For God so loved 
 the world that he gave his onlv begotten Son that whoso- 
 ever believeth in him should not perish but have everlast- 
 ing life" John 3: 16. When the sinner repents of his sins 
 and believes on Jesus the Holy Spirit regenerates him. 
 "It is the Spirit that quickeneth" John 6: 63. "You hath 
 he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin" 
 Eph. 2: I. "Not by works of righteousness that we have 
 done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the wash- 
 ing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" 
 Titus 3:5. Who is it that quickens and does the washing 
 of regeneration? We are not left in doubt in that matter, 
 for that is done by the Holy Ghost, for Jesus and Paul 
 say so. 
 
 These Scriptures teach that the work of regeneration is 
 not of man. It matters not how many good works we do 
 nor how loug we do them, regeneration is the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. If it was necessary to be born again, in the 
 days of Jesus, it is necessary now, for men are not better 
 now than they were then. Jesus said to a learned man, 
 and no doubt a moral man, "Ye must be born again." It 
 may be a mystery we cannot fathom, but even that does 
 not do away with the necessity of it. I know there are 
 those who say, regeneration is a thing of the past. Once an 
 old darkey was being taught to read, and his teacher used 
 her Bible for a text-book. One day when the teacher came 
 to give the lesson, the old darkey was not at home. He 
 asked the wife of the old man how her husband was get- 
 ting along studying the Bible? She answered, "He's done 
 got way beyond de Bible. He is over in the newspaper 
 now." 
 
 Some teachers may have gotten so far into the new 
 theology, that they may say to those who desire to live a 
 dififerent life, that regeneration is not needed. But the 
 words of the Savior are, "Ye must be born again." The 
 granite roots of regeneration go down so deep, that no man 
 
74 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 can tunnel below them. Regeneration is so wide that .no 
 one can circumnavigate it. It is so high no man can scale 
 it. "Ye must be born again," and the Holy Spirit must do 
 the work. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS IN THE REGENERATED SOUL. 
 
 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that 
 the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" i Cor. 3 : 16. You 
 notice the Apostles does not say has dwelt in you, but is 
 dwelling in you now and will continue to do so. Lest some 
 might think this referred to the church and not to the in- 
 dividual, turn to I Cor. 6: 19 and read, "What, know ye not 
 that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own." 
 The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not to be temporary, 
 but permanent. Jesus says, John 14: 17, "Even the Spirit 
 of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because he seeth 
 him not, neither knoweth him ; for he dwelleth with you 
 and shall be in you." 
 
 The Christian is the permanent dwelling place of the 
 Holy Spirit. This is better for the Christian than having 
 Jesus in the body, for then only a few would be aware of 
 his presence, but now every one may have the Holy Spirit 
 in him. The indwelling of the Spirit is not for the favored 
 few, but for each child of God. whether young or old, 
 rich or poor, learned or ignorant. No number of persons 
 can have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit, any more than 
 they can monopolize the air. Paul says in Rom. 8: 9, "But 
 ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit 
 of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ he is none of his." 
 
 In some the Spirit dwells in the hidden recesses of the 
 soul, because they will not let him have full control of both 
 body and mind. We do not need to pray for the Holy 
 Spirit to come for he is already here. We had better pray 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 75 
 
 that v'- may be willing- to let him have the right of way 
 in us in all things. 
 
 THE INDWELLING SPIRIT IS A LIVING FOUNTAIN. 
 
 Jesus says in John 4: 14, "But whosoever drinketh of 
 the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but shall 
 be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life." The fountain is in the behever and is a living foun- 
 tain. It is more than a well. Hear what Jesus says in 
 John 7 : 38, "He that believeth in me, as the Scriptures 
 hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 
 No danger of drouth. Every one may have a well, yea 
 rivers of living water. Can any ask for more? 
 
 1!V THE HOLY SPIRIT WE ARE MADE FREE MEN. 
 
 Rom. 8 : 2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." 
 Here the Apostle comes into the freedom he longed for 
 in verse twenty-four of chapter seven, when he cried out, 
 "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death?" The law of sin and death, must 
 be the law of sin in the members, spoken of in verse twenty- 
 three in chapter seven, when he says, "But I see another 
 law in my members, warring against the law of my mind 
 and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is 
 in my members." The ego who was before in captivity 
 to this law of sin is now free from it. How? Not by be- 
 coming a different ego, not by changing the constituent 
 elements of human nature, but by the introduction of a 
 new law, the law of the Spirit of life, which has emanci- 
 pated the ego from its old unwelcome thraldom. By the 
 virtue of this new law introduced into his being, he was 
 now free to give his entire allegiance to the law of God. 
 Under the old law Paul had deatii, but under the new 
 law he had life, and the Spirit in opposition to the flesh, 
 and freedom in opposition to captivity. The Spirit is the 
 
7<') CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Divine Spirit taking" possession of what is Spiritual in the 
 inward man, making him a partaker of the divine hfe and 
 cnabhng him to serve God freely. What the Spirit did 
 for the Apostle Paul, he has done for every regenerated 
 soul. Tliese blessings come by virtue of the atonement 
 made, by Jesus Christ, to every penitent believing soul, so 
 that the freedom given by the Spirit, is the freedom spoken 
 of and ascribed to the Son, "If the Son, therefore, shall 
 make you free ye shall be free indeed."' These free men 
 still have the flesh, but they do not live after it, but 
 "through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body." 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT .STRENGTHENS THE BELIEVER. 
 
 In Eph. 3: 16, "That he would grant you. according to 
 the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by 
 his Spirit in the inner man." In this verse we have the 
 standard of divine 'giving, "the riches of his glory." This 
 standard is liberal, beautiful, overflowing. 
 
 We have a faint idea of the riches of his glory, on a 
 clear night when we look up and behold the glory of God 
 in the heavens. Count the .stars. They are innumerable. 
 We see his glory some times at sunset, when the whole 
 sky is flecked with' clouds brightened into a sea of glory. 
 The inner man is weak, although it is the seat of influence, 
 hence the necessity of having it strengthened. If you can 
 limit God's glorv, you can limit his strength, and the 
 strength he can impart to his believing children. 
 
 While it is ri'ght to admit our weakness, we must not 
 f(M'get we have a strengthener. W'e say I am so weak I 
 cannot bear my burdens, or do the work assigned me. 
 But we must not forget God will strengthen us by his 
 Spirit. W'e must set our weakness at the right of God's 
 almightiness, and he will strengthen, us by might in the 
 inner man. One dav I visited one of the immense saw 
 mills, in our timbered country, and the sawyer told me the 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. ^^ 
 
 mill cuuld turn out more lumber in a day, than any one 
 mill in the world. There was a log" more than three feet 
 in diameter on the log carriage, and more than eighteen 
 feet in length, and in a few seconds the saw had cut 
 through the entire length of the log, the log carriage was 
 run back, and the log was now ready to be turned over 
 the smooth side down, in place of men coming with cant 
 hooks to turn the log, the sawyer moved a lever, and then 
 I heard, bump, bump, and the log began to jump up and 
 down, and the log was turned over quicker than I am 
 telling it, and the log- was on its way to the saw. I do not 
 know the name of the machine that turned the log over, 
 but it did it as easily as you can toss up a light ball. I was 
 impressed with the strength of the machine which turned 
 the log over so quickly. I knew it was connected with the 
 powerful engine, with which the saw was connected, which 
 cut through the lo'g at such a rapid rate. As that machine 
 moved the log just as the sawyer wanted it, so the Divine 
 strengthener picks up the burdens the Christians may have 
 to bear, and tosses them off, or enables him to bear them 
 just as though they were not. Dear child of God, when 
 the burdens come do not forget that the Holy Spirit is 
 your strengthener. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT LE.\DS. 
 
 Rom. 8: 14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of 
 God they are the sons of God." The Holy Spirit not only 
 gives power enabling the believer to live a holy life, but 
 leads us in the way wc should go. As a father takes hold 
 of the hand of his little son and leads him in perfect safety, 
 so the Spirit will lead all who submit themselves to him. 
 There need be no mistake about the way of duty, if we 
 will follow the leading of the Spirit. He may lead us into 
 what may seem at first sight, very unprofitable fields, but 
 not so, it is the place for us. God makes no mistakes. 
 
78 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARS WITNESS THAT WE ARE SAVED. 
 
 Rom. 8: i6, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with 
 our spirits that we are the children of God." The idea is, 
 he witnesses with our spirit, that we are the children of 
 God. This makes two witnesses to our sonship, first our 
 own spirit, and second the Holy Spirit. How does he? 
 Gal. 4 : 6,"And because we are sons, God hath sent forth 
 the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying', Abba, Father." 
 Abba means father. Why then use the word father twice? 
 The word Abba is the Hebrew word for father. The word 
 Patar, is the Greek word for father, meaning that God is 
 the Father of all who believe whether they are Jews or 
 Gentiles, so then neither Jews nor Gentiles have any ad- 
 vantage over the other. The Gentile becomes a Jew by 
 virtue of his faith. Gal. 3: 7, "Know ye, therefore, that 
 they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abra- 
 ham." Both Jews and Gentiles are' the children of God. 
 Gal. 3 : 6. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT ARE NINE. 
 
 We read in Gal. 5 : 22, 2},, "But the fruit of the Spirit 
 is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance." Certainly the life dominated 
 by these is an admirable character. You notice the Apostle 
 does not say fruits, but fruit of the Spirit. All of these 
 ou'ght to be found in the life of each Qiristian. Each of 
 the nine should be carefully studied, and then each pro- 
 fessed follower of Christ ought to give himself a thorough 
 examination and see how many of these he can find in his 
 life. Such things in our life make it like the Christ-life, 
 which we all should strive to live. These graces are only 
 seen in the lives of those who give themselves up entirely 
 to the guidance of the indwelling Spirit. 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 7§ 
 
 THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ARE NINE. 
 
 These are found in i Cor. 12: 8-10, "For to one is given 
 by the same Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the 
 word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by 
 the same Spirit ; to another the gifts of heahng by the same 
 Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ; to another 
 prophecy ; to another discerning of spirits ; to another 
 divers kinds of tongues; to another the- interpretation of 
 tongues." A person may have but one of the gifts of the 
 Spirit and be a Christian, while the fruit of the Spirit 
 ought to be in the life of every Christian. The Spirit is a 
 soverei'gn, and bestows his gifts as he deems best, while 
 the fruit of the Spirit ought to be in every Christian, be- 
 cause the Christian is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDES. 
 
 John 16: 13, "Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is 
 come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not 
 speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall 
 he speak, and he shall show you things to come." The 
 Holy Spirit then is a teacher. Now we are not to infer 
 from this, that we need not study, nor sit at the feet of 
 others, and learn from those who are our superiors in 
 knowledge. Nor must we conclude that we do not need to 
 study God's word, for this is the principal medium through 
 which the Holy Spirit teaches. He may be able to read the 
 word of God, not only in our own tongue, but in the tongue 
 in which they were written. We must not conclude be- 
 cause we can read the Holy Scriptures in the languages 
 in which they were written, that we do not need to be 
 taught of the Holy Spirit. We will never fully know the 
 truth until we are taught by the Spirit. Do not be afraid 
 you will minimize Christ, by magnifying the Holy Spirit. 
 No one magnifies Christ as the Holy Spirit does. He must 
 reveal the Christ to us before we will understand him. 
 
So CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 THE H(JLV SPIRIT COMFORTS. 
 
 John 14: 16, "And I will pray the Father, and he will 
 i^ive you another Comforter, that he mav abide with you 
 forever, even the Spirit of truth." Jesus knew through 
 what trying scenes his disciples must pass. He knew there 
 would be many dark days, many heartaches, therefore he 
 assured them they should be remembered, and that con- 
 solation should come to them, throu'gh one who knew every 
 corridor of the human heart, and knew how to comfort that 
 heart, no matter what the cause of the trouble was. whether 
 it was caused by being" betrayed by those in whom they 
 had confided, or were forsaken by those they loved, or by 
 the death of some loved one or some successful leader, 
 or whether they languished in some dungeon with lac- 
 erated backs. The same Spirit that soothed and sustained 
 the early Christians, is in the church to-dav and doing the 
 same work he did then. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT ENDUES W ITM I'OWER. 
 
 Luke 24: 49, "But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, 
 until ye be endued with power from on high." Being en- 
 dued with power, is also called, filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 This filling with the Holy Ghost, mav come once or a 
 number of times. It may take place at regeneration, or 
 afterwards. In the case of Cornelius the filling or endue- 
 ing, came at conversion. Acts 10: 44, "While Peter yet 
 spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that 
 heard the word." The Apostles were filled with the Holy 
 Gho.st on Pentecost. Acts 2 : 4, "And they were all filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
 tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." The people 
 of Samaria were converted, and filled with the Holy Spirit 
 some days afterwards. Acts 8: 15-17, "Who," that is Peter 
 and John, "when they were come down, prayed for them, 
 that they might receive the Holy Ghost : for as yet he was 
 
DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES. 8i 
 
 fallen upon none of them : only they were baptized in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on 
 them, and they received the Holy Ghost." Paul was con- 
 verted when he said Acts 9: 6, "Lord what wilt thou have 
 me to do?" Three days afterwards he received the Holy 
 Ghost. Acts 9: ly, "Brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus, 
 that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath 
 sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled 
 with the Holy Ghost." It was Ananias, a Christian, living 
 in Damascus, that said this. Who he was, or what office 
 he filled, other than he was a Christian, is not known. The 
 most obscure Christian may be the means of some great 
 Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the duty of all 
 Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Eph. 5 : 18, 
 "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess : but be 
 filled with the Spirit." To have the Spirit and to be filled 
 with the Spirit are two different things. We read in Rom. 
 8: 9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be 
 that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have 
 not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." According to 
 this no matter who he may be, nor what he may profess, 
 if he has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not saved. One 
 may have the Spirit and not be filled with him. I hope I 
 can make this clear to you. Egypt always has the Nile, 
 but she does not always have the overflow of the Nile. The 
 overflow of the Nile is the salvation of Egypt. To be filled 
 with the Spirit, means the salvation of many. Souls are 
 brought to Christ when Christians are filled with the Spirit. 
 Is it a sin to be drunk? If I should get drunk while I am 
 attending this Assembly, some one would report me to my 
 Presbytery, and it would discipline me for being drunk, 
 and it should, but I may be here all the days of the Assem- 
 bly and not be filled with the Spirit, and nothing will be 
 said about it. 
 
 O, people of God, if it is a sin for a Christian to get 
 drunk, how much greater the sin not to be filled with the 
 
82 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Spirit? The great need of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church to-day is a ministry and membership filled with 
 the Holy Spirit. To be filled with him is the birthright 
 of every Christian. I implore each of you in the name of 
 our Divine Master to claim your birthright and not sell 
 it as Esau sold his, and when he would have regained it 
 he could not. If we are not filled with the Holy Spirit 
 we lose much. Some years ago, I read, in one of the great 
 daily papers of St. Louis, an article taken from a San 
 Francisco paper, the heading of the article was, "Un- 
 claimed Deposits." There was a long list of names, with 
 the amount due the depositors in the San Francisco Banks. 
 The amount ran up to many millions. The men had made 
 their deposits ; and went away and had not been heard 
 from, no doubt they were dead, or it may have been they 
 did not need the money. But the wives, and children of 
 these depositors, may have suffered from hunger and cold, 
 because they had not the money to buy the things that 
 would shut out the cold and stop the hunger. They did 
 not know there were thousands of dollars in the banks 
 of San Francisco, which they could get if they would 
 prove their right to them. Many Christians go through 
 life halting, doubting, starving, because they do not know 
 it is their privilege to be filled with the Holy Spirit. How 
 many will this moment claim their spiritual birthright? 
 
REV. H. CLAY YATES, D.D. 
 LEBANON, TENN. 
 
PAUL'S ESTIAIATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 A SERMON DELIVERED 13V H. CLAY YATES, D. D., BEFORE THE 
 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBY- 
 
 TERLVN CHURCH, AT DICKSON, TENN., MONDAY, 
 
 I I A. M., MAY 23, I9IO. 
 
 Text — Phil. 3: 7-9: "But zi'hat things were gmn to me, 
 those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I 
 count all things, but loss, for the excellency of the knowl- 
 edge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I ha^'e suffered 
 the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I 
 may z^'in Christ. And be found in Iiim, not hai'lng mine 
 ozwi righteousness, zdiich is of the lazi\ but that zvhich 
 is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness zvhich is 
 of God by faith." 
 
 To you who are well informed in the New Testament 
 Scriptures and in the history of the first Christian century, 
 during the time of Nero's reign in Rome, the announce- 
 ment of the declarations of the text, flashed out before your 
 mental vision, a magnificent and impressive scene of that 
 day. Rome, the great imperial world-wide ruling city, 
 enthroned upon her seven hills, stands forth, in all of her 
 mammoth greatness and imposing grandeur. We see the 
 historic, legend-laden river, upon whose banks she is 
 proudh- situated — the yellow winding, snake-like Tiber, as 
 she rolls on like a moving river of molten gold, in the 
 flashing sunlight, passing beneath magnificent arches to- 
 ward the setting sun. Amid surrounding, massive piles 
 of splendid architecture, of colossal royal buildings and 
 temples, the magnificent palace of Nero towers in majestic 
 splendor, on the Palatine Hill, which, at that time was the 
 most conspicuous spot on the earth, not only for crime, 
 but also for splendor and power, as the center of all the 
 movements of the great Roman Empire. 
 
84 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Here in this glorious, immense marble palace, lavishly 
 adorned, with precious stones and also of silver and gold, 
 the causes are heard of all Roman citizens^ who had ap- 
 pealed to Caesar. Here were issued the imperial orders, 
 to the governors of provinces, and to the legions on the 
 frontiers, carried by swift, mounted posts or messengers, 
 over the great national roads, that rayed out, from the 
 golden milestone, below the palace, at the foot of the Capi- 
 toline Hill, near the Roman Forum, in all directions to the 
 remotest verge of world-wide civilization. In the qviarters 
 of the Praetorian Guard — the body-guard, of the Roman 
 Emperor, which adjoins the imperial palace, we see a Jew, 
 chained as a prisoner to a Roman soldier. He is of diminu- 
 tive stature, afflicted both in his eyes and body, neverthe- 
 less, his delicate and frail form seems to be charged with 
 wonderful energy. He has a Jovine brow and both a be- 
 neficent and leonine face — a face lit up with sublime and 
 forceful thought, and Divine-like spiritual yearnings. His 
 countenance beaming with calm serene, deep-joyed, re- 
 ligious ecstasy, and his whole bearing seemingly aglow, 
 with religious enthusiasm. His bearing indicates such 
 great force of character and marvelous individuality, as to 
 evidence him beyond a doubt, to be a great heroic leader. 
 In this prisoner, we recognize the Apostle Paul, the great 
 apostle to the Gentiles, who has been a prisoner in bonds, 
 near five years, because of his testimony to the glorious 
 Gospel of the Son of God. He is dictating to a man, who 
 is writing a letter for him, to the church in the city of 
 Philippi in far away Macedonia. The man who is writing 
 this letter, as dictated by Paul, the prisoner, is Epaphro- 
 ditus, who is a preacher and perhaps the pastor of the 
 church in Philippi. Paul had been some months before, 
 cheered by the arrival of Epaphroditus, from the church 
 at Philippi, who had borne to him from them, a contribu- 
 tion to minister to his needs in prison. This is only one 
 instance along with several others, in which this church 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 85 
 
 had shown its hberahty and devotion to the Apostle, in the 
 cause of Christ, in ministering unto his necessities, during 
 his past ministry in the work. Epaphroditus, whom, from 
 the fatigue and exposure, in making the long journey from 
 Philippi to the city of Rome, had brought upon himself a 
 dangerous illness. In referring in this letter, to this af- 
 fliction of Epaphroditus, the Apostle speaks of him m 
 touching affection, calling him his brother, companion in 
 labor, and fellow-soldier, declaring at the same time that 
 his great efforts to aid him, in the cause of Christ, had 
 brought Epaphroditus near to death. That he had hazarded 
 his life, in order to supply his needs, and to open up com- 
 munications between the church at Philippi, and Paul in his 
 imprisonment in Rome. Paul intimates, his own great 
 anxiety and sorrow, over the imperiled condition of Epa- 
 phroditus, in his severe affliction, in his explanation, of 
 why the Lord brought about his recovery, in which he 
 says, "God had compassion on him, and not on him only, 
 but on us also, that I might not have sorrows upon sor- 
 rows" (Phil. 2: 30). Meanwhile Epaphroditus had fully 
 recovered from his sickness, and was able once more to 
 travel, and Paul, ha'vnng heard of the great anxiety, the 
 news of his sickness had caused among his friends in the 
 church at Philippi, and as Epaphroditus himself was also 
 filled with longings to see his friends again in Philippi, so 
 Paul decided, it was best for Epaphroditus to return to 
 the church and his friends at Philippi. The Apostle takes 
 advantage of the occasion, to send by Epaphroditus on his 
 return, a letter to the church in Philippi, in which he ex- 
 presses his grateful acknowledgment, of their kind remem- 
 brance and act of love toward him. In this letter, he com- 
 mends and praises the Philippian Church for their con- 
 sistent Christian living and bearing, and for their cour- 
 age; and fortitude, in standing up against their adversaries, 
 in the interest of the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 At the time the Apostle is brought before our view in 
 
86 CENTExNNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 this magnificent and impressive scene, he has reached the 
 point in this letter, to the PhiHppian Church, where he'll 
 give his estimate of Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. 
 
 Paul's estimate of jesus chkist our lord. 
 
 What will he say now, of the Christ and his Christianity, 
 after giving the claims of Christianity's Christ, the most 
 thorough experimental test, that it is possible to give, in 
 passing through the most powerful temptations and crucial 
 trials, that it is possible for humanity to experience in this 
 life, through a series of twenty-five years or more? Dur- 
 ing these twenty-five or thirty years of Christian labor, 
 Paul, you have been whipped at the whipping-post by the 
 Jews, five different times, receiving on the bare back thirty- 
 nine lashes each time. You have been horribly beaten, by 
 being whipped with the bundle of rods, or cruelly mangled 
 by the scourge, on three different occasions. You have 
 been stoned once and dragged out of the city for dead. 
 You have sufifered shipwrecks four times, once being cast 
 into the sea and floating a night and day on the deep. 
 Through more than a score of years in your traveling and 
 strenuous labor in propagating the gospel, you have been 
 in journeyings often, in perils of water in the crossing 
 places of dangerous rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils 
 from your own countrymen,- in perils from the heathen, in 
 perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils 
 among false brethren. You have suffered, in weariness and 
 painfulness. in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
 fastings often, in cold and in nakedness, and besides all of 
 these things, you have had upon you daily, through all of 
 these years, the care of all the churches, and have been a 
 sufferer in the Roman prisons for four or five years, for 
 the faith of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in 
 view of all of tliis. what do you say, what is your opinion 
 now in regard to your decision, in giving up. the popular 
 national Hebrew religion of your day, for Christ and 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 87 
 
 Christianity, and thereby blotting out your bright prospects, 
 of becoming the most ilkistrious man among your own 
 countrymen, as a religious teacher, thinker, leader and 
 ruler, and of achieving in the Gentile world at large, 
 greater fame than any of her statesmen, philosophers and 
 litterati — towering as far above them in the science of gov- 
 ernment, leadership and as a military commander or ruler 
 and also in philosophy and literature, as a giant towers 
 above the pigmies ? Listen ! He is dictating to Epaphro- 
 ditus, his opinion of his decision in giving up the Mosaism 
 of tjie Hebrew religion for Christ and Christianity, after all 
 of these long years of Christian experience of severe trial 
 and service, and in view of his fearful surroundings as a 
 prisoner for the faith of Jesus Christ. Hear what he is 
 saying, "But what things were gain to me, these are count- 
 ed loss, for Christ." 
 
 "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things loss, for the ex- 
 cellencv of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for 
 whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count 
 them but dung, that I may win Qirist." 
 
 "And be found in him, not having mine own righteous- 
 ness which is of the law, but that which is through the 
 faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by 
 faitn." 
 
 He thus asserts in so many words, that the things he 
 gave up for Christ and Christianity, and in wholly giving 
 himself to Christ's service, as viewed from the standpoint of 
 that age, was apparently giving up that to him, which 
 would be a great means of gaining 'great worldly honors, 
 riches and glory, was as naught to him in the light of the 
 revelation of the exalted Christ, in contrast with what he 
 had obtained of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ. That is, he estimated as naught, that which he had 
 given up, which appeared so supremely desirable, from a 
 world view point, in contrast with what he had obtained in 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord. 
 
88 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 In that wonderful declaration of the Apostle Paul, of 
 "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the 
 Lord,'" we have clearly unveiled Paul's great estimate of 
 Christ, the theme we design presenting at this hour. In 
 order to see the grounds of this great estimate of Christ 
 by Paul, we must get clearly before us. (II) In what re- 
 spects, the excellency of this knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 the Lord, as obtained by Paul, so greatly transcends all 
 things else. 
 
 "Yea, doubtless," says the apostle, "and I count all things 
 loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jestfs 
 my Lord, for whom I have suiTered the loss of all things, 
 and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." 
 
 The Apostle, in this letter to the Galatians, in Gal. i : 
 1 2- 1 6, states how he obtained his knowledge of Christ, 
 which is esteemed by him of such surpassing pre-eminent 
 excellence, to that of all things else. He there informs us, 
 that he did not receive it from man, neither was he taught 
 it, but that he obtained it, by direct revelation from Jesus 
 Christ himself. He informs us that it was, obtained at 
 that marvelous event, of that wonderful vision, that he 
 had, of the resurrected glorified Christ, Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, near the Damascus gate, which changed him almost 
 as suddenly as a lightning flash, from Saul the persecutor, 
 to Paul the slave of Jesus of Christ. He tells the Galatians, 
 that he himself was a convert, from the Jewish religion of 
 the circumcision, to Christianity, that he had profited in the 
 Jewish religion, above many of his own equals in his own 
 nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of 
 his fathers. And that they had heard of his conduct in 
 time past in the Jew's religion, how beyond measure he 
 had persecuted the Church of God. He tells them and us, 
 that it was through the grace of God that he, as a mon- 
 strous persecutor of Christ and his church, was arrested on 
 his way to Damascus on a mission of bloody persecution, 
 by that wonderful, wakeful, spiritual vision, in which he 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 89 
 
 was giveii an internal revelation of the Son of God in- 
 carnate in Jesus of Nazareth, through which was made 
 known to him this wonderful knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 and his salvation in all of its excellences, whereby he was 
 radically converted from his erroneous views and bitter 
 prejudices and through the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus 
 was made a new creature, doing away with his murderous, 
 malignant, persecuting spirit and transforming him into the 
 image of Christ by giving him the loving, grateful, hum- 
 ble, compassionate, devout Christ-like character and Spirit. 
 
 Let us definitely look for a few moments, at the knowl- 
 edge made known to Paul, of the revelation of Christ to 
 him in this vision, that wrought so\ great a change in him; 
 
 See Saul yonder with his company of attendant officers 
 to aid him, he is nearing Damascus armed with letters of 
 authority from the High Priest in Jerusalem to set up his 
 court in Damascus to search out and arrest all the follow- 
 ers of Christ he could find, both men and women and bring 
 them from there in chains, to Jerusalem to await such 
 mercy as the Sanhedrin, Stephen's murderers, might lead 
 them to hope. He has nearly completed the journey of 
 one hundred and fifty miles and is breathing out threaten- 
 ings against the Church of Qirist. He is in such a frame 
 of mind that his soul is filled with such rage against the 
 disciples of the Lord whom he is in pursuit of that it can 
 only be described of that unparalleled phrase of the Scrip- 
 tures, "that he was breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 
 ter against the disciples of the Lord," in his burning zeal 
 for what he has mistaking as the religion of his fathers, 
 and his indignation against the followers of Christ whom 
 he looks upon as fanatical heretics seeking to destroy the 
 true religion of God, whose leader was a despised Naza- 
 rene, crucified by the sentence of the Sanhedrin and ap- 
 proved by the Roman governor, to crucifixion as a male- 
 factor and blasphemer, but falsely claiming to be the true 
 Christ of God. 
 
90 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 It is only when the several passages of Scriptures, eight 
 in number, in which allusions are made to the sad period, 
 are duly weighed, in the light of the terrible significance 
 of their expression, that we can get anything like a true 
 conception of the part Paul played at this time, in the 
 horrid work of persecution. It is said, "he made havoc," 
 or literally, he was ravaging the church. He was not con- 
 tent with the visitation of synagogues, but got authority 
 for an inquisition visit from home to home, and even 
 from the sacred retreat of the Christian homes, he dragged 
 not only men, but women to judgment and to prison. So 
 thorough was his searching and so deadly was its effects, 
 that in referring to it, the Christians of Damascus can 
 only speak of Saul as he that devastated in Jerusalem, 
 them that call on his name." To this terrible destructive 
 persecution. Luke gives as a reason, for the total scatter- 
 ing of the church in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, he was 
 entirely successful. There was no more preaching or won- 
 ders in Solomon's porch. 
 
 No more throngs gathered in the streets to see the heal- 
 ing effect of Peter's shadow falling on the afflicted. If the 
 Christians met, they met in wonderful secrecy, and in di- 
 minished numbers. He having torn up this heresy by the 
 roots in the holy city and hearing of it getting a foot- 
 hold in other cities, is now, beginning to pursue them into 
 foreign cities. We see him and his little company nearing 
 the end of his journey in his persecuting mission against 
 the Christians in Damascus. It is hi-gh noon, and the city 
 of Damascus is glittering in the blazing sunlight, like, "A 
 hand full of pearls in a goblet of emeralds." The noon 
 Syrian sun is shining down over their heads, in an intoler- 
 able blaze of boundless light — the cloudless sky is gleam- 
 ing like moulten brass — the white earth under their feet 
 glows like iron in the furnace, the whole air as they breathe 
 it. seems to quiver as though it were pervaded with subtle 
 flames. That Saul with his comrades should at this moment 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 91 
 
 still be pressing forward on his journey, argues a troubled 
 impatience, and an impatient haste on his part. For gen- 
 erally at this time of day the traveler is resting in his 
 Khan or lying under the shelter of his tent. Then suddenly 
 all was ended, the eager haste, the agonizing struggle, the 
 deadly mission, the maddened infatuation, the feverish de- 
 sire to quiet doubt in persecution. 
 
 Suddenly from heaven there lightened a great light. A 
 light so vivid, as to be brighter and more dazzling than 
 the Syrian noonday sun -glare — flashing it out, as though 
 the whole atmosphere had caught fire, and they were sud- 
 denly wrapped in sheets of blinding splendor. And they 
 were all struck down to the earth together. And with the 
 light came to those with Paul an awful but an unintelligible 
 sound. This vision was not mainly for them, but for Saul. 
 The men with Paul saw^ a light but no person — they heard 
 a sound but no message — but to Saul it was a light from 
 him who is the light of the city of God. It was Saul who 
 had the vision, and heard the message. In that gleaming 
 glory that man cannot approach unto the flaming Shechinah 
 in which God dwells indicative of his manifest presence, 
 and in which he discovered a glorified form of a man 
 appear — and speak, saying in the Hebrew language — 
 the sacred language of the Jews, "Saul, Saul, why perse- 
 cutest thou me?" Saul recognized that it was a divine 
 messenger, and a divine message, and he said, "Who art 
 thou Lord?" and he answered and said, "I am Jesus of 
 Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." "It is hard for thee to 
 kick against the pricks of goad." This revelation of the 
 glorified Christ flashes into the soul of Saul the unmistak- 
 able fact, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had so hated 
 and despised and whose followers he had so persecuted 
 and destroyed was the true messiah of God. And was not 
 only resurrected and glorified, but was the glorified incar- 
 nation of the Jehovah, the covenant God of the Jews, be- 
 cause he manifested himself in the same* divine unap- 
 
92 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 proachable glory, in which the God of the Patriarch, and 
 of the Mosaic dispensation, always appeared, when making 
 known his will to his servants. In the glorified Jesus of 
 Nazareth he had the highest revelations of God's ideal man 
 actnalized, and the true and full-orbed unveiling of God's 
 inner nature and attitude to man. There was now revealed 
 to him that in Jesus of Nazareth, was incarnated the Son 
 of God, the uncreated, active eternal agent of God the 
 father in creation, providence and redemption. That by 
 him the worlds were made with their dispensations, that 
 he was the Almighty God of the Patriarchs and the Jeho- 
 vah, covenant (iod of Moses, that he was man's only 
 Savior, Lord and Judge. That he is the word, the oracle 
 or spokesman of God the Father — his absolute all-round 
 and great revelation. That he was the author of all the 
 provident institutions of redemptions in the old dispensa- 
 tion — the inspircr of the prophet, the giver of the law, 
 the authcjr of the politico-ecclesiastical economy of the 
 Jews, the furnisher of the specifications of the temple and 
 its furniture, and the order of its sacrificial services and 
 tlic ritual of its temple services and in fact of the true 
 Hebrew religion in all of its principles and ideals and its 
 types and shadows. He now awoke to the fact, that in 
 this glorified Jesus of Nazareth, all the Messianic prophecies 
 received their complete fulfillment, and upon his brow all 
 the prophets of God placed their coronal of glory. That 
 in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah, all sacrificial offerings, 
 and the priesthood and its service — and the arrangement 
 of the temple courts with their furniture and the order of 
 the temple service in its awful solemn, sacred and joyful 
 services — in their meaning as shadowed forth in their 
 typical and symbolical significance, found in him their great 
 anti-type, as the great high priest of the universe, and as 
 typical and symbolic significance, found in him their great 
 sin-bearer of the world — their complete fulfillment, in the 
 significance of the unified expression, of their full and 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 93 
 
 complete meaning. That all of the typical features of the 
 prophets and kings and all other symbolical teaching's of 
 the true religion of the Hebrew theocracy — with all of its 
 unfolding ideals and principles found in him, not only 
 their fulfillment, but their fullest and highest unfolding. 
 Paul realized that this glorified and exalted Christ was 
 man's Creator, Savior, Lord and Judge. That all things 
 were made by him and for him and that he was the pre- 
 server of the life of man and the source of the divine and 
 provident supply of his needs, both temporal and eternal. 
 That through and by Jesus of Nazareth, the exalted Christ, 
 all sin was forgiven and the soul cleansed from the same 
 and delivered from the power and dominion of sin and its 
 final and eternal consequences, and restored from aliena- 
 tion to God, into the favor and communion of God. And 
 save through Christ, not only from sin into the holy service 
 and favor of God, but also into membership of the divine 
 household — made an heir of God and a joint heir with 
 Christ. That man's well-being in his unfolding destiny 
 both here and hereafter is through Jesus of Nazareth. 
 That if sins are forgiven it is through Jesus Christ. And 
 that if man has access in communion with God in answer 
 to his prayers and receiving the divine supplies of his 
 needs, and the illuminating and quickening direction, and 
 enduing power from the Holy Spirit, it is through this 
 Jesus Christ. That the individual well-being and blessed- 
 ness of man in the unfolding and directing of his nature 
 and in all the different spheres in which he moves and the 
 relations he sustains, to his fellowmen, whether in social 
 or organic features, and humanity as a whole in both 
 temporal and spiritual interests here and in eternal destiny 
 beyond the grave, is through this Jesus of Nazareth. So 
 Paul sees in the luminous li'ght of the revelation of Christ, 
 that all the past glories of the Hebrew religion belong to 
 this Christ and that all of its unfolding possibilities must 
 be in and through him, so that without him the Hebrew 
 
W CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 religion' would be a worthless, empty shell and that with- 
 out Christ all possessions, all positions ami worldly power 
 and worldly knowledge and worldly honors and glory 
 would be not only worthless, but a curse and it is only 
 through and by this Christ, that the things of this life, are 
 made a blessing to the human soul. So the world with all 
 of its attractions sinks into utter significance with all of 
 its possible empires with their crowns and scepters, and 
 are things of naught in c(Mitrast with this mighty Christ 
 in his glorious reign in the heart and lives of men for time 
 and eternity. That all things else, even of the vast ex- 
 ternal universe itself, sink into utter insignificance as a 
 possession u'hen brought in contrast with the possession of 
 this Jesus of Nazareth, as the Savior, Lord and friend, 
 who is the owner and controller and the all in all to all 
 things, which lead the Apostle to feel no doubt, as he 
 realized on this occasion and so wonderfully expressed in 
 after years of experience in the salvation, in the language 
 of the text, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but 
 loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 my Lord : and do count them as naught, that I may win 
 Christ." 
 
 "And be found in him, not having mine own righteous- 
 ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the 
 faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." 
 
 But the highest value of the knowledge of Christ to Paul, 
 was not so much as to wdiat Qirist was within himself, as 
 what he was to Paul as the chief of sinners in the experi- 
 mental knowledge of his saving power in the salvation of 
 his soul in the great change that he had wrought in him. 
 The great feature which before in Christ's ministry that 
 was so repulsive to him, Christ's humiliation and suffer- 
 ings and especially his ignominous death on the cross by- 
 crucifixion, now becomes to him the focal point an influ- 
 ential center of all the administrative of the divine economy 
 of both the past and the future. He sees it to be the place 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. OS 
 
 where he alone comes in contact with Jesus in his sacrificial 
 offering" for sin as a personal Savior, through the cleansing 
 blood of his sacrifice. He sees and realizes now his fearful 
 and imperiled condition ih sin — the heinous sinfulness of 
 the criminal course in his bloody persecution against Christ 
 and his followers — he sees in his mind the faces and hears 
 the agonizing cries of all he has caused to blaspheme Christ 
 — and scourged in the synagogue or bound and forced into 
 prison, and all he has caused to be cruelly put to death. 
 He sees the angel face of the noble Stephen, he hears the 
 burning logic and forceful arguments of the discourse of 
 his wonderful defense before the Sanhedrin, he sees them 
 stoning him and he sees that face of heavenly light smeared 
 in blood, he hears his agonizing cries and his agonizing 
 prayer for his murderer. All these scenes and experiences 
 stand out vivid before him in moving reality in the coli- 
 seum of his soul. He then sees the awful force of the 
 Lord's question, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" 
 "It is hard for thee to kick against the prick or goad." 
 That is to say as the ox rebelling against his master, kick- 
 ing back at the spike on the end of the pole with which 
 his master prods him, is to his own injury, for in so doing 
 he only adds to his own distress, so you, in all your strug- 
 gles against the prodding your conscience and my cause. 
 In vain I have admonished you by the word of my truth 
 through the lips of my martyred Stephen and by the death 
 of my saints and by the voice of thy conscience : "Struggle 
 no more against your convictions less a worse thing come 
 unto thee." As we learn from Paul's life that he pos- 
 sessed a nature not only of tenacity of purpose, but also 
 of great emotional tenderness of character, these instincts 
 of sympathy in his sinning course with his great thinking 
 powers and vivid imagination, in spite of his zeal and pas- 
 sion that were hurling him on in his terrible acts of cruelty 
 in persecution, would cause to up in his soul now and then 
 the forceful arguments that had proved unanswerable to 
 
96 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 him from the Hps of Stephen and others in presenting the 
 claims of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. And the heroic 
 bearing and testimony in the spirit and witnessing of the 
 persecuted victims of the followers of Christ in the terri- 
 ble ordeals in which he caused them to pass, we learn from 
 the after intimations in his life, must have caused the ques- 
 tion to arise in his soul that maybe Jesus of Nazareth is 
 the true Christ, after all, and that his claimed saving power 
 as the only Savior and Lord of men from sin into union 
 and communion with God, as testified to so unswervingly 
 and devotedly by his followers in the terrible scourging 
 through which he caused them to pass and in the heroic 
 and triumphant manner in which they met the brutal, cruel 
 death that he caused them to suffer, may have caused him 
 time and again in his persecutions great revoltings of soul 
 from the course he was pursuing. Is it not probable when 
 Damascus fell on his vision and he was rushing through 
 the glaring sunlight ami heated atmosphere of the noonday 
 to enter the Damascus gate that one of the most powerful 
 of these repulsions of soul against the' task for which he 
 was entering the city, as to seize him with the greatest 
 compunction of conscience with the greatest thrust of its 
 piercing goad into his soul — when at this crucial moment 
 the Lord arrested him on his course and prostrated him 
 in this wonderfid vision. And now Stephen's prayer for 
 his murderers is being answered in the agonizing submis- 
 sive penitent soul of the leading persecutor in his death, to 
 Christ for forgiveness in salvation, as uttered in his won- 
 derful contrite prayer in submissive surrender to Jesus of 
 Nazareth, the Christ, in great trembling of soul and body, 
 "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 
 
 Here now is the rigid Pharisee, the fierce persecutor, the 
 man of vast learning, of legal intellect, suddenly becoming 
 a Christian convert — the Lord says to him, "Arise, and go 
 unto the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do." 
 When Saul arose from the earth and his eyes were open 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 97 
 
 he saw no man for the brilliancy of the vision had blinded 
 him and he entered the gate of Damascus in a very dif- 
 ferent state to that which he expected when he started on 
 his mission. The bloody persecutor is blind, led by his ac- 
 companying officers through the Damascus gate a trem- 
 bling prisoner of the Christ, instead of the proud and per- 
 secuting rabbi, he had been of Christ and his cause. He is 
 led to the house of Judas on the street that is called straight, 
 where he is three days without sight and in his -great an- 
 guish of soul during this time he neither eats nor drinks. 
 Saul in this vision had fallen in death, but has arisen in 
 life, he had fallen in the midst of things temporal, he had 
 arisen in awful consciousness of the things eternal: he 
 had fallen a proud, intolerant, persecuting Jew he arose 
 a humble, broken-hearted, penitent Christian. In that 
 moment a new element — eternal life had been imparted to 
 his being and he made a partaker of the divine nature. 
 He had experienced a new birth — he was changed from the 
 murderer of the saints into a devout servant of Jesus 
 Christ and made a minister of the Savior to become the 
 great apostle to the Gentiles and the greatest of all the 
 apostles. 
 
 The highest value of the excellency of the knowledge 
 of Christ, is obtained by Paul through the experimental 
 knowledge of his saving power in the soul and in his con- 
 trolling and directing influence over the outer life. This at 
 once prevailed Paul with the conviction that the reality he 
 confronted commanded him so completely, and flung over 
 him the spell of such a desirable and thrilling sovereignty, 
 that however much he might have to say, Christ would be 
 the theme and song of his soul and the chief object of his 
 precious devotion and value, overshadowing all things else 
 dominating, pervading, possessing and controlling his 
 whole being and life. This knowledge could not be im- 
 parted to him, in the conviction and partaking of this sav- 
 ing knowledge by any theological seminary — only by Christ 
 
98 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 alone. The might of the Holy Spirit within the soul of 
 Saul of Tarsus, convinced by a logic as swift as lightning 
 and premises and conclusions followed one another by the 
 speed of God in rushing in on him. In the wonderful reve- 
 lation of Christ's knowledge to Paul in his conversion on 
 this occasion, and in several other revelations, given him 
 on different occasions, of the divine relations here of Christ 
 to his servants in his service and in the leadings of him 
 under the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit, in the un- 
 folding of the plan of salvation of both the old and new 
 economy in and through Christ Jesus and of the divine 
 process in carrying forward the cause of Christ's salvation 
 in the propagation of his gospel throughout the world, and 
 in the individual regeneration of men and_ the human race 
 as a whole, in bringing the world back to God in its salva- 
 tion and restoration from sin into union and harmony with 
 God, with the rest of the universe, under his perfect reign 
 and of the glorious destiny of his people in the future life. 
 He 'gave Paul a vision of that heavenly country by causing 
 him in spirit to enter the paradise of God, the glories of 
 which were so great that it was impossible for Paul through 
 his means of communications here, to express them to men, 
 and he also gave him such conceptions of the final consum- 
 mation of the gospel in the conquest of the earth from 
 satan and sin and of its regenerated and glorified form in 
 which it was to enter and in which the glorified redeemed 
 of God in the immortal wedlock of their glorified resur- 
 rected body with their glorified soul were to finally dwell. 
 This earth being made the dwelling place, also in its glori- 
 fied new heavens and earth, of the holy city of God — the 
 place where God will finally make his headquarters of the 
 universe — the honored world with his throne and capital, 
 out of all the worlds of his dominion. So all these things 
 had been unfolded to Paul in his conversion and through 
 more than a quarter of a century of ministerial labor for 
 Jesus, through the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 99 
 
 when he penned the langua-ge of our text in prison at 
 Rome, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted 
 loss for Christ." "Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss, 
 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and 
 do count them but dung that I may win Christ." 
 
 "And be found in him not having mine own righteous- 
 ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the 
 faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' 
 
 Paul would have us understand that this excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ in salvation is for all. Every sin- 
 ner may realize it for he says in one of his epistles, "This 
 is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus 
 Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am 
 chief." While none may have the phenomena Paul had at 
 his conversion, yet that was not what saved Paul. It wa.=. 
 the Christ. That this phenomena convinced him that Jesus 
 was the Christ, it was yielding to him that saved him. 
 The Lord took the only thing in a critical moment in Paul's 
 experience, that could possibly convince him as a student 
 of the law, by appearing to him in a vision in the flaming 
 Shechinah that indicated the presence of God. We have 
 Paul's experience on record with many others, and two 
 thousand years of the history of Christ's saving power to 
 convince, that Jesus is the Savior of men, and hence much 
 more than Paul had, and these take the place of the 'great 
 physical miracles and phenomena of that day. He uses 
 with us that which has the greatest influence over us at the 
 most effective time like he did Paul to bring us to him in 
 salvation. All should estimate Christ as Paul did when he 
 penned this letter. 
 
 Paul's estimate of the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ, in whom he claimed was embodied or hid the divine 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge which he asserts in 
 Col. 2: 3, which was (III) exemplified in Paul himself 
 personally and in the effectiveness of his ministerial labors. 
 
100 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 The excellency of the revelation of this saving- knowl- 
 edge of Christ, which made known to Paul, his life mission, 
 was given to him in this language, Acts 26: 16, "But 
 rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto 
 thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a wit- 
 ness both of these things which thou hast seen and of 
 those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Deliver- 
 ing thee from the people, and from the (.^entiles, unto whom 
 now I send thee. To open their eyes, and to turn them 
 from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God, that they might receive forgivness of sins, and ni- 
 heritance among them which are sanctified by faith which 
 is in me."" Jesus declared to Ananias that in carrying out 
 this commission that Paul "Should bear his name before the 
 Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will 
 shew him how great things he must suffer for my name- 
 sake." 
 
 When Paul penned the language of our text of his high 
 estimate of the excellencv of the knowledge of Christ, all 
 these things that Jesus said he should do and suffer had 
 been accomplished and experienced by him. He had car- 
 ried his gospel message to the Gentiles with g^reat success, 
 he had borne his name before kings in wonderful pres'^n- 
 tation of his claims of salvation and to the children of 
 Israel in the most trying ordeals and in the most heroic 
 bearing. He had indeed opened the eyes of thousands who 
 were in the darkness of sinful pagan heathenism, and 
 turned them from that darkness to the light of the salva- 
 tion of Christ, and from the power of Satan unto God, 
 and in the reception of Christ, in the forgiveness of sins and 
 in the conscious assurance and enjoyment of an inheritance 
 among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ. 
 He himself was an embodied exemplification of the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ. As a great Christian 
 thinker, and as an embodiment of divine power, as a preach- 
 er in his flaming and stirring messages, aglow with divine 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. loi 
 
 energy, with heart piercing and heart melting and heart 
 binding effect, and in his intense Christ-Hke passion in 
 soul saving, and in his strenuous gospel labors, and as a 
 hero in all the great conflicts and struggles through which 
 he nad passed and was then passing in the advancement 
 of Christ's cause of salvation. He is an exemplification 
 in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ fti his all 
 round surpassing greatness as a man. The reality of Paul's 
 marvelous conversion and his mission as given by Christ, 
 immediately following the same, is conclusively demon- 
 strated in his subsequent life — a life evidencing itself to be 
 the unmistakable marvelous product of the same. The 
 great elements of Paul's nature that he possessed before 
 his conversion, his intense eager, passionate, persistency, 
 courage and consciousness, he retained after, but with 
 changed character and spirit. Reared in Tarsus of Cilicia 
 with the blue Mediterranean rolling in the foreground, and 
 with the lofv mountains in the background, with their 
 conspiring, magnificent and attractive features of nature, 
 were calculated to impart inspiration to his young thinking 
 mind. In this celebrated citv of schools, his young mind 
 was taught and trained in the literature and philosophy 
 of the learned heathen world. In after years he was taught 
 and drilled at Jerusalem by the most learned and pro- 
 found teacher in the Hebrew religion of that day — Gama- 
 liel — the greatest rabbi and the most learned of the great 
 doctors of the law. Thus, he was the broadest, the highest 
 cultured, and the most profound scholar, with the greatest 
 comprehension of the learning of both the Hebrew and the 
 Gentile world, of any man of his day. The style and es- 
 sence of Paul's writing as well as of his addresses prove 
 him to be a man, not only of great intellectual capacity in 
 his great intellectual faculties, but also in the all round 
 proportionate, extensive development of his faculties, and 
 in their well trained, discipline, in perceptive, penetrative, 
 analytical, constructive, concentrative, forceful service, 
 
102 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 made him the intellectual colossus, of his times, towering 
 above the great thinkers of his age. With his vast store of 
 knowledge, and his great powers completely absorbed, pos- 
 sessed and wielded by Christ, pervaded by the Holy Spirit, 
 energized and wielded by the same in great unified in- 
 dividual force made him produce a great moral and spir- 
 itual revolution wherever he moved in the work. He was 
 such an embodiment of knowledge and wisdom that no 
 argument could be ]:)roduced by his learned opponents 
 whether thev be profound Hebrew rabbis or the leading 
 philosophers of the different schools of the heathen philo- 
 sophy, but what he easily answered, and showed its ground- 
 lessness and worthlessness by presenting the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ in the gospel of salvation. In this 
 knowledge of Christ he had unveiled to him the designed 
 relation of God and man in the constituted order of things 
 and the designed C()-o])erative agency in carrying out the 
 service of the mission of human life. He had had an inlook 
 into the mystery of our living, and into the dignity of our 
 fellowship, and into the glory of our destiny. This law of 
 human and divine action co-labor and co-laboring together 
 is a universal law. That man cannot perform his life 
 service alone within himself, neither can God perform it 
 alone by himself. This, Paul vividly expresses to the Corin- 
 thians, in his first letter to that church, i Cor. 3 : 8-9, 
 "Now he that plantcth and he that watereth are one." "But 
 God giveth the increase." "For we are laborers together 
 with God." In these utterances, we have an epitome of 
 the divine economy, full of the richest and profoundest 
 human philosophy and quivering all over with divine 
 power. Here we have expressed a co-partnership in which 
 the power is of God, and all the glory belongs to God, and 
 yet the divine power so adjusted, that all — absolutely all — 
 the responsibility rests with us. There is an immense re- 
 sponsibility in our co-partnership with God in carrying for- 
 ward his work of salvation in this life. Paul has learned 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 103 
 
 from Christ that the divine process by which God designs 
 to carry on his work in saving and developing men and 
 employing them and bringing others to him in salvation, 
 in true development and service, in fitting them for the rich 
 inheritance in the great eternal destiny beyond, is not by 
 co-operating with them outwardly aiding them by external 
 power and means, but inwardly, by dwelling in and operat- 
 ing through and by them, in propagating his cause in the 
 work of salvation, and at the same time building up the 
 Christ-like character in the inner man. This, he forcibly 
 expresses in the letter in which my text is found. Phil. 2 : 
 13-16, "Work out, or rather carry out, your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling:" "For it is God which worketh 
 in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." "Hold- 
 ing forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of 
 Christ that I have not run in vain, neither have labored 
 in vain." He speaks to the church in Ephesus to be filled 
 with all the fullness of God, and that after having put on 
 the Christian armor, to be filled with' the might of God, in 
 order to successfully meet in conflict their invisible enemies, 
 Satan and his hosts, as well as wicked men through whom 
 Satan operates. Paul was an exemplar in his own life and 
 work, by thus being divinely filled and possessed in his life 
 and labors, hence, wherever he went looking upon the lost 
 in sin of all those out of Christ, from Christ's standpoint, 
 and in the compassionate spirit of Christ under the divine 
 power and influence he yielded himself in his most strenu- 
 ous endeavor, in the employment of all tact and wisdom, 
 and wisely employed means and agencies, that by all 
 means he might save some." "For, says he," I am all 
 things to all men, that by all means I might 
 save some." Having very vividly before his mind, the 
 lost condition of men around him and the important 
 trust of his commission in the work of their salvation, 
 and of its final successful execution, that he may receive 
 the approbation and crown of glory from the mighty Christ, 
 
104 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 who is dearer to him than all things else, even his temporal 
 life here, that he may live with and reign with him forever 
 in glory, insomuch so that no opposition nor prisons, nor 
 felon's chains, nor executioner's ax, can deter him from 
 the intense labors and continuous endeavor, to magnify 
 Christ in his body whether by life or death, in order that 
 he may know the power of his resurrection and the fellow- 
 ship of his suffering, and that he may finish his ministry 
 with joy. That is, that he may apprehend, finally reach 
 and obtain that, for which Christ apprehended or' laid hold 
 of him. Therefore, says the Apostle, "This one thing I do, 
 forgetting those things which are behind and reaching for- 
 ward unto those things which are before, I press towards 
 the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus." Therefore, wherever he went he strewed from city 
 to city, like a mighty colossus of irresistible power and wis- 
 dom, the advancement of the cause of Christ. I see him 
 in the -great city of Antioch on the Orontes — the Oriental 
 Rome — as the chosen champion of all the apostles by Bar- 
 nabas, as the best fitted and most powerful teacher and 
 preacher to meet the demands and the emergencies, in ad- 
 vancing the cause of Christ and building up the struggling 
 church there, out of the learned Greeks and prejudiced. 
 Hebrews, and the proud luxurious Romans, and out of the 
 jnystic and superstitious Orientals and also out of the ig- 
 norant and degraded slaves. I see him among the wild 
 mountaineers, and the semi-civilized heathen in the pro- 
 vinces of Pisidia and Lycaonea, moving the multitudes of 
 both Jews and Proselytes in the city of Antioch, of Pisidia 
 and of Lyt'ra and Derbe, of Lagonea, and moving by the 
 hundreds and thousands to Christ the emotional — Gauls of 
 Galatia. I see him crossing the Aegean Sea, and planting 
 the gospel in Macedonia of Europe in the city of Philippi. 
 I see him there not only preaching the gospel with success, 
 but pouring out his blood from terrible punishment, from 
 the rods of the E.oman lictors because of his testimony for 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 105 
 
 Jesus. I see him triumphing and rejoicing in suffering, in 
 the stocks with the heroic Silas, in the dungeon of the 
 Philippian jail, in praying through songs of praise and 
 prayer, at the midnight hour. I see him in Thessalonia 
 moving both Jew and proselyte under his wonderful dis- 
 courses, bringing multitudes to Christ, and at the same 
 time stirring up a wonderful opposition of those who op- 
 posed him. I see him driven by persecution out of the city, 
 but soon in Berea to the south producing a greater wave 
 for -Christ in salvation, in bringing Jew and Gentile to a 
 knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. I see his 
 enemies from Thessalonia stirring up a mob, forcing him 
 out of Berea. I see him taken by friends to the coasts and 
 take the ship for Athens. When Paul lands at the Piraeus, 
 the harbor of Athens, the morning light of the new age 
 arose. He is encountering alone Athens, the brain of the 
 world. Paul comes to it as fearless of its superstitions and 
 arrogance, as he had been of the swords and dungeons of 
 Syria. He has come to grapple with the overpowering 
 splendor and despotism of old heathenism in its stronghold. 
 This is the first contact of Christianity, with heathen culture 
 as developed in high art and philosophy. When Paul vis- 
 I'ted Athens it was about sixteen centuries old, and during 
 a few of the centuries immediately preceeding his visit, 
 it had been magnificently adorned by, architecture and 
 sculpture, in the interests of the prevailing idolatry. Every- 
 where there were temples : the small were elegant, the large 
 were magnificent. Everywhere there were altars to all the 
 gods known in Greek mythology. The gratification of this 
 aesthetic instinct could not blind Paul to the deadly cancer 
 that was eating out the moral and spiritual life of the 
 people, under the complexion of external beauty. The won- 
 derful and magnificent display of the greatest artistic skill 
 and the most splendid works of art in sculpture the world 
 has ever known, did not dazzle and carry him away as a 
 curious sight-seeing traveler. No, he saw in this physical 
 
lo6 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 art, ill its greatest achievements, that it was wielded in the 
 cause of idolatry in the moral degradation of its devotees — 
 the citizen subjects of Athens. Art is only disregarded by 
 Christianity so long as it is used as the handmaid of idolatry 
 and vice. The moment this agreement ceases, Christianity 
 is interested in and ennobles art. Paul knew and had seen 
 that the lofty heights of culture are compatible with the 
 lowest abysses of degradation, and that the most beautiful 
 and sublime shrine of art may become a cesspool of iniquity. 
 So he was stirred from within by the si-ght of the prevail- 
 ing idolatry and by his constant zeal, for his Lord and 
 Savior, and the new faith, Jesus and the resurrection, 
 which he everywhere set forth. Single and alone from the 
 human standi)oint, he grappled the great idolatrous city 
 in the propagation of his gospel message of salvation, to 
 save that city from idt)latry, into the worship and the 
 service of the true God. He began his labors on the Sab- 
 bath day, in reasoning with the Jews in the synagogues, 
 and in debating with the different representatives of the 
 schools of philosophy in Athens on the following week 
 days, in the market place or the general gathering place 
 called by the Athenians, the Agora, a place where not only 
 merchants of all kinds met, but statesmen, orators, poets 
 and philosophers. There he was encountered by men who 
 represented two of the leading schools of philosophy at 
 that time, in Athens. 
 
 The Stoics, and the Epicurians — schools that were then 
 more than two hundred years old. The Stoics represented 
 Pantheism. The belief that all the universe is God: and 
 that God is the universe. That the soul is matter, and that 
 at death it will return as matter into the all-matter. The 
 Epicurians, were downright materialists, they believed noth- 
 ing existed but matter. They excluded God, the soul, 
 morality' and responsibility. They simply taught to eat and 
 enjoy the animal man, for to-morrow we die, and there is 
 nothing more of us. Then there was- a third school not meris^ 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 107 
 
 tioned in the Acts of the apostles, called the Academicians, 
 who, at the time of Paul, taught that there was nothing 
 which could be known of God if there was a God. Paul 
 in his theistic, Christian arguments, so confused these men 
 in their discussions in the crowded assembly rooms of the 
 Agora, that these philosophers induced Paul to go with 
 them from these crowded assembly rooms, to the quiet 
 Areopa'g"us, where lifted above the multitudes, they would 
 be secured, from interruption, in the lofty place of the 
 Supreme Court of Athens where they might ascertain the 
 nature of Paul's philosophy. In the Areopagus on Mars 
 Hill, where the Supreme Court, the most solemn judicature, 
 had convened for centuries, to hear and decide the great 
 legal questions appealed to them in both secular and re- 
 ligious matters. To put forth a new reli'gion before that 
 court, would have brought Paul under the condemnatory 
 sentence of death from that court. Here, four hundred 
 years before, the little homely, but great Greek-Socrates 
 was condemned to death, being forced to drink the deadly 
 hemlock by this very court, because of the opposition of his 
 philosophy to the idolatrous mythology of Athens. Here in 
 the very same place, now stands Paul, that big, little Jew, 
 amid an inspiring environment. If he looked up, there 
 stood before him the temple crowning" the Acropolis, on a 
 cliff a hundred feet higli, towering many feet above, thus 
 beautv-crowned, with the noblest products of the highest 
 arts, piled in richest profusion, and most graceful arrange- 
 ment on the noblest altar in the land, beautiful for situation, 
 the joy of architecture, and offering to the gods, worshiped 
 bv the populace, but despised by the philosopher. There 
 stood that colossal goddess, Minerva, towering a hundred 
 feet above the rock foundation of the Acropolis with her 
 huge form of symmetrical proportions and beauty, with her 
 gleaming helmet, a vast shield and outstretched sword, con- 
 structed by the great Greek artist, out of the brazen spoils 
 captured at the battle of Marathon. If Paul looks down 
 
ic8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 upon the citv there stood before him that wonderful temple 
 of Thesus, and the temples of the furies and of victory. In 
 his wonderful address from a heathen text, an inscription 
 on an altar which Paul had seen, "To the unknown God," 
 Paul delivered that wonderful Christian oration, briefly re- 
 ported in the seventeenth chapter of Acts, in which he 
 showed the felly and ignorance of idolatry, in that graceful 
 pleasant and yet forceful manner, without offense to his 
 auditors by quoting from their poets in sustaining him in 
 one of his arguments that man was the offspring of God, 
 and hence that such should not worship idols made with 
 his own hands, he further showed that the true God that 
 he was making known to them was the Creator of all 
 things, and could not be confined within temporal walls, 
 nor appeased or bribed bv offerings from men. He showed 
 the common brotherhood of mankind thus sweeping away 
 the theories of all the three schools of the philosophers and 
 the gross idolatry of the populace. He declared that God 
 had borne with this ignorance of the heathen world in time 
 past, in bringin'g the evidence of his existence, to them 
 through the evidences of external nature and their con- 
 sciences. "But now he commandeth men that they should 
 everywhere change their mind and have right thoughts of 
 God." "That God had appointed a day in which he would 
 reckon with mankind in righteousnsess, through the man 
 Christ Jesus, whom he had ordained, whereof he had given 
 assurance, unto all men, in that he had raised him from the 
 dead." At this point the philosophers and common people 
 united, by indifference and scornful mockery, in breaking 
 up this grand lofty and compact discourse, to which Plato 
 and Socrates would probably have listened with rapt atten- 
 tion. Though the earnest Apostle had succeeded in open- 
 ing to the eyes of some, God's revelation in salvation, and 
 the immediate results of which, were the conversion of 
 Dionysius, a number of the Court of Areopagus, and a 
 woman whose name was Damaris, with some others, who 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 109 
 
 publicly accepted Christ and joined themselves to the Apos- 
 tle as becoming Christians. Though Paul was cut short in 
 his discourse in carrying out the great lines of his arguments 
 yet the system, of philosophy brought out in the discourse, 
 is to-day maintained, explained and enforced by more brain 
 and moral power, and with more richness of illustration 
 than ever before, since F'aul's voice was drowned in the 
 mockery of the men who could sneer at what they could 
 not successfully contradict. -Yet there is more in Paul's dis- 
 courses of real valuable knowledge to mankind, than has 
 ever come down to us from all the philosophical thinkers 
 and writers of the classical days of Greece and Rome. 
 That speech on the Areopagus is an imperishable monu- 
 ment of the first victory of Christianity over cultured pagan- 
 ism. It was no mere effort for the moment, but it is, a 
 perpetual possession, wherein the church finds ever fresh 
 supplies of wisdom and guidance. And to-day as the re- 
 sult of that discourse idolatrous Athens has past away, and 
 the mighty Christ of Paul is worshiped there. This was 
 true of the great results of his labors in the cultured and 
 greatest commercial city of the then known world — 
 Corinth. The cesspool of iniquity of the world, as well as 
 the world's great commercial center. In his year-and- 
 half residence there he brought many of all classes to 
 Jesus in salvation, establishing a permanent and strong 
 church. And in his labors in Ephesus, the metropolis of 
 Asia Minor, in the great results of his teaching and preach- 
 ing, hundreds were brought to Christ, and gathered into 
 the church, the citv was so moved that the sorcerers piled 
 up in great piles their mystic books of superstition, to 
 many thousand of dollars" worth and made a great bonfire 
 of them. People was caused to so desert idolatry, that a 
 m.ob was raised against Paul, by the silversmiths of the 
 city because of the people in Ephesus and surrounding 
 country who were being so extensively led to give up idola- 
 try, and thus depleting and ruining their business, in mak- 
 
ito CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 ing" and selling of shrines of the image of the goddess in 
 the temple of Diana, that magnificent temple of their city, 
 of which it was said that the goddess in the shrine of this 
 temple had fallen down from Jupiter in heaven. I see him 
 after being wrested from the mob in Jerusalem, bruised 
 and bleeding, from their assault, standing on the tower of 
 Antonio, in Jerusalem, chained to two Roman soldiers, 
 quieting the furious mob below, by his wonderful address, 
 in presenting his experience in being converted from their 
 faith to Christianity, until he reaches the object of his mis- 
 sion, of his Christ-given ministry, the Gentiles, at which 
 word, they are thrown into a fury. I see him when 
 brought before the Sanhedrin by the Roman tribune, in 
 his tact firing up the factions of the court by his remark 
 and hurling them against each other in such conflict as to 
 thus force the Roman officer to take him from their juris- 
 diction. 
 
 The excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as em- 
 bodied and exemplified in Paul, was wonderfully mani- 
 fested on those occasions in which he defended himself 
 against the false charges of the Jews, and in the presen- 
 tation of the claims of- Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah 
 of God, whose claims he showed to be based upon the 
 Holy Scriptures, before the Roman governors of Judea, 
 Felix and Festus, and also in the same gorgeous throne 
 room, in the magnificent palace of Herod the Great, in 
 Casarea, before King Agrippa H. We see Paul in the 
 grip of the terrible cyclone, in a wrecked vessel on the 
 Adriatic Sea, which vessel it has been hurling in helpless- 
 ness over^ the storm-tossed sea, for more than two weeks, 
 during which time, neither sun, moon nor stars appeared. 
 The vessel was a helpless hulk, leaking and sinking. All 
 that company of two hundred and seventy-six souls were 
 in despair, having given up all for lost, feeling that wreck 
 and death was inevitable, save Paul. Though perhaps he 
 was the feeblest, physically, of any of that company, he is the 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ill 
 
 only calm, self-possessed, courageous spirit on that rolling 
 storm-swept vessel. I hear his tones ringing out in cheer 
 above the winds and waves, as he goes with the soldier 
 to whom he is chained, up and down the vessel, among the 
 terrified passengers, trembling in despair, telling them to 
 "Cheer up that the angel of the God, whose he was, and 
 whom he served, had told him in a vision on that night 
 that he had given him all who are on board the vessel, but 
 the vessel would be wrecked for he must appear and wit- 
 ness before Caesar in Rome." Thus, testifying to, and the 
 after results verifying his testimony, * that the excellent 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ, that Christ had made known to 
 him in his vision, that he was the God of creation, as well 
 as of redemption. That it was a great fact, that the winds 
 and waves, and in fact that all the -great forces of nature 
 were under his control, and that as such they could not 
 hinder or injure Christ's servant, in his mission, but must 
 minister to his advancement in carrying out his mission. 
 Now we look upon Paul as he bids farewell to Epaphroditus 
 with this letter to the church of Philippi, and knowing that 
 his trial is approaching before Caesar, the monstrous Nero. 
 
 Paul's trial and defense before nerd. 
 
 We wonder whether ne will carry out his wonderful de- 
 claration that, "Christ should be magnified in his body, 
 whether it be by life or by death," as he asserted in this 
 letter to the church at Philippi, when he appears before 
 Caesar on trial. He says that it is his, earnest expectation 
 and hope, that in nothing he shall be ashamed, that with 
 all boldness, though it should jeopardize his life, he would 
 present Christ in his claims. We see him in the judgment 
 hall chained to a soldier in the palace of Nero, the ceiling 
 over his head appears like the starry sky, adorned with 
 silver and gold and bestudded with precious gems. The 
 walls are lined with the precious marble of Egypt and 
 Lvbia. Caesar is seated on his golden throne. On lower 
 
112 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 seats he is surrounded by his associate counsellors — twenty 
 in number — men of the highest rank and of the greatest in- 
 fluence. Among them are two Consuls of Rome, who were 
 selected by the Emperor, representative of each of the two 
 great majesties embracing all the judicial provinces. The 
 remainder of these counsellors, consisted of Roman sena- 
 tors, selected by lot by the Roman senate. Over this dis- 
 tinguished body of judges, presides the tyrant Nero, the 
 absolute ruler of the most powerful monarchy, that has 
 ever been known — embracing, not only, the then known 
 civilized world, but also all the barbaric — all wandering 
 tribes and people then known to exist on the earth. The 
 respectful reverential awe which the position of a ruler 
 with such unlimited sovereign power and as chief justice, 
 of the great Supreme Court of the World-ruling Empire 
 of Rome, would naturally inspire in others, if the greatness 
 and fitness of the sovereign accorded with the lofty posi- 
 tion, but this is not so in this case. For such is the char- 
 acter of this presiding supreme sovereign and chief justice 
 of this supreme tribunal as to cause him to appear in the 
 eyes of true manhood, in loathing and contempt. But his 
 unlimited power and cruelty excite great fear and horror 
 to all who know of him. His infamous lust for praise and 
 his shameful licentiousness make him decidedly a great 
 monster. Before this tribunal presided over by this abso- 
 lute, world-wide, all powerful, adulterous, blood-stained 
 monarch, Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, is brought 
 in chains, under the custody of his military guard. Will 
 Paul quail before this monster in whose hands his life is 
 absolutely placed, as viewed from the human standpoint? 
 Will he have the courage of his convictions to present 
 Christ and his salvation, however, repulsive and hateful it. 
 may appear to this monarch, whose displeasure means death 
 to him ? There is no quailing in Paul. As he stands before 
 Nero and his overawing magnificent court, and surpassing- 
 ly great splendid surroundings, with his great officers of 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ir.^ 
 
 state, and the crowded room by his enemies and curiosity 
 lookers-on of notable men and women, of that wicked 
 and blood-thirsting and amusement-loving city of human 
 horrors and agony. You may be sure, that he who had so 
 often stood undaunted before the governors and kings, 
 delegated rulers of the imperial throne, and who had had 
 such wonderful revelations and realizations of the divine 
 presence and the support of the Savior and who had prom- 
 ised to be with him always, would not quake when he 
 was at last confronted by the supreme ruler and head of 
 the Roman Empire — the monster Nero. Paul was con- 
 scious of the fact that while his life appeared to be in the 
 hands' of Nero, it was not, but in the hands of the Lord 
 his Savior, who would shield him. As he had been with 
 him in all of his past trials and troubles, he would be with 
 him then. As he was permitted to speak and he reaches 
 forth his right hand, as it was his custom 'in opening his 
 r.ddress, his face lights up with the pleasure of being able 
 to speak and witness for his Lord and Master on such a 
 great and wonderful occasion, for he feels that if death 
 should come, he would be no loser, but a great gainer, for 
 he would be with Christ in glory, for in the Epistle he 
 sent to Philippi, he said, "For me to live, is Christ, and 
 to die is gain." He was ready to either live or die in accord- 
 ance with his Lord's will. Thus, he stood calm and col- 
 lected and ready to answer the charges of his accusers. 
 Knowing that in the hour of his need it would be given 
 him what was best to speak. As he poured forth his de- 
 fense we may rest assured it was such as give a great 
 and wondrous presentation of Christ Jesus in his great sal- 
 vation, as well as at the same time, showing the falsehood 
 and maliciousness, of the charges of his accusers. Such an 
 impression did he make even upon Nero and his court the 
 trial resulted in the acquittal of Paul. He was there pro- 
 nounced guiltless before that vast audience, representatives 
 of all classes of people of the great Gentile world. And 
 
:i4 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 there in the midst of that great concourse, by the order of 
 Nero, he is unchained as a prisoner, and liberated from his 
 long captivity. He meets his friends again a free man at 
 liberty to go forth and preach the gospel. 
 
 After visiting Ephcsus and some other churches of 
 Europe he makes his long-expected, greatly-desired trip, 
 tradition tells us. to the far distant Spain and plants the 
 gospel there. lUit in a few years the Roman Empire has 
 turned to be the great red dragon of persecution in de- 
 tro\ing the church. The wicked Nero had had his incen- 
 diaries to fire certain parts of Rome, which he desires to 
 be replaced l)y greater buildings on a grander scale. But 
 the fire is so destructive that the feeling aroused against 
 him by the populace is so great, that in order to success- 
 fully stem it, he must ])lace the responsibility somewhere, 
 shifting it from himself. And he decided to place it 
 upon the despised, persecuted Christians. So he had them 
 hounded down and put to death in every form to satisfy 
 the enraged i)opuIace. So the Christians were sought out to 
 be destroyed everywhere in Rome. Paul's enemies in Europe 
 preferred cliarges against him the second time and handed 
 liim over to the Roman officers as a Christian agitator, 
 and hence as Nero had placed them, Paul was a traitor and 
 an incendiary, and hence an enemy to Nero and Rome. We 
 see him taken back to Rome and treated not as he was 
 before in his first imprisonment there, with respect and 
 favored with special privileges as a prisoner, as one about 
 whom the probability of guilt was questionable, but now he 
 is treated as a felon. No Christian dares approach him or 
 sympathize with him ]iublicly for by doing so, he will be 
 condemned in the sight of the public and with Nero, as 
 a criminal deserving death, as all Christians were looked 
 upon as parties to the burning of Rome. He was placed, 
 tradition says, in the Tullanium prison, at the foot of the 
 Capitoline Hill, not far from the Roman forum, in Octo- 
 ber. Only the worst criminals w^ere placed here. The upper 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 115 
 
 dungeon of the prison was seventy-five feet below the 
 ground, and her* the greatest criminal prisoners were 
 placed, save Paul, at whom was such indignation, that he 
 was put down through the trap door of the upper dungeon 
 into the second dungeon, or the lowest dungeon of the 
 prison, which was seventy-five feet below the one above, 
 which put him one hundred and fifty feet below the ground. 
 It is said the refuse of the upper prison drained into this 
 prison. He is chained to a post by a chain, only eight feet 
 long. He had no bed to sleep on, and no chair to sit on, 
 nothing but the cold, damp floor. He had no light save a 
 little that streamed in through the trapdoor down through 
 the upper dungeon. He never heard a human voice only 
 when the keeper of the prison threw him down mouldy 
 bread to eat from the trap door of the upper prison. In 
 this prison he lay until the latter part of the next spring. 
 He was taken out as a prisoner in the garb in which he 
 was placed in prison, never having a chance to change his 
 clothes or to cleanse himself, and brought in the court of 
 Nero again in that dreadful condition, chained to a Roman 
 soldier, and met the malignant fiendish look of Nero, as he 
 looked down upon him with contempt and scorn from his 
 throne, and with murderous and brutal intent, but Paul 
 quailed not before him in this second trial. Though all for- 
 sook and fled of the Christians, because it would have been 
 death and destruction to the cause as they perhaps looked 
 at it then, to have stood out boldly for him there, and no 
 doubt it was so viewed by the Lord. But while Paul ap- 
 peared to be alone, he was not alone, the Lord stood by him 
 on that occasion. He says in his second letter to Timothy, 
 fourth chapter, sixteenth and seventeenth verses, this first 
 answer of his last trial, "No man stood with me, but all 
 men forsook me, I pray God that it may not be laid to their 
 share." Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and 
 strengthened me : that by me the preaching might be fully 
 known, and that all the Gentiles might hear : and I was 
 
■i6 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 delivered out of the mouth of the lion." He was perhaps 
 as he means by being- delivered out of the mouth of the 
 lion not sentenced to death at that time, thou'gh he boldly 
 defended Christ in Christianity, but was permitted to be re- 
 manded back to the prison as a kind of respite from the 
 death sentence at that time. The expression at my first 
 answer means, that he was brought again before Nero un- 
 der another charge in a verv short .time after his being re- 
 manded to the prison and had to give a second answer at 
 which time he was condemned to death. When placed back 
 in the prison, by Nero, sentenced not to be crucified, but 
 beheaded by the Roman sword. He being a free Roman 
 citizen the privileges of his Roman citizenship saved him 
 from the shameful and torturous death of crucifixion. Just 
 a short time before his death, tradition says, Luke was per- 
 mitted to be let down by ropes to Paul in this lower prison, 
 with a lamp, stylus and parchment, and there Paul, in view 
 of death, just a few days before his execution, wrote his 
 second letter to Timothy, being his farewell message to him 
 and to the church at large, tO' Timothy, his beloved son in 
 the gospel, and this letter containing the last words re- 
 corded of Paul, the last of his writings, they come to the 
 hearts of the earnest Christian, with a force of the la^t 
 words of his dying testimony. Now what will Paul say 
 in regard to the excellency of the knowledge of Je?us 
 Christ in his wondrous salvation in the gospel, in the ter- 
 rible ordeal which he is now passing, and in view of die 
 shameful i'gnominous death near at hand, and the terrible 
 scattered and destructive state of the churches throughout 
 the world? What a triumphant testimony he gives to the 
 reality of the Christian religion in all of its claims in its 
 pre-eminently surpassing excellency in salvation. In 2 Tim. 
 1:12, he says, "I also sufifer these things/' that is, for his 
 testimony in preaching and teaching Christ and his salva- 
 tion to the Gentiles: '"Nevertheless, I am not ashamed: fcr 
 I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 117 
 
 able to keep that which I have committed unto him ag'ainst 
 that day." 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8, "For I am now ready to be offered, 
 and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a 
 good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the fai+^^h : 
 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 ness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give m^e 
 at that day, and not for me only, but unto all 'them also 
 that love his appearing." Here we have in this testimony 
 of Paul, thrillingly set forth : 
 
 IV. The excellency of the saving knowledge of Christ, 
 in making death the crowning glory of a well-spent life, 
 for God and humanity, and a triumphant departure to the 
 heavenly home with Christ in glory. 
 
 In these utterances of the Apostle we have expressed his 
 great faith's triumphant expectation of an eternal reward- 
 to his faithfulness — it is a death paen of matchless sublim- 
 ity, and crowning the retrospect and prospect of a Chris- 
 tian life — a life of loyal love to God and man. 
 
 Paul has now reached the goal of the flaming passions 
 of his soul, in the supreme object of his intense and ardu- 
 ous endeavor, in all of his labors and heroic sufferings and 
 struggles along all of his Christian life, viz. : That he 
 might finish his ministrv with joy. He feels that he has 
 completed his life mission in the service of Christ, and in 
 the glorious consciousness of successfully carrying out his 
 Christ-called and divinelv ordained mission as he knows 
 that' death is not far off, his whole past career as a servant 
 and minister of Christ arises before him, and as he takes 
 a careful retrospect of all of his labors, struggles, conflicts 
 and experiences, through the supporting presence of his 
 indwelling Qirist, he has the consciousness of soul of his 
 IMaster's approval of his career in carrying out his mission, 
 and he cries out in exultation of soul as a triumphant victor, 
 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, \ 
 have kept the faith." "The time of my departure is at 
 hand. I am now ready to be offered." 
 
ii8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 While the Apostle sees before him at a little distance the 
 doom of an unrighteous magistrate, and the sword of the 
 blood-stained executioner, he sees beyond this earthly 
 tragedy, a juster judge, who would soon change his fetters, 
 of that of criminal into the wrath of the conqueror. He 
 « looked beyond this transitory present. The tribunal of Nero 
 faded from his sight, and the vista was closed by the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ, he realizes he is standing almost within 
 the vail. He sees at hand the prize to which he has been 
 so long pressing, he recognizes it, as the gracious reward 
 of divinely prompted and aided service — a gift of grace, 
 and striven for successfully through given grace. The time 
 he speaks of, that the Lord, the righteous judge, should 
 give to him a crown of righteousness, under the expres- 
 sion, at that day, lias reference of course to the 'great judg- 
 ment day, when the glorified redeemed in both soul and 
 body will enter into the final supreme eternal honors, riches 
 and glory of God, while he has taught in others of his 
 writings that the soul at death enters into glory, as glori- 
 fied heirs in the heavenly household, but at the judgment 
 day, as here spoken by him, they are to be crowned and 
 enter upon their joint reign with Christ. What is true of 
 Paul's experience at death is equally true of all who live 
 the faithful Christ-like life. Our great consideration should 
 not be so much about how we will die as to how we should 
 live. As with Paul, so must it be with all others. His 
 triumphant death was the result of an earnest, consecrated, 
 faithful, devout, compassionate, courageous, Christian life. 
 So to die a triumphant death like Paul, one must also live 
 an earnest, consistent Christian life. The sources of Paul's 
 joyful triumph and view of death is common to all con- 
 secrated Christians. Namely the joy and support given 
 them from a retrospect of a life spent for Christ, and of 
 the continuous and ever-increasing influence of that life 
 in blessing others after they are dead and gone, and of 
 their spiritual vision of the prospective glory that awaits 
 
l'.\Ln;.S l-SriMATE of the lord JESUS CHRIST, iig 
 
 them, and often in a glorious vision of a spiritual convoy 
 of the angels of heaven around, at the time of their de- 
 parture to bear them to their home above, I have stood by 
 the dying when it seemed as if a bridge of golden sheen 
 Vv-as let down from heaven — a glorious highway for the 
 ransomed of the Lord, gleaming with the steps of the 
 angels coming to bear the dying Christian in spiritual 
 ecstasy away from the d}'ing chamber to the heavenly 
 home. It is at the dying hour when the world's glories 
 and honors and riches within themselves, appear in their 
 emptiness and worthlessness, and the blessings of salva- 
 tion flash out in their greatness and grandeur, and the dig- 
 nity and future -glory and bliss of the child of God rises 
 upon the soul in the greatness of its reality. Earthly 
 crowns and scepters and thrones and riches and glories 
 fade into naught in contrast with heaven's unfading crown, 
 scepter, throne and never-ending joys, riches and honor. 
 Many, like Paul, when dying see the crown awaiting for 
 them fadeless, like him they have realized from prison cells, 
 that they had a defender higher and mightier than the 
 Caesars or earth's great potentates. Paul, knowing that 
 the cause for which he had been laboring and suffering 
 was God's cause — God's greatest cause in all the universe 
 for it is for the well-being of the highest and greatest of 
 all God's creatures — man, in both his temple and eternal 
 destiny, he knows he bears a commission higher than the 
 sceptre of the Caesar's. The glory beaming back on him, 
 from his past life — the effulgent 'glory of the life to come, 
 to his spiritual vision, filling the prison in which he was 
 confined with holy light and angelic forms, pouring out of 
 the heavens through the open gates of the gleaming glorv 
 of the unveiled city of God, Nero's golden palace, his world 
 power and glory and the Roman empire, in all of its worldly 
 glory and greatness sink into insignificance in contrast to 
 the power, glory and greatness of the heavenly kiirgrloni 
 ir.to w'v-ch. he was to soon enter. He would not exchange 
 
120 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 his Jungeon and the excellency of the knowledge of Clirist 
 and salvation^ for Nero's golden imperial palace at the 
 other end of the forum, covering the whole Palatine Hill, 
 and for him imperial power and glory. Though Paul, as 
 a prisoner, condemned to a felon's death, through the ex- 
 cellency of the saving knowledge of Christ, he is as far 
 superior to Nero with all of his great worldly opportuni- 
 ties and privileges and worldly greatness and power, as a 
 man, in greatness, aljility, happiness as the archangel sur- 
 passes one of Satan's demons. Paul's surpassing greatness 
 is in his great Christ-like thoughts and spirit and in good- 
 ness and mercy towards others. So we see exemplified in 
 Paul that this salvation in Christ makes one, not only 
 patient in tribulation, but to rejoice in suffering, in spite of 
 the most trying surroundings and in the most terrible out- 
 ward conditions. 
 
 In this terrible dungeon of this Mamertine prison. Paul's 
 soul is filled with joy and rapture in the excellency of the 
 saving knowledge of Christ. We see here in Paul's ex- 
 pression in view of death, that no Christian under the sav- 
 ing and directing influence of Christ can die till his mis- 
 sion in life is finished. "The time," says Paul, "of my 
 departure is at hand." Because his life mission he realizes 
 is ended, his Master had intimated to him his work was 
 done and he would be called home. You remember as one 
 of the assurances Paul gave to the alarmed passengers on 
 the wrecked vessel in the awful storm on the Adriatic Sea, 
 that the Lord had revealed to him that they would be 
 saved for his sake, because he had to go to Rome to wit- 
 ness for Christ. before Caesar. Therefore, the winds and 
 the waves could not swallow them up in death, because 
 his Lord, who controlled them, who makes the winds his 
 ministers and holds the sea in the hollow of his hand, will 
 not permit the raging elements to blot out the life of his 
 servant. lie catmot die till his work is done. So long as 
 (hv! h:\s work for h'-n to do it is better and he must live 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 121 
 
 and his life is safe as loirg as his mission is not finished, 
 but when his work is done, hke Paul, his Master will call 
 him home. Just think of the value of the preservation of 
 Paul's life at that time, and what the world would have 
 lost in its future welfare, if Paul's life had been cut short in 
 that wreck on the Adriatic Sea. We would have lost his 
 Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 2 Timo- 
 thy and Philemon, and his wonderful testimony in winning 
 converts in Caesar's household and in propagating- the cause 
 of Christ in the Roman army, and the valuable effects of 
 his discourses of defense before Caesar and the dififerent 
 representative classes of the Gentile and Hebrew world at 
 large in the great masses that heard him. There had been 
 tossed on the Adriatic Sea, the ships of Solomon, Xerxes, 
 of Pompey and Augustus, freighted with the gems and 
 golds of the gorgeous East, and with the immense riches 
 of the spoils of nations. But it had never borne a treasure 
 in all the treasures combined so far as value to mankind is 
 concerned. She had borne no ship upon her bosom of all 
 the ships of earth combined in their valuable treasures that 
 would compare with the treasure the ship bore upon her 
 bosom that carried in it the life of Paul — of that one man 
 who was bound and guarded as the prisoner of the Lord 
 to be brought before Nero. The deep, might have swal- 
 lowed up all the navies of Salamis and Actium, and the 
 earthquakes might have destroyed Ephesus, the metropolis 
 of Asia Minor, and of Corinth, the great commercial city 
 of the world — and Athens, the great intellectual center of 
 heathen culture and developrnent — and Rome — the world- 
 wide ruling city, with all of its wealth, power and various 
 great resources of worldly greatness, with less disaster to 
 the world than would have been caused by the drownin-g 
 of Paul on this voyage and thus cutting short his career, 
 who had received the divine commissioii to preach the 
 gospel by his bonds in all the Palace of Caesar. 
 
 Paul's death was a triumphant departure because he had 
 
t22 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 finished the contest of his Hfe's race with joy. Let us see 
 him as he g"oes forth to meet his martyrdom. As we have 
 before said he was martyred by decapitation, his head be- 
 ing cut from his shoulders. We are told that Paul was not 
 beheaded in the City of Rome as it was customary not to 
 put to death any prominent prisoner in the city for fear of 
 producing a tumult in the city. Tradition tells us that he 
 was led out of the cit_y beyond the city walls, bv the execu- 
 tioner and his guard, upon the road to Ostia, the Port of 
 Rome, and there executed a few miles beyond the city 
 walls. As the martyr and his executioners passed through 
 this part of the City of Rome, to the gate that opened out 
 to the Ostian road, they moved among bustling exciting 
 scenes, for the way must have been crowded with a motley 
 multitude of comers and goers between the metropolis and 
 its harbor — representatives of the avarice, and ambition, 
 the fraud, and truth, the superstition ' and intelligence, of 
 the imperial world. Through the dust and tumult of that 
 busy throng, the small troop of soldiers, taking Paul to his 
 execution, tread their way silently, under the bri'ght sky 
 of an Italian summer. They were marching, though they 
 knew it not, in a. possession, more truly triumphal than 
 any they had ever followed in the train of the general or 
 Emperor, along the sacred way. The place of execution 
 was not far distant ; and there the sword of the headsman 
 ended his long course of suffering, and released that heroic 
 soul from that feeble body, and at last thoroughly deliv- 
 ered him from his captivity. The prisoner, no doubt, re- 
 joiced to follow his Lord "without the gate." Weeping- 
 friends took up his headless corpse and carried it for burial 
 to tiiose subterranean labyrinths (the Catacombs!, where, 
 through many ages of oppression, the persecuted church 
 found refuge for the living, and sepulchers for the dead. 
 Another tradition says he was buried on the Ostian road 
 near where he was executed. It does not matter at which 
 place he was buried, the precious fact is this, that when 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 123 
 
 his head was severed from his body he exchanged his 
 chains and rags for the robes of eternal glory and the vic- 
 tor's palm, and his prison dungeon for a glorified mansion 
 in the home of God. He realized what he had written to 
 the Philippians, that to him death would be gain, as it is to 
 all Christians who live the Christ-like life. He could truly 
 say with the poet : 
 
 "I go to life and not to death ; 
 
 From darkness to life's native sky; 
 I go from sickness and from pain, 
 To health and immortality. 
 
 •'Let our farewell, then, be tearles?. 
 Since I bid farewell to tears : 
 Write the day of my departure 
 Festive in your coming years." 
 
 "I go from poverty to wealth, 
 
 Prom rags to raiment angel-fair. 
 From the pale leanness of this flesh, 
 To beauty such as saints shall wear. 
 
 "I go from chains to liberty, 
 
 These fetters will be broken soon; 
 Forth over Eden's fragrant field, 
 I walk beneath a glorious noon." 
 
 "For toil there comes the crowned rest; 
 Instead of burdens, eagles' wings ; 
 And I, even I, this life-lon'g thirst 
 Shall quench at everlasting springs." 
 
 The truthfulness of Paul's estimate of the excellency 01 
 the knowledge of Christ in his salvation, is wonderfully 
 verified. 
 
124 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 V. In the blessed, consequences that have flowed out 
 from the influence of the labor of his noble Christian career 
 and of the testimony in his triumphant departure in death, 
 in leading others to Christ in carrying- forward the cause 
 of Christ in the world s great salvation. 
 
 How little did the executioner realize that he was execut- 
 ing the greatest man of the age, and that the apparent 
 failure in Paul's death was, in reality, the most infinite 
 success. Thus, he died, the Apostle, Prophet and ^lartyr, 
 bequeathing to the church for her government and ais- 
 cipline and edification and great moving power and 
 success ; the legacy of his apostlic labors ; leaving his 
 prophetic words to her living oracles ; pouring forth ' his 
 blood to be the seed of thousands of martyrdoms. Thence- 
 forth among the glorious company of the Apostles, among 
 the goodly fellowship of the prophets, among the noble 
 army of martyrs, his name has stood, and still stands, pre- 
 eminent, and wherever Christianity is taught and propa- 
 gated throughout all the world, there Saul of Tarsus is 
 viewed, as the 'greatest teacher and profound thinker, and 
 the greatest man the world has known during all the cen- 
 turies of Christian history, whether inspired or uninspired. 
 The great systematic philosophic teacher of the Universal 
 redemption, and of the world-wide religion of salvation — 
 the herald of glad tidings to all mankind. If we look at 
 him only as a writer, how immensely does he surpass in 
 his most casual epistle, the greatest authors, whether Pagan^ 
 or Christian, of his own and succeeding efforts. Nero littl.- 
 dreamed that the letters sent over the national Roma i 
 roads from Paul to the different churches, which containe<l 
 not only exhortations, instructions and warnings, but 
 commands that were more forceful and far-reaching thati 
 the communications and commands or dispatches of Neru 
 ■ — touching more closelv the private relations of life, than 
 all of the correspondence of Pliny and Seneca, and pro- 
 claiming in the very form of their salutations the perpetual 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 125 
 
 union of the Jew, Greek and the Roman into one common 
 brotherhood. Paul felt assured that the gospel he had 
 planted in the great centers of Asia and of Europe would 
 be carried on by Christ, through his church, to the over- 
 throwing of idolatry in all of its forms, and the planting 
 of Christianity in its stead. That all the heathen temples 
 in Rome would be supplanted by the churches of God, and 
 the awful scenes in the bloody arena in the great amphi- 
 theater where human life was sacrified for the amusement 
 of the populace in their love for the blood-curdling and 
 agonizing scenes, would all be done away with and chapels 
 for the Lord would be built around its outer circle, and a 
 lofty crop arising froai a mound in the center of the arena, 
 as a monument to the Christian heroes whose lives were 
 sacrificed there. Now, as Paul taught and believed that 
 the gospel would conquer the world for Christ, the won- 
 derful results that have already accrued in the triumphs 
 of Christianity, assure us of the truthfulness of his salva- 
 tion will finally take the place of error and sin, in the 
 minds and hearts of regenerated humanity as a whole. 
 Brethren, all the devils in hell, combined with all the 
 wicked of earth, cannot impede our cause, n we are faith- 
 ful, for it is the cause of Christ. So we can truthfully say 
 with Chas. McKay, through the excellency of this knowl- 
 'ge of Christ in salvation so highly esteemed by Paul, that 
 
 There's a good time coming, brethren, 
 
 A good time coming; 
 We may not live to see the day, 
 But earth shall glisten in the ray 
 
 Of the good time coming. 
 Cannon balls may aid the truth, 
 
 But thought's a weapon stronger, 
 We'll win the battle by its aid — 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
126 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 There's a good time coming, brethren, 
 
 The good time coming. 
 The pen shall supersede the sword, 
 And right, not might, shall be the Lord, 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 
 , There's a good time coming, brethren, 
 
 A good time coming; 
 Let us aid it all we can — 
 Every woman, every man — 
 
 The good time coming, 
 Smallest helps, if rightly given, 
 
 Make the impulse stronger; 
 It will be strong enough one day. 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
 Every traveler who is thoughtful feels it is a memorable 
 moment in his life to stand for once on the uncovered 
 stones of the Appian Way, over which Paul, the prisoner 
 of the Lord, passed on his way to Rome, or to go down 
 into the dungeon where it is probable he was once' im- 
 prisoned or to pass out of the Ostian gate upon the cam- 
 pagna and survey the scene where tradition tells that 
 Paul suffered martyrdom. The names of Nero and other 
 Caesars, are remembered only to be execrated, because of 
 their selfish brutal rule of men, but the memory of Paul, a 
 servant of Christ, and the servant of the well-being of his 
 fellowmen, in the memory of mankind grows brighter and 
 fresher, with the lapse of time, living in more hearts and 
 cultured minds to-day than ever before — the work of his 
 life being one of the greatest powers, in operating most 
 efifectively for the world's advancement in all that is great 
 and good. There is no way to live an effective, successful 
 life in the glory of God and to true permanent eternal 
 welfare of mankind, only by doing like Paul, in appropriat- 
 ing the excellency of the knowledge of Christ in his great 
 
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 127 
 
 salvation — in receiving him in the heart and life. Letting 
 Christ take possession of the faculties of our inner being, 
 controlling, directing, developing and wielding them in 
 bringing men to God, in salvation from sin, and into holi- 
 ness and happiness in the blessed service of God's work. 
 Letting him through us wield all of our means and our 
 culture and position, all that we have and are, in bringing 
 wanderers back to the right way. leading them out of sin 
 and sorrow into purity, honor and bliss. Then will our 
 names be immortalized in everlasting perpetuation, in the 
 hearts of those who survive us, and our destiny will be 
 like that of Paul, we'll be glory-crowned by Christ. Then 
 whether we live or die we can say with Paul : 
 
 "But what things were gained to me, those I counted 
 loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but 
 loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 my Lord ; for whom I have sufifered the loss of all things, 
 and do count them but as naught that I mav win Christ." 
 
REV. J. D. LEWIS 
 BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 
 
OUR NEEDS AND OUR ABILITY AS A CHURCH 
 TO MEET THEAT 
 
 REV. J. D. LEWIS. 
 
 We all are saying that much money is needed just now 
 to make the whole of our jmrt of God's Zion move smooth- 
 ly and gloriously. We do need it in abundance, but we 
 should not hold money up as a central, mighty, all-prevail- 
 ing power; we must watch ourselves lest we become guilty 
 of the sin of idolatry. "This is the word of the Lord, not 
 by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord 
 of hosts." 
 
 We must emphasize the great truth of our Master that 
 the Holy Ghost religion, and more and still more Holy 
 Ghost religion, is the first and paramount necessity of our 
 persecuted people all over our bounds, and should we at- 
 tain unto this high altitude, we would reach the "land of 
 the rainbow," as we heard when children, where there are 
 bags of gold. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall be added untQ 
 you." 
 
 When the disciples were left alone in this world as sheep 
 without a shepherd, as poor as poverty could make 
 them, they had no promise of untold earthly wealth, nor 
 that all these excellent Jewish synagogues would be turned 
 over to them. Those apostolic preachers were not prom- 
 ised high spiral cathedrals in which to collect the multi- 
 tudes and expound the word of the Lord. No ! Glori- 
 ously different! Listen: "Behold I send the promise of my 
 Father upon you ; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, 
 until ye be endued with power from on high." Again he 
 said before his ascension, "John truly baptized with water, 
 but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
 days hence." For this priceless boon they prayed. This 
 
130 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 •greatest of all necessities the}- received, and the money 
 also came as needed. 
 
 Onr God is anxious to give us, as a church, and as 
 individuals, pentecostal showers of grace, with tongues of 
 flame, and will then show our church that we already have 
 in our possession enough of his own money to meet at 
 once all necessary and urgent demands ; and that she will 
 continue to furnish us all we need, provided, of course, 
 that we keep in our souls enough Holy Ghost religion to 
 prevent us from being robbers. Read ]\Ialachi 3: 8-1. 
 
 The tithing system was also endorsed by the Son of God 
 while here on earth. Read Matt. 23 : 23. It never has been 
 repealed, therefore, the rich and poor should give to God 
 his own ten cents out of each dollar, and a dollar out of 
 each ten dollars, and ten dollars out of each hundred dol- 
 lars, with the promise of the great Owner of the "cattle 
 upon a thousand hills" and of all the silver and gold of 
 this world that it shall all come back to us in good measure, 
 pressed down, shaken together and running over, amount- 
 ing in all, his word teaches, to one hundred fold more than 
 we give. When we get a sufficient supply of Holy Ghost 
 religion, we can believe and practice what the Bible teaches, 
 otherwise we will kick against the goads. 
 
 Brother, or Sister, are you one of the kickers for the 
 want of more religion? If so, you are hurting yourself 
 badly, and also hindering the progress of your church. The 
 Spirit of God will lead all who are guilty out of such 
 "roguery" if he is only given a chance. 
 
 W^ould it not be a great blessing if everybody in the 
 church believed the Bible on its tithing and free will ofifer- 
 ing teaching as readily as on its teachings concerning 
 heaven, the home of the soul ? Infidels on the tithing ques- 
 tion, but orthodox believers on the subject of heaven. One 
 is taught by the same God as positively as is the other. I 
 am free to confess that I can't conceive how one under the 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 131 
 
 power of the Holy Ghost can accept a part of the Master's 
 teachings and absolutely reject another important part. 
 
 The men. of our churches, even the elders and deacons 
 and the preachers, all of whom should know better, will, 
 against their own financial interest, and the financial and 
 especially the spiritual interests of their respective churches, 
 withhold their tithes, and, contrary to God's own eternal 
 truth and teachings, allow and encourage their women, 
 their wives and daughters to go into the show business, 
 and bazaar and restaurant business, and all kinds of non- 
 scriptural clap-trap, catch-penny schemes, and worldly 
 plans, to get money to meet the expenses of the church. 
 The dear, good, willing souls, almost urged to strain their 
 brains and break their backs and weary their feet, drag- 
 ging their wearied limbs after them, to get the money that 
 should come out of their own pockets, money which belong-s 
 to God. Money which God is robbed of every week, which 
 should be given into the Master's treasury on the first day 
 of every week. Don't these same men know that they have 
 to furnish all the material to make those splendid and ex- 
 pensive cakes, and all that excellent ice cream, and then 
 have to go and buy it all back again to keep the scheme 
 from being a failure and to enable the good women to 
 publish abroad that they took in $50, more or less, to sus- 
 tain the Lord's dear cause and keep his church from dying 
 outright. Better, a thousand times better, let the Lord's 
 own money sustain his own cause in God's own blessed 
 way. If the Bible plan was religiously adhered to, a great 
 many doctor bills would be avoided for the poor over- 
 worked woman and many fusses, jowers and jealousies 
 would be prevented. 
 
 I am very frank, however, to acknowledge that the 
 church members, in the days of Christ's earthly stay, did 
 similar things. On two different occasions he went into 
 the temple at Jerusalem with a whip of small cords and 
 overthrew the tables of the money changers, and chased 
 
132 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 them, together with those who sold doves, out of God's 
 house, saying very authoritatively and energetically, "Is it 
 not written my house shall be called of all nations the 
 house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." 
 And then, after the temple was cleansed from such things, 
 the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and were 
 healed. We will never do the "greater works" that the 
 Christ did, until we get such abominations out of our con- 
 gregations. Holy Ghost religion will cure us of sitting 
 down to eat and drink and rising up to play around the 
 golden calf. We make calves of ourselves worse than the 
 calf which Aaron made when we leave God's plans and 
 use those of our own molding. We have been almost 
 ground to powder, like this same calf. The powder of this 
 image was cast upon the water and the idolatrous Israelites 
 had to drink the bitter idol. 
 
 Several centuries after this, the Israelites were carried 
 off into Babylonish captivity, and there they remained for 
 seventy long years, to get them cured of their prevailing 
 sins — idolatry, Sabbath desecrations, and robbing God of 
 his tenth of what he placed in their care. In conclusion of 
 this division of the subject I say, in language of inspira- 
 tion, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be estab- 
 lished ; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. 
 20 : 20. "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy 
 mouths ; but thcju shalt meditate therein day and night, that 
 thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 
 therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and 
 thou shalt have good success. Turn not from it to the right 
 hand nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whitherso- 
 ever thou goest." John i : 7, 8. 
 
 Let me say with special emphasis : 
 
 One of our greatest needs so as to get all other needs, is 
 our need of a head and heart study; yea a searching of 
 Cod's inspired Book. So we may become Holy Ghost 
 Christians and not leoildly shams. I admit that many re- 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 133 
 
 generated church members take part in setting money 
 traps, hint with a sadness I Hud they are spiritually frozen 
 almost as hard as the ice cream they sell. May we all get 
 a fresh Pentecostal blessing, then zve can do right, and still 
 get all the money needed. 
 
 WE NEED TO INDOCTRINATE OUR PEOPLE. 
 
 Our church has bled at a miUioii pores for want of our 
 people being made familiar with our Bible doctrines. 
 There has always been an hurtful and hindering liberality 
 among us. Our preachers, at least a majority of them, in 
 the past, would not preach on Water Baptism or preserva- 
 tion of believers, or against fatalities, because of the fact 
 that the Baptists, ^lethodists, Campbellites or Presbyte- 
 rians might not like it. And when we as preachers earn- 
 estly desire, through the leading of the Spirit, to enlighten 
 the good people on any controverted subject like the mode 
 of Water Baptism, the elders object to its being done, and 
 perhaps say to the preacher, like one said to me last sum- 
 mer, "Do you think you can preach on water baptism with- 
 out getting on somebody's toes?" 
 
 Brethren, we should post ourselves on our doctrines, 
 and then fearlessly, though respectfully, preach them, let- 
 ting the good brethren of other denominations take care 
 of their toes like we have to do while they are so often 
 preaching theirs. I could mention churches which have 
 grown very much faster than ours, whose peculiar doc- 
 trines cannot be sustained by God's word, yet they have 
 made wonderful progress from the fact that they are al- 
 ways presenting them to the people, and our young 
 people, especially come to the false conclusion that 
 they are right and that we are wrong because they 
 never hear our preachers preach on the same subjects. 
 It is a deplorable fact that a great many ministers in our 
 church look on the controverted questions as so very non- 
 essentfal that they don't even post themselves on these sub' 
 
134 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 jects sufficiently to be ready, at all times, to give convinc- 
 ing information to the inquiring people, either privately 
 or publicly. Alas ! alas ! So many of us are so afraid we 
 will do wrong that we won't do right. 
 
 Ihe fish we catch are put on other denomination's 
 strings, and often from our own families, right directly 
 under our own eyes. 
 
 This preacher held a 'good meeting a few years since in 
 East Tennessee and when the pastor was urged to give an 
 opportunity for the young converts to connect themselves 
 with the church, he positively refused to do so, from the 
 fact that he wanted each one to study over the question 
 for one month before joining the church. We are so very 
 liberal in our actions and expressions that we make the 
 impression that we would rather our converts would go to 
 another church. 
 
 Listen, will you to some of our expressions : "Cumber- 
 land Presbyterians never persuade people to join our 
 church." "We let them do as they please." "If you don't 
 see proper to cast your lot with us we don't want you." 
 "We don't claim to be superior to the other churches; they 
 are good and true churches, go on and join them if you 
 feel like it." "We are after getting souls saved and then 
 let them join ^Yhatever church they have a mind to." "It 
 don't make any difference what church you belong to any- 
 how." 
 
 Some truth in such expressions, but we emphasize even 
 the truth sometimes so as to make it almost a falsehood. 
 We need more denominational backbone, and we need to 
 say what we believe, that we have the most Scriptural 
 church on the globe, and we should frame our liberal 
 expressions so the people may see that we believe with all 
 our hearts that we have the very best part of God's earthly 
 fold, where the sheep and lambs can be better sheltered, 
 and better fed, than anywhere else- beneath the sun. . 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 135 
 
 We need, in this time of reconstruction, to put more de- 
 nominational color in our Sunday school literature. 
 
 Our children need to know our doctrines, and should be 
 taught to discern the true from the false. I at one time 
 spoke to Mr. McKamy, the editor of our Sunday school 
 literature, before the division, about not even saying one 
 word about how Christ was baptized in the lesson on 
 Christ's baptism, and he very emphatically let me know 
 that he believed about as much in immersion as he did in 
 pouring or sprinkling. I am glad to know that our present 
 esteemed editor, Rev. J. R. Goodpasture, is far from being 
 an amphibious animal like ^^IcKamy. 
 
 Our Confession of health does not teach immersion, as 
 some suppose, but says plainly that baptism is rightly ad- 
 ministered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the per- 
 son. Certainly this is right, for Christ said, "John truly 
 baptized with water," and we should administer this ordin- 
 ance of God trulv and rightly. Yes, our literature should 
 give out no uncertain sound on this and all other contro- 
 verted c[uestions. 
 
 I make more prominent the baptism question because the 
 immersion churches draw from our ranks more than any 
 others, except in the recent exodus which was brought 
 about by money lovers and salar)^ seekers. Those who 
 went seemed to care nothing for doctrine, but desired sole- 
 ly to get into a larger and richer church, and had they been 
 trained from childhood in the Bible doctrines of our 
 church, from the pulpit, in the Sunday school, and in the 
 home, this exodus would not have been brought about. 
 
 True Cumberland Presbyterian preachers do not be- 
 lieve in immersion. Then why do they practice it only to 
 get some one in the church ? A well-posted preacher can, 
 by a Scriptural sermon on baptism, or by an earnest ex- 
 planatory talk by the fireside, convince ninety-nine per cent 
 of those who are biased towards this unbiblical way, that 
 plunging persons under the water is not baptizing with 
 
136 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 water as God teaches in his word. Every one of us should 
 be well enough posted to be able to show positively that 
 the place where any one was ever dipped for baptism is 
 nowhere to be found in God's blessed book. And on the 
 other hand, show conclusively that sprinkling and pour- 
 ing is the only mode taught in the Old Testament and the 
 New. The need to awake to this -great need which is truly 
 a need to save our children and young people from being 
 arawn from our families and from our church, while we 
 are sometimes at least practicing this unscriptural mode, 
 giving thereby the immersionists the only telling and dis- 
 astrous argument against us. It is a cudgel we give them, 
 and they use it on us without mercy. I am truly glad we 
 are quitting it. Brethren, lets be Scriptural and quit it 
 absolutely and altogether. 
 
 OUR ECCLESIASTICAL ROBES SIT ON US TOO LOOSELY. 
 
 A man who seemingly could have been much help to us 
 moved into our city, Birmingham. Accompanied by one 
 of my elders I made him a special visit. In our conversa- 
 tion he soon let us know that he and his family were only 
 a little nearer another church than ours, therefore, ex- 
 pected to join it. He said very positively, "In fact, my 
 ecclesiastical robes sit on me very loosely, I am not very 
 ])articular about what church I join." He was an object 
 lesson, teaching us that our church tension screws need a 
 few more turns to the right. I don't believe in close com- 
 munion and selfish sectarianism but on the contrary, in a 
 broad Christian, helpful fellowship with sister denomina- 
 tions, and while this is true, I know we should teach our 
 children as well as the grown up members, that our own 
 church family is decidedly the very best, and that they 
 should never think of desertin'g their dear church mother 
 for another. When one of our members move away out of 
 reach of one of our churches, instead of joining another 
 for convenience as is often done, let him worship with 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 137 
 
 others ; that is right, but still let him maintain his church 
 name and integrit}', going to work as a missionary to estab- 
 lish a Cumberland Presbyterian Church in that neighbor- 
 hood, which has been done at places and times innumer- 
 able. 
 
 OUR YOUNG PREACHERS MUST BE EDUCATED, 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterians have always stood for an 
 educated ministry ; the first course to be taken in the Holy 
 Ghost school of Christ ; the other qualifying course to be 
 taken at the feet of our Gamaliels, who, with our boys, 
 should constantly sit at Christ's blessed feet. We are not 
 in any great pressing need of many institutions of learn- 
 ing at the present. God will supply us with all we require 
 as the days go by. 
 
 Without any delay, we should put an ample sufficiency 
 of the Lord's money into Bethel College, at McKenzie, 
 Tenn., for thorough equipment, making it equal to any 
 school North or South, and far superior to any other in 
 the whole world for Cumberland Presbyterians. It is' al- 
 ready thus superior, but we must make it immensely so, 
 as God has given us such a wide open door to increase the 
 educational facilities of this great institution of learning. 
 We are proud of the present record of this school, under 
 its able mana'gement. But we should come to its relief 
 immediately, with money and patronage, that its power 
 for usefulness may be increased an hundredfold. 
 
 Dear Cumberland Presbyterians of financial means, 
 which God has blessed you to possess, why can't you step 
 forward, in his blessed name, with hundreds and thou- 
 sands for this grand and much needed purpose? 
 
 If some of you can't respond vv^ith ready cash, why not, 
 by will, bequeath to Bethel College amounts large and 
 small, that will work on and on after you have crossed 
 over the river? We sincerely hope that the time will never 
 come in our history again, when our young men will feel 
 
1.38 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 tliat their preparation is not complete without an adcH- 
 tional course is taken in "Union Theological Seminary," 
 or some other demoralizing school, for many in the past 
 who polished up at this mentioned institution, came back 
 with the marked polish of infidelity upon them. Like their 
 noted preceptor. Dr. Charles W. Briggs, many of them, 
 ever after, were evolutionists, and "higher critics" full 
 fledged. Many of these same "burnished" ones were so 
 much ashamed of their dear mother, who gave them birth, 
 that they went to work to murder her outright. One of 
 them, J. Frank Smith, said to this present writer : "I 
 would not take five hundred dollars for wdiat I learned in 
 New York about what part of the Bible is true and what 
 part of it is false." J. K. Howard, who was pastor at 
 Jackson, Tenn., for some time, and prior to his pastorate 
 there, was, with J. Frank, through the course at "Union" 
 and was free and bold to preach the same from his pulpit, 
 and declared to me, in private, that the "Divine concep- 
 tion of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the mir- 
 acles of Christ, and. in fact, all the miracles of the 
 Bible, are not true ; no such thing as a miracle has ever 
 been performed ; the writer of the Bible only threw such 
 things in as embellishments ; whenever I find anythin-g in 
 the Old Book which is not in happy accord with evolution 
 and the book of nature, something happens — that thing 
 has to go." 
 
 This is information for us, isn't it? Comes straight 
 from the metropolis, but not from Christ, but originally 
 from his majesty, the devil. 
 
 We should not be satisfied until we have our young men 
 well-supplied with well-equipped schools, where they can 
 get all the literary and theological polish necessary to 
 preach Christ and him crucified to a sinful and dying 
 world. Let's give the necessary amounts of money for this 
 purpose, and especially should we strive to make our 
 schools, indeed and in truth, "Schools of the Prophets," 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 139 
 
 where the Bible is taught as the true revelation of God to 
 man and where Holy Ghost religion is a specialty in the 
 college curriculum. 
 
 WE NEED IN THESE PERILOUS TIMES TO EXPERIENCE, LIVE 
 
 AND PREACH WITH MORE EMPHASIS 
 
 THE NEW BIRTH. 
 
 "Glory to God, I am saved," said the Scotchman in 
 Glasgow. "How do you know it?" inquired an infidel. 
 The Scot replied, "Because I happened to be there when 
 it was done." 
 
 You remember a prominent church member went to the 
 Master under cover of darkness ; only a few words were 
 passjsd until he got the stupendous truth sent home to his 
 head and heart, "Except a man be born again he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God." "Marvel not that I said unto 
 thee, ye must be born again." This unregenerate church 
 member marveled and said : "How can these things be." 
 A Master in Israel and didn't know this truth ; was ignor- 
 ant enough of spiritual things to only think of the impos- 
 sibility of one's being born twice naturally. But the great 
 Teacher taught him and us that it is a spiritual birth which 
 is imperative before one can enter God's kingdom. Men 
 and women, boys and girls are taken into the various 
 churches now by thousands, who know nothing of God's 
 regenerating grace, or broken hearted contrition. True 
 Godly sorrow for sin, constituting true repentance in a soul 
 saving faith in God, is not preached with the earnestness 
 that characterized the sermon heard by Nicodemus. There- 
 fore, hearts are not broken now, and souls are not washed 
 in the blood of Christ ; as we have reason to believe the 
 heart of this unregenerate Master in Israel had his broken 
 with the hammer of the word and saved by the washing 
 of regeneration and the renewin'g of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 God has preserved the life of our church for this needy 
 time in which we live, has purged us and pur.ified us from 
 
140 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 much worldly dross, and now we are expected to give no 
 uncertain sound with the gospel trumpet on the subject of 
 repentance, faith, and Holy Ghost conversion. "For he is 
 not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circum- 
 cision which is outw^ard in the flesh. But he is a Jew which 
 is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in 
 the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men 
 but of God," Rom. 2 : 28, 29. Through much false teach- 
 ing, and a morbid desire to get large numbers gathered 
 into the church, and thus give the evangelist and pastors 
 great names, people of all ages are scooped in, having been 
 made to believe that a small desire to live better and at 
 last barely getting into heaven, is all the change necessary. 
 They are admonished to come along and 'give the preacher 
 the hand in token of such shallow desires, are then re- 
 ceived into the church, baptized, and are rocked by that 
 church in the cradle of false and carnal security. In too 
 many cases the blind are rocking and leading the blind. 
 Sinners are often told to at once connect themselves with 
 the church and procure or get religion afterwards. 
 
 The church which tried so hard to swallow ours com- 
 pletely, and did gulp down many of our members, not only 
 teaches fatality, but also teaches that when a sinner is un- 
 der conviction for sin, he is then regenerated and his elec- 
 tion is an assured fact, and the said Presbyterian, U. S. A., 
 Church doors are open wide for all this kind who are 
 taken in on even a very superficial conviction, if such un- 
 saved sinners will only consent to enter. 
 
 We feel confident that our Qirist wants us to renew 
 our efiforts in preaching and teaching the new Birth, there- 
 by pulling off the mask from such unbiblical teachings as 
 are prevalent almost everywhere. An Irishman just hired 
 was sent out wnth a box of axle grease, with instruction 
 to give the wagon a good greasing. After a time he re- 
 turned, and on being interro-gated about the job, answered : 
 'I greased the wagon good all over except the things the 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 141 
 
 wheels turn around on ; I couldn't get to them." The all 
 important part was not oiled at all. That is very much 
 like the modern work of these times in preparing sinful 
 mortals for the heavenly home. The soul is not reached 
 with saving grace in far too many instances because the 
 preachers and teachers are doing their work so unbiblically, 
 taking unsaved ones into the church, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, before any Holy 
 Ghost religion has reached the soul with its cleansing 
 power. In the language of another I say : "The pressing 
 demand of our times is a revival of the preaching of the 
 old truths of sin and salvation. We must 'get back to 
 Christ ; back to Pentecost ; back to apostolic truth ; back to 
 the courage and faithfulness of the fathers. In those days 
 the word of the Spirit cut its way through to marvelous 
 victories. Conviction was pungent. Mourning for sin 
 meant tears and groans. Repentance involved the sur- 
 render of very sin. Conversion was a translation. People 
 were gloriously, gloriously saved. 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterians, our opportunities are now 
 great under God's leadership for us to begin our new cen- 
 tury with a determination to honor God more by crying 
 aloud everywhere : "Ye must be born again." 
 
 ]-KIiSERVATION OF BELIEVERS. 
 
 The fact has already been mentioned, that one of our 
 leeds is to preach our doctrines more than ever before. 
 It is of great. importance to our church and to God's cause 
 hat we not only cry aloud, "Ye must be born again," but 
 also let it ring out from the mountains high, and valleys 
 low, that regeneration is a work of eternal duration. If 
 you will follow me in some Scriptural quotations you will 
 see that one of our needs is to proclaim to the world that 
 whosoever! believes in the Son of God is regenerated, born 
 again, never to be unborn, saved, never to be unsaved, a 
 name written in heaven, never to be blotted out. 
 
142 CENTENNIAL SEI^MONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Don't -get tired of what follows, because it is Bible truth 
 and the most of it Bible language. 
 
 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
 saved." Acts i6: 21. Saved when? "He that believeth on 
 the Son hath everlasting life." John 3: 16. "Verily, Verily, 
 I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on 
 him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
 into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." 
 John 5 : 24. All the inmates of the lower world, turned 
 loose with Beelzebub, heading the whole of hell's army, 
 could not damn the soul who has thus passed from death 
 unto life, with God protecting and saying, "he shall be 
 .saved, and shall not come into condemnation." No wonder 
 we have a right to be positive. Liste;i ! "Ye are dead and 
 your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ who is 
 our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in 
 glory." Col. 3 : 3-4. "I give unto them eternal life, and 
 they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them 
 out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater 
 than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fath- 
 er's hand. I and my Father are one.'' John 10: 28, 29. 
 
 The true child of grace is the safest thing to be found 
 anywhere on earth. "The name of the Lord is a strong 
 tower, the righteous runneth into it and are safe." Prov. 
 18: 10. Christ and the Father are one, we have just read. 
 Now read again : "Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
 them also which shall believe on me through their word 
 (that means us) that they all may be one in us; I in them 
 and thou in me; that they may be perfect in one." John 
 17: 20-23. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit." 
 I Cor. 6: 7. "For we are members of his body, of his flesh 
 and of his bones." "Now ye are the body of Christ and 
 members in particular." i Cor. 12: 27. "For by one spirit 
 we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or 
 Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been a:I 
 made to drink into one Spirit." i Cor. 12: 13. 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 143 
 
 What do we find in the verses just read? 
 
 "That Christ is in us, that God the Father is in Christ, 
 and that both the Father and the Son are in us, and that 
 we are in Qirist, and in the Father, havin'g been baptized 
 by the Holy Spirit into this happy, loving and safe retreat. 
 Does it not make you feel that you are absolutely safe, 
 when the all-powerful Christ tells us in language suited to 
 our fitness, that we are members of his body, his flesh, and 
 his bones? 
 
 The thought of the devil's dismembering the Son of God 
 is inconceivable, only to say, impossible. "Who shall sepa- 
 rate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or dis- 
 tress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or 
 sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquer- 
 ors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that 
 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
 nor de]:)th nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord" Rom. 8: 35-39. Again we are wonderfully helped 
 with the wonderful truth as follows : "Whatsoever is born 
 of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that 
 overcometh the world, even our faith"" i John 5 : 4. More 
 wonderful still is this passage: "We know that whosoever 
 is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God 
 keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not" 
 I John 5: 18. I say and all must admit that if the devil 
 can't touch a believer's soul, the part of us which is born 
 again, and hidden in Christ, he can't in any conceivable 
 way, land it in his domains. 
 
 John, the beloved disciple, speaks again, "Whosoever is 
 borji of God doth not commit sin^ for his seed remaineth 
 in him ; and he cannot sin because he is born of C^iood" i 
 John 3:9. I am met just here with the fact that we al! 
 sin. Yes, and T meet that fact with Paul's deliverance in 
 Romans 7 from fifteenth to la.st verse, where lief makes it 
 
!44 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 plain that when God's children sin it is not the inward man 
 — the "I" — but the outward unregenerate man, the fleshly 
 nature, or the fleshly mind if you are psychologist enough 
 to know what that is. The Bible truth is simply this : The 
 connection is so close between Christ and the Christian, 
 that his precious blood, the efficacy of which is all the 
 time flowing through his soul, so that our wrongs, our sins 
 ( we don't want to sin, we don't love sin, we hate it) don't 
 stain or contammate our souls in the least. "Sin shall not 
 have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but un- 
 der grace" Rom. 6: 14. "Being born again, not of cor- 
 ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, 
 which liveth and abideth for ever." i Peter i : 23. 
 
 Now we catch a good long breath before I read again, 
 "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose 
 sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
 will not impute sin" Rom. 4: 7, 8. In the next verse Paul 
 calls this a "blessedness'' and we should all say so too. We 
 are in such a happy and secure condition, in Christ Jesus, 
 that our sins are not charged up to us at all, not imputed. 
 The meaning is "not charged" or set to the account of. 
 "It is a blessedness" to be enjoyed and highly recom- 
 mended to others. 
 
 "Horrible doctrine," says one. "You get all the church 
 members to believe what you are preaching and they will 
 go to extremes in sin and wickedness." Not if they are chil- 
 dren of God. If born again, they do not love sin; they love 
 God and serve him through love. They obey him because 
 they are saved, not to be saved. Fathers and mothers de- 
 sire from sons and daughters obedience through love. Our 
 heavenly Father accepts of no other. 
 
 Brother, if you have old time religion, this doctrine I 
 am preaching will cause you to serve God more faithfully 
 when thoroughly received and believed. Love makes our 
 service precious to God. "There is no fear in love ; but 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 145 
 
 poifect love casteth out fear. He that dwelleth in love., 
 (Iwclleth in God, and God is love." "He that feareth is not 
 made perfect in love" i John 4: 16-18. I remark just here 
 that no one can be perfect in love, while being afraid that 
 God is standing, threateningly, ready to cut the cords 
 which binds him to heaven, for every offense known and 
 unknown. I imagine, in other words, that I would be alto- 
 gether miserable if I were in constant fear of losing my 
 religion. 
 
 To the Book again : "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
 God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." 
 Eph. 4 : 30. When ancient kings sealed a decree, they 
 couldn't break it themselves. Read about the decree that 
 put Daniel in the lion's den. The king tried to change it, 
 but could not. When God seals a Christian's soul, it is to 
 stand until the day of redemption, and then he enters 
 heaven with God's seal upon him. "Now he which stablish- 
 eth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us in God ; 
 who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the 
 Spirit in our hearts." 2 Cor. i : 21-22. Will you please 
 take in that word "stablished?" When God stablisheth a 
 soul in salvation, it is there to stay. Also the fact that 
 God gives us the "earnest of the Spirit." You buy some 
 real estate, and to show your sincerity, you pay $500 "earn- 
 est money," which binds both parties prior to getting full 
 possession. God gives us the earnest of the Spirit to make 
 the fact positive that we are going to get all of heaven. 
 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
 begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day 
 of Jesus Christ." Phil, i : 6. "And this is the Father's will 
 which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me i 
 should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last 
 day." "That every one which seeth the Son and believeth on 
 him, may have everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at 
 the last day" John 6 : 39-40. "The steps of a good man 
 are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. 
 
146 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Though lie fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the 
 Lord upholdeth him with his hand" Psa. 2)7 '• 23-24. 
 
 We learn in Jude 24th verse, that Christ is able to "keep 
 us from falling and to present us faultless before the 
 throne." Certainly he will do for us all that is necessary, 
 and that means a thousand times more than we can desire 
 or even think about. .1, a poor sinner, can't think of any- 
 thing greater than to be presented before the Father in 
 heaven faultless. "For other foundation can no man lay 
 than that that is laid which is Jesus Christ." Now if any 
 man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious 
 stones, wood, hay, stubble . . . fire shall try every man's 
 work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide ... he 
 shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned 
 he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved yet so 
 as by fire" i Cor. 3: 11-16. Our loving Shepherd is not 
 going to lose the sorriest one of all his flock. Fie will 
 have to bring some of them home through the furnace of 
 affliction and it made seven times hotter than usual, and at 
 the final windup. when the counting is all over, Christ can 
 say to the Father, "Of all entrusted to my care, I have 
 lost nothing." 
 
 In the closing words of this subject, I refer you to the 
 book of Job, which was written in a great part, to show 
 to the entire world that a truly regenerated soul, with the 
 devil turned loose upon him, will maintain his Christian 
 integrity and utterly disdain the very thought of cursing 
 God and turning his back upon him. Satan was sure of 
 getting Job if all his possessions were swept" away. God 
 permitted him to leave him in abject poverty and childless, 
 with nothing left, only a scolding and faultfinding wife. 
 Job was true to his God still. His Satanic majesty acknowl- 
 edging his great big failure then informed God that if his 
 body, his bone and his flesh, were severely afflicted he 
 would curse God to his face. The devil was then permitted 
 to do as he pleased with Job's body, but God said. Save 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 147 
 
 his life. You all know the horribleness of his bodily tor- 
 ment, and how his wife was devil enough to say, "Curse 
 God and die." And his three friends were an aggravation 
 instead of a comfort. Job was a true servant of God 
 through it all. God was protecting his life. He is still re- 
 straining the devil, .saying, Don't you touch his life, his 
 soul. "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never 
 perish." 
 
 I close this paper as follows : 
 
 We need to impress our young preachers with the fact 
 ihat entire consecration on their part to the work, is emi- 
 nentlv essential and necessary. The time of old and young 
 preachers should be given to searching the Word, preach- 
 ing the W^ord, pastoral work, visiting the homes of the 
 sick and the well, burying the dead, consoling the bereaved, 
 scattering Christ's sunshine everywhere. God never fails 
 to move on the hearts of the people to supply the temporal 
 needs of such a consecrated servant. 
 
 When Queen Elizabeth was sending an Embassador to 
 a far away post of duty, the man said to her, "But who 
 will take care of my family and business while I am 
 away?" The Queen answered, "You take care of my busi- 
 ness and I will take care of yours." 
 
 If we will take care of God's business, he will take care 
 of ours. "Lord, increase our faith." 
 
 So many of the churches of all denominations are little 
 weaklings for the want of preachers who devote all their 
 time to the work. Any ten families can support a pastor 
 equal to the way they live by giving one-tenth for this 
 purpose as the Bible teaches. And they would prosper 
 more by so doing. Again we preachers are guilty before 
 God, for not training our people to do public work. We 
 go to our pulpits and preach a sermon, verv often, as dry 
 as dust, to a sleepy set of hearers ; not another word is 
 said outside of some dry as a bone singing, all go home 
 hungry in soul and body. We need a terrific shaking up, 
 
I4S CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 and our dry bones of the valley clothed upon with the 
 power of Holy Ghost religion ; then and not sooner will 
 our people catch the flame Divine and something of im- 
 portance will be doing in Israel's camps. I think there 
 are very few, if anv, ot Christ's followers, whom he would 
 excuse from doing some kind of public as well as private 
 preaching. One of my elders recently got his soul full 
 from the sermon, tried to talk, couldn't for crying. That 
 congregation was touched and helped without a single 
 sentence being uttered that was heard. That was the finest 
 kind of preaching- for that special time. Our members, 
 both men and women, should be trained to hold the services 
 at the church in the absence of the pastor. This is often 
 nuich better than to have another preacher occupy and 
 deprive them of the blessed privilege. 
 
 If our own men, women, boys and girls are led to pray 
 and talk in a leading public way, the prayer meeting 
 problem will be at once solved and be well attended. The 
 Sunday school will no longer drag. God will give the 
 preacher good congregations and showers of blessings. If 
 we can get people m the church to consent, or at least to 
 try to work wherever needed, that people and that church 
 will be blessed of God. It is prayer meeting and Sunday 
 school Christians we are in need of almost everywhere, and 
 also Christians who are not as the great Gladstone said, 
 "Oncers." Said he was not a Oncer, he went to church 
 twice on Sunday. Preachers live longer as a class than 
 other people, they go to church twice on Sunday even 
 down to old age. It is sad to know that the devil persuades 
 men and women that they must take care of their health, 
 especially Sunday nights. It is a burnin-g shame that many 
 of our children are educated not to go to any but the Sun- 
 day school, by the parents, taking or allowing them to go 
 home after Sunday school is over. Please take notice that 
 such parents in after years have more heartaches and heart- 
 breaks than those who take them to Sunday school and 
 
OUR NEEDS AND ABILITY TO MEET THEM. 149 
 
 after dismission and an intermission, keep them in the pew 
 to hear the word, "Train up a child in the way he should 
 go and when he is old he will not depart from it.'' More 
 religion would work wonders on all these lines in all our 
 families. 
 
 A few words on the Eleventh Commandment found in 
 John 13: 34, 35. "A new commandment I give unto you, 
 That ye love one another as I have loved you, that you also 
 love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are 
 my disciples, when ye have love one to another." With old 
 time religion in all our souls, which religion is love, we 
 would see our own before our brother's faults, we would 
 throw the mantle of charity over the erring ones, we would 
 keep back the sharp cutting words, we would never write 
 a letter full of poisonous spear points, and we would never 
 be guilty of making incurable wounds. Brethren, let's 
 show to the world that we are of God and that our busi- 
 ness is to love Christian people everywhere, showing the 
 spirit of Christian forebearance, and also a deep-toned 
 ( hvist-love for the unsaved. 
 
? 
 
 MRS. BESSIE C. MORRIS 
 TEXAS 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 
 
 MRS. BESSIE COPELAND MORRIS. 
 
 Matt. i6: 19. And I zvill give unto thee the keys of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 Heb. 11: 16, For here have zve no eontiinting city, but 
 ice seek one to eonie. 
 
 In this text we have God's 'great and unselfish love mani- 
 fested through Christ, to earth's unlovely millions, at its 
 noonday splendor. Its brilliant, and all penetrating beams 
 illuminating earth's darkest corners, and bewitching the 
 lowering clouds of man's sorrow, with a wonderful silver 
 lining of faith, and hope, and blessed life. 
 
 Brawny justice is unarmed, and his burnished sword 
 falls from his palsied hand, and he flies panic-stricken, be- 
 fore the conquering brigades of God's love, and hides his 
 cowering face in the silken draperies of sweet mercy. 
 
 The God of creation, who confessed that it was he him- 
 self who scooped out the basin of ocean and sea, and holds 
 their floods in the palm of his hand, and stretched out the 
 .sky like a velvet curtain and bejeweled it with glowing 
 worlds, and built the track for the flying chariot wheels of 
 racing comets, and springs the bow that forces through 
 the astronomical heavens burning meteors, also confesses 
 that man is the apple of his eye. Quintessence of all won- 
 ders, and marvels of all a-ges, humanity with all of its 
 weakness, and multiplied infirmities, is the object of God's 
 fatherly love. And as an earthly parent pitieth an afflicted 
 child in his family more than the robust and red-cheeked, 
 so God looks upon us in our afflictions with pity. 
 
 God has indeed proven his love for us, notwithstanding 
 our unfaithfulness to him, he has sought by every means 
 conceivable, a more demonstrative way by which to pour 
 out his love to us. That we are an afflicted people is a 
 
152 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 demonstrated fact. The cemeteries, the asyhims, the hos- 
 pitals, the infirmaries, and orphan homes, are bold and elo- 
 quent witnesses of our weakness, and many imperfections. 
 But the heavenly father has not withheld any good thing 
 from us. He has given us everything calculated to make 
 us a happy and prosperous people. Even in the formation 
 of the earth, God seemed to have the good of the people 
 in mind, and made it a store house of rich things, held in 
 reservation until the very moment it is most needed. 
 
 I. "God's Gift to Man." 
 
 Gen. I : 28-29, "Replenish the earth and subdue it : and 
 have dominion over the fishes of the sea. and over the 
 fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth 
 upon the earth, and God said, behold, I have given you 
 everv herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the 
 earth, and every tree*in which is the fruit of a tree yield- 
 ing seed, to you it shall be for meat." Have dominion. 
 What is that? T will tell you. It simply means that we 
 are privileged to take the ore from the mines, and make 
 the iron rails, and steaming locomotives, and ships. It 
 means that we have the right to convert the tin and copper 
 into utensils, and the gold and silver into money, and daz- 
 zling ornaments for our use and pleasure. To tear out of 
 earth's bosom the rich coal and burn it for our comfort — 
 to slash down the forest and rip them into yellow lumber 
 for our houses — to turn sparkling water into mighty steam 
 and harness it, and hitch it to the vehicles of our invention 
 — to put the yoke of service upon the writhing necks of 
 wind, and flood, and lasso the lightning and hitch it to the 
 post of duty with bridle bit, and rein, and make them 
 slave for us in their turn. 
 
 The haughtv lightning God has given to us to be our 
 message bearer, and to tug at our chariots, and to turn the 
 vast wheels of commerce, and to stand on our streets, 
 winter and summer and patrol the alleys and avenues, and 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." iS3 
 
 keep wakeful night watch while we sleep, and to illuminate 
 our churches, and temples, and stand sentinel on duty in 
 the chambers of our sick. Peace and comfort follow in 
 the wake of this strange servant, but abuse it, and grim 
 death gets up from his immemorial ambush and shakes 
 from his shaggy mane sorrows unalterable. 
 
 Have dominion over earth's products, is also implied. 
 We may enjoy the rich fruits of various description to the 
 fullest extent. The sweet-scented fig, the mellow apple, the 
 peach, the plum, and blood-red cherries, hang like ruddy 
 moons from bush and bough in their season to whom the 
 Creator gave form and flavor, such as would satisfy both 
 the desire for beauty and appetite for food. Grains of all 
 description, spices, sugar, cotton and medical herbs, are 
 ours to enjoy. 
 
 We can shear the sheep of their wool, rob the cattle of 
 their flesh and hides, and use them for our comfort, for 
 they are God's gift to man. The flowers in the field, from 
 the brilliant, and flaunting colors of the rose in tropical 
 countries, to the miscroscopic moss in the land of perpetual 
 ice, are God's velvet-cheeked missionaries, scattered per- 
 miscuously from one extremity of creation to the other, to 
 teach us that God is not all stern law, but that he has a 
 lovely side, and desires to please us with earth's decora- 
 tion. 
 
 After he had given the use of all things created, into 
 man's hand, still his great father heart yearned for some 
 other way to manifest his love. Prophet after prophet was 
 sent from the father with the message of his love, and 
 faithful witnesses came laden with his promises, "thirty- 
 two thousand promises of his love and protection," any 
 one of which will float a soul in safety over the raging 
 seas of life, and land him soul and body in the eternal 
 home of the blessed. 
 
 But God's love manifested to the w'orld through tem- 
 poral blessings, was like the morning star heralding the 
 
154 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS.* 
 
 glorious day of free grace, in which Christ was given to 
 die on the cross in our stead. 
 
 St. John 3: 16, "For God so loved the world that he 
 gave his only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 God gave man everything on earth and in it to explore 
 at his leisure and enjoy at his convenience. Then he gave 
 his only Son, the golden link of fraternal brotherhood, to 
 tie us inseparably to God and high heaven. 
 
 Through Christ we have a full and free and complete 
 salvation from sin, and its dominion. Holv Ghost religion 
 is like an electric elevator, it brings the high down, and the 
 low up, and places us all on one common platform of 
 brotherhood. And the religious platform is wide enough 
 for all creeds, and doctrines of salvation complete through 
 Christ, but the Cumberland Presbyterian Church unblush- 
 ingly and unhesitatingly, and unmovably stands on the 
 plank in the platform, which was hewn out of the cross of 
 Christ, that advocates a whosoeverwill gospel. 
 
 My faith in an allwise God. is not so palsied as to be- 
 lieve that he said to a few of earth's inhabitants, have those 
 dominion over earth's treasures, and to the others, keep 
 your hands ofT. Neither can I believe the God whom I 
 serve, capable of such unspeakable selfishness, as to stand 
 by the cross of Christ whom he gave to satisfy the de- 
 mands of an insulted and broken law, and say to the re- 
 penting thief, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and to the man 
 who cried out, "surely this man was the Son of God," 
 close thy lips, for before the foundation of the earth these 
 were foreordained and predestinated to life eternal, but 
 thou art not of the elect, therefore, lost eternally. If this 
 is the true doctrine of God .and his Christ, and if some of 
 us are irrevocably and unalterably foreordained and pre- 
 destinated to eternal woe, pray tell me why Qirist died 
 at all. 
 
 No, sir, Christ was God's greatest gift to the world, and 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 155 
 
 the record of him says, "Whosoever beheveth in him shall 
 not perish." Glorious doctrine before which every other 
 creed, and faith is stricken to the ground, and Christ stands 
 the eternal gateway, to glory and to God, for whosoever- 
 will. 
 
 Why, my dear brethren and co-laborers, we can do any- 
 thing we want to that is right with such a God, and such 
 a religion, and such a church. 
 
 We have got plenty of money, and plenty of brains, to 
 do anything for God and lost souls, and the upbuilding of 
 his church. 
 
 There is enough brains left in the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church to cover the United States, if spread out 
 with a knife, and to pave a concrete walk from New York 
 to London. 
 
 What the Cumberland i'resbyterian Church has accom- 
 plished during the past one hundred years is only the 
 beginning of what it will do in the next hundred years. 
 Some one has very truthfully said, her past history is only 
 a beginning for the future. 
 
 These old "gray men who grace this great anniversary 
 assembly, who have stood true under the enemy's lash un- 
 flinchingly and have preserved the good name of the church 
 with the help of these stately men, "the apostles of right," 
 will not be here when old Dickson rings with the shouts 
 of Cumberland Presbyterians one hundred years from now. 
 
 Oh, no, but this assembly will long since have been 
 seated in the great General Assembly on high, where con- 
 gregations never break up and Sabbaths have no end. 
 There the cheeks of the old will re-assume their beauty and 
 the afflicted and down-trodden will forget the language of 
 pain. I think we will have only one committee in that as- 
 sembly, and that one will have on'e duty only to perform, 
 and that duty will be to devise some means by which we 
 can stand the first day in glory. 
 
.56 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 II. "The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 Jesus, the greatest missionary that was ever sent to any 
 people, came to fulfill the will and promise of God, and to 
 accomplish for the world that which no other could do. 
 He g'ave his life and precious blood for the world's re- 
 demption and the establishment of the church. But that 
 seemed not enough, and he said to his earthly brother, God 
 the Father, has given you the whole world and its vast 
 domains to explore at your will, but I will 'give you the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whosoever 
 .thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The 
 keys of the kingdom — what a magnificent gift ; and how 
 they dazzle the very gaze of the receiver. 
 
 Angels leaned over the parapet of heaven and smiled in 
 wonder — the high officials whispered it through the courts 
 of paradise — "man has the keys of the kingdom. The re- 
 deemed spirits began to talk about it, the birds sang about 
 it, and the river of life murmured it, with the tossing of 
 every silver wave, to the lilies afioat upon its mirroring 
 bosom, and the lilies told it to the twinkling stars, and the 
 twinkling stars told it to the big planets near the earth, and 
 they flashed the good news to the worlds within the sword 
 of Orion. "Man has the keys of the kingdom." 
 
 Three worlds were interested in that wonderful procla- 
 mation, and all creation listened and watched in rapt atten- 
 tion for the final culmination of earth's 'greatest drama ; 
 and everything that had breath or creepeth Upon the earth 
 seemed to praise God for his great gift to man, and the 
 glorious anthem, "Alan has the keys of the kingdom," was 
 sounded by a million voices. Touching the notes of sweet- 
 est harmony, jarring the foundation sills of Satan's black 
 pandemonium and blanching the cheeks of night. 
 
 Death himself (ugly monster) crouched in an open 
 grave terror-stricken, while redeemed spirits sounded the 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 157 
 
 glorious anthem at his very gate, and broke the rusty- 
 lock of the prison house of anxious millions — "Man has 
 the keys of the kingdom." 
 
 The crickets hushed their doleful pipings under the 
 doorstep -of man's ruined home, /to hear "jthe heaverily 
 proclamation, and with the rustling of their wings, the 
 night was made vocal with — "Man has the keys of the 
 kingdom." 
 
 The nightingale sang it at twilight and the night hawk 
 tuned his hoarse voice to repeat it in the still hors of the 
 night, and the mocking bird in silver notes, warbled it at 
 dawn — "Man has the keys of the kingdom.'' 
 
 The black vulture of sin gathered up his storm-torn 
 plumes and sailed away to the haunted castle of earth's 
 ruined children, and from a rusty throat horrid croaks 
 burst forth, received in that dismal locality with cfies of 
 pain and angry cursing — "Man has the keys of the king- 
 dom." 
 
 While all heaven rejoiced and all hell was laying under 
 contribution every power within its grasp, "if possible to 
 defeat the plans of God," the bad angel with bat wings and 
 horrid breath, approached man, and said, "Your gift is of 
 no value, the keys will not work." 
 
 I thank God that in the creation man was invested with 
 some curiosity as -^ell as the woman, and on that occasion 
 it did him a good turn. 
 
 They won't work, insisted Satan, but Peter, the bold 
 and resolute apostle, determined to put them to a prac- 
 tical test. And the hundred and twenty faithful followers 
 of Christ climbed the rickety stairs to an upper chamber to 
 wait for the promise of the father. There they prayed 
 and waited nine days and nights "for the command was," 
 depart not from Jerusalem until you are endued with power 
 from on high. And on the tenth morning with trembling 
 fingers, and a wildly beating heart they dared to thrust the 
 big golden key of faith into the key hole of the ponderous 
 
158 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 door of God's promise, and men and angels, and devils, 
 stood in silent attention while they turned it. "Glory to 
 God in the highest, the big lock rolled back with thunder 
 peals in quick succession, and the door swung open, and 
 the Holy Ghost came as the sound of a rushing mighty 
 wind and filled all the place where they were sitting and 
 there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, 
 and it sat upon each of them. 
 
 Heaven shouted with great joy, and hell creaked to its 
 deepest caverns, while man, brimful of glory, shouted to 
 earth's millions, living and unborn — The keys of the king- 
 dom will work." 
 
 Do you believe it? Do you know for yourself that they 
 will work? These old gray fathers with frosty temples 
 and flowing beard can tell you whether they will work or 
 not. Thev have tested them on the battlefield and in the 
 thickest of the fi'ght, and in the trying hours of temptation 
 and in the chambers of their sick and dying. I thank God 
 for the blessed Christian fathers and mothers in our midst. 
 They bind this world to the chariot wheels of God's provi- 
 dence. Take them out of the world and it will fall to 
 staves. What is the memory of a good mother worth to 
 you young men? WHiat would you take for it — would you 
 sell it? Is it not the memory of her sweet face and tender 
 prayers that keeps you out of much mischief ? Take mother 
 out of your life and it would be like extracting carbon out 
 of diamond. 
 
 ( I ) Faith is the big golden key that unlocks all the 
 doors in the universe. St. John 15: 7, "If ye abide in me 
 and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and 
 it shall be done unto you." Do you believe that? If so, to 
 you all things are possible through Christ. I have said 
 many times and I repeat it before this Assembly of the 
 church's, representatives, that the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rian Church has one great duty to perform, and that is to 
 convince the world that she is a child of the Holy Ghost. 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 159 
 
 And if ever we cease to be a spiritual church, we fail to 
 accomplish the great aim for which M'Adoo, King and 
 Ewing organized it one hundred years ago. With the 
 golden key of faith we find a number of smaller keys of 
 faith without which the keys of the kingdom are incom- 
 plete. 
 
 1. "Faith that makes whole." Matt. 9: 22, "Daughter, 
 be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole." This 
 is the key to the office of the Great Physician who for six 
 thousand years has not lost a case. He is able to save to 
 the uttermost all those who will come unto him. 
 
 2. "Blessings according to your faith." Matt. 9: 29, 
 "Then touched he their eyes, saying, as your faith is, so 
 be it unto you." Faith is the measuring line of all our 
 blessings and we cannot hope to rise above our faith. 
 
 3. "Great faith." Matt. 15: 28, "Then Jesus answered 
 and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto 
 thee even as thou wilt." So many of us desire great faith, 
 and we think if we had great faith what wonders we would 
 perform for the Master. But many times the very person 
 who seemingly has small faith, so far as wonderful works 
 are concerned, is possessed with great faith. Those who 
 are faithful to Christ, faithful in the prayer meeting, faith- 
 ful to the church, and faithful over little things have great 
 faith. And these are the kind of people, out of whom the 
 Lord can make pillars in the church. Let us pray that the 
 Lord will raise up more pillars, more men and women 
 who are faithful over little things. We have a great many 
 more sleepers in the church than we have pillars. This 
 ought not to be. But the faithful pillars, will shine in the 
 day of the Lord, like the golden beams of Jacob's ladder, 
 for they carry the little key of great faith. 
 
 4. "Justifying faith." Rom. 3 : 28, "Therefore, we con- 
 clude that a man is justified by faith." Rom. 5: r, "There- 
 fore, being justified by faith we have peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
i6o CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 5. "Walking faith." 2 Cor. 5: 7, "For we walk by faith 
 and not by sight." i John i : 7, "If we walk in the light 
 as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another 
 and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 
 all sin." 
 
 6. "Working faith." Gal. 5 : 6, "Nothing availeth any- 
 thing but faith, which worketh by love." Here we have 
 walking faith and working faith, which implies religious 
 activity. 
 
 7. "Dead Faith." Jas. 2: 17, 18, "Even so faith if it 
 hath not works is dead, being alone." "Yea, a man may 
 say thou hast faith and I have 'works.' Show me thy faith 
 without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my 
 works." A dead faith is the fatal key that Satan will slip 
 on the ring of keys that belong to the kingdom of heaven, 
 if we are not on the constant lookout. 
 
 (i) Dead faith is a lead key and will lock up all the stores 
 of blessing, and plunge the soul into unsettled and unquiet 
 discontentment. The lead key was molded and fashioned 
 in the foundries of outer darkness and it will surely defeat 
 us in every effort, and failure will trail after us like a lazy 
 dragon. Empty pews and a fruitless ministry, and a dead 
 church, will certainly be the reward of him who carries the 
 key of dead faith. 
 
 Have you failed in the Lord's work, is your ministry 
 barren and your life fruitless? If so, in all probability you 
 are the possessor of the fatal key. Get rid of it, and do it 
 now. God demands it, and souls demand it, and the con- 
 dition of your church demands it. 
 
 Every man and woman should be at their post and at 
 their best, for to-day the call is ringing with new emphasis, 
 go ye unto my vineyard and work, for lo, the fields are 
 white unto harvest and the laborers are few. 
 
 (2) Sincerity is the little silver key that unlocks all the 
 inside doors to the sanctuary. 
 
 Titus 2: 7, "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." i6i 
 
 good works, in doctrine, shewing uncorruptness, gravity, 
 sincerity." 
 
 Phil. 1 : 10, "That ye may approve things that are ex- 
 cellent." 
 
 "That ye may be sincere and without offense till the day 
 of Christ." 
 
 Are we sincere in our prayers and supplication, or do we 
 make long prayers to be heard of men? If so, we get our 
 reward, we are heard and soon forogtten. 
 
 But the sincere and humble suppliants who keenly feel 
 their need of the Savior's help and prayer only to be heard 
 at a throne of grace, will write their influence indelibly 
 upon the lives of those with whom they come in contact. 
 
 Dr. Bernardo, of London, "the great philanthropist," 
 stood one evening on the piazza of his great home, and a 
 small waif came up to him trembling with cold and hunger, 
 and said "Please, sir, mister, write me admission to your 
 home. I am so cold and so hungry, I have no home. Please, 
 sir, mister, write me admission to your home. 
 
 But Dr. Bernardo turned away impatiently, wishing to 
 test the boy's sincerity, and said, indifferently : 
 
 "Where are your letters of recommendation? Have 
 you no friends? How do I know you are sincere?" 
 
 A big tear ran down each pale cheek, and the little fel- 
 low, thinking his case a hopeless one, waved his hands 
 over his head, and the ragged sleeves of a threadbare waist 
 fell back from arms blue with cold, and said, chokingly : 
 
 "INIister, if these 'ere rags are not my friends, then I 
 have got nothing to recommend me." 
 
 The philanthropist said he felt something moist in his 
 eyes while he wrote as fast as ever he could a little note 
 of recommendation for that friendless child. 
 
 That is the way we must all come to Jesus, sincerely 
 and honestly, and if we have no one on earth to recom- 
 mend us in their prayers, our self-righteous rags and our 
 
:62 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 great need accompanied by the sincere desire of the heart 
 will eloquently recommend us to God. 
 
 The little silver key of sincerity will never fail to un- 
 lock the door of God's mercy. 
 
 (3) "Repentance is the bi-g solid brass key which un 
 locks the door of God's forgiveness to the penitent and 
 erring one." 
 
 2 Peter 3 : 9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his prom- 
 ise as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to 
 US-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all 
 should come to rejXMitance." 
 
 The Apostle Peter said to the Jews assembled at Jerusa- 
 lem on the day of pentecost in Acts 2 : 39. 
 
 'T"or the promise is unto you, and to vour children, and 
 to all that are afar ofif, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call." 
 
 How many arc called?' We find the answer in Rev. 22: 
 17, "And the Spirit and the bride say. Come, and let him 
 that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst Come." 
 And then the apocalyptic writer showed the whole chasm 
 of man's apostasy, and said, "Whosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freely." 
 
 Whosoever will mav come to repentance. It certainly 
 seems to me that this proclamation of free grace for who- 
 soever will have it, is quite sufficient to silence all religious 
 anarchists on that line forever. 
 
 (4) "Honesty" is a little strait key with not so much 
 as a notch or hook at the end, but it works like luagic. 
 and will open the door to a clean character. Rom. 12: 
 17-18. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide 
 things honest in the sight of all men. 
 
 And if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace- 
 ably with all men. Honesty is a priceless jewel and a 
 grace to be coveted. 
 
 Disho;iesty is not only applied to those who would cheat 
 you in business, but the man, or set of men, wdio would 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 163 
 
 cheat you out of your faith, and rob you of "that great 
 and all-essential element of happiness." Contentment is a 
 thief in the strictest analysis of the word. 
 
 Dishonesty in doctrine and belief is a great evil, which 
 we should guard a-gainst. 
 
 If our doctrine is a good one, let us defend it unblush- 
 ingly and boldly, and when we are asked if we believe all 
 men may be saved through Christ, say so, and say it with 
 emphasis. And if you believe in predestination and elec- 
 tion, say so. But those of us who do not believe it, will 
 say "no" so loud that three worlds will hear it. Stand up 
 for what you believe to be right, regardless of opposition. 
 I know that it takes grit, grace and courage to stand 
 the criticism and scathing opposition of our opponents 
 sometimes, but Cumberland Presbyterians are abundantly 
 blessed with these graces. We have got the grit, "alri-ght," 
 and grace sufificient, and courage to lend, and anything 
 else we need, even the little key of honesty. 
 
 We have got men who are giants, intellectually, with a 
 fist like a pile driver, and a backbone like a column of steel. 
 They laugh at impossibilities and succeed. ' They hammer 
 with their great fist against the stern walls of incompre- 
 hensible, and almost impenetrable opposition, and their 
 supreme achievements hang like blazing suns in the sky 
 of church history. 
 
 The church, to be sure, has had its Waterloo, its hack 
 of swords, its finger of scorn, its alamo, its crash of fierce 
 battle, its onslaughts, its leaden voice, its gullies filled with 
 death, and all its fearful tragedies, but out of the Waterloo 
 has come the true king, the monarch, and rules of par- 
 liament with the glorious key of honesty dangling at his 
 beh. 
 
 There are honest souls that stand so tall if they stretched 
 out their mighty arms they would touch the very pillars of 
 the sky. And if they should lean against the polished col- 
 umns, the ceiling of nature would creak, and the roof 
 
i64 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 would tumble down, and the multiform and multiplied 
 splinters would fly like snowflakes in winter. 
 
 ( 5 ) The prodigal's key is an old iron key and will un- 
 lock the door of God's forgiveness. This key has been 
 worn smooth by thousands, wandering away from the 
 father's house and returning. Hosea 14: 4. I will heal 
 their backsliding, I will love them freely : for mine anger 
 is turned away from him. What a blessed thought: 
 "Transporting in its nature," "mine anger is turned away," 
 which is equivalent to ]\Iy smiles are turned toward thee. 
 
 You will not find much difference in the practice of the 
 different churches on this falling from grace proposition, 
 though you may search until your hair turns gray. The 
 Methodists backslide and the Baptists backslide, and the 
 Cumberland Presbyterians get on the sidetrack, with the 
 switch closed at both ends. But the prodigal's key will 
 unlock the switch, and God's switch engine of forgiveness 
 will pull us out on the main line, for he says "mine anger 
 is turned away'' from him. 
 
 (6) "God's strength" is a metal skeleton key and will 
 unlock any door on earth, in heaven or hell. Rom. 8: 31. 
 What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us 
 who can be against us? 
 
 If the path of duty leads you through hard trials, and 
 dark tunnels, Jesus will go with you. He has been there 
 before you, and when you come to a dark and heavily 
 barred door shutting out the light of God's smiles, "if you 
 will look for it," you will find the skeleton key on the ring 
 of keys which the Master gives to every believer, and it 
 will unlock every door. It will unlock every door, only try 
 it. If sorrows have come to you Jesus will share them 
 with you, for he is indeed a man of sorrows aiid acquainted 
 with grief. 
 
 Is there an angry storm hissing on the sea of your soul, 
 tossing the small boat of endurance violently against the 
 rocks of discouragement and tearing the white sails with 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 165 
 
 lightning and drenching the decks with tears? If so, Jesus 
 will hush the storm, for if God be for us who can be against 
 us? 
 
 I have felt the fiercest storm raging in my own soul, 
 and crashing thunders bounded from shore to shore, while 
 a deluge of briny tears fell like winding sheets of rain, 
 and lightning flashes fairly scorched my brow : Every 
 wave was whipped to fury, and every crystal dewdrop 
 was changed to serpent eyes, that glared at me like spying 
 demons. There stood my cottage home all wrecked, it 
 seemed, by the merciless storm. A black hearse with wav- 
 ing plumes, stood at the splintered gate-post, and a knot of 
 crepe hung on the battered door knob. Death was there, 
 and master of ceremonies, and the poor victims of the 
 storrn sat huddled together like orphan chicks, weeping. 
 Sorrow was there, nobody sang for joy', and nobody 
 laughed there, all was still, only the groans of the bereaved 
 broke the horrid stillness. But in that awful stillness 
 I heard footfalls, and I listened and notes of the sweet- 
 est music came floating over the sea. It was Jesus, the 
 Sun of the morning, and his sweet face was turned in 
 my direction and beamed with pity, and I heard a voice, 
 not loud, not harsh, but a whisper, that to me sounded like 
 a shower of glistening jewels dropped by heavenly maid- 
 ens into the crystal seas of glory, "My child, it is I, be 
 not afraid." 
 
 It was Jesus speaking, and all hell seemed to burst at 
 his feet with a sarcastic yell. And a million sea-hounds 
 snapped at his heels, with snarling lip, and gloating eyes. 
 Wild and unreasonable echoes, reluctantly, but surely got 
 up from their ambush and rolled in the wake of the storm, 
 and the wind, "that unfrightened robber whom nobody 
 has ever arrested and brought to justice for his pilfering," 
 came with hideous howls, to vent his wrath on the weary 
 God-man. He fairly rolled the sea into mountain scrolls, 
 and angrily broke their seals and dashed their contents 
 
i66 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 heavenward, and with his long" sword he spht the watery 
 winding sheets, and sheared their frazzled edges with 
 scissors of fire. 
 
 Faith, pale-faced and trembling, stood at the wheel try- 
 ing to man his boat, in whose startled ear doubt blew his 
 hoarse horn. Every company of hell's artillery took sure 
 aim and fired their hostile guns in quick succession, but 
 there came one walking quietly and unmoved by the fright- 
 ful onslaught. 
 
 The pressure of the conquering feet of the Master did 
 not irritate a single nerve, or disturb the tender sensibili- 
 ties of the soul. "Peace, be still." What music? I heard 
 the echo jarring the foundations of nature, and at his word, 
 the pilferer fled, and the sea hounds sprawled at his feet, 
 and whined and grinned, as if more pleased than outraged. 
 The black sorceress, Terror, turned pale and her heav- 
 ing bosom was belted with a gorgeous rainbow and the 
 lightning scissors hung at her belt. Her purple lips parted 
 in a strange, and curious smile, half outraged, mingled with 
 shame and amazement. She sickened and died, and the 
 sunbeams danced over her grave, and all was still — still. 
 The raindrops glistened like jewels along the flower- 
 fringed shore and peace, sweet peace, was mine. Someone 
 that I loved was gone from the cottage, a sweet voice in 
 song was hushed, a lovely face from our family circle was 
 missing. I sought the missing one, but found her not. But 
 Jesus is there and all is still. 
 
 There is no storm raging, no angry thunder peals, no 
 vivid lightning flash, for the light of immortal life* streams 
 down through the rifted clouds and by faith in the distance, 
 "through the rift in the clouds," I see a pearly white city 
 all glorious and bright, where the missing ones of our 
 families have gathered, and are waiting for our coming. 
 In the land of the setting sun there is a grass-grown mound, 
 all that is left on earth of a sweet sister, but we will meet 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 167 
 
 again in the sweet bye and bye, where death and sorrow 
 never come. , 
 
 Oh they tell me of a home far beyond the skies, 
 
 Oh they tell me of a home far away. 
 Oh they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise, 
 
 Oh they tell me of an unclouded day. 
 
 (7) "Trust is a peculiarly moulded key, bearing all the 
 gorgeous colors of the rainbow, and wet with tears. This 
 key, if carried in the hand of the sorrowin-g, will unlock 
 the door of comfort. " 
 
 Trust and obey for there is no other way, 
 To be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. 
 
 I Thess. 4: 16-18, "h^or the Lord himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archan'gel 
 and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall 
 rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be 
 caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the 
 Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
 Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." 
 
 Psa. 37: 5, "Commit thy way unto the Lord and he shall 
 bring it to pass." A faithful prayer never fails to reach 
 the ear of God. Those offered when time was young and 
 those uttered but yesterday, are not forgotten. Even the 
 tears of the saints are bottled up. not a tear is wasted nor 
 a prayer forgotten. 
 
 Trusting, trusting, trusting in the Lord, 
 
 I believe the promises he gave. 
 Trusting, trusting, trusting in the Lord, 
 
 He alone can save. 
 
 One ray of trusting, and believing prayer has kindled 
 pencilings of gl9ry in ,our closets and has unlocked the 
 
i68 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 door of comfort and spangled the clouds of sorrow with 
 g-old and silver edges, and 'glimmering into the night of 
 onr bereavements and stealing into the shadows of our 
 disappointments have dropped a mellow light along our 
 pathway. 
 
 But, oh. what will it be when perfect trust has reached 
 its grand climax ? When we shall bask with steady wing 
 ar^d kindled eye in the overwhelming splendors of the full 
 tide of Jehovah's love, unveiled and filling eternity. 
 
 John spoke the truth when he said there shall be no 
 night there in the day of God's appointment. These souls 
 of ours .shall drop these shackles of clay, and stepping 
 upon the threshold of their tottering cages will plume their 
 pinions, and climb right up into the sky, and land them- 
 selves on the bright frontiers of glory. Then the roaring 
 floods of the centuries may dash, the angel with his earth- 
 quake trumpet may come, the judge may descend and 
 earth catch fire, and storms may spread their black wings 
 overhead, but they cannot disturb the trusting soul. 
 
 Earthquakes may split the earth, and hell itself may 
 belch its demons at heaven's gate, but their breath will 
 never wither a flower in the garden of God, where the 
 saved are, high up in heaven. 
 
 (8) "Perfect love" is a key of wondrous beauty, richly 
 set with pearls and precious gems. And along the main 
 stem there are great drops of blood. This key will unlock 
 the pearly gates to the city of God, and the door to ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 Old John Fuller, who was thrust into prison for his faith 
 in Jesus carried his old Greek Testament with him, "his 
 sole companion." When he was finally led out to pay the 
 penalty with his life, he prayed, "O, my Father, give 
 me a passage of Scripture, to sustain me in this awful hour. 
 And he opened his old Greek Testament and read i John 
 4: 18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth 
 put all fear. He pressed the open book to his breast, and 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 169 
 
 looked up with a radiant face and said, "It is enough for 
 time and eternity." He thrust the key of perfect love into 
 the keyhole of the pearly gates, and the executioner 
 chopped ofif his head, the gate swung open and his re- 
 deemed spirit swept into glory. 
 
 I will give you the keys of the kingdom. What are they? 
 
 1. The glorious key of faith. 
 
 2. The key of sincerity. 
 
 3. The key of repentance. 
 
 4. I'he key of honesty. 
 
 5. The prodigal's key. 
 
 6. The skeleton key, "God's strength.'' 
 
 7. The beautiful key of faith. 
 
 8. The key of perfect love. 
 
 III. "The IIomf, of the Faithful." 
 
 Heb. 13: 14, "For here have we no continuing city, but 
 we seek one to come. Our cities are capable of being de- 
 stroyed, and our homes are perishable, but we look for a, 
 city whose maker and builder is God, "An eternal resting- 
 place." Here life is but a hand's breadth. Yesterday in 
 the twilight of evening we gathered around mother's knee, 
 white-robed children to say our evening prayers. Todav 
 we are men and women grappling with the stern problems 
 of life. To-morrow the business fruit of youth will turn 
 to ashes on the lips of old age. Everything in the wide 
 universe says to us, here have we no continuing city, but 
 immortality cries back to nature, we seek a city where 
 death and sorrow and old age cannot come. John the 
 revelator beautifully described the glorious future home of 
 the righteous, under the figure of a magnificent city. 
 
 This figurative city was made of 'gold, and had twelve 
 gates, each made of a single pearl, and was surrounded 
 with a wall of polished jasper. 
 
 J. he city rested on twelve foundations of precious stones, 
 
)70 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 disposed in layers one above the other, and each foundation 
 was composed of a single gem. 
 
 This city was paved with gold and located in a new 
 and glorified world, and in it was the throne of God, and 
 of the Lamb from which, the apocalyptic writer says, pro- 
 ceeded the river of life. And probably beneath the glori- 
 ous throne, were huge caverns walled and arched with 
 jewels and diamond columns, from whose glittering pend- 
 ants percolating nectar dropped, from which the foun- 
 tains of living waters burst, in a thousand glossy torrents 
 and uniting like streams of liquid crystal, embanked in 
 emerald, flowed unhindered through the golden city, and 
 sweeping rnajestically, beyond the jasper wall, -girdled the 
 sealess and renovated earth. In this city symbolizing the 
 heavenly state, made accessible to man by Christ, "the 
 way," was also the tree of life. 
 
 Not a single tree. I'm sure, but trees which grew 
 along the streets and threw their cooling shades upon 
 every golden pavement, where the citizens of heaven's 
 metropolis, franchised and redeemed, will ever pass, and 
 line also the banks of the river of life. 
 
 Their giant trunks upreared above floral hills, and burn- 
 ished domes gleaming in silvery sheen, and spires and 
 towers glittering with diamond frost, and palatial palaces 
 resplendent and spangled with gems. 
 
 These trees of life are amazingly roofed with fadeless 
 foliage, and their branches ofif shooting and wide-spreading 
 are continually laden with immortal fruit, absolutely free 
 to pluck, and eat. and live forever ; there is no burnished 
 sword gleaming and no cherubim forbidding. There, it is 
 life — blessed life, and life forever. 
 
 Life is sweet, life is glorious, if but for a moment, but 
 eternal life, who will dare to measure, who can measure, 
 or fathom, or weigh the incalculable period of its dura- 
 tion ? 
 
"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM." 171 
 
 Take your line, drop your plummet, and lift your scales. 
 What's the answer? Ah! it is eternal life. 
 
 If you would search more extensively for the meaning 
 of eternal life, go to eternity's chronometer and mark the 
 swift flight of cycles, infinite and count the vibrations of 
 its ponderous pendulum, constantly going and coming. 
 Count the mighty strokes upon its sounding bell, floating 
 away in music, each repeating to its last murmur — life, 
 blessed life, forever. 
 
 Chronicler of ages and never ending cycles — we entreat 
 thee, repeat the period of your record — forever is the an- 
 swer — eternity, eternity. 
 
 Life is heaven and a never-ending eternity the period 
 of its enjoyment. 
 
 Here our homes decay and our loved ones die, but in 
 that city for which we look, our home will be eternal, and 
 our loved ones will never die. In that home of eternal joys, 
 our fondest hopes will sweep to a rich and abundant frui- 
 tion. In that home the immortal relation of the family 
 will never be disturbed. The bonds of love and friendship 
 will never be surrendered and love will wreath her bright 
 chain of golden links about us inseverable forever. There 
 will be no more sorrow, tears or crying, thank God there 
 will be no more painful farewells in that God-blessed home 
 of the faithful. Death will be eternally banished and the 
 cadaverous monarch will be chained in the vallev of bony 
 loneliness and will count his empty vaults world without 
 end. 
 
 Just where that heavenly home is located, or what it is 
 like, I do not know. But it is quite enough for me to know 
 that there is an eternal home of blessedness, somewhere in 
 a sunny locality, prepared for those who walk uprightly. 
 It may be. who can tell, some bright and glorious 
 metropolitan world fixed securelv in the center of the 
 universe around which all suns and systems revolve, where 
 magnificence and beauty .struggle for the mastery and 
 
172 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 eternal glory sits enthroned? To that home we are bound, 
 with Jesus leading the way, for he said, "I go to prepare a 
 place for you, and if I go, I will come again that where I 
 am there ye may be also.'' 
 
 Intervening is a vast ocean with billowy crest and tower- 
 ing waves, but we are aboard the old gospel ship Zion. 
 Her keel, stern and timbers are strong. Her spires are 
 tall, and her decks and cabins are spacious, and there is 
 plenty of room on board for us all. God, the Father, is 
 her captain, and Jesus her untiring pilot. Her journals 
 reveal a thousand voyages, and a thousand storms. Her 
 logbook reveals, a flying speed and her register a million 
 passengers, all going home. She is bound from earth to 
 glory. She has already slipped her anchor, and unfastened 
 her moorings and her invulnerable keel now cleaves the 
 briny wave, and flies away like a rushing bird to the dis- 
 tant shore where home and loved ones are. Love drives 
 her machinery and the wind of heaven crowd her canvas, 
 and angels hover on her every mast as she leans to the 
 surge and groans, and drives, and flies, with her swelling 
 sails of lily white, like the plumed wings of the bird of 
 paradise, wet with the dew of a perpetual morning. 
 
 On that ship you will find the widow and orphan, the 
 old and the young. Some are lonely, and some are broken- 
 hearted, and some are heavy laden. Some are weeping, 
 some are praying and some are shouting. Every face of 
 the ship's company is marked with the lines of suffering, 
 and every heart has felt death's shock. Somewhere in their 
 life they have wept, they have borne heavy burdens, they 
 have buried their dead. But they are going home and 
 every heart swells with the anticipation "of a glorious home- 
 coming. 
 
 The pilot turns the wheel, and the old ship swings 
 around the black shores of the valley and shadow of death, 
 —and "O ! glory" — in the distance, all glorious and bright, 
 
THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM. ijc, 
 
 the pearly white city, bathed in glory looms up, beautiful 
 beyond description. 
 
 Every passenger rushes to the main deck, and every eye 
 catches the glorious vision, and every voice shouts — "The 
 city, the city." 
 
 She steams into harbor and the ship master throws out 
 the gang-plank and orphans rush into the arms of radiant 
 mothers, long separated, and sisters, and brothers, and 
 fathers, and mothers, reach the end of their separation, 
 while angels behold in joyous wonder the glorious home- 
 coming of the homeless. The persecuted and oppressed are 
 rewarded and the Lord's poor become rich in treasures im- 
 perishable. 
 
 Sooner or later the last day will come and we will stand 
 at the end of our pilgrimage. Life with us will soon be 
 over and the day of judgment will dawn. Then the sun 
 unwheeled will drag along the jarring heavens and refuse 
 to shine. The stars will veil their faces and the moon will 
 roll up in the heavens red as blood, and hang her crimson 
 livery upon the black wing of night. Earth will quiver 
 upon her axis and huge mountains of sorrow will drift and 
 lodge upon her quaking heart. 
 
 A mighty angel with a face like the sun, clothed with 
 clouds, and crowned with a rainbow, and shod with wings 
 of. fire, will cleave the heavens in his lightning track, and 
 descending with one foot upon the troubled sea, and one 
 upon the earth, will lift his hand to heaven, and swear by 
 the Judge of the living and dead, that time shall no longer 
 be. 
 
 Old Time, the father of centuries, and the heartless tomb- 
 builder of generations will die, and fall a giant in ugly 
 ruins. Then we will join the heaverily chorus, and hail re- 
 demptions, grand consummation, with one grand anthem, 
 whose choral thunders rolling along all the paths of space, 
 will shake the universe, with its bursting chorus, "Oh, 
 death, where is thy sting?" 
 
174 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 We are tenting to-day on the old church ground with our 
 faces set Hke a flint toward our eternal home and our hearts 
 are fixed on that city and in the sweet bye and bye we will 
 be invested, both soul and body with immortality. And in 
 that fair city at the sounding of the -gavel the grand Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the Universe will be seated in the spacious 
 halls of glory, to witness the marriage of the bride and 
 the lamb, when matrimony will reach its grand culmina- 
 tion. O, let us go there, let us go there! 
 
SECTION 11 
 
 HISTORICAL PAPERS 
 
MONUMENT OF 
 REV. SAMUEL m'adOO 
 
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THE IMMORTAL TRIO. 
 
 rev. j. w. duvall, 
 
 Revs. Samuel M'Adoo, Samuel King and Finis Ewing 
 Samuel McAdow was born April lo, 1760, in Guilford 
 County, North Carolina. His mother was a very devout 
 woman. He was converted when he was eleven years old.' 
 The first school he attended was taught by Dr. Caldwell, 
 a Presbyterian minister. This school was broken up by the 
 Revolutionary War. The war ended, he completed his 
 academic course in Mechlenburg College. Shortly after he 
 was converted, he felt he ought to preach. He did not con- 
 sent then, but his mind was not long at ease, for he was 
 often reminded he ought to enter the ministry. He was a 
 married man, and living on a farm when he consented to 
 preach. He left the farm and procured a place near the 
 residence of Dr. Caldwell, and began the study of theology 
 under him. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery 
 of Orange, September 20, 1797. The date of his ordination 
 is unknown, but it was only one or two years later. He 
 was not an ambitious man. He did not seek notoriety. He 
 had an humble opinion of his preaching ability. After he 
 had preached his ordination sermon, he wanted to hide, 
 because it was so far below what he desired it to be, but 
 the members of his church had an entirely different opin- 
 ion, for they wanted him to have it published. 
 
 In 1799, taking a letter from his presbytery, he started 
 West. He spent the summer in East Tennessee, supplying 
 the Big Limestone congregation. When fall came he con- 
 tinued his journey West, until he came to Kentucky, where 
 he found many of his old acquaintances, who had moved 
 from North Carolina a few years before. The work of the 
 great revival was just beginning, into which he entered 
 with all his soul. He traveled extensively, riding as far 
 
1/8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 north as the Ohio River, and then south far into the state 
 of Tennessee. He continued to travel and preach until he 
 was almost disabled from public speaking on account of 
 weak lungs, and because of this his more active ministry 
 ceased. He settled in Dickson County, Tennessee, and 
 engaged in teaching and preaching on the Sabbath. 
 
 We must not conclude Mr. M'Adoo always looked on 
 the rosy side of life, but on the contrary, he was often low- 
 spirited. He doubted his call to the ministry, and to keep 
 from preaching, he left the neighborhood where he was 
 known, and settled where he was entirely unknown. But 
 he could not be contented there, he talked to a neighbor 
 about the moral condition of the community, and they 
 agreed to hold a prayer meeting. This meeting was so 
 interesting they agreed to hold another, and at the close 
 of this one the truant preacher was ready to take up the 
 work of the ministry. Where is the preacher who has not 
 at some time in his life doubted his call to the ministry, 
 and has been tempted like Jonah to flee to Tarshish? Mr. 
 M'Adoo never regretted the part he took in the organi- 
 zation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He be- 
 lieved it was done under divine sanction, and that God 
 would take care of the church. The existence of the church 
 to-day shows his faith was not misplaced. 
 
 In 1828 Mr. M'Adoo moved to the state of Illinois, set- 
 tling in Bond County. When the infirmities of age came 
 upon him, which prevented him from preaching regularly, 
 he conducted Sabbath schools and prayer meetings. On 
 the 3rd of ^larch. 1844, he passed into the land of the 
 immortals. His last words were, "All is peace, my work is 
 done, everything is ready. I have nothing to do but to 
 die ; there is no doubt, no fear." He was buried three and 
 a half miles northwest of Greenville, in Bond County, 
 Illinois, in the southwest corner of the cemetery at Mt. 
 Giliad Cuml^erland Presbyterian Church. His grave is 
 marked by a white marble shaft, twelve inches square at 
 
THE IMMORTAL TRIO. 179 
 
 the base, and six inches square at the top. The shaft is 
 four feet high, which rests on a white marble base twenty- 
 four inches long and twenty-four inches wide and six 
 inches thick. This capstone of the base rests on a white 
 marble block eighteen inches square, and the whole shaft 
 rests on a white limestone rock two feet scjuare, making 
 the height of the monument eight feet. On the south side 
 of the shaft are these words: "Rev. Samuel M'Adoo, 
 bom in Guilford County, North Carolina, April 10, 1760. 
 Died March 30, 1844." On the west side: "Licensed to 
 preach September 20, 1794, by Orange Presbytery, North 
 Carolina. One of the three who organized the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church, February 4, 1810. Removed to Bond 
 County, Illinois, 1828." 
 
 REV. SAMUEL KING. 
 
 Samuel King was born in North Carolina, April ig, 1775. 
 He was licensed to preach in 1802, and ordained in 1804. 
 ^e moved to Alissouri in 1825. When he was sixty years 
 old the General Assembly asked him to make an evange- 
 listic tour among the frontier churches. He mounted his 
 horse and road through the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, 
 Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri. 
 He was nearly two years on this trip, twenty months being 
 the exact time. He was an able preacher. Finis Ewing, 
 who' was an excellent judge of preaching said: "I would 
 rather preach after any other man than King. He says all 
 there is to be said on the subject." As his interest in his 
 sermon increased, so did the interest of his audience. He 
 carried his audience so high, he was the only man who could 
 let it down. 
 
 Once, at Goshen, Tennessee Camp Ground, he preached 
 on Sabbath. The power of God came on the congregation. 
 The people almost held their breath. King felt the power. 
 By and by he became silent, and when he could stand it no 
 
i8o CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 longer, he left the pulpit and started for the woods, but 
 when he had gone about a hundred yards he came back 
 and entered the pulpit, and resumed his sermon. There 
 was no longer a look of awe on his face, but a holy raptu- 
 ous light. There was such power in the sermon that it 
 swept everything. ( )nce he left his circuit and road some 
 distance and ])reached to the Choctaw Indians, through an 
 interpreter, and while preaching the interpreter was con- 
 victed and fell to the ground and began to appeal for mercy. 
 King did not know one word of Choctaw. Now what 
 could he do? He could not pray in Choctaw, but he could 
 in English, and while he prayed the interpreter was con- 
 verted. After this he resumed his sermon and many of the 
 Indians were converted. 
 
 King was a man of very strong convictions. He did not 
 come to a conclusion rashly, he weighed the matter careful- 
 ly, and when he had decided, that matter, so far as he was 
 concerned was settled. He concluded early in his ministry 
 that intoxicants were injurious, and on that account he 
 refused to ask a blessing once because there was whiskey^ 
 on the table. Those of us who know his grandson, the late 
 Rev. S. Finis King, know that his firmness for what he 
 thought was right was one of the many admirable traits of 
 this man of God, who rather than retract what he had said 
 about an evil he saw among some of his church members, 
 resigned his pulpit, when he could have held it, had he ad- 
 mitted he was too firm in his decision. 
 
 Rev Samuel King was a plain, practical man, whose labors 
 were extensively useful. He was beloved of all his brethren, 
 many of whom acknowledged him as their spiritual father. 
 He gave satisfactory evidence through his long successful 
 ministry, that his presbytery made no mistake when it or- 
 dained him to the full work of the ministry. Although he 
 had not a diploma from some prominent college, he had the 
 approval of God to his ministry, which is infinitely more 
 to be sought for than a classical education without it, while 
 
THE IMMORTAL TRIO. i8i 
 
 a college education, with the blessing of God attending the 
 effort of a cultured mind, is better. 
 
 Rev. Samuel King died September i8, 1842. He was 
 buried in the cemetery at Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, in Johnson County, Missouri, some ten miles south 
 of Warrensburg. His grave was marked at first by a sand- 
 stone slab six inches thick, cut in the shape of a coffin, two 
 feet wide at the head, three feet three inches wide at the 
 shoulders, one foot five inches wide at the foot, and seven 
 feet three inches long. This sandstone lies flat upon the 
 grave, and on it this inscription is cut: "Sacred to the 
 Memory of Rev. Samuel King, one of the Founders of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Born April 18, 1775. 
 Departed this life September 18, 1842. Age 67 years 4 
 months and 14 days. "Let Me Die the Death of the Right- 
 eous." There is now at the head of this grave a white mar- 
 ble shaft, seven feet high, standing on a square marble base 
 twenty-one inches square. On the west side of the marble 
 shaft is inscribed, "Erected to the memory of Rev. Samuel 
 King, one of the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, by the General xA.ssembly of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church convened at Warrensburg, Mo., in May, 
 1870.' On the east side. Died September 18, 1842, age 67 
 years, 4 months, 29 days." Should be 67 years, 5 months. 
 
 REV. FINIS EWING. 
 
 Finis Ewing was born July 10, 1773, in Bedford County, 
 Virginia. His father and uncle had settled in this country, 
 on their emigration from Ireland, a number of years pre- 
 vious to the Revolutionary War. They were among the 
 most respectable people in the country. His parents, he and 
 the rest of the family moved to the Cumberland country, 
 and settled about six miles above Nashville. He was edu- 
 cated in part at Spring Hill Seminary. He was a man of 
 gentle appearance and prepossessing manner, frank, gen- 
 erous and kind in his disposition. At the age of eighteen he 
 
i82 CENTENXIAL SERMOXS AND PAPERS. 
 
 was a distinguished member of a literary society. January 
 15, 1797, he married ^^liss Peggy Davidson, daughter of 
 General Davidson, who was killed in battle on the Catawba 
 while opposing the advance of the British under Lord 
 Cornwallis. 
 
 Both Mr. and INIrs. Ewing joined the church unregener- 
 ated. They were both converted under the heart-searching 
 preaching of Mr. McGready. After many prayers and tears 
 and wakeful nights and anxious hours, they obtained par- 
 don, and peace and joy came into their hearts. They knew 
 they were pardoned, because the Holy Spirit bore witness 
 with their spirits they were the children of God. In church, 
 Mr. Ewing, before he became a minister, sat at the clerk's 
 desk, gave out the hymns, and lead the singing. He was a 
 good singer and had a strong, melodious voice. 
 
 When he felt he must preach, he was dejected for a time, 
 because, if he preached, he could not do for his family, and 
 servants and farm what he desired to do. He said after 
 he was licensed, and the difficulty arose about such men as 
 he preaching: "If I am forbidden to labor for God and 
 souls, I fear I shall go beside myself." He must either 
 preach or lose his mind. Ewing's circuit in Tennessee, com- 
 posed of Montgomery, Dickson, Robertson and Davidson 
 Counties, was the first ever planned by Presbyterians in 
 this country. He had to preach once and twice every day 
 and sometimes three times. He traveled through dense 
 forests, swam swollen streams, ate venison and cornbread. 
 Either the plain fare made a great preacher of him and his 
 associates, or the root of the matter was in them. If it was 
 the food, then we ought to, pray God to feed all of our 
 preachers on plain food. When he knew it was expected of 
 him to do the work that was planned, he shrank, knowing 
 the greatness of the responsibility that would be on him. 
 Being a minister of the gospel was no trifling matter with 
 him. On entering the homes of some of the people, to whom 
 he was sent to minister, some of the inmates shouted for 
 
THE IMMORTAL TRIO. 183 
 
 iov, while others wept for the same reason. How different 
 now, there are fome people who do not want a minister to 
 enter their homes to spend the night. Either the ministers 
 or the Deople are to 1)lame. 
 
 When McGready and Hodge left the revival party, and 
 went back to the Old Presbyterians, as they were called 
 then, and McGee had not formulated his doctrine, and did 
 not feel free to unite in forming a separate presbytery, and 
 R'ankin had gone to the Shakers, and ^NI'Adoo was in 
 feeble health, what could King and Ewing do? They could 
 give up the ministry, and manage their farms, or study law, 
 and make more than a competency for their families, and 
 so save themselves and their families much humiliation 
 and contempt. Such men as these could fill creditably any 
 office in the county or state or nation to which they might 
 aspire. They could have gone back into the church, as some 
 infidels and church members said they would, who thought 
 more of members than of souls. Men of the world hoped 
 they would do this, for they thought the time had come when 
 this enthusiasm should cease, and their consciences be per- 
 mitted to slumber. But King and Ewing were not niade 
 of that kind of material. They must have the consent of 
 M'Adoo to help them in the formation of a new and in- 
 dependent presbytery. To get this, Ewing and King made 
 the hard days ride February the 3rd to the home of M'Adoo. 
 After Mr. M'Adoo had spent most of the night in prayer 
 he decided he had the mind of the Lord on the important 
 matter of organizing a new independent presbytery, 
 whose ministers could teach the doctrines of the gospel 
 as they were taught by Jesus Christ and his apos- 
 tles. On the morning of February 4, 1810, which was Sab- 
 bath, Cumberland Presbytery was organized. This is what 
 they said on that eventful day: "We, Samuel M'Adoo, 
 Finis Ewing and Samuel King, regular ordained ministers, 
 in the Presbyterian Church, against whom no charges, 
 either of immorality or heresy have ever been exhibited, 
 
i84 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 before any of the church judiciatories, and having waiteJ, 
 in vain for more than four years, in the meantime petition- 
 ing the General Assembly for a redress of grievances, and 
 a restoration of our violated rights, and do hereby agree to 
 determine to constitute into a Presbytery, known by the 
 name of the Cumberland Presbytery." One of the first 
 things done after the constituting prayer, which was at 
 family worship, was baptizing Rev. Samuel M'Adoo's 
 youngest child, a daughter. Mrs. M. Hampton, of Kansas, 
 address unknown, is a granddaughter of the first person 
 baptized in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Rev. Finis Ewing organized a congregation, Piny Fork, 
 in Christencten County, Kentucky in 1812. A campmeeting 
 has been held there every year since, except two. In 1820 
 Mr. Ewing moved to Missouri, and settled in Cooper County 
 among his old neighbors from Kentucky, who had pre- 
 ceded him. When at the synod in 1825, they were dis- 
 ■ cussing whether they would have a General Assembly. Mr. 
 Ewing advocated a delegated synod. He dreaded the imi- 
 tation of other churches, lest the time might come when 
 the church would imitate other things not profitable and 
 praiseworthy. Ewing was not afraid to defend what he 
 though was right, although the ablest ministers advocated 
 a General Assembly. The Assembly idea prevailed and 
 Mr. Ewing submitted to the will of the majority. From the 
 very beginning he advocated establishing a college. While 
 many speeches were made in favor of a college, none were 
 equal to his for clearness of argument and forcefulness. 
 He studied as long as he lived. He was a scholar of some 
 classical ability. An intelligent gentleman who had heard 
 him often, heard his last sermon and said of it : "This 
 sermon is truly excellent, and I think it is decidedly the best 
 I ever heard from him." Mr. Ewing died July 4, 1841, 
 and was buried in the city of Lexington, Missouri. His 
 grave is marked by a shaft of Italian marble five feet, 5 1-2 
 inches high, which is 13 3-4 inches square at the base and 
 
THE IMMORTAL TRIO. 185 
 
 nine inches square at the top. This shaft rests on a block 
 of Itahan marble 18 3-4 inches wide and 6 2-3 inches thick, 
 and this rests on a Warrensburg stone 22 inches wide and 
 61-4 inches thick, and the whole rests on a limestone base 
 36 1-2 inches wide and ten inches thick. In a wreath above 
 the center of the shaft is the word Ewing. Just below this 
 are these words, "In memory of Rev. Finis Ewing, born in 
 Bedford County, \'irginia, July 10, 1773, died in Lexington, 
 Missouri, July 4, 1841. He was a minister of the gospel 
 forty-five years. Was one of the founders of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church.'' 
 
 Out of the presbytery organized by M'Adoo, Ewing and 
 King has grown the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 
 which for ninety-six years, grew and prospered, and became 
 a mighty factor for good ; when many of her favored sons 
 said she must die, and they did their best to commit eccle- 
 siastical matricide. They jubilantly said after they had 
 struck what they thought was the fatal blow, "She is dead." 
 It was a terrific blow they gave her, she was stunned, but 
 in a few seconds she was sufficiently recovered to go on with 
 her work. She is weakened numerically and financially, 
 but she is stronger spiritually if not mentally, nor does she 
 show any signs of inability, or of insensibility, but is among 
 the fairest of all the churches of the land. So far as Cum- 
 berland Presbyterians are concerned, three nobler, purer, 
 humbler, braver and larger-hearted men never lived, than 
 M'Adoo, Ewing and King. They stood for what they be- 
 lieved concerning the atonement, when they knew it would 
 cost them every church house they had, and would bring- 
 on them the contempt, not only of the church they left, but 
 of other denominations, who thought for the sake of peace 
 they ought to have remained in the Presbyterian Church, 
 even if they did not believe all of its doctrines, they could 
 have made mental reservations and gone along. But truth 
 was more to them than ease and fame. With such noble 
 sires, why should it be thought that Cumberland Presbyter- 
 
i36 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 ians, who are contending for the same principle that E-wing, 
 King and M'Adoo contended for, are stnbborn and self- 
 willed? Men die, empires and kingdoms perish, bnt prin- 
 ciple is eternal. The Cnmberland Presbyterian Church 
 stands on the word of God, and will not fail, if those who 
 hold membership in her are true to her doctrines. We have 
 back of us a hundred vears of experience, and should build 
 more wisely and secure!} , if not more rapidly than in other 
 days. We must preach conviction of sin, repentance, faith 
 in God, regeneration by the Holy Ghost, adoption, sancti- 
 fication and the preserving power of God. Our schools 
 must be more generously endowed, from which we will 
 send out a membership as polished stones fitted for places 
 in the great spiritual ten: pie of God, a membership in whom 
 the Holy Spirit dwells. A membership ready to work in 
 country or city, in the home land, or foreign land, ready to 
 show the most depraved the way of salvation through Jesus 
 Christ, or the learned and rich that they need salvation just 
 as much as the vilest sinner, and that God has only one way 
 of saving men, and that all people no matter what their 
 social standing may be, or intellectual culture, they must be 
 saved, if saved at all, in the same way the publican was. 
 By preaching the doctrines taught by Jesus and his apostles, 
 we will build an enduriivg monument to the honor of the im- 
 mortal Ewing, King and M'Adoo, and will perpetuate a 
 church which v/ill bless the world, and will be holding aloft 
 the .spotless banner, when Jesus comes, on which will be in- 
 scribed in burning words, "The Spirit and the Bride say 
 Come. And let him that heareth say. Come. And let him 
 that is athirst come. And whosoeverwill, let him take of 
 the water of life freely." And when the angel, with one foot 
 on the sea and the other on the land shall say, "By him that 
 liveth forever and ever thait there 'ishould be time no 
 longer," even then the Cumberland Presbyterian Church will 
 be living, and with a ministry called of God, and with cul- 
 tured minds, and hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, we will 
 
THE IMMORTAL TRIO. 187 
 
 be preaching then as we ever have, "For God so loved the 
 world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life." 
 
 j. w. duvall, 
 Hardy Copeland, 
 s. c. lockett, 
 
 Committee. 
 This paper was \v>''<leii by J. W. Duvall and endorsed 
 bv the other nirnibcis. 
 
REV. A. N. ESHMAN 
 PRESIDENT "RADNOR COLLEGE* 
 NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 
R. L. BASKETTE 
 NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 
 W. E. DUNNAWAY 
 JACKSON, TENN. 
 
X 
 
 2 
 
 A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION OF 
 
 THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 At the meeting of the Seventy-ninth General Assembly 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, at Bentonville, 
 Ark., in May, 1909, a resolution was passed appointing 
 R. L. Baskette, Rev. A. N. Eshman and W. Ji. Dunaway as 
 a committee to prepare a historical paper on the subject 
 of "Publication," said paper to be presented to the Eightieth 
 General Assembly to convene at Dickson, Tenn., in May, 
 1910, being the one hundredth anniversary of the organiza- 
 tion of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 The committee thus designated has discharged that duty 
 to the best of its ability, and herewith submits to the Eight- 
 ieth General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church the result of their research and labor. It is ten- 
 dered with the hope and praper that it may in some measure 
 encourage those faithful and loyal brethren who have stood 
 by our beloved Zion during the times that were perilous, 
 when the perpetuation and safety of our denomination 
 seemed trembling in the balances. 
 
 PUBLICATION. 
 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in 
 Dickson County, Tennessee, on February 4, 1810. The 
 founders of the Church were Rev. Finis Ewing, Rev. Sam- 
 uel King and Rev. Samuel M'Adoo, three ministers who 
 had been exscinded from the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 without proper trial or procedure, because they excepted 
 to the teachings and doctrines of "fatality" contained in 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith. The first church 
 
190 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 judicatory was Cumberland Presbytery, and the first act of 
 publication after the birth of the new denomination, which 
 was destined to become a great light in a world groping 
 in the darkness of sin, was the "compact" entered into by 
 the three founders of the Church, and signed by them on 
 February 4, 1810. This compact was as follows: 
 
 "In Dickson County, State of Tennessee, at the Rev. 
 Samuel M'Adoo's this 4th of February, 1810, — 
 
 "We, Samuel M'Adoo, Finis Ewing and Samuel King, 
 regularly ordained ministers in the Presbyterian Church, 
 against whom no charge, either of immorality or heresy, 
 has ever been exhibited before any of the Church judica- 
 tories, having waited in vain for more than four years, in 
 the meantime petitioning the General Assembly for a redress 
 of grievances, and restoration of our violated rights, have 
 agreed, and do hereby agree and determine to constitute 
 into a Presbytery, known by the name of Cumberland Pres- 
 bytery, on the following conditions : All candidates for the 
 ministry who may hereafter be licensed by this presbytery, 
 and all licentiates or probationers, who may hereafter be or- 
 dained by this Presbytery, shall be required, before such 
 licensure or ordination, to receive and adopt the Confession 
 and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church, except the idea 
 of fatality, which seems to be taught under the mysterious 
 doctrine of predestination. It is to be understood, however, 
 that such as can clearly receive the Confession without any 
 exception shall not be required to make any. Moreover, all 
 licentiates, before they are set apart to the whole work of 
 the ministry, or ordained, shall be required to undergo an 
 examination on English Grammar, Geography, Astronomy, 
 Natural and Moral Philosophy, and Church History. It 
 will not be understood that examinations on experimental 
 religion and theology will be omitted. The Presbytery 
 may also require an examination on all, or any part of the 
 above branches of literature, before licensure if they deem 
 it expedient." 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 191 
 
 At the first regular meeting of Cumberland Presbytery 
 in March, 1810, the second act of "Publication" was in- 
 dulged in when it was ordered "that Messrs. Samuel 
 M'Adoo, Finis Ewing, Ephriam McLean, James B. Porter 
 and Young Ewing, or a majority of them, draw a 'Circular 
 Letter,' as soon as they can, which is to be carefully ex- 
 amined, and superintend the printing of a thousand copies 
 to be distributed under the direction of Presbytery." 
 
 This "Circular Letter" was addressed to the churches 
 and brethren in the bounds of the old Cumberland Pres- 
 bytery, and explained why it was necessary to constitute 
 an independent Presbytery, giving a full history of the 
 wrongs and tyrannies practiced on the fathers and found- 
 ers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, by the Pres- 
 byterian Qiurch, U. S. A. 
 
 The length of this circular letter precludes its reproduc- 
 tion here, but the conditions at that time were so similar 
 to the conditions of our Church at the present time, that 
 we cannot refrain from making some few quotations from 
 it, and some few comparisons with the present conditions. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., which practiced 
 these wrongs and tyrannies on the fathers and founders 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, is the same Pres- 
 byterian Church, U. S. A., which, for six long years, has 
 made such an unholy efifort to destroy the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church, and take illegal possession of all of 
 its property. 
 
 The first clause in the circular letter sent out one hun- 
 dred years ago could, with the change of only a few words, 
 be used as a caption to a circular letter today, explaining 
 why we have -epudiated the illegal action of the General 
 Assembly of the betrayal at Decatur, 111., in 1906. This 
 clause reads as follows : 
 
 "Dear Brethren : The time has at last come when v/e must 
 either sacrifice our religious liberties and conscience to what 
 we judge unreasonable demands, cease our endeavors to 
 
T92 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 promote the work of God among you as we have hither- 
 to done, or constitute a presbytery separate from the Synod 
 of Kentucky. We chose the latter as the only way in which 
 we can have the answer of a good conscience." 
 
 If you will strike out the expression, "constitute a Pres- 
 bytery separate from the Synod of Kentucky" and sub- 
 stitute the expression, "repudiate the illegal action of the 
 Decatur General Assembly," it will fit our present condi- 
 tions and position exactly. At another place in the "Circu- 
 lar Letter," in referring to the great revival, we find this 
 statement, which is also similar to conditions as we find them 
 at present, although it was written one hundred years ago. 
 
 "For awhile, at first, all the ministers in our bounds . 
 seemed to participate in the glorious efifusion of the Holy 
 Spirit, and correspondent to this proclaimed themselves 
 friends of the revival. But alas, it was soon after discover- 
 able, that some of them had changed their opinions, other- 
 wise they had never been well established. The consequence 
 of this apparent change may easily be inferred." 
 
 For awhile it seemed that all the ministers of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church were thoroughly loyal to the 
 precious doctrines contained in its Confession of Faith, for 
 they had proclaimed themselves as friends and took vows 
 to support the Church and maintain inviolate its precious 
 creeds. "But, alas, it was soon after discoverable, that 
 some of them had changed their opinion, otherzvise they 
 had never been zvell established." This discovery was made 
 when a committee of supposedly Cumberland Presbyterians 
 went to St. Louis in 1903, and there entered into a con- 
 spiracy with a like committee from the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., for the betrayal of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, the destruction of its Confession of Faith and 
 confiscation of its property. Also, that the opinions of 
 some six or seven hundred of its ministers had never been 
 well established, for when the vision of "larger things" 
 appeared before their sight, they suddenly discovered that 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 193 
 
 they were "Calvinists" instead of being "Cumberlands," 
 and they immedidately stampeded into the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A., along with those who had betrayed the 
 Church, while it yet trusted them as brethren. During the 
 persecution which we have suffered for five or six years, we 
 have all felt the need of more ministers to serve our scat- 
 tered and shepherdless flocks. This condition-was also de- 
 scribed one hundred years ago, by the fathers and founders 
 of the Church, in the "Circular Letter," from which we 
 again quote : 
 
 "And although the few who remained friends to the re- 
 vival labored in the work night and day, yet the cries of the 
 people for more preaching were incessant, and those cries 
 soon became so general that they were heard from many 
 parts of an extensive frontier. The ministers, in return, 
 could only pity and pray for them; the congregations 
 being so numerous, and in such a scattered situation, that 
 * they could not by any posible endeavor supply them." 
 
 Those ministers who remained true to the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church during the high season of "betrayal 
 and desertion" have labored night and day, and found it im- 
 possible to supply all our congregations who have remained 
 true to our tenants and doctrines. Some of these precious 
 flocks have not heard a sermon from the lips of a Cum- 
 berland minister in years, but there is a God in heaven to 
 whom we can appeal, and that God will hear our appeal and 
 yet send laborers to the harvest. This will come to us now 
 as surely as it came to the fathers and founders of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church one hundred years ago. We 
 find this precious record of their answered prayers in the 
 "Circular Letter :" 
 
 "The consequence was that an uncommon spirit of prayer 
 now seemed to prevail throughout the societies, that the 
 Great Head of the Qiurch would, not only open an effectual 
 door into the ministry, but also that he would raise up, 
 qualify, and bring men into the sacred office, whose labors 
 
194 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 he would own and bless. And brethren, that God who never 
 told Israel to seek him in vain, evidently heard and answer- 
 ed the prayers of his people. Some whose minds had been 
 previously impressed with the duty of calling sinners to re- 
 pentance, and of bearing- public testimony to the work of 
 God and the religion of Jesus Christ, and upon whom also 
 the eyes of the church had for some time been fixed with a 
 degree of expectation, now made their exercise of mind on 
 this subject known to their fathers in the ministry." 
 
 If we but follow the examples of these sainted men of 
 God, and pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send 
 the laborers, our prayers will be heard and answered. 
 
 Further on in the "Circular Letter" we find this state- 
 ment : 
 
 "As to the second point, the Synod (Kentucky) had sug- 
 gested that the candidates could have adopted the 'Alcoran' 
 in the same manner they adopted the Confession of Faith." 
 
 Just here permit us to mildly suggest that the betrayers 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and their follow- 
 ers could, under the deliverances of the Des Moines and 
 Denver Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 adopt the "Alcoran" in the same manner they are alleged 
 to adopt the Westminister Confession of Faith. However, 
 we may be met with the explanation that these deliverances 
 were not made for doctrinal purposes, but for the purpose 
 of corrupting civil courts, so as to win litigation, wherein 
 the right of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., to commit 
 ecclesiastical piracy was being tested. This "Circular Let- 
 ters," sent forth one hundred years ago, so ably fits our 
 present condition and experience, that we must present to 
 you further excerpts from its precious pages. In defend- 
 ing themselves from any charge of being precipitate this 
 statement is made by the founders of our Church : 
 
 "We think, brethren, precipitancy or rashness cannot be 
 justly imputed to us in the present case. ... If we had 
 sought or desired an occasion to make a schism in the 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 195 
 
 Church, we had an excellent pretext after the unprecedented 
 conduct of the commission towards us. But, instead of this, 
 we voluntarily suspended our operations as a presbytery, 
 and waited from year to year (being beset on every side) 
 hoping the matter might be settled on principles just and 
 equitable. We said 'beset on every side.' Yes brethren, 
 a number of you know how, that various secretaries took 
 advantage of our forbearance and peculiar situation and en- 
 deavored to rend our flourishing congregations." 
 
 Precipitancy or rashness cannot be imputed to Cumber- 
 land Presbyterians in the struggle for existence which the 
 Church has been making for the last six years. When 
 this fell conspiracy was being started in the Nashville As- 
 sembly, in 1903, we remained quiet, "hoping that the matter 
 would be settled on principles just and equitable," but we 
 were sadly disappointed, for we soon afterwards discovered 
 that those whom we trusted had betrayed their trust, and 
 we were sold to become the victims of the avaricious am- 
 bitions and covetousness of the Presbyterian Church, U. 
 S. A. 
 
 We were also "beset 011 every side," for the proselyters, 
 and pastor-evangelists, in the employ of the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A., took advantage of our "forbearance and 
 peculiar situation and endeavored to rend our flourishing- 
 congregations." All the wicked arts and wiles that an evil 
 purpose could invent were use to deceive and lead astray 
 the members of our flocks, just the same as was attempted 
 one hundred years ago, and by the paid emissaries of the 
 same Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. But the declaration 
 of the fathers and founders of the Church one hundred 
 years ago was, "yet wi-: determined through grace to 
 STAND FIRM," and that is the purpose and intention of the 
 Church today. Some of our brethren have at various 
 times expressed the fear that on account of the heavy 
 losses in the ministerial ranks, and on account of the large 
 amount of property which has been taken from the Church, 
 
196 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 that we could not succeed. The same fear was expressed 
 one hundred years ago, and the fathers of the Church 
 answered it this way : 
 
 "Some have feared on account of the smalhiess of our 
 numbers. Brethren, we have yet left, in the bounds of our 
 Presbyterv, almost as many ministers, exclusive of candi- 
 dates, as our blessed Lord chose to spread the Gospel 
 through the world. And while we acknowledge the greatest 
 inferiority to these twelve champions of the Gospel, yet we 
 profess to believe that neither the standiiii:; nor reputation of 
 a people depends on their numbers. If this were admitted, 
 the Roman Church, when it was at its zenith of superstition 
 and idolatry, would have been the most prominent and re- 
 spectable in the world." 
 
 Today we can say to the brethren of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church that one hundred years ago we started 
 with three backwoods preachers, and that today we have 
 exclusive of candidates and licentiates, nearly seven hun- 
 dred ministers, and that the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, to-day, has four nations of the world marching 
 under its banners. Further, we have twice as many ministers 
 today as there were men of valor arrayed in Gideon's 
 army. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., everything is 
 measured by numbers and mammon. God forbid that such 
 a condition should ever come to pass in the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church. We know that the fear is expressed 
 in many quarters that we will not for many weary years 
 be able to supply a sufificient number of ministers to care 
 for the work in our bounds. The same fear was expressed 
 one hundred years ago, and in the "Circular Letter" it 
 was answered this way: 
 
 "Some of you are afraid that you cannot be supplied by 
 the presbytery. Brethren, the same Almighty Lord of the 
 harvest who heard your prayers on that subject ten years 
 ago, is willing to hear again. Is the harvest indeed great 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 197 
 
 and the laborers few? Well, then pray the Lord to send 
 more laborers." 
 
 This is a message which we would sound loud and long, 
 and send it to the farthest ends of our bounds, that every 
 Cumberland Presbyterian may hear it, and to those who 
 hear, we beg you, brethren, to give heed, and pray the Lord 
 who heard the prayers of our fathers ofttimes before, and 
 who will hear our prayers yet again. Let us repeat that 
 precious message again and again, "Brethren, pray the Lord 
 of the harvest to send more laborers." 
 
 We shall make one more quotation from this sacred 
 historical document, and then pass on to the further his- 
 tory of our subject. This last quotation from the "Circular 
 Letter" is a message of peculiar sacredness to our Church 
 at this time, and one over which we hope our brethren 
 will ponder : 
 
 "We hope to be enabled to commit ourselves and our 
 cause to Him who is able to keep us. Brethren, if we live at 
 the feet of the Redeemer and feel constant dependence on 
 Him, we are not afraid but that He will be our God and 
 director. And if God be for us, who can be against us? 
 We therefore entreat you brethren, watch and be sober." 
 
 What a strange coincidence, that, in a second struggle 
 against the persecutions of the same church, the inci- 
 dents connected with the two' events should be exactly 
 similar, although happening a century apart. In April, 
 181 3, Cumberland Presbytery was divided into three pres- 
 byteries, Nashville, Logan and Elk being the names of the 
 three presbyteries. At the same time Cumberland Synod 
 was formed, the first session being held at the old Beech 
 Meeting House, in Sumner County, Tennessee. At this 
 meeting of Synod it was reported that the Presbyterian 
 Qiurch, U. S. A., through some of its emissaries, had 
 spread the report that creed and doctrines of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterians were unknown, and the effort was made 
 to class members of our Church with a lot of fanatics anil 
 
igS CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 lierctics in Kentucky. A motion was made and carried 
 that Finis Ewing and Robert Donnell be appointed a "com- 
 mittee to draft a complete, thorough and succinct account o^ 
 the rise, doctrines," etc., of the Cumberland Presbytery. 
 This committee made its report to the meeting of Synod 
 at Suggs Creek meeting house in Wilson County, Tennes- 
 see on October 13, 1813. This was the first doctrinal de- 
 liverance made by the Church then in its infancy. It is 
 true that a "Reply" had been published in 1812 to a cir- 
 cular letter sent out by West Tennessee Presbytery of the 
 Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., in reference to false state- 
 ments circulated concerning what Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rians stood for. The report of this committee was adopted, 
 and ordered published in Woodward's Edition of Buck's 
 Theological Dictionary. This was the first announcement 
 to the world of a fixed doctrinal position, and around this 
 committee's report, was gradually built that magnificent, 
 and simple statement of Scriptural truths, which we call 
 our Confession of Faith. Thus was sown the seed which 
 were to flourish and grow into the Confession of Faith of 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as we have it to-day, 
 a simple statement of Scriptural truths, the formulating- 
 of which the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., endeavored 
 to defeat, and during the year since 1903, that same Pres- 
 byterian Church, U. S. A., has spent a half million of 
 dollars, in an effort to destroy it, and stop its publication 
 forever. And yet no man in the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., dare assail it, or question a single statement of 
 doctrine contained in any of its precious pages. At the 
 meeting of Synod in 1813, a committee was appointed to 
 prepare a fuller creed and Confession of Faith. This com- 
 mittee consisted of William McGhee, Finis Ewing, Thomas 
 Calhoun and Robert Donnell. The work of this committee, 
 in revising fatality, as f^ir as possible, out of the Westminster 
 Confession was adopted by the Synod which met at Suggs 
 Creek meeting house in Wilson County, Tennessee, in 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 199 
 
 April, 1814. After the adoption of the revised confession, 
 Finis Ewing and Hugh Kirkpatrick, contracted to print 
 the Confession of Faith, and furnish it to the Church at 
 eighty-seven and a half cents per copy. There is a copy 
 of this original Confession in the hands of the General 
 Manager of our Publishing House. When this stock was 
 exhausted the Confession was printed at different times 
 by the different presbyteries. Copies of all the various issues 
 are in the hands of your Board of Publication. 
 
 After the organization of the General Assembly at Prince- 
 ton, Ky., in May, 1829, a Committee on "Publication" was 
 appointed to revise the Confession of Faith, so as to con- 
 form to the organization of an Assembly. This committee 
 consisted of Henry F. Delaney, F. R. Cossitt, Hiram A. 
 Hunter and Richard Beard. The committee were instruct- 
 ed to have printed five thousand copies of the Confession 
 for general distribution. 
 
 From this point we must discuss the history of "Publi- 
 cation" of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church along 
 three different lines. First, the Board of Publication, then 
 the official organ or church paper, then the Publishing 
 House, this to be closed with some unpublished history, 
 dealing with the rescue of our publishing interests and 
 Sunday school literature from the awful wreck and ruin 
 produced by the betrayal of our Church into the hands of 
 the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 
 
 THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 I 
 
 During the first ten or twelve years of the Church's 
 existence, its ministers were too intent on bringing sinners 
 to Christ to think of ecclesiastical machinery ; but as time 
 rolled on they began to feel the need of business equip- 
 ment of some kind for the Church. In 1823, Cumberland 
 Synod requested each Presbytery, to prepare and report 
 its history to the Synod. In 1824 the Synod appointed a 
 committee, to take charge of these reports, and collect other 
 
200 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 material for a Church history. Unfortunately this com- 
 mittee never completed their work. In 1825 the Synod ap- 
 pointed a "Committee on Publication" to have printed the 
 "Lectures of Finis Ewing," which had been delivered in 
 his school in Missouri. These lectures were printed by the 
 committee in 1827, and General Manager Baskette, of 
 your Board of Publication, while making a research for 
 other books, secured a copy of this precious document. It 
 contains thirty-one lectures, and we believe that our Boar J 
 of Publication should be requested to republish this book, 
 should the demand for it justify. The Synod of 1825 also 
 appointed a committee, consisting of Samuel King, Robert 
 Donnell and James B. Porter, to compile a hymn book. 
 The committee made the compilation and printed and sold 
 six thousand copies of the book. Twenty-three years later 
 the plates of this book were turned over to the Board of 
 Publication which was organized in 1847. The Synod of 
 1825, in adopting a plan for the organization of Cumber- 
 land College, to be located at Princeton, Ky., also author- 
 ized the commissioners appointed for that purpose, to con- 
 nect with it a printing office to publish "periodicals, books 
 and tracts." No action was taken in this direction. In 1843 
 the General Assembly which met at Owensboro, Ky., pass- 
 ed a resolution which provided that different boards should 
 be organized for the purpose of carrying on the business 
 affairs of the Church. In 1845 the Assembly which met at 
 Lebanon, Tenn., appointed a "Publishing Association." A 
 constitution was adopted prescribing its powers and duties, 
 and making it a sort of stock company. It was expected 
 that the different presbyteries and synods would subscribe 
 for the stock. At that time a wild mania for speculation 
 in Western lands and gold mines existed all over the coun- 
 try, and the people were carried away with the idea of 
 stock companies for everything. The members of the Pub- 
 lishing Association were Richard Beard, Milton Bird, H. A. 
 Hunter, Leroy Woods. J. F. Wilkin, William Miller, James 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 201 
 
 M. Rogers and Alonzo Liverniore. It was a very cumber- 
 some piece of machinery, and the members lived in dif- 
 ferent states at great distances from /;ach other. They 
 were never called together for organization, until 1847, 
 and the General Assembly, which was in session at that 
 time, abolished the "Association" the day after it was or- 
 ganized. In 1845 a manuscript hymn book was adopted 
 by the General Assembly, and these hymns, in connection 
 with those compiled twenty-three years before, were pub- 
 lished several years later, and in a short while ten thousand 
 copies were sold. This book has been preserved, and is 
 now on sale at the Publishing House in -Nashville. 
 
 The General Assembly which met at Lebanon, Ohio, in 
 1847, appointed the first real working "Board of Publica- 
 tion" that the Church ever had. This board consisted of 
 Ministers Milton Bird and Laban Jones, and Elders T. E. 
 McLean, A. M. Phelps and James L. Stratton. A Com- 
 mittee on Examination, composed of Robert Donnell, T. C. 
 Anderson and Richard Beard, were appointed to examine 
 and pass on all matters offered for publication. The head- 
 quarters of the board were at Louisville, Ky., the home of 
 Milton Bird, the board's president. It was to be kept 
 going by voluntary contributions, and in 1849 the board 
 had six agents in the field collecting funds. Nearly all 
 the funds collected were consumed in paying the expenses 
 and salaries of the agents. All printing was done by con- 
 tract with the old firm of Morton & Griswold at Louisville, 
 Ky. In 1850, Dr. Bird resigned as business manager, and 
 was succeeded by Leroy Woods. The business of the 
 Board of Publication was carried on at Louisville from 
 1847 to 1858. Complaints were made by various assem- 
 blies because the board failed to report fully and in due 
 time, and on one occasion it made no report at all. In 1850 
 J^ennsylvania Synod sent a memorial to the Assembly ask- 
 ing that the "Book Concern," as they called it, be moved 
 tarther east, 
 
202 CENTENNI4L SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 It is a matter of interest, especially at this time, that 
 two reports which were written by Dr. Bird announced 
 business principles whose soundness it has required years 
 of sad experience to enable our Church and others to ap- 
 preciate. Dr. Bird condemned the credit system, and the 
 sale of books at too low a price. He protested against 
 the policy of allowing "Depositories" to be run, where the 
 books of the Church were sold, and the profit on the sales 
 were turned into the pockets of individuals instead of the 
 treasury of the church's own board. The Board of Publi- 
 cation has met with serious losses during the last ten years 
 on account of violation of these well-defined business prin- 
 ciples. When the Assembly of 1854 met. it was found 
 that the Board of Publication was greatly embarrassed. 
 It was greatly in debt and on account of the credit system 
 pursued, was unable to realize on its assets. Among other 
 books printed by the board at Louisville, were "Infant 
 Philosophy," "Ewing's Lectures," "Donnell's Thoughts" 
 and "Porter's Foreknowledge and Decrees." The plates 
 for these books were finally lost. They were traced to Phila- 
 delphia, but were never recovered. In 1858 the Assembly, 
 after investigating the affairs of the Louisville board, abol- 
 ished it. This board had in 1848, secured a charter from 
 the state of Kentucky, but in i860, this charter was ordered 
 surrendered, and a new charter was obtained in Tennessee. 
 
 Right here we can discern the hand of God leading 
 the Church. The Assembly of 1858 transferred the head- 
 quarters of the board from Louisville to Xashville, and ap- 
 pointed Rev. Wiley M. Reed, Rev. W. E. Ward and An- 
 drew Allison as its Board of Publication. This board se- 
 cured a charter from the Legislature of the State of Ten- 
 nessee under which the present board is working. But 
 for this change, made under the guiding hand of God, the 
 publishing property would today be under the jurisdiction 
 of the civil courts of a state, where the civil courts have 
 surrendered their high prerogative to a corrupt and con- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 203 
 
 scienceless priesthood. The total amount of assets turned 
 over to the Nashville committee by the Louisville board 
 was about $1,500. The first act of the Nashville board was 
 to borrow one thousand dollars with which to print a new 
 hymn book that had been compiled by Rev. A. J. Baird, 
 Rev. J. C. Provine and Elder Nathan Green, Jr. 
 
 The great Civil War came on, and the publication work 
 of the Church stopped. The Assembly of 1863, which 
 met in Alton, 111., appointed a new Board of Publication, 
 with headquarters at Pittsburg, Pa. This board consisted 
 of S. T. Stewart, Alexander Postley, T. C. Lazear and 
 Joseph Penock. Rev. P. G. Rea and Rev. L. Lack were 
 appointed a special committee to go to Nashville, and se- 
 cure possession of the assets. The board remained at Pitts- 
 burg until the meeting of the Assembly at Memphis, Tenn., 
 in 1867, when its headquarters were again transferred back 
 to Nashville, and Rev. A. J. Baird, Rev. L. C. Ransom 
 and Elder D. C. Love were appointed as a Board of Publi- 
 cation. The Rev. J. C. Provine was chosen as book editor 
 and publishing agent. 
 
 In 1869, Dr. Provine resigned and W. E. Dunaway, now 
 of Jackson, Tenn., was appointed as publishing agent. 
 Under the able business management of Brother Dunaway, 
 the publishing affairs of the Church for the first time in 
 its history, began to prosper. The report made to the As- 
 sembly in 1870 showed marked increase in assets, dona- 
 tions, profits and sales. On January i, 1871, the first book 
 store that the Church ever owned, was opened in Nash- 
 ville by Brother W. E. Dunaway. This was located at 41 
 Union Street, in the same building where the old Banner 
 of Peace was being published. 
 
 The business management remained in the hands of 
 Brother Dunaway until 1875, at which time he resigned. 
 Since that time the business interests of the Board of Pub- 
 lication have been successively managed by the following 
 parties : John M. Gaut, T. M. Hursts, J. D. Wilson, W. J. 
 
204 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Darby, Ira Landrith, John M. Gaut for a second term, 
 J. W. Axtell and W. E. Ward. The only true Cumberland 
 Presbyterian in the above list was J. D. Wilson, who lost 
 his life while manager of the Publishing House by falling 
 through the elevator shaft. On February 2^, 1910, at 
 five o'clock p. m., the publishing interests were again 
 turned over to Cumberland Presbyterians, and R. L. Bas- 
 kette, the author of this paper, became General Manager. 
 
 When the "General Assembly of the Betrayal" adjourned 
 at Decatur in 1906, the faithful "106" elected a new Board 
 of Publication. This board was composed of the following 
 members : F. A. Seagle, T. A. Havron, Rev. W. W. Irvin, 
 Rev. T. M. Hendrix and Rev. M. A. Hunt. On account 
 of the disorganized condition of the Church at that time, 
 caused by the terrible and un-Christian onslaught made 
 upon it by the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., nothing of 
 a definite nature was accomplished by that board. When 
 the General Assembly met at Dickson, Tenn., in May, 1907, 
 the following board was elected : Hon. J. H. Zarecor, 
 President ; R. L. Baskette, Secretary and Treasurer ; F. A. 
 Seagle, Joe H. Fussell, W. L. Danley, S. A. Cunningham, 
 W. E. Dunaway, Rev. A. N. Eshman, Rev. J. H. Zwingle 
 and Rev. A. C. Biddle. 
 
 This board commenced to raise money for carrying on 
 the publication work of the Church, and commenced litiga- 
 tion for possession of the Publishing House at Nashville. 
 After a long, tiresome legal battle with the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A., success crowned their efit'orts, and the 
 magnificent publishing plant is again in full possession of 
 the General Assembly's board. 
 
 To show the extent to which the "Union Board of Pub- 
 lication" went in their efiforts to accomplish the destruction 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, we quote the fol- 
 lowing excerpts from their own minutes : 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 205 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 "June 22, 1904. The members expressed hearty approval 
 of the editorial course of Mr. Clarke, especially on the 
 question of organic union, and expressed the opinion that 
 he should now advocate organic union in view of the ac- 
 tion of the General Assembly." 
 
 "April 8, 1905. President Provine and Mr. Axtell set 
 forth the fact that the Board was unable to obtain trans- 
 portation amounting to more than two round trips to Fres- 
 no, Cal., to the General Assembly ; also transportation for 
 others as far as Kansas City. Mr. Axtell also stated that 
 the additional cost would be about $50.00 apiece. On 
 motion of Jno. H. DeWitt it was unanimously decided that 
 the Board should defray the additional expense necessary 
 to send Messrs Provine, Axtell, Farr and Clarke." 
 
 "June 21, 1905. Rev. Jas. E. Clarke submitted a com- 
 munication as editor of The Cumberland Presbyterian. 
 After some discussion of the policy of the paper as to the 
 Union of the churches, Mr. Manton introduced the follow- 
 ing resolution, which was unanimously adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, The question of union was settled at the last 
 meeting of the General Assembly, and further discussion 
 of this question is unnecessary and will be in no wise profit- 
 able ; therefore 
 
 "Resolved, i. That there should be no further discussion 
 in favor of or in opposition to union. 
 
 "2. That no communication should be published cal- 
 culated to arouse opposition between those favorable or 
 unfavorable to union. 
 
 "3. That no reference should be made to misstatements 
 published by the opponents of union, but such misstate- 
 ments should be ignored. 
 
 "4. That the general policy of the paper should be to 
 cement and harmonize the entire Church by advancing the 
 cause of the Master and every enterprise of the Church, 
 
206 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 and that just as little as possible should be written even on 
 the issues growing out of the union question. 
 
 "5. The above resolutions are not intended to prevent 
 the publication of such matter as the General Assembly's 
 committee may desire, nor of matter relating to the con- 
 summation and effect of union, yet even with reference to 
 new issues which may arise out of the present conditions 
 every effort should be made not to antagonize those who 
 have heretofore opposed union. 
 
 "6. That the Editor and General Manager use every ef- 
 fort to increase the circulation of the paper and in every 
 wny magnify its value and influence." 
 
 "It was .moved by Mr. I lardison, and unanimously car- 
 ried, that the House print and publish without charge any 
 literature in furtherance of the cause of Union that may be 
 asked for by the Committee on Fraternity and Union, svib- 
 ject to the approval of the General Manager or the Execu- 
 tive Committee." 
 
 "October 5, 1905. The following resolution as to the 
 policy of TJic Cumberland Presbyterian was offered and 
 unanimously adopted : 
 
 "With reference to the policy of the paper concerning the 
 question of union, it is the judgment of the Board that the 
 time has come when the editor should conduct a careful 
 campaign of correct information, so that our people may be 
 fully informed of the attitude of the Presbyterian Church on 
 all phases of the question and so that they may not be mis- 
 led by the erroneous claims and assertions of those who op- 
 pose the action of the church. 
 
 "While such a campaign of information should be in- 
 augurated, controversy should be avoided just so far as pos- 
 sible, care should be taken not to dignify the agencies and 
 organizations of anti-union leaders. The general policy 
 should be based upon the assumption that the Church has 
 definitely settled the union question and that the anti-union 
 leaders have no authorized organization, represent only 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 207 
 
 those who choose to follow their leadership, and now stand 
 in opposition not to union but to the Cumberland Church. 
 The editor is authorized, when he can secure matter which 
 would be of special value in pamphlet form, to co-operate 
 with the Committee on Fraternity and Union in the publi- 
 cation of such pamphlets, the expense of printing to be 
 borne by the House." 
 
 "The Committee appointed yesterday recommended the 
 following resolution, which was unanimously adopted : 
 
 'Tn view of the important interests involved in the publi- 
 cation work of the reunited church, we deem it wise that 
 there should be a conference between the Board of Publi- 
 cation and Sabbath School Work of the Presbyterian 
 . Church, U. S. A., and the Board of Publication of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church ; therefore 
 
 "Rcsoh'cd, That the President of the Board invite the 
 Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work of the Pres- 
 byterian Church of the U. S. A., to send such delegation 
 of members of their Board to meet with this Board for a 
 full and free conference upon all matters pertaining to the 
 publication interests of the reunited church, and that such 
 delegation be invited to be the guests of the Board of Pub- 
 lication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church while in 
 the city. We suggest 10 a. m., November i, or November 
 8, as the time for such meeting, November 8 being pre- 
 ferable to the members of this Board." 
 
 "January 17, 1906. President Provine read some letters 
 and telegrams from the Presbyterian Board of Publica- 
 tion and Sabbath School Work, of Philadelphia, asking 
 that a committee of this Board meet a committee of that 
 Board on January 25, or 26, at Pittsburg, Pa. It was 
 moved and carried that the invitation be accepted and that 
 the meeting be held on January 25, 1906, and that a com- 
 mittee of four, representing the Board, be appointed for 
 this purpose. It was moved and carried that this com- 
 mittee be as follows : Rev. W. A. Provine, chairman ; Rev. 
 
ao8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Charles Matiton, J. W. Axtell and John H. DeWitt, with 
 Hamilton Parks as alternate for Air. DeWitt." 
 
 "May 19, 1906. The committee which went to Pitts- 
 burg, Pa., last January, to meet and confer with a committee 
 from the Board of Publication and Sunday School Work 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 
 reported as to their conference and what was done by the 
 two committees in Pittsburg. 
 
 "This report was approved by the Board and the minutes 
 of the meeting at Pittsburg were ordered spread on the 
 minutes of this meeting. Said minutes were as follows: 
 "Pittsburg, Pa., January 25, 1906. 
 
 "The Committee of the Board of Publication and Sabbath 
 School Work of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
 States of America and the Committee of the Board of Pub- 
 lication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church met, pur- 
 suant to agreement, at Hotel Schenley, in Pittsburg, Penn- 
 sylvania, at ten o'clock a. m., on Thursday, January 25, 
 1906. 
 
 Present: Judge Robert N. Willson, President; Rev. 
 Alexander Henry, D. D., Secretary; and Elder Franklin 
 L. Sheppard, of said Board of the Presbyterian Church 
 in the United States of America ; and the Rev. W. A. Pro- 
 vine, President ; Hamilton Parks, Secretary ; Rev. Charles 
 Manton, D. D., and J. W. Axtell, Manager of said Board 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 The two committees organized by electing Judge Willson 
 Chairman, and Hamilton Parks Secretary, of the joint 
 meeting. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. 
 W. A. Provine. 
 
 "The morning was spent in a general discussion of the 
 publishing work of the two churches, and of what action 
 was thought necessary to be taken in order to consummate 
 the Union of the two churches. 
 
 "After taking lunch together, and a further conference. 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 209 
 
 the following' resolutions were unanimously adopted by the 
 two committees, viz : 
 
 "Resolved, i. Unless by an agreement of the legal ad- 
 visers of the Committee on l-'raternity and Union, it should 
 seem necessary for the General .Assembly of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church of 1906 to make a formal order 
 for the transfer of the property of its Boards to the cor- 
 responding Boards of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
 States of America, we recommend that nothing more should 
 be done than is indicated by the report of said committee 
 at its St. Louis meeting in December, 1905 ; but, in case 
 such order is required to perfect such transfer, action to that 
 effect may be taken by the Assembly. 
 
 "Resolved, 2. That while the Boards now in charge 
 of the work of Publication at Philadelphia and Nashville 
 should consult freely in connection with all matters of mu- 
 tual importance arising prior to the meeting of the General 
 xAssembly of 1907, the direction of the work in Nashville 
 be left until that time in the hands of the persons then con- 
 stituting the Board of Publication of the Cum.berland Pres- 
 byterian Church, as the representatives of the General As- 
 sembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States 
 of America. 
 
 "Resolved, 3. That the Publishing House at Nashville, 
 Tennessee, be continued as a book depository for the Pres- 
 byterian Church in the United States of America ; and that 
 fhe printing plant be continued as a denominational in- 
 stitution for a sufficient time to test the desirabilit\' of the 
 perpetuation of that part of the work of publication. 
 
 "Resolved, 4. That the Sunday school periodicals of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church be continued until the 
 end of the present year, provided that the two Boards shall 
 agree that that is the best time for the discontinuance ; 
 otherwise their publication may be continued for a period 
 not longer than six months from the end of the year. 
 
 "Resolved, 5. That The Cnniherland Presbyterian week- 
 
210 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 ly paper be continued as a publication for a time, but that it 
 be disposed of to private parties as soon as circumstances 
 may sug'i^est that such a step is advisable." 
 
 (Signed) Hamilton Parks, Secretary. 
 
 "After discussion it was on motion ordered that our 
 business manager, ]\Ir. J. W. Axtell, go East to Philadel- 
 phia and Xew York, and to such other cities as he deemed 
 best, to conduct further negotiations for the articulation 
 of the P)Oards of I'ublication as indicated by the Pittsburg 
 conference, and to look after the increasing of the business 
 of the Publishing House, and he was given full authority 
 to make such contracts and enter into such business ar- 
 rangements as he might deem proper. 
 
 "Mr. Clarke presented to the l^)Oard a communication, 
 which was as follows : 
 "To the Board of Publication : 
 
 "Dear Brethren: 1 address this communication for 
 your consideration at your meeting at Decatur, on the as- 
 sumption that union will be actually consummated at the 
 Decatur Assembly. If consummation is delayed, then there 
 is no occasion for the consideration of the subject here 
 mentioned. 
 
 "You have doubtless already considered, as I have, the 
 fact that immediately after the consummation of union it 
 will be necessary to make some statement about the attitude 
 of the paper. This is necessary for two- reasons : 
 
 I. Presbyterians, especially other Presbyterian papers, 
 should know at once, and authoritatively, that we, by which 
 I refer to the Board, the Manager and editors, have neither 
 intention nor desire to continue The CiiniberJaud Presby- 
 terian as an official organ. While my understanding of 
 your various conferences is that all on both sides are agreed 
 that the paper should be continued for an indefinite time, 
 practically without change, yet it should be made clear that 
 the paper does not after the consummation of union pre- 
 sume to speak officially for the reunited church or even of- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 211 
 
 ficially for the Cumberland Presbyterian portion of it. Of 
 course it would be expected that the paper will seek to 
 serve the interests of that section of the reunited church 
 wiiich was formally Cumberland Presbyterian, but the thing 
 which we need to avoid is any appearance of official utter- 
 ance. 
 
 2. Some statement should be made in order that our own 
 subscribers may be relieved from anxiety and fear of loss. 
 It is so small a matter that it is surprising that any one 
 should be influenced by it, yet it is apparent from corres- 
 pondence that some subscribers are afraid to renew, or will 
 not renew for a full year, not becau.~e of opposition to the 
 paper, but because they fear that it will be discontinued and 
 they will lose some part of the subscription price. 
 
 These are two reasons in particular why it seems to me 
 that something should be said in the paper, and in my judg- 
 ment whatever is said should be said by the members of the 
 Board. I have thought of it frequently but have not yet been 
 able to think out just what should be said. It is a delicate 
 subject, and there is grave danger of making false impres- 
 sion by anything that we may say. I will try, however, 
 to prepare for you a basis for criticism and amendment, an 
 article which seems to me to cover the case. Whether I 
 succeed in preparing such a document or not, I trust that 
 this subject will receive your careful consideration. 
 
 "May I say to you at this time officially what I have be- 
 fore said to two or three of the Board privately, that I 
 have been approached with several different suggestions 
 about the future of the paper and in two instances have 
 been definitel}^ asked to co-operate in securing the control 
 of the paper, at the ])roner time, of course, by private par- 
 ties, the suggestion including the thought that I should re- 
 main as editor or should become a part owner, or both? 
 To suggestions of this kind I have positively replied that 
 I would take no steps in that direction. At the same time 
 I have oft'ered to furnish to others any information which 
 
212 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 they might need which would enable them, without any 
 co-operation on my part, to make an offer for the paper 
 upon an intelligent basis if so desired. This, too, is a deli- 
 cate subject. I would not convey the impression that I am 
 totally averse to continuing in editorial work, for such is 
 not the case, yet I feel that as your employee and in a sense 
 your representative, it would be unbecoming in me to have 
 a part in negotiations which might cause it to be said, even 
 though untruthfully, that I was taking advantage of my 
 position to provide for my own future. Influenced by this 
 thought, I have placed myself deliberately in an attitude 
 where I expect no further overtures from either of the two 
 parties mentioned. In fact, I already know that movements 
 are on foot which contemplate co-operation with others. 
 This being the situation, I wish to make a request and a 
 statement of my own position. 
 
 "The request is that the Board will, if possible, manifest 
 such consideration as to give me several months' intimation 
 of changes which will come, in order that I may make my 
 own plans for the future. The statement is that I desire 
 the Board to consider my resignation at their command at 
 any moment when it seems best. In explanation of this 
 statement I should add, though I am not at liberty to give 
 names, that I know of still other parties who are thinking 
 of making a proposition to purchase the paper as a private 
 enterprise. This would involve certainly the severance of 
 my relations to the paper, and my understanding is that it is 
 the desire of these parties to perfect the new arrangement 
 in the briefest possible time. I would not for a moment 
 stand in the way of any transfer of The Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian, and I wish to assure you of this. At the same 
 time I believe that my effort in behalf of the paper and the 
 Board justifies me in asking that you will be as considerate 
 as possible." 
 
 Very fraternally yours, 
 
 James E. Clarke. 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 21/ 
 
 "May 19, 1906. Mr. Clarke read an editorial or an- 
 nouncement to be published in the issue of The Cumberland 
 Presbyterian, which was approved. 
 
 "After a full discussion of the matter by the Board, the 
 General Manager and the Editor, it was decided that in 
 the event of the consummation of the reunion of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church, 
 in the United States of America, that this Board will con- 
 trol the policy of The Cumberland Presbyterian for at least 
 twelve months ; and that the Editor w^as directed to give 
 immediate notice that the said paper will be continued, but 
 that it will not be the official organ of the Church. 
 
 "On motion the General ^Manager was authorized to con- 
 duct negotiations for the sale of The Cumberland Presby- 
 terian, at a minimum price of $10,000.00 and to receive 
 bids for the same ; but it was agreed that the paper would 
 not be sold to any party or parties who would use it to 
 antagonize the re-union of the churches. 
 
 "November 14, 1906. ' /Xfter discussion, it was determined 
 by the Board: (ist) That the Board will not dispose of 
 TJie Cumberland Presbyterian before the spring of 1908 
 and (2nd) that it will retain Rev. James E. Clarke as edi- 
 tor of said paper; (3rd) that Mr. Clarke be instructed to 
 pay to Miss Buford the sum of $50.00 per quarter for extra 
 work which she is doing as editorial assistant; (4th) that 
 the sum of $2,500.00 be placed at the disposal of the Editor 
 and General Manager for the purpose of employing agents 
 or assistants to represent the Board of Publication and 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian under their supervision. 
 
 "March 22, 1907. The President read a communication 
 frcj^n.Rev. William H. Roberts, Chairman of the General 
 Assembly's Committee on Church Co-operation and Union, 
 of date of March 7. 1907. which is- as follows : 
 
214 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 PHii.ADFJ.i'iriA. Pa., March 7, 1907. 
 To the President of tlie Board of FuhJieatiou, A'cishviUe. 
 Term. : 
 
 My Dear Sir: At the recent meeting of the Assembly's 
 Committee on Church Co-operation and Union at Pitts- 
 burg, Pa., the following resolutions were adopted by the 
 Committee, viz. : 
 
 "Resolved, That we in our re])ort to the General Assem- 
 bly recommend that the General Assembly direct each 
 incorporated Board of the former Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church to proceed as promptly as ]^ossible to transfer all its 
 property and accounts to the ai)propriate incorporated 
 Board of the Reunited Church, and to legal dissolution, mi- 
 less temporary delay should l)c advised by competent legal 
 counsel and that in the meantime every such Board be con- 
 sidered as a holding corporation only, and that the officers 
 be so instructed, due notification being given by the Stated 
 Clerk of the General Assembly." 
 
 Kindly submit this resolution to the Board of which you 
 are an ofificer. 
 
 Please also inform me what steps have been taken by the 
 Board with a view to compliance with this resolution No. 
 6 of the Joint Report on Reunion and Union. — ATinutes 
 of the Des Moines General Assembly, 1906, p. 146; ^Tinutcs 
 of Decatur General x\ssembly, 1906, p. 68. 
 
 The Committee also desires to be informed as to the steps 
 taken to carry out resolution No. 7 of the Joint Report on 
 Reunion and Union, found in the Aliiuitcs of the Des 
 Moines General Assembly, 1906, p. 147; J\Iinutes of De- 
 catur General Assembly, i9a'S, p. 68, and in this connection 
 would also be pleased to know what action is proposed as 
 to the harmonious working of the respective Boards during 
 the year 1907-08. * 
 
 With kind regards, yours fraternally, 
 
 Wm. H. Roberts, Chairman. 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 215 
 
 The President stated that he acknowledged receipt of said 
 communication to the President of said Board, Judge 
 Robert X. Willson, from whom he received a letter of date 
 March 18, 1907, which is as follows: 
 
 Philadelphia, March 18, 1907. 
 
 "My Dear Mr. Provine: Your letter reached me in 
 the midst of sickness in m\- family, and 'under such cir- 
 cumstances that I could make no definite plans. Dr. Hen- 
 ry, our Secretary, is a\va\' from the city, and Mr. Converse, 
 who ought to be here, if the iiroposed conference is to be 
 held, is also absent, being on his way to California. 
 
 "We shall be glad to see any of the Board at any time, 
 and, if a committee cm be here on the 26th inst., I am sure 
 that the members of our Board will be very glad to meet 
 them. At the same time, we can confer about future plans. 
 These ought, of course, to be fornmlated soon. Until Dr. 
 Henry returns, however, I feel somewhat delicate in re- 
 gard to suggesting a date for a conference. I suppose that 
 he will be in the city when the next meeting of our Board 
 occurs. Just as soon as he returns, I shall see him and ad- 
 vise with him on the subject. If it is necessary, we can have 
 a special meeting of our P)Oard, when the proper time shall 
 arrive. If, under the circumstances, you shall think it ad- 
 visable to have your r>oar(rs representative come on for a 
 conference next week, please advise me at once. 
 "\"ours very truly, 
 
 Robert N. Will.son." 
 
 To Rev. W. A. Provine, President : 
 
 "After discussing the said communication the Executive 
 Committee appointed Hamilton Parks and John H. DeWitt 
 to consider as to what is best to be done in regard to the 
 matters mentioned and to be ready to report at tlie meet- 
 ing of our Board on April loth. 
 
 "April 10, 1907. John H. DeWitt reported that he and 
 Mr. Parks has conferred as to what is best to be done in 
 
2i6 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 regard to the matter mentioned in the letters of Dr. W. H. 
 Roberts and Judge R. X. Willson, emboiHed in the minutes 
 of the Executive Committee of March 22, 1907. He stated 
 that it was agreed between him and Mr. Parks that since 
 the htigation in Tennessee over the property question in- 
 volved in the church union was undetermined, and since 
 any overt act oi transferring the assets of this corporation 
 to the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath 
 School Work might produce additional litigation ; and since 
 there was complete harmony between this P>oard and the 
 Presbyterian Board it was prudent to effect no consolida- 
 tion of these boards and transfer no property until the pend- 
 ing litigation is determined. He also stated that he and Mr. 
 Parks could see no real difficulty possible if this board 
 should continue thus as a separate corporation, and the 
 General Assembly should appoint six men from the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian field to serve on the Presbyterian 
 Board, because it seemed to be perfectly understood that 
 this board would conduct its affairs in complete harmony 
 with the Presb\terian Board and in full recognition of its 
 responsibility to said Board and the General Assembly of 
 the Presbyterian Church, in the V. S. A. 
 
 "It was moved and carried that John IT. DeWitt be ap- 
 pointed to visit Philadelphia and confer fully with the Pres- 
 byterian Board and its officers with reference to the legal 
 questions involved in the ])resent relations and the future 
 consolidation of the boards and the transfer of propertv to 
 the Presbyterian B.oard. and to submit a written report as 
 soon as convenient. 
 
 "September 19. 1907. The matter of the accounts with 
 the House of certain committees of the former Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church concerned with the matter of Union 
 during the past few years, viz. : 'The Volunteer Commit- 
 tee' and the General Assembly's Committee on "Pastoral 
 Oversight," was considered. 
 
 "Since ether Boards of the Church had shared, in addi- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 217 
 
 tion to what it had hitherto given to this fund, donated to 
 the cause, these accounts, the total amounts being $676.43. 
 
 "It appearing that the civil suit in the Circuit Court, filed 
 by the anti-union element, had. passed the Supreme Court 
 of the State of Tennessee, and feeling that the interest in 
 the same by this Board as trustees of the Publishing House 
 demanded such action, it was ordered that the IManager be 
 authorized to spend as much as v$500.oo if necessary on the 
 fee of Hon. John J. Vertress, if the Legal Committee of 
 the Church should see well to employ him to assist the 
 present counsel in the case. There being no further busi- 
 ness before the Board, on motion it adjourned until the 
 third Wednesday in /\pril, 1908, at 10:00 a. m. 
 
 "January 15. 1908. The matter of the suit brought by 
 J. H. Zarecor, et al, constituting the so-called Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Board of Publication, against the members of 
 this board in the Chancery Court at Nashville was brought 
 up for discussion. It was moved and carried, Messrs. Parks 
 and DeWitt not voting, that Messrs, Hamilton Parks and 
 John H. DeWitt be employed to defend the members of the 
 Board of Publication against this lawsuit, with power to 
 employ additional counsel if deemed necessary ; and that in- 
 asmuch as this suit involves the title of the reunited church 
 to the Publishing House property, all attorneys' fees and 
 other expenses of defending this litigation shall be paid out 
 of the treasury of the House. 
 
 "April 22, 1908. At 2 :oo p. m. the Board re-assembled. 
 
 "Mr. Reynolds stated that he ^ad corresponded with Dr. 
 Alexander Henry. Secretary of the Presbyterian Board at 
 Philadelphia, as to the payment of fees of counsel for this 
 P)Oard for services in the suit brought by J. H. Zarecor, 
 et al, and that he suggested to Dr. Henry that these fees 
 ought to be paid by the Presbyterian Board, inasmuch as 
 this was a suit involving the right of the members of this 
 Board to their offices and tliat should the result be adverse 
 the members might be rccjuired to refund any amount of 
 
2i8 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 such fees as they might ha\e caused to l)e paid out of the 
 treasury of the House. Jle said that Dr. Henry had repHed 
 that the matter had been considered b}' the Business Com- 
 mittee of the Presbyterian Board, which has conduded that 
 any responsibihty for such fees sliould be authorized by the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 "September 9, igoS. Dr. I'rovine formally announced 
 the presence of Dr. Menry and Mr. Scott of the Philadel- 
 phia Board, whereupon lhc\- were duly invited to seats as 
 counselling'- brethren and the i 'resident gave expression in 
 the name of the Board to its appreciation of the visit of these 
 brethren. Also Dr. Stephens was invited to a scat as broth- 
 er in counsel. 
 
 "A general discussion of the pending case of J. H. Zare- 
 cor et al., vs. W. A. Provine. et al., was held in which the at- 
 torneys gave expression to the ])rogress and present status 
 of the litigation. 
 
 "The Secretary reported that the General .Assembly of 
 the reunited Church had, at its last meeting at Kansas City, 
 Mo., adopted the following resolutions. (See Min. of As- 
 sembly, 1908. p. 237). 
 
 "The Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, 
 having adopted a resolution requesting the General Assem- 
 bly to authorize it to appropriate a reasonable sum, if neces- 
 sary, to meet the expenses growing out of litigation, there- 
 fore, 
 
 "Resolved, That this General Assembly authorizes the 
 Board to appropriate a reasonable sum for the purposes 
 named, and also authorizes any other of the Boards to make 
 similar appropriations." 
 
 "Inquiry being made by ^lessrs. Henry and Scott as to 
 the financial liabilities of the Philadelphia Board in refer- 
 ence to the conduct of the Nashville House, etc., the I'oard 
 on motion made answer to the same in the following reso- 
 lutions : 
 
 "Resohred, That all contracts made in the operation of the 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 219 
 
 business of the Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing Plouse. 
 Nashville, Tenn., and all liabilities, whatsoever incurred by 
 anyone in its behalf, or on its account, shall be only in th<" 
 name of, and shall bind only the corporation known as, the 
 Board of Publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, and under no circumstances, except as heretofore 
 authorized by the General Assembl}- of the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A. (See Minutes, 1908. p. 237), and voluntari- 
 ly assumed by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, Board 
 of Publication and Sunday School Work, of Philadelphia, 
 Pa., shall it (the said Presbyterian Board of Publication and 
 Stmday School Work) become liable for the debts, con- 
 tracts or other engagements incurred in the operation and 
 maintenance of said Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing 
 House at Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 "In reference to the Presbyterian Board of Publication 
 and Sunday School Work furnishing any means to carry 
 on the present litigation as per power given them by the 
 above act of the General Assembly at Kansas City, Mo., 
 in 1908, the following resolution was adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church, in the U. S. A., has authorized its Board of Publi- 
 cation and Sunday School Work, at Philadelphia, to appro- 
 priate a reasonable sum, if necessary, to meet the expenses 
 growing out of the present litigation : 
 
 "Resolved, That in the event the case of J. H. Zarecor et 
 al., vs. W. A. Provine et al., should be decided in favor of 
 the defendants, whatsoever sums may have been advanced 
 by the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sunday 
 School Work to defray expenses of said litigation, shall 
 then be repaid to said Board out of the treasury of this 
 Nashville Publishing House." 
 
 "Resolved, That the Presbyterian Board of Publication 
 and Sunday School Work, of Philadelphia, be requested 
 to assume the burden of all litigation afifecting the titles 
 to the property controlled by this Board and the manage- 
 
220 CEXTEXXTAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 ment of the bvisiness of tlie House, now pending and that 
 may hereafter be instituted ; and to give active attention to 
 such Utigation through a proper committee ; and that they 
 assume all the expense of such litigation so as to relieve 
 the members of the Board of Publication of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church ; and that this be done in a way 
 to make it legally binding upon the Philadelphia Board of 
 Publication and Sunday School Work, and that this apply 
 to litigation both in the State and United States courts." 
 September 15, 1909. 
 
 September 10, 1909. 
 "To the Board of Publication, Nashville, Tenn.: 
 
 "Dear Brethren : In view of a change in my plans 
 and the possibility that I shall have to leave this section of 
 the country before long, and in order that you may have 
 ample time to make new arrangements so that the interests 
 which are entrusted to you may' not suffer. I hand you here- 
 with my resignation as editor of The Cumberland Presby- 
 terian, to take effect January i, 1910; or, at such time, 
 earlier or later as may best conserve the interests of all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 *'In taking this step I wish once more to express to you 
 my sincere appreciation of the many kindnesses which have 
 been shown to me and my deep regret at the necessity of 
 severing relations which have involved so much of delight- 
 ful association and co-operatiou in the work of our Lord 
 and Master."' Y^^Y co^'thallv yours. 
 
 Jas. E. Clarke. 
 
 "It was moved and carried that the Board do not accept 
 Dr. Clarke's resignation ; but tliat the ofifice of Associate 
 Editor of The Cuiiiberloiid Presbyterian be created: that 
 the appropriation for salary of editor and editorial 
 work remain as at present ; that the details of selecting 
 the Associate Editor and other details be arranged by a 
 committee of three appointed by the President. The Presi- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 221 
 
 dent thereupon appointed as such committee, Dr. Wiggin- 
 ton and Messrs. Rice and DeWitt. 
 
 "It was moved and carried that the Secretary be directed 
 to ask the Presbyterian Board of PubHcation and Sabbath 
 School Work for an immediate answer to the resokition of 
 this Board of April 15, 1909, calling- on said Board to be 
 responsible for expenses of litigation over the Publishing 
 House." 
 
 We have often been criticised for the drastic manner in 
 which we have written, in denouncing those who have at- 
 tempted the destruction of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. We present the foregoing record, taken from the 
 official minutes of the Union Board of Publication to show 
 that no "Unionist" has ever been wrongfully accused, and 
 that the criticisms made of such were warranted. 
 
 This record of the Union Board of Publication, written 
 into their minutes by their own Secretary, show a state of 
 affairs that is even worse than has been charged against 
 them. 
 
 Under date of June 22, 1904, we find this board, who 
 were elected as Cumberland Presbyterians, having placed 
 in their hands a sacred trust approving the course of J. E. 
 Clarke, when he commenced to use Tlie Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian and his position of power, to accomplish the ex- 
 tinction of the very Church, which was furnishing his 
 bread and meat. Under date of April 8, 1905, we find the 
 Union Board, ordering the expenses paid of four men who 
 were evidently being sent to the Fresno Assembly as lobby- 
 ists, to assist in the work that was being done for the purpose 
 of betraying the Cumberland Presbyterian Church into the 
 hands of its arch-enemy, the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 
 The charge was frequently brought against J. E. Clarke 
 that he closed the columns of The Cumberland Presbyterian 
 to those who opposed the "union" and opened them to those 
 favoring the extinction of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 
2s> CEX'I r.A'NIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Church. This charge J. E. Clarke has often denied. Under 
 date of June 21, 1905, we find the record made by Union- 
 ists themselves, where a resolution was passed by the Board 
 of Publication, closing' the columns of the Church 
 paper to the people that owned the Publishing Hou^e and 
 paper, and in Section 5 of the same resolution, tho c .lumns 
 were opened to those seeking the extinction of the Church, 
 and surrender of its proi)erty to the Church's old-time 
 enemy, the Presbyterian Church. C. S. A. Under the same 
 date a motion was "unanimously carried" that the Publish- 
 ing House print free of charge any literature that would 
 further the cause of Union. Here was a body of men, 
 entrusted with valuable church property, using that prop- 
 erty to further a scheme that meant the destruction of the 
 denominational existence of the very Church which placed 
 these men in office, lender date of October 5, 1905, we find 
 the Union Poard instructing Editor Clarke, to conduct a 
 careful plan of "union information." What they should 
 have said was that this editor was conducting a careful 
 campaign of "union mis-information" and request him to 
 as far as possible obscure the truth in the future, the 
 same as he had in the past. \\'e also find them authorizing 
 the editor to have printed at the expense of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church any matter of "special value in 
 pamphlet form, to co-operate with the Committee on Fra- 
 ternity and Union in the publication of such pamphlets, 
 the expense of printing to be borne by the House." We 
 then find this Union l)oard arranging with the representa- 
 tives of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., for the trans- 
 fer of the property of the Cumberland I'resbyterian Church, 
 even before the "General Assembly of the Betrayal," 
 which met at Decatur, III, in. 1906, had committed the 
 last efifort at destruction. Under date of November 14, 
 1906, we find this same board appropriating $2,500 of the 
 money of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and placing 
 it at the disposal of Editor Clarke, for employing agents. 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 223 
 
 Does not this entry in the minutes of the Union Board 
 speak volumes f 
 
 Then we find the record where Dr. WilHam Henry Rob- 
 erts began to insist that the "loot of unionism" be turned 
 over to the agencies of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 but the fear of additional litigation seemed to have re- 
 strained the Nashville board. Under date of September 
 19, 1907, we find the board that had been trusted by the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, donating the accounts on 
 the books of the Publishing House to those who had at- 
 tempted the destruction of the Church whose property they 
 were using, and trying to confiscate for the benefit of the 
 Presbyterian Church, IJ. S. A. Along towards the last the 
 wails about the Philadelphia ring masters not putting up 
 money to pay the exjiense of the litigation over the Publish- 
 ing House, are almost pathetic. Then, too, we find the 
 record that any money advanced by the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A., in its efforts to rob the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church of its property zvas to be refunded 
 by the House. Actually trying by every artifice known to 
 legal procedure, to divest the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church of a quarter of a million of dollars' worth of prop- 
 erty, and after failure, divert enough of the funds of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church to pay the legal expenses 
 of such eft'orts. We have denounced those who have left 
 us as the "betrayers of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church" and we have denounced the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., as being ecclesiastical pirates. We are willing 
 for the world to read the record made by the Union Board 
 of Publication, and then to pass judgment. The wrongs 
 committed by that hypocritical element claiming that they 
 were working solely "for the glory of God" is even blacker 
 tnan has ever been charged. 
 
224 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 THE CHURCH PAPERS. 
 
 When we begin to write the history of church papers 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Churcii, \vc begin the 
 darkest and saddest chapter in the history of our beloved 
 denomination. There are two distinct periods in the history 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, where the editor 
 of the paper recognized by the Church, used the paper and 
 his position in an effort to destroy and wreck the Church, 
 he was supposed to serve and support. The first period 
 was just previous to the meeting of the General Assembly 
 at Elkton, in 1840, the last is too well known to need 
 extended comment here. The recently attempted union 
 is not the first time that the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 has attempted by intrigue and conspiracy, to destroy the 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 • 
 
 The first paper ever issued, that was recognized as the 
 official organ of the Church, was the ReHgious and Literary 
 Intelligencer, which commenced publication at Princeton, 
 Ky., in 1830, and was owned by the faculty of Cumberland 
 College. Dr. F. R. Cossitt was editor and Rev. David 
 Lowry, who owned the press, was assistant editor. The 
 General Assembly met at Princeton, Ky., in 1830, the same 
 as it had the previous year when it was first organized. 
 The owners of the paper made a proposition to the Assem- 
 bly that the paper be recognized as the official organ of the 
 Church, the Assembly to have the authority to name the 
 editor. In 1832 the paper was moved to Nashville, and 
 the name changed to the Revivalist, with Rev. David Lowry 
 and Rev. James ^mith as owners and editors. Under the 
 management of Lowry it was successful, his editorials were 
 able and his spirit Christ-like. Before the year was out, 
 Lowry sold his interest to Smith, leaving the latter sole 
 manager of the paper. It is by no means certain that the 
 Assembly of 1833, if left untrammeled would have chosen 
 Smith as editor, but by manipulation the matter was passed 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 225 
 
 over and no action taken, the Assembly simply "accepted 
 the situation." The business methods of Smith were 
 abominable. He sent out the paper on credit, borrowed 
 money in large sums, giving his l^rother ministers as se- 
 curity, and yet when he secured funds, instead of paying 
 his debts, plunged madly into other enterprises. He also 
 published a magazine, wrote and published his own books, 
 was Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and Treasurer 
 of various Church funds. In 1834 he changed the name 
 of the paper to The Cumberland Presbyterian. When the 
 Assembly met that year, Smith was hopelessly in debt, and 
 laid the blame of all of his mismanagement on the Church, 
 because the people did not patronize his paper. The Assem- 
 bly resolved to do two things, first to raise twelve hundred 
 dollars to be paid to Smith in exchange for unpaid sub- 
 scriptions, and to endeavor to raise his subscription list 
 to four thousand. The first resolution was carried out, 
 but the latter was not fully accomplished. He undertook 
 to reform the Church, and bend his brethren to his will, 
 his criticism was stinging to such an extent that subscribers 
 grew sore under his continued abuse, and many cancella- 
 tions of subscriptions followed. His business management 
 and neglect grew worse. He was absent from his office for 
 months at a time selling books of which he was the author. 
 During 1835 and 1836, the Assemblies renewed their efforts 
 to secure new subscribers for the paper, but the subscrip- 
 tion list continued to decline. In 1837 when the Assembly 
 met. Smith resigned as editor, and stated in his resigna- 
 tion that when he was elected editor, that the Assembly 
 was obliged to buy the press and paper and operate it as 
 a church organ, and indemnify him for any losses which 
 he had sustained. There is not a word in the records of 
 the previous Assemblies to justify this claim. 
 
 The resignation of Smith was referred to a committee 
 who reported two schemes for arranging for the publica- 
 tion of a paper, neither of which was feasible. It was then 
 
:226 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 proposed that the members of the Assembly would pledge 
 themselves to collect unpaid subscriptions, make another 
 effort to raise the subscription list to four thousand, and 
 the Assembly to issue a circular calling on the Church to 
 support the enterprise. When the Assembly of 1838 met, 
 Smith asked to be continued as editor without conditions. 
 That Assembly adjourned to meet at Elkton, Ky., two years 
 later. In 1839, Smith commenced to write stinging edito- 
 rials on the necessity of reforming the Church. The pas- 
 toral relation, pay of preachers, mode of raising money, 
 and education of the ministry were his themes. He even 
 went so far as to prophesy that there would be a secession 
 from the Church, to the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 
 where the ""pay" for preachers was better. He predicted 
 that all of the "leading men" of the Church would leave 
 for other denominations, unless the reforms which he ad- 
 vocated were adopted. Different men in the Church began 
 to reply to his severe denunciation. As there was no meet- 
 ing of the Assembly in 1839, Smith called for a convention 
 to consider the emergency, and his call was seconded. The 
 meeting was held in Nashville, about the time appointed 
 for regular meetings of the Assembly. Before the meeting 
 of this convention. Smith's paper suspended publication on 
 account of financial troubles. In his last editorial as in 
 several previous ones, he declared he would never again 
 serve the Church as editor, the last issue of his paper at 
 Xashville, being dated April 30, 1839. Although not a 
 delegate from his Presbytery to this convention, he was 
 seated, and occupied a whole day in a set speech on the 
 reforms which he advocated. Among other things he said : 
 "The ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church are 
 a mass of ignorance, heresy and fanaticism." He charged 
 that the General Assembly was guilty of lying and fraud. 
 All of this was mild, compared to the wormwood, gall and 
 venom which his private letters for the next few years 
 poured forth. The convention passed resolutions in favor 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 227 
 
 of reform, and appointed a committee to arrange for a stock 
 company to continue the publication of The Cumberland 
 Presbyterian. The paper was to be issued from Lebanon, 
 Tenn., with Rev. George Donnell as editor. It was decided 
 to delay the publication of the paper until the fall meetings 
 of the presbyteries. This was made necessary by the fact 
 that Smith demanded such an enormous price for the sub- 
 scription list of the suspended paper, that it was necessary 
 to work up a new list. The committee which formulated 
 this plan was composed of men whose character and stand- 
 ing was above reproach, namely, Hiram A. Hunter, J. S. 
 McLain, Carson P. Reed, George Donnell, T. B. Wilson, 
 Jesse Ford and George Williamson. Just before the fall 
 meetings of the presbyteries, Smith's paper suddenly re- 
 appeared, being issued at Springfield, Tenn. Smith ex- 
 plained its reappearance as being necessary on account of 
 the committee not buying his subscription list, and not pro- 
 viding at once a church paper. He made a bitter attack 
 on the convention and denounced it as a clique, although it 
 was called at his instigation. The committee replied that 
 the convention had no power to arrange for a church organ, 
 that they thought from Smith's own declaration that he 
 was forever done with the paper, and that they did not buy 
 his subscription list on account of his exorbitant demands. 
 Further, that they neither sought nor desired a conflict, as 
 Smith not only called the convention, but heartily co- 
 operated, until he found they would not accede to his un- 
 reasonable demands, for the sale of his subscription list. 
 The controversy thus started grew fierce. Smith wrote 
 letters by the hundreds, and visited nearly all the fall pres- 
 byteries in an effort to array the Church against the con- 
 vention and the committee. Several presbyteries passed 
 resolutions endorsing Smith and his paper and condemned 
 the convention and committee. . Richland Presbytery, and 
 Columbia Synod, wdth Robert Donnell at their head, took 
 sides with the convention, and requested their members not 
 
228 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 to take Smith's paper. Secession, disruption, division and 
 treason were the epithets hurled back and forth. Rev. 
 Joseph Knight, of Illinois Synod, presented a resolution 
 calling on the people to cease the strife, and let the next 
 Assembly settle the matter as all lovers of Jesus Christ 
 should do. The Lebanon committee decided not to issue 
 a paper, and refer the matter to the next Assembly. All 
 efforts at a peaceful solution were destroyed by the course 
 of Smith's paper. In October, 1839, Rev. George Donnell, 
 one of the purest and best men that ever lived in the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church, wrote a private letter to John 
 W. Ogden, assistant editor of Smith's paper, correcting 
 certain false rumors then afloat that the Lebanon committee 
 had declined to publish a paper. 'I'his letter, without any 
 dates affixed was kept standing in the editorial columns 
 of Smith's paper until the Assembly met in May, 1840. 
 When the presbyteries began to meet in the spring of 1840, 
 to elect commissioners to the General Assembly, Smith 
 went to these meetings, and continued to stir up strife by 
 attacks on the convention and the Lebanon committee. It 
 became evident to thinking men of the Church, that it was 
 approaching a crisis, and it seemed that a split in the com- 
 ing Assembly was inevitable. Just at this period, when all 
 hope of peace seemed gone. Dr. F. R. Cossitt, President of 
 Cumberland College, issued a paper called The Banner of 
 Peace, it being sent out free. In it he made powerful ap- 
 peals for peace, and did not take sides in the controversy 
 then raging. He opened the columns to all parties, even 
 published an article from Smith which declared that the 
 Church was in its death throes. True friends of the Church 
 rallied, and many noble appeals for peace appeared in the 
 columns of Dr. Crossitt's paper. To F. R. Crossitt is due 
 the fact that the Church was not wrecked by its enemies 
 in the Assembly of 1840. When that Assembly met it 
 refused to recognize or condemn either Smith's paper, or 
 the proposed Leban.on paper. Smith made exorbitant de- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 229 
 
 mands, and in order to pacify him and his followers, that 
 Assembly actually raised and paid to him, nineteen hundred 
 dollars, and his receipt was spread on the minutes of the 
 Assembly. Smith resigned as Stated Clerk of the Assem- 
 bly, but although repeated demands were made on him for 
 the records of the Church he refused to surrender them, 
 until threats of legal process were made. A few years 
 later he attempted to stampede the best ministers of the 
 Church into the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., but only 
 one, John W. Ogden, followed him at that time. In a letter 
 afterwards to Richard Beard, he admitted that he did not 
 believe the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church, that he 
 "was still a Cumberland Presbyterian, and still preached 
 the whosoever-will doctrine." He also admitted that the 
 "better pay" which he received in the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., was what carried him over. In view of the 
 events of the past few years, are we not justified in the 
 belief that the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., furnished 
 this man with the money with which he started his paper 
 at Springfield, for the purpose of wrecking the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church. The last issue of Smith's paper was 
 in May, 1840, the week preceding the meeting of the As- 
 sembly. 
 
 The Banner of Peace continued for awhile as the only 
 Church paper, TJie Ark was started at Athens, Tenn., in 
 1841, by Rev. Robert Frazier. In 1843 the Banner of Peace 
 was moved to Lebanon, Tenn. In 1850 it was consolidated 
 with the Ark and moved to Nashville. It was purchased 
 by the Board of Publication from Rev. S. P. Chestnutt in 
 1874, for $10,000. 
 
 In the fall of 1840, John Morgan began the publication 
 of the Union and Evangelist, at Uniontown, Pa, It was 
 moved to Pittsburg as the Evangelist and Observer in 1846, 
 then back to Uniontown as the Cumberland Presbyterian. 
 Alorgan died in 1841, and he was succeeded by Milton 
 Bird, as editor. The paper changed hands and location 
 
230 CENTENNIAL S-ERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 frequently. It was finally acquired by Rev. J. B. Logan, 
 of Alton, 111., who was at that time publishing the Western 
 Ctimberlaiid Presbyterian. The name of the consolidated 
 paper was changed to the Cumberland Presbyterian and in 
 1874, it was purchased by the Board of Publication, at 
 Nashville, for $13,000. 
 
 In 1850 Milton Bird commenced the publication of the 
 JVateJinian and Evangelist, at Louisville. This paper was 
 consolidated in 1859 with the Missouri Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian, published by Rev. J. B. Logan, at Lexington, Mo. 
 After the consolidation its name was changed to the St. 
 Louis Observer, and in 1861, was sold to the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian, of A\^aynesburg, Pa. Rev. J. B. Logan then 
 moved to Alton, 111., when he again bought the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian and consolidated with his Alton paper as 
 stated above. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Wofford commenced the publication of the 
 Texas Cumberland Presbyterian, at Tehuacana, Texas, in 
 1873, and the next year sold it to the Board of Publication, 
 at Nashville, for $3,000. Later, another paper by the same 
 name was started in Texas, but did not last any great length 
 of time. A paper called Our Faith was started at Alton, 
 111., in 1875, ^nd ^^'^s afterwards consolidated with the St. 
 Louis Observer. It seemer to be the general plan at that 
 time to start church papers for the purpose of unloading 
 them on the Board of Publication. The Pacific Observer 
 was published in California for a short time, and a paper 
 called the Central Cumberland Presbyterian was published 
 at Owensboro, Ky., by the Rev. Jesse Anderson. 
 
 At one time there were seven Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church papers being published, and in order to get all the 
 news, it was necessary for a minister to spend fifteen to 
 twenty dollars per year to keep posted on the general news 
 of the Church. We have endeavored to trace the lineage 
 and ancestry of the present Church paper known as The 
 Cumberland Presbyterian, The consolidated papers Avere 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 231 
 
 operated under the name, Banncr-Preshyterian, but that 
 name proved unsatisfactory and the name was finally 
 changed to The Cmnhcrland Presbyterian. The editors of 
 the paper were as follows: Rev. J. R. Brown until 1885, 
 Rev. D. M. Harris until 1890, Rev. J. M. Howard until 
 1896, Rev. Ira Landrith until 1904. On January i, 1904, 
 Rev. James E. Clarke, became editor of the paper. The 
 records of the Board of Publication show that immediately 
 after Clarke assumed the ^office, the paper was made 
 a vehicle in his hands to destroy, if possible, the very 
 Church which owned the paper and paid Clarke the money 
 that furnished his meat and bread. His course on the union 
 (|uestion was even worse than that of the Rev. James 
 Smith, sixty-five years before. The names of these two 
 men will go down in the history of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church as being its bitterest enemies, and 
 who proved themselves untrue and recreant to every trust 
 placed in them Both worked with the same end in view, 
 tne destruction of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 
 in the interests of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. The 
 minutes of the Board of Publication show that Clarke 
 closed the coliunns of the Church paper to those who op- 
 posed the attempted union and opened them to any and all 
 that favored union, and he was authorized to do so by the 
 Board of Publication. All the news that appeared in the 
 columns of the Church paper from January, 1904, until 
 February 23, 1910, was colored so that it would advance 
 the cause of unionism, and prove as destructive as possible 
 to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. On February 
 2T,, 1910, the paper again passed into the hands of honest 
 and truthful Cumberland Presbyterians, with Rev. A. N. 
 Eshman as editor pro teiii. 
 
 INDEPENDENT CHURCH PAPERS. 
 
 This history would l)e incomplete, should we fail to chron- 
 icle events of recent vears and their close connection with 
 
232 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 the independent church papers which have so ably served 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church during the times that 
 tried men's souls. The Texas Cnmherland Presbyterian 
 was brought out by Rev. S. C. Lockett, and was during its 
 short career a splendid defender of the "faith." 
 
 As far back as 1904, those who stood for the perpetuation 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and its precious 
 doctrines, realized that it would be a one-sided fight, because 
 the only church paper that was alleged to be published in 
 the interest of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was 
 in the hands of the enemy, and that it was being used as an 
 instrument to accomplish the extinction of the church to 
 which the paper belonged As' a result of the great needs 
 of the church at that time, the Cumberland Banner was 
 brought out. It has proven to be something new in church 
 journalism. In discussing matters of vital interest to the 
 welfare of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, it did not 
 do so in a vague, indefinite way. Its language was plain 
 and it called things by their everyday name. It did not put 
 on Sunday clothes just because it represented a great church, 
 and go about its mission with stiff formality, and advocate 
 sky-scraping theories and indulge in stereotyped ecclesias- 
 tical expressions in the discussion of things pertaining to 
 who live on this mundane sphere. Its history is a remark- 
 able one, for it sprang from an obscure beginning, to a' 
 prominence that few church journals have ever reached. It 
 had a vig-or of expression that caused stiff-necked D. D.'s 
 •to sit up and take notice, and startled wrongdoers with its 
 sledge-hammer blows in the defense of rigj;it. Its early 
 history is best told by the man who brought it out, and 
 started it on its mission of defense of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church. 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 23J 
 
 The Cumberland Banner. 
 
 by rev. a. m. buchanan, moberlv, yu). 
 
 Feeling that the Church had about lost its own organ, 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian, a strong demand was made 
 by many members of the Church for another paper, by 
 means of which, the membership of the Church might be 
 given correct information regarding the conspiracy to 
 wreck the Church. Much correspondence took place among 
 various ministers and lay members of the Church on this 
 subject. This led to special correspondence between Rev. 
 A. M. Buchanan, of Moberly, Mo., and Rev. A. N. Esh- 
 man, of West Point, Miss. On this subject Brother Buc- 
 hanan wrote : "We must have a church paper, and if no 
 one else will start it, we will do so, and do the best we can 
 with it." The answer came back and in substance said: 
 "Get out your first number as soon as you can. I am 
 sending out the enclosed circular letter requesting that the 
 names of subscribers and money be sent to you." This 
 occurred in April, 1904. After some consultation and cor- 
 respondence the name The Cumberland Banner was pro- 
 posed by Rev. W. T. Dale, and it was adopted. The ques- 
 tion of financing the enterprise was the subject of much 
 earnest consideration and consultation on the part of a num- 
 ber of ministers, who held two meetings at the home of 
 Rev. A. M. Buchanan. It was decided to take subscrip- 
 tions to pay for the first issue. The following subscribed 
 ten dollars each: Rev. J. L. Routt, F. E. Haynes (flopped 
 later on), J. A. Poteet, A. M. Buchanan. Rev. A. N. 
 Eshman subscribed at this time, and again later on. 
 At this last meeting at the home of Rev. A. M. 
 Buchanan, it was decided to start it as a monthly 
 paper of twelve pages, and the suljscription was placed 
 at fifty cents per annum. About this time it was arranged 
 to secure the services of Rev. J. W. AIcGhee as editor. . He 
 did most of ihe editorial wnik for the first three or four 
 
234 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 months, but then weakened, withdrew and went North. 
 
 The first number was dated April, 1904, pubHshed by Rev. 
 A. M. Buchanan, ]\Ioberly, Mo. However, it was not really 
 printed until May 2, 1904. Rev. A. M. Buchanan was 
 standing by the press when the first sheets came off, and 
 taking the first twelve copies tied them with a string into 
 a neai bundle, and to this time the string has never been 
 untied. The bundle is still in the hands of Rev. A. M. 
 Buchanan, and labeled, "First twelve papers printed May, 
 1904." When the first issue was brought out, five thousand 
 copies were printed, and two weeks later the second issue 
 was brought out and two thousand copies were ])rinted. 
 A supply of the second issue was carried to the < leneral 
 Assembly at Dallas, Texas.^ The Cumberland Banner was 
 published at Moberly. M(x. for the first six months. When 
 the Council met in St. Louis, Rev. A. M. Buchanan met 
 and had several conferences with Mr. T. A. Havron, and 
 as a result transferred the paper and subscription list to 
 Mr. Havron. It was moved to Jasper, Tenn., where it 
 was issued as a weekly paper. Among the contributors 
 to the first number were Rev. J- L. Hudgins, Rev. W. T. 
 Dale, Rev. H. P. Bone, T. M. Hurst (afterwards flopped) 
 and others. After removal to Jasper, Tenn., the paper un- 
 der the management of T. A. Havron began a double 
 struggle, one for existence, the other with the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A., which at that time was just commencing 
 to take the Cumberland Presbyterian Church by the throat 
 for the purpose of throttling it. Its subscription list and 
 business soon grew to such proportions that the facilities 
 at Jasper were found inadequate to properly care for it. 
 It was then moved to Tullahoma, Tenn. 
 
 T. A. Havron is still the editor of this paper. After it 
 was removed to Tullahoma, the name was changed to 
 77/r CumhcrJand Prcsbxferiaii Banner, 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 235 
 
 The ]McGiii-: Observer. 
 
 Just before the "union craze'" struck the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church with its bHghting influence, the idea 
 ^i starting- a Presbyterial paper originated with some mem- 
 bers of McGee Presbytery. At first it was only a four- 
 page paper, the first issue appearing in March, 1903. The 
 paper was sanctioned by the Presbytery, and G. D. Willing- 
 ham, who was supposed to be a Cumberland Presbyterian, 
 was appointed as editor in connection with Rev. A. 1\I, 
 Ijuchanan. Rev. Willingham concluded to go to Oklahoma, 
 and in April, 1904, Rev. A. M. Buchanan secured full con- 
 trol, and just in time to prevent it from falling into the 
 hands of the unionists. During the first six months of its 
 history, it was silent on the union question. From April 
 25, 1904, to the present time, it has been under the sole 
 control and editorship of Rev. A. M. Buchanan. Under the 
 administration of Rev. A. ^l. Buchanan it has not been 
 silent on the union question, but in thunderous tones has 
 condemned and denounced in no uncertain language the 
 blackest crime of the past century. In 1905 the I\IcGcc 
 Observer was adopted as the official organ of the Synod 
 of Missouri, and has continued in that capacity up to the 
 present. To read its pages, one realizes at once, that the 
 McGee Observer and its able editor are "from Missouri." 
 
 The subscription list is growing, and the paper is grow- 
 ing in influence ever)^ day. 
 
 Sunday School Literature. 
 
 Our Sunday school literature has had a peculiar history. 
 At first it was owned by private parties, but as the churcli 
 grew, these publications were acquired by the Board of 
 Publication. Among the periodicals thus purchased, were 
 The Gem, Rays of Light, Bible Study, Sunday School 
 JVork, Couiuicnts, Missionary Gem and Our Lambs,, Our 
 Sunday school literature had a large circulation, and was a 
 
236 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 source of considerable revenue, until the hands of the Pres- 
 byterian Church, U. S. A., clutched the throat of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church, in an effort to destroy and 
 rob that Church of its property. 
 
 After the "betrayal" at Decatur, III, in 1906, the Union 
 Board of Publication abandoned the publication of Sunday 
 school literature, and commenced to use the predestinarian 
 literature printed at Philadelphia by the Presbyterian 
 Church, U. S. A. 
 
 \vlien the Synod of Tennessee of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church met at Lcwisburg-, Tcnn., in October, 1906, 
 the Church was without denominational literature, and was 
 using syndicate literature issued from houses at Phila- 
 delphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and Nashville.- 
 
 Just before Synod opened there was a conference between 
 T. A. Havron, lion. Jos., H. Fussell and R. L. BaskettCj 
 in which the question f)t denominational literature was dis- 
 cussed. It was agree;] at that conference that Hon. Jos. 
 H. Fussell should draw a resolution, requesting the Synod 
 to appoint a Committee of Publication, and that this Com- 
 mittee be authorized to bring out Sunday school literature 
 imder the authority and in the name of Tennessee Synod 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Cliurch. The resolution 
 named the committee which was as follows : Joe H. Fus- 
 sell, T. A. Havron, Frank Slemons, J. H. Zarecor, W. L. 
 Danley, S. A. Cunningham, Rev. J. R. Goodpasture and R. 
 L. Baskette. The first meeting of the committee was at 
 the office of Hon. J. H. Zarecor at Nashville. The com- 
 mittee was in session five or six hours. The disorganization 
 of the Church and Sunday school at that time was so great 
 that the committee was hardly able to determine whether it 
 would be advisable or not to commence the printing of 
 denominational literature. The committee was without 
 capital and Synod had placed an injunction upon the 
 committee that no financial obligations were to be in- 
 curred. Finally a motion was made that a subcom- 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 237 
 
 niittee be appointed, eoniposed of R. L. Baskette, J. H. 
 Zarecor and Frank Slemons. This sub-committee met in 
 the lecture-room of the Addison Avenue Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church, shortly after it had been surrendered by 
 the Unionists. Rev. J. R. Goodpasture was present by in- 
 vitation. After prayer for light and g'uidance by each one 
 present, the sub-committee commenced to work out tiieir 
 plans. It was near midnight before the committee ad- 
 journed, but the preliminary work for the rescue of our 
 Sunday school literature from the wreck and ruin of Union- 
 ism was completed. The launcliing of the enterprise wa- 
 based entirely on faith and the stability and perpetuity of 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Qiurch. The sub-committee 
 signed a contract with Rev. J. R. Goodpasture as Editor 
 and Business Manager at a salary of $1,500 per year. The 
 contract stipulated that if the venture did not prove a 
 financial success that any loss was to be Rev. Goodpasture's 
 loss, and that the profits, if any, were to go to Tennessee 
 Synod. It was under these conditions that the literature 
 was again put into circulation. The committee did npt know 
 whether they would be able to sell 500 or 5,000 quarterlies. 
 It was a plunge in the dark based upon faith. The first 
 literature under this arrangement made its appearance 
 January I, 1907, and the enterprise has sustained itself, re- 
 gardless of the fact that it was printed under contract, and 
 the literature sold at the same low price at which the Pub- 
 lishing House had sold literature before the Union trouble. 
 The literature was issued under the direction of Tennessee 
 Synod until January i, 1909, when the business again 
 passed into the hands of the present Board of Publication 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. All of the litera- 
 ture is now being printed in our Publishing House at 
 Nashville. 
 
 THE PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 The question of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
 owning a publishing house began to agitate the minds of 
 
238 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 thinking men of the Church as far back as 1858. When 
 the General Assembly of that year was in session at Hunts- 
 ville, Ala., the Committee on Publication, among other 
 things recommended : 
 
 "The Assembly shall appoint seven commissioners, who 
 shall be authorized to receive propositions from various 
 points with a view to the establishment of a general book 
 depository and store, and uhimately, if the prospects sh'ould 
 justify, a house of publication." 
 
 In 1869, the Board of Publication in their rejjort to the 
 Assembly advised against an\thing like a permanent in- 
 vestment, looking to the establishment of a publishing 
 plant. 
 
 In 1 87 1, the first book store was opened in Nashville, 
 under the management of W. E. Dunaway, and the fol- 
 lowing year the board appointed Rev. T. C. Blake as its 
 P'inancial Agent, to raise funds for the permanent estab- 
 lishment of a publishing plant. As a result of Dr. Blake's 
 efforts $7,897.37 was raised, and that faithful and staunch 
 Cumberland Presbyterian received for his services the sum 
 of $650 as Financial Agent, and $100 as "Book Editor." 
 From this small beginning grew the present magnificent 
 publishing plant now owned and operated by the Board 
 of Publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 Forty-seven years after the labors of Dr. Blake in raising 
 this amount ended, we see the management of the Pub- 
 lishing House so conducting its business affairs, as to ef- 
 fectively absorb all the revenues of the plant in exorbitant 
 salaries and an abominable credit system, extended to 
 those wha support their policies, and shield them from in- 
 terference by the Genefal Assembly. 
 
 After paying all expenses, $7,107.37 was left of the 
 amount raised by Dr. Blake, and the board invested it in 
 bonds, to be held until a sufificient amount of money could 
 be raised to justify commencing to erect a publishing plant. 
 In 1874 the independent church papers were bought up 
 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLICATION. 239 
 
 and consolidated, ^\'ith the papers came the machinery 
 and type, ^vhich was set np in a rented building in Nash- 
 ville, and thus the tirst real start towards a publishing 
 plant was made. The board became so heavily involved 
 in debt, that in 1873 and 1874 they used $2,482.50 of the 
 fund raised by Dr. Blake. 
 
 in 1875, the board reported to the Assembly, that a 
 proposition had been made to the board, to sell them a 
 house in Nashville, on long time, but no action was taken. 
 In 1878, the board again recommended that the Assembly 
 take steps looking to the erection of a house, but that As- 
 sembly refused to take such action. Again, in 1888, the 
 matter was brought before the Assembly in a resolution. 
 The Assembly decided that the matter should be presented 
 to the Church through the paper, and authorized the Board 
 of Publication, to receive- any bequests or gifts that might 
 be made. In 1889 the matter was again placed before the 
 Assembly, and authority to raise not less than $30,000 or 
 more than $50,000 was asked for. That Assembly author- 
 ized the board to purchase a suitable lot, and to as rapidly 
 as possible proceed to erect a suitable house thereon. In 
 L889 the board made a very lengthy report to the Assem- 
 bly, and in an exhibit showed that it was cheaper to float 
 bonds and erect a plant, than to conduct the publishing 
 business of the Church in a rented building. 
 
 There was a proposition from Evansville. Ind., making 
 offers to have the publishing plant erected in Evansville. 
 The Assembly appointed seven commissioners, to give 
 notice that propositions would be received looking to the 
 establishment of a publishing plant. Propositions were 
 received from Evansville, Ind. ; Lincoln, 111. ; Louisville, 
 Ky., and Nashville. Tenn. Nashville proposed to raise 
 $10,000 for the purchase of a lot, and the commissioners 
 decided to locate the publishing plant at Nashville. This 
 ten thousand dollars and the remainder of the money raised 
 by Dr. Blake in 1872, was used to purchase the lot on 
 
240 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 which the PubHshing House now stands, the purchase be- 
 ing made on November 21, 1889. Some of the heirs made 
 a complaint as to the price paid, and four hundred dollars 
 additional was paid them. The Assembly of 1890 author- 
 ized the Board of Pul)lication to issue $50,000 in bonds, 
 for the purpose of securing funds with which to erect a 
 publishing house. These bonds were issued and sold as 
 the funds were needed. During the year 1890, the jDoard 
 commenced the erection of the present Publishing House. 
 The late Col. W. C. Smith, who passed away while leading 
 the First Tennessee Regiment in a charge during the -war 
 in the Philippine Islands, was the architect, and Hughes 
 & Rives, of Nashville, were the contractors who erected 
 the building. The mechanical department was completed 
 by May, 1891, and the balance of the building by February, 
 1892. When the Assembly met in 1892, the board reported 
 that the total investment including the lot was $81,603.57. 
 In 1894, $5,003.28 was paid on the indebtedness, leaving 
 the floating debt at that time, $28,000 and bonded debt 
 $48,500, a total indebtedness of $76,500. The claim has 
 been set up by those who have left us, that under their 
 wise and prudent management that they paid off the in- 
 debtedness of the Publishing House. I am now in position 
 to deny this emphatically, as the records in my hands 
 clearly disprove such statements. During the last twenty 
 years the Board of Publication has received frequent be- 
 quests, in the way of lands, bonds and money, and fre- 
 quently some of the outstanding bonds were donated to 
 the Board of Publication. In this way the indebtedness 
 was gradually reduced until in 1906, it was reported to the 
 Assembly as being $27,736.22. 
 
 During the twenty-eight years that the present Publish- 
 ing House has been operated, the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rian Church has not received one dollar of its profits, 
 .nnce 1906, and up to the time that it was surrendered 
 lo the Board of Publication appointed at Dickson, Tenn., 
 
HISTORY OF BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 241 
 
 in 1907, which surrender occurred on February 23, 1910, 
 the indebtedness was greatly increased. This was due to 
 improper business management, and an effort on the part 
 of the Union Board of Publication to so entangle its affairs 
 with the Presbyterian Board at Philadelphia, so as to make 
 its recovery by Cumberland Presbyterians impossible. The 
 following tabulated statements, the figures of which are 
 taken from the annual reports of the Union Board of Pub- 
 lication will show the extent of mismanagement: 
 
 ^ear. Debt. Volume Business. Profits. 
 
 1906 $27,736.22 $151,780.74 $19,363.01 
 
 1907 34,885.23 171,315.06 
 
 1908 37.851-19 175.599-20 6,134.44 
 
 1909- ••• 44,771-79 170,464.96 6,389.09 
 
 No statement of any profits was made for the year 1907, 
 at which time the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., met at Columbus, Ohio. The excitement over 
 the consummation of the alleged union would naturally 
 make that Assembly overlook the fact that no accounting 
 had been made of any profits that year. As compared to 
 1906 report covering business during the year preceding 
 the alleged "Union," the following figures will indicate the 
 extent of extravagance : 
 
 Decrease Increase Inc. in Volume 
 
 Year, in Profits in Debt of Business 
 
 1907 $19,363-01 $7,149-01 $19,534-32 
 
 1908 13,228.51 2,965.96 23,819.14 
 
 1909 12,273.92 6,920.50 18,684.90 
 
 Totals $45,565.44 $17,034.47 $62,038.36 
 
 The total decrease in profits in three years as compared 
 to 1906, is $45,565.44 and at the same time the total in- 
 crease in indebtedness was $17,035.47, showing indicated 
 losses as compared to 1906, of $62,600.91. At the same 
 
242 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 time the statements of the Union Board of Pubhcation 
 show that the vohmie of business during- this period of 
 losses and increased indebtedness, had actually increased 
 $62,038.36. 
 
 The element that was turned out of the Publishing 
 House by the just and righteous decrees of the Supreme 
 Court of Tennessee have made some very extravagant 
 claims about building up the publishing plant, and alleged 
 that they had made great personal sacrifice. The very 
 records which they prepared and left behind, deny their 
 claims emphatically. Old men and women of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church, long since dead, gave of 
 their lands, bonds and money, to pull the Board of Pub- 
 lication out of the financial wreck ar.d ruin in which it 
 was always involved. They who have claimed to have 
 built it up, gave nothing, but like parasites have for long 
 years been fastened on the treasury of the Publishing 
 House. 
 
 In submitting this historical paper on the subject of 
 "Publication" to the Eightieth General Assembly, your 
 committee begs leave to .say that they have made careful 
 and extended research for facts, and have endeavored to 
 be fair and only chronicle those facts gleaned from various 
 sources and histories of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 In the b<^nds of our beloved Zion, we submit ourselves, 
 Your brethren in Christ, 
 
 R. L. Baskette, Chairman, 
 Rev. a. N. Eshman, 
 w. e. dunaway. 
 
REV. J. M. WYCOFF 
 SULLIVAN, ILL. 
 
HISTORY OF THE BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RE- 
 LIEF OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH FOR THE CENTENNIAL TO BE 
 HELD AT DICKSON, TENN., MAY 1910. 
 
 J. W. WYCKOFF. 
 
 In the early history of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, the care of the dependent supernatural ministers 
 and their families was left in most part to the presbyteries 
 and local congregations. However, some specific cases were 
 brought to the attention of the General Assembly of 1832, 
 when the following resolutions were passed : 
 
 Whereas, This General Assembly has learned that the 
 Reverend Samuel M'Adoo, our oldest preacher and one of 
 those who aided in tlie constitution of our church, is now 
 living in Illinois, and knowing that he is old and afflicted 
 and in circumstances quite necessitous ; 
 
 Resolved by this General Assembly : That Rev. John Bar- 
 bour, Sr., endeavor to learn the true condition of this aged 
 father, and report to the next General Assembly and that this 
 General Assembly feel bound to support him, if need be, as 
 long as he lives. • 
 
 At the General iVssembly of 1833, which met at Nash- 
 ville, Tenn., the Rev. John Barbour, Sr., reported the needy 
 condition of Rev. Samuel M'Adoo and that he had raised 
 for this venerable father $107.06. 
 
 At the General Assembly of 1834, which met at Nashville, 
 Tenn., the family of Rev. McLinn was reported as needy, 
 and the Assembly instructed their Committee to solicit mon- 
 ey for this family and for Rev. Samuel M'Adoo. 
 
 At the Assembly of 1835, which met at Princeton, Ky., 
 this Committee reported that they had collected and paid 
 to the family of Rev. McLinn the sum of $120.00 and had 
 collected and paid to Rev. Samuel McAdow $105.00. 
 
244 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 This action of the General Assembly and the work of their 
 committee, gave rise to the following preamble and resolu- 
 tion, which was adopted at the General Assembly in 1836, 
 which met at Nashville, Tenn. : 
 
 Whereas, it is a fact, that there are those among the 
 ministers of the Cumberland Presbyfterian Church who 
 have spent the strength and vigor of their manhood in the 
 arduous work of preaching the gospel, and have now reach- 
 ed the age of infirmity and circumstances of dependence 
 and may be without substantial sustenance for themselves 
 and those necessarily dependent upon them ; and 
 
 Whereas, it is both reasonable and highly probable that 
 such will continue to be the case; and 
 
 Whereas, it has been divinely ordained, that those who 
 preach the gospel shall live off the gospel ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of the church to provide for 
 the relief of the destitute superannuated ministers. , 
 
 Resolved, That it is desirable and earnestly requested, 
 that the stated clerks of presbyteries report the action of 
 the same to the stated clerk of the General Assembly, and 
 that he report the aggregate collected annually. 
 
 This deliverance and resolution was reaffirmed by the 
 General Assembly of 1880, which met at Evansville, Ind. 
 The Presbytery of Hiwassa, now Knoxville Presbytery, 
 sent a memorial to the General Assembly raising the ques- 
 tion of the advisability of this work being done through 
 a central board. This memorial was finally submitted to 
 a special committee, consisting of two ministers, viz. : Rev. 
 R. H. Caldwell and Rev. W. J. Darby, and two ruling 
 elders, viz. : W. F. Nesbit and B. Bransford. 
 
 This committee submitted the following report : 
 
 "It is our opinion that there are comparatively few cases 
 in our church where men of frugal habits have spent thrir 
 lives exclusively in the gospel ministry are found to be n 
 want in old age. But there may be a few faithful ones, who 
 for reasons not understood, are left in advanced life without 
 
HISTORY OF BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 24=; 
 
 means of support, and it should be a pleasure to the church 
 to provide for them and that you appoint a permanent 
 committee of two ministers and two elders who shall have 
 >upervision of this work a^ your agents." 
 
 This report was referred to another committee consist- 
 tig of ministers T. S. Love, W. T. Ferguson, Willis Smith 
 *nd A. J. Swain, and ruling elder G. W. Farris. From 
 their report the General Assembly, which met at Austin, 
 Texas, May, i88r, located the board at Evansville, Ind., and 
 named the following persons who should compose the mem- 
 bership of this board, viz : Rev. W. J. Darby, of Evansville, 
 Ind. ; Rev. J. E. Jenkins, of Princeton, Ind. ; Rev. J. S. 
 Grider, Bowling Green, Ky. ; B. Bradford, Owensboro, Ky. ; 
 Dr. G. W. Ralston, Evansville, Ind. ; W. F. Nesbit, Evans- 
 ville, Ind. In the summer of 1881 these men met at Evans- 
 ville, Ind., and organized by electing Dr. G. W. Ralston, 
 president ; J. S. Grider, vice-president, and S. B. Sansom, 
 corresponding secretary and treasurer. Three members of 
 this board to constitute a quorum. This board was declared 
 to be the Board of Ministerial Relief of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church and located at Evansville, Ind., and 
 whose mission should be the soliciting of money, endow- 
 ments and other necessary means to take care of the su- 
 perannuated ministers, their widows and their orphan chil- 
 dren of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Then, according to the action of the General Assembly at 
 Austin, Texas, May 188 1, the Board made an application 
 to the Secretary of State, of the State of Indiana, for a 
 charter, which was granted, and the board was duly chart- 
 ered as the Board of Ministerial Relief of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church, and whose mission and duty it is to 
 care for the superannuated ministers, their widows and or- 
 phan children of The Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 This Board reported to the General Assembly, which met 
 at Huntsville, Ala., May. 1882, that they met, organized, 
 procured a charter and had collected from the various con- 
 
246 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 gregations the sum of $598.61, whereupon the Assembly 
 adopted this report. At the General Assembly which met 
 at Kansas City, Mo., May, 1889, Rev. J. H. Miller was 
 elected corresponding secretary of the board. He held this 
 office for three years without compensation. At the General 
 Assembly which met at Memphis, Tenn., Rev. J. H. Miller 
 resigned the office of corresponding secretary and Rev. 
 W. J. Darby was elected in his place. 
 
 THE THORNTON HOME. 
 
 One Ad^rs. E. Thornton, of Petersburg, Ind., and a mem- 
 ber in good standing of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church at Petersburg, Ind., and for the interest she had for 
 her church at large, appropriated of her own money $6,500, 
 and with this sum of money bought ten acres of ground 
 and a three-story frame building upon it, in the City of 
 Evansville, Ind., and furnished the same ready for occu- 
 pancy. Then on November 27th A. D. 1890, did by the free 
 will of her own bequeath it to tlie P>oard of Ministerial Re- 
 lief of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, to be used as 
 a home for the superannuated ministers, their widows and 
 their orphan children of the said Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. Then the Honorable J. E. Williams, of Evansville, 
 Ind., acting for the said Mrs. E. Thornton, turned over the 
 deed and key of the home, and all the property thereof to 
 Dr. W. C. Ralston, president of the Board of Ministerial 
 Relief of the Cumberland Presb}terian Church. The fol- 
 lowing table will exhibit the work done by the board for 
 twenty years, commencing witli 1882 and ending with 1901 : 
 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 Salary Cor. 
 
 General 
 
 Paid to 
 
 Year 
 
 Receipts 
 
 Beneficiaries 
 
 Sec'y-Treas. 
 
 Expense 
 
 Beneficiaries 
 
 1882 
 
 $ 598.61 
 
 4 
 
 $ None 
 
 $ 29.80 
 
 f 14050 
 
 1883 
 
 419-89 
 
 12 
 
 None 
 
 41-75 
 
 540.00 
 
 1884 
 
 782.48 
 
 16 
 
 None 
 
 8.00 
 
 792.05 
 
 1885 
 
 3,952.07 
 
 25 
 
 None 
 
 41.94 
 
 1.764-35 
 
 1886 
 
 3,933-28 
 
 26 
 
 100.00 
 
 71.91 
 
 2,473-70 
 
 1887 
 
 5,686.29 
 
 43 
 
 300.00 
 
 133-49 
 
 3,822.00 
 
 1888 
 
 6,040.61 
 
 59 
 
 300.00 
 
 143-58 
 
 4,806.04 
 
 1889 
 
 9,527-17 
 
 74 
 
 400,00 
 
 688.52 
 
 6,556.58 
 
HISTORY OF BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 247 
 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 Salary Cor. 
 
 General 
 
 Paid to 
 
 Bear 
 
 Receipts 
 
 Beneficiaries 
 
 Sec'y-Treas. 
 
 Expense 
 
 Beneficiaries 
 
 1890 
 
 10,306.35 
 
 80 
 
 500.00 
 
 669.10 
 
 6,802.76 
 
 1891 
 
 10,867.72 
 
 87 
 
 1 ,000.00 
 
 1,477.06 
 
 6,999.94 
 
 1892 
 
 10,392.44 
 
 88 
 
 1,200.00 
 
 1,024.04 
 
 7,414.99 
 
 I?93 
 
 10,138.15 
 
 100 
 
 1,300.00 
 
 768.60 
 
 7,599-64 
 
 1894 
 
 9,639.19 
 
 lOI 
 
 1,300.00 
 
 1,064.04 
 
 6,753-33 
 
 189s 
 
 11,122.23 
 
 96 
 
 1,000.00 
 
 1,046.31 
 
 7,693-67 
 
 1896 
 
 11,302.76 
 
 107 
 
 950.00 
 
 1,137-56 
 
 8,581.24 
 
 1897 
 
 10,726.65 
 
 no 
 
 662.50 
 
 880.17 
 
 8,355-86 
 
 1898 
 
 7,468.53 
 
 104 
 
 1,025.00 
 
 557-4° 
 
 4,680.62 
 
 1899 
 
 11,865.21 
 
 99 
 
 1,025.00 
 
 672.37 
 
 7,757-93 
 
 1900 
 
 10,074.70 
 
 106 
 
 1,025.00 
 
 827.94 
 
 7,645-25 
 
 I901 
 
 10,939.79 
 
 I OS 
 
 1,025.00 
 
 638.97 
 
 7,697.88 
 
 In the minutes of the General Assembly of 1906, page 9, 
 appendix 2, is another tabulated table, but arranged alto- 
 gether" different from the one above. This table goes back 
 to 1882 and ends with 1906. This much is here given: 
 
 In 1904 when the merger with the Northern Presbyterian 
 Church was being agitated, twelve hundred and nineteen 
 congregations contributed to the Board of 1905, $1,140.00, 
 and in 1906 only nine hundred and forty congregations. 
 This board in its report to the General Assembly, wdiich met 
 at Decatur, 111., ]\lay 17, 1906, says, in submitting our twen- 
 ty-fifth annual report, "we are -gratified to observe that in- 
 terest in the cause of Ministerial Relief and the welfare of 
 the aged veterans of the church and the widows of those 
 who have fallen in the work, continues throughout the en- 
 tire church." Yet the above figures deny this statement as 
 stated above in the year of 1906. The nine hundred and 
 forty churches, twelve Sabbath Schools, three Christian 
 Endeavor Societies and fifty individuals contributed only 
 $7,834.66, while in 1895, when our church was not disturb- 
 ed, there were one thousand three hundred and thirty-six 
 congregations contributing $16,537.00. The board in the 
 year of 1906 had upon their roll ninety-four beneficiaries, 
 thirty-nine ministers, fifty-three widows and two orphan 
 families, nine of these having died during the year. A 
 total amount received from all sources v/ith amount on hand 
 was $14,093.55. Of this amount $9,182.55 was disbursed. 
 
248 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 $3,110.00 transferred to the endowment fund and the bal- 
 ance on hand of $1,801.00 this made the total endowment 
 fund for 1906 $34,955.67, added to this $10,000.00, the 
 value of the Thornton Home, makes the total assets of the 
 board $44,955.67. On the 24th day of May, 1906, the 
 Moderator of this General Assembly in opposition to one 
 hundred and six delegates in that Assembly and one hun- 
 dred and thirty-seven majority of the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church and under a solemn protest with an injunc- 
 tion of the civil court upon them, adjourned sine die, and 
 suffered themselves to be merged into the Northern Pres- 
 byterian Church. All the members of the board of Min- 
 isterial Relief, except Dr. . W. G. Ralston, of Evansville, 
 Ind., president of the board, renounced the communion of 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and unlawfully seized 
 upon the $44,955.67 belonging to this board and took it 
 with them into the Northern Presbyterian Church, where- 
 upon the 76th General Assembly of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Qiurch, after having been refused their own house 
 of worship, went to the Grand Army Hall in the City of De- 
 catur, 111., on the 24th day of May, 1906, and "with one 
 hundred and six commissioners continued the business of 
 the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, with Rev. J. L. Hudgins, of Union City, Tenn., as 
 Moderator, and Rev. T. H. Padgett, of Memphis, Tenn., 
 Stated Clerk. It became a part of the business of this Assem- 
 bly to fill the vacancies of the Board of Ministerial Relief. 
 They appointed Rev. R. J. Miller, of Petersburg, 111 ;, Rev. 
 J. H. Milholland. of Charleston, III, and Rev. J. M. 
 Wyckoff, of Sullivan, 111. 
 
 In the organization of this temporary board,- Rev. R. D. 
 Miller was elected president; Rev. J. H. Milholland, cor- 
 responding secretary and Rev. J. M. Wyckoff, treasurer. 
 With our church disrupted and demoralized on account of 
 the union, it did not seem that this board could accomplish 
 anything. There were eleven beneficiaries who remained 
 
HISTORY OF BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 249 
 
 loyal to the church of their choice, who had to be cared for. 
 These bore their privations with the greatest fortitude until 
 aid could be procured for them. Therefore, in Rev. J. H. 
 Milholland's report as secretary of the Board to the General 
 Assembly which met at Dickson, Tenn., May, 1907, it shows 
 that the total cash offering for the year was $611.76, being- 
 more than was collected in the year of 1882, which was 
 only $598.61 ; or of the second year 1883, $419.89, and 
 nearly equals that of the third year 1884 of $782.43. There- 
 fore, when we turn again to our beneficiaries, we find God 
 and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had not forsaken 
 them. The Committee on Ministerial Relief at the General 
 Assembly, Dickson, Tenn., in May, 1907 said: "Those 
 faithful men of God were no doubt spared just for this 
 time that their counsels and prayers might strengthen and 
 encourage us. To care for them is no burden or hard- 
 ;hip, but a privilege and should prove a means of grace 
 to every one. Those old servants were in many cases abused 
 and even threatened and were insulted with offered bribes, 
 but the}' refused to stultify their conscience and violate the 
 conviction of truth, by going into the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A." 
 
 The committee further said, "That all of the Board of 
 Ministerial Relief had left the Com.munion of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church and have united with the Pres- 
 byterian Church, U. S. A., except Dr. G. W. Ralston, and as 
 he is the only member left, the Assembly was recommended 
 to fill the vacancies caused by the apostasy of these men." 
 The temporary board recommended the following persons 
 to fill the vacancies, to-wit : Rev. E. M. Johnson, of Mat- 
 toon, 111. ; Rev. W. M. Freeze, of Greenville, 111. ; Rev. J. L. 
 Goodknight, Lincoln, 111.; Rev. G. W. May, Owensville, 
 Ind.; Rev. J. H. Milholland, of Charleston, 111.; Rev. J. M. 
 Wyckofif, Sullivan, III. ; Rev. J. A. TTill, Anna, III., and R. D. 
 Miller, Petersburg, 111. 
 
 The Assembly ratified the recommendations of the board. 
 
250 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Milholland in his report to the General Assembly 
 which met in Corsicana, Texas in May, 1908, says in re- 
 ^a.vd to the beneficiaries of the board, that Rev. J. J. Armor, 
 15. K. Taylor, and A. W. Saye had entered into that rest 
 ^hat remaineth to the people of God. 
 
 But as in the apostolic band one proved to be unworthy, 
 likewise it was so with one Rev. H. J. Ray, contradictory of 
 his recent devotion to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
 forsook the hand that had fostered him by joining the 
 Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., and with sophistry and 
 evasions of the truth in the public press makes him an object 
 of pity, rather than contempt. Yet in all this we return to 
 the cig"hj[:een loyal men and women who would rather die 
 than to forsake the church which had been their spiritual 
 liome. 
 
 A LEGAL DEMAND. 
 
 On October 3rd, 1907, a formal legal demand was made 
 upon the former secretary and treasurer of the board, Mr. 
 S. B. Sanson, and all concerned for all money, mortgages, 
 notes, books, bonds and papers and the control of the prop- 
 erty known as the Thornton Home and all other property, 
 documents or assets including the endowment fund which 
 has been contributed for the use and the control of the 
 Board of Ministerial Relief of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. In January, 1908 the Thornton Home was de- 
 stroyed by fire, and from indications it seemed to be the' 
 jjurpose of those who had abandoned the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church by having renounced the communion of this 
 church by joining the Presbyterian Church U. S. A., to 
 confiscate the insurance on the Home amounting to $6,300 
 raid invest the same in a new location and deed the property 
 TO the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. Hence in February, 
 T908, a formal legal notice was served on the company 
 insuring this liomc through their agent at Evansvillc, Ind., 
 restraining the compau}- from paying the insurance money 
 
HISTORY OF BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 251 
 
 to any person or organization except to the Board of Min- 
 isterial Relief of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. No- 
 tice was received from the company tha.t the money would 
 be paid to those now holding the policy, unless legal process 
 was instituted before April 2, 1908. 
 
 Therefore, on JMarch loth, Dr. G. W. Ralston, the presi- 
 dent of the board, or if need be. Rev. J. H. Milholland, 
 secretary of the board, or Rev. J. M. Wyckoff, treasurer of 
 the board, was empowered to employ legal counsel and in- 
 stitute proceeding's before the civil courts at once for all 
 the property which at any time had been committed to the 
 Board. Through Judge William Reister, of Evansville, 
 Ind., the legal proceedings were instituted. Your present 
 board was ridiculed before the civil courts and a declara- 
 tion was made by those who confiscated this property that 
 we were not competent to receive and disburse money com- 
 ing to us. 
 
 The following members were recommended to this Gen- 
 eral Assembly for election as follows: Dr. G. W. Ralston, 
 Rev. J. H. Milholland, and Rev. J- ^I- Wyckoff to serve 
 three years, Rev. E. M. Johnson, Rev. G. W. May and 
 Dr. J. L. Goodknight to serve two years. Rev. J. A. Hill, 
 Rev. R. D. Miller and Rev. W. M. Freeze to serve one year. 
 Then according to the plan of the Assembly and board, the 
 board nominating and the Assembly electing the Rev. A. C. 
 Biddle, of Kentucky to succeed Rev. W. M. Freeze, Judge 
 William Reister to succeed Rev. R. D. Miller and Rev. 
 J. A. Hill to succeed himself. Rev. J. FI. Milholland, cor- 
 responding secretary collected $859.33, which was $247.59 
 over last year's collections. At the General Assembly which 
 met at Bentonville, Ark., May, 1909, Rev. J. H. Milholland, 
 corresponding secretarv of the board reported the follow- 
 ing beneficiaries who had been called from labor to rest 
 and who had a triumphant entrance in the City of God, 
 viz.: Rev. Dr. Chaddick, of Gilmer, Texas; Rev. J. S. 
 Laird, Laird, Miss.; Rev. S. IF Holmes, Savannah, Tenn.; 
 
2£2 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Rev. I. L. Thompson, Smithville, Tenn., and the wife of 
 Rev. W. H. H. H. King, Minola, Texas. 
 
 The time for which Rev. E .M. Johnson, Rev. G. W. May, 
 and Rev. J. L. Goodknight were elected members of this 
 Board expired with the meeting of this Assembly, hence 
 they were recommended and were each one elected by the 
 General Assembly to succeed himself. 
 
 The case of the board this year in reference to the in- 
 surance money on the Thornton Home, the insurance com- 
 pany being of the State of Iowa, placed the case in the Fed-' 
 eral District Court at Indianapolis, Ind., and the insurance 
 money in the hands of the court awaiting the decision of 
 the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana. 
 
 This year the corresponding secretary reported the sum 
 of cash on hand and collected for the year $1,193.76 oflfer- 
 ing not through the board was $274.87, making a total of 
 $1,468.63, and $609.30 more than was collected last year. 
 
 At the meeting of the Board in June, 1909, Rev. J. H. 
 Milholland was elected recording secretary of the board 
 and Rev. J. M. Wyckoff, corresponding secretary and treas- 
 urer, and while the Centennial Anniversary of our church 
 was approaching, the board felt it their duty as well as a 
 privilege to make a special effort to increase the revenue 
 of the board. Hence, the corresponding secretary was 
 ordered to have circulars enough to supply the church at 
 large, which was done. This work had not only an educa- 
 tional feature about it, but brought in a goodly sum com- 
 pared with what the expense was. 
 
 In conclusion, we predict in the next one hundred years 
 a more wonderful growth ior the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church than it has had in the past one hundred years. 
 
 While we have been robbed of our property in many 
 states by the Northern Presbyterian Church, we are assured 
 there are not enough devils in hell or Northern Presbyter- 
 ians out of that place, who will ever be able to wrest our 
 doctrine from us and our children. 
 
KEV. THOS. ASHBURN 
 KNOXyiLLE, TENN. 
 
HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND YOUNG 
 
 PEOPLES' WORK OF THE CUMBERLAND 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FOR THE 
 
 FIRST CENTURY OF HER 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 REV. THOMAS ASHBURN. 
 
 Your committee have derived much pleasure and profit 
 from their effort in gathering the material for this paper. 
 
 In studying the history of any branch of our denomina- 
 tional work, we are confronted with the fact that for the 
 first half century of our existence as a church, we did 
 but little toward any organized effort. 
 
 Camp meetings and various forms of revivals were not 
 only very prominent in the work of our church in her early 
 history, but they constituted nearly the entire work of our 
 church for the first half century of her existence. 
 
 During this characteristic period of our existence, our 
 fathers in the ministry seemed to have had but one dominant 
 thought, which was that people everywhere of all classes be 
 urged to accept Christ as their personal Savior, acting, as 
 if they felt that nothing further was necessary to be done 
 toward bringing the world to Christ. 
 
 Some of these converts united with other denominations ; 
 occasionally some of our ministers would remain long- 
 enough to organize a congregation, but even when they 
 organized a congregation they did but little toward the 
 development of the members and the work. 
 
 So far, the first half century, our fathers in the ministry 
 went about everywhere appealing to the people to accept 
 Christ as their personal Saviour, but doing but little be- 
 yond that. 
 
 After more than a half century of loose evangelistic work, 
 
254 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 our ministers and laymen began to wake up to the need of 
 organization and the development of the seed sown. 
 
 So, from time to time, steps were taken to organize the 
 various church boards and agency for systematic and ag- 
 gressive work, 1 1 *| 
 
 But one of the last departments looked after was the 
 Sunday School and young people's work. 
 
 We are satisfied that a small number of our churches had 
 Sunday Schools during the first half century of our church's 
 existence, but there is no recorded history of the same, so 
 far as we can learn. We know that whatever was done in 
 this line was without any denominational guidance. 
 
 A sad comment on the early leaders of our church, not 
 to have seen the need of so important work. 
 
 The first ofificial notice of Sunday School interest, we have 
 found recorded, was that the General xA.ssembly in session 
 in Memphis, Tenn., in May, 1879, spent one day of that 
 session in discussing Sunday School interest, but there was 
 no action taken beyond this free discussion of the work. 
 
 At the semi-Centennial meeting of our denomination in 
 1880, we find no reference wliatever to Sunday Schools or 
 young people's work and we are to remember that was but 
 thirty years ago. 
 
 In 1883 the General Assembly took her first step in an 
 organized capacity to look after Sunday School work by 
 appointing a committee of three, namely : Revs. J. H. 
 Warren and J. S. Grider; Elders Nathan Green and J. H. 
 Fussell. At this meeting Rev. M. B. DeWitt was elected 
 general superintendent and to look after the Sunday School 
 interest of the denomination ; but as there was no provision 
 made for his salary, there was no advance made in the 
 work. Rev. DeWitt -resigned in 1886. 
 
 At this meeting of the General Assembly of 1886, the 
 Rev. J. H. Warren was elected as general superintend- 
 ent ; under Mr. Warren the first advanced steps in Sunday 
 Schools was made. He made the first call for the observ- 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK. 255 
 
 ance of Children's Day in 1887. He also took the first 
 step toward gathering Sunday School statistics, and in 
 various ways the work was given an advance movement by 
 Mr. Warren. 
 
 At this time the General Assembly ordered the Sunday 
 School committee to co-operate with the Board of Publi- 
 cation in carrying on the Sunday School work. 
 
 The failing health of Brother Warren led him to resign 
 from this work in 1888, which was very much on his heart. 
 
 In this year, 1888, the Board of Publication elected Rev. 
 M. B. DeWitt to the joint work of general superintendent 
 of the Sunday School work and editor of her literature. 
 Rev. DeWitt continued in this double field of work doing 
 much good until 1S94, at which time he resigned. 
 
 The Board of Publication employed Rev. Geo. O. Bach- 
 man as superintendent of the Sunday School work, in which 
 he labored from April, 1894, to July, 1895. 
 
 Upon the resignation of Mr. Buchman the Board of Pub- 
 lication employed Elder H. H. Bucjuo for a few months, 
 lor this work. 
 
 Rev. Taylor Bernard took charge of this work as general 
 superintendent in 1896, in which position he continued until 
 the division in our church. 
 
 In the meantime, the General Assembly transferred the 
 Sunday School work from the special committee to the 
 Board of Publication, in 1888. 
 
 In 1892 the Board of Publication asked to be relieved of 
 the work of looking after the Sunday School cause, where- 
 upon the Assembly appointed an Advisory Committee on 
 Sunday Schools whose duties would be to aid the Board 
 of Publication in looking after this important branch oi 
 our church work. 
 
 This committee was composed of J. H. Zarecor, T. M. 
 Hurst, J. I. D. Hinds, T. H. Perrin and J. \\'. Axtell. 
 
 In 1894 the General Assembly established a Permanent 
 Committee on Sabbath Schools, consisting of W. T. Fer- 
 
256 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 guson, J. I. D. Hinds, John D. Wilson, H. H. Buquo, W. J. 
 Darby, J. V. Stevens, with J. H. Miller, T. A. Cowan, J. R. 
 Morris, D. C. DeWitt and T. H. Perrin as advisory mem- 
 bers. This permanent committee, with various changes as 
 to its personnel, continued until the division in our church 
 at Decatur, 111., in 1906. 
 
 We will next notice briefly the history of our denomina- 
 tional literature. 
 
 The first thing ever published for our Sunday Schools 
 was the Sunday School Gem, in 1868, by Rev. T. C. Blake. 
 This was begun as his individual property, but he sold the 
 same to our Board of Publication in 1872, which purchase 
 was the first effort by (jur church machinery to furnish the 
 church with a Sunday School literature. 
 
 In 1874 the board began publishing the Sunday Morn- 
 ing, a magazine for teachers and officers, and in the same 
 year the board began the publication of The Comments, as 
 lesson helps. And in the next year, 1875, The Rays of 
 Light for lower grades was begun. Our Lambs was first 
 published in 1877, Rev. M. B. DeWitt, Rev. Robert Foster 
 and Mrs. C. M. Harris, in their turn editing these under 
 the auspices of the Board of Publication. 
 
 In the year 1899, the Board of Publication employed the 
 Rev. J. H. McKamy to edit the Sunday School literature, 
 in which work he continued until the division in our church. 
 During the time of Rev. McKamy's work as editor, oiu 
 literature was much improved, reaching the ])oint of merit 
 where it ranked with the best. 
 
 Since the unfortunate division of our church, Rev. J. R. 
 Goodpasture has furnished the church meritorious litera- 
 ture for our Sunday Schools ; for two years, he assuming 
 the financial responsibility for the literature, since which 
 time he has been editing the literature for our church under 
 the Board of Publication, at which work he is now en- 
 gaged at this Centennial meeting. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK. 257 
 
 We will now for a few minutes notice the history of the 
 young people's work other than the Sunday School. 
 
 This department of our church machinery is still more 
 modern than our Sunday School interest. 
 
 The Woman's Board of Missions during the thirty years 
 of her existence, has done some work for the young by 
 organizing the young women and children for mission 
 study and work, and they will continue in this very import- 
 ant endeavor. 
 
 A little more than twenty years ago some of our congre- 
 gations, desiring to train her young people for efficient, 
 active service, began organizing what was known as Chris- 
 tion Endeavor Societies, and this work spread until more 
 than one thousand Christian Endeavor Societies existed in 
 our denomination. 
 
 In the meantime, in order to properly direct this move- 
 ment for the good of the church, the General Assembly 
 in 1893 appointed W. J. Darby, J. C. McClurkin, and A. E. 
 Turner a committee to act as a bureau of information on 
 the Christian Endeavor work of the denomination. 
 
 This committee was made a permanent committee by the 
 Assembly in session in 1894. 
 
 This permanent committee began working to harness up 
 this force in church life so as to turn it to the greatest ad- 
 vantage to the church and 'the development of the Christian 
 character of her young people. 
 
 To this end this committee published and circulated freely 
 a 16-page pamphlet setting forth the true Christian En- 
 deavor idea, and many suggestions as to how her members 
 might best help their church. 
 
 By-laws to go with the constitution and by-ldws of the 
 United Society were also prepared and sent to the societies, 
 and all were urged to adopt the same so as to more closely 
 bind the }'Oung people to the cluu-ch. 
 
258 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 This Permanent Committee prepared and gave to the 
 young- people a denominational reading course in the year 
 , 1894, and a second reading course was prepared and put 
 in the hands of our young people in 1900. Thus this com- 
 mittee were not only faithful in keeping before the voung 
 people the great fundamentals of the Christian Endeavor 
 movement, such as daily Bible study and praver. taking- 
 part in each prayer meeting, the tenth legion, good citizen- 
 ship, missions and evangelism and the many, active things 
 specially emphasized by the United Society, but were faith- 
 ful in training them in doing special denoniinational things. 
 
 This committee gave special attention to developing these 
 young people in the work of missions by not only encour- 
 aging them to contribute to Assembly's board with the other 
 members of the church, but they were called upon to make 
 one offering yearly to build special church houses here in 
 America and also to contribute two cents each week to 
 foreign missions. During this time, by these special efforts, 
 the First Church at Portland, Maine, and the Second at 
 Columbus, Ohio, were built, and at sanie tinie Revs. Preston 
 and Kelly were supported in China. 
 
 These Endeavor Societies during this time contributed 
 as specials in these lines, between four and five thousand 
 dollars yearly, while at same time doing their part in all 
 local and general work of the church. 
 
 The General Assembly in 1898 ordered that one page of 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian be devoted weekly to the 
 interest of the Christian Endeavor cause. 
 
 Thus, this work continued in this way until the unfor- 
 tunate division of our church. During these few- years of 
 history the Christian Endeavor Society did much good for 
 Christ and the church, developing many faithful and efficient 
 workers prepared for various departments of church work, 
 as the Christian Endeavor Society is intended as the church's 
 iraining school. 
 
 The Sunday School is the church at work studying the 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK. 259 
 
 Bible. The Christian Endeavor is the training school in 
 which the members learn how to put the Bible truths into 
 practice. 
 
 When the division came in our church at Decatur, 111., 
 in 1906, a majority of the members of the permanent com- 
 niittee on Sunday School and Christian Endeavor went 
 into the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. ; thereupon our Gen- 
 eral Assembly put the two fields of work together under 
 what the Assembly denominated the Board of Sunday 
 School and Young People's Work, appointing as members 
 of that board: • Rev. T. Ashburn, J. T. Barbee ; Elders 
 D. M. Riber and William Reister. One year later the names 
 of T. W. Keller and J. M. Gallaher were added to the mem- 
 bership of this !)card. 
 
 This board has been striving to carry on the various de- 
 partments of the work committed to her, organizing and 
 developing Sunday School and young people's societies and 
 have made comniicndable progress in this work. In addi- 
 tion to the work logically belonging to this board, per the 
 order of the Assembly, a missionary has been kept in the 
 State of Oklahoma, working with both the whites and the 
 Indians. 
 
 Under this new board many Sunday Schools and young 
 people's societies have been organized and much work in 
 developing to a higher mark of efificiency has been done. 
 
 To encourage all and to give the widest freedom to the 
 church at large, the Assembly at her meeting in 1909, de- 
 clared that all congregations which could not see their way 
 to have Christian Endeavor . societies be urged to organize 
 their young people in any form best suited in their judg- 
 ment to local conditions, provided that they be so organized 
 as to be loyal to their own church. This board has gotten 
 out and put before the young people a special denomina- 
 tional reading course in addition to those prepared in 1894 
 and 1898, hoping thereby to encourage our young people 
 
?«o CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 in not only reading good literature, but especially to study 
 the doctrine, history and polity of the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church. 
 
 This Board of Sunday Schools and Young People's Work 
 come to this Centennial Anniversary occasion very hopeful 
 of the future of the work among the young people of the 
 Cumberland Presbvterian Church. 
 
MRS. WALTER CRAWFORD 
 PARIS, TENN. 
 
 MRS. MARY M. GRAF 
 EVANSVILLE, IND. 
 
HISTORY OF THE WOMAN'S BOARD OF MIS- 
 SIONS OF THE CUMBERLAND PRES- 
 BYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "Come over and help us," is the cry, 
 "Come over and help us ere we die. 
 
 We see the woe falling — 
 
 We hear the voice calling 
 Oh, Ship of Salvation, thither fly." 
 
 From far back into the mystic past — on and on down 
 the ages, sounded a moan so full of pain, from dying millions 
 beyond the surging sea, that it reached the anxious, listen- 
 ing ear and touched the throbbing, sympathetic, loving 
 heart of the consecrated womanhood of the young, but 
 true and divinely-commissioned Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, and in response to a letter, written from the For- 
 eign Field in 1880, by the Rev. A. D. Hail and wife, a call 
 came from the first Cumberland Presbyterian Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Society, Evansville, Indiana, in co- 
 operation with the Assembly's Board, for women represent- 
 ing the dififerent congregations of our dear Church, to unite 
 in Convention for the purpose of organizing a Woman's 
 Board of Missions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 The reasons for this move were that Christian women 
 were needed : because, owing, as woman does, to Christian- 
 ity what she is, she naturally sympathizes with her own sex, 
 and can appreciate the degradation of her heathen sisters, 
 who, because of their social system, are many of them acces- 
 sible only by women ; again, because women are God's or- 
 dained pioneers in all educational work. If indeed, man be 
 the head, woman is the heart and holds the scepter in the 
 world's great evangelizing agency, the home. Majestic in 
 her motherhood, she holds the plastic, clay in her hands— 
 
262 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 she sits at the "potter's wheel," and if Hves are moulded 
 fitly for the Master's work, a consecrated Hfe must be 
 laid on His altar and sanctified hands must preside at the 
 wheel of destiny. Our own dear Mrs. R. N. Herbert of the 
 present time is an example. 
 
 In the distinct organization of women the church foresaw 
 a quickened interest, greater spiritual development, large 
 means for the support of missionaries and the enlistment of 
 thousands of young people and children to help fight the 
 battle of the Lord, working and praying for the salvation 
 of the heathen. So, responding to the "wail from the 
 islands of the sea," and the call of our Church, about seven- 
 ty-five Cumberland Presbyterian women convened in Evans - 
 ville, Ind., May 25, 1880. After several days of deliberation, 
 earnest prayer and consultation with the Assembly's Board, 
 the Woman's Board of Missions of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church was born of God and set apart in single- 
 ness of purpose to His service. It stands today a per- 
 petuated Board, a living example of the triumph of truth 
 and Divine principle. It was woman who stood "like a 
 stone wall," through our crucial testing time, when "powers 
 of earth and hell arose, and friends betrayed us to our foes." 
 'Twas woman's hand held proudly aloft the glorious "Who- 
 soeverwill Banner'' midst the fearful conflict with the 
 emissaries of fatality, and the names of Mrs. Mattie Ash- 
 burn, Mrs. ]\Iary M. Graf, Mrs. Anna Conn, Mrs. Tillie 
 Stone and others are graven in living letters of love upon 
 the tablets of our hearts, now and forever ! "Oh, bless our 
 God, ye people, and let the whole earth be filled with His 
 glory." 
 
 The charter officers of our Woman's Board were as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Mrs. R. B. Ruston, President. 
 
 Mrs. W. F. Nisbet, Vice-President. 
 
 Mrs. W. J. Darby, Recording Secretary. 
 
 Mrs. D. S, Ragon, Corresponding Secretary. 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 263 
 
 Mrs. N. A. Lyon, Treasurer. 
 
 Mr. Alvah Johnson, Auditor. 
 
 Down through succeeding years until now, when vacan- 
 cies occurred, they have been filled by efficient consecrated 
 women without delay. 
 
 At the time of organization, Miss Alice Orr, of Kirksville, 
 Mo., offered herself for work in foreign fields, under the 
 care of the new Board, which for one whole year, held 
 two regular all-day sessions each month and continued in 
 prayer and supplication that the Lord would lay His hand 
 on at least two young women who would answer to the 
 call, in willing sacrifice, saying, "Here am I, Lord, send me !" 
 Oh, dear Sisters, with grateful hearts and tears of joy we 
 record the result of this first year's waiting before God! — 
 Miss Orr and Miss Leavitt called to the foreign field ; nine- 
 ty-nine auxiliaries organized ; receipts from time of or- 
 ganization $2,013.68. Through ceaseless, prevailing prayer 
 and consecrated activity, "the Lord has laid bare His holy 
 arm in the eyes of all nations," and soon the blessed Gos- 
 pel ship, steered by Cumberland Presbyterian women, was 
 ploughing the seething main, her noble crew prepared and 
 ready to enter the trackless wilds of heathendom, and plant 
 there the Bible as the precious seed of truth in the name of 
 God and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ! 
 
 In 1882, in convention at Bowling Green, Ky., the Board 
 reported eighty-four new Children's Bands, ten life mem- 
 bers — $30 each — three native Japanese girls being educated 
 for Kioto school — Girls" School and Orphanage in course of 
 erection; Mrs. A. M. Drennan, of blessed memory, con- 
 secrated to foreign ^\■ork. 
 
 In 1883, at Lebanon, Tenn., the Treasurer reported the 
 receipts of $5,233.37, and lot purchased for Girls' School 
 at Osaka, Japan. 
 
 Annual meeting held in 1884, in Salem, 111. — Two charter 
 members resigned — vacancies filled ; Miss Duffield conse- 
 crated. 
 
264 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 March lo, 1885, fifth annual meeting held in Oxford, 
 Miss. — Appropriations made to Indian Missions ; encour- 
 aging reports from all M-ission fields ; work opened in var- 
 ious points in China and Japan. Board formally in corpor- 
 ated ; Misses May and Agnes Morgan and Rena Rezner of- 
 fered themselves for foreign work. Receipts of Treasurer 
 $5,981.45. 
 
 Sixth Annual Meeting in Evansville, Ind. — Showed in- 
 creased interest. An appropriation was made to the 
 school in Mexico, and the salary of teacher in Logan In- 
 stitute was paid. Help sent School in Durant, I. T., and 
 also to Airs. R. H. Parker to open school for girls in Mus- 
 kogee, I. T. 
 
 1887, Girls' School building in Osaka, Japan, completed. 
 Three native teachers installed; Y. M. C. A. organized by 
 Mrs. Drennan ; Mrs. S. S. Phelps placed in Logan Insti- 
 tute, as teacher, and Mrs. G. W. VanHorn sent to Japan. 
 
 1888, Annual Meeting held in Clinton, Mo. Receipts 
 $7,658.44. $500 appropriated to School in Mexico; Misses 
 May and Agnes Morgan consecrated. 
 
 In 1889, Board convened in Lebanon, Tenn. — Receipts 
 $10,614.49. Nagoya entered and all Assembly's stations 
 helped. Flag sent to Wilmina School; $15 sent by boys in 
 Mexico, and $500 given by children to purchase printing 
 press for same school. 
 
 In 1890, Annual Meeting at Martinsville, Ind. A year of 
 anxious work and constant planning; Mrs. Drennan sent to 
 Yok Kaichi, where the people had said for three years, 
 "No missionary shall enter." Bible Class organized there ; 
 Church and school for boys organized in Nagoya ; the word 
 "Foreign" dropped from the Board's title and present title 
 adopted. Receipts for the year ending April 15, 1890, $62,- 
 086.52. At this time our Chinese Missions in San Francis- 
 co and Hanford, Cal., were also in successful operation, un- 
 der the care of the Woman's Board, and appropriations were 
 sent to the Choctaw Indian Mission, 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 265 
 
 This very limited synopsis of the work of our Board cov- 
 ering ten years, shows a truly phenomenal growth of 
 woman's work in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 In taking this retrospective view, oh, let us who "stand as 
 watchmen upon the walls" this Centennial Year — 
 
 "Be strong! 
 We are not here to play, to dream, to drift — 
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift ; 
 Shun not the struggle, fa^ it ; 'tis God's gift. 
 
 Be strong." 
 
 Let us bravely meet every obligation and thus realize 
 the full fruition of the Scripture promise. The blindness 
 of Israel shall be removed and they shall look on Him 
 whom they pierced and wounded in the house of His friends : 
 and so all Israel shall be saved with the Gentiles and the 
 earth shall be filled with the knowledge and glory of God 
 as the waters that cover the sea. 
 
 "The steady flow must turn the wheel, 
 The given pledge must be redeemed." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "Ye shall be witnesses of me unto the uttermost parts 
 of the earth." 
 
 "Lo ! One waketh now from sleep. 
 He liveth ! They shall live forever 
 
 For lo ! He lifts a priestly hand 
 And blesseth all the sons of nien — • 
 
 In every land." 
 
 The phenomenal success of the work pf the Woman's 
 Board, both in the home and foreign fields, during the 
 first decade of its history, seemed to awaken Cumberland 
 Presbyterian women to a full understanding of the truism 
 — "opportunity, with ability, makes responsibility" — and 
 also to a realization of the fact that women were to be large- 
 
366 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 ly instrumental in verifying God's missionary covenant with 
 Abraham : "In thy seed all the nations of the earth shall 
 be blessed," as well as the fulfillment of the great prophecy 
 in Malachi, "from the rising of the sun to the going down 
 thereof, my name shall be great among the Gentiles," which 
 fulfillment began when Gentiles from the East greeted our 
 Saviour and His mother in the cattle stall, continued when 
 the African of Gyrene bore the cross with Him, and when 
 He gave His last command, "Go ve into all the world, and 
 preach my gospel." Oh, the greatest theme in the Bible 
 is "Christ for the world and the world for Christ." 
 
 The proclamation is storming the ramparts of sin and 
 heathen darkness like the horn of the Alpine hunter is said 
 to quiver the leaves of the violets in the valley, to move the 
 trees on the mountain side, to startle the cedar by the snow- 
 line, or even to move the great avalanche into fearful de- 
 scent. And, largely through the agency of women, do these 
 notes, clear as a cathedral bell, spread themselves over the 
 world of sin with strangely prolonged echoes. 
 
 In the beginning of the eleventh year of the work of the 
 Woman's Board, it did seem that God had set His approv- 
 ing seal upon the efiforts of women in the foreign fields. 
 Volunteers were continually saying, "Here am I, send me." 
 Church spires arose above the graves of witchcraft and can- 
 nibalism ! Whole nations were turning to the Light of the 
 Gospel— as in the cases of Madagascar, Fiji Islands and 
 Japan. In the interval between 1880 and 1890, it is es- 
 timated that the average foreign missionary had thirty times 
 as many converts as did the average minister in the United 
 States. It is no wonder that our women began to be greatly 
 awakened to the importance of Home Missions. "Where 
 art thou? — and where is thy brother?" were the paramount 
 questions, and no one dared answer, "Am I my brother's 
 keeper?" Like the eagle who "stirreth her nest," the Lord 
 was stirring the nest of the Church with His everlasting 
 arms underneath, like eagle's wings, bearing up His willing 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 267 
 
 workers. This period contains such a store of dehghtful 
 memories for me, that a long Hfe of retrospecticyi could 
 not state their infinite sweetness. It recorded my first work 
 through the Woman's Board as President of our Auxiliary 
 in the little home church. The small seed then sown, sprang 
 up, and is still growing and producing fruit, thank God! 
 
 We learn that after the tenth Annual Meeting of the 
 Board at Martinsville, Ind., a called meeting was held in 
 the home of Rev. O. S. Baum, to receive the application of 
 ]\Iiss Mar_y Harris, of Albion, 111., for missionary work, 
 after a year of Bible study. 
 
 In August, 1890, Dr. ^^lary Gault sent an application; she 
 was received and Sunday morning of the eleventh Annual 
 Meeting' at Dallas, Texas, was set for her consecration. In 
 the absence of Mrs. Ruston. Mrs. S. C. Trumbul conducted 
 this meeting. The Corresponding Secretary showed great 
 advances in the work. She reported $1,000 in receipts and 
 about $1,000 appropriated to work in Mexico. The Board 
 adopted scholarships ip the Church Colleges. Miss Duf- 
 field, at home for rest, represented missions in Japan. ]Mrs. 
 S. C. Phelps represented Indian missions, and Mrs. Lawyer, 
 our Mexican interests. The resignation of Miss Anna For- 
 sythe, as Foreign Secretar\-, was received with regret. Mrs. 
 A. G. Bergen was elected in her stead and Miss*Forsythe 
 was made Committee on Children's Work — and $1,000 ap- 
 propriated to Home Missions. Mrs. R. B. Ruston, the be- 
 loved Charter President, resigned, and ]\Irs. W. J. Darby 
 was elected in her stead. Mrs. Ruston was made President 
 Emeritus. 
 
 In August, 1891, Miss Leavitt came home to recuperate. 
 $400 was given to the school in Indian Territory. The 
 Assembly's Board sent Rev. R. C. Grace and wife to the 
 Indian Territory, but the Woman's Board paid Mrs. Grace's 
 salary as teacher in the Mission School at Chelsea. I. T. 
 God was '"stirring the nest" still, but His divine hand was 
 also guiding through troubled waters and calm. 
 
268 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 The twelfth annual meeting was held in Independence, 
 Mo. — R^v. J. B. Hail and wife were there from Japan. Miss 
 Anna « Forsythe was made Corresponding Secretary and 
 Treasurer of the Board. Miss Duffield was returned to 
 Japan. Mrs. Nettie Bergan was appointed Editress of Record 
 and Alonthly Topic Leafllets. Mrs. R. V. Foster was made 
 Editress of the Board Department of the ^lissionary Gem. 
 Miss Ella Gardner applied for work in Japan, was ac- 
 cepted and time set for consecration. Mrs. Drennan and 
 Miss Rezner were called home to rest, and the Board again 
 saddened to record "entered into rest" after the name of 
 Mrs. Wm. Kurtz, another charter member. 
 
 The Annual IMeeting of the Board at Nashville. Tenn., in 
 1893, was of unusual interest. Several returned mission- 
 aries were present. Miss Ella Gardner was consecrated and 
 the application of Miss Jennie Freeland accepted. With 
 regret the Board received the resignation of Miss Bettie 
 Dufifield, to be married to Rev. Frank Mueller. Miss Mary 
 Hariis represented the Mission of Mexico. iMisses Leavitt, 
 Gardner and Freeland sailed, and reached Japan July 10, 
 1893. Miss Mattie Mason resigned as Field Secretary in 
 September, and Miss Belle M. Day, of Pennsylvania, took 
 her place. Miss May Morgan was ordered home for health 
 and Miss Agnes appointed principal of her school, with 
 Miss Gardner to assist. ]\Iiss Jennie Freeland was put in 
 charge of the school called "Ego Semmon Gakla English 
 School." In December, 1893, was indeed a time of sorrow 
 for the Woman's Board! The first link in the chain of 
 nine was broken when the beautiful life of Mrs. S. F. Nis- 
 bet went out. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, 
 * =:= * their works do follow them." 
 
 Appeals came from Pacific Synod for the school among 
 the Chinese. It was opened January, 1894, with Mrs. Nao- 
 mi Sitton, principal. The day school in Mexico had de- 
 veloped into a boarding school. Miss Anna L. Forsythe 
 resigned as Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer of the 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 269 
 
 Board, to be married to Rev. W. W. Farr, of Ivlarshall, 
 Texas. Miss Lela Hollingsworth was elected in her stead. 
 On March 17, Miss Sallie Alexander sent application for ap- 
 pointment as missionary to Japan and was accepted. God 
 still "stirring the nest."', Receipts for this year were $13,- 
 
 875-54- 
 
 The Board went to their fourteenth Annual Convention 
 at Huntsville, Ala., with only three members present, but 
 God was with them and in His strength they undertook 
 greater things than ever before. Reports from Foreign 
 Fields told of numbers of converts. Miss Sallie Alexander 
 was consecrated and O Yone San and Komai San, the two 
 Christian Chinese present, thanked Rev. Alexander and wife 
 for this great gift to their people. Miss Belle M. Day was 
 compelled to return home on account of sickness, and in 
 December, obeyed the command, "Well done, enter into 
 thy rest." 
 
 On June 2, Mrs. N. A. Lyon applied to the Board for 
 "missionary work anywhere." She was consecrated August 
 26, 1894. Miss Alexander, Mrs. Drennan, Mrs. Lyon and 
 O Yone San sailed from Tacoma, September ist. Miss 
 Lillie Wines was placed in Moody Institute for Bible train- 
 ing, and Miss Myrtis Buford in Lebanon College to train 
 for mission work. October 6, 1894, an application was re- 
 ceived from Miss Jean L. Ankrom, of Pennsylvania, for 
 work in Mexico. She was accepted and consecrated. 
 
 Conditions both in the Home and Foreign Mission Fields 
 were retrospected with great satisfaction, and broader and 
 more brilliant plans were made for the campaign against 
 sin and heathenism in 1895. Receipts in fourteen years 
 were $112,406.93. 
 
 So has the Cumberland Presbyterian woman on her 
 God-given mission of love, gone into the homes of the rich, 
 into the cottages of tlie poor, the palaces of the proud, the 
 den of the sinner, the bedside of the suffering, the lands of 
 heathen darkness, and to all classes of men and women, to 
 
270 CEXTEXXTAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 tell them that to be a simple, pure Christian, saved by 
 Christ, is better than to have otherwise all knowledge, all 
 riches, all fame ! 
 
 Let the whole Church shout with them : 
 
 "God speed thee ! God speed thee, 
 Heralds of light Shall not 
 Woman's hand endowed with holy might 
 Lead this great sad world up through the night 
 Into the promised morn?" 
 
 CIIAPTKR III. 
 
 "1 thank God that He has called us and -given us willing 
 hands for what He would have us do in the world, with its 
 many wide open doors and broad fields even now whitening 
 for the harvest. It is our blessed privilege to work, but 
 His to give the increase." 
 
 "When Stephen raised to heaven 
 
 Those angel eyes. 
 The stones that crushed his body 
 
 Seemed like flowers ! 
 A martyr's or a warrior's death be mine ! 
 
 Nay dreamer ; thou must learn 
 To serve — not shine. 
 
 The Host, when He awakes you 
 Will mark that path of thine !" 
 
 During the period from 1894 to 1900, there was scarcely 
 any increase in the number of our missionaries, either in 
 the Home or Foreign Fields except in the Mountain Mission 
 of Barnard, North Carolina ; but the Woman's Auxiliaries 
 all over the whole Church were in regular correspondence 
 with ovtr missionaries in Japan, China, Mexico, California, 
 Indian Territory and the ^fountain ^fission. A letter from 
 some one of these was read at almost every meeting of their 
 numerous societies and Children's Bands. Thus, the Mis- 
 sionary spirit was everywhere kept alive. 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 271 
 
 But alas ! alas ! about this period, the fearful mistake of 
 organic union began to be agitated. Overtures were made 
 our missionaries for union schools, etc. The deadly octopus 
 was fastening its fangs in our vital life so that in a few years 
 we found our Foreign work not Cumberland Presbyterian, 
 but a mixture of Cumberland Presbyterianism and Calvin- 
 ism, which fatal mistake soon made a way to strike at the 
 very heart of our Church fabric. Plow unsuspecting we 
 were, indeed ! Alas, alas ! Not the "Boxer Uprising," the 
 Crimean war, nor any other persecution of the past or pres- 
 ent can equal in destructive results the awful tides of Union- 
 ism, which sought in its fury to blot out from the face of 
 the earth the best "system of doctrine extant" in all the 
 world ! 
 
 "One fierce caress, one playful blow 
 
 Her life-blood stained her breast of snow ! 
 
 Yet, oh, our God ! how could we know ! 
 
 But, better a cross, and nails in either hand 
 
 Than Pilate's palace, and a frozen soul." 
 
 The Woman's Board at this time consisted of twelve 
 members, with Airs. W. J. Darby still the beloved Presi- 
 dent, and Miss Lela Hollingsworth, Secretary and Treasur- 
 er. Fifteen Synods were in co-operation with the Board 
 and under its care seventeen missionaries in Japan, four in 
 China, three in Mexico, two in California, and five in the 
 Mountain Mission. Japan had almost ceased to be classed 
 as a heathen nation. The Chinese minister to the United 
 States said, "The United States has become an important 
 factor in the far East. There is no reason why the grand 
 truths and sound princip'^s of this government should not 
 be spread throughout the world." Cumberland Presbyte- 
 nan Missionary service could claim a larger share in shap- 
 ing foreign national affairs. There was just cause for en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 The twentieth Annual Missionarv Convention was held 
 
2.^2 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS, x 
 
 in Decatur, 111., opened May 13, 1900, with a Consecration 
 Service full of spiritual enthusiasm. Several of our dis- 
 tinguished D. D.'s, Rev. anfl Mrs. Van Horn, Miss Free- 
 land, Dr. and Mrs. Logan from the Foreign Field, Mrs. 
 Whittemore, from Hanford, Cal., and Miss Winona Boyd- 
 ston, of Barnard, N. C, were present in this service. 
 
 It was said that "never were so many nations open to 
 Gospel messengers, nor the Word prepared in so many 
 tongues." Much time was spent in hearing reports and eulo- 
 gies on the Pan- Presbyterian Alliance, held in Washington, 
 D. C, and the great Ecumenical Conference of New York. 
 Great honor for the advancement of our missionary interests 
 was attributed to those interdenominational gatherings. 
 How could we know that this was only a stepping-stone of 
 Organic Unionism to ingratiate itself into our vital life? 
 Alas ! alas ! Much gratification was felt and expressed on ac- 
 count of the union of our foreign schools with those of the 
 Presbyterian U. S. A. Alas ! alas ! Frequent and urgent 
 appeals began to be made for "more" — "more lives and 
 more money." "Men and gold" — more, more, and it is the 
 cry of unionism still. Our eloquent President said, "This 
 lament, so often sounded in our ears, tells the sad story, 'I 
 have called, yet we have not heard.' " It is not, have Cum- 
 berland women faith enough or money enough, but have 
 they a willing mind? 
 
 There were contributing to Woman's Board at this time 
 661 Women's and Ladies' societies, 233 Children's Bands, 
 with a reported membership of 8,515. 
 
 During the following four years the Board recorded but 
 little comparative increase in its work or workers. There 
 was scarcely any change in the number of missionaries, 
 only a slight one in the "personnel of the workers." 
 
 In 1902 Mrs. Drennan came to the home land to recuper- 
 ate her failing health. She planned joyfully to meet her 
 many friends at the Board's Convention in Huntsville, Ala., 
 soon to convene. But a great weakness came over her 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 273 
 
 and on the 26th she fell asleep in Jesus. "Blessed are the 
 dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith 
 the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their 
 works do follow them." Miss Sallie Alexander came home 
 to rest. Reports continued to come to headquarters, full 
 of encouragement and with them came conditional appeals 
 for more money, better equipments in their schools and more 
 workers. The "war" was giving the missionaries many new 
 opportunities. Although they said, "It is sad to see the sol- 
 diers marching out to war, yet we are drawing very close 
 to the people and every home is open to us." Mrs. Hail sent 
 an urgent appeal for more money for the Wilmina school 
 and expressed her delight in the union of Osaka and the 
 Presbyterian girls' schools. She said, "If the union of the 
 Presbyterian Church with the Cumberland Presbyterian be 
 as successfully consummated as the union of our schools has 
 been, there will be much to be thankful for." Oh, I thank 
 God every day I live that the "happily consummated" did 
 not "consummate" in our beloved Church ! Miss McCuan 
 was sent out by the Board to Changteh, Hunan, China, to 
 assist Miss Logan in the Girls' School there, but married 
 Mr. Jenkins and was transferred to the care of the Assem- 
 bly's Board. A call was made in 1903 to the Woman's 
 Board for two more teachers at least, in the Union school. 
 "Could use four to better advantage." And for two more 
 women in at least seven cities in Japan. The church was 
 pronounced a cruel stepmother to her bravest sons who 
 were on the firing line, in that she left them there without 
 proper support. New fields were opened in China, Japan 
 and Mexico, when certain districts were ceded to the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church. The Woman's Board felt 
 "under God, responsible for the evangelization of those 
 fields," so prepared to "go in and possess the land." Re- 
 ports from Mexico were encouraging in 1903- 1904, in spite 
 of smallpox, measles, grippe, pleurisy, pneumonia and yel- 
 low fever. In the schools at Calientes and Collegio Moreles 
 
274 CENTEXXIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 the enrollment was 170. An appeal came to the Board foi 
 trained nurses. Kindergarten work began in the Mission. 
 The teachers said : "We have found in the Woman's 
 Board true helpers and sympathizers ! 'In them we feel 
 we have a tower of strength.' " 
 
 In the home-land, in view of her approaching 25th birth- 
 day, her silver anniversary, the Board was crying unto God, 
 " 'The harvest is great but the laborers are few.' We need 
 at least two hundred and fifty missionaries in the foreign 
 fields and we are half fearfully asking for twenty-five, and 
 we tremble to fix the standard of our free-will offering at 
 $25,000." God answers in trumpet tones from heaven, 
 "Why cryest thou unto me? Speak to the people that they 
 go forward !" So the Forward Movement standard in 
 1 904- 1 905 was set at twenty-five missionaries, 25,000 Aux- 
 iliary members, 25,000 subscribers to the Record, $25,000 
 free-will offering. And they said, "Let us weave the figures 
 into our thoughts, into our conversation, and into our pray- 
 ers." And let me say, "amen and amen" to this as the very 
 plan we need in our Centennial Aims this year. In the 
 Church proper was agitation, consternation and distress. 
 The fierce storm of "Organic Union" with its forked light- 
 ning flashes and its bloody carnage was already assailing 
 our beloved structure with destruction in its wake. Oh, 
 that we might take this year out of our life and story — 
 this dead year, and say : 
 
 "I will hew thee a tomb 
 
 With all the kings of the earth 
 Each in his own house 
 
 And why not thou? 
 Then let the dark forevermore 
 
 Close thee when I close the door. 
 And the dust for ages fall 
 
 In the creases of thy pall 
 And no voice nor visit rude 
 
 Break thy sealed solitude." 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 275 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "Be strong and of a good courage ; be not afraid, neither 
 be thou dismayed, for' the Lord thy Gk)d is with thee 
 whithersoever thou goest.'' Josh, i : 9. 
 
 "Twenty-five ! Twcntx -five ! 
 
 Let's be aHve. 
 From ones to thousands 
 
 'Tis twenty-five 
 For 1905 !" 
 
 This motto and slogan was woven into the thoughts, 
 into the conversation, and into the prayers of Cumberland 
 Presbyterian women all over our land, during the Silver 
 Anniversary Year, 1905. It was a year of tense anxiety, 
 strenuous work and earnest prayer. The Board was ap- 
 proaching her twenty-fifth birthday and our Auxiliary 
 women, with Abraham's faith, set about the Herculean 
 task of reaching the anniversaries, 25,000 new members, 
 25,000 new subscriptions to the Missionary Record, and 
 $25,000 as a free-will offering. Comparing conditicxns, 
 these standards are only surpassed by those fixed for our 
 saved and perpetuated Board this year. Oh, may we weave 
 our figures "into our thoughts, into our conversation, and 
 into our prayers," as we press forward to the mark of 1909- 
 19 10. Amen ! 
 
 Our women were expecting and attempting great things 
 for God, and they called upon the whole Church to yield 
 up its best treasures, its store houses of individual lives, 
 of gold and silver, of laborers, for the Mission fields, etc. 
 Synodical and Presbyterial officers planned for Presby- 
 teries and Auxiliaries. Special visitors and organizers were 
 put in the fields, great quantities of mite-boxes and litera- 
 ture were sent out, and at every Auxiliary, Presbyterial or 
 Synodic meeting the Forward Movement was the theme 
 for consideration. (History repeats itself.) 
 
276 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 In the delight and power of assurance our women went 
 forth to service, striving to keep thought, word and deed 
 untainted while the great heart of the Church was torn and 
 bleeding from the ravages of unionism. The year sped 
 quickly and brought to pass the joyful gathering of hun- 
 dreds of wouicn in Annual Convention to celebrate the Sil- 
 ver Anniversary of the Woman's Board of Missions in the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Cluirch, in Evansville, Ind., its 
 birthplace, associated with the pleasant and sacred mem- 
 ories- of nine missionaries having been consecrated at the 
 altar of the mother Cumberland Presbyterian Church of the 
 city, and of having entertained the Board in convention four 
 times. With glad songs of hallelujah, the Convention was 
 opened by the President, Mrs. W. J. Darby, w'ho had served 
 in that capacity thirteen years. It proceeded with enthu- 
 siasm, and closed with the following glorious results : $20,- 
 597 offering (several hundred added later), ten dear young 
 persons offered self and service to God; a healthy gain of 
 membership, sixty-five new Auxiliaries, subscriptions to 
 the Record greatly augmented, and an increase of dues over 
 the last year of $1,245.50. These results were not what 
 they had planned for, yet they found no cause for discour- 
 agement, for "God only can construct the new Jerusalem 
 which is let down from heaven," the true City of God. Of 
 our missionaries in attendance on this Convention there 
 were: Rev. and Mrs. J. C. Worley, ]\Irs. Lyon, Misses 
 Gardner, Freeland, IMorgan, Alexander and dear O Tsura 
 San of Japan," Mrs. R. F. Johnston, and Miss Sallie Her- 
 bert from the Mountain Mission and Mrs. A. B. Johnson 
 from Indian Territory. 
 
 1906 found these women with "craft and crew" ready to 
 enter upon a new era in our thrilling history. A $50,000 
 free-will offering was required and other standards fixed 
 accordingly. But, or, as we worked, and prayed, and 
 watched the signs of the times, no power but the Infinite 
 could understand how there was gnawing at our heart-life 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 277 
 
 an agony worse than that caused by the vulture eating out 
 the vitals of poor Prometheus chained to a rock, that the 
 artist might "paint a dying groan." No vulture could be so 
 pitiless as human greed. 
 
 "O dweller beyond Suns ! Oh throned in silence, 
 Look down on these fierce conflicts — bid them cease; 
 Speed the great ends of love on earth forever, 
 And pluck this vulture from the heart of peace." 
 Our women heard the voice which bade thein "obey and 
 falter not," and continued bravely to reach out after the 
 possibilities and many neglected opportunities within our 
 grasp. The cycle of months, weeks, and days brought us to- 
 gether again in Convention, at Paris, Texas, at the same 
 time our Church was in General Assembly at Decatur, 111. 
 Hearts ached with pulseless pain and suspense during our 
 apparent enthusiastic deliberations. The thank-offering 
 amounted to $5,792.76. Total annual receipts, $52,006.18. 
 Three dear young ladies placed their lives upon the altar 
 for missionary work. Representatives from our California 
 Mission had but just escaped from the horrible ravages of 
 the fearful earthquake which drove them from their work 
 and scattered their forces. 
 
 Miss Ella Gardner spoke of the power of effective pray- 
 er as manifested to them in this indescribable calamity. Of 
 the good resulting, she said, "Gam Sing Quah preaches al- 
 most all the time to thousands of people." Our own faith- 
 ful Gam ! True, through fire and flood, attempted force, 
 bribery and threats. With him the roughest pathway seem- 
 ed divine. When the real testing came, he did not hesitate, 
 but said, "I was converted in a Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, baptized by a Cumberland minister, attended a Cum- 
 berland Sunday school, taught by a Cumberland teacher, 
 educated at a Cumberland Presbyterian Institute, and help- 
 ed through school by Cumberland Presbyterians. Let oth- 
 ers go if they wish, I will remain." ^^.nd today, under the 
 care of the Woman's Board of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 
278 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Church, he is toiUng in the whitened harvest fields of his 
 native China. Miss Gardner gave to Mrs. Darby three 
 keys — all the material evidence remaining of our Mission 
 school at San Francisco. As this Convention drew to a 
 close, the President made a prophetic statement: "We find 
 that the Lord is laying upon His children as never before 
 the part they are to play in the work of the world ! This 
 year we have heard His voice saying, 'I have put your 
 feet upon a larger place.' " From the Decatur General As- 
 sembly, in thunderous tones, came the paralyzing message, 
 "The Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly is ad- 
 journed sine die," but glory to God, the same electric cur- 
 rent brought to us a ponderous "No" of io6 vocal power, 
 which reverberated through the entire church world, and the 
 very foundations of ecclesiasticism trembled with its ter- 
 rific force ! That world-famed "No" is "sweeter than a 
 seraph's song" to the great Cumberland Presbyterian family, 
 which though smitten, pierced, yet — 
 
 "No coward's shriek, no discord shrill 
 Comes from souls resting in God's will ; 
 We know above the struggle and noise 
 Our tower of infinite strength will rise ;" 
 
 Yes, the Ancient of Days was with us, His children, in 
 the midst of the wreck and ruin of almost a century's ac- 
 cumulations, and in His name, 
 
 "Our lips can urge 
 Heal with thy sword 
 Cleanse with thy scourge. 
 Lord, Lord !" 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 i9o6-'o7 — Gazing out upon the awful carnage wrought 
 by the attempt of ouf betrayers to annihilate us, we saw 
 with consternation what the fearful result of Orofanic Union 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 279 
 
 would mean to us — ruined, shortened lives, divided homes, 
 broken hearts, churches locked against rightful owners, 
 schools confiscated, God's work of saving souls lost sight of 
 in clamor for gain, depleted treasuries, and our sacred, be- 
 loved Church generally demoralized — and our Woman's 
 Board? With agony of soul we watched the fabric go to 
 pieces ! The trusted President of thirteen years, and all her 
 noble band except two chose for "larger things." God for- 
 ever bless these two ! Mrs. Mattie Ashburn and Mrs. Mary 
 M. Graf shall live through all future generations as "hero- 
 ines" of Cumberland Presbyterian history, and many in this 
 world, and on the "golden shore"' will yet arise and call them 
 blessed ! 
 
 The Board's work in the* foreign field was entirely absorb- 
 ed. In the Mountain Mission one brave spirit stood firm 
 and for "conscience sake" — Miss Sallie E. Herbert, beloved 
 of our souls. So in the San Francisco Mission — only our 
 noble Gam Sing Ouah remained true and held our Mission. 
 The treasuries in every department — yes, they are empty ! 
 Horrors ! Gold, real estate, conscience, principle — all seized 
 upon for the -gapping cofifers of the Northern P. C. U. S. A. 
 O, Cumberland Presbyterian 
 
 "Gird yourself ! The sword of right shall hew 
 Paths that reach the untrodden blue! 
 Law, truth, love, the peaks are three 
 
 Sinai, Olivet, Calvary ! 
 Our own Church yet shall stand 
 Clean without spot or blemish 
 Before history's proud judgment bar." 
 
 When it was found that the Woman's Board was decid- 
 edly Presbyterian, the two loyal members, in co-operation 
 with the Advisory Committee, took measures to have the 
 work of the Board continued as Cumberland Presbyterian. 
 They arranged that any money contributed to their work 
 be sent to Rev. T. Ashburn, to be held for the Board, and 
 
28o CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 he consented to aid them in selecting persons to take the 
 place of those who went out. On December 14, 1906, Mrs. 
 Mattie Ashburn, Mrs. Anna M. Conn, Mrs. Sarah L. Jor- 
 dan, Mrs. Lydia E. Tupman, Mrs. Frances Varner, Mrs. 
 Tillie M. Stone, and Mrs. Mary M. Graf, met and formulat- 
 ed plans for restoring Cumberland Presbyterian Missionary 
 work. Officers were chosen : Mrs. Mattie Ashburn, Pres- 
 ident; Mrs. Sarah L. Jordan, Vice-President; Mrs. Tillie 
 M. Stone, Recording Secretary, and Mrs. Mary M. Graf, 
 Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer. The Advisory 
 Committee announced this action in The Banner of Janu- 
 ary 4, 1907, and when its flash-light was turned on, there 
 was consternation in the ranks of the self-assured "Origi- 
 nal Board," and a committee waited on Mrs. Ashburn and 
 Mrs. Graf, notifying them of a called meeting for January 
 3, 1907. Strenuous efforts were made to have these loyal 
 members renounce their allegiance to either the original or 
 temporary Board. This they refused to do, so another 
 called meeting was held January 7, at which time their 
 right to attend the meeting of the original board was con- 
 firmed. Their officers were abolished. Stringent efforts 
 were made to get from them the Recording Secretary's 
 book; this they did not surrender until those going out 
 from the Board held a Convention at Macon, Mo. 
 
 The truly Cumberland Presbyterian element had their 
 Convention May 16-20, 1907, at Dickson, Tenn., at which 
 time and place the Church and Board were perpetuated. 
 Thank God for this glorious coming together of Cumber- 
 land Presbyterians, sharing one common sorrow, and with 
 hearts overflowing with exceeding great joy and gratitude 
 for deliverance from the grinning jaws of death. 'Twas 
 heaven to be there ! Our work was taken up along its regu- 
 lar lines, and "Forward ! brothers. Forward !" was ever- 
 more our watchword. Our noble Gam with his overflow 
 of enthusiasm and spirituality was there. 
 
 Corsicana, Texas, was selected for our next Convention. 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS 281 
 
 Another twelve months of consecrated toil, and the faithful 
 came together again, May 20-24, 1908. Six or more of the 
 Board members were present and a great concourse of dele- 
 gates and visitors, with whom the Holy Spirit bore witness 
 that they had gathered in the Master's service. The phe- 
 nomenal progress of our work was a source of profound 
 joy and fervent thanksgiving. At the consecration service 
 there was laid on God's altar a free-will offering from grate- 
 ful hearts, amounting to $483.63. Two dear ladies, Mrs. 
 Kate Butler, of Texas, and IMiss Carrie Tilley, of Tennes- 
 see, offered themselves for missionary work and many 
 mothers gave their children to the Master — just as He 
 should desire to use them. Attention was directed to the 
 poor and suffering in mining towns and city slums, and our 
 dear, sweet Miss Sallie Herbert was placed under the care 
 of our Board in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she is 
 still gathering sheaves for the kingdom. Work among the 
 Indians was graphically presented by Mrs. Selina Scott, Rev. 
 Henry Bond and other full blood Choctaws, and the counsel 
 of the Board was "Thrust in the sickle ! the harvest is ripe." 
 We will garner it tho' the enemy continues to storm the 
 gates of our Zion. God is our strength. We sadly missed 
 the bright faces of Brother Gam and his sweet little wife 
 and little laddie Finis Ewing, whose devotion to their work 
 in San Francisco deterred them from this pleasure. They 
 had returned to the city since the rebuilding. This great 
 Convention and General Assembly adjourned to meet again 
 in 1909, at Bentonville, Ark. 
 
 A year of thrilling and crucial experience in this recon- 
 struction period was filled with tenderly sweet and sad mem- 
 ories for us. When it drew near its close, pur beloved little 
 Chinese Sister Gam had been transplanted from the vine- 
 yard below to the mansion above, and Brother Gam and lit- 
 tle Finis, in response to the call of the Master, had been sent 
 by the Board to Canton, China, where he is laboring in the 
 whitened harvest fields with his native people in our Cum- 
 
282 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 berland Presbyterian Alission there. P]rother Wong Hong- 
 took his place in San Francisco, where our work is rapidly 
 building up. Our faithful Mrs. Peverill, is also tireless, con- 
 secrated and capable in her efforts. She is assisted by Mrs. 
 L. S. Docker and Brother Tom Jung. 
 
 May 20^ 1909, finds indeed a host of "God's peculiar peo- 
 ple'' gathered in Convention at beautiful hospitable Benton- 
 ville, in the lovely Ozark country at Arkansas. "The City 
 Beautiful," her proud citizens have named her, and well they 
 may. A more grateful, joyful, enthusiastic body, me- 
 thinks was never before assembled. The Lord had led us 
 so miraculously thro' the fires of fierce persecutions ! Our 
 work had progressed beyond our hopes ! From all our 
 fields came splendid reports. Yet new fields were opening. 
 Many men, women and young people reconsecrated them- 
 selves for service "anywhere the Lord might call." A 
 thank-offering of $879.94 was laid on the altar. Three mis- 
 sionaries were with us — I\Irs. Kate Butler, Miss Sallie Her- 
 bert and Miss Louvenia Wilson. Great opportunities and 
 great responsibilities were before us, and after hours of 
 faithful, fervent prayer, our P\iture Work Committee for- 
 mulated plans and fixed standards for our Centennial For- 
 ward Movement this one hundredth year of Cumberland 
 Presbyterian history — 100 Children's Bands, 300 Woman's 
 and Young Ladies' Auxiliaries, 3,000 new members, 1,000 
 new subscriptions to the Cumberland Presbyterian Banner 
 and a $20,000 offering is to be the basis of our work as we 
 "go forward" to the joyful time of gathering at our sacred 
 birthplace, Dickson, Temi., Alay 20, 1910, with our best gifts 
 to lay upon the Centennial shrine of the best and dearest 
 Church on earth. May the Lord help us to take the position 
 the little drununer boy in Xa])oleon's army took. When the 
 commander said "Boy, beat a retreat," the lad looked up and 
 answered, "Sir, I do not know how! Dressix never taught 
 me that ; but I can beat a charge that will make the dead 
 fall into line. I beat a charge at Lodi, at the Pyramids, and 
 
WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS 283 
 
 at Mt. Tabor. May I beat it here," And over the dead, the 
 wounded, over breastwork and ditches he led the way to 
 victory ! So shall we, beloved, tho' relentless and cruel per- 
 secution still surround us, tho' hands reach through the 
 dark and lash us, we will only stauncher bare o'ur backs to 
 the blow and firmer stand for God and righteousness, for 
 Christ and conscience and dear love's sake. "He that is 
 for us is greater than they that be against us." We no 
 longer strive for earthly precedents, but in harmonious 
 brotherhood we fight the battle of the Lord, shouting as 
 we go, "All hail. May. 1910! the Centennial of our God- 
 given Church ! and Dickson, Tennessee, her sacred birth- 
 place !" O that love's surgery might pluck from all hearts 
 the cankering wounds of the past four years. Dear friends 
 who have gone out from us : 
 
 "Let us love you and draw you back to honor; 
 Let us help you to the great forgiveness — 
 Not as one above who stoops to save you. 
 Not as one who stands aside with counsel : 
 Nay, but as He who says, T was woundcv! 
 With the stones, the briars — I was poisoned 
 With the flowers that sting; but now arisen, 
 I am struggling up the path beside you.' 
 Arise, and let us face these heights together! 
 Our crosses are hewn from dififerent trees. 
 But we all must have our calvaries. 
 We may climb the height from the different side, 
 But we will go up to be crucified !" 
 
REV. J. L. HUDGINS 
 EDITOR CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 
REV. T. C. NEWMAN 
 
 MISSOURI 
 
SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 
 
 REV. J. L. HUDGINS AND REV. T. C. NEWMAN. 
 
 Your Special committee on Spiritual Progress beg to re- 
 port as follows: 
 
 Whatever else a Christian organization may do, or leave 
 undone, its greatest possible achievement and its greatest 
 commendation to divine favor is its progress, advancement, 
 or increase in spirituality. 
 
 By the term "spirituality" we mean being led, prompted 
 and directed by the Holy Spirit, "For as many as are led 
 by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God," and an in- 
 crease of spirituality amotig a people, therefore, means an 
 increase in all the virtues and graces imparted by the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 It is a very important part of the history of the Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian Church that she was brought into separate 
 ecclesiastical existence by the direction and promptings of 
 the Holy Spirit, and this fact has been emphasized by every 
 loyal son of hers who has ever presumed to write her annals. 
 
 No more soul inspiring or faith invigorating record was 
 ever made by a people, than is that of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church for eighty-five of her one hundred 
 years of now completed history. But unfortunately there 
 came a time when those to whom her interests had been com- 
 mitted, so far as giving direction to her purposes and poli- 
 cies were concerned, perhaps honestly, but certainly mistak- 
 enly concluded, that she must be brought to conform to the 
 policies and customs of older, larger and more pretentious 
 denominations, and from that day she turned her back upon 
 the Holy Spirit and began to be*world-led, and material con- 
 siderations, rather than the leadership of the Holy Spirit, 
 became the prompting power in her work. 
 
 Of the bitter fruits of such a course we have all regret- 
 
286 CENTENNIAL SERMONS AND PAPERS. 
 
 fully tasted, and there can be but little doubt in the minds of 
 those who know the checkered history of our Church dur- 
 ing the past fifteen years, that souls that might otherwise 
 have been reached and saved are now beyond mercy's reach. 
 
 When the siren voice of "larger things," "higher attain- 
 ments," "greater organization" and "world power," began 
 to be heard by our trusted leaders, they hid their real pur- 
 pose to the great body of the Church, and came to us as 
 "wolves in sheep's clothing" and thereby induced us, or at 
 least many of us, to relinquish our strong hold upon God 
 and the Holy Spirit, and with might and main we bent our 
 every energy to the accomplishment of the then proposed 
 ends ; the enlargement of the equipment and material facili- 
 ties of the Church for the work before it. 
 
 To all human appearances Ave were rapidly forging to the 
 front in all material things and our publications grew rapidly 
 in number and in literary merit ; our schools and colleges 
 were being rapidly endowed; our Board of Missions were 
 entering cities north and south ; little frame houses of wor- 
 ship were being replaced by more pretentious brick struc- 
 tures, and brick ones by great stone structures. 
 
 But alas ! alas ! Our material progress attracted the at- 
 tention of those who for almost a century had been our 
 doctrinal and ecclesiastical enemies and suddenly, as by 
 some feat of legerdemain or "hocus pocus," they assume an 
 attitude of friendship and admiration toward us and began 
 to sing in sirenic tones of a mother's love for a long lost 
 daughter and of a desire for her return. 
 
 First, she by the smooth voice and deceptive pretence, 
 won the consent of a few who had seemingly reached the 
 highest honors and promotions of our humble communion 
 and who like a great warrior of the past, mourned that there 
 were no further achievements beckoning them. Their con- 
 sent obtained, there began the development of one of the 
 most deceptive and adroitly planned schemes ever fath'ered 
 by satan and executed by man, for the utter extinguish- 
 
SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 287 
 
 ment of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church as an ec- 
 clesiastical entity. 
 
 Many of the men in whom the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church had long confided, apd to whom she looked as lead- 
 ers, readily became the pliant tools of our enemies and when 
 we supposed them standing ifi the' deffense of our interests, 
 they were like Judas of old, negotiating our betrayal for 
 gold. 
 
 In 1902 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church entered 
 its garden of Gethsemane, and for four long years she was 
 seemingly forsaken of both God and man and shorn of all 
 her power, and no doubt but that thousands of souls were, 
 diunng this period, lost who might otherwise have been 
 saved, only to find as she emerged therefrom in Ma}' 1906, 
 that the price had been paid, that we had been sold and that 
 one upon whom we had long looked to as a friend and de- 
 fender, had been selected to read in our presence the decree 
 of our execution. But, though humiliated, taunted and 
 jeered and robbed, so far as an ecclesiastical combine could 
 rob us, we promptly repudiated the whole scheme and de- 
 clared that, "PROPERTY OR NO PROPERTY WE ARE 
 STILL CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS." 
 • It was with sadness and sweetness that we lay in the 
 grave in which they said they had buried us in Decatur, 
 111., for a few hours. It was an hour of sadness that we 
 were now left without a single human leader and that those 
 to whom we had looked in the past were now safely and 
 finally hidden away in the camps of Calvinistic ecclesias- 
 tics. 
 
 But it was an hour of sweetness that the time that we had 
 so much dreaded had come and was past, and that despite 
 the worst that our enemies could do were yet alive, and 
 grasping the banner of Cumberlandism, "WHOSOEVER- 
 WILL" that had for four long and dreadful years been 
 trailed in the dust, mire and slime of fatalism, we lifted it 
 
288 CENTENNIAL SERiMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 into "THE SUNLIGHT OF GOD'S LOVE" and to this 
 day that banner floats in the breezes of the land of the free. 
 With no human leaders to whom we might look, we as 
 Cumberland Presbyterians were driven to the absolute neces- 
 sity of turning again to the Holy Spirit of God for leader- 
 ship, and what has been accomplished along distinctive 
 spiritual lines during these four years is amply confirmatory 
 of the wisdom of our course. 
 
 True it is that we have sometimes been led down into 
 dark and uninviting places, we have sometimes been seem- 
 ingly almost overwhelmed, but behind every cloud there has 
 been a silver lining. In every condition of seeming ad- 
 versity there has been something that made for our good. 
 God has even overruled our own mistakes and made them 
 to work for our highest good. 
 
 But this meeting should mark an epoch in our history, 
 and we should go down from this assembly more reliant 
 upon the Holy Spirit than ever before. 
 
 The most eminently successful preachers of the Gospel 
 in different communions, have been the most conspicuous 
 for simple dependence upon spiritual aid ; and comparative- 
 ly little if any success has attended the ministrations of those 
 by whom the doctrine of the leadership of the Holy Spirit 
 has either been neglected or denied. 
 
 Let us suppose that a man has lost his way in a dark 
 and dreary cave. He has but a single candle which he car- 
 ries in his hand. By its light he is groping his way to sun- 
 shine and home. Here and there marks have been made 
 on the rocks to point out the pathway to safety, but without 
 the light of that candle he could not see them. Should he 
 drop it and extinguish its flame that cave would be his 
 tomb. Brethren our condition is like that man in the cave. 
 We need to keep hold on the Holy Spirit. 
 
 We are glad to be able to report that the past year has 
 been a very gracious one in many of your congregations, 
 
SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 289 
 
 presbyteries and synods and that the old time power seems 
 to have come upon our people. More than ten thousand con- 
 versions have been reported since the Bentonville assembly 
 one year ago, and almost as many accessions to the mem- 
 bership of the churches. 
 
 But it is to be devoutly hoped that our denomination may 
 never again be overcome, as in the past, with a desire for dis- 
 play and numbers, but that we may be content to do our 
 duty and Itave results with God. 
 
 Looking to the conversion of the largest possible number 
 of men and women from the ranks of the sinful and worldly, 
 \\ e beg to recommend : 
 
 (i) That all your preachers and pastors make it their 
 aim to make their sermons distinctively evangelistic in mat- 
 ter and tone. That they hold up the Christ of the cross as 
 the one and only remedy for sin. That they actively engage 
 in liold-ng revival meetings 'So that if possible every con- 
 o]-r'oat!on in the entire denomination shall have a good re- 
 vival during the incoming year. 
 
 (2) That all the people pray regularly for the endue- 
 ment of the Holy Ghost upon the Church and its pastors 
 and evangelists. That they remember always that the Holy 
 Spirit is God's all comprehensive gift to man, and that to 
 be filled with the Spirit is to possess all grace — all help- 
 fulness. 
 
 ( 3 ) That capable and Spirit-filled laymen of both sexes 
 be urged and encouraged to engage in evangelistic work 
 wherever and whenever God in His province may open up 
 opportunities to them. That tliey be instructed to regard 
 the language fovmd in Ezekiel 3: 17-19, as applying to them 
 as well as to preachers and evangelists, which language is 
 as follows : "Son of man I have made thee a watchman unto 
 the house of Israel : therefore hear the word at my mouth, 
 and give them warning from me. When I say unto the 
 wicked. Thou ^halt surch- die; and thou givest him not 
 
i290 CEXTEiXNlAlJ SERMONS AND PAPERS 
 
 rwavning, nor speakest to warn,. the wicked from his wicked 
 -way, ito,. save his Hfe; tliiCi same wicked man shall die in his 
 iniquity; but his blood will 1 require at thine hand. Yet if 
 thou warn the wicked, and, he turn not from his wicked- 
 ness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; 
 ■but thou hast delivered thv soul." 
 
l'l'mi'llllll''ll'lMl'"' Sem.nary-Spee, Library 
 
 1 1012 01059 4853 
 
 
 Date Due 
 
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