1893.]

copal Churches on the other side of the Atlantic. American Calvinists could not forget the awful butcheries of the Spanish tyrants in the Netherlands, the terrible devastation wrought in the valley of the Rhine, the 100,000 victims of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the 18,000 covenanters who in Scotland, during a few brief years, were either massacred by dragoons or executed by the agents of ecclesiastical tyranny. The moment, therefore, that religious liberty was seriously threatened by the schemes of a Church which at that time was ultra-loyal to the British crown, American Calvinists joined forces, and from New England to South Carolina never wavered a hair's-breadth from a thoroughgoing devotion to the cause of religious liberty. They stood shoulder to shoulder in opposition to ecclesiastical tyranny, and their courage and high intelligence secured for the republic that religious freedom which is now a leading characteristic of our national life.

Having dealt with religious liberty, it is natural now to turn to the consideration of the specific relation of the American Presbyterian Church to the civil liberty which was secured by the independence of the United States. The opening of the Revolutionary struggle found the Presbyterian ministers and churches ranged solidly on the side of the colonies. In 1775 the General Synod issued a pastoral letter, an extract from which indicates the spirit prevailing in the Church, and reads, "Be careful to maintain the union which at present subsists through all the colonies. In particular, as the Continental Congress, now sitting at Philadelphia, consists of delegates chosen in the most free and unbiased manner by the people . . . . adhere firmly to their resolutions, and let it be seen that they are able to bring out the whole strength of this vast country to carry them into execution." Contemporary with this letter of the Synod was the famous Mecklenburgh Declaration of Independence, renouncing all allegiance to Great Britain, passed by a convention in western North Carolina, composed of delegates nearly all Presbyterians, and forestalling the action of the Colonial Congress in the same line by more than a year. Further, in the sessions of the Continental Congress, the influence of no delegate exceeded that wielded by the Rev. John Witherspoon, president of Princeton College, the only clerical signer of the Declaration of Independence. Under his leadership the American Presbyterian Church never faltered in her devotion to the cause of the independence of these United States. So resolute and aggressive were its members in their opposition to the Eng

349

lish government, that the colonial cause was repeatedly spoken of in Great Britain as the Presbyterian Rebellion. At the close of the war, in 1783, the General Synod addressed a letter to its churches, congratulating them on the "general and almost universal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind." What was true of the Presbyterian was true of the other Calvinistic Churches of the land, of the Congregational and also of the German and Dutch Reformed. It is estimated that of the 3,000,000 Americans at the time of the American Revolution, 900,000 were of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin; that the German and Dutch Calvinists numbered 400,000, and the Puritan English 600,000. If the believers in the Westminster Standards and cognate creeds had been on the side of George III in 1776, the result would have been other than it was. But they stood where thoroughgoing Calvinists must ever stand, with the people and against tyrants, and therefore under the blessing of God the American colonies became free and independent States.

We pass now to a fact which in connection with the influence of the Presbyterian Church upon the republic is quite as important as any yet dealt with, the position of the Church for threequarters of a century as the sole representative upon this continent of a representative popular government as now organized in this nation. From 1706 to the opening of the revolutionary struggle, the only body in existence which stood for our present national political organization was the General Synod of the American Presbyterian Church. It alone among ecclesiastical and political colonial organizations exercised authority, derived from the colonists themselves, over bodies of Americans scattered through all the colonies from New England to Georgia. The colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is to be remembered, while all dependent upon Great Britain, were independent of each other. Such a body as the Continental Congress did not exist until 1774. The religious condition of the country was similar to the political. The Congregational Churches of New England had no connection with each other, and had no power apart from the civil government. The Episcopal Church was without organization in the colonies, was dependent for support and a ministry on the Established Church of England, and was filled with an intense loyalty to the British monarchy. The Reformed Dutch Church did not become an efficient and independent organization until 1771, and the German Reformed Church did not attain to that condition until 1793. The Baptist

Churches were separate organizations, the Methodists were practically unknown, and the Quakers were non-combatants. But in the midst of these disunited ecclesiastical units one body of American Christians stood out in marked contrast. The General Synod of the Presbyterian Church was not dependent for its existence upon any European Church, was efficiently organized, and had jurisdiction over churches in the majority of the colonies. Every year Presbyterian ministers and elders from the different colonies came up to the cities of Philadelphia or New York, to consider not only the religious interests of their people, but likewise educational and at times political questions. It was impossible, at that date, it must be remembered, to separate these latter issues from the affairs of the Church, for the country was under the English government, the Episcopal Church was the only Church to which that government was favorable, and Christians of other beliefs were compelled to act vigorously and unitedly in the maintenance of both their religious and secular interests. And the Presbyterian Church, filled with the spirit of liberty, intensely loyal to its convictions of truth, and gathering every year in its General Synod, became through that body a bond of union and correspondence between large elements in the population of the divided colonies. Is it any wonder that under its fostering influence the sentiments of true liberty, as well as the tenets of a sound gospel, were preached throughout the territory, from Long Island to South Carolina, and that above all a feeling of unity between the colonies began slowly but surely to assert itself? The United States of America owe much to that oldest of American Republics, the Presbyterian Church.

The influence of the Presbyterian Church was zealously employed, at the close of the war for independence, to bring the colonies into a closer union.

The main hindrance to the formation of the Federal Union, as it now exists, lay in the reluctance of many of the States to yield to a general government any of the powers which they possessed. The Federal party in its advocacy of union had no more earnest and eloquent supporters than John Witherspoon, Elias Boudinot, and other Presbyterian members of the Continental Congress. In this they were aided by many who had come to the views which they as Presbyterians had always maintained. Slowly but surely ideas of government, in harmony with those of the Westminster Standards, were accepted as formative principles for the government of the United States, and that by many persons not con

nected with the Presbyterian Church. Among these were the great leaders in the Constitutional Convention, James Madison, a graduate of Princeton, who sat as a student under Witherspoon; Alexander Hamilton, of Scotch parentage, and whose familiarity with Presbyterian government is fully attested, and above all George Washington, who, though an Episcopalian, had so great a regard for the Presbyterian Church and its services to the country, that he not only partook of holy communion with its members, but gave public expression to his high esteem. Indeed, at one time so marked was the respect for the Church during revolutionary days, that it was feared by Christians of other denominations that it might become in America, what it was in Scotland, the Established Church, and so widespread was the feeling of alarm that the General Synod felt compelled to pass a deliverance setting forth its views in relation to religious freedom. Great, however, as was the influence of the Presbyterian Church in those trying times, its ministers and members were always true to their own principles. Presbyterians both in the Old World and the New had been accustomed to representative government, to the subordination of the parts to the whole, and to the rule of majorities for more than two centuries prior to the American Revolution. They knew the value of unity to popular government, and they labored earnestly and persistently until their governmental principles were all accepted by the American people, and the divided colonies became the United States of America. It is not that the claim is made, that either the principles of the Calvinistic creed or of the Presbyterian government, were the sole source from which sprang the government of this great Republic, but it is asserted that mightiest among the forces which made the colonies a nation were the governmental principles found in the Westminster Standards. Our historian Bancroft says, "the Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster." The elements of popular government were, without question found in many of the colonies, especially in New England, but the federal principle, whose acknowledgment resulted in the American nation, through the adoption of the Constitution of 1788, was found previous to that year in full operation upon this continent only in the American Presbyterian Church, and had in it its most practical and successful advocate. Chief among the blessings which

OUTLINE D. PROGRAM NO. 1, OCTOBER, 1898.

I. Biblical-30 Minutes.

1. Hymn. Biblical Leader in charge.

2. Prayer.

3. Biblical Study. Studies in Evangelism. Study IGeneral Conditions of Success.

1. The Worker must be a Converted Person. See Psa. 66: 16; 34: 11; Andrew, Philip. Cite other texts, experience and incidents.

2. A Love for Souls. How get it? (1) By the Holy Spirit. (2) Example of Jesus. (3) Man's need. (4) Our experience. Find texts.

3. A Working Knowledge of the Bible. 4. Prayer. Give requests.

5. The Holy Spirit over all.

The pressing need of such work by lay-workers is steadily increasing. Ought not church officers, Sunday-school teachers, leaders of societies and bands, to know something about Evangelism? To say nothing of other church members! This first study may be profitably treated as a conference, the leader calling up the points and the audience joining in the discussion. This will require no text-book. The pastor or some experienced leader should conduct the conference.

4. Prayer. Have many brief prayers.

Historical-30 Minutes.

5. Hymn. Historical Leader in charge.

6. Historical Study. American Presbyterianism. Study I-The Westminster Standards and the Formation of the Republic.

Required reading. See THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, October, 1898, pp. 347-351; article by the Rev. Wm. Henry Roberts, D.D. The items of the program follow paragraphs of the article.

1. The Grand Ideas of the Reformation. 1. Idea as related to action. The Sovereignty of God, Authority of Scripture, Responsibility of the Individual, Equality of Men.

2. Relation of Calvinism to Republicanism. 2. Emphasize the quotations, Taylor, Horseley, Bancroft, Von Ranke, Macaulay.

3. Westminster Doctrine and Our Early Settlers. ¶ 3. Calvinists in majority. The two differing sections. 4. Calvinism and Popular Education. testimony. The Scotch system in 1567. tem in 1647. Contrast Virginia in 1631.

4. See Bancroft's New England sys

5. Calvinism and the Separation of Church and State. 5. First the Presbyterian Dutch. The year 1729. Later struggles.

6. The American Presbyterian Church Solid for Civil Liberty. 6. General Synod's pastoral letter. Mecklenburgh Declaration. Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon.

7. Our Church as the Sole Example of Republican Unity from 1706 to 1774. 7. A wonderful fact. Our rightful pride. Why other Churches did not stand for this. 8. Presbyterian Aid in the Formation of the Federal Union. ¶ 8. Prominent Presbyterians in the Federal party. Synod's noble disclaimer.

Bancroft again.

9. The Splendid Summary. 9. Every word of this admirable article should be read to all our people, and the ar

ticle circulated through all our churches. This topic is one of the most important, most interesting, most fruitful. 7. Prayer. For our Church and our Country. 8. Hymn.

OUTLINE D. PROGRAM NO. 2, OCTOBER, 1898.
I. Doctrinal-15 Minutes.

1. Hymn. The Pastor in charge.
2. Prayer.

3. Doctrinal Study. The Shorter Catechism.

Ques. 96. What is the Lord's Supper? Answer in unison. Proof? (y) 1 Cor. 11: 23-26; (z) Acts 3: 21; 1 Cor. 10:

16.

Ques. 97. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper? Let one answer. Proof? (a) 1 Cor. 11: 27, 31, 32; Rom. 6: 17, 18.

Ques. 98. What is Prayer? Let one answer. Proof? (b) Ps. 10:17; Ps. 145: 19; (c) 1 Jno. 5: 14; (d) Jno. 16 : 23 ; (e) 1 Jno. 1:9; (f) Phil. 4: 6.

Ques. 99. What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer? Let one answer. Proof? (g) Rom. 8: 26; Ps. 119: 170; (h) Matt. 6:9-13.

Other Scriptures related may easily be found and will be profitable to read.

II. Missionary-45 Minutes.

4. Hymn. Missionary Leader in charge.

Missionary Study. Missionary Expansion. Study IThe Reformation and its Influence. Beginning at Jerusalem.

Required reading. Graham's Missionary Expansion of the Reformed Churches, chapters ii, iii.

The secret of the missionary march of Christianity, p. 6. How was the forward movement checked? p. 7. The outlook at the end of the fifteenth century? p. 7. Gleams of light before the Reformation, pp. 7, 8. Why was not the Reformation followed by aggressive missionary work in non-Christian lands? pp. 9, 10. Influence of the Reformation on the ultimate evangelization of the world, pp. 10, 11. Let the leader appoint some one in advance to present a summary of the chapter, "Beginning at Jerusalem." Study II-Medical Missions.

Required reading. THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, October, 1898, pp. 304-308. Which missionary Board has the largest medical mission work? p. 304. Medical missions are justified by the following considerations: (1) It is a clearly warrantable form of humanitarian effort; (2) By the training of native physicians the good accomplished is perpetuated and extended; (3) Medical missions release mankind from the bondage of heathen superstition; (4) Rectify the social wrongs of woman; (5) Open the way for the preaching of the gospel, pp. 304-307.

Study II (alternate) -The Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work.

Required reading. THE CHURCH AT НОМЕ AND ABROAD, September, 1898, pp. 251-253 and 191-198.

Employ a local artist to make a drawing of the seal, large enough to be seen in any part of the room. Assign to five persons the following points: Origin and history of the Board; Business department; Editorial department; Sabbath-school and Missionary department; Twentieth Century movement.

1898.]

353

PRESBYTERIAN ENDEAVORERS.

San Francisco, Cal.

Westminster.-At the semi-annual meeting of the Young People's Association of the Presbytery of San Francisco, held with this church, the program consisted of papers and talks on the following topics: "Our Commander," "Our Book of Tactics, the Bible," ," "Our Campaign," "Our Army, the Young People," "Our Sinews of War, the Treasury," "Our Defenses." An enjoyable social followed. Shanghai, China.

Fifty children from heathen homes, who can read the Bible, are gathered by Mrs. Mary A. Posey every Tuesday afternoon into a Junior Endeavor society. Mrs. Posey, who once thought she was happiest when a teacher at home with her primary classes, now finds her greatest joy in unfolding the truth to listening souls. She writes that she does not have to wait for the recompense of reward, but has the hundredfold now.

the Social Atmosphere of Our Society and Church." Our society is alive and we feel the need of becoming more and more so in order to do our part in welcoming the next Fifth District Convention which meets in Pittsburg.

Mexico.

Of the Bible convention mentioned at the bottom of page 212 Mr. Johnson writes:

Each night we held an evangelistic service and each session was preceded by an examination on ore of the chapters of the book. The attendance at all the sessions averaged thirty-five. In the evening it rose to eighty and the interest was well sustained. The native workers go for their subjects in a more Biblical manner than formerly.

The rest of our trip was taken up with the meeting of presbytery which was the first held in Guerrero, and that too in a place where not so many years ago they burned down our church and stabbed Mr. Zaroleta. The Roman Catholics even helped us now, one giving us a fat ram and another barbecuing it for us. Some gave turkeys and others gave horse feed. All contributed beds and service. Cranbury, N. J.

This church has just adopted as its own missionary the Rev. E. L. Mattox, of Hangchow, China. A portion of the salary is contributed by the Christian Endeavor society.

Albuquerque, N. M.

The Training School. -A significant scene in this school for Mexican boys is thus described in Home Mission Monthly: Eight or ten of the Christian boys gathered in Mr. Ross' office to pray with and for a boy who had been recalled to his home in the north, among the bigoted Penitentes, away from the uplifting influences of the school. They prayed for strength for him to withstand the demoralizing temptations to which he returned. It was young, struggling, Protestant New Mexico, raised up by Christian training, pleading for its sin - beleaguered brotherhood, hidden away by thousands in neglected valleys of the Rocky Mountain districts, as dangerous to soul health as the trenches in front of Santiago.

Avoca, N. Y.

On four successive Sunday mornings, while the pastor was absent on his vacation, the church service was conducted by the Christian Endeavorers. Chazy, N. Y.

The young men of the pastor's Bible class are working with new life and growing zeal as a result of the organization of a Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip.