Columbia Theological Seminary and the Southern Presbyterian Church: A Study in Church History, Presbyterian Polity, Missionary Enterprise, and Religious Thought,

John Bulow Campbel! Libraiy

Columbia Theological Seminary

Decatur, Ga. 30031

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://archive.org/details/columbiatheologiOOrobi

COLUMBIA
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AND

THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH

A Study in Church History, Presbyterian Polity,
Missionary Enterprise, and Religious Thought

Kc*a3CC5<**3l

WM. CHILDS ROBINSON, A.M., Th.D., D.D.

Professor of Church History and Polity

Columbia Theological Seminary

BV

14070

lUli

Copyright, 1931, by Win. C. Robinson

John Bulow Camobell Library

Columbia Theo-ogicai Seminary

Decatur, Ga, 30031

To My Father
DAVID WALLACE ROBINSON, ESQ.

A lifelong representative of those Presbyterian
Elders and Deacons whose gifts of time, means,
business and professional abilities have made
possible the institutions of our Church.

FOREWORD

The substance of this book was presented as a thesis to the Faculty
of the Theological School in Harvard University, in partial fulfill-
ment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology, in
April, 1928.

The matter has been slightly revised, and references to a few more
recent works have been inserted.

The Board of Directors of Columbia Theological Seminary has
endorsed the work and approve its publication at this time by the
author.

Having been presented at the Centennial of the Seminary in May,
1928, and now being issued the centennial year of the Society of Mis-
sionary Inquiry, this volume might not improperly be designated
the Columbia Centennial History.

Decatur, Georgia,

August, 1931.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction The Genesis of Columbia Theological

Seminary 9

Early Interest in Theological Education in the Southeast 10
"The Classical, Scientific and Theological Seminary of. the

South" . . ' 11

"The Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina

and Georgia" 12

Location, 13; The Faculty, 14; New England's Con-
tributions, 16; Support, 21; The Charter, 23.
"Columbia Theological Seminary" 24

Columbia Seminary and the Southern Presbyterian Inte-
gration 25

The Ideal of a Southern Presbyterian Zion 26

The Organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church . 46

The Perpetuation of the Southern Presbyterian Church . 54

Columbia Seminary and the Polity of the Southern

Presbyterian Church 68

The Polity of James Henley Thornwell, the Structural

Lines of the Southern Presbyterian Church .... 69
The Ruling Elder, 71 ; The Analogy of the Presby-
terian System, 78; The Headship of Christ, 81.
The Diaconate, a Thornwellian Principle Elaborated by Dr.

J. L. Girardeau 85

The Book of Church Order of the Southern Assembly . . 89
The Form of Government, 90; The Rules of Discip-
line, 94.

Thornwell's Doctrine of the Sacraments 97

The Lord's Supper The Doctrine of John Calvin . 97

Baptism, Its Matter and Its Form 101

Columbia Seminary and the Missionary Enterprise of the

Southern Presbyterian Church 106

The Missionary Spirit of the Founders 107

The Society of Missionary Inquiry 108

The Southern Board of Foreign Missions 110

Church Extension 116

Colored Evangelization ' 122

"The Chalmers of the Disruption," Dr. J. Leighton Wilson 134

A Notable Succession 140

Social Service 143

Columbia Seminary and the Thought of the Southern

Presbyterian Church 147

Contributions of the Seminary to the Thought of the Church 148
Publications Periodicals, 148; Reviews, 149; Books,

151. -
Library and Lectureship, 153.
Thinkers Educators, 156; Moderators, 158.

Contributions in Special Spheres of Thought 158

Interpretation, 159; Natural Science in Connection
with Revealed Religion, 168; Philosophy, 193; Theol-
ogy," 209.

Bibliography 229

\

INTRODUCTION
THE GENESIS OF COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Early Interest in Theological Education in the Southeast.

'The Classical, Scientific and Theological Seminary of the
South."

"The Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina
and Georgia."

Location.
The Faculty.

New England's Contributions.
Support.
The Charter.
"Columbia Theological Seminary."

"Almighty God had called us . . . to light up another sun which
shall throw further west the light of the Gospel."" Address of Board
of Directors.

/C 6<l

10 The Genesis of

Early Interest in Theological Education

The earliest record of a definite interest in a Theological Seminary
in the South is preserved by Dr. John S. Wilson in his Necrology.
This interest was expressed by the Presbytery of Hopewell, Georgia.
In 1817, the Presbytery declared its obligation and purpose to estab-
lish a Theological School in this part of the world for the train-
ing of men for the Gospel Ministry, and appointed, in the next two
years, two Committees on the subject. The death of Dr. Robert Fin-
ley, President of Athens College, a prominent member of the Com-
mittee; and a disagreement over location, indefinitely postponed the
plans. 1

As a kind of poetic justice, this Presbytery, which showed the
first interest in the subject, was the Presbytery which, eleven years
later, was called on to furnish the first professor to the Seminary
and in whose bounds the Seminary had its first, even though temp-
orary, location. 2

In the same State in which the idea of a Southern Theological
Seminary was born, was born also the man who, first as Theological
Professor, began the execution of that idea. This man, Dr. Thomas
Goulding, described himself, as "the first Presbyterian 3 preacher born
in the State of Georgia since the foundation of the world." 4

Following the failure of the Hopewell enterprise, the interest and
financial support of the Presbyterians of the Carolinas and Georgia
was turned to the needs of the Theological Seminary established by
the Genera] Assembly at Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. George Howe
declares that $43,039.00 was raised and paid the Princeton institution
within the bounds of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia. 5

\John S. Wilson, D.D., Necrology. The Dead of the Synod of Georgia, pp.
21-23.

2 James Stacy, History of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia, p. 278.

3 Note: However, Dr. Howe states that Dr. Isaac Grier of the Reformed
Presbyterian Church was born in Georgia, 1776, Semi-Centennial of C. T. S.,
p. 132.

*A. White, Southern Presbyterian Leaders, p. 223, Obituary notices Wilson,
Necrology, p. 141.

5 George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in S. C, Vol. II, p. 413.
MS. Min. of Faculty, Vol. II, p. 2. MS. Min. Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, p.
184, etc.

Columbia Theological Seminary 11

"The Classical, Scientific and Theological Seminary of the

South"

Under this ambitious title, the Presbytery of South Carolina at its
forty-ninth session, April 1, 1824, re-launched the project of a
Southern Seminary. 6

The Archives of the Seminary begin with meetings of the Board
of the aforenamed Seminary, April 10 and November 23, 1826. 7

A Retrospect, adopted by the Board in 1841, declares that the
impelling motives in this action, seventeen years earlier, were a de-
sire to raise up a qualified and native ministry to supply the destitute
places, and to preside over the extant churches; and to provide an in-
stitution free from the skeptical influences which then pervaded the
College of the State. 8

The address of the Board to the public declares that, "Andover
and Princeton have already told us what part Theological Seminaries
are destined to play in the illumination and reformation of the
present age." It calls on men "to assume some eminence of moral
and scientific height; and trace the rays of light these institutions are
shooting into the darkest corners of the earth" . . . "to feel as
though Almighty God had called us ... to light up another sun
which shall throw further west the light of the Gospel." 9

From the mounting wings of vision it was necessary to return and
tread the realities of life's dusty highway. There had to be a wider
base and a narrower project ere any real structure could be erected.
By appropriate actions on the part of the Presbytery of South Caro-
lina and the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, the project was
commended and taken over by the Synod of South Carolina and
Georgia. 10

A constitution of the Literary and Theological Seminary of the
Synod of South Carolina and Georgia was published in Charleston,
1826, and is preserved in the Archives. 11 In the same year Charles-
ton Union Presbytery undertook the endowment of a Professorship

"MS. Min. of Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, p. 123.

7 Archives, Vol. I. page 1-5.

8 Seminary Archives, Vol. II. p. 638.

B MS. Min. of the Faculty, Vol. II, p. 10.

10 MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. I. p. 123. 124 and p. 135. 136.

^Archives, Vol. I, page 9.

12 The Genesis of

of Sacred Literature and Biblical Criticism. Under the leadership of
Rev. R. B. Cater, as financial agent, $28,937.00 was subscribed, and
$4,765.00 collected for the institution.

The plan was still large, and opposition to the literary department,
by Charleston friends of the College of South Carolina, was manifest-
ed. At the 1827 meeting of the Board, held in Charleston, this op-
position crystallized in a request to Synod to change the plan of the
institution and go forward in the establishment of a "Theological
Seminary." 12

"The Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina

and Georgia"

The institution, in this form, dates its commencement from the
resolutions presented by the Board of Trustees of the Literary and
Theological Seminary of the South, to the Synod meeting in its six-
teenth session in Charleston, South Carolina, Saturday, December
15, 1827.

The resolutions read, in part:

"Resolution. 1st. That it be recommended to the Synod so
to alter the Constitution of the contemplated Seminary as to
make it simply a Theological Seminary. The Board recommend
this, among other reasons, for the following: 1st. They think,
by thus simplifying the plan of the institution, its concerns can
be managed with more ease, and much greater advantage. 2nd.
This change will remove all ground for the objections now
extensively made against the institution that it will interfere
with Literary Institutions now existing within the bounds of
the Synod. 3rd. The Board thinks this change will have a
tendency to unite the feelings and efforts of all portions of the
Church under the care of the Synod in this important enter-
prise." The minutes show: "The foregoing Resolutions were
adopted without a dissenting voice." 13

The Constitution of. the Theological Seminary of the Synod of
South Carolina and Georgia as adopted December, 1829, begins:

12 MSS. Min. of the Board, Vol. I, p. 183-4. Archives, Vol. I, 195 ff. MSS.
Min. of the Faculty, Vol. II, p. 16.

12b On account of his religious views, Presbyterian attacks were made upon
President Thomas Cooper of the College of South Carolina, both in 1822-23 and
1831-32. During the intervening period Cooper was supported by the radical
states' rights party for political reasons. In this year, 1927, he urged South
Carolina to calculate the value of the Union. Malone, Public Life of Thomas
Cooper, pp. 260, 350, 294, 307, etc.

13 MS. Min. of Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, pp. 183-184.

Columbia Theological Seminary 13

"Aware of the superior claims of the present age to an en-
lightened ministry, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia
has resolved to establish an institution of sacred learning, to be
called 'The Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Caro-
lina and Georgia.' '

The Synod is declared to be the source of the institution's powers
and the center of its control, with the responsibility for appointing
the Professors of the Seminary. A Board of Directors is ordained
and its members elected by Synod to carry on the business of the
Seminary, to inaugurate the Professors, and "to inspect their con-
duct and doctrines." There are explicit regulations governing pro-
fessors, students, studies, library, and the funds of. the Seminary. 14

This change was somewhat a return to the first idea broached by
Hopewell Presbytery. The change alienated some of the original
friends, particularly Mr. Cater, who was obligated to notify the
donors and allow them to recall their pledges if they so desired.
This fact, the expenses of the agents, and certain bad loans, forced
the institution to begin the solicitation of funds de novo.

Location
The Presbytery of South Carolina, October 3, 1829, released the
Synod from an earlier pledge to locate the Seminary in the Pendle-
ton District of. that Presbytery. 15 For a while Winnsboro, South
Carolina, was regarded as the appropriate site for the Seminary; but
in December, 1829, the committee on location settled on Columbia,
South Carolina, as the place for the institution. Columbia, at that
time, was regarded as the center of the Synod; the place in which was
concentrated the most wealth, literary advantages, and moral force;
and at which the influence of the Seminary could be brought to bear
on the largest number of immortal beings. Mr. I. K. Douglas of
this committee declared that the fact that infidel principles were
emanating from the College of South Carolina in Columbia, 16 was
a powerful argument in favor of the institution's being placed there.
"I am not an advocate for shutting up candidates for the ministry in

U MS. Min. Synod. Vol. I. pp. 247-256.

:5 Rescript of Min. signed by Hugh Dickson. S. C. preserved in Archives, Vol.
I, MS. Min. Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, pp. 236-237.

10 Dr. Thomas Cooper, at this time President of the College of South Carolina,
was one of America's earliest philosophers of materialism (Cooper, Sketch of
Controversy on Materialism, Eng., 1787), a thorogoing utilitarian (Introductory
Lecture to a Course on Law, Columbia. 1834) , and from the standpoint of his-
toric Christianity, an infidel (A Summary of Unitarian Arguments, A Letter to

14 The Genesis of

a convent or a cave; and if young men cannot withstand temptations
in early life, I fear that there is but little hope that they will bear the
burden and the heat of the day, which awaits them in after life." 17

The Seminary owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Wm. A. Blanding,
a public spirited citizen of Columbia, who raised funds and pur-
chased the property on which the Seminary was located in Columbia.
Mr. Blanding reports subscriptions from the citizens of Columbia,
of every Christian denomination, in order to "establish a Southern
Theological School." 18

Mr. Blanding, with the consent of the contributors, conveyed the
deed to the Board, which had been elected by the Synod. 19

The home, with surrounding buildings, purchased by Mr. Blanding
from Mrs. Hall, was sufficient for the Seminary's primary needs. In
the decade 1850 to 1860, Simons Hall and Law Hall were built
with gifts from Mrs. Eliza L. Simons, and Mrs. Agnes Law, et al. 20
This environment continued to be home for the Seminary for almost
a hundred years. The Columbia plant covered a block in the heart
of the city, bounded by Taylor, Blanding, Pickens and Henderson
Streets. It was a seven minutes' walk to the University of South
Carolina, where the students were privileged to sharpen their mental
and disputative faculties. Just across Blanding Street was eventually
established a Presbyterian College for women, a safeguard against
the cultivation of the intellectual, at the expense of the aesthetic side
of life. On the campus, there was ample space for tennis courts and
other forms of outdoor exercise.

The Faculty

More vital than location, equipment, or environment for the in-
auguration of the institution, was the question of the personnel of
the faculty especially if the dictum be true that an able professor
on one end of a log and student on the other constitute a college.

The first reference to a professor is in the voluminous correspond-
ence of Rev. R. B. Cater to Wm. A. McDowell, July 12, 1827. He says

Any Member of Congress, Malone, Public Life of Thomas Cooper, pp. 19, 83,
261, etc.)

17 MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. I, pp. 230-237. Archives, Vol. I, pp. 724, 385. Let-
ters of I. K. Douglas and J. T. Davies, 5-20-29, and 3-8-29. Archives, Vol. I,
p. 385.

18 W. A. Blanding to the Board of Directors, Columbia, 11-27-30. Archives,
Vol. I, p. 591. MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. I, pp. 283, 351.

M Archives, Vol. II, pp. 3, 8, 11, 629, 929, 894.

20 Semi-Centennial, pp. 144, 5.

Columbia Theological Seminary 15

that on the election of the first professor depends whether or not
the efforts shall be a success. He pleads that the Board may not be
"influenced by sectional, but by Christian feeling." He declares to
McDowell, "you are the man. For: First, you are one in whom the
South has confidence and will allay the sectional feelings into which
our Church unfortunately stands divided; secondly, your mode and
manner of preaching is in accord with the Genius of the South;
thirdly, your mind is young enough to admit of improvement." In
addition to McDowell, Cater wanted as professor of languages, a
Southern man who had graduated at some Northern College. 21

McDowell was elected some years later, 1832, but declined the
election and returned North. 22

Rev. Francis Cummins, its retiring Chairman, in a letter, January
31, 1829, warned the Board that, "very considerable theological and
biblical, as well as popular reputation, should attach to your first
professor." 23

Dr. Ezra Fisk of Goshen, New York, was the first man approached
on the subject of a call to the Seminary. The committee desired to
strengthen the Southern ministry by securing this strong man from
the North. Dr. Fisk did not encourage the committee, and the matter
was dropped. 24

At its 1828 meeting the Synod adopted the revised Constitution as
presented by the Board, elected a Board of Directors for the re-
constituted institution, and resolved to put the Seminary into im-
mediate action. To do this, it elected Dr. Thomas Goulding, pastor
of the Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Georgia, as the first pro-
fessor of Theology. The birthday of the Seminary may therefore
be dated as December 15, 1828. 25

Five students were gathered under Dr. Goulding's instruction the
first year. This year, he carried on his work at Lexington, Georgia.
In January, 1830, he and his students were moved to Columbia.
The inauguration of Professor Goulding took place in the Presby-

21 Archives, Vol. I, p. 227.

^Archives, Vol. II, p. 1123.
-."Archives, Vol. II, p. 29.

2i Archives, Vol. I, p. 42. Dr. E. Fisk to Drs. Palmer and McDowell, pp. 12,
20, 28.

""MS. Min. of Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, pp. 210, 224.

16 The Genesis of

terian Church in Columbia, March 17, 1830. 26 & 26a The inaugural
semon was preached by Rev. Dr. McDowell, from 2 Corin-
thians 1:24, while Rev. Dr. Palmer, Chairman of. the Board,
inducted Dr. Goulding into office. Letters by Mr. Wm. Law and
by Dr. Goulding testify to the zeal, devotedness to the cause, and high
character of this professor. 27

In an effort to adequately man the faculty of the Seminary, the
Synod in 1830 elected Dr. Moses Waddell, the best known teacher
in the South; but Dr. Waddell declined the appointment.

New England's Contributions
However, the next effort was more successful, and the same open-
ing year in Columbia saw the beginning of a life union between
Columbia Theological Seminary and one of the choicest spirits which
New England has produced. Dr. George Howe gave to the Semi-
nary fifty-two years and three months of service. 28 He sprang from the
Howes, Goulds, Leeds, and Dwights of New England. He traced his
descent to the Revolution and to the first settlers at Plymouth Rock.
George Howe was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, November 6,
1802; graduated at the age of twenty, from Middlebury College,
Vermont; and in 1825 from Andover Theological Seminary. He
was Abbot Resident in Andover 1825-7, and thereafter Phillips Pro-
fessor, in Dartmouth. Two of his classmates in Andover, Rev. Aaron
Foster and Rev. J. C. Stiles, discovered him on a visit he was making
to the South for his health, and commended his sterling worth to
the Board and Synod. He preached before the Synod in 1830 and
thereby convinced even the most dubious of his worth and faith. The
Synod elected Mr. Howe instructor of languages for the year 1830,
and promoted him to the Professorship of Biblical Literature in
183 1. 29 In connection with this promotion, the students of Dr.
Howe volunteered this endorsement of him: "Six months' tutelage

26 MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. I, p. 266.

26a An old painting of Dr. Goulding entitles him the "First President" of the
Seminary.

Archives, Vol. I, Letters of Wm. Law, 11-24-30. Letter of Dr. Goulding,
1-7-30, p. 733. Report of Professor Goulding, 12-1-30.

28 Semi-Centennial, p. 392.

^Southern Presbyterian Leaders, p. 255. Andover Theol. Seminary General
Catalogue, Boston, 1908, pp. 82, 83, 87, 98, 705. Archives, Vol. I, pp. 741, etc.
MS. Minutes of Synod, Vol. I, p. 295. Biographical note by Dr. Girardeau in
Howe's History of the Presbyterian Church in S. C. Vol. II. Semi-Centennial
of C. T. S., p. 390.

Columbia Theological Seminary 17

under him has deeply impressed our minds with a sense of his in-
trinsic excellence as a man and his decided qualifications for this
responsible calling." They commend his piety, talents, and Christian
enterprise; and characterize him as "a decided and able champion
of the cause of truth.'' 30 The Board's Committee on this professor-
ship, Dr. Wm. A. McDowell and Dr. M. Waddell, having examined
Mr. Howe, as to his doctrinal views, declared him "in all respects
peculiarly qualified to fill the professorship of Biblical Literature." 31

Professor Howe was almost immediately made librarian, and his
interest in books so stirred the interest of the Synod that, as early as
1833, they declared "we have a valuable library." 3 - This made
Columbia Seminary the safe depository of valuable manuscript rec-
ords, and enabled the Librarian to preserve the record of the history
of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina to 1850.

The first regular Seminary curriculum was organized in 1831,
after Mr. Howe's work began. The instruction of the year previous
was propaedeutic. 33 The influence of Dr. Howe in the ordering of
the original schedule of classes was certainly great there being only
two professors. Considering that of the two only Howe had had
the privilege of a regular Seminary course, and carefully reading
the hints found here and there in the Archives, one is convinced
that the predominant influence in starting the Seminary "in the ap-
propriate form of a theological school" 34 must be accorded Pro-
fessor Howe.

This naturally suggests the question of the model, or models, for
the first plan of study. The earliest Archive reference is in a letter,
of Mr. J. T. Davies to Dr. B. M. Palmer, dated March 18, 1829. Mr.
Davies says, "I presume the course of studies will be prescribed
As to this I presume the plan of the Princeton Seminary, prescribed
and sanctioned as it is by the highest judicatory of our Church, will
furnish the model or at least the general directory." 35 Surveying the
whole story of Columbia Seminary after a century, the assertion is
warranted that the hopes of this early supporter have been fully
realized in the closeness with which the Princeton school has been

30 Archives, Vol. I. p. 889.

^Archives, Vol. I, p. 741.

32 MS. Min. Synod, Vol. I. p. 354.

33 Howe's Retrospect of 1841 Archives, Vol. II, p. 640.

^Quoted from Howe Archives, Vol. II, p. 737.

35 Archives, Vol. I, p. 76.

18 The Genesis of

followed. But, in Professor Howe's original plan, another Seminary
seems to have been the more prominent model; namely, Andover
Theological Seminary. In his own department, Howe used Dr Moses
Stuart's translations and treatises as his guide. 36 The earliest refer-
ence to a theological text book is a statement, in Dr. Goulding's re-
port, that "the members of the Middle Class have studied Christian
Theology according to the arrangement of subjects in Doctor Woods'
Course." 37 The reference, evidently, is to Dr. Leonard Woods of
Andover. In the report of the Board of Directors to the Synod, in
December, 1833, occurs the first reference to lectures on homiletics,
as follows: "As considerable solicitude was manifested by the Pro-
fessors and students for Dr. Porter, President of the Theological
Seminary at Andover, who was in this state last winter and spring,
to deliver in the Seminary a course of. Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric,
the Executive Committee accordingly tendered to him a respectful
invitation to deliver the aforesaid course of Lectures, which he did
to the great benefit and satisfaction of the Professors." 38

In other ways, also, the Seminary drew upon Puritan New Eng-
land. The obituary of Dr. Goulding traces the large number of
ministers (of which he was one), furnished by the Church of Mid-
way, Liberty County, Georgia, to "the influence of one little colony
of Puritans that made its way hither from Dorchester, Mass."
Goulding received his academic and a legal education in Wolcott and
in New Haven, Connecticut. 39

In 1833 Dr. Aaron W. Leland was called from the pastorate of
the First Presbyterian Church of. Charleston, South Carolina, to be
Professor of Theology in the Seminary. Dr. Leland was born in
Massachusetts in 1787, a lineal descendant of many illustrious Puri-
tans of that name. He graduated from Williams College in 1808 and
shortly thereafter removed to Charleston, South Carolina. His serv-
ice to the Seminary is thus described by Dr. R. C. Reed: "He served
the Seminary with unflagging zeal and to the eminent satisfaction of
his friends for thirty years. He was magnificently endowed with
natural gifts, both of body and mind. His vigorous powers of
thought, his vivid imagination, his fervid emotional nature, his

'Archives, Vol. II, p. 73.

'Archives, Vol. H, p. 80.

3 MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. I, p. 351.

^Necrology, p. 140. Semi-Centennial, p. 181.

Columbia Theological Seminary 19

splendid voice and majestic form combined to place him in the front
rank of pulpit orators. In addition to the service which Dr. Leland
rendered the Seminary in the class-room, he did much to put it on a
solid financial foundation.'' 40

Further New England influence is to be seen in Dr. John S. Wil-
son's statement concerning the early efforts of Hopewell Presbytery
to establish a Seminary. He prefaces this statement with a reference
to five young men, most of them graduates of Middlebury College,
Vermont, who placed themselves under the care of that Presbytery. 41
In the catalogue of students in 1833, we find that alumni of the fol-
lowing Northern colleges are present: Franklin, Amherst, Union,
Yale, Andover Seminary. The early appeals for funds were made
to Congregational as well as Presbyterian Churches in and around
Charleston. 42 The first man listed in the first meeting of the Board
of Directors, which is recorded in their minute book, is that of B. M.
Palmer, St., who was pastor of the Circular Congregational Church
of Charleston. 43 * 44 This illustrious family later furnished to the
Seminary Dr. B. M. Palmer, Jr. William Palmer, the ancestor of
both these leaders, came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. 4
Facts like these, in the founding of the Seminary, led Dr. R. C. Reed
of Columbia in his History of the Presbyterian Churches of the
World to note, among the advantages accruing from the Plan of
Union of 1801, the fact that most (eight) of the Presbyterian Theol-
ogical Seminaries were founded during this period; and that the
Plan of Union contributed "in no small degree" to this progress. 46
Columbia Theological Seminary in its first professors, its first

4 "R. C. Reed in Bulletin Columbia Theol. Seminary, Columbia, S. C, 1922,
p. 9. cf. Semi-Centennial Memorial of A. W. Leland by J. Bardwell. p.
205-209. Rev. Mr. Frank Estes reports an old photograph of Dr. Lelnd in pos-
session of his great-great-grand-daughter. Mrs. R. S. Williams of Orangeburg, S.
C. inscribed: "Aaron Whitney Leland, D.D., LL.D., President Columbia
Theological Seminary for years."

"Necrology, p. 21.

i2 cf. Action of Board of Directors, 11-30-31. MS. Minutes of Bd., Vol. I, p. 63.

43 Note: Under the leadership of Dr. Palmer the Congregational Association
of South Carolina had dissolved in 1822 to merge with the Presbyterians of
Charleston in the Charleston Union Presbytery.

U MSS. Records of the Congregational Assn. of S. C, 1801-1822, pp. 131, 132.

"MS. Min. of the Board, Vol. I, p. 1. White, S. P. L., p. 359. N. E. Hist,
and Gen. Reg., Vol. I, 1847, p. 124.

46 Reed, R. C.. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World, Phila.,
1905, reprint of 1917, p. 255.

20 The Genesis of

student body, the candidates for the ministry whose presence inspired
Hopewell Presbytery to first broach the subject of a theological
school, owes a debt of. gratitude to New England Puritanism, and to
the older educational institutions there founded, particularly An-
dover Theological Seminary. While the predominant element in the
Presbyterian Church in the Southeast has been Scotch-Irish, 47 this
study shows that Puritanism has had a commendable part in the
planting and nurturing of Presbyterianism in this section.

However, the very largeness of the Andover-New England con-
tribution threatened to become the Seminary's undoing. Andover
was founded by a union of the old Calvinists with the Hopkinsians
on a platform of avowed toleration. Dr. Leonard Woods was a mild
Hopkinsian with a tolerant attitude toward the old Calvinism.

The Southern Seminary was also supported by men who sympa-
thized with the New England views, or who were at least tolerant of
such views; e. g., Dr. B. M. Palmer (the elder). The Archives pre-
serve a letter of James Cummins to Bayard E. Hand, Esq., of Charles-
ton, a member of the Seminary Board, in which the writer expresses
a preference for teachers in the Seminary holding certain views which
at that time were characteristic of New England Calvinism; e. g.,
natural ability and unlimited atonement. 48

Two of Dr. Goulding's first students were separated from Hopewell
Presbytery in 1839 because of their New School sympathies. 49 A
few years before this whisperings of unsoundness in the Seminary
faculty began to be heard. 50 Charges appeared in the Times and
Gazette published by Mr. S. Weir, a member of the Presbyterian
Church of Columbia. These charges were vigorously denied by the
Session of that Church. But the professors asked the Board to
examine the charges against themselves. 51

In October, 1835, the Session of the Church in Cheraw had adopted
vigorous resolutions favoring the election of a professor in the
Seminary noted for his zeal in striving to root out the destructive
heresies which had crept into the Church. The origin of the Cheraw
attack upon New Schoolism is to be found in the preaching of Rev.

* 7 Cf. Howe, Hist, of Pres. Church in S. C.

"Archives, Vol. I, letter dated 3-18-1829.

* 9 Stacy History of Presbyterian Church in Georgia, p. 189.

""Archives, Vol. II, p. 1159.

^Archives, Vol. II, pp. 395, 405. Minutes of the Board, Vol. II, p. 149.

Columbia Theological Seminary 21

Mr. Uriah Powers, stated supply of the church from about 1826 to
1834. Though for a while under New School influence, Powers de-
veloped a pronounced opposition to it. His mantle in Cheraw
descended upon Elder I later pastor ) J. C. Coit, who is credited by
Dr. Thornton Whaling with prosecuting the charges against the
Seminary faculty. 52

The following prompt and vigorous action by the Board preserved
the good name of the Seminary and saved the Southeast to Old
School Presbyterianism :

"The Board having heard that rumors were circulating un-
favorable to the soundness of the Professors, and having had
submitted to them certain published pieces, charging them with
unsoundness in the faith, and bringing other serious charges
against them they have felt themselves called upon, in faith-
fulness to the Professors and in discharge of their duty to the
Seminary, to institute an inquiry into this matter: and as, in
their view the best mode of obtaining satisfaction in this matter,
they invited a personal interview with the Professors. In this
interview, which was protracted, the Board used great plain-
ness and candor with the Professors, and the result has been an
entire conviction on the part of the Board that our Professors
are sound in the faith, that they receive our standards in their
plain and obvious import and in their instructions will con-
scientiously adhere to our excellent standards. Under this con-
viction they are prepared unhesitatingly to recommend the
Seminary and its Professors to the continued and increased af-
fections and confidence of the Church." 03

In the great eruption of the following year, the members and former
members of the faculty voted consistently in support of the Old
School in the General Assembly, the Synod, and ( as far as can be
ascertained) in the Presbyteries.

Support
The plans for financing the infant institution were many and
various. Financial agents, generally pastors devoting part time to
this work, were employed. Chief among these were Rev. Richard
B. Cater, Mr. Abram Blanding, for the purpose of collecting funds
for the Columbia plant. Dr. Wra. A. McDowell. Mr. E. White for the
Charleston Union professorship. Dr. McDowell was. for the primal

2 Hcnve*s History. Vol. II. pp. 354. 485-489.
"Minutes of Board. 11-28-1836. Vol. I. p. 153.

22 The Genesis of

years, Secretary of the Board. He was pastor of the Third Presby-
terian Church of Charleston, a publicist, and, in 1833, Moderator of
the Presbyterian General Assembly. 54 In December, 1832, Dr. Mc-
Dowell was called by Synod to give up his pastorate and devote his
whole time to the Seminary, as professor and as financial agent.
Professor Howe urgently pressed upon McDowell the acceptance of
the call. "Come and make us live," he plead. 55 Dr. McDowell gave
as one of his reasons for declining, "In the present awful crisis
everthing in our state is at this moment in a state of agitation. All
is uncertainty I fear God's purpose is to scourge rather than bless
us at the present moment to embark such an undertaking (i. e. the
raising of a large endowment) is appalling. In this situation I can-
not materially help you by accepting your appointment." 56

A year later there is a letter from Dr. McDowell resigning as
secretary of the Board, because he has taken up work in the North.
Concerning the Seminary he writes, "In the prosperity of that much
loved Seminary I do feel a deep interest with its prosperity and
success I am persuaded the most important interests of our Southern
Zion are very closely connected, if not identified. And I should be
grieved, indeed it would pain me at my heart, to hear that anything
should occur to darken the prospects or check the prosperity of that
all important institution. And if one, who loves the institution
and who has labored with his brethren for years to get it under
way and carry it forward, might be permitted to use the freedom
with brethren whqm he tenderly loves. ... I would say to the
Board . . . Brethren watch over our Seminary, be united in your
councils. . . . Let no sectional feeling have influence with you.
'United you stand, divided you fall.' " 57

The early hopes were that three professorships might be endowed,
one by Charleston Union Presbytery, embracing Congregational as
well as Presbyterian ministers of Charleston, another by Georgia,
and a third by Northern funds. On the first substantial subscrip-
tions were received from the Legares, Palmers, Gildersleeve and
Mikells and others of Charleston, and, the largest subscriptions, from
the Seabrooks of Edisto Island. After about eighteen thousand had

** Minutes of Assembly, 1833.
5 Archives, Vol. II, p. 69.
"Archives, Vol. II, p. 36.
"Archives, Vol. II, p. 149.

Columbia Theological Seminary 23

been raised in the neighborhood of Charleston, the last ten thousand
of this endowment was given by a gentleman of Columbia. 58 The
Georgia funds w T ere smaller and came in more slowly. Rev. Chas.
C. Jones reported a check of S5,000.00 from the legacy of Maj.
Andrew Maybank. 59 Funds for the Northern Professorship were
difficult to secure, but after some time through the services of Dr.
Howe and others $12,052.00 were realized. 00

With the coming of. Dr. Leland to the Seminary in 1833, the finan-
cial affairs of the Seminary took on a continually brightening hue.

The Charter

In 1832, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia authorized the
Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary to apply to the
Legislature of South Carolina, at their next meeting, for an Act of
Incorporation, and to take such steps as were necessary to secure
such an act. 01 The Minutes of the Board for 1833 narrate the ac-
ceptance of a committee report on this subject, as follows: "That
the Legislature of the State of South Carolina did on the 20th day
of December, 1832, pass an act entitled 'An Act to incorporate cer-
tain societies,' in which the Board of Directors of the Theological
Seminary of- the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia is declared
to be a body corporate and politic that the said Board is also
declared by the act aforesaid to have succession of officers and mem-
bers to be chosen according to their own by-laws; and shall have
power to make by-laws, not repugnant to the laws of the land to
have, keep, and use a common seal, to have and enjoy every right
incident to incorporation possess property of amount not exceeding
S200,000.00." 02

^Archives, Vol. II, pp. 27, 212. 279, 261. 589, etc.

^Archives, Vol. II, p. 340. MSS. Min. of Synod of S. C, p. 396.

^Archives, Vol. II, p. 315. Semi-CentenniaL p. 150.

61 MS. Min. Synod, Vol. I, p. 326.

62 Acts and Resolutions of the Genl Assembly of S. C. for 1832. pp. 44-48.
Statutes of S. C, VIII. 376. MS. Min. of Board, Vol. I, pp. 89. 90. Printed
Min. of Synod for 1833, Appendix No. II, p. 52. Archives, Vol. II, p. 740.

24 The Genesis of

As the Old Synod was divided the charter was, from time to time,
amended to include additional controlling Synods. 08 When plans
were made for the removal from Columbia to Atlanta the charter was
amended to make the name of the institution, "Columbia Theological
Seminary"; and the controlling Synods, South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi. 64

Thus with the turn of a century's service the rejuvenating efficacy
of a new and more ample environment was offered the time-honored
institution. Under the presidency of the late Dr. Richard T.
Gillespie, Columbia was successfully relocated in the center of her
constituency. The generosity of. the Presbyterians of Greater Atlanta
provided a fifty-seven acre campus on the sylvan hills of Decatur,
two modern buildings of Collegiate Gothic architecture, and four
faculty homes. Campbell Hall, the imposing administration and
academic building, was "erected in loving tribute to a devoted, conse-
crated Christian mother, Virginia Orme Campbell." It bears the
inspiring legend, "There is no higher calling on earth than that of the
Christian ministry."

""Statutes of South Carolina, Vol. VII. p. 347; Vol. XV, p. 855; Vol. XVII,
pp. 328-329.

"'Original shows: Given December 7, 1925; sealed with the seal of the State
of South Carolina, and signed by W. P. Blackwell, Secretary of State; entered
in Corporation Book A, p. 513. Clerk of Court of Richland County, South
Carolina.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AND

THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN INTEGRATION

The Ideal of a Southern Presbyterian Zion.

The Organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church.

The Perpetuation of the Southern Presbyterian Church.

"And gave him to be the head over all things to the Church which is
his Body" Eph. 1:22, 23, text of sermon by Dr. B. M. Palmer at
opening of the first Southern Presbyterian Assembly Minutes 1861,
p. 61.

26 Columbia Seminary and

The Ideal of a Southern Presbyterian Zion

The Archives and other manuscript records, preserved by Colum-
bia Theological Seminary, point to an earlier dating of ecclesiastical
sectional consciousness than that sometimes given. These records do
not support the view that, "up to this time (1831) there appears no
sign of any sectional division in the church on this subject, neither
was there any sectional division." Nor do the records of the South-
eastern Presbyteries and Synods, as preserved by Columbia Seminary
professors, agree with that construction of history which would make
the "Southern View" of. slavery a "sudden and immense moral rev-
olution," a "novel dogma," emanating, about 1833, from the Rever-
end James Smylie of Mississippi. 1

References might be made to the monumental work of Rev. A. J.
and Sir R. W. Carlyle, History of Medieval Political Theory in the
W est, Vol. I-IV, for the view of the fathers on slavery, which was
substantially reaffirmed in Columbia Seminary. But, confining the
attention to American Church History, Dr. Howe of Columbia has
preserved at least two records of earlier discussions of this ques-
tion; and at least one statement of the "Southern View" of slavery,
as early as the eighteenth century. On the occasion of the ordination
of Mr. James Gilleland to the Bradaway Church, Pendleton district,
South Carolina, a remonstrance against his ordination was presented
on the ground that he had preached against the government and
against slavery. Mr. Gilleland acknowledged the second charge to
be true. 2 At the meeting of the Synod of the Carolinas, 1796, Mr.
Gilleland memorialized Synod, "stating his conscientious difficulties
in receiving the advice of the Presbytery of South Carolina, which
had enjoined upon him to be silent in the pulpit on the subject of
the emancipation of the Africans, which injunction Mr. Gilleland de-
clares to be, in his apprehension, contrary to the counsel of God."
Synod sustained Presbytery, and urged Mr. Gilleland to content
himself with private endeavors to open the way for emancipation,
since "to preach publicly against slavery in present circumstances,
and to lay down as the duty of every one to liberate those who are
under their care, is what would lead to disorder, and open the way

1 Dr. Leonard W. Bacon, American Church History, pp. 277, 278.
2 MS. Min. Presbytery of S. C, 1785-1799, pp. 91, 92.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 27

to confusion." In 1805, Mr. Gilleland removed to Ohio on account
of his disagreement. 3

More definitely, Dr. Howe has preserved a letter of Dr. J. R.
Witherspoon of Greensboro, Alabama, concerning the ministry of
Rev. Thomas Reese, D.D. a native of Pennsylvania, but pastor of
Salem, Hopewell, and Carmel Churches in South Carolina who died
1796, and was buried in the graveyard at Old Stone Church near the
village of Pendleton, South Carolina. In this letter an interesting
incident is cited to show the conspicuous place Dr. Reese held in the
esteem of his brethren. "As a proof of the deference paid to his
talents by his brethren in religious assemblies, he was selected by
some leading men of the Presbytery of South Carolina on a certain
occasion to repel the charges brought by the Rev. W. C. Davis, in a
discourse preached before that body, in which he (Davis) denounced
all his fellow Christians who owned slaves. This reply of Dr. Reese
met the entire approbation of the Presbytery, and greatly mortified
Davis, this early advocate of abolition, in 1794. It is an able argu-
ment on the subject of slavery, and shows how early this vexed ques-
tion had been introduced into the Southern Church. It is still extant,
and in the possession of his quondam pupil." 4

Howe also records the objections of South Carolina Presbytery
to the action of the Synod of the Carolinas in favor of emancipation,
in 1799-1800, which opposition delayed and nullified the definite
plan for the gradual elimination of slavery there propounded. 5

A Southern consciousness is traceable as early as the genesis of the
Seminary. The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in discussing
the plan of the Presbytery of South Carolina for establishing a
theological school, declares that "the distance of our General As-
sembly's Seminary (Princeton) from our region," and "the differ-
ence of habits and feelings on many subjects from those formed and
entertained among ourselves and other circumstances that need not
now be particularly detailed appear to the Synod fully to justify,
and in some degree to require, that a vigorous and steady effort

3 Howe, History of the Pres. Church in S. C, Vol. I, pp. 634-635.

4 Letter of Dr. J. R. Witherspoon dated Brookland. near Greensboro, Ala., 6th
Sept., 1851, preserved by Howe. History Pres. Church in S. C, Vol. I, p. 639.
MSS. Min. Pres. of S. C. show Presbvtery opened with sermon by Rev. W. C.
Davis, April 14, 1795, text Joshua 7:10-13.

5 Howe, Vol. II, p. 172.

23 Columbia Seminary and

should be made toward an establishment of this institution within
our bounds." The Synod, "regarding it of vital importance to the
Southern Church," approved the plan. 6

There are numerous references in the letters of the late twenties
(when the Archives first begin) and in the opening thirties to "our
Southern Church." 7

Rev. R. B. Cater, in 1827 (the year in which Cooper "calculated
the value of the Union") 8 expresses deepest concern over the spirit
of sectionalism, hoping that the election of a professor may be
"influenced not by sectional, but by Christian feeling." Regarding
this election as the most important crisis the institution will ever be
called upon to witness, he seeks one "whose disposition and feelings
and manners will tend to allay the feelings of the two parties, South-
ern and Northern, into which our Church unfortunately stands di-
vided." 9

Nor can the use of the word South in the name of the institution be
ignored. A review of the original movement to establish a seminary,
written in 1825 or 1826, gives the following as one of the reasons
for this action: "In a government founded upon the principles which
support the government of the United States knowledge and religion
are of primary importance. Without the one, the benefits of a consti-
tution founded in wisdom are lost. Intrigue supplants real merit,
stamps its unhallowed foot upon the dearest rights of the people and
leaves anarchy to complete what ignorance had only begun." A
member of the Seminary faculty reviewing these early records (some
of. which had just been lost by fire) declares: "It was from reflections
of this kind, heightened by the peculiar situation of our Southern
country, that the Presbytery of South Carolina, in the Spring of 1824,
resolved to establish" this institution. 10

The subscription lists printed in 1825 carry the name of the
"Literary and Theological Seminary of the South." The Constitu-
tion, printed in 1826, carries the word South in large capitals. From

"MS. Min. of Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, pp. 123-124.
T E. g. R. B. Cater to Thos. Napier, 4-28-28.' Archives I, p. 44.
s Malone, p. 307 ff, quoting speech of July 2, 1827.
"Archives I, p. 227. Cater to McDowell, 7-13-27.
^Minutes of Faculty, Vol. II, p. 4.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 29

]830, when the Archives are somewhat fuller, there are frequent ex-
pressions of "Our Southern Zion." 11 19 l3

In 1833 Dr. McDowell, the retiring secretary of the Board, in a
kind of valedictory letter urges: "Let no sectional feeling have in-
fluence with you." 14

The Board declared that 1832 was a crisis year and expressed the
hope that all the members of the Synod would feel "this is a subject
of vital importance to the interest of our Southern Zion." 15

A comment on the election of Dr. Leland by S. L. Davis in 1834
"trusts that the institution may continually increase in usefulness to
our Southern Zion." 10

Dr. Abram Blanding declared that the subscriptions for the plant
in Columbia were made by men, most of whom had no connection
with the Presbyterian Church; and that their object was the estab-
lishment "of a Southern Theological School." 17

These several references come from different groups, and from
men representing different viewpoints. In the list are preachers and
leaders in the Synod; the Board itself; the student body; business
men; Dr. Wm. A. McDowell and others familiar with the senti-
ment of the times both North and South.

Certain conclusions force themselves on the mind from these refer-
ences. There was, in the period of. the organization of the Seminary
(1824-1833), in South Carolina and Georgia 18 a consciousness of an
ideal Southern Presbyterian unity and solidarity. There was, on the
part of far-seeing leaders, a realization that this ideal unity meant an
ecclesiastical sectionalism; and a fear and apprehension that this
sectional spirit embittered by ignorance might lead to grave social,
political, and religious calamities. Further, one hope in the found-
ing of the seminary was that by fostering education and religion the

"Archives, Vol. I, p. 622. date 3-5-1830. Vol. II, p. 147. date 11-25-33.

^Our Whole Southern Zion, Vol. II, p. 33. 12-18-22.

""The very best interests of our Southern Zion."' Vol. II, p. 63. 2-24-32.

"Archives, Vol. II. p. 147.

16 Archives, Vol. II, p. 1123.

"Archives, Vol. II. p. 181.

^Archives, Vol. I. p. 591.

18 And perhaps more widely, e. g. Dr. John R. Rice of Virginia wrote the
Synod of South Carolina and Georgia 11-19-1829 in reference to a union with
Union Theological Seminary (Va.) in order that both efforts might be
united to build up a seminary for the South which "needs an institution equal
to any in the United States." Archives, Vol. I, p. 51.

30 Columbia Seminary and

dangers arising from an ignorant or irreligious sectionalism might
be allayed. It is a tribute to the statesman-like vision of these found-
ers that the first man considered for a professorship was a New York
pastor and that, of the first three professors, two were Massachusetts
born and the other of New England Puritan descent that they even
went to Andover, "the focus of the anti-slavery agitation" of. the
twenties, 19 for the most noteworthy of their early professors. Every
year of the nullification strife in South Carolina saw the election of a
son or a grandson of New England to a chair in Columbia Theolog-
ical Seminary.

This ideal sense of Southern Presbyterian solidarity soon found
expression in the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia. In 1833
Dr. Wm. S. Plumer of the Synod of Chesapeake addressed the body
at length on the subject of Foreign Missions; and Rev. Mr. Fair-
child, Agent from the Western Board of. Foreign Missions, presented
the interests of that board. The matter was placed in the hands of a
large committee and the recommendations of this committee were
adopted. Instead of supporting the Western Board, a Southern
Board of Foreign Missions was formed by and under the Synod of
South Carolina and Georgia. 20

In the next year, Synod "Resolved unanimously, That in the opin-
ion of this Synod, Abolition Societies and the principle upon which
they are formed in the United States are inconsistent with the best
interests of the slaves, the right of slave holders, and the great princi-
ples of our political institutions." 21

In the 1836 Minutes, the question of a Southern ecclesiastical sep-
aration is twice, and perhaps thrice, alluded to, in each case in the
review of the acts of the General Assembly. Synod declares:

"So long as petitions and memorials, denouncing as the
enemies of God and man the ministers and members of the
Church who hold slaves, are suffered to be introduced or agi-
tated in the meetings of the Assembly, so long will there be just
cause of complaint, as such a course inevitably tends to the dis-
solution of those bands by which the Church is united together
by a common faith." Synod "imperiously demands" "that

19 L. Bacon, p. 271.

^'Manuscript Minutes of Synod, Vol. I, p. 344-358.

21 MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 403.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 31

the Assembly declare "the Church has no authority to legislate

on this subject.' " 22

Synod further resolved to request the Presbyteries to instruct their
Commissioners to the General Assembly to vote upon "no proposi-
tion in relation to the institution of Domestic Slavery, unless it be
in favour of the truth that it is a civil institution upon which the
Judicatories of. the Church have no right to legislate"; and to instruct
them further "to withdraw from the Assembly should that body take
any action which in their opinion asserts the right of Legislation
upon that subject."

On occasion of the renewal of the question of supporting the
Western Missionary Society, the Synod declined to change its sup-
port of its own child, the Southern Board of Foreign Missions, since,
among other reasons, "it is not yet absolutely certain that the whole
South may not be required to act independently in this cause." 23

At the Synod of 1837, resolutions were introduced endorsing the
actions of "the Old School" majority in the Assembly of that year.
During the discussion, one of the delegates, Col. Rockwell, offered
the following substitute, viz:

"Whereas the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church,
during its Sessions of 1818, did by its act of that year affirm,
among other things, that slavery is a gross violation of the most
precious and sacred rights of human nature, and utterly incon-
sistent with the laws of God, and totally irreconcilable with the
spirit and principles of. the Gospel of Christ.

"And whereas it is authoritatively declared by said Act of
the General Assembly that if it shall ever happen that a
Christian professor in our communion shall ( ) a slave,

who is also in communion and good standing in our Church,
contrary to his or her will or inclination, it ought immediately
to claim the particular attention of the judicatory . . . to be
followed without delay by a suspension of the offender from all
the privileges of the Church till he repent and make all the rep-
aration in his power to the injured party.

"And whereas this act is put forth as a full expression of the
views of the Assembly in regard to slavery, spread upon its rec-
ords, published in its digest, and now stands unmodified and
unrepealed and regarded as of permanent authority in the
Church.

~MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 480.
23 xMS. Minutes, Vol. I, pp. 483, 485

32 Columbia Seminary and

"And whereas the foregoing views of the Assembly are not in
accord with the sentiments of this Synod, and if sanctioned or
tolerated by the Southern Church would involve consequences
not to be contemplated but with horror . . .

"Be it resolved, that in view of- our present relations to the
Assembly upon this important subject this Synod will take no
action upon the recent measures of that body, either of approval
or disapproval, until it shall be officially informed that the
above recited act of 1818 has been rescinded and annulled; and
until the General Assembly shall adopt the views on this subject
which the Synod has affirmed, viz: that the relation of Master
and Slave is a civil and domestic institution, and one in which
no Judicatory of the Church has the right or power to legis-
late." 24

Elder Rockwell is reported as voting against three of the recom-
mendations in the report of Committee of Synod, endorsing action
of Assembly of 1837. 25

The resolutions of Rockwell were lost; but Synod declared it
regarded the action of General Assembly of 1818 on Slavery as
without authority and void. 26

The following year similar proposals were made. During the
consideration of a report endorsing the actions of the General
Assembly of 1838 the following minute occurs:

"Mr. I. S. K. Legare then moved to postpone the considera-
tion of the report, for the purpose of taking up a substitute,
which he submitted, and is as follows, viz:

"Whereas the spirit of Religion and the cause of our Re-
deemer require that his Church should be pure, peaceable, and
united, and whereas that branch of it with which we are con-
nected has become contentious and divided, and whereas each
division claims to be the true Presbyterian Church; and whereas
the Gen'l Assembly of neither sympathizes with this Synod in
its peculiar interests on the subject of slavery, and whereas the
majority of both refuse to repeal the Act of 1818, which declares
every slaveholder to live in open violation of. the most sacred
laws of Heaven, and requires him to promote the abolition of
every slave in his own possession and through the world
therefore, Resolved that the Synod of South Carolina and Geor-
gia will no longer consent to take any part in this foreign and

24 MS. Min., Vol. II, p. 6.
25 Ibid, pp. 15. 16, 18.
26 Vol. II, p. 19.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 33

unhappy contention of the Presbyterian Church, which has
already introduced somewhat of discord and division into the
bosom of our once peaceful and happy Southern Church.

"Resolved 2, That this Synod will and hereby do declare
itself to be an independent Synod.

"Resolved 3, That in doing this they act from a conscientious
sense of duty to themselves, to the inhabitants of the states
within their bounds, and to the great Head of the Church, the
Lord, our Redeemer." 27

Mr. Legare's motion was lost and immediately thereafter the
"Old School" Assembly of 1838 was recognized by the Synod. Mr.
Legare voted against this resolution. (Ibid).

A study of these meetings of Synod sheds an interesting light
on the question of whether or not there was a cabal between the
Old School men of the North and the slaveholders of the South
a charge which was made at least as early as July, 1837. In the
Charleston Observer of July 8th, 1837, there is a discussion of this
charge under the caption, "the Excluded Synods and Abolition."
The editor of the Observer evidently thinks that "Abolitionism" is
a grievous fault, a manifestation of radicalism and anarchism;
but not to be seriously considered as the cause of the exclusion of
the Western Synods. 28

The question of slavery was brought up in South Carolina Synod
by those opposed to supporting the Old School position, i. e. b\
those who sympathized with the New School. The ideal of a South-
ern Presbyterian Church was used by the opponents of the Old
School party as a tool to prevent endorsement of and allegiance to
the Old School Assembly of 1837. Slave solidarity Southern unity
was to be preferred to doctrinal definiteness. This plan was
defeated by the Old School majority in the Synod.

On the other hand the view of the Synod in regard to slavery was
clarified and defined. It was clear to the members of. Synod
and to their delegates in the General Assembly that only by regard-
ing slavery as a domestic and civil matter, not a subject for eccle-
siastical legislation, could the organic union of the Southern and
Northern parts of the Presbyterian Church be preserved.

r MS. Min. of Synod, Vol. II, pp. 41, 42.

*The Charleston (S. C.) Observer in Seminary Files.

34 Columbia Seminary and

The presence of a sectional threat of disunion and division was
revealed at this time made by the New School minority, to prevent
endorsement of the Old School Assemblies of 1837 and 1838. Only
on the basis of avoidance of the question of slavery in ecclesiastical
legislation could a Southern Presbyterian rupture be prevented.
The New School men would probably not have acceded to this
"imperious demand." It may be said that, while the Presbyterian
split of 1837 was not caused by a cabal of Old School and Slavery
men, still that split, by removing the men who would never have
agreed to leave slavery out of. ecclesiastical legislation, did much
to prevent the organization of a Southern Presbyterian Churcli in
the thirties.

Another factor in the delay of this sectional organization was the
influence of Columbia Theological Seminary. This moderating
influence was manifested in several ways. The first which meets
the eye may be designated, Institutionalism. It is the general sense
of an administrator that the external success of an institution depends
on its avoidance of conflicts. It needs all parties and views in its
support.

When a Synod is deeply concerned and anxious about a fondling
institution, that fact acts as a deterrent to controversy and schism.
In the midst of the nullification controversy, which threatened to
invade the Church, there is a letter which expresses this Institution-
alism. And yet this letter, taken in connection with earlier expres-
sions of desire to keep sectionalism out of the Church, taken also
in connection with the fact that New England men were being
inducted into the Seminary while hatred of New England was being
preached by every South Carolina politician, must be regarded as
an effort to express a sense of the strict spirituality of the Church
and its separateness from political questions. Without the intel-
lectual clarity, without the doctrinal perspicuity of 1861, this letter
strives to express the same ideal which was to be enshrined in the
Southern Presbyterian Church. Dr. Nathan Hoyt, a prominent
Georgia pastor, wrote under date of December 5, 1833, to the mod-
erator of the Synod meeting at Columbia, South Carolina.

Hoyt declares "the present meeting of Synod" is "the most impor-
tant in the last seven years." He adds: "Many of the Christians in
Georgia, who love peace, are anxious for the results, and I believe

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 35

that some of them are fervently praying for you. I am on safe
ground when I say that throughout the up-country of Georgia every-
thing like controversy in our Church is deeply deprecated by our
brethren ... I do sincerely hope that no third professor will be
elected at this time unless it can be done in a spirit of real harmony
and brotherly love. If the controversies which have arisen of late
are not happily terminated by this meeting of Synod, I solemnly
fear that very little can be done for our Seminary, at least in the
upper part of this State." As a result of these things he has only
ten, instead of a hundred dollars, to report as contributed to the
Seminary. He prays that the great Head of the Church may preside
over and guide the Synod in the "way of peace, love and well-
rfomg." 29

In this connection, there is an instructive contrast between the
narratives of. religion of the Synods of 1832 and 1833. In the
former the fear is expressed that the work of God is allowed to
suffer because of "the indulgence of undue participation in political
contentions"; and members are exhorted "to render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's," and at the same time "to render
unto God the things that are God's." 30

On the other hand the Synod of 1833 bespeaks a fear of contro-
versies; but a meeting which proved a feast of fellowship and
"the warm hand of friendship, expressing the friendship of more
than a brother's love. Envy and jealousy have been banished
strife has ceased ere it was matured dissensions have not been
known the Lord has been with us and the mountains have flowed
down at His presence." 31

In reference to the election of a third professor, to which Dr. Hoyt
refers, it should be noted that this Synod of a nullification year
elected Dr. A. W. Leland, a native of Massachusetts, its professor of
theology, thus banishing sectional consideration from its councils.

Another influence exerted in and through the Seminary, tending
away from a bigoted kind of sectionalism, was the influence of men
of wide culture and acquaintance on the early Board of Directors.
Dr. Wm. A. McDowell. Moderator of the Assemblv in 1833 and

-"Archives, Vol. II, p. 113.
30 MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 331.
31 MS. Min., Vol. I, p. 376.

36 Columbia Seminary and

for some years thereafter Secretary of Assembly's Board of Mis-
sions, had too wide a range of work and experience to breathe the
air of provincialism. Dr. McDowell's earnest warnings against
sectionalism in a letter to the Board have been quoted probably
his spoken words were more vigorous and frank than anything he
wrote. The same may be said of Dr. B. M. Palmer (Sr.) of the
Circular Church of Charleston. It is to men of this type that we
must attribute the willingness to choose Northern men for the pro-
fessorships in the Seminary. For several years this Seminary, in
the hotbed of Nullification and Secession, was presided over entirely
by natives of Massachusetts Dr. Howe and Dr. Leland. And in
the Northern extraction, training, and experience of several of the
first professors there can be seen an influence tending to allay the
bitterness of sectionalism. One example of a real New England
saint such as Dr. George Howe would outweigh many charges
ignorantly hurled at the character of the religion of that section.

Further, the temperament of these early professors seems to have
been irenic rather than polemic. So much was this the case that
it seems to have caused suspicion of unsoundness on the part of
the professors. In an early report, which seems to date from the
year 1836, Drs. Leland and Howe make complaint that some of
their brethren desire to see this institution extinguished. "For how
else can we explain their whisperings of our unsoundness in the
faith, and of our being unworthy of confidence? . . . Some will not be
satisfied until we enter deeply into the agitating questions of party
. . . until we cause the discordant notes of theological warfare to issue
from these walls where that quiet should reign in which alone the
studies of the institution can be successfully pursued. We have thus
far felt that we have something more important to do." 32

In the period between the Old School-New School split of 1837
and the Southern split of 1861, a great influence in opposing a
Southern separation proceeded from the Seminary in the person and
work of Dr. James H. Thornwell. Mr. Thornwell was ordained in
June, 1835. He thus entered the Synod at the time when the
demand for a Southern Church was being made; and when the con-
ditions under which the Synod would remain in affiliation with
Northern Presbyterians were being clarified namely, that domestic

'Archives, Vol. II, p. 1160.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 37

servitude be treated as a civil institution, over which the judicatories
of the Church had no right to legislate. In 1838, Mr. Thornwell
was elected to the Board of Directors of the Seminary; and imme-
diately rose to a position of leadership in Seminary councils. As a
Director, as a Professor, and later President of the College (now
University ) of South Carolina, located near the Seminary, as
preacher in the Presbyterian Church of Columbia, finally, as Pro-
fessor in the Seminary, Dr. Thornwell was the dominating person-
ality in the councils of the Seminary in this period. 33

This period in our political history was one of increasing sectional
bitterness. The growing political disparateness was reflected in the
ecclesiastical splits of the Methodist, Baptist, New School Presby-
terian, and other ecclesiastical bodies. The sense of isolation is seen
in an appeal issued by the Columbia Seminary Board of Directors
signed, among others, by Thornwell, in 1845. This printed circular
reads, in part:

"For obvious reasons our ministry must be supplied from
among ourselves. We cannot expect them from other and un-
friendly regions. The times are full of omen, and we of the
South must become more independent and more united. We have
a common cause, common duties and dangers. The wide savan-
nahs of the West and extreme Southwest call for ministers."
But Americanism is still strong in the Directors. They close this
appeal for support to the Seminary with these words: "And
finally, we commend it (the Seminary I to the patriot, with
whom we aim for our country's good, and to every Christian,
and above all to our Lord and Head, in whose hands are the
hearts of the children of men." 34

Due response to this appeal was laid before the Synod of South
Carolina and Georgia in the form of a declaration of the Synod of
Alabama expressing great confidence in and warm attachment to
this Seminary of our Southern Zion. 3 "'

Two years earlier the catalogue appeals to "Southern Presby-
terians who regard this institution as a fountain whose waters
are to refresh and gladden our churches and fertilize our waste
places." 30

" :i Cf. Palmer Life and Letters of Thormcell.
ri Archives II, p. 894 Printed Columbia. December, 1845.
'^Minutes Synod of S. C. 1846. printed by lohnson. Columbia. S. C, 1847,
p. 10.

** Archives, Vol. II. p. 164 Catalogue of 1843.

38 Columbia Seminary and

The consciousness of Southern solidarity is seen in an incidental
allusion rjy Dr. Howe in the professors' report of 1841. In a his-
torical retrospect he justifies the feebleness of the Seminary by ref-
erence to "the spiritual weakness of. the Southern Presbyterian
Church." 37

In 1846 Dr. Howe, in the report of the professors, lamenting the
fact that all candidates in the supporting Synods are not attending
Columbia Seminary, declares, "it is a wrong done to our Southern
Zion, which has made such efforts to found this institution and
whose interests are so connected with it." 38

In this period is seen the same or an increasing sense of Southern
Presbyterian solidarity, and a consciousness that other regions are
"unfriendly." But Dr. Thornwell, the leader of the Seminary's
thinking, was a Union man. His friend, follower, and professorial
colleague, Dr. B. M. Palmer, Jr., declares that Thornwell loved the
Union with a passion almost rising to idolatry. He finds the key to
Thornwell's attitude, both before and amid the sectional war, in
an early letter in which Thornwell contrasts "an American spirit"
with "a Yankee spirit." As long as the government was adminis-
tered in the American or national spirit, he clung to the Union
with almost religious devotion. 39

As a young man just out of college, Thornwell had conspicuously
planted himself against South Carolina's policy of nullification.
His series of essays in the public press of this time unfortunately
are not available. Thus even in politics, as in philosophy and
religion, the young graduate was the antithesis of the President of
his alma mater. For Dr. Cooper has been well characterized as
"the schoolmaster of (radical) states' rights," "the high priest of
nullification," "the (first) prophet of secession." In earlier life
Cooper was a Jacobin. 40

At the second great threat of Southern division, 1849-1851, Thorn-
well again opposed the idea of secession to which South Carolina
was strongly inclined. In the Southern Presbyterian Review of
January, 1851, he wrote: "We have always associated the idea of
a high and glorious vocation with the planting of this Republic.

"Minutes Synod of S. C. for 1847. p. 25.

"Palmer, Life of Thornwell, pp. 482, 483.

Talmer, pp. 82, 93. Malone, pp. 34, 281, 294, 307, etc.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 39

We have thought that we could trace the finger of God in every
stage of its history. We have looked upon it as destined to be a
blessing to mankind. Placed between Europe and Asia, in the very
center of the earth, with the two great oceans of the world acknowl-
edging its dominion; entering upon its career at the very period of
the history of the world most eminently adapted to accelerate its
progress and to diffuse its influence, it seems to us to be commis-
sioned from the skies as the apostle of civilization, liberty, and
Christianity to all the race of man. We cannot relinquish the idea
of this lofty mission: we have been called to it; and if in our
folly and wickedness we refuse to walk worthily of it, we may
righteously expect, in addition to the ordinary disasters of revolu-
tion, the extraordinary retributions of God. Ours will be no common
punishment, as it will be no common sin, if, instead of obeying the
command which requires us to be a blessing to the world, we
exhaust our resources and waste our advantage in biting and devour-
ing each other. We cannot sympathize with the light and flippant
tone in which the question of. the value of the Union is too often
approached, as if it were a mere question of ordinary politics. To
our minds it is the most serious, solemn, and momentous that can
be asked in connection with the earthly interests of man. To dis-
solve this Union is to jeopard all that our fathers gained, and to
cover in midnight darkness the prospects and destiny of our pos-
terity. We tremble at the thought." He plead with the South not
to destroy the government simply because that government had been
perverted; but to seek instead to restore the Constitution to its
supremacy. "To our minds the dissolution of the Union is the last
desperate remedy for the disorders of the government. We cannot
justify that until all other probable expedients have failed." He
plead for endeavors to rectify the government instead of endeavors
to overthrow it. "As long as our voice can be heard we shall
endeavor to avert (this) calamity." 41

To a similar effect he wrote in March, 1851, to his friend, Dr.
R. J. Breckenridge : "When I trace the successive steps of our
national history, I behold at every point the finger of the Lord. I
cannot persuade myself that we are now to be abandoned to our

^Southern Pres. Revieiv, Jan., 1851. Palmer, Life of Thornwell, Appendix
No. 1.

40 Columbia Seminary and

follies and permitted to make shipwreck of our glorious inheritance.
South Carolina, however, seems bent upon secession. The excite-
ment is prodigious. Men from whom one would have expected
better things are fanning the flame, and urging the people on to
the most desperate measures. From the beginning I have opposed,
according as I had opportunity, all revolutionary measures. Things
look gloomy enough. You cannot imagine how the matter preys
upon my spirits. It is the unceasing burden of my prayers." 42

A letter of a year earlier (March, 1850) to a former colleague
is also preserved by Dr. Palmer. Here Dr. Thorn well writes:

"I can well and heartily sympathize with you in your des-
pondency in regard to the condition of the country. The times
are indeed portentous. The prospect of disunion is one which
I cannot contemplate without absolute horror. A peaceful dis-
solution is utterly impossible. And a war between the States
of this confederacy would, in my opinion, be the bloodiest,
most ferocious, and cruel in the annals of history ... I have
hardly been able to sleep in consequence of the deep conviction
with which I am oppressed of. the evils that threaten us; and
my increasing prayer is that God would interfere for our relief.
Vain in this crisis is the help of man. I agree with you that
every believer in Jesus Christ is most solemnly warned by the
times to wrestle with the Angel of the Covenant in behalf of our
bleeding country. The interests of the Saviour's kingdom are
too intimately connected with the permanence and prosperity
of this great confederacy to allow any disciple to be a calm
spectator of passing scenes." 48

Indeed, so precious was the Union, so abhorrent disunion, that
Thorn well, while in Europe (1860), made up his mind to move
immediately upon his return for the gradual emancipation of the
negro as the only measure that would give peace to the country,
by taking away the external cause of irritation. But on his return
the die was cast! 44

Dr. J. B. Adger also followed his father in 1831 and 1850 in
supporting the Union Party. 45

The influence of this great lover of the Union (Dr. Thornwell),
and the influence of the Seminarv with which his name has ever

'-Palmer, p. 477.
''Palmer, pp. 477. 478.
"So Palmer, ibid, 483.
"'Autobiography, pp. 82, 201, 202.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 41

since been indissolubly yoked, must be reckoned among the weighty
factors preventing the split of the Old School Church. In the thirties,
that movement was feared by Cater, McDowell, and Hoyt; and
broached by Colonel Rockwell and Mr. Legare. Through the forties,
as the ecclesiastical ties of one after another of the denominational
bodies snapped asunder at the Mason-Dixon Line, the Old School
Presbyterian Church remained united. For, in the very hotbed of
secession, there was a mind as vigorous and a personality as dynamic
as that of Calhoun himself James H. Thornwell and a small but
steady stream of influence trickling from Columbia Seminary to allay
the passions of sectionalism. These two the man and the insti-
tution acting as one, were constantly calling to patience, Christian
long-suffering and forbearance, to peaceful methods for improving
strained relations.

Moreover, during this period Dr. Thornwell had tremendous
influence in the Old School Assembly, and led that Assembly in the
only direction by which the ecclesiastical fellowship could have
been preserved. Dr. A. M. Fraser, Pastor Emeritus First Presby-
terian Church of Staunton, Virginia, attributes the action of the
Assembly of 1845 to Thornwell. He writes: "Accordingly, in the
Cincinnati Assembly where he (Thornwell) was a commanding
influence, though not a member of the committee on slavery, he
was consulted by that committee and prepared the report which it
presented and which the Assembly adopted and which fixed the atti-
tude of the Church towards slavery for years to come." 40

The statement is documented, in substance, by a letter from
Thornwell to his wife, May 19, 1845. Thornwell there says:

"The question of slavery has been before the house, and
referred to a special committee of seven. Though not a member
of. the committee, I have been consulted on the subject, and
have drawn up a paper, which 1 think the committee and the
Assembly will substantially adopt; and, if they do, abolition-
ism will be killed in the Presbyterian Church, at least for the
present." 47

"Thornwell. Centennial Addresses before Synod of S. C. 1912, Band and
White Printers, Spartanburg. S. C, p. 35.

4T Palmer Life and Letters of Thornwell, p. 286.

42 Columbia Seminary and

The salient points of this decision are a repetition of the views
declared in the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in 1836,
1837.

"The Church of Christ is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction
extends only to the religious faith and moral conduct of her mem-
bers. She cannot legislate where Christ has not legislated, nor
make terms of membership which he has not made."

"The Assembly simply intend to say that, since Christ and his
inspired Apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to com-
munion, we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to do so; since
they did not attempt to remove it from the Church by legislation,
we have no authority to legislate on the subject. We feel constrained,
further, to say that, however desirable it may be to ameliorate the
condition of the slaves in the Southern and Western States or to
remove slavery from our country, these objects, we are fully per-
suaded, can never be secured by ecclesiastical legislation. Much
less can they be attained by those indiscriminate denunciations
against slaveholders . . . which have, to so great an extent, charac-
terized the movements of modern abolitionists." The proper method
of ameliorating slave conditions is declared to be the teaching,
to both master and slave, of the doctrine of the gospel and the duties
there enjoined. 48

Through the decade of the fifties the union policy was main-
tained. Thornwell, writing in the Southern Presbyterian Review
of January, 1851, said:

"God grant that our country may be saved that the North
and the South may be brought to meet in harmony and peace,
upon the common ground of our glorious Constitution."
He closed with an earnest plea to South Carolina not to secede.
Such a step "under the present circumstances of our country is
recommended by not a single consideration, that we are able to
discover, of wisdom, patriotism or honour." 49

Dr. B. M. Palmer, in a speech in the Assembly of 1858, declared:

"I believe the Church is panting for union, in spite of all
the forebodings and the warnings which our fathers have given
in this Assembly. I am glad that I am young ... I hope to live

^Minutes General Assembly of Pres. Church. Philadelphia, 1845, Vol. XI, pp.
16-18.
4< Thornwell's Collected Writings, Vol. IV, pp. 446, 450.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 43

to see the day when prejudice will be thrown aside . . . when all
the branches of the Presbyterian Church finally will come to-
gether . . . and form one united society." 50

Dr. R. J. Breckenridge, the devoted friend of Dr. Thornwell,
avowed: "As to abolition, the world has periodical periods of mad-
ness" . . . "The conviction which has always swayed this Assembly
is gaining ground, that ministers in their sacred capacity as minis-
ters have nothing to do with matters apart from the doctrines of
salvation." 51

Dr. Howe summarizes this Assembly, "The circumstances and
place of its assembling, the harmony of its counsels, the prevailing
unity of its views on all subjects of general interest, the patriotic
and conservative influences which prevailed in all its proceedings,
notwithstanding its members were convened from every section of
this Union. . . . Even the outward political world has been attracted
by our oneness and our conservatism, and has not been silent in its
auguries of good to our common country . . . over this wide do-
main." 51 Even in January, 1860, he hoped that there would not be
dismemberment of the Union; and to that end urged a strict adher-
ence to the letter of the Constitution. 5 -

The attitude of the Seminary towards ecclesiastical schism, on
sectional grounds, seems to have been maintained down to the very
moment when the sword was unsheathed between the States and when
"the Spring Resolutions" were adopted in the Old School Assembly.
In 1860 Dr. Thornwell was ready to move for gradual emancipation
in the interest of preserving the Union. In the same year, Dr. John
B. Adger, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity in
the Seminary, led the opposition to a move in South Carolina
Synod to divide the Church. Synod met in the Glebe St. Church,
Charleston, November 28th, 1860. On November 29, Rev. W. B.
Yates of Charleston Presbytery introduced the following preamble
and resolutions:

"Whereas, that fanaticism, which has so completely con-
trolled public sentiment at the North as to cause the election of
Abraham Lincoln, the exponent of hostility to our social insti-
tutions; and, as we have reason to believe, this sentiment is

\A.s reported by G. Howe, Southern Pies. Review, Vol. XI, p. 278.

'Ibid, pp. 326. 343.

^Southern Pres. Review, Jan. 1860.

44 Columbia Seminary and

openly or covertly entertained in a greater or less degree, by
all of the ecclesiastical bodies at the North; and whereas the
Act of 1818 (which makes it the duty of all members of the
Presbyterian Church to use all efforts for the abolition of
slavery) still remains upon the statute book of the Old School
Presbyterian General Assembly, and they have refused to repeal
it; Believing, as we do, that fidelity to the South requires us to
dissolve all connection with the Northern portion of the Pres-
byterian Church, therefore be it

1. Resolved, That the period has arrived when it becomes the
duty of every Minister and Elder, South, to let his position be
known.

2. Resolved, That fidelity to the South requires us to sever all
connection with the Northern portion of the General Assembly.

3. Resolved, That we recommend to all Presbyteries connected
with this Synod to take steps to dissolve their connection with
the General Assembly.

4. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to correspond with
Synods and Presbyteries, South, with the view of forming a
Southern Assembly.

5. Resolved, That we still cherish fraternal feelings towards
all those brethren who have ever stood up firmly for the rights
of the South."

Mr. Yates moved reference of the foregoing to a special Com-
mittee.

Dr. Adger moved that they be laid on the table. Dr. Adger's
motion prevailed, seventy-seven to twenty-one. 53

Later in the Synod, Dr. Adger reported for a Committee of nine
on the duty of Synod towards our Churches, in reference to the
existing condition of our countrv:

"This Synod is one of thirty-three which compose the old
school Presbyterian Church in this country. From our brethren
of the whole Church annually assembled we have received
nothing but justice and courtesv. The Act of 1818 was adopted
by the South of that day as well as by the North, and has since
been virtually rescinded. Our General Assembly in 1845, at
Cincinnati, took action with almost entire unanimity, which
has been acceptable to the South, inasmuch as it declared that
they had no authority to make any laws on the subject of
slavery not found in the word of God; and which has resulted

Min. oi Synod of S. C, I860, p. 8. Printed Charleston, Evans & Cogswell,
1861.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 45

in a harmony of the whole Church on this subject, unbroken
in the least degree to the present time.

"It is not for us to inaugurate, as a Synod, am movement
towards a separation from the Northern branch of our Church.
This is not the time for such a movement, which would be in
advance of. the action of the State. Nor are we the proper body
to take such a step. It can only begin in the Church sessions,
where Presbyterian sovereignty lies, and must issue forth
through the Presbyteries.

"With regard to the political duties of our Churches, as com-
posed of citizens of this Commonwealth, the Synod of South
Carolina is not called upon as a Synod, even in the present
extremity, to give advice or instructions. Political intermeddling
by professed Ministers of the Gospel, and especially by bodies
of professed Ministers, has been fraught with evil for many
years to our country, and has contributed perhaps more than
any other cause to bring the country to its present condition.
This Synod, composed of Ministers and Ruling Elders should
not now be found imitating the bad example so often set by
ecclesiastical bodies at the North.

"But there is now a great and solemn question before the
people of this state, affecting its very life and being; and that
question has, of course, its religious aspects and relations, upon
which this body is perfectly competent to speak, and if its
deliverance thereupon should have a political bearing, that is
a result for which we cannot be held responsible. There is
involved at this immediate juncture a duty to God, who gave
us our rights; a duty to our ancestors, whose blood and suffer-
ings procured them for us; a duty to our children, whose
precious inheritance we may not waste or defile; and a duty to
our very slaves, whom men that know them not. nor care for
them as we do, would take from our protection. The Synod
has no hesitation, therefore, in expressing the belief that the
people of South Carolina are now solemnly called on to imi-
tate their revolutionary forefathers, and stand up for their
rights. We have a humble abiding confidence that the God
whose truth we represent in this conflict will be with us, and
exhorting our Churches and people to put their trust in God,
and go forward in the solemn path of duty which his Providence
opens before them, we, Ministers and Elders of the Presbvterian
Church in South Carolina, in Synod assembled, would give
them our benediction, and the assurance that we shall fervently
and sincerely implore for them the care and protection of

46 Columbia Seminary and

Almighty God." On motion of Mr. M. E. Queen this was
adopted. 54

It is somewhat hard to follow Dr. Adger's reasoning in this paper
and in his defense thereof. He disavowed and condemned political
intermeddling, and denied the right of Synod to instruct the citizens
in their ordinary political duties; but held "that the great and
solemn question before the State, whether she would give up her
inheritance of freeman, and her being and life had a religious bear-
ing and involved duty to God." 55

Whether or not he drew the line between political and ecclesias-
tical matters, certainly his resolutions are to be preferred by every
lover of ecclesiastical unity to those of Mr. Yates.

If in the midst of ecclesiastical schisms and political turmoil,
Mr. McCormick, the inventor of the reaper and founder of. McCor-
mick Seminary, was right in speaking of the Old School Church
and the Democratic party as "the two hoops which held the Union
together," then a measure of credit for the continuance of the
Union from 1832-1860 must be accorded to Thornwell and Columbia
Seminary, the influence of which was vital in holding together one
of these two hoops the Old School General Assembly. 56

Organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church

While Dr. Adger was able to block the Yates Resolutions dividing
the Church as late as the Synod of 1860, his more moderate sub-
stitute evinces the fact that "The Presbyterians of the South were
in full political sympathy with the movement for dismembering
the general government. Their sympathy was actively assisting in
this disintegrating work." 57

Dr. Bean, in a recently published History of the Presbyterian
Church in South Carolina, has exhaustively gathered the data on
this subject from the ecclesiastical courts of South Carolina. He
avows that, "in refusing to send commissioners to the General
Assembly, the withholding of funds, the endorsement of the Southern

"Synod of S. C. Minutes, 1860, p. 29. MS. Min. of Synod of S. C, pp. 141,
142, one exception to approval by Win. C. Backus, Moderator.

^Southern Presbyterian Review, July, 1861. p. 335 ff.

5,1 For McCormick's statement Thompson, Presbyterians, p. 151 in American
Church History Series, Vol. VI, Scribners, N. Y., 1900.

57 Reed, History of Presby. Churches, p. 271.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 47

Confederacy and the giving of thanks for the manifest favor of
God upon the councils and arms of the Confederate States of Amer-
ica," the South Carolina ecclesiastical bodies had virtually with-
drawn from the Old School Assembly before the Assembly's meeting
in 1861. 58

The actions of the Synod and Presbyteries of. South Carolina
certainly show a spirit of alienation and an acknowledgment that
civil conditions have interrupted regular ecclesiastical relations. But
before deciding with Dr. Bean 59 that this irregular state of affairs
constitutes a permanent division and a new ecclesiastical organization
the question arises, "How did Southern leaders regard ecclesiastical
conditions and relations in July, 1861?" The records of the So-
ciety of. Missionary Inquiry show that the question, Resolved that
the separation of the Presbyterian Church in these "once United
States" North and South would be beneficial to the cause of Christ
viewed in the light of reason, was seriously debated in the early
months of 1861. It was, therefore, a debatable question at that time
in Columbia Theological Seminary. 60 There is a very interesting
article on the General Assembly of 1861 in the Southern Presbyterian
Review of 1861 by Dr. J. B. Adger of Columbia Seminary. Dr.
Adger begins this article, "We still acknowledge ourselves to be, in
one sense, members of the body which is called the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America. This title is now, indeed, a
misnomer, for the United States of America have ceased to be united,
and have become two distinct, separate, and, alas! hostile govern-
ments. The Presbyterian Church, Old School, is, of course, in fact
no longer one Church, but two. And yet the separation will not, we
suppose, be formally made until the regular fall sessions of our
Presbyteries and Synods." "Our own impressions were, at first,
favorable to no immediate action towards formal separation." 61

Further on, Adger speaks of the division of feeling between the
two parts. "Now the question arises, what is it that both will soon,
and ought soon, to divide this Church? Is it these mutual feelings of
alienation? Do they, can they, justify actual separation, or the
setting up a new and distinct Presbyterian organization? We have

59 Pres. Church in S. C. Since 1850, p. 79.

S9 Ibid, p. 59-102.

^MS. Record of the Society of Missionary Inquiry, 1855-1880, p. 272.

6l S. P. R., 1861, pp. 396. 346.

48 Columbia Seminary and

no hesitation in answering No! Such feelings as produce unjust
and unkind legislation, and such feelings, too, as it produces, ought
to be controlled and corrected. They form no justification of-
schism." 62

What, then, does Adger regard as necessitating such action?
"What is it, that must and ought to divide the Presbyterian Church,
Old School? It is the division of the country into two separate na-
tions. No external Church organization of a spiritual Church can
properly perform its spiritual functions within the limits of two
distinct nations. And the more hostile they become, the more im-
possible will it be for one Church to work in the bounds of both." In
a spiritual Church "there must be identity, in some good degree, of
moral judgments, feelings and sympathies, or the unity is broken"
. . . "Differences of political organization, therefore, must divide
such (free) Churches." 63

This same reason for a separate organization is repeated as the
second reason for separation in the address by the Southern General
Assembly to all the churches of Jesus Christ, written by Dr. J. H.
Thornwell, a colleague of Dr. Adger in Columbia Seminary. Refer-
ring to the practice of Protestant Churches in following national
lines, the address declares: "If it is desirable that each nation should
contain a separate and an independent Church, the Presbyteries of
these Confederate States need no apology for bowing to the decree
of Providence, which, in withdrawing their country from the govern-
ment of the United States, has at the same time determined that they
should withdraw from the Church of their fathers." 64

Dr. Adger views "the Spring Resolutions" of the 1861 Assembly
primarily in the light of their relation to a Southern Presbyterian's
loyalty to his chosen government. "Were it not, therefore, that the
'loyalty resolutions' of the Assembly must necessarily affect our posi-
tion towards our own government, we would say, unhesitatingly, that
they do not render necessary any division of the Church."

He is constrained to yield to "the general and clamorous call from
so many parts of the South for a Convention to assemble, without
unnecessary delay, and take steps for organizing a separate South-

"-Southern Pres. Review, July, 1861, p. 341, 296, 346.

"Ibid, p. 343. 344.

"Minutes of Southern Assembly, 1861, p. 52 ff.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 49

em Church," declaring, "it does appear to us that, having been put
into a false position both by the Assembly and by our own Com-
missioners, we must not delay at all to set ourselves right." 65 Dr.
R. E. Thompson shows that political or civil pressure, brought to
bear on Northern Presbyterians, resulted in the so-called Spring
Resolutions 00 (better Spring- Anderson-Edwards Resolutions Minutes
oj the General Assembly of 1861, p. 329) ; and political pressure,
national division, new nation lines, hostile armies did play their part
in the separation and re-organization of Southern Presbyterians. Ere
passing this subject by, it should be noted that the ecclesiastical di-
vision of the Old School Church followed rather than preceded; and
was in part caused by, and not a cause of, the sectional rupture.
Even the Democratic Party one of McCormick's "hoops" was
broken before the nation; but the breaking of the barrel (the Lnion )
broke the last hoop, the Old School Church.

The other cause of the permanent division of Southern Presby-
terians was the collapse of that ideal of. the strict demarcation of
the sphere of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which dominated the Old
School Church from the time of its organization until the passage of
the "Spring Resolutions" in 1861. 00a Dr. Charles Hodge and others
protested against the resolutions, "because we deny the right of the
General Assembly to decide the political question, to what govern-
ment the allegiance of Presbyterians as citizens is due, and its right
to make that decision a condition of membership in our Church."
. . . "The General Assembly has always acted on the principle
that the Church has no right to make anything a condition of
Christian or ministerial fellowship which is not enjoined or required
in the Scriptures and the standards of the Church." 67

Objection was not merely to the Resolutions per se, but to the Reso-
lutions as representing the collapse (in the Old School Assembly) of
that strict laissez jaire doctrine of ecclesiastical bodies in political
matters which was enunciated in the Synod of South Carolina and
Georgia, in 1836 and 1837, and in the Old School Assemblies of

m Ibid, 342, 346.

m Minutes of General Assembly 1861. pp. 329-331. In part: 'This General As-
sembly do hereby acknowledge and declare our obligations to promote and
perpetuate the integrity of these United States and to strengthen, uphold and
encourage the Federal Gvernment in the exercise of all its functions under our
noble Constitution with unabated loyalty."

Thompson, Presbyterians, pp. 150, 151.

""Minutes General' Assembly 1861. pp. 339. 340.

50 Columbia Seminary and

1845 and 1848. Dr. J. H. Thornwell, a personal embodiment of
the doctrine that "the Church is exclusively a spiritual organization,"
urged this argument first in the address of the Southern Assembly, in
the Reasons for separate organization adopted by the Synod of South
Carolina in 1861, and in a valedictory letter he wrote to be sent the
"Northern" Assembly. He says:

"The course of the last Assembly, at Philadelphia, conclus-
ively shows that, if we should remain together, the political
questions which divide us as citizens will be obtruded on our
Church Courts and discussed by Christian Ministers and Elders
with all the acrimony, bitterness, and rancour with which such
questions are usually discussed by men of the world. Our As-
sembly would present a mournful spectacle of strife and debate.
"The only conceivable condition, therefore, upon which the
Church of the North and the South could remain together as one
body with any prospect of success is the vigorous exclusion of
the questions and passions of the forum from the halls of debate.
This is what ought always to be done. The provinces of Church
and State are perfectly distinct, and one has no right to usurp
the jurisdiction of the other. . . . The Church has no right to
construct or modify a government for the State, and the State
has no right to frame a creed or polity for the church. They are
as planets moving in different orbits, and unless each is con-
fined in its own track, the consequences may be as disasterous
in the moral world as the collision of different spheres in the
world of matter." 68

"The Old Assembly has transcended its jurisdiction by
authoritatively settling a political question." 69

"We have withdrawn, first, because we are persuaded that, if
we remain together, our harmony is likely to be disturbed by
the introduction of our political differences into our Church
Courts." 70

Rev. James A. Lyon, D.D., of Columbus, Mississippi, writing in
the Southern Presbyterian Review of the Southern General Assembly
of 1861, declares that the Southern disaffected Presbyterians would
have been slow to take the necessary steps to a separate organization.
"But those 'Spring Resolutions,' so unnecessary, in fact, so much in
defiance of all sound wisdom, so contrary to wise policy (according
to man's wisdom), and in open violation of the Constitution of the
Church, God, as it would seem, permitted to be discussed with such

ttH Minutes Southern Assembly, 1861, pp. 5, 52.

""Reasons for separate organization Thornwell Col. Wr., Vol. IV, p. 439.

TO Valedictory Letter Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 465.

"'Southern Pres. Rev., Jan. 1862, p. 619.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 51

an animus and passed by such a majority, for the sole purpose of
"making an instantaneous unit of the Southern Churches." 71

Dr. P. M. Palmer, Jr., an alumnus and sometime professor in Co-
lumbia, quotes the action of his own Presbytery (New Orleans) as
typical of the attitude of most Presbyteries: "Resolved, That in view
of the unconstitutional, Erastian, tyrannical, and virtually exscinding
act, of the late General Assembly ... we do hereby . . . declare
. . . our connection with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States to be dissolved." 7 - Dr. Palmer preached
the opening sermon of the Southern Assembly in Augusta (Dec. 4,
1861) from the text Eph. 1:22, 23. He declared that the mission
of the re-organized Church is "to lift throughout the world our testi-
mony for this headship of Christ. The convocation of. this Assembly
is part of this testimony. But a little while since it was attempted,
in the most august court of our Church, to place the crown of our
Lord upon the head of Caesar ... to bind that body which is
Christ's fullness to the chariot in which Caesar rides. . . . the voice
went up throughout our land in indignant remonstrance against the
usurpation, in solemn protest against the sacrilege. And now this
parliament of the Lord's freemen solemnly declares that, by the
terms of her great charter, none but Jesus may be King in Zion. Once
more, in this distant age and in the ends of the earth, the Church
must declare for the supremacy of her Head, and fling out the conse-
crated ensign with the old inscription, 'For Christ and His Crown.' " 73

An additional reason mentioned by Thornwell in The Address is
the antagonism engendered over the question of slavery, and the
conviction that only a Church free from control of those hostile to
slavery will be trusted by slaveholders to minister to the spiritual
needs of. the slave population. "We cannot give up these millions
of souls" for the sake of an empty shadow of outward unity. 74

The reasons, then, for the separation and the re-organization of
the Southern Presbyterians, as found in the representative utterances
of Columbia Seminary leaders made at the time, were: first, national
disparateness; secondly, the collapse in the Old School Assembly
of the ideal of a Church with an exclusively spiritual mission the

72 Palmer, Life of Thornwell, p. 502.

^Minutes of Southern Assembly, 1861, p. 71.

74 Address of the Southern Assembly, Minutes, 1861, p. 55.

52 Columbia Seminary and

ideal of Thornwell, Cater, McDowell, Hoyt and Palmer; thirdly, the
spiritual interests of the slave population.

If called upon to evaluate the different reasons, the writer would
emphasize the political agitation and pressure and the national divis-
ion as the principal cause of disaffection, of the interruption of regu-
lar relations, and of the separation of. the Presbyterians of the seced-
ing states. While to the second cause the collapse of the ideal of
the spirituality of the Church, manifest in "the Spring Resolutions"
he would attribute the primary importance for that unanimity and
immediacy of action by these separated Presbyterians in the forma-
tion of a Southern Presbyterian Church, by which the disaffection
crystallized, the separation was made permanent, and the new ec-
clesiastical organization was born. That the opinion of these
Seminary leaders fairly represents the view of the Church at its
organization is made evident by the conspicuous part taken by
Columbia Seminary men in this Augusta Assembly, December 4,
1861. The facts, carefully collated by Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters,
are: 75

"Of. the fifty-two Ministerial Commissioners who were present,
honored by the Presbyteries as men worthy to be entrusted with the
responsibility of deciding whether, as a Church, we were to be, and
what, as a Church, we were to be, thirteen were alumni or honorary
alumni of this Seminary; six were alumni of our sister Seminary in
Virginia; and the remainder, apparently, were not Seminary grad-
uates, or were the alumni of institutions outside of our bounds. The
alumni of this institution came from the following Synods, viz:
Synod of Alabama, G. W. Boggs; Synod of Arkansas, John I. Boozer;
Synod of Georgia, J. E. DuBose. C. C. Jones, D.D., J. R. Wilson,
D.D., LL.D.; Synod of Mississippi, W. C. Emerson, B. M. Palmer,
D.D., LL.D.; Synod of South Carolina, J. H. Thornwell, D.D.,
LL.D., A. W. Leland, D.D., J. L. Wilson, D.D., D. E. Frierson, D.D.,
J. B. Adger, D.D., D. McN. Turner, D.D."

Among the elders present were Chancellor Job Johnston of the
Supreme Court of South Carolina, a former member of the Board

^'Columbia Theol. Seminary, A Retrospect Involving a Responsibility, 1901,
Wm. M. McPheeters. pp. 26, 27 cf. Minutes of General Assembly (C. S. A.),
1861.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 53

of Directors of the Seminary, and Hon. T. C. Perrin, Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the Seminary.

"The selection of a suitable presiding officer for that first As-
sembly was a matter of no small importance. The man occupying
that position on that occasion must needs be one capable, not only of
commanding the respect and confidence of his brethren, but of
the entire Church of God. Upon him also, more than upon any
one else, would devolve the responsibility of guiding and shaping
the action of the body that had placed him at the helm. We all
know upon whom the choice of his brethren fell; nor has there ever
been a moment since when the Church repented that choice, or failed
to be proud that when the emergency arose she had, in Benjamin M.
Palmer, a son worthy to meet it.

"The new-born Church received her name on the motion of J. H.
Thornwell, D.D., which motion was seconded by A. W. Leland, D.D.
The committees through whom the Assembly was to carry on its
business were also appointed on motion of Dr. Thornwell. He
was, himself, chairman of. the committee which drew up for our
Church her Magna Charta 'The Address to the Churches of Jesus
Christ Throughout the World.' Associated with him on this commit-
tee were C. C. Jones, D.D., of Georgia, and John I. Boozer, of
Arkansas. Dr. Thornwell was also an influential member of the
Committee on Bills and Overtures. Indeed, it is but history to add
that to him, probably more than to any other single individual, our
Church owes most of what is distinctive in her principles and her
polity. To him we are largely indebted for the Book of Church
Order, under which our Courts at present administer the business of
our Church. 'The Letter on the Religious Instruction of the Colored
People,' issued by the Augusta Assembly, was the masterly product
of C. C. Jones, D.D., of Georgia, who was also chairman of the Com-
mittee of Home Missions. The venerable D. McN. Turner, D.D., who
continued his labors until over eighty years of age, and has only
comparatively recently gone to his reward, was Clerk of the Assem-
bly. The Standing Committee on Foreign Missions appointed by that
Assembly consisted of J. L. Wilson, D.D., Jas. Woodrow, D.D.,
James H. Thornwell, D.D., George Howe, D.D., F. P. Mullally, D.D.,
A. A. Porter, D.D., and J. B. Adger, D.D., all alumni or honorary
alumni of. this Seminary.

54 Columbia Seminary and

"So much for the relation of Columbia Seminary to our begin-
nings as a Church."

Of interest as showing the whole-heartedness with which Columbia
Seminary espoused the cause of a Southern Presbyterian Church in
1861 and the leadership accorded the institution in that movement,
there may be noted a proposal by Dr. Thornwell in the South Caro-
lina Synod of 1861. Dr. Thornwell offered the following reso-
lution: "Resolved, that this Synod, the Synod of Georgia and that
of Alabama concurring, transfer to the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America the
Theological Seminary of the Synods of South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, etc." The motion was referred to the Board of Directors; 76
and was regularly acted upon and the transfer consummated by ap-
propriate action at the General Assembly of 1863. 77

The Perpetuation of the Southern Presbyterian Church

A further phase of the Seminary and the Southern Presbyterian
Church deals with the relation of the Southern Church to its former
associates in the Northern Church. In 1869 and '70 the question of
reunion was broached by the Northern Assemblies. The reply of the
Southern Church was submitted by Dr. B. M. Palmer, Jr., as Chair-
man of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence. It presents four
difficulties in the way of cordial correspondence between the two
bodies :

1. The political utterances of the Northern Assembles. "We
believe it to be solemnly incumbent upon the Northern Presbyterian
Church ... to purge itself of this error, and, by public proclama-
tion of the truth, to place the crown once more upon the head of
Jesus Christ as the alone King of. Zion." The Southern Church
will continue to maintain the independence and spirituality of the
Redeemer's kingdom upon earth.

2. Doctrinal inclusiveness. The union of the Old and New School
Assemblies North "involved a total surrender of all the great testi-
monies of the Church for the fundamental doctrines of grace." "The
united Assembly stands of necessity upon an allowed latitude of
interpretation of the standards, and must come at length to embrace

^Minutes Synod of S. C, 1861. p. 32.
"Minutes Assembly 1863. pp. 142, 143.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 55

nearly all shades of doctrinal belief. Of these falling testimonies
we are now the sole surviving heirs." 78

3. The excision of Presbyterians of Kentucky and Missouri under
"the Gurley ipso facto resolutions."

4. Injurious accusations preferred against the Southern Presby-
terian Church by Northern Assemblies. 79

It has been along these lines, marked out by a son of old Colum-
bia, that the question of closer relations to the Northern Presby-
terian Church has been considered.

The fourth difficulty was pressed by Southern delegates, particu-
larly Dr. B. M. Palmer, in the conversations held by representatives
of the two Assemblies in 1874. 80

The respective Assemblies passed reciprocal resolutions in 1882,
withdrawing all offensive utterances of past Assemblies; but this full
expression was later "explained" by the moderator of the Northern
Assembly as not referring to charges concerning loyalty and rebel-
lion. On this basis fraternal relations were reestablished between
the two Churches. 81

Objections to the Resolution of the Northern Moderator, Dr. Her-
rick Johnson, which "did not modify but explained" the Concurrent
Resolutions, were voiced by two Columbia spokesmen. Dr. Wm. E.
P>oggs, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity, affirms
that this explanation was hurriedly accepted by a tired Southern As-
sembly; that its meaning is an enigma the riddle of the sphinx;
and that the Southern Church should have demanded further light on
its meaning before exchanging delegates. But he is inclined to think
that the Northern Assembly regrets the Johnson resolution of explan-
ation and is as much grieved thereby as is the Southern Church, and
he expects the Northern brethren to do the handsome and generous
thing of withdrawing the explanation. 82

78 Note: This reunion was protested against in October, 1868, in a book re-
view of Baird's History as (if it should occur) furnishing a reason against a
North-South Reunion Southern Pres. Review, Oct., 1868, p. 607

'"Minutes Southern General Assembly, 1870, pp. 529, 530.

80 Reed, History, p. 282.

sl Minutes of Southern Assembly, 1882, pp. 531, 541, 542, 552, 553. Minutes
of General Assembly (U. S. A.), 1882, pp. 50, 66, 83, 84, 102, 103.

82 W. E. Boggs. The General Assembly of 1882, in Southern Pres. Review
July, 1882, pp. 569-590.

56 Columbia Seminary and

Dr. B. M. Palmer (Jr.) goes further in his opposition to fraternal
delegates, on the basis of Dr. Johnson's explanation. He declares
that the two Assemblies are not one on the question of "the relations
subsisting between the Church and the State." But, by making a
treaty of peace that imports these deliverances on loyalty and re-
bellion into the agreement, the Southern Church is giving up her
position. "When we allow these political declarations to be import-
ed into the treaty between us as in part the basis of reconciliation,
what becomes of our testimony against these political deliver-
ances?" 83

Dr. R. C. Reed, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity
(1898-1925), thus paraphrases the "Herrick Johnson Rider." ' 'We
do not declare our regret for nor our withdrawal of. those expressions
of our Assemblies which charged you with being traitors and rebels/
Surely this was modifying with a vengeance!" 84

The establishment of fraternal relations with the Northern Assem-
bly was also feared as a step in the direction of organic 85 union.
Through the courtesy of his grandson, the Reverend John Blackburn
the use of manuscript notes of Dr. J. L. Girardeau, professor in
Columbia Seminary 1876-1895, are available. In these papers there
is an outline of an address by Dr. Girardeau, given at a conference in
the Seminary Chapel in 1884. The outline is entitled "Question of
Organic Union with Northern Presbyterian Church." Dr. Girardeau
affirms "that organic union will not approach us directly, but will
come through one (or both) of two ways: i. e. cooperation, which
was the reason inciting to fraternal relations; and local assemblies."

In 1904, the Northern Assembly removed all aspersions and
charges, of any and every kind, upon the Christian character of the
Southern Church. The fourth of Palmer's difficulties in the way of
closer relations was thereby completely removed.

Meanwhile, the Northern and Southern Assemblies had enjoyed a
fraternal celebration (1888) of the Centennial of the life of the
Assembly; and, after hearing the Report of a Committee of Inquiry
into the views of the Northern Assembly, the Southern Assembly de-

S3 Palmer, Fraternal Relations Sou. Prcs. Review, April, 1883, p. 328.
s, Reed History of the Southern Pres. Church, publ. in Presbyterian Standard,
Charlotte. N. C, Oct. 24-Nov. 21, 1923.

s T.irardeau in Sou. Pres. Review, 1882, p. 575.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 57

cided to appoint a Committee on fraternal cooperation in Christian
work. 86 But just at this time, 1889, the Revision controversy took
place in the Northern Assembly. The Girardeau notes show that
this dampened the Southern desire for unity. In a review of Dr.
Briggs' "Whither?" Dr. Girardeau declares himself at variance with
most of Dr. Briggs' views. In an address dated November 22, 1889,
Girardeau characterized the demand for revision as evidence of
"The Doctrinal Defection in the American Presbyterian Church."
He found in this demand proof, that the Old School New School
Union was a doctrinal compromise, the effects of which "are now
coming out."

Dr. James Woodrow, sometime Perkins Professor of Natural
Science in connection with Revelation in the Seminary, in an article
of April 26, 1889, entitled "Are We Agreed?" acknowledges that,
while there were Southern New School men as doctrinally lax as
Northern New School men, the proportion of them was smaller.
"And it is further true that, while we are very far from being able
to claim spotlessness, there has always prevailed, and there now
prevails, a jealous regard for doctrinal soundness in the South in a
far higher degree than in the North. . . . Our people rightly dread as
most deadly any departure from the faith once delivered to the
saints." 87

On April 19th, Dr. Woodrow quotes Dr. Briggs' view on verbal
inspiration as published in the Homiletic Review (January) as
"showing in the Northern Assembly indifference to fundamental
truth." 88

Dr. R. C. Reed of. Columbia Seminary, in writing his History of
the Presbyterian Church of the World, gave his view of the Union
between the Cumberland Church and the Northern Assembly (1904).
"These statements made it clear that the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church was favorable to union, on the ground that the revised con-
fession and the brief statement contained a modified form of Calvin-
ism in substantial accord with that held by the Cumberland Church.
In other words, the Cumberland Church was ready to unite with the
Northern Church on the basis of the latter's standards, because these

""Southern Pres. Assembly, 1888, pp. 412, 422, 456.
i7 Dr. James Woodrow, by M. W. Woodrow, pp. 598-599.
"Ibid, p. 594.

58 Columbia Seminary and

standards had come to be substantially identical with its own." Dr.
Reed also added, in his copy sent for publication to the Presbyterian
Board of Publication, that in his judgment the aforesaid union
showed that the Northern Church preferred external enlargement to
doctrinal purity. This last statement was changed by Dr. Roberts,
stated Clerk of the Northern Assembly, before publication, into an
innocuous platitude, and so reads in the printed copies of Dr. Reed's
book. 89 & 90

In a short History of the Southern Presbyterian Church, published
in the Presbyterian Standard of Charlotte, North Carolina, October
24-November 21, 1923, Dr. Reed, from the standpoint of Columbia
Seminary, categorically answers the question "Why should we (the
Southern Presbyterian Church) not go back to our mother?"

1. "Because the mother Church (the Old School Church) no
longer exists.

2. "The Church of which that Old School Church is now a com-
ponent part is a Church practically without a creed." The Church
professes one creed, but has two standards (Old School and New
School) for testing orthodoxy.

3. "The Cumberland Union of 1905 opened a still wider door into
the ministry, so that it is hardly too much to say that this great,
doubly united Church stands for no clearly defined system of truth."

4. "The Northern Church is travelling in the direction of Broad-
Churchism, and soon the denial of doctrines hitherto held to be dis-
tinctive of Evangelical Christianity will be tolerated.

5. "The Northern Assembly practices the doctrines of the Spring
Resolutions . . . "the doctrine that the church owes allegiance to
the civil government and must render support to the government." 91

According to Dr. Thomas Cary Johnson, Dr. Palmer "never ceased
to believe that the Head of the Church had laid on his communion
the burden of testifying to the Church's non-political character, and
of standing for sound and certain Calvinism." 92

Kced History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World, p. 267.
! "'Note: Dr. Reed stated to his classes in Columbia Seminary that this
change was made, without his consent, by his friend, Dr. Roberts.
"'As published in Pamphlet, pp. 21, 22.
' "Johnson, B. M. Palmer, p. 546.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 59

The second difficulty urged by Dr. Palmer in 1870 doctrinal in-
clusiveness is a difficulty of. increasing magnitude in the minds of
leaders of Columbia Seminary to the organic union of the Northern
and Southern Churches. The New School Union of 1869-70; the
Revision Question of 1889; the Cumberland Union of 1904; the
Auburn affirmation of 1923 ; 93 the latitude taken by New York
Presbytery in ordaining ministers; 94 the failure of the Assembly of
1927 to judicially rebuke this latitude; 95 the ideal of "an inclusive
church" avowed by Northern leaders, 96 are to Columbia Seminary
like so many stones in a vast pyramid of difficulty in the way of
organic union.

Palmer's other great objection the relations between church and
state were still pressed by Dr. Reed in 1923. supra.

Dr. Woodrow acknowledges that the church courts of the South
do not have a perfect record on this subject, "although there was an
honest endeavor, even in the midst of the most intense war excite-
ment, to avoid whatever is inconsistent with the distinction, estab-
lished by our Saviour, between the things of God and the things of
Caesar." But he points to the declaration of the Southern Assembly
of 1876 disavowing all such incidental allusions 97 as the reestablish-
ment of the ideal of the strictly spiritual function of the Church
the principle of "the non-secular and non-political character of
Christ's kingdom." 98

To any one at all familiar with the intensity of South Carolina
politics, the wonder is not that Dr. R. E. Thompson finds allusions of
a political nature in the narratives of Religion of the Southern As-

y3 An affirmation designed to safeguard the Unity and Liberty of the Presby-
terian Church in the U. S. A.. Auburn, N. Y.. 1923. This document, signed by
o\er twelve hundred "Northern Presyterian" ministers and elders, declares that
the acceptance of none of the following doctrines are essential to ordination in
the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., i. e. : the Virgin Birth of Christ, His bodily
resurrection, His miracles, the inerrancy of Scripture, that Christ offered up
Himself a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile us to God.

01 Minutes Assembly U. S. A., 1925, pp. 32, 37. 83-88, 207. A Plain State-
went of Conditions in Neiv York Presbytery, James E. Bennett, N. Y., 1925.

""Minutes U. S. A., 1927, p. 188. Cf. Action of 1928 Assembly in allowing
Synod of N. Y. to vote in appeal vs. Synod of N. Y. This irregular vote dis-
missed another alleged case of doctrinal latitude.

'"'Minutes U. S. A. Assembly, 1920, pp. 98, 117-122.

'''Minutes Southern Assembly 1876, p. 233.

,J8 Z)r. J as. Woodrow, p. 596, April 26, 1889.

60 Columbia Seminary and

semblies of the war period," nor that Dr. Bean finds them in the
narratives of Religion of the Presbyteries of South Carolina during
the war; 100 the marvel is that the ideal is so far maintained as to keep
these matters so generally out of the direct action, and to confine
them to narratives dealing with the state of religion and of life.

So steadfastly has this ideal been held by Columbia Seminary that
the institution may be said to be an embodiment of the principle of
the spirituality of the Church. The founders of the Seminary prayed
for an institution that should be separate from sectional politics;
and in the heat of nullification hatred of New England, in 1831,
1832 and 1833, the Seminary elected Massachusetts men as her pro-
fessors. In 1836 and 1837 this ideal was written into the life of the
controlling Synod. In the forties, Thornwell of Columbia wrote it
into the Old School Assembly. In 1861 Thornwell and Palmer wrote
it into the Magna Charta of the Southern Assembly. Small wonder,
then, that Palmer should maintain that the ideal had been realized,
even during the war. He endorses the Assembly's declaration of
1870: "Our records may be searched in vain for a single act of ag-
gression, or a single unfriendly declaration against the Northern
Church." But he rejoices the more that in 1876, six years before the
Concurrent Resolution, the Southern Assembly had disavowed any
and all declarations of a political nature declaring that it "does not
recognize such as forming any part of the well-considered, authori-
tative teaching or testimony of our Church." 101

Dr. Henry A. White, of Columbia Seminary, thus characterizes the
attitude of the Southern Church toward her ideal of the non-political
character of the Church, even under the stain of war. Though their
members come direct to the Assembly from war and camps, "Politi-
cal measures are not formulated, nor even discussed in the sessions
of the General Assembly." "At no time during the struggle, how-
ever, does the Assembly declare that it is the religious duty of its
members to fight for the Confederacy, nor does the Assembly adopt
any rule whatsoever to require an examination of a man's political
sentiments as a preliminary to his admission as a Church member." 102
There doubtlessly are, here and there, in the statements of Columbia

"Thompson, Presbyterians, p. 158.
m) Pres. Church in S. C. Since 1850, pp. 90-115.
""Palmer, Sou. Pres. Rev., April, 1883, p. 319 ff.
'"-White, Sou. Pres. Leaders, pp. 345, 347.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 61

Seminary leaders, glorifications of history exchanging the ideal for
the actual but even so the history of ideals is history. It need not
be claimed that Columbia Seminary has attained the ideal of the
spirituality of the Church, but that the institution for a century has
consistently pursued that ideal. Nor that the principle of non-par-
ticipation of the Church in the political or secular has, in every
case, been lived up to by the ecclesiastical Courts in which the
Seminary has had a voice; but that this has been maintained with
such consistency as to fairly entitle it to be regarded as the working
principle of these bodies.

It is not evident that this is either the ideal or the working
principle of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the
United States of America. The difference between this Assembly and
the Old School Assembly, from which the bulk of the Southern As-
sembly separated, can be distinctly seen by comparing the Baltimore
(Old School) Assembly of 1848 with the Baltimore (U. S. A.) As-
sembly of 1926. Dr. Thornwell led the former in declining to in-
struct its members to support or unite with The American Temper-
ance Union; because, "The Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual
body. ... It is hence beside the province of the Church to render
its courts, which God ordains for spiritual purposes, subsidiary to
the schemes of any organization founded in the human will and liable
to all its changes and caprices." 103

In the Baltimore Assembly of 1926 there were three groups, The
Fundamentalist or Conservative Group; the Mediating or Pacifist
Group; the anti-Fundamentalist Group so named as including those
who were Liberal and those who, for other reasons, were opposed to
the Fundamentalist. Each of these groups, through its spokesmen,
condemned this doctrine of the non-participation by the church in
political or secular matters. The anti-Fundamentalist spoke first on
this subject. They kept the daily papers, before and during the As-
sembly, 104 alive with charges against a Princeton Seminary Conserva-
tive, because he had taken the ground that New Brunswick Presby-
tery, being a Church Court, ought not to endorse the Volstead Act.
The Mediating Group was represented by Moderator Thompson.

Minutes (0. S.) 184S, p. 58.

104 Note: The writer was reading The Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia
Public Ledger.

62 Columbia Seminary and

On taking his chair, the Moderator not only pledged his loyalty to
the Presbyterian Constitution, but specifically and particularly
pledged his loyalty to the Constitution of the United States of Amer-
ica thus, from the Southern viewpoint, again binding the Church
to the chariot of Caesar. Ex-Moderator Clarence E. Macartney was
regarded as the spokesman of the Fundamentalists. In the course of
a historical address delivered by him to this Assembly, he re-en-
dorsed "the Spring Resolutions" of the Assembly of 1861; and
maintained that these Resolutions were justified by the whole course
of Presbyterian history. 105 Dr. Henry A. White, of Columbia
Theological Seminary, who was to have represented the Southern
Church, was detained in Richmond by sickness; and, therefore, no
answer was made at the time to this speech. 106 It is not within the
province of this paper to declare that the principle of non-participa-
tion in state or political matters is a sufficient one to prevent the
union of the Southern Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian
Church U. S. A. It is adjudged the task of the historian to say that
in recent years the two bodies have shown different ideals on this
subject.

For the sake of completeness two lesser objections to organic union
urged by Columbia men must be touched in passing. Dr. Woodrow
discusses and endorses an objection to union presented by Dr. B. M.
Palmer, namely, the race problem. This is characterized as "a/i in-
superable barrier.'" Woodrow fears ecclesiastical unity will lead to
negro social equality, ecclesiastical subjection to the negro majority
perhaps even amalgamation. He says "people at the South of
different origin and blood and creed do not all mix together any
better than they do in Boston itself"; and that every ecclesiastical
body has "a right to choose whom it will receive into its member-
ship." 107

The reply of the Northern Assembly's Committee on Closer Rela-
tions, that that body would favor preserving "the present boundaries

^Minutes of U. S. A. Assembly of 1926, as far as applicable, p. 19, 154.

108 A more recent example of the attitude of the U. S. A. Church toward secu-
lar things is to be seen in the endorsement of a particular candidate for the
presidency by Moderator H. K. Walker and by the Bd. of Xn. Education, 1928.

im Jas. Woodrow, Aug. 25, 1887, pp. 583, 584; Dec. 22, p. 590; Jan. 5, 1888,
p. 592.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 63

and constituencies of the Presbyteries and Synods of both Churches,"
allayed the fears of. Southern leaders on this subject. 108

About ten years ago Columbia Seminary was opened with an ad-
dress on this subject of organic union by Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters.
The new approach to the subject there presented was that the South-
ern Church had been providentially brought into independent exist-
ence; that she had justified her independent organic life on the field
of history; that the leading and blessing of God could be seen in her
life (through these dealings in providence and grace). Ought she
then dissolve that independent organic life without a definite evi-
dence of His leadership in the movement? For the Southern Church
to resolve this organism into another was, in effect, to commit suicide,
without, of course, the moral blame attaching to suicide. 109

But when organic union seemed impossible, or undesirable, the
other plan, which Dr. Girardeau had foreseen as a step in the di-
rection of organic unity, namely, local assemblies or federation, was
advocated by a Columbia leader. Dr. Thornton Whaling, the Presi-
dent of Columbia Theological Seminary (1911-1921) was for several
years on the Southern Church's ad-Interim Committee on Closer
Relations. 110 In this position he warmly advocated Federal Union.
A digest of his reasons, sent by Dr. Whaling for the purpose of this
history, follows:

Why the Southern Church Prefers Federal Union,

By Thornton Whaling, D.D., President, Columbia

Theological Seminary, Columbia, S. C.

"The Southern Presbyterian Church has expressed a preference for
Federal Union rather than for Organic Union, and it is earnestly
desired that our brethren of the U. S. A. Church should understand
the reasons for this preference. If human testimony can be believed,
seventy-five per-cent of our ministers and Church officers prefer
Federal rather than Organic Union, and I beg the privilege of as-
signing some of the reasons for this widespread preference.

10S Letter of Jos. T. Smith, Feb. 2, 1888, Minutes Sou. Pres. Assembly, 1888,
p. 461.

100 Cf. Action of Assembly of 1865, p. 358; 1882, p. 567; Alexander's Digest,
pp. 1028-1029.

lw Minutes 1920, p. 178, cf. Alexander's Digest, 1922, pp. 1003-1014.

64 Columbia Seminary and

"First, Federal Union is Catholic, while Organic Union is provin-
cial. There are ten or twelve other Presbyterian and Reformed
Churches in our country with hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of members, and any plan of union ought to take them into view.

"Federal Union contemplates the integration of. these great
Churches into a Federal Assembly, and is, therefore, broad in its
vision and amply wide in its scope.

"Organic Union, on the other hand, is so provincial that it leaves
altogether out of view those other ten great historic Churches, and
narrows its scope to a union of only two Churches in the great
brotherhood of more than a dozen. It is too narrow, provincial and
petty, contrasted with the catholicity, breadth and scope of Federal
Union.

"Second, Federal Union is tolerant, w4iile Organic Union savors
of bigotry.

"Federal Union recognizes each of the other ten or more Churches
as legitimate types of Presbyterianism, wrought out of Providence of
God, under the guidance of divine spirit. It believes that each one
of them is as fully entitled to continual existence as any of the others.
It finds a method by which, without annihilating their identity or
destroying their autonomy, they can combine in one great Federal
Union, while preserving the historic and traditional types to which
they are committed, under the leadership of the great Head of the
Church.

"Organic Union, on the other hand, regards one Church, and that
(it) is true the largest Presbyterian Church numerically in the United
States, but still only one type of Presbyterianism, as the exclusive,
legitimate, and normal type, in conformity with which the others
must finally reduce themselves. Without the use of harsh language,
the distinctive Church policy certainly savors of narrowness, intoler-
ance and bigotry.

"Third, Federal Union is forward-looking, while Organic Union
is backward-looking.

"Federal Union, based on the principles of representation and
federation, is the key to the future, according to the statement of
great statesmen like Lloyd George and Clemenceau and others. Il-
lustrations of its operations are manifested all around the world, and

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 65

notably in the Imperial Federal Republic of the United States. The
League of Nations is a partial effort to the realizing, in international
life, of this same principle. The eyes of Federal Union are fixed
upon the future, in the confident faith that civil and ecclesiastical
polities of life are to find the bond of unions in the practical applica-
tion of these great principles.

"Organic Union, on the other hand, looks to the past, emphasizing
ideas that were shimmered in 1861, and speaks loudly and emphatic-
ally about a National Church. Of course, National Churches are
anachronisms. They are out of date in the twentieth century and
are destined never to be in date in any subsequent period. The ef-
fort to knit sundered bonds might result in a kind of patch-work
like the old crazy-quilt, but cannot give you a life organism, animat-
ed by one organic principle, as Federal Union proposes.

"Fourth, Federal Union is possible while Organic Union is im-
possible.

"The Presbyterian Church in the United States is ready for Federal
Union and other Presbyterian Churches have indicated a willingness
for such a combination. When a plan is discovered which allows
brethren of all of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches to re-
tain their distinctive principle in doctrine, government, administra-
tion and ritual, they will find no sufficient reason to decline entering
into it. The Southern Church stands in readiness to enter, heartily
and enthusiastically, into such a combination.

"On the other hand, Organic Union, requiring not only the South-
ern Church but all of the other Churches to surrender everything
which they regard as distinctive and peculiar, is certain to encounter
an antagonism which will make it impossible of realization in our
day. Disintegration and disorganization of the Churches must be
the prelude and condition which alone will make consolidation
possible.

"It is a distress to many minds to find that the statesmanship of.
the greatest Presbyterian Church in the United States is not equal to
the task of seeing that consolidation is impossible, and that real and
true Federation is the key to the wise union of all of the branches of
our common Presbyterianism. We love the U. S. A. Church: we do
not wish to destroy it as a type of Presbyterianism, but we are not
willing that it should be the only type and that all of the other

66 Columbia Seminary and

Churches consent to surrender their autonomy and be re-made again
after the fashion of even the great U. S. A. Church."

While at Columbia, President Whaling advocated union along
such lines of federation as the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance suggests
the giving of ecclesiastical authority to such an organization. In
this way he hoped to bring together what he characterized as "the
long surrendered, the too-long divided Churches of our American
Presbyterianism." 111

The views of Dr. Reed, supra, represent Columbia Seminary's atti-
tude as recently as that attitude has been defined.

The chief grounds for the perpetuation of the Southern Presby-
terian Church, as revealed by this survey, are : first, that the South-
ern Church holds to the principle of. the strict spirituality of the
Church, its non-participation, as a Church, in the political or the
secular; while the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., still maintains the
principle of the "Spring Resolutions"; secondly, the Southern Church
has aimed at Confessional consistency, while "the U. S. A. Church"
has been travelling in the direction of doctrinal inclusiveness.
Southern leaders have felt that a union of the two bodies would re-
sult in the continual clashing of divergent principles, and promote
discord rather than harmony. The differences between the two
bodies in the field of Church polity will be dealt with in the next
chapter. The perpetuation of the Southern Presbyterian Church is
guarded by a legal seal. The Book of Church Order of the Presby-
terian Church in the United States provides that full organic union
and consolidation with any other ecclesiastical body can only be
effected by the approval of two General Assemblies and the consent
of three-fourths of the Presbyteries; and that this paragraph can only
be amended by the same vote. 11 ' 2

In 1928, conversations concerning union were in progress between
the Southern Presbyterian Church and the United Presbyterian
Church. The Seminary was represented on the Southern Committee
by its Chairman, Dr. S. L. Morris an alumnus of the institution. 113

"'Addresses before the Chicago Presbyterian Social Union 1913, cf. Alex-
ander's Digest 1922, pp. 1003, 1014, etc. xMinutes 1920, p. 178. Minutes, 1931.

""The Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States, Revised Edition, Richmond, 1925, Section 162.

1VA Minutes Assembly (U. S.) 1927, pp. 9, 28, 41.

The Southern Presbyterian Integration 67

Looking at this question, a question with many angles, from the one
angle which has been central in this chapter, such a union could
prove a safeguard for the Southern Presbyterian principle of the
spirituality of the Church. The fathers of the Seminary regarded
the sectional spirit as the antithesis of the non-secular spirit. To
them, a Southern Presbyterian Church maintaining the strict spirit-
uality of the Church would have been a paradox. The missionary
v/ork of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, by making the
Church to some extent an international Church, has probably saved
it from the danger inherent in the fact that it is a sectional Church
the danger of developing a sectional consciousness, of identifying
the Church with the secular, political, or provincial aims and pur-
poses of the section. But should a union be consummated on the
principle of the sole Headship of Christ in His Church and the
strictly spiritual character of the Church, such a union, by making
the Church national rather than Southern, would more adequately
safeguard the outstanding principle of the Southern Church from
the danger inherent in a sectional institution.

7/i Christ there is no East nor West

In Him no South nor North.

* * * *

All Christly souls are one in Him
Thro' out the whole wide earth"

John Oxenham, 1908. Hymn 375,

The Presbyterian Hymnal, Richmond, 1927.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AND

THE POLITY OF THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Polity of James Henley Thornwell, the Structural Lines
of the Southern Presbyterian Church.

The Ruling Elder.

The Analogy of the Presbyterian System.

The Headship of Christ.

The Diaconate, a Thornwellian Principle Elaborated by Dr.
J. L. Girardeau.

The Book of Church Order of the Southern Assembly.

The Form of Government.
The Rules of Discipline.

Thornwell's Doctrine of the Sacraments.

The Lord's Supper The Doctrine of John Calvin.
Baptism Its Matter and Its Form.

"We are not ashamed to confess that we are intensely Presby-
terian." Address to all the Churches of Jesus Christ by Assembly of
1861, presented by Dr. Thornwell. Minutes, p. 60.

"A catholic love for all his true people, and unshaken confidence
in the divine right of the Presbyterian system: these are things which
should never, by us, be disjoined." J. L. Girardeau, Historical Ad-
dress before Synod of S. C. p. 78-79

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 69

The Polity of James H. Thornwell
"Hyper -hyper -hyper High Church Presbyterianism" Charles Hodge.

In the matter of Presbyterian Polity, as well as in matters of. doc-
trine, Dr. Thornwell was a supporter of Dr. R. J. Breckenridge.
Several of his most important articles on this subject are commen-
taries on similar articles by Breckenridge. The polity which they
advocated was developed in connection with practical questions at
issue in the Old School Presbyterian Church. Breckenridge, as
quoted by Thornwell, maintains that Presbyterian principles of
polity were complicated by the Plan of Union with Congregational-
ists; and that, while the paramount issue which split the Presbyterian
fold in 1837 was not governmental, yet it was polity alone which
made the Plan of Union unconstitutional and the Synods organized
under the plan illegal. Writing in 1843, Breckenridge justifies the
radical excision on the ground of polity. Because of a lack of
presbyters in the constitution of these synods, he declares that the
assembly of 1837 was right in annulling the Plan of Union as un-
constitutional. 2 This gives the setting of this question in the minds
of Breckenridge and Thornwell.

Dr. J. L. Girardeau, one of Dr. Thornwell's successors in the de-
velopment of polity at Columbia, declared that Thornwell also felt
that the principles of pure Presbyterian polity were not maintained
with sufficient clearness by the Westminster Divines, owing to the
several polities represented in that Assembly. 3 These views left Dr.
Thornwell untrammelled by any set system of polity, and allowed
him freedom to study the polity of the early Christian Church for
himself. There is ample evidence that he used his wide learning to
gather from the Fathers the earliest polity extant. He speaks of
giving the Apostolic Fathers a careful perusal; 4 and his articles
abound in references to them, to the Canons, to the Councils, to the
early Greek and Latin Fathers in the originals. 5 In view of this
study it will be interesting to notice, in passing, wherein Thornwell

'Thornwell Coll. Writings, Vol. IV, p. 228.
'Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 49, 55, 56.
'Girardeau in S. P. R., Vol. XXXII, p. 5.
'Thornwell, Vol. IV, note 1, p. 114.
'Notes, pp. 119, 120, 121, etc.

70 Columbia Seminary and

has been supported in particular points by more recent studies in
Church Government. 6

Thornwell's interest was not primarily academic. His discussions
of polity were waged over practical questions decided in the Old
School General Assemblies, particularly those of 1843 and 1860;
and then re-decided for Southern Presbyterians after their separation
from the Old School Assembly. That is, the principles for which
Breckenridge and Thornwell contended in the Old School Assembly
were not completely victorious there; but they have become the great
structural lines along which the Southern Church has been organized.
In the heat of the debate of 1860 Thornwell disavowed any purpose
to split the Church over the differences in polity between himself and
Dr. Hodge. 7 And when the Presbyterian Church South was organ-
ized it adopted the Old Constitution of the mother Church. 8 But by
overtures, by revisions of the book of Church Order, by adopting the
Book of Discipline formulated by Thornwell for the Old School
Church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States has become in
a large measure the embodiment of the Thornwellian Polity. Alex-
ander's Digest 1922 (p. 103) gives a typical way in which this
change has taken place. In 1843 the General Assembly decided that
the presence of elders was not necessary to constitute a quorum of a
regular Presbytery. 9 Breckenridge and Thornwell wrote vigorously
against this view. 10 After the Southern secession, ThornwelFs home
Synod (South Carolina) overtured the Southern Assembly in re-
gard to the necessity for the presence of a ruling elder. In 1871 the
question was again raised by the review of the minutes of Synod of
South Carolina. Alexander adds a note that, "The new book of
Church Order provides (paragraph 4) that the presence of at least
one ruling elder is necessary to a quorum of Presbytery."

"Note: Lack of space forbids a treatment of the not less radical differences
between Thornwell's views and those of more recent students. E. g., Thorn-
well's views of the jus divinum of the Church's constitution would probably be
characterized by Harnack, Sohm and other scholars hereafter mentioned as
Catholicism in contra-distinction from primitive Christianity. Cf. Harnack, The
Constitution and Law of the Church, N. Y., 1910, pp. 3, 4, 232, 245, 253; note
Sohm's Theory, pp. 177, 183.

7 Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 233.

"Alexander's Digest, 1922, p. 1.

"Minutes of General Assembly of 1843. pp. 190, 196, 198, 199, 203.

"Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 43, ff p. 115, ff, etc.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 71

The principles as enunciated were as much Breckenridge's as
Thorn well's; but as embodied in the Southern Church thev were
Thornwell's. Breckenridge stayed with the old Church. Thornwell
guided the shaping of the new. His work was enshrined in his pupils
and fellow professors in Columbia Seminary, in the Synod of South
Carolina, and finally in the whole Southern Church. Today his name
is one to "conjure" with in Southern Presbyterian Polity. For
example, Dr. Thomas Cary Johnson, of Union Theological Seminary
(Richmond, Virginia), stops in his discussion of Calvin's Contribu-
tion to Church Polity to mention one other of the occasional succes-
sors of Calvin in the field of polity. He mentions James Henley
Thornwell. 11

The Ruling Elder

The particular practical issues which directed Thornwell's atten-
tion to Presbyterian polity were two decisions by the "Old School"
Assembly of. 1843. These declared that elders were not necessary to
constitute a quorum of Presbytery; and that they were not entitled
to lay hands on Ministers of the Word in ordination. 12 These de-
cisions were understood by Thornwell to imperil the whole author-
ity and position of the Ruling Elder. He began a careful study of
this subject, and as a result enunciated principles that go to the
foundation of the question of the place, position, and meaning of the
office of Ruling Elder, "of the whole analogy of Presbyterian
polity," and the headship of Christ in and over His Church.

The corner stone in Thornwell's polity is the office of the elder-
ship. His declaration of the identity of the primitive presbyter and
bishop 13 has received the endorsement of a wide circle of. Anglican
scholars, following the publication of Bishop Lightfoot's Essay on
the Christian Ministry in 1868. 14 This school is frank to acknowl-
edge that the episcopate developed out of the presbyterate by eleva-
tion, rather than out of the apostolate by localization (p. 196).
Among those who follow Lightfoot's views may be mentioned: Dr.

^Calvin Memorial Addresses, Pres. Committee of Publ., Richmond, Va., 1909,
p. 87. Cf. Eugene Daniel Church Polity and Worship, pp. 152, 3 in Memorial
Volume of West. Assembly Pres. Comm. of Publ., Richmond. 1897.

"Minutes of 1843, pp. 190, 196, 199-201, 178, 181, 182, 183. Cf. Moffatt.
James, The Presbyterian Churches, N. Y., 1928, pp. 115-116.

,3 Works, Vol. IV, p. 132.

"Dissertation published with St. Paul's Epistle to Philippians by J. B. Light-
foot, 1915, Macmillan, p. 181.

72 Columbia Seminary and

H. M. Gwatkins, Early Church History; Dr. J. Armitage Robinson,
Essay on Christian Ministry in Swete, Early History of the Church
and the Ministry; Dr. Edwin Muller, Cambridge Episcopal Theologi-
cal School. Of the liberal school, Dr. F. Loofs, accepting the late
dating of Acts and the Pastorals, still holds to the identity of. the two
offices; 15 and Dr. George La Piana presents a similar view in his
Lectures on The History of Christian Institutions.

Dr. Thornwell made the presbyter the first and fundamental per-
manent officer. 16 Mgr. Pierre Batiffol, a French Roman Catholic
scholar, in Primitive Catholicism holds that the Church began under
an initially intended government (pages 36-96, 149) ; that the Church
was saved by a power representing Jesus (p. 150) ; that these presby-
ters are "the earliest permanent ecclesiastical function which history
records" (p. 151) ; that Paul's final instructions to Timothy imply
that on the death of Timothy this delegate and disciple is to be re-
placed only by the presbyterium (1 Tim, 4:14) of every church
(pp. 117, 118) ; that these presbyters are at the head of the local
church to govern and instruct it (p. 117). 17 Dr. Moffatt quotes simi-
lar views from Prof. Emil Metzner, Die Verfassung der Kirche in
den zwei ersten J ahrhunderten (p. 142) . 18

Canon Streeter's hypothesis that there was no one form of govern-
ment in the early Church is really based on the phenomena that
elders are not mentioned in the important corporate act taken by the
great Church at Antioch (Acts 13: 1 ff.). The position of Streeter
ih valid against Dr. Hodge's conception of presbyters. If the presby-
ter was primarily a teacher (or preacher), why is he not named
among those who were leading the worship in Antioch? But the
objection will not stand against the Thornwellian polity. Antioch
recognized elders as the proper governing and administrative officers
in her several contacts with the Jerusalem Church (Acts 11:30; 15),
and her missionaries elected elders to govern the Gentile churches
(Acts 14:23). Any argument e silentio is precarious. But, if
Streeter insists on an inference concerning the government at Antioch,

lu T. M. Lindsay The Church and the Ministry presents Loofs views as
given in Studien und Kritiken for 1890, p. 375.

,0 Works, Vol. IV, p. 532.

l7 Batiffol Primitive Catholicism, Longmans, Green & Co, 1911, cf. Gore The
Holy Spirit and the Church, Scribners, N. Y., 1924, pp. 13, 42, 51, 139 (note),
140, 143.

'"Moffatt The Pres. Churches, p. 13.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 73

it is more reasonable to infer from Antioch's regular recognition of
elders in her contacts with other churches that there were elders
governing and administering the Antiochian Church than to infer the
contrary. Dr. F. J. A. Hort is, therefore, on safer ground than
Canon Streeter. 19

In sifting out the question of the eldership, Thornwell took the
position "that Pastor, Bishop and Presbyter are different names of
precisely the same office." 20 He holds that the Ruling Elder is
fundamentally the Presbyter of Scripture (p. 104). The view of
his opponent seems to have been that the Presbyter of Scripture is
represented by the Presbyterian Preacher, and therefore a jus
divinum presbyterii can only be plead for the Preacher (p. 107, 108,
etc.). 21

Thornwell tries to go to the bottom of the matter. He shows that
Presbyter and Preacher were not originally interchangeable terms.
That in the synagogue the Presbyter was a ruler, tho not a preacher
(p. 117). He holds that the same was true in the early church;
"that presbyter as a title of office means a ruler and nothing more
than a ruler." "The eldership as such never includes teaching; this
is always a superadded function" (p. 119). An examination of
the correlated terms Pastor or Shepherd, Bishop, Rulers ( Rectors ) ,
etc., is made in the Septuagint, classical Greek, the New Testament,
the Fathers, the Jewish usage. Thornwell holds that Ambrose is
right (commenting on Ephesians IV p. 118) in making Pastor the
synonym of Ruler. He maintains that Bishop means what its English
transliteration implies, "overseer." Thornwell holds that episkopoi
was orginally the Greek usage for the Hebrew, zekenim, with a conno-
tation and significance from the Attic Civil administration, overseers
(p. 124-131). Thornwell's view, that the synagogue presbyter was
not a preacher, but a ruler; and that the synagogue had influence on
the Christian practices seems to be generally held by recent authori-
ties on the subject of Judaism. 22 Dr. Hatch in the Bampton Lectures

I9 Cf. Streeter, The Primitive Church, pp. 78-80; Hort. The Christian Ecclesia,
pp. 90-91.

L "'Coll. Writings, Vol. IV, p. 110.

21 Hodge, Charles, Church Polity, pp. 265, 276. Thornwell, pp. 107, 108, etc.

"Easton, B.S., A Study of the Presbyterate, The Churchman, May 2, 1931,
pp. 10-11. Gwatkins, H. M. in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I; 301
of. G. F. Moore, Judaism, Vol. I, pp. 285, 289, 305; Harnack, Law and Constitu-
tion, note p. 191 ; Hatch, The Organization of the Early Churches, pp. 57-62, 67.

74 Columbia Seminary and

distinguishes the Bishop and the Elder; but he agrees with Thorn-
well, to this extent: he regards them both as more nearly rulers
than preachers. He regards the Elder as the guardian of discipline
and conduct (p. 56), and the Bishop as the business and financial
administrator (p. 36, 46). Bishop Lightfoot, in his Essays on the
Christian Ministry, declares that government was probably the first
conception of the presbyter's office (p. 194).

Professor Burton Scott Easton, another Episcopal scholar, holds
that the Jewish presbyter was ordained to rule, and as a presbyter had
nothing to do with the actual conduct of Israel's worship. Further,
that the Christian conception of the presbyterate paralleled the Jew-
ish at every point; so that the only blessing sought for the newly or-
dained presbyter was the grace of counsel that he might "rule." 23

Even Princeton's New Testament department seems to have swung
from Hodge to Thornwell's view. Purves declares that "the elder-
ship was not primarily a teaching office. Its functions were chiefly
disciplinary and executive." 24

The whole Harnackian emphasis on the itinerant ministry tends to
put the presbyter, as of the local ministry, primarily in the place of a
ruler and not of. a preacher. In one place Thornwell seems to have
foreshadowed Harnack's view of the Lehrgabe 25 as the special pos-
session of the General Ministry. He says "that Presbyters as such
were not entitled to preach, nor Preachers as such entitled to rule,
would seem to be an obvious conclusion from the marked difference
which the Apostle repeatedly makes between the gift of teaching
and the gift of government. Rulers and Teachers are different en-
dowments with which the ascending Saviour furnished the church,
and no ingenuity of criticism can fasten the same signification upon
such terms as doctrine and government. The miraculous gifts, too,
which according to Paul (1 Cor. XIII, 8) were speedily to cease
the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge all had evident refer-
ence to the function of teaching. The extraordinary officers who
possessed these functions were certainly Teachers; and yet, from the
fact that they did not continue to adorn the church beyond the age

2 *The Churchman, May 2, 1931, pp. 10-11.

"Turves, The Apostolic Age, p. 94.

~Harnack, The Constitution and Law of the Church, pp. 23, 24, 25, 58, 59.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 75

of the Apostles, it may be safely inferred that they were not Presby-
ters." 26

Such a statement logically brings up the question of the relation
of the Minister of the Word to the Ruling Elder. Thornwell's doc-
trine is that a Presbyterian Preacher has a right to rule qua presby-
ter, not qua preacher. 27 The f.orm of government denominates the
Preacher a Presbyter, since it is "his duty ... to govern well in the
house of God." He shares with the Ruling Elder the term Presbyter
in that both are appointed to rule (p. 105). As a minister of the
Word, the rulers of the Church have oversight over the Preacher, and
he has oversight over no one (except himself). His duty is to de-
clare the whole counsel of God, and the duty of the rulers of the
church is to take care that he does this. It is only qua Presbyter that
the Preacher has rule and oversight (p. 113). Therefore Thornwell
holds "that all church authority is vested exclusively in the hands
of. Elders (Presbyters of both kinds ruling only, and ruling plus
teaching), and the right of bearing rule in the house of God is
the distinctive peculiarity of their office." Further, "that all Presby-
ters or Elders are equal and, when convened in ecclesiastical courts,
are entitled to the exercise of the same rights and privileges." "The
right of rule pertains to Ministers of the Gospel, not as Preachers but
as Elders" (p. 132). He holds that both ministers of the Word
and Ruling Elders are representatives of the people, elected by them
their "chosen rulers."

Thornwell then understands the Preacher to be one species of
the genus Presbyter. He adduces 1 Tim. 5:17 as "The Negative
Instance" to show that Presbyter and Preacher are not interchange-
able terms (p. 106, 107).

Commenting on the same text Hort affirms: "The distinction im-
plies with tolerable certainty that teaching was not a universal func-
tion of the Elders of Ephesus." 28

The specific difference which marks out the species Preacher from
that species of Presbyter which only rules is the lawful authority to
preach. Presbyter means simply a ruler, and the office of Preacher
a function superadded to the Presbyterate. The Preacher in the

2C Thornwell. Vol. IV. p. 118.

27 1 bid, p. 113.

2H The Christian Ecclesia, p. 196.

76 Columbia Seminary and

primitive church was selected from the consistory, and in the age of
Ignatius was distinguished from the Presbyters by title of Bishop;
it was owing to accidental circumstances that the Presbyters ever
came to be Preachers. "I can trace in Ignatius the Constitution of
our own church." 29 It was the specific duty of every Presbyter to
rule; but there was nothing in the nature of that office to prevent the
individual who filled it from adding to its duties the function of
public instruction. 1 Tim. 5:17 shows that some elders did in fact
preach. However, "the eldership, as such, never includes teaching:
this is always a superadded function, and it is not in consequence of
his Presbyterial authority that an Elder preaches." For obvious
reasons, the Elder who preaches would always be the Moderator, or
president of the council of. his brethren. All originally were equally
Bishops of the Church, but in the age immediately succeeding that
of the Apostles Bishop generally became restricted to the Presbyter
who preached (p. 118, 119) i. e. because he always presided over
the Presbytery. "He differed from his brethren in nothing but
the authority to preach and administer the sacraments; the dispensa-
tion of the sacraments being, in fact, only a symbolic method of
preaching, and, therefore, an exclusive function of the Preacher's
office. Filling this double function the preaching Presbyter received
double honor, a double share in the affections of the people, the
high distinction of a permanent presidency." Thornwell cites letters
of Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, and the Apostolic Constitutions to
show that preaching was the characteristic distinction of him who
received the special appellation of Bishop (p. 120 with notes).

This question of the elevation of. the episcopate out of the presby-
terate is one of the most difficult questions in Church polity. Lind-
say quotes Dr. Loofs as declaring "that we just do not know how the
threefold ministry rose out of the twofold." 30 However, much of
recent scholarship would agree that Thornwell was very near the
mark when he attributed to the superadded gifts of the Ministry of
the Word (Lehrgabe), to the administration of the sacraments, to the
permanent presidency of the parochial board of the elders, the ex-
planation of the elevation of the Bishop above his peers. It has been
noted that Thornwell remarked on the extraordinary ministry's pos-

-"Coll. Writings IV.
'"Lindsay, p. 376.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 77

sessing the gift of teaching without being rulers. In one place he
also seems to have had a passing glimpse at the connection between
the work of. Preacher and Deacon. "The Preacher shares, in com-
mon with the Deacon, the title of Minister, because both are appoint-
ed to a service, and he shares, in common with the Ruling Elder, the
title of Presbyter, since both are appointed to rule" (p. 105). By
widening the horizon, increasing the background, modern scholar-
ship has shown the significance of these fleeting glimpses and filled
in the picture. Hatch has pointed out the significance of that
eleemosynary service in which both the President and the Deacons
shared, and the part which the administration of this work had in
the origin of the office of Bishop. 31 Dr. Harnack has shown that in
time the Bishop took over from the extraordinary or "charismatic"
ministry a "superadded function" the gift of teaching. 32 In his
careful studies in the History of Christian Institutions, Dr. George La
Piana has shown that the local officers early had a certain vital spirit-
ual function the right to administer the sacraments. A doctrine of
redemption is expressed in the sacramental rites. In the absence of
the itinerant ministry the duty of administering the sacraments fell
to the presbyters, and in particular to their president. Ignatius at-
tributed the right to supervise the administration solely to the Bishop.
The spiritual power of the Bishop is thus allied with the administra-
tion of the sacraments. 33

The suggestions of the Lightfoot school (Lightfoot p. 199) that
the personal prestige and influence of individual leading Presbyters
such as James, Ignatius and Polycarp ought also be taken into any
compendium of the situation or situations; 34 as well as such factors
as the inexperience of the membership: the need for unified control
and uniformity of worship, and the dangers from persecution and
speculation which the Church was facing. 35

In regard to the Ministry of the Word, Thornwell holds this office
to be the immediate call of God. Men should not be urged to go into

31 The Organization of the Early Churches, pp. 26-55.

Z2 Law and Constitution, p. 92.

^Lectures on History of Christian Institutions Harvard University Session
1926-1927.

34 This development was neither the same nor simultaneous in different parts
of the Church.

^Note: Dr. La. Piana attributes to the desire for the simultaneous observ-
ance of Easter the carrying through of a real episcopal authority in Rome by
Bishop Victor History of Christian Institutions.

78 Columbia Seminary and

the Ministry, merely because they can give no reason for not doing
so. They ought not to go in at all unless they have the best possible
reason for doing so a definite consciousness that the Ministry is
God's call to them God's will for their lives. "The grand and ulti-
mate fact is the call of God." The proofs of this call are: (1) the
inward testimony of a man's own conscience; (2) the approbation
of the Christian people manifested through the call of some particu-
lar congregation; (3) the authorization of a divinely constituted
spiritual court, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 36

The Analogy of the Presbyterian System

Dr. Thornwell holds that the cardinal and the distinctive principle
of our polity is the government of the Church by free representative
assemblies. "Ours is a government, not by Presbyters, but by
Presbyteries." It is not in the hands of individual officers but in the
hands of officers chosen by the people, judicially convened. 37

Further, he maintains that our government embodies that principle
of checks and balances which is expressed in the bicameral charac-
ter of modern legislative assemblies (p. 63, 64). Without having
two chambers, the Presbyterian Courts observe the same principle by
having, in one court and council, two classes of representatives.
"The Ministers are a check upon the Elders, and the Elders are a
check upon the Ministers, and the higher (courts) are checks upon
the lower courts. The object of the check is to promote the dis-
covery of truth by bringing different views and different modes of
thought into collision by securing certainty of full and free discus-
sion (p. 63)." A government solely in the hands of the Ministers
creates a privileged class and the people lose their place in its gov-
ernment. A government, exclusively in the hands of the Ruling
Elders, would lean too much to popular will (p. 64). The minis-
terial habits of retirement, study, meditation on abstract and gen-
eral principles, furnish the check which the Ruling Elders need. The
double representative discourages equally ecclesiastical despotism and
popular passion. These two principles Thornwell calls the analogy
of our system (p. 67).

Thornwell, IV, The Call of the Minister, p. 11-42.
7 Vol. IV, p. 62.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 79

His description of. a Commonwealth in the State is an exact pic-
ture, in its essential features, of Presbyterian government in the
Church (p. 62). But Thornvvell is very careful to define wherein
that parallel, picture, or analogy lies. If the essential principle of
American state polity be, as Lincoln defined it at Gettysburg, "gov-
ernment of the people, for the people, by the people/' 38 Thornwell
would deny the parallel in church polity. He carefully distinguishes
the representative in his definition from the delegate (p. 98). The
delegate is the locum tenens of his principal (p. 99) . The definition
of representative is radically and essentially different therefrom. He
is a confidential agent, pursuing the dictates of his own understand-
ing and bound to act in conformity with his own convictions of right
(pp. 99-100) . He deliberates and acts for his constituency; but upon
his own personal responsibility, regardless of. their temporary whims
or caprices. Burke manifested the true ideal of a representative when
he declared to the electors of Bristol, "I did not obey your instruc-
tions; no! I conformed to the instructions of truth and nature, and
maintained your interests against your opinions, with a constancy
that became me." (Quoted page 100). Representative government
differs from a pure democracy, in being essentially a limitation upon
the people. The people choose representatives because it is not safe
for them to rule themselves. The people form a constitution to pre-
vent the accumulation of too much power in their own hands. This
constitution is the immediate source of all power to all the repre-
sentatives chosen under it. They are to obey it rather than the will
of those who elected them (p. 100). "The representatives possess
powers and discharge functions to which their constituents as a mass
can lay no claim." In the Church the representative government is
not, as in the State, even ultimately the creature of the people; it is
the direct appointment of Christ and the powers and duties of eccles-
iastical representatives are prescribed and defined in the Word of.
God, the real constitution of the Church" (p. 101 ). 39 The people
were never given any right to exercise jurisdiction or to administer
discipline. They have no right to appear in Session or Presbytery.
"The business of the people is to elect the men who give sufficient

^The first two of these phrases were used by Dr. Thomas Cooper in 1794.
Cooper was a bitter opponent of Burke. Malone, pp. 77, 49.

30 Similarly Moffatt for Godet, Gillespie, and himself. The Presbyterian
Churches, N. Y., 1928. pp. 22, 23.

80 Columbia Seminary and

evidence that they are fitted by the Spirit to fill the offices which
Christ had appointed" (p. 101). These men represent the people in
the sense that they are the choice of the people their chosen rulers.
They are not the tools of the people. They are to administer the
laws of the Saviour; and to receive no authoritative instructions but
those which have proceeded from the throne of God (p. 101) . Thus
Thornwell denies that the rights, powers, and authority of the Ruling
Elders are in any sense delegated from the people (p. 132). By
government by representative assemblies he does not mean dem-
ocracy.

In Thornwell's analogy, then, church power is conceived as in
actu primo in the Church (p. 97). But this primary power simply
vests the priesthood of believers with the choice of rules (p. 98, p.
138). Thornwell does not mean by power in actu primo that the
membership confers authority on the officer holder. He means that
office holders are in the body of the Church, and thus that all power
is potentially in the Church. The extent of the power of members
consists in their election of their chosen rulers. But power in actu
secundo, i. e. in its exercise, is in the hands of office holders (p. 97).
The part of the people is more the duty of choosing the men who give
sufficient evidence that they are fitted by the Spirit to fill the offices
Christ has appointed. They are "called by Christ through the free
choice of the people" (p. 138). The endeavor of the people is not
that their opinions be maintained by their officers, but that God's
will be done (p. 163). Their selection of their officers is, funda-
mentally, a ratification of God's choice as He has manifested that
choice in spiritual gifts. The fact that the people are allowed to
make this choice is more a manifestation of God's confidence in them
than of. their inherent powers.

Starting from different presuppositions, and studying the subject
purely as a historical problem, a group of modern scholars have ar-
rived at positions similar to Dr. Thornwell on this point. Sohm's
theory as presented by Dr. Harnack is that "election (by the people)
is nothing but a testimony to the presence of the charismata; i. e.
election simply confirms and makes plain to everyone the choice
really brought about by God." 40

40 The Constitution and Law of the Church, pp. 197, cf. 209 note, 224, 226, cf.
Harnack (ibid), p. 241.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 81

Dr. George La Piana points out that, as the matter lay in the
consciousness of the Church, the government of the Church was not
a democracy ; but a pneumatocracy not a government by the people,
but a government by "the Spirit." This government lacked the
fundamental requirement of democracy, namely the delegation of
powers from the people to their officers. In a democracy the ulti-
mate source of authority is in the people. They delegate their author-
ity to chosen individuals, which act is a real investiture of authority
to govern. But, according to the theology of the Christian Church,
authority is religious; the Spirit ruled the Church; officers received
their authority from above. 41

That the people are privileged to discern and to declare those
whom God has chosen is a certain seal to the priesthood of believ-
ers; not democracy's right to name her spokesmen. Elders are rep-
resentatives of the people, but delegates of God (p. 138). Their
choice 42 is not so much a citizen's rule as it is a Christian's obedience
to God's will; not only a right, but also duty; not so much a power
as a privilege. As a balance, however, it is emphatically stated that
every officer is a minister, given by God, to minister to the Church.
The officers exist for the Church not the Church for the officers
(p. 19). 42b

The Headship of Christ

It will be seen that in this analogy Thornwell is most zealous for
the place and authority of Christ. To say the least, it was a proper
Providence that, in the organization of that communion which em-
bodies Thornwell's polity, the distinctive slogan was declared to be
the Headship of Christ.

In the organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church this
slogan had primary reference to the disentanglement of the Church
from political matters the non-secularization of the Church. And
in this primary matter it should be said that Thornwell was no op-
portunist. His positions in regard to the Church's keeping free from
matters of State and other secular movements were maintained

"Lectures on the History of Christian Institutions, Harvard University Ses-
sion 1926-1927.

4 "Cf. Alexander's Digest, Revised 1922, p. 102, section 222.

,L ' b Cf. Doumergue. Jean Calvin, Vol. V, Lausanne, 1917, pp. 156-163.

82 Columbia Seminary and

previously to 1861 on the floor of the Old School Assembly, as has
been shown. 43

Dr. Palmer, in his Life and Letters of Thornwell, narrates Thorn-
well's opposition to a paper introduced into the 1859 Assembly com-
mending the African colonization scheme. Sitting next to Thornwell,
Palmer aroused him from a doze and whispered the occasion to him.
Thornwell presented his views as follows: "The Church is exclusively
a spiritual organization, and possesses only a spiritual power. Her
business is with the salvation of men; and she has no mission to
care for the things or to become entangled with the kingdom and
policy of this world." Our beloved Zion stands "the beauty of the
land"; because the only voice she utters is the Word of God; because
no word is heard in her councils but His. "Let our Church lend her-
self, in the name of the Lord and in her own proper sphere, to her
own mission, and her enemies will never rejoice over trophies won
from her. The salt that is to save this country is the Church of.
Christ, a church that does not mix up with any political Party or any
issue aside from her direct mission." 44 The same principles are
maintained at length in his article on the Relation of the Church
to Slavery, published in his Collected Writings p. 381 ff; and first
written as a report to the Synod of S. C. 1851.

Whatever may be thought of Thornwell's position in regard to
the relation of Church and State, he must be credited with consistency
therein. When Thornwell led the Southern Presbyterians in a new
organization as a protest against the Old Assembly's decree of loyalty
to the Washington government, he was simply acting according to
his stated convictions and convictions which he had helped write
\ into the legislative acts of former Old School Assemblies. 45

The Headship of Christ receives repeated and emphatic statement
in the polity of James Henley Thorn well. - 45b

v First, the sole Headship and Kingship of Christ is set over against
any allegiance due by the Church to any State or government. The
Southern organization flung again to the breezes the Blue Banner
with the inscription "For Christ's Crown and Covenant." "The

"Minutes of General Assembly Presbyterian Church in U. S. A., Vol. XII,
1848, pp. 58, 59. Minutes of General Assembly 1845, pp. 16, 17, 18.

"Palmer, Life and Letters of James H. Thornwell, p. 437, cf. Thornwell's
Collected Writings, Vol. IV, pp. 472-478.

'"'Assembly 1845, Minutes, pp. 16-18; Assembly 1848, Minutes, pp. 58-59.

,r ' b Cf. Doumergue, "Toujours la Christocratie," p. 38.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 83

Church and the State" are as planets moving in different orbits and
unless each is confined to its own track the consequences may be
as disastrous in the moral world as a collision of different spheres
in the world of matter." 46

^ Secondly, the material principle, answering to this formal
principle, is the spirituality of the Church. She is to recognize the
headship of Christ by confining her sphere of labour to those things
which He has commissioned her to do, i. e. preach the gospel of free
salvation through His atonement; edify His body the Church; wit-
ness for the truth; take order for the extension of the Kingdom into
all the world. She is to have no connection with political or moral
voluntary societies. 47

* Thirdly, the Headship of. Christ is maintained by the proclamation
of the Scriptures as the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice.
The Bible is the law of the Church. The Church is to declare and
minister Christ's law. She can make no requirement binding the
conscience of men without a scriptural warrant, explicit or implied
(p. 163). The Christian presbyters should legislate only in the sense
in which the Jewish presbyters legislated "they interpreted the Law
of God." 48

i Fourthly, the Headship of Christ is recognized in the endeavor to
ascertain and conform to de pure divino church polity. The Scrip-
tures are made the Constitution of the Church. Thornwell main-
tains that the polity of the Church in its regulative and in its con-
stitutive principles is there revealed (p. 252). He professes to
find there his organic and his architectonic principles; and to con-
fine the discretionary power to "the circumstantials of commanded
things" (p. 259). Beyond this he held, with Dr. Cunningham of
Edinburgh, that nothing should be introduced into the government
and worship of the Church, unless a positive warrant for it could be
found in Scripture (p. 249). On this ground Thornwell contended
against the Board organization of the "Old School" Church, and ad-
vocated Executive Committees in lieu thereof. Committees he held
were circumstances common to parliamentary bodies and indispensa-

l6 Thornwell, IV. p. 449.

'Ibid, pp. 472-478.

,8 Easton, The Churchman. May 2, 1931, p. 10.

84 Columbia Seminary and

ble to their orderly and efficient conduct of business. Boards, as
then organized, he considered unwarranted. 49

"The Church in all her operations, both at home and abroad,
must act not indirectly through great Boards which can never meet,
and which constitute only a barrier between her and her work, but
directly through Executive Committees small enough to meet often
and actually to do what is committed to them." 50

This Thornwellian doctrine resulted in the modification of the
Boards in the Old School Assembly; 51 and in the substitution of
Executive Committees, directly accountable to the General Assem-
bly, for Church Boards in the Southern Presbyterian Assembly. 52

Fifthly, the doctrine of the Headship of Christ in Presbyterian
Polity was given a vitality, which is sometimes lacking, by the recog-
nition that all the officers of. the Church in their positions, rights,
powers, authority, empowering gifts, equipment, are the immediate
appointment and institution of Christ. 53 The chosen rulers are those
whom He has called, and equipped with His Holy Spirit and given
to the Church to minister unto her. They are delegates of Christ
not delegates of the people. This capstone rounds out the polity,
putting in a vital touch by giving each officer the loftiest sense of
his high calling in Christ.

Dr. J. B. Adger, in his article entitled Memorial of James Henley
Thornwell, D.D., LL. D., names nine particular positions of Dr.
Thornwell on Polity. 54a All of these nine have been covered in our
previous discussion, except the following:

"4. That the deacon is not to be connected with the lowest
church court merely, but may be employed by the upper courts
to keep the charge of all their pecuniary and other secular af-
fairs."

"7. That giving of our substance is an act of worship to
Almighty God."

"8. In respect to church discipline, etc."

40 Vol. IV, p. 237.

r, "Adger, Memorial to J. H. Thornwell. Semi-Centennial, p. 192.

"Minutes of Assembly of 1860, p. 46. Thornwell. Vol. IV, p. 239.

""Alexander's Digest, Revised 1922, p. 169. The Southern Assembly of 1927
modified this direct mode of action by its new Assembly's Work Committee,
Minutes 1927, pp. 28, 32. 134. The dissolution of "The Committee of Forty-
Four" by the Assembly of 1931 was a return to Thornwell's principle.

r,a Thornwe]l, Vol. IV, p. 132.

c1 Semi-Centennial of C. T. S.. p. 192.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 85

"9. I may add that Dr. Thornwell held distinctly to Calvin's
peculiar doctrine of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism, and that
he showed indisputably that the Church of Rome has corrupted
the one as well as the other" (pp. 192, 193).

Of these four, the mere statement of that one numbered seven
would seem to be sufficient, while the one numbered eight will be
taken up in the study of the Book of Discipline. The two questions
of the diaconate and the sacraments remain to be discussed. These
subjects of Thorn wellian Polity have to be studied mainly from the
writings of his colleagues and disciples, Drs. Girardeau and Adger;
since Thorn well's views on these subjects have not been fully elab-
orated in his own writings. 54b

The Diaconate, a Thornwellian Principle Elaborated by
Dr. J. L. Girardeau.

Dr. Girardeau develops the doctrine of the diaconate in a series
of articles published in the Southern Presbyterian Review from 1879.
to 1881. 55 In the first article the relation to the presbyterate is defin-
ed. 56 Dr. Girardeau starts with the assumptions that the office
of deacon was instituted by Christ (p. 2) ; that it is perpetual; that
its function is not preaching, but distribution; that its ends are tem-
poral in contra-distinction from spiritual ; that election is by the
people (p. 2) ; that ordination thereto is by the congregational pres-
bytery with prayer and the imposition of hands (p. 3). He holds that
the presbyterate and diaconate are the two orders of the ministry;
that the one terminates on persons and the other on ecclesiastical
goods; the one has to do with the cure of souls, the other with the
care of the bodies (pp. 4, 5) . He maintains, at length, that the higher
office does not regularly include the lower office (p. 5 ff). Among
the inferences from this position are: that the Minister of the Word
is not ex-officio moderator of the board of deacons; that the Dea-
con's Courts are invalid; that where the proper duties of deacons are
to be discharged the deacon ought to be assigned to their perform-
ance and not the presbyter (pp. 24, 25).

The Scope of the Deacon s Functions is dealt with in a second ar-
ticle. The primary work of the deacon is the care of the poor;

" >,b Cf. However on the Diaconate. ThornwelVs Coll. Writings, Vol. IV, pp.
154, 155, 199, 200. 201.
"Vol. XXX, XXXI. XXXII.
no Vol. XXX, p. 1-31.

86 Columbia Seminary and

construed as the poor of the church, Christian strangers, the poor
of the world (pp. 117, 137). 57

Not only the care of the poor but "the management of all eccle-
siastical goods and property ought to be committed to the deacons,
as officers of Christ's appointment " (p. 137). This position is ar-
gued on the basis of "certain great undisputed principles" (138), to-
wit: that Christ is the sole Prophet whose instructions the Church is
to obey; that He has left none of the real wants of the Church un-
supplied; that she has a temporal as well as a spiritual side; that
without warrant from His word no office can be introduced into the
Church (p. 138). Thus, reasoning from the analogy of the deacon's
office as related to the temporal relief of the poor, contemplating its
very genius and spirit, he holds it to be a legitimate inference that
whatever other functions of a temporal character are to be per-
formed for the benefit of the Church should be imposed likewise
upon him who was designated and known as the temporal officer
(p. 142). Dr. Girardeau's case for committing all the temporalities
to the deacons can be strengthened by the consideration that the care
for the poor and the strangers almost covered "the temporalities" of
the early church. 58

Inferences from this conclusion are that the appointment of trus-
tees (other than the ordained deacons) is unwarranted (p. 139).
Deacons ought to be used to collect benevolent offerings of the con-
gregation; both those regularly given at the Church worship, and
those collected from individual donors, e. g. for the support of a
Theological Seminary (pp. 153-155).

A third article stresses The Importance of the Office of Deacon.
Girardeau affirms that, in the discussion of the Board question in
the Old School Assembly, "Dr. Thornwell took very strong ground in
regard to the employment of deacons in connection with the execu-
tive agencies charged with the prosecution of the benevolent enter-
prises of the church." 59

The importance of the office in meeting the needs of the poor is
magnified. "Jesus still walks in this vale of tears as personated by

"Vol. XXXI, pp. 117-160.

5S Cf. Hatch, The Organization of the Early Churches. Bampton Lectures of
1880, pp. 32-36, Fifth Ed. London, 1895. "Charity was of the essence of the
Christian Associations. The eleemosynary element was very prominent," p. 36.

rn S. P. R. Vol. XXXII, p. 6.

Cf. Doumergue, p. 62. The need of the poor is a function in alienable from
the Church.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 87

His poor and needy brethren" (p. 8). Those shod with the sandals
of diaconal service are urged to hasten their charities (p. 10). "The
rich and the poor are harmonized upon the diaconate. It is the di-
vinely erected breakwater against the irruption of agrarianism, com-
munism, and every kind of leveling theory, against the 'peace and
order of the Christian commonwealth' " (p. 11).

The purpose of the article is that the office should not be limited
to this primary function. They should see to the support of the
ministry (p. 28) ; promote benevolent enterprises and institutions,
e. g. Foreign Missions (p. 20) ; and their functions ought not to be
confined to a single congregation. 00 The deacon, as an officer of
the church, ought to be used by the hgher courts to care for the tem-
poral interests of the Church at large (p. 191). This position is
argued from Scriptures (pp. 191-195 ) ; from the analogy of the Pres-
byterian System (pp. 195-199) ; from "the actual practice of our
Church" (pp. 199-203) ; from testimonies from R. J. Breckenridge
and J. H. Thornwell. 01

The summation of the discussion on the diaconate includes the
doctrine that deacons ought to perform all diaconal functions; that
boards of trustees, having ecclesiastical business of. a purely financial
character to manage, should consist only of deacons, e. g. the
Board of Trustees of the General Assembly, of the Committee of Ed-
ucation, of Publication, of Home and Foreign Missions; that dea-
cons should perform the diaconal functions of executive committees
of Synods and Presbyteries, and of Boards of Directors of theolog-
ical seminaries. 62

Dr. Girardeau made a strong effort to give a worthwhile place
and work to an office which, as Dr. George La Piana has well said,
has seldom been regarded in any branch of the Christian Church as of
permanent importance. Girardeau closes one of. his articles with a
touching appeal to the Great Exemplar:

"It is a striking fact that the Lord Jesus, in His sojourn on earth,
did not occupy the outward seat of the ruler He condescended to
appear as a prisoner at the bar of the eldership of His own visible
Church. But, as the great Deacon of Israel, He declared that He

3 Vol. XXXI. p. 191.

'Collected Writings, Vol. IV. pp. 154. 155. 199, 200. 201, 204, 206.

2 S. P. R., Vol. XXXI, pp. 208-209. Cf. Palmer, Life of Thornwell, p. 230.

88 Columbia Seminary and

came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; and illustrated the
noble unselfishness of that utterance by the untiring dispensation of
healing to the suffering bodies of men. Having closed His won-
drous mission of beneficence to the poor diseased body, it is affect-
ing to contemplate Him, entitled, as He was, to the submission and
homage of a prostrate universe, bearing a towel and a basin, the
symbols of a servant. Him, before Whom every knee shall bow in
heaven, earth and hell, bending His knee and washing His disciples'
feet. In the discharge of their peculiar duties it will be glory to
deacons to walk in His footsteps, and imitate His example of com-
passionate ministration to the temporal wants of men." 63

A comparison of the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian
Church in the U. S. with the Book of Church Order of the Presby-
terian Church, U. S. A., shows that the labors of Dr. Girardeau in
reference to the diaconate have not been in vain. The care of all
the temporalities of the Church, collecting and distributing funds,
care of the property, as well as the care of the poor, is committed
by the Southern Church to the deacons. The deacons may be ap-
pointed by the higher courts to serve on committees, as trustees of
any fund held by any court, and may devise plans of church
finance. 64 Like the elders, they are ordained in the Southern Church
by prayer and the imposition of hwds. Q5 They elect their own
Chairman of their number, 66 and receive the Pastor as an advisory
member, not as ex-officio Chairman. 67

In the Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church in the
U. S. A. 68 the temporalities may be entrusted to the deacons; in prac-
tice they generally are entrusted to a distinct board of Trustees; 69
the pastor is ex-officio moderator of the Board of Deacons (Ibid
sect. 3) ; ordination is only by prayer; 70 higher judicatories make
no provision for deacons.

68 S. P. R., XXXI, p. 28.

M The Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Revised
Edition, 1925, Richmond, Va..' Pres. C. of Publ., pp. 21, 22.

^Paragraph 48, p. 33.

""Paragraph 148, p. 80.

"'Paragraph 47, p. 22.

m The Constitution of the Pres. Ch. of U. S. A., Philadelphia Pres. Bd. of
Publ. 1921.

""Chapter XXV, section 6, p. 396.

'"Chapter XIII, section IV, p. 373.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 89

The Book of Church Order

The first Southern Assembly simply adopted the Constitution of
the Presbyterian Church in the United States, in which was specif-
ically included the Form of Government and the Book of Discipline,
only substituting the term "Confederate States" for "United States."
The resolutions to this effect were presented by Dr. Thornwell, and
the motion made by Dr. Leland. 71 But even the brief alterations
in the Constitution made by the Augusta Assembly necessitated a
new edition of the book, and this necessity occasioned the appoint-
ment of a committee to revise the Form of. Government and the Book
of Discipline. 72 This committee consisted of: J. H. Thornwell, D.D.;
R. L. Dabney, D.D.; B M. Smith, D.D.; J. B. Adger, D.D., and E. T.
Baird, D.D.; Ministers; with Ruling Elders W. P. Webb, T. C. Per-
rin, W. L. Mitchell, Job Johnson, and (on motion of Dr. Thornwell)
Judge Shepherd. 73

A historical sketch of the work of this committee states that Dr.
Thornwell was made chairman of the committee, because he had
been chairman of a committe of the Old School Assembly on the
Revision of the Book of Discipline. 74

Death made sad inroads into the committee appointed by the
Augusta Assembly, and the committee was re-constituted at the As-
sembly of 1863. Dr. John B. Adger was unanimously presented to
the Assembly for chairman of this important committee, 75 and with
the same unanimity W. P. Finley, Esq. and Rev. B. M. Palmer were
nominated to fill other vacancies (pp. 151, 152). Dr. Adger's ac-
count of the proceedings in regard to the Book of Church Order
shows that many brethren were invited to meet with the committee
and make suggestions privately to the committee, both before and at
the Memphis (1866) Assembly; that in this way five hundred emen-
dations were made; and that there was comparative unanimity when
the reported Book was scrutinized by the Assembly. 76 Dr. Adger's
summary and defense of this first proposed form of government is
as follows: 77

"'^Minutes Assembly of the Pres. Church (C. S. A.), p. 7.

12 Minutes, 1861, pp. 7, 39, 10.

Ti Ibid, pp. 10, 11.

T4 5. P. R., 1867, p. 115, cf. Assembly of I860 (Old School), p. 18, etc.

"'Minutes, pp. 123, 127, 151, 152.

S. P. R., July, 1867, pp. 116, 117, cf. Minutes, 1866, p. 37.

"S. P. R., July, 1867. p. 117.

90 Columbia Seminary and

The Proposed Form of Government.

"Taking up this part of the report, to examine it a little in detail,
we notice that the whole of chapter I of the present Form is omitted.
Dr. Baird said well, the reason of this omission was that the chap-
ter was nothing but 'an apology for our being Presbyterians'. More-
over, whoever will look carefully and candidly at this chapter must
discover that it smacks in sundry places very disagreeably of Con-
gregationalism, and also that the principles of value which it does
hold forth, are all contained in the other parts of the Form.

"The first chapter of the proposed Form presents us with a state-
ment of the doctrine of church government, under five heads, which
appears to exhaust the whole of it. The various paragraphs of this
. chapter give precise definitions of each of these five heads, viz :
1. The Church; 2. Its members; 3. Its officers; 4. Its courts;
5. Its orders.

"The second chapter gives us, in four sections, our Presbyterian
doctrine, in full, respecting the first of these heads. From the West-
minster Form is borrowed that sublime scriptural statement of the
kingship and headship of Christ. The jus divinum presbyterii is dis-
tinctly declared. The Church, considered in the threefold aspect of
universal, denominational, and particular, is defined. Church power
is set forth according to its nature and limitations as presented in
the Scriptures. And the congregation (as the proposed Form uni-
formly styles a particular church, for the sake of distinctness) is
fully set forth.

"The third chapter, we think, will strongly commend itself to the
Church generally, for the manner in which it deals with the little
ones of. the flock.

"The fourth chapter treats in full of teaching elders or ministers
of the Word, whose office is the first in the Church, both for dig-
nity and usefulness; of ruling elders, who are (as well as ministers)
true scriptural presbyters; and of deacons, whose jurisdiction is not
over persons, but only over things, w T ho are not charged with the
government of the church or the care of souls, but of ecclesiastical
goods and tables, viz., the table of the Lord, of the minister, and of
the poor. It is a common impression with those not well acquainted
with these subjects that to serve the communicants with the bread
and the wine is the business only of the elders. In fact, many sup-

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 91

pose that is the chiefest part of. their service. On the contrary, it
is no part whatever of the elder's office, as such. To the minister
alone belongs the administration of the sacraments. Any hand may
pass the bread or the wine after they are delivered to the communi-
cants by the minister. In the Church of Scotland, elders and dea-
cons both assist at the table, as Pardovan tells us, Book I, Title VIII;
Book II, Title IV.

"We do not understand the proposed Form as exclusively affix-
ing this service to the office of the deacon. We should oppose any
such view of the diaconate. But we believe that deacons may serve
the Lord's table as well as the other two tables named. And we like
any measure that will help to set before the Church her teaching
elders and her ruling elders in their true positions the former
charged with that highest of all offices preaching both in the word
and in the sacraments; and the latter charged with ruling the Church,
and not with serving tables any more than the other class of pres-
byters.

"The appointment by the sessions of godly women to the diaconal
functions is allowed under the proposed Form. We rejoice at it.
Protestants greatly need such an institution. The Scriptures, we be-
lieve, call for it.

"The fifth chapter treats of the courts of the Church. The pro-
posed Form defines the quorum so that the presence of both classes
of elders is necessary in every court. We believe this is right. It
accords with the genius and spirit of our whole system. At the
same time, let it be observed that no one could maintain that the
proceedings of any court would necessarily be invalidated in any
case where the ruling elders might all be absent. The definition of
the quorum is designed merely to set forth what is needful to con-
stitute a regular Church court, but irregularity and invalidity are not
the same thing.

"The proposed Form adopts very fully the idea of ecclesiastical
commissions, with certain wise and wholesome limitations. We be-
lieve our Church is prepared to adopt very cordially this feature of
the proposed Form.

"There are sundry minor regulations proposed in this chapter
from the arrangements of the present Form, which will commend
themselves to our brethren.

92 Columbia Seminary and

"The same may be said of chapter six, which relates to orders.
We have observed nothing in this chapter which we suppose can
rouse any opposition, except the imposition of hands by the session
in the ordination of. ruling elders. But the proposed Form sets forth
ordination in its true scriptural light as the act of a church court,
and it also sets forth the church court in its true scriptural light
as composed always of presbyters of two classes. All the rest is
just a matter of logic. We feel confident that the necessary con-
clusion will be admitted generally, and the Church will agree that
the ordination of ruling elders ought to be by the session. Even
deacons were ordained with imposition of hands by the apostles;
and why should this ceremony be omitted in the case of elders?
Moreover, our doctrine on this subject is not that of Rome. We do
not make orders in any sense a sacrament. It does not belong to
ministers as such. It always is an act of government by the rulers
of the Church.

"The proposed Form closes with such provision for changes in the
constitution of the Church as we must say appears to us wise and
reasonable and safe."

Dr. Girardeau, writing in the Southern Presbyterian Review of.
January, 1878, thus characterized the proposed revision: "This lan-
guage of the first revision of the Form of Government sent down to
the Presbyteries from Memphis in 1866 presents a rather different
phase of Presbyterianism from that which has been commonly held
in the Church, and also from that set forth in the old Form of Gov-
ernment. It was owing in large part, we apprehend, to the influence
of Dr. Thornwell that such language was employed and such a prop-
osition was affirmed in the Memphis revision. 78

The Assembly of 1866 sent down the proposed Form of Govern-
ment to the Presbyteries for their adoption. 79 A canvass of the re-
port on the Presbyteries by the Assembly of. 1867 showed that the
proposed Book of Order failed of adoption by the requisite number
of Presbyteries. 80 Dr. Stuart Robinson declares that the matter was
delayed, pending the admission of the Synods of Kentucky and Mis-

7S S. P. R., Vol. XXIX, p. 128-129.
'"Minutes, 1866, p. 37.
"'Minutes, 1867, pp. 134. 149.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 93

souri, that they might vote on the revision. 81 The question came up
again by overtures to the Assembly of 1869 (pp. 375, 377, 378), and
a special committee, with the help of members of the old commit-
tee and the officials of the Assembly, submitted a report on the same
which was sent down to the Presbyteries. 82 In view of the divided
vote of the Presbyteries on this Book, the whole subject was re-
committed "to the original committee on Revision" by the Assem-
bly of 1870. 83 Dr. J. B. Adger, as chairman of this committee, re-
ported to the Assembly of 1871, and the committee was continued. 84
The following year the subject of the Form of Government was over-
shadowed by interest in the Rules of Discipline; 8 ' 3 and, in the un-
settled state of the times, 86 the next Assembly committed the proposed
Book of Church Order to the Archives of the Assembly. 87 The As-
sembly of 1876 took the matter out of the Archives and sent the re-
vised Book down to the Presbyteries. In the Assembly of 1877 88
a new committee was appointed with Dr. George D. Armstrong,
Chairman, and Dr. Adger, second-named member. This committee
presented a plan 89 whereby the Book, as a whole, was separated from
minor disputes which had arisen over particular emendations (pp.
424-426) . The Assembly endeavored to embody changes for which a
majority of the Presbyteries had expressed preference; to designate
disputed points for particular presbyterial action ; to ask approval
of the Revised Book as a whole (p. 430). The final committee to
prepare the Book for presentation to the Presbyteries was: J. B.
Adger, D.D.; B.M. Palmer, D.D.; George D. Armstrong, D.D.; J. L.
Marye, D. C. Anderson. Certain amendments were adopted by the
Presbyteries that year, and a new publication, with the amendments
embodied, made. 90 The Assembly of 1879 again appointed Dr.
Adger chairman of its committee on the Revised Book; 91 while among
others associated with him was Dr. T. E. Peck of Union Seminarv, an-

81 S. P. R., XXV, p. 123.

"'Minutes, 1869, pp. 378. 385. 388. 396.

^Minutes, 1870, pp. 518. 519.

^Minutes, 1871. p. 9.

^Minutes, 1872. pp. 164-166. 218.

m S. P. R., XXX, p. 124.

^'Minutes, 1873. p. 329.

^Minutes, 1876. p. 239, 241.

^Minutes, 1877, p. 406.

^Minutes, 1877. p. 430.

^Minutes, 1879. p. 9.

94 Columbia Seminary and

other disciple of Dr. Thornwell. On the report of this committee the
new book of Church Order was declared to be the law of the Church. 92
Certain details yet remained to be ironed out, and the revision com-
mittee was revived with the following members : J. B. Adger, Chair-
man; B. M. Palmer, G. D. Armstrong, Stuart Robinson, T. E. Peck,
James Woodrow, H. A. Lefevre, Thomas Thompson, W. W. Henry. 93

The traditions of the Seminary, authenticated by Dr. Melton Clark,
a member of the Faculty and the son-in-law of Dr. James Woodrow,
are that the Book of Church Order was put into shape in the Old
Chapel of Columbia Theological Seminary, under the direction of
Dr. J. B. Adger as Chairman of the committee, and with Dr. James
Woodrow acting as secretary and doing much of the actual work.
The Old Chapel was one of the buildings bought with the Columbia
grounds. It was originally a carriage house. 94 Perhaps the license
will be allowed, of recalling, in this connection, that the Book of
Church Order for a Church which glories to acclaim Him alone
as King who was cradled in a manger, was composed in a house
built for a carriage-stable.

The Rules of Discipline.

Dr. J. B. Adger summarizes the distinctively Thornwellian prin-
ciples of discipline thus:

"In respect to church discipline, that an offense, the proper object
of that discipline, is nothing but what the Word of God condemns
as sinful; that in appellate jurisdiction our courts must not be treated
as parties; and that baptized, non-communicating members of the
Church are not to be subject to technical discipline." 95

A glance at Thornwell's writings on the subject of discipline
amply vindicates this summary of Dr. Adger's. 96 Another point
which Thornwell holds to have been implicit in the Old Book, but
which he proposed more explicitly in the New Book, was "the right

^-Minutes, 1879, p. 17.

^Minutes, 1879, p. 55.

"'Archives, Vol. II, pp. 971, 972.

M 'Semi-Cent ennial of C. T. S., p. 192. Thornwell Collected Writings, Vol. IV,
pp. 299-375, especially p. 310 ff, 315 ff, 325 ff.

"In addition to references above Vol. IV, p. 337 ff for infant membership;
p. 364 for the standard of offenses; p. 315 ff and 374 ff for parties in appellate
jurisdiction.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 95

of inquest." 97 He held that "every church court has the inherent
right to demand and receive satisfactory explanations from any of
its members," since "the church courts are the spiritual guardians of
the people" (p. 304). Scandalous reports concerning a member
are an injury to him, and to his Church. The church court should
institute inquiry in such a case and declare the report either true
or false (pp. 371, 372). The Assembly of 1835 recognized the right
of every Presbytery to be entirely satisfied of the soundness in the
faith and the good character in every respect of ministers applying
for admittance. The New Book would apply this principle to mem-
bers as well as ministers, to morals as well as heresy. 98

Dr. Thornwell strove to work out these principles and simplify
the procedure of the Old Book of Discipline under appointment of
the Old School Assembly. As chairman of the committee 99 on this
subject, he submitted a revised Book of Discipline to the Assembly
of 1859. 100 The matter was recommitted to the same committee to
report at the following Assembly (p. 546) . The next Assembly again
took up and re-committed the matter. 101 The illness and absence of
Dr. Thornwell in Europe and the disturbed state of the country pre-
vented any further action the ensuing year. 101 ' The war and the
question of reunion with the New School Church seems to have
prevented the Thornwellian revision from becoming permanent in
the Northern Church. 103

The revision of the Book of Discipline, together with the revision
of the Form of Government, was committed by the Augusta Assem-
bly to a committee of. which, because of his previous work on this
subject, Dr. Thornwell was made chairman. 104 The checkered ca-
reer of this committee has been narrated, in part, in the previous sec-
tion. Dr. Adger presented a report on the revision of the Book of
Discipline to the Assembly of 1872. 105 This book was ordered pub-
lished (p. 172), and sent down to the Presbyteries. While desig-

97 Vol. IV, pp. 371 ff, 304.

9s Vol. IV, pp. 372, 373. Minutes Assembly 1835. pp. 27, 28.

^Minutes of Assembly 1859. p. 516.

100 Minutes, pp. 516, 521.

101 Minutes, 1860, pp. 18, 87, 55.

102 Minutes, 1861, pp. 301, 307.

103 Stuart Robinson in S. P. R., Jan., 1879, p. 122

1( *Minutes Southern Assembly of 1861, p. 10.

^Minutes, 1872. p. 155.

96 Columbia Seminary and

nated in some places, The Book of Discipline, it seems to have been
more exactly named The Rules of Discipline. 106 A divided vote of
the Presbyteries and "the continued unsettled state of things" con-
signed these Rules of Discipline to the Archives of the Assembly. 107

The question of the Book of Discipline thereafter was considered
with the question of the Form of Government, and by the Assembly
of 1876 sent down to the Presbyteries. 108 "The Assembly of 1877
adopted the method of sending down to the Presbyteries that portion,
both of the Form of Government and the Rules of Discipline, about
which there seemed to be little difference of opinion; and, for a
separate vote, some eight propositions, two of them alternative prop-
ositions, to be voted upon separately by the presbyters.'' 109 The
minutes of 1878 showed, by a tabulation, the approval by a large
majority of the Presbyteries of the more important proposals in the
Revised Book of Discipline; 110 but "the book as a whole" failed
of the requisite votes. The Assembly of 1879 declared the new
Book of Church Order, including the Rules of Discipline, to be the
law of the church. 111

According to Dr. Stuart Robinson's account, the subject of re-
vision was followed very closely by the brethren of the Northern
Church, who were simultaneously engaged in a similar work under
the guidance of such men as Dr. A. T. McGill, Dr. Wm. E. Moore,
the compiler of the New Digest; Dr. Francis L. Patton, etc. 112 For
the U. S. A. brethren, the Banner is quoted as highly evaluating the
Southern Revision:

"Radical improvements are made throughout. The doctrine
of Ecclesiastical and other commissions is developed, electors
of Church Officers sharply defined, difference between Eccle-
siastical and other Offenses stated, Judicial and Non-Judicial
Process distinguished, common fame is abolished as an accuser,

1<m Minutes, ibid, pp. 165, 172, 218, and Stuart Robinson. S. P. R.. Jan.. 1879,
p. 124.

101 Minutes, 1873, pp. 328. 329. 5. P. R., Jan., 1879, p. 125.

^Minutes, pp. 259, 241.

109 Stuart Robinson in S. P. R., Vol. XXX. p. 125. Minutes. 1877, pp. 406. 424,
426, 430.

^Minutes, 1878, pp. 639, 651.

^Minutes, 1879, p. 17, and The Book of Church Order of the Pres. Church
in U. S. as adopted by the General Assembly of 1879, Richmond, Va., Pres.
Com. of Publication, Section 141, in which The Book of Church Order is de-
clared to include The Rules of Discipline.

112 5. P. R., XXX, p. 123.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 97

and the committee of prosecution erected into an original party
with the right of appeal. Every indictment is to begin 'in the
name of the Presbyterian Church in the United States,' and con-
clude with the words, 'against the peace, unity, and purity of
the Church, and the honor and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the King and Head thereof." Provision is made for the de-
mission of the ministry and special discipline for the ministers
who have turned aside to secular callings." 113

The following tribute to the revised Book of Church Order is
quoted both from the Presbyterian Banner of Pittsburg, and from
Dr. Halsey in the Interior of Chicago (November 21, 1879 ) :

"It is Presbyterianism of the highest and purest kind in the
logical relations of all the parts of the Book, the clear state-
ment of principles and duties, and the emphasis given to the
Covenant of God and to Doctrine and Discipline as an institute
of God."

The quotation from the Banner continued that, "it is far in ad-
vance as a 'Book of Church Order' of anything that has appeared in
this country." 114

If attention be directed to the place of the ruling elder, the re-
lations of church and state, and the systematic gradations of church
courts, the typical ancestor of this Southern Presbyterian Book of
Church Order will be found to be the Second Book of Discipline of
the Church of Scotland rather than either the First Book of Dis-
cipline, or the Westminster Directory of Worship. 1Aj The consti-
tutive principles of the Second Book are attributed to Andrew Mel-
ville, who, like Thornwell. was a great Greek scholar with a high
de jure divino Presbyterianism. 116

Thornwell's Doctrine of the Sacraments

The Lord's Supper The Doctrine of John Calvin
The fullest treatment of the doctrine of the sacraments by a rep-
resentative of the Columbia theology is to be found in Adger's Life
and Times. He introduces the subject by narrating a conversation
with Dr. Thornwell. Thornwell proposed that. "I should make the

m S. P. R., XXX. pp. 127, 128.
U4 S. P. R., XXX, pp. 127-129.

n5 Sed Contra Historical Statement affixed to Book of Church Order. Rev,
Ed., 1925. Cf. Robinson, S.. The Church of God appendices.
116 Reed. History of Presbyterian Churches, p. 138.

98 The Southern Presbyterian Polity

fourth book (of. Calvin's Institutes) a text-book on the subject of
Church Polity and the sacraments, 'for,' said he, 'I do believe in
Calvin's doctrine of the sacrament.' " 117

Dr. Adger devotes almost a hundred pages of his memoirs to a
summary of the fourth book of the Institutes (pp. 232-326) . He "pro-
poses to state definitely the exact doctrine of Calvin on the Lord's
Supper" (p. 310). On this question he takes sharp issue with two
Calvinistic theologians for whom he professes great respect Dr.
Wm. Cunningham of Scotland, 118 and Dr. Charles Hodge of Prince-
ton. 119

Among those quoted as agreeing with Calvin's doctrine are R. J.
Breckenridge, 120 and John Owen. The element in Calvin's doctrine
which Adger most emphasizes is the meaning of the Incarnation:
"Calvin insists on nothing whatever except the sublime truth of life
for us in the Incarnation. There is life, of course, in the absolute
God; it is infinite and superabounding and everlasting, but not for
us. We are creatures, and cannot get access to it; we are sinners
and it is impossible for us to receive it, if we could come near to it.
And so that life of the absolute God is to us as though it were not;
nay, it is against our life, and dooms us to death forever; but the
Incarnation is a wondrous divine plan, which procures for us jus-
tification and a share in the life of God's own Son. But the life
which it procures is inseparable from itself. Not God's Son, as such,
gives it to us, but God's Son as He is in human flesh. He is not only
our representative Head, but we are likewise vitally one with Him.
He partakes of our flesh, and we partake of His spirit. His human-
ity is the connecting link between His Godhead and our manhood.
The flesh of Christ is a reservoir, full of life, constantly drawn upon
by all His people through the Holy Spirit, and by faith, which
unites us to the Saviour; and this reservoii is itself constantly replen-
ished from the everlasting spring-head. ISow, then, Calvin's doc-
trine of the Lord's supper simply is, that it holds forth and seals
to us this blessed truth. " 121a "We must be in communion with this
flow of life coming down from the very throne of God itself, or

17 Adger, pp. 231, 232.

^Theological Reformation, p. 240.

'"Biblical Repertory, 1848, p. 229. Adger, pp. 315-324.

-"Breckenridge, 'Subjective Theology, pp. 606, 607.

21 aAdger, pp. 325, 326-

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 99

else have no life in us. We must be members of His own body and
of one spirit with Him or be dead" (p. 363) . "The flesh of Christ is
become a reservoir of the water of life. . . . We must be in com-
munion with His flesh, and be members of His body, of His flesh and
His bones. . . . Calvin's idea evidently is that we, lost and dead
sinners, could never reach the infinite source of life, nor He us, ex-
cept in this one way of His coming nigh to us in flesh and making
Himself one with us, so as afterwards in the same way to make us
one with Him; that is, partaking of our nature, that He might make
us to partake of His. We must, therefore, have communion of His
life" (p. 312). . . . "He takes our flesh, and gives us His Spirit,
and so establishes a real communion of life with us through His
flesh and blood by the Holy Spirit." . . . "Our souls are fed by
communion with the life which is in His flesh." "By a sacred com-
munion of His flesh and blood, Christ transfuses life into us by faith;
and this He testifies to us and confirms to us in the Supper through
the efficacy of the Spirit, so that it is no empty sign." . . . "The
Lord puts the symbol into your hands to assure you that you really
partake of Him" (p. 313).

Dr. Hodge falls short in stating the points of our union with Christ
by neglecting to add, "that we all partake of His flesh and blood in
the sacrament" (p. 317). "The force of the sacrament is in the
words, 'Take, eat, this is My body and blood broken and shed for
you.' ' : "We are to take, because it is ours; to eat, for it is one sub-
stance with us; and it was not for Himself, but for us He took flesh
and then sacrificed it" (p. 311). "We are united to Him as mem-
bers to the head. Others say we do have some kind of communion
with Christ, but it is spiritual, and not of His flesh and blood;
whereas He says, 'My flesh is meat indeed, and that we have no life
unless we eat that flesh and drink that blood.' Here now is a mvstery
spoken by Christ, to be felt rather than understood, of which Calvin
says that he always feels that he falls below the dignity of it when-
ever he does his utmost to set it forth. 1211 *

Thus, while in Calvinistic Scotland; in Princeton, the citadel of
Old School American Calvinism; and in Union Theological Semi-

John Bufow Campbell Library

m bAdger, p. 311. Columbia Theological Seminary

Decatur, Ga. 30031

/4,6/f

100 Columbia Seminary and

nary, 122 Richmond, Va., Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's supper has
been held up as "error," "unintelligible," "blot out Calvin's teach-
ing," 123 "incongruous," 124 "impossible," 125 in Columbia it has been
and is cordially received and earnestly studied. Unquestionably, it
is the doctrine of the Scots Confession of 1560, while Dr. Adger (p.
391) and Dr. J. B. Green, of Columbia, go so far as to hold that
the Westminster Confession teaches Calvin's view. 126 A brief, but
genuinely Calvinistic, interpretation of the Lord's Supper is given
by Dr. S. L. Moiris, a Columbia alumnus, in his Presbyterianism
Principles and Practice (p. 81).

A direct study of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1559, of
course includes the doctrine which Dr. Hodge has called "the real
doctrine of the Reformed." 127 This doctrine of the sacrificial
efficacy of His body as broken and His blood as shed is found Book
IV, Chapter XVII, Sections I, III, IV, etc. Calvin says, "the body
of the Lord was once offered as a sacrifice for us, so that we may
now feed upon it, and feeding on it may experience within us the
efficacy of His body as broken and His blood as shed is found in Book
stated, "as bread and wine constitute important articles of food, and
administer strength to our feeble frame, so the atonement of Christ
is the food of the spiritual man and the source of all his activity and
vigour." 129 Another feature of the doctrine of the Institutes is
Calvin's idea of substance as force, efficacy, power, virtue. In ac-
cord with this meaning he was able to teach that believing com-
municants are made partakers of Christ's substance and experience
His power in the communication of all blessings. Calvin maintains
that 'we have a real participation of His flesh and blood by which

322 Dabney, Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic 1 '
Theology, taught in Union Theol. Seminary by R. L. Dabney. 4th Ed., pp.
810-814, Richmond, Pres. Com. of Publ., 1890. Cf. T. E. Peck, 5. P. R., Oct.,
1879. pp. 624-646.

12;! Cunningham as reported by Adger, pp. 314, 315, 316.

124 Hodge as reported by Adger, p. 317-324. Biblical Repertory. 1848, p. 252.

125 Dabney, p. 811.

12( 'So Adger, p. 321, and Charles Hodge as reported by Adger, p. 319. Cf.
Scot's Confession of Faith, Art. XXI. Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill,
p. 469. Biblical Repertory, 1848, pp. 237, 238.

327 Chas. Hodge, The Reformed Doctrine of the Lord's Supper, Biblical Reper-
tory, 1848, pp. 229; 249-252.

128 John Calvin. Institutes, Bk. IV, Ch. XVII, Sects. I and XL

]20 Thornwell, Vol. Ill, p. 299.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 101

He communicates His life to us'; and that this is not realized in a
material way, but 'by the energy of His Spirit.' 130

However, Calvin's true view is in advance of that presented by
Dr. Hodge. Dr. Adger's presentation of. Calvin's doctrine has recent-
ly received a striking confirmation in the monograph of Dr. Alex-
ander Barclay, The Protestant Doctrine of the Lord's Supper. 131

In the sacrament of His body and blood, Christ's spiritual presence
is objectively real. The significance of. this statement of Calvin's
doctrine can be more easily seen by contrasting it with the other two
representative forms of the Protestant doctrine. Luther's view is
that the Word being added, the elements are the form of Christ's
presence. The body of Christ enters the communicant orally by,
with, from, and under the bread: and imparts to the believer the Re-
deemer's blessings. Zwingli's position is the elements are the sign of
an absent Christ i. e. of the Redeemer who died on the cross nine-
teen hundred years ago. But as the believing communicant meditates
on the breaking of Christ's body the Lord is subjectively present in
his thought and imagination. "In Calvin's doctrine the elements are
the seal of a present Christ. The believing communicant enjoys a
double participation. He receives the bread in his hand (and
mouth ) ; and Christ in his heart. And the bread in his hand and
mouth is the seal or certificate that Christ is objectively present in
his heart, imparting His grace. Thus Calvin gives to the word "com-
munion" its full implication of a mutual or reciprocal action. The
minor part of this communion is the believer's meditation upon, faith
in, confession of, and gratitude to his Lord. The major part of. it is
the Lord's conveyance anew of the blessings of His redemption and
the grace of His life to the believing communicant. <

Baptism Its Matter and Its Form

It is convenient to follow Dr. Adger's grouping of Thornwell's doc-
trine of the sacrament with his view of the sacraments of the Roman
Catholic Church. The General Assembly of 1845 I Old School ) ad-
judged Roman Catholic baptism invalid. Dr. Thornwell took a
leading part in this debate, and was a member of the committee

ir,0 John Calvin. Institutes, Book IV, Ch. XVII, Sec. XI.
'""Glasgow. 1927. As vs. Dr. Hodge, cf. p. 166, etc.

102 The Southern Presbyterian Polity

which wrote the decision of the Assembly. 132 Princeton opposed the
decision; and Dr. Thorn well replied to a criticism of his position in
The Princeton Review (July, 1845). Dr. Thornwell's articles ap-
peared in the Watchman and Observer of Richmond, Va. (1846) ;
then in The Southern Presbyterian Review of July and October, 1851,
and January, 1852. They are republished in Thornwell's Collected
Writings Vol. Ill, p. 279 ff. The Southern Presbyterian Church
still adheres to the Thornwellian view of the invalidity of Roman
Catholic baptism and baptizes those who are received from that com-
munion. 133

Dr. Thornwell's argument against the validity of Roman Catholic
baptism is cast into a scholastic and peripatetic form. The question
is considered under the main heads of matter and form, and the ques-
tion of the Aristotleian causes is carefully discussed. Relying on
Aristotle's Metaphysics L. VII, CVII 1032b, he declares that form
and essence (pp. 285, 358, etc.) are equivalent expressions; 134 "the
form of a thing is that which makes it what it is, which distinguishes
it from all other beings and limits and defines our conception of its
properties." "The matter, water, is a generic term, and suggests
every other kind of ablution besides that of baptism, while the form
distinguishes this particular mode of washing from every other mode
of using this element" (p. 266).

In regard to the matter, he contends that the priest (in a full and
regular baptismal service) uses not simply water; "but water arti-
ficially corrupted" (p. 291). "It is not, notwithstanding the mix-
ture, but because of the mixture," that the water, "sanctified by oil"
is employed (pp. 292, 291). He argues: "1, that the oil destroys the
fitness of. water for the purpose of ablution, and so affects the signifi-
cance of the rite; and 2, that the mixture is not used as water, but
that peculiar stress is laid upon the foreign element" (p. 292). He

132 Minutes Assembly 1845. pp. 10, 15, 16, 34, 37. Palmer, Life and Letters
of Thornwell, pp. 285-296; Minutes, p. 16.

"'Alexander's Digest, Rev. 1922 of the Acts of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Richmond Pres. Com. of Publ., 1923, pp.
835-839.

1:,, Cf. Ross, W. D., Aristotle's Metaphysics, Oxford, 1924, pp. CI, CVI, CXT,
etc.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 103

quotes the Romanists themselves as holding the same principles when
they condemn the mixing of wine with the water of baptism. 135

The form of baptism is discussed at length (pp. 295-412) ; "That
which determines a specific ablution to be Christian baptism, which
impresses upon the matter what may be styled the sacramental form,
and which consequently constitutes its essence as a sacrament, is the
relation which it bears to the covenant of God's unchanging mercy"
(p. 297). Sacraments are regarded as signs which teach by analogy,
representing to the eye Christ as the substance of the new covenant
(p. 299). They are visible promises, pledges, seals, containing a
solemn assurance that, to those who rightly apprehend, the spiritual
good shall be as certain as the natural consequences by which it is
illustrated (pp. 301, 302). Recipients are to look beyond the visible
symbols to the personal agency of the Holy Ghost to render them
effectual (p. 302).

But on the ex opere operato system the emphasis is changed from a
regard for the agent who operates to the mode of operation (p. 305) .
The sacraments "cease to be, in the ordinary sense of the phrase,
means of grace, and become laws of grace." They are "described as
stated modes of Divine operation"' (pp. 305, 306, 309). Another
Roman Catholic view of the sacraments is that which represents
them as causes (310). The Tridentine Symbols pronounce a male-
diction upon those who deny that the sacraments contain the grace
which they signify, or that they confer that grace upon those who
place no obstacles in the way, 136 and declare that the sacraments
contain in themselves the power of effecting the sacred thing which
they declare. 137 Bellarmine is quoted, contrasting the views of
Calvin and Beza that sacraments are instrumenta justifications with
ihe Roman Catholic view that they are of causae justificationis. 138
By this change they transfer attention from the Holy Spirit to them-
selves and thus seriously modify the economy of grace (pp. 317,
318). He holds, "That Rome vitiates the form of the sacraments by
inculcating the dogma that they produce their effects ex opere oper-
ato" (p. 323).

135 P. 293 reference to De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, Lib. I, Cap. I, Art. 14
(Cap. 42), "Sunt quidam. inquit, qui miscent vinum cum aqua baptismatis,
non recte; quia Christus non jussit baptisari vino sed aqua.

130 P. 311 quoting Trident. Con. Sess., Vii, Con. VI.

137 P. 311 quoting Trident. Catechism, Pars. II, Cap. I, VIII Eng., XI Latin.

104 Columbia Seminary and

Further, according to the Council of Trent, Roman Catholic bap-
tism obligates the recipient to "all the precepts of holy Church either
written or delivered by tradition." 139 Thus it obligates the professor
to the "whole complicated system of truth and error" known as
Romanism (p. 333), to the Council of Trent and to the doctrines of
the memorable Constitution Unigenitus (p. 336), which doctrines
are, in part, inconsistent with the Gospel (p. 337) . The substance of
the Gospel is considered under the Johannine imagery of the Spirit,
interpreted as signifying the whole of experimental religion; the
Water, signifying a change of character, i. e. sanctification; and the
Blood, signifying a change of state, justification (pp. 344, 345).
Thornwell holds that the peculiarity of the Gospel is not that it
teaches justification, "but that it teaches justification by grace" (p.
347). This would exclude "all reference to our own performances,"
all inherent righteousness. Rome, holding to justification by inher-
ent righteousness, 140 has perverted the Gospel (pp. 348-351) . Legal-
ism is also brought in under the merit of congruity (p. 354) and
good works 141 (p. 355) . Another error is the teaching that Christ is
only the meritorious cause of justification instead of also the formal
cause thereof. 142 In treating of the Water, he condemns the degrada-
tion of the Supreme Being by the use of images and the adoration
of the elements (pp. 374, 375) ; the depression of the Divine Stand-
ard of holiness and the substitution of a vast system of will-worship
(p. 377) ; the fiction of the supererogatory merits (ibid).

Treating of the Spirit he shows how Augustinian views of effectual
calling have been condemned by the Vatican in the Bull, Unigenitus,
et al. (pp. 388, 389). Further he holds that "faith saves, because it
joins us to Him who is salvation, and who is able to save to the utter-
most all that come unto God through Him." . . . But Rome "knows
nothing of this mystical union with Christ," and the only efficacy she
attributes to faith is that of spiritual grace, constituting one of the
elements of the formal cause of justification. 143

,:JS Pp. 312-314 quoting Bellarmine, De Sacramentis, Lib. I, Cap. 16, Pars. 4, 5.

189 P. 332 quoting Cone. Trident. Sess., VII, Can. VIII De Baptis.

140 P. 350 quoting Bellarmine, De Jmtificat, Lib. II, C. II-IIL

1 "Quoting Council Trid. Sess., VI, cap. VI, can. IV.

wa P. 357, Bellarmine, De Justificat, Lib. V, cap. V.

148 P. 396 referring to Bellarmine, De Justificatione, Lib. I, cap. XVII and Lib.

cap. XVIII.

The Southern Presbyterian Polity 105

A wrong answer in regard to the application of redemption he
regards as "irretrievably fatal," "Christ will profit none who are
not united to Him by faith. Baptism will not save us" (p. 410).

He holds, therefore, that Roman Catholic baptism "wants the
form of the Christian ordinance, which derives its sacramental char-
acter from its relation to the covenant of grace; it is essential to it
that it signifies and seals the benefits of redemption." . . . "The
one baptism of Paul is inseparably connected with one Lord and one
faith. When the truths of the covenant are discarded, its signs lose
their efficacy and its seals their power" (p. 412).

Dr. Thornwell thus confronts a Roman Catholic Scholasticism with
a Protestant Aristotleianism. The real difference in his doctrine of
baptism from Rome's Doctrine is in the use of the Aristotleian con-
cept "form." Thornwell's usage of this term is at once more Aristot-
leian, more spiritual, and more Protestant. By discarding that Schol-
astic conception of "form" which made it a formula of words; and
returning to Aristotle's usage, "a term which expresses the sum of
those characterizing qualities which make a thing the precise thing
that it is," 144 he gave a doctrinal content to baptism in accord with
the genius of Protestantism. He made baptism "a visible word," a
manifested doctrine of redemption, a symbol and a seal of the cove-
nant of grace. He called for intellectual apprehension of covenant
truth, rather than for verbal accuracy in performing the ceremony, as
the requisite for the blessings covenanted in baptism.

"Warfield, B. B., The Person of Christ in Inter. Standard Bible Encyc., Vol.
IV. pp. 2338-2339. Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics, LVII, CVII, 1032b.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AND

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE OF THE SOUTHERN
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Missionary Spirit of the Founders.

The Society of Missionary Inquiry.

The Southern Board of Foreign Missions.

Church Extension.

Colored Evangelization.

"The Chalmers of the Disruption," Dr. J. Leighton Wilson.

A Worthy Succession.

Social Service.

"The Spirit of Missions . . . is nothing but the pure religion of
the Gospel, in its most amiable and active forms." J. L. Merrick,
"The Spirit of Missions."

The Missionary Enterprise 107

The Missionary Spirit of the Founders

An early account declares that the Seminary was the child of 1
labor, prayer and hope. The earliest records show that those charged
with the promotion of the infant cause were warm-hearted, zealous
Christians, burning with evangelistic interest, anxious for revivings
in Zion filled with "the spirit of missions." The letters of the first
paid agent of the Seminary, Rev. R. B. Cater, show that his journeys,
in behalf of funds, were at the same time evangelistic tours. Writing
in June, 1826, he speaks of the revival of religion in Beaufort and of
his joy in telling the love of Jesus. Seeing the tears of God's deeply
moved people as they come to the sacrament, he laments that his
own heart is too cold. He sorrows that so many are perishing for the
lack of knowledge when salvation is provided. He desires to see
grace prevailing, where sin abounds; and to that end, would stir the
brethren to more active and energetic interest in measures for the
extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom. He sorrowfully records evi-
dence of spiritual destitution, and writes in the full tide of revival
fervor. 2 In April, 1827, he writes of preaching five times a week,
of many resulting additions to the Church of men "asking the way to
Jesus," of "the power of the Resurrection of. Jesus." 3 Like many that
earnestly desire revivals, he characterizes those ministers who do not
seem bent on evangelistic efforts as "cold and domineering." 4 The
same attitude toward those who oppose, or are lukewarm toward the
"revivalists," appears in the minutes of the society of Missionary
Inquiry in 1832. The Presbyterian is ordered discontinued because
of the manner in which it speaks of revivals; and the Philadelphian
discontinued, in order that its place may be taken by the N. Y.
Evangelist. 5

Rev. M. H. Reid, another early financial representative of the insti-
tution, expresses the same thought in a letter to Secretary Wm. A.
McDowell, December 28, 1826. Some are interested in revivals; but
others fear the revival enthusiasm and oppose them. Mr. Reid wants
one of his own type, one who endorses revivals, "who will be instant
in season and out of season" to succeed himself at the Red River

X MS. Minutes of Synod of S. C. and Ga., Vol. I, p. 372.

'Archives, Vol. I, No. 7. pp. 29-31.

'Archives, Vol. I, No. 14.

'Archives, Vol. I. No. 7. pp. 29-31.

5 MS. Records of the Society of Missionary Inquiry, pp. 12-14.

108 Columbia Seminary and

Charge. Synod, 1830, declared it both rejoiced in revivals and be-
lieved that the still small voice of God sometimes gradually and suc-
cessfully found its way into the sinner's breast. 7

The first secretary and indefatigable worker in the cause of the
new institution, Dr. Wm. A. McDowell of. Charleston, was adjudged
so richly endowed with the spirit of missions as to be chosen by the
General Assembly of 1835, to be the Corresponding and General
Agent, Secretary, etc., of the Board of Missions; and was continued
in that position by the Old School Assembly. 8

The choice of the first professor also indicates the evangelistic
fervor in the Seminary fathers. The favorite rule for Dr. Thomas
Goulding's own guidance; and one which he continually inculcated
for the guidance of those who were young in the ministry was: Let
every sermon preached contain so much of the plan of salvation that
should a heathen come in who had never heard the gospel before, and
who should depart, never to hear it again, he could learn enough to
know what he must do to be saved. 9

The Society of Missionary Inquiry

In keeping with this circle in which the Seminary was projected,
the first regular session in a permanent location saw the birth of
the Society of Missionary Inquiry. On the twenty-fifth of January,
1831, the exercises of the Seminary were commenced in the buildings
procured by Colonel Blanding; and the first regular Seminary classes
were formed after the Andover-Princeton model. The faculty ac-
count of the Society is as follows: "The missionary feelings of James
L. Merrick, since missionary in Africa and Persia, led to the forma-
tion of the Society of Inquiry on Missions, which was organized in the
library room of the Seminary, and has since exercised a great and
salutary influence in the Seminary and in the town of Columbia."
Dr. Adger states that Mr. Merrick was a native of New England. 11

The Book of the Constitution of the Society narrates that "at the
monthly concert of prayer, being the first held in the Theological

'Archives, Vol. I, No. 8, pp. 33-35.

T MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 275.

8 Min. of Assembly, 1836. flyleaf. Minutes (Old School), 1839 flyleaf.

^Semi-Centennial, pp. 185-186.

w Mv Life and Times, Adger, p. 90.

"MS. Min. of Faculty, Vol. II. p. 24.

The Missionary Enterprise 109

Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in Columbia
(S. C.)j February 7th, 1831, at which were present, Rev. Dr. Thomas
Goulding, Rev. George Howe, James Beattie, David DeSaussure,
Francis Goulding, James L. Merrick, W. Moultrie Reid, J. Leighton
Wilson, and by invitation, Messrs. G. T. Snowden and William Shear
(citizens of Columbia I . After a free discussion of the question. 'Can
we do anything for the cause of Missions?" a motion was made by
Dr. Goulding 'That we form ourselves into a society for the purpose
of inquiring into the subject of missions.' After imploring Divine
direction and after a full expression of views on the question the
motion was unanimously carried." 12

The organization was carried out February 15th, 1831, by the
adoption of the Constitution and the election of officers. The Presi-
dents of the Society for the first three years of its life were Rev. Mr.
George Howe, 1831; Mr. J. Leighton Wilson, 1831-2; Mr. James L.
Merrick, 1832-3. The Society began correspondence with similiar
societies in sister seminaries such as Andover, Princeton, Hamilton;
with missionaries in Greece, and the Sandwich Islands. It early took
up the matter of a library and a museum. 3

J. Leighton Wilson, the first student president of the Society, gives
a large part of the credit for stimulating his own spiriutal life and
for leading him into a deep interest in missions to a correspondence
with John B. Adger. They had been college mates at Union Col-
lege, New York. Adger went to Princeton in 1830, while Wilson
studied at home a year and then entered Columbia. 14 On June 9th,
1832, Wilson writes of a visit he is expecting (at Columbia Semi-
nary) from Adger who was then on his Princeton vacation. At the
semi-centennial of. the Seminary, Wilson spoke of the deep impres-
sion of this visit. "The speaker feels that it is due to himself as well
as to this venerable father (Adger), to give utterance to the feelings
of profound gratitude which he has always felt towards him for the
kind interest he took in him when inquiring about the path of
duty; for the wise counsel he gave to him when he knew as yet
nothing of the trials and perils of the missionary life; and especially
for the heartfelt prayers that he offered to God that his young servant

12 MS. Constitution of the Society of Miss. Inquiry, p. 3.
13 MS. Records of Society of Missionary Inq., p. 1 ff.
"Memoirs of J. L. Wilson, pp. 24. 36.

110 Columbia Seminary and

might be guided into the path of duty. If the speaker ever knew
what consecration to God meant, it was while he and the venerable
father were kneeling in prayer in the foundation-room of the Semi-
nary building. To his memory, even in the deepest wilds of Africa,
that south-west corner has always been a place of peculiar sanctity." 15

Carrying out this decision was no easy matter. Wilson's father
was a respected Ruling Elder. But for a South Carolina planter's
son to go as a missionary to Africa was an unheard-of thing. On
December 18, 1832, Leighton Wilson wrote his sweetheart that his
father regarded his determination to go to Africa as a judgment
upon himself for having loved this boy too much. The opposition of
his father was so keen that Wilson expressed his relief that Miss
Jane Bayard had no parents to object. She was an orphan. 16

At his vacation Wilson returned home from this memorable de-
cision made in prayer with Adger at Columbia Theological Seminary.
His father still refused to give his consent. " 'Father,' said Leighton,
'would you be willing to go into the room and pray with me?' So
they began, 'Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'
The father could not go beyond that petition. Brought face to face
with the world-embracing affections and purposes of God, he could
not hold to any little contrary ambition of his own. Slipping his
arm around his son's shoulder, he told him he could go." 17

The Southern Board of Foreign Missions

The subject of interesting the constituency of the Seminary in
missions was early raised. A paper was read by J. Leighton Wilson,
June 27th, 1831, on the subject "What has been and what ought to
be done by the Southern Churches in behalf of Foreign Missions."
At this same meeting it was agreed that, "a member of this Society
be appointed to deliver a dissertation before this Society during the
meeting of. Synod in December next." Brother Merrick was elected
to fulfill the duty, with Brother Wilson as alternate. 18 At this time,
1831, Synod declares, "for foreign missions little has been done." 19

^Memoirs of J. L. Wilson, p. 40.

"Letters of J. L. W. in safe at Columbia Theological Seminary, Dec. 18, 1832.

"Quoted from Smith, E. W., The Desire of all Nations, p. 7.

18 MS. Records of the Society of Missionary Inquiry, pp. 3, 4.

19 MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 305.

The Missionary Enterprise 111

The manuscript minutes of Synod of 1819 report the organization
of a missionary society within the bounds of the Synod for the pur-
pose of supplying the destitute portions of the territory of Synod
with the means of grace and of providing religious instruction and
civilization to the Indians. But this society seems to have had a short
life; 20 the minutes of 1829 record the transfer of. its Foreign Missions
to the A. B. C. F. M. 21 For the reviving of missionary interest in
the Synod, this resolution to present the cause during the meeting of
the Synod undoubtedly had a part. The Society also solicited the
use of the columns of the Charleston Observer and the files of that
publication show that throughout the decade of the thirties the paper
printed contributions from the Society. 22 The same Synod during
which the Society resolved to have presented the subject of missions
witnessed the Synod's pledge to support George W. Boggs, a mis-
sionary from South Carolina, at Bombay. The Synod of 1832 de-
clared that this fact had caused the subject of foreign missions to
secure some of the attention to which it was entitled. 23

The next year saw the sailing of. J. Leighton Wilson for Africa.
Dr. Howe, discussing this at Salem Church, said: "When did our
Presbytery send its first missionary to the heathen? In 1833. He
(Wilson) went away, amid misconceptions, sneers, and bitter words
on the part of many, and but a few months ago planted his feet on
barbarian shores." Wilson spent some time in Boston and Andover 24
studying Arabic and sailed November 28, 1833. 25

The Synod of 1833 saw the organization of the Southern Board
of Missions for the purpose of furthering this cause. Dr. Thomas
Goulding, first professor in the Seminary, was chairman of the com-
mittee recommending the action. 20 On the first Board of Directors
appear the names of R. B. Cater, Dr. Goulding, George Howe,
Thomas Smyth and C. C. Jones, names indissolubly connected with
the founding of the Seminary. On the lists of honorary members of
the Southern Board of. Foreign Missions appear the names of all the

20 MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 57.

21 Ibid, p. 180.

"Files The Charleston Observer in C. T. S. Library.

23 MS. M. Synod, Vol. I, p. 329.

'^Memoirs of J. L. Wilson, p. 45.

25 Ibid, pp. 51, 53, 63.

20 MS. Minutes, Vol. I, pp. 343, 358.

112 Columbia Seminary and

early professors and leaders in the foundation of the Seminary. (The
price of honorary membership is listed as a hundred dollars for lay-
men and fifty for ministers) . 27 This Board contributed to the support
of some of the misionaries sent out by the A. B. C. F. M. The Synod
in 1836 declared that the Southern Board of F. M. was an ecclesiasti-
cal organization, and that its missionaries were under the jurisdiction
of the several Presbyteries to which they belonged, with no other rela-
tion impairing Synod's ecclesiastical authority in the same. After
the Old School New School split, the Constitution was amended
(November, 1838) so as to make the Board an auxiliary of the Board
of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church (0. S.). 28 But at
the same time fraternal and affectionate regard was expressed for the
late associates of. the A. B. C. F. M., and provision made for sending
funds so designated through the A. B. C. F. M. 29

The Secretary and moving spirit of this Southern Board was Rev.
Thomas Smyth, D.D., pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of
Charleston, South Carolina. Of his influence in inculcating the
missionary spirit, Dr. J. B. Adger says, "If the South Carolina Synod
has been, ever since 1833, peculiarly alive in some degree (but oh!
how small that degree) to the claims of the foreign mission work, I
here record, what will be generally acknowledged by those who know
best, that this has been due, through Almighty grace, in a very large
measure, to the missionary zeal of Dr. Thomas Smyth." 30 Dr. Smyth
was an alumnus of Princeton Seminary; but, during his forty years'
pastorate in Charleston, Columbia had no more loyal or devoted
supporter and friend. His interest in and gifts to the library, his
marvelous mental contributions to the thought life of the Seminary
through publication and frequent addresses in Columbia, his labors
on the board of directors, his endowment of the library and lecture-
ship, have made his life and influence a vital part of the history of
the Seminary. 31

27 Southern Bd. of F. M. Fifth Annual Report, Charleston, S. C, 1839, pp. 38-
40. Sixth Annual Report, Charleston, S. C, 1840, pp. 7-10. Charleston Ob-
server Office Press, 1839, 1840.

; 8 MS. Minutes of Synod, Vol. I, p. 482.

""Fifth Annual Report, pp. 2, 3. Sixth Annual Report, pp. 1, 5, 10 with the
amended constitution and proceedings.

My Life and Times, p. 84.

^Manuscript Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Southern Bd. of
Foreign Missions. Southern Board of F. M. Premium Tract. Missionary Paper
III, Prospects of the Heathen for Eternity, by Rev. Thomas Smyth, Charleston

The Missionary Enterprise 113

In his eulogy of Dr. Howe. Dr. Girardeau comments on the mark-
ed change in the attitude toward foreign missions in the period be-
tween 1833 when J. L. Wilson "went away amid misconceptions,
sneers and bitter words on the part of many" until 1883 when such
an attitude would have been impossible. Girardeau attributes this
change "to the able and persistent efforts of. Dr. Howe and men of
like spirit with him Church, Talmage, Hoyt, Leland, Smyth and
Thornwell." 32

In 1836, the missionaries that this Board was supporting, were
Rev. and Mrs. G. W. Boggs, Mahratto Mission; Rev. and Mrs. J. B.
Adger, Smyrna; Rev. J. L. Merrick, Persia; Rev. and Mrs. J. L.
Wilson, Cape Palmas, Africa; Rev. J. R. Lanneau, Syria; Rev. Wm.
E. Holly, Choctaw Indians. Of these, two are the leaders of the So-
ciety of Missionary Inquiry and a third, Dr. J. B. Adger, a graduate
of Princeton, is met again and again in the history of Columbia, in
which institution he was professor for many years. In the same
year, the interest in Missions had so risen, that the Synod declared :

"That the Church, by the very elements of her Constitution, is a
missionary society that it is enjoined upon her as a duty to impart
to others the blessings which she herself has received that the great
head of the Church has constituted her the appropriate channel,
through which the light of the Gospel is to be offered among the
nations of the Earth, and that her organization is such as to embody
her strength and call forth her resources and bring them to bear to
the best advantage upon the world's conversion to God." 33

In this increasing interest in the cause of missions, these mission-
aries, particularly, Adger, Merrick, and Wilson, bore a conspicuous
part. The minutes of the Executive Committee of the Southern
Board show that Mr. John B. Adger was appointed as their agent
December 9th, 1833; and visited South Carolina and Georgia, secur-
ing funds and promoting interest in the missionary enterprise (pp.
11, 12). Mr. Adger resigned his agency April 8th, 1834, and on the
25th of that month is listed as a missionary to Asia Minor. On that
date, he and Rev. J. L. Merrick were requested to leave behind them
Farewell Letters, addressed to the Southern Churches, to be pub-

Observer. 1835. Southern Pies. Review index in Vol. XXXV shows articles by
Smyth on Advent, Assurance, Deacons, etc.

'^'Semi-Centennial of Cola. Seminary, p. 405.

^MS. Minutes, Vol. I. p. 419. Fifth Annual Report, 11-20.

114 Columbia Seminary and

lished as the first papers of the Board (pp. 20, 22). Adger's auto-
biography shows that he and Merrick sailed from Boston, August 2,
1834, on the ship Padang. 34

Merrick's address has been preserved. It seems to have been wide-
ly circulated by the Southern Board. There is a minute, March,
1836, giving an order on the Treasurer for $52.50 for printing 1475
copies of The Missionary Spirit, paper No. 4. 35

This may fairly be said to represent the thought of the first mem-
bers and moving spirits of the Society of Missionary Inquiry at
Columbia Seminary. In the closing paragraph the writer is ap-
pealing to some kindred spirit, whose going to foreign lands seems
more certain than even that of the author. The inference is near
that he is particularly appealing to his co-worker, Rev. J. B. Adger
in these words:

"Who will volunteer in this glorious cause? Will you, my
brother? I have heard you plead eloquently for the Missionary
cause will you enforce your arguments by the powerful elo-
quence of your example? Are you willing for Christ's sake to
encounter Mohammedan bigotry, or pagan superstition, and
labor and die on the other side of the earth? Go, then, in the
strength of God, and we, who may not be counted worthy of
such trust and honor, will follow and sustain you by our prav-
ers and efforts" (p. 22).

Merrick chooses as a text for this address Acts 17:16, "His spirit
was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. "'
He declares, "The motive which led the Redeemer to leave his home
in the highest heavens, and to journey far down to this ruined world,
was no other than that powerful spring of action, which has acquired
the name Missionary Spirit. ... It was the Missionary Spirit that
conducted Paul through Asia Minor. ... It was the Missionary-
Spirit that, in the first ages of. the Church, shed the celestial bles-
sings of Christianity on all Western Asia . . . that drove from
Northern Europe the terrific religion of Odin, and the same spirit
that is now operating in its redeeming power at various places in
Asia and Africa and in an hundred Isles of the Sea. Such is the
Missionary Spirit and such have been its effects. It is nothing- but
the pure religion of the Gospel, in its most amiable and active forms.

{ My Life and Times, J. B. Adger, p. 90.

'MS. Minutes Exec. Committee Sou. Board of Missions, p. 59.

The Missionary Enterprise 115

Its nature is divine; its object is the temporal and eternal welfare
of mankind" (p. 2).

He protests any throttling of this spirit. "Monopolize the re-
ligion of Immanuel the Missionary from heaven as well might
you monopolize the blessed air that vivifies creation. ... It is my full
conviction that the destitute around you, and the destitute in your
midst, will never be thoroughly evangelized till you, or those who
succeed you on the stage of life, shall be effectually imbued with the
Missionary Spirit, that spirit whose charities embrace the world"
(pp. 2, 3, 4). "A large proportion of Missionary Spirit is needed
for home consumption; but home is quite too narrow a sphere for
the whole of that charity which seeketh not her own, but the things
that are Jesus Christ's" (5).

In giving the reasons for missions, Merrick says: "The influence
of the Missionary Spirit on the intellect is peculiarly powerful and
happy" (7). "Yet the moral influences derived from the same
source are much more important in their nature and in their conse-
quences" (8). The reflex influence of interest in Foreign Missions
is mindfulness of the neglected and destitute at home, the cause of
Home Missions, Bible Societies, Sabbath School Societies, Seamen's
Societies, etc. (9, 10).

"But the Missionary Spirit, which is as it were health to the
Christian, is life from the dead to the heathen" ( 12 ) . The writer
stresses the sad condition of the heathen under arbitrary govern-
ments, oppressions, anarchy, ignorance, pagan superstition, religious
persecution, without hope for eternity. "They are our brethren and
our sisters . . . they are those for whom Christ died. . . . They
are those whom He now commands us to evangelize" (16). The
diffusion of the Gospel will dissipate ignorance, bring tribes into the
purity and liberty of the Gospel and the hope of glory. This dif-
fusion will tend to harmonize discordant sects of Christians. In
order to reach the unevangelized, the missionaries will have to preach
Christ only and Him Crucified and "not those unessential points of
sectarian distinction, which have so long divided and degraded the
true followers of. Christ in countries already Christian." The Mis-
sionary Spirit will exalt womanhood intellectually and morally, and
cause her to receive the due meed of merit (18, 19). The writer
closes with a personal appeal to each one to cherish and diffuse the

116 Columbia Seminary and

Missionary Spirit; and to heed when Jesus calls to the unevangelized
lands (21).

Of the manifold work of Rev. J. L. Wilson, this paper will treat
later.

A third member of the Seminary's first class of six, Rev. James
L. Adams, consecrated himself to the foreign mission cause, but was
prevented from sailing. 36

In 1842 the faculty report notes that Richard Way left, just be-
fore examinations, for foreign work in Siam. He had been preceded
in 1838 by Rev. S. R. Brown, a missionary to China. 37

A copy of the first number of The Banner of the Cross, published
by "the students of the Southern Theological Seminary," has been
preserved. This eight-page publication is dated November 1, 1834.
The purpose of the paper is, "to call upon the churches in South
Carolina and Georgia to regard, with a deeper interest than they
have ever done before, two most important objects, their Seminary
and the cause of Missions" (p. 4) . It has articles on China, The
History of the Seminary, Exposition of Ps. 84 1-7; an appeal to
young men to enter the ministry; advantages of Sunday School, etc. 38

Church Extension

But Foreign Missions was only one phase of the interest of the So-
ciety of Missionary Inquiry and only one (perhaps the highest) ex-
pression of the Missionary Spirit.

Wilson and Keith Legare, two of the first students, describe the
Society as meeting once a month "at which time we usually have a
dissertation, from a member, on some topic connected with the
benevolent operations of the day." They declare that the Society has
kindled a very lively interest in behalf of many of the benevolent
operations of the day. They add, "most of our members have already
or soon will engage in teaching Sabbath schools, in the country
around the place. The country hereabouts is populated by an
ignorant and poor class of men and there seems to be providential
opening around us for doing good. And we hope that the ultimate
end of our lives and the prevailing desire of our hearts may be

^Semi-Centennial, p. 166.

^Archives, Vol. II, p. 801. Wilson in Semi-Centennial, p. 169.

38 Archives, Vol. II, pp. 155-162.

The Missionary Enterprise 117

to lead souls to Christ." 39 A letter of Wilson's, dated October 27,
1832, reads: "I attended my sand hill Sunday School this morning,
and had a large and interesting school." 40

Dr. Howe records the organization of the Sunday School Associa-
tion of Charleston in 1816 and of a Sunday School Union Society
in the same place in 1819 both preceding the organization of the
American Sunday School Union (1824). 41

The scope of the Society of Missionary Inquiry's interests may be
gathered from the following minute: "Agreeable to a resolution
passed on the 28th Feb. (1832) the following committees were ap-
pointed, viz:

1. Seamen and Soldiers Wm. B. Yates.

2. Colored Population Adams & Goulding (i. e. Francis Gould-
ing).

3. Foreign Missions Merrick & Axson.

4. Domestic Missions Reid & Du Bose.

5. Bible & Tract Societies Petrie & Fraser.

6. Sabbath Schools & Revivals Keeney & Beattie.

7. Temperance Cause Legare & Peden. 42

The work of building up the Kingdom, through the establishment
of Sabbath Schools and missions, has been a consistent part of the
work of the Seminary and the Society of Missionary Inquiry. Often
these schools have been the nuclei, not only of a Presbyterian
Church, but also of a Methodist and a Baptist Church. 48

The Society has supplied religious workers for the city jail, the
State Penitentiary, convict camps, cotton mill missions, community
missions; as well as teachers and leader? of Sunday School and
Young People's organizations in established churches. In their vaca-
tions, the early students labored as colporteurs for the American
Tract Society, and as agents for the American S. S. Union.

3S 'Letter of Wilson and Legare in behalf of the students to Dr. McDowell
Feb. 24, 1831. Archives, Vol. II, p. 63.

'"Memoirs of J. L. W '., p. 35.

"Howe, History, Vol. II, pp. 228, 229. Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the S. S.,
pp. 122, 123.

42 MS. Records of the Society of Miss. Inq., p. 9.

43 So e. g. in the writer's home community the Waverly Sunday School of
which Dr. R. C. Reed was a first Superintendent led to the organization of
congregations by the three denominations.

118 Columbia Seminary and

The maintenance and extension of the Church in the home field was
the primary consideration in establishing Columbia Seminary. 46 In the
Seminary's appeal of 1845 the wide savannahs of the West and ex-
treme South-west are represented as calling to the Seminary for min-
isters. 45

Dr. Henry A. White, a careful Southern historian, says:

"The spiritual needs of. the entire southeastern part of our
country were resting upon the hearts of the men who founded
Columbia Seminary. The two States of South Carolina and
Georgia were at that time sending large numbers of their people
southward and westward, as Colonists, to fill up the fertile
regions within the borders of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Florida. The vast territory embraced in these six common-
wealths, occupied by a homogeneous people, was calling for
ministers of the Word. The other seminaries were not sending
them."

He declares that an increase of from 10,000 to nearly 70,000
Presbyterian Christians in this territory "in eighty years" was due
almost entirely to the work of Columbia Seminary and the labors of
the seven hundred and fifty candidates for the ministry who passed
through her halls during that period. 46

At the time of the earliest efforts to establish the institution the
Synod covered the whole country from the southern border of North
Carolina to the Mississippi river; and it was believed that by the
confluence of. the benevolent feelings of the states over which that
body extended they would be more likely to succeed. At the time 47
of the organization of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia
(1813) there were, in this territory, only thirty-two Presbyterian
ministers. 48

In the year 1839, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia avows
that "the very establishment of the Seminary has been the direct
means of bringing into the ministry twice the number that would
have entered it had they been left without this institution in their
vicinity to awaken their attention to the subject." 49 In 1841 the
Faculty reports that forty-one (out of eighty educated in the Semi-

"Report Faculty 1849, Archives, Vol. II, pp. 943, 979, 955.

'"Archives, Vol. II, p. 894.

'"White, Southern Pres. Leaders, p. 257.

"Archives, Vol. II, p. 826. Retrospect of 1849.

'MS. Minutes, Vol. I, p. 298, South. Pies. Review, 1855, pp. 404, 405.

'"Minutes Synod S. C, 1839, p. 14.

The Missionary Enterprise 119

nary) were connected with the Synod, while twenty-one were labor-
ing in nearby Synods. 00 In 1844 the statement is made that since
1831 there have been 95 students educated in the Seminary. Of
these nine have been separated in the divisions of the Church; but
forty-nine are connected with the Synod of South Carolina and
Georgia (three of whom are Foreign Missionaries) ; and twenty-two
are laboring in other Synods. 51

The Synod of South Carolina, in its narrative of 1854, declares
that the gradual increase of the number of ministers has come mainly
through the instrumentality of the Theological Seminary; and that
about half its ministers are former students of the Seminary. 5 -

In 1860 the Board presents, and the Synod accepts and endorses,
the following figures showing the steady growth of the Seminary
and the parallel growth in church membership and in the ministry:

Seminary

Year

Average

No. Students

53

1831-36

17

1836-50

19

1850-56

32

1856-60

50

1860

Church

58

Seminary

Year

State

Communicants

Ministers

Graduates

1831

South Carolina

6,518

54

1860

South Carol

ina

13,074

108

55

1831

Georgia

2,893

37

1860

Georgia

6,812

89

28

1831

Alabama

2,094

42

1860

Alabama

6,534

64

16

In 1871 the whole number of alumni is listed as 374, of whom
84 are deceased and thirteen are foreign missionaries. 54 The cata-
logue of that year gives the complete list of. the former members of
the Seminary by classes from 1833 to 1870 (pp. 7-19). The table
of residence of the alumni shows the alumni laboring primarily in
the southeast:

50 Archives, Vol. II, p. 642, Report of Faculty.
^Archives, Vol. II, p. 825. Faculty Report to Board.
52 Minutes Synod of S. C, 1854, p. 31.
'"Minutes of the Synod of S. C, 1860, pp. 66, 67.
"Catalogue, 1870, p. 23.

120 Columbia Seminary and

South Carolina 80 Arkansas 14

Georgia 49 Texas 11

North Carolina .. 38 Tennessee 10

Mississippi 33 Florida , 9

Alabama 24 Scotland 13

Other States have smaller numbers; Japan, India, Brazil, China,
Indian Nation are represented. The residences of fifty-eight are un-
known (p. 20) .

The catalogue of 1907 gives the list of alumni, by classes, from
1833 to 1906. While no summation of figures is given, the men rep-
resent the same section of the country as in the earlier statement. 35

In his semi-centennial addresses (1881), Dr. George Howe states,
"that more than three-fourths of the ministers and licentiates of the
Synod of South Carolina, more than half of. those of the Synod of
Georgia, about one-third of those of the Synods of Alabama and
Arkansas, that nearly one-half of the Synods of Memphis and Mis-
sissippi were students of this Seminary." 06

The 1917 catalogue bears this statement (evidently by Dr. Thorn-
ton Whaling, the President), "Although the number of students at
this Seminary has always been thus moderate in extent, yet Columbia
has furnished more than three-fourths of the Presbyterian ministers
who have labored in South Carolina, more than one-half of those
who have labored in Georgia, and a considerable proportion of those
in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana.
Moreover, graduates of Columbia Seminary have given themselves to
the work of Missions in Africa, Syria, Turkey, Persia, Hindustan,
Korea, Japan, and South America." 57

In The Kings Business in the Synod of Alabama Dr. R. T.
Gillespie, President, sums up Columbia's contribution to the Presby-
terian church in the Southeast. "Columbia has trained 926 minist-
ers, 350 of whom are living. The present (1927) enrollment is 65.
This year 42 new students were enrolled." When the Seminary was
founded the only Synod in Columbia's territory was a small one
73 ministers, 11 licentiates, 128 churches and 8,560 communicants.

''Catalogue Columbia Theol. Seminary, 1907, Columbia, S. ., pp. 27-56.
: ' r 'Semi-Centennial, p. 156.
'''Catalogue, 1917. p. 38.

The Missionary Enterprise 121

and five Presbyteries. The territory of Columbia Seminary now con-
tains five Synods, 1,171 churches (Presbyterian Church in the U. S.),
134,770 communicants, and 632 ordained ministers." 58

The missionary influence of the Seminary has necessarily been
strongest in its immediate field. But it has, by no means, been con-
fined to its immediate field. An excellent example of the larger in-
fluence of the Seminary in widely inculcating missions is the dis-
course delivered by Dr. J. H. Thornwell, by appointment of the
Board of Foreign Missions of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in the U. S. A. (0. S.), in the First Presbyterian
Church, New York, on Sabbath, May 18, 1856, and published by
order of the General Assembly. 59 Dr. Adger, introducing this ser-
mon in Thornwell's Collected Writings, says: "It was this sermon of
which Dr. Addison Alexander, who was a hearer of it, remarked
to a friend that it was as fine a specimen of Demosthenian eloquence
as he had ever heard from the pulpit, and that it realized his idea of
what preaching should be." 60

The sermon is entitled, "The Sacrifice of Christ, The Type and
Model of Missionary Effort." The text was John 10:17, 18. The
death of Christ is presented as an act of worship. "The internal
feelings of the priest must correspond to the external significance of
the act." The motives which prompt such an undertaking are: "The
first ... an intense sense and admiration of the holiness and justice
of God, and a corresponding sense and detestation of the sinfulness
of sin . . . ; secondly, the sentiments of pity for man" (pp. 419-
421 ). "Love to God and love to man which His death, considered
as a sacrifice, express constitute the essence of virtue" (p. 422).
"It has grown into a proverb that the spirit of. missions is the spirit
of the Gospel." As made priests by Christ, "we must be animated
by the same principles which pervaded His offering" (p. 428). Zeal
for the Divine glory, love to God, compassion to man should stir
our souls and move our feet. "Can we look upon our fellows, mem-
bers of the same family, pregnant with the same instincts and des-
tined to the same immortality, and feel no concern for the awful
prospect before them?" (p. 432).

^The King's Business, pp. 56. 57. Birmingham. Ala.. 1927. Cf. Minutes of
General Assembly for 1926.

'"Minutes Assembly. 1856, p. 511.

'"Thorn well's Coll. Writings, Vol. II. p. 409.

122 Columbia Seminary and

"When I consider the magnitude and grandeur of the motives
which press upon the Church to undertake the evangelization of the
world, when I see that the glory of God, the love of the Saviour and
pity for the lost, all conspire in one great conclusion; when I con-
template our own character and relations as spiritual priests, and
comprehend the dignity, the honor, the tenderness, and self-denial of
the office ; and then reflect upon the indifference, apathy, and languor
which have seized upon the people of God; when I look to the
heavens above me and the world around me, and hear the call, which
the wail of perishing millions sends up to the skies, thundered back
upon the Church with all the solemnity of a Divine Commission;
when a world says, Come, and pleads its miseries; when God says
Go, and pleads His glory, and Christ repeats the command, and
points to His hands and His feet and His side, it is enough to make
the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber to
answer it" (p. 448).

Colored Evangelization

But from the heights of eloquence the realist will turn with the
question Yes, but what of the black brother at the door? And a
sense of truth will allow neither the Southern Church nor Columbia
Seminary to glibly repeat the words of the Scottish historian, Dr.
Ogilvie, that the Presbyterian Church in the United States has done
a distinguished work for their evangelization. 61

Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters says bluntly, "Our Church has not done
her duty to the colored people. But if she has failed, it has been
for no lack of shining examples of genuine devotion to the spiritual
interest of that people." He goes on to say that the Church has had
few sons more gifted, and none more godly than John L. Girardeau,
C. Colcock Jones, Chas. H. Stillman, and J. R. Howerton, each of
whom gave the best energies of heart and mind to the evangelization
of the colored people. And these four leaders in this work are
Columbia Seminary men. 62

The Southern Church has not done her full duty in this matter;
but what she has done ought not to be overlooked. The Seminary
has not done her full duty but the noblest among the sons and sup-

fll J. N. Ogilvie. The Presbyterian Churches of Christendom. London A. &
C. Black, 1925, pp. 184, 185.

02 C. T. S. a Retrospect, p. 31, by W. M. McPheeters.

The Missionary Enterprise 123

porters of Columbia, have most nearly manifested the Master's spirit
toward the colored brother. The early records of. the Synod of South
Carolina and Georgia show a marked and a continued interest in
the work of giving the gospel to the colored race, even in years when
the small interest in Foreign Missions is lamented.

In 1831, Synod, after lamenting the little done for foreign missions
and the static condition of home missions, adds; "In one feature,
however, they (domestic missions) have assumed an aspect which
deserves a more particular notice than can be given it in this brief
narrative. All along our sea-coast, much feeling has been awakened
in reference to our colored population, and inquiries have been in-
stituted with a view of ascertaining the best means of furnishing them
with religious instruction. Hitherto it has been almost entirely neg-
lected, or left to black preachers, who are, for the most part, in-
capable of instructing others in the way of salvation. Many planters
have taken the subject into their own hands, and either given them
religious instruction themselves, or procured it for them from regular
ministers of the Gospel. Societies of planters have also been formed
with this express object in view; and the result of experience upon
this plan, so far as it has been adopted, is favorable both to the in-
terest of the planters and the morals of the slaves." 63

The next year Synod reports: "The spiritual state of our black
population is found to have called forth, during the past year, an
unusually large share of the sympathies of our churches. We hear,
with pleasure, that some of our ministers have begun to think very
seriously of devoting their labors more directly and exclusively to
this part of our population." Sunday Schools for the blacks in
South Carolina have been found valuable. 04

The following year ( 1833 ) the work of Rev. C. C. Jones prompted
these Resolutions:

1. "That to impart the Gospel of salvation to the Negroes of our
country is a duty which God in his providence and word imposes
on us.

2. "That in the discharge of this duty, we separate entirely the
civil and religious conditions of this people; and while we devote

M MS. Minutes, Vol. I. p. 305.
"Ibid, p. 329.

124 Columbia Seminary and

ourselves to the improvement of the latter, we disclaim all interfer-
ence with the former.

5. "That every member of this Synod, while he endeavors to
awaken others, shall set the example and begin the religious instruc-
tion of the servants of his own household, systematically and perse-
veringly, as God shall enable him.

6. "That we cannot longer continue to neglect the duty without
incurring the charge of. inconsistency in our Christian character of
unfaithfulness in the discharge of ministerial duty, and at the same
time meeting the disapprobation of God and our own consciences." 65

This interest on the part of Synod was intense in the circle of
Synod living in closest contact with the Seminary. Among the first
committees appointed by the Society of Missionary Inquiry, one was
on the subject of Colored Evangelism. 66 One of the original found-
ers and life-long supporters of the Seminary 67 was Rev. Robert Wil-
son James, pastor of Indiantown and later Salem, Black River, South
Carolina. Of him, this is written: "He prepared very carefully his
discourses for the ignorant sons of Africa who flocked in great num-
bers from the large plantations on the river to hear his simple, lucid,
earnest and forcible presentation of Gospel truth. He was largely
instrumental in his own Synod in arousing a zeal in their spiritual
welfare; and it is probable that his profound interest in their spirit-
ual condition was the means of directing the missionary enthusiasm
of his young neighbor and kinsman, J. Leighton Wilson, toward the
dark continent." 68

Dr. White draws this picture of old South Carolina interest in the
colored brother which produced Columbia's foremost exemplar of
the missionary spirit. "As a child he (J. L. Wilson) lived in daily
association with the colored men and women on his father's planta-
tion. Every Sunday morning he saw virtually all of the negroes of
the community assemble for worship in the grove of pine trees near
Mount Zion Church. He heard hymns of. praise, and often listened
to the words of the pastor of the church as he preached the first ser-

nr 'Ibid, pp. 342, 344, 362, 363.
m Records Society of M. Inquiry, p. 97.

<n Minutes of Board show James present Dec. 11, 1828. Manuscript copy Vol.
I, p. 16. Min. of Synod, 1841, p. 36, Min. on the death of Rev. R. W. James.
0S DuBose Memoirs of J. L. Wilson, p. 17.

The Missionary Enterprise 125

mon of the day to the slaves who lived within the limits of the con-
gregation. When this service was ended, then the negroes entered
the seats reserved for them in the deep galleries of the church, and
took part in worship there, in association with the white members of
the congregation. Moreover, many of these negro slaves were
members in good standing, with their names enrolled in the list of
the regular membership of the church. On two Sundays in each
year, therefore, all these colored members were brought into the
body of the church and given seats at the long communion table, and
there the elements of the Lord's Supper were administered to them.
Besides all this, every Sunday afternoon throughout the year the
heads of the household called together all their slaves, young and
old, and taught them portions of the Bible. Sometimes also, the
pastor of the church would preach to the colored people every eve-
ning for an entire week. One of the ministers whose preaching to
negroes was followed by many of the signs of God's presence was
Robt. Wilson Jones." 09

J. L. Wilson's year between Union College (N. Y.) and Colum-
bia Seminary seems to have been spent with this uncle, whose efforts
for the negro were so fruitful. 70 How much does the development
of the Society of Missionary Inquiry and the Southern Presbyterian
Church owe to that year, under the example and loving ministry of
Robt. W. James a father of the Seminary in his work for the col-
ored brother! John B. Adger, the one most conversant with Wilson's
motives during the year when his spiritual life was revived and he
decided to go as a missionary to Africa, writes:

"In choosing his ( Wilson's ) field of labor, his mind and heart
were turned to Africa, not only because it had been a very much
neglected portion of the world by Christian nations, but because
he believed that America, and especially the South, owed it to
Africa to send her the Gospel, inasmuch as so many of her dark-
skinned children were held in bondage here." ... "I know it was
also a leading motive with him in devoting his life to foreign
missions to exert some reflex influence upon the Christian peo-
ple of his native State in extending and deepening their inter-
est in the spiritual condition of their slaves."

That this was his motive is borne out by the fact that, on his re-
turn to South Carolina, Dr. Wilson provided both a school and a

69 White, Sou. Pres. Leaders, p. 397.
""Memoirs, pp. 17, 28.

126 Columbia Seminary and

church for the negroes near his home. During the last year of his
life, tho he refused to preach at Mt. Zion, the nearby white church,
he continued to preach to the colored people at Mt. Sinai. 71

Crossing the border into Georgia we find, among the fathers of
the Seminary, Charles Colcock Jones. Jones' securing of a five
thousand dollar legacy toward the Georgia scholarship was one of
the first substantial financial gifts after the reorganization of the
Seminary; and this gift may almost be said to have been the step
between life and death realization and failure for the new institu-
tion. 72 After a good education at Andover and Princeton, a two
years' pastorate of the First Church, Savannah, Jones, at the age of
twenty-eight, returned to his own plantation near Midway Church,
Georgia, to give his life to the evangelization of the negroes. 73 In
this district there was a body of about 4500 negro slaves. Support-
ing himself from his own plantation, Jones gave himself to the work
of spiritually shepherding this people. He instructed them day and
night. Three church buildings were built for their exclusive use. Dr.
White thus describes his Sabbath "routine" :

"Every Sunday, at an early hour, Dr. Jones mounted his horse
and rode to one of these churches. From all of the neighboring
plantations the servants came in crowds, men, women and children.
First in order, a meeting for prayer was held. During this service
a number of the negroes, known as 'watchmen' one after another
led the assembly in prayer. Then followed the sermon, preached
by Dr. Jones himself, with the usual accompaniment of sacred
hymns. In the afternoon the same congregation was called together
as a Sunday School. The principal part of the exercises in the school
was a series of questions and answers prepared by the leader him-
self, and widely known as Jones' Catechism." 74 Then there was a
period for inquiry and help to spiritually needy; and reports from
and counsel to "the watchers" by the chief shepherd. Every hour of
the Lord's Day was spent bringing light, knowledge, and spiritual
help to "the colored brethren." During the week there were preach-
ing appointments on various plantations.

Tt Adger's letters quoted in Memoirs of J. L. Wilson, pp. 40, 291.
"-Archives, Vol. II, pp. 219, 220.
^Minutes of Synod S. C. and Ga., 1833, p. 342.

7, Dr. J. B. Adger translated and used this in Asia Minor for the Armenians.
White, p. 299.

The Missionary Enterprise 127

In 1832 Jones organized "The Association for the Religious In-
struction of the Negroes," the report of which he, as secretary, issued.
From 1833 to 1848 he was the agent of the General Assembly's
Board of Domestic Missions with reference to the colored work in the
South and Southwest. The proof that this colored work met the
endorsement of the Seminary is shown by the fact that Dr. Jones
was twice called from it to the Chair of. Ecclesiastical History and
Church Polity in Columbia Seminary (1836-38; 1849-59). During
these years he served to focus the attention of the Seminary and the
student body on the work so near to his own heart, but each time
his first love carried Jones back to "the plantation darkies," and
earned for him the title, "apostle to the negro slaves." 75

Dr. Jones, as Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Missions
in the first assembly of the Southern Church, addressed that Assem-
bly on the subject of the religious instruction of the Colored
People. 76

By reason of long sickness Dr. Jones was unable to stand through-
out this address; but, seated in a chair, he plead for an hour and a
half the spiritual interests of the race for which he had spent his
life. He argued, "They are men created in the image of God, to be
acknowledged and cared for spiritually by us. . . . They are our con-
stant and inseparable associates; whither we go, they go, where we
dwell, they dwell; where we die and are buried, there they die and
are buried; and, more than all, our God is their God." 77

Stirred by this eloquent appeal the following resolution by Dr.
Jones was, on motion of Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, unanimously adopted
by the first Southern Assembly:

"That the great field of Missionary operations among our
colored population falls more immediately under the care of the
Committee on Domestic Missions; and that committee be urged
to give it serious and constant attention, and the Presbyteries
to co-operate with the committee in securing Pastors and Mis-
sionaries for this field." 78

Dr. Jones is the first of a trio of professors who were called di-
rectly from a ministry to the negroes to a chair in Columbia Semi-

T5 White, pp. 292-297. Howe, Jones' History of the Church, in Sou. Pres.
Review, Jan., 1848, p. 68 ff. Mallard, J. Q., Plantation Life Before Emancipa-
tion, pp. 91-152.

''Minutes Assembly, 1861, pp. 14, 15, 20. Mallard, pp. 194-207.

"Mallard, pp. 194-207. White, Southern Pres. Leaders, p. 325.

1H Minutes, 1861, pp. 14, 15, 20.

128 Columbia Seminary and

nary. Almost a tradition to this effect was established; and Colum-
bia may unabashed compare this tradition with that of other Pres-
byterian institutions: the road to her professorial chairs was an
apprenticeship of spiritual service for the slave brother.

Dr. John B. Adger returned for physical recuperation, after
twelve years of foreign missionary work in Smyrna, and began to
preach to a congregation of negroes in the basement to the Second
Presbyterian Church (Charleston, S. C), of which his brother-in-law,
Dr. Thomas Smyth, was pastor. Adger appealed to the city and the
Presbytery in the interest of these people. His sermon to Presbytery,
May 9, 1847, was on the text, "The poor have the Gospel preached to
them." Shortly after this, there appeared in the Southern Presby-
terian Review a review of the sermon by Dr. Thornwell. 79 In this
review Thornwell supported Adger's view that, for their adequate
spiritual oversight, the colored people ought to have their own con-
gregations, a full-time white minister, and the Gospel preached sim-
ply enough for them to comprehend. There was some opposition on
account of the Vesey insurrection cabal among the slaves, unearthed
in 1822; but the leading citizens of Charleston, particularly those of
the Second Church, rallied to Adger's plan. 80

This white support built the first church on Anson Street, Charles-
ton, at a cost of seven thousand seven hundred dollars. The build-
ing was dedicated May 26, 1850. 81

Under the eloquent leadership of Dr. J. L. Girardeau who fol-
lowed Adger, both into the ministry for the colored people and
then to a chair in the Seminary this building became too small;
and there was built for the work, on Calhoun Street, the (then)
largest church edifice in Charleston. 82 Dr. Girardeau stated that he
only refrained from going to the foreign field that he might preach
to the mass of slaves on the seacoast. 83 Notations in the Communi-
cants' roll book and in the Minutes of the Session of Zion Presby-
terian Church (1858-1867) testify to the fidelity with which Dr.
Girardeau administered discipline (the chief cause being adultery) ;

70 S. P. R., Vol. II, p. 137.

m My Life and Times, Adger, pp. 164-204; Mallard, pp. 156, 159.
M Adger, p. 174; White, p. 297; Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 379.
**The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, pp. 31-104; Adger, pp. 174. 175; Thorn-
well, Vol. IV, p. 379; Mallard, pp. 157, 162-171.
ui The Life Work of J. L. G., p. 76.

The Missionary Enterprise 129

and the regularity with which he attended the colored communicants
in their dying hours. 84

On the occasion of the dedication of the first edifice, Dr. J. H.
Thornwell preached the sermon to a large assemblage of the leading
citizens of Charleston on the subject, The Christian Doctrine of Slav-
ery. In general, it may be said that Thornwell's view of slavery is
the same as that which the Rev. A. J. and Sir R. W. Carlyle present
in their recent volumes, History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the
West, as being the view of the patristic writers of the Christian
Church. Thornwell acknowledges the difficulty of holding the
true view in the bitter controversy then raging; and confesses that
Southern writers have run into extravagance in their defense of the
institution. 83 He deprecates any attempt to deny that the negro is
"the same blood with ourselves." "We recognize in him the image
of God. We are not ashamed to call him our brother" (pp. 402, 403).
He denies that slavery is the "property of man in man," as held
by Channing and Whewell (pp. 498-414) . 86 He affirms, instead,
that the right of the master is not to the man, but to his labour; and
therefore, that the rights of the slave ought not be left to the caprice
or interest of the master (p. 415).

"That the design of Christianity is to secure the perfection of. the
race is obvious, from all its arrangements; and that, when this end
shall have been consummated, slavery must cease to exist is equally
clear. ... In this sense slavery is inconsistent with the spirit of the
Gospel that it contemplates a state of things, an existing economy,
which it is the design of the Gospel to remove. Slavery is a part
of the curse which sin has introduced into the world, and stands in
the same general relations to Christianity as poverty, sickness, dis-
ease, and death. In other words, it is a relation which can only be
conceived as taking place among fallen beings, tainted with a curse.
It springs not from the nature of man as man, nor from the nature
of society as such, but from the nature of man as sinful, and the
nature of society as disordered (pp. 419, 420).

84 Communicant Roll Book of Colored Members of Zion Presbyterian Church.
Rules for the Government of the Colored Members of Z. P. C. Minutes of
Session Zion Pres. Church, 1858-1867. Private library Rev. John Blackburn,
Atlanta, Ga.

^Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 402.

^Channing's Works, Vol. II, pp. 17, 46; Truth, Complete Edition, Boston,
1849. Whewell, Elements of Morality, Vol. I, pp. 372, 373, American Edition.

130 Columbia Seminary and

The speaker held that personal rights and personal responsibili-
ties pervaded the whole system of slavery (432 et al.). He urged
all the brethren of the South to go into this colored evangelization
"until every slave in our borders shall know Jesus and the resurrec-
tion" (pp. 435, 436).

Two views of slavery can really be distinguished in the South-
east. Those who were laboring for the spiritual uplift of the col-
ored brethren were anxious to put Dr. Thornwell's views into prac-
tical relation. Thornwell contemplated a memorial to the Legis-
lature of South Carolina petitioning for the protection of the mar-
riage relation. Even without slave marriage legislation, Girardeau
invoked the extreme ecclesiastical penalty in an effort to preserve
the slave home.

In the Southern Presbyterian Review for October, 1863, Dr. J.
Leighton Wilson has an article on the religious instruction of the
colored people. 87 In this article he urged the sanctity of slave mar-
riage. Dr. A. M. Fraser declares that Christians conscientiously re-
fused to obey State laws which forbade any one to teach a negro to
read. In fact, they allowed these laws to fall into innocuous desue-
tude. 88

The spirit of Missions, the Christian Evangel, made the difference
between the Christian viewpoint and the opposite view, which, sad
to say, is sometimes reflected in the statute books, and is to be found
in an anonymous article in the Southern Presbyterian Review of
October, 1863. It is at least suggestive that Dr. Thornwell, one of
the circle most concerned for the spiritual well-being of the negro,
came to the place where he was ready to propose emancipation. 89

It is perhaps equally suggestive that the utilitarianism of Dr.
Thomas Cooper took the diametrically opposite direction. In 1787
be was bitterly denouncing slavery and the slave trade. 90 Half a
century later he was as bitterly fighting the abolitionists, declaring
that negroes were "a permanently degraded people" without in-
herent civil rights. 91 In 1838 he was willing for slavery to swallow

87 S. P. R., Vol. XVI, p. 151; Wilson's, p. 197.

S8 Fraser, A. M., Smythe Lectures, 1925. filed C. T. S., Lecture III, pp. 11, 12.

sn Palmer, p. 483.

00 Cooper, Letters on the Slave Trade, Eng., 1787.

01 Cooper, Coloured Marriages, Courier, Sept. 15, 1829.

The Missionary Enterprise 131

up every other issue yes, even for the "gag" law to repudiate his
own fundamental political principle freedom of speech. 92

In his eulogy on Dr. George Howe, Dr. J. L. Girardeau has this
to say of Howe's interest in colored evangelization: "At a time
when the Southern Church was surrounded by a dense mass of
slaves, who were dependent upon her for the preaching of the Gos-
pel, he was ever the earnest and able advocate of their systematic
instruction by the ministry of pastors, and their evangelization by
the labors of missionaries. For years he was the chairman of the
Committee of Domestic Missions in his Presbytery." 93

Perhaps the best summary, from the standpoint of this paper, of
the work of the Seminary and its constituency for the slave is found
in the prefatory note to Thornwell's address, written by the editors
of Thornwell's Collected Writings, J. B. Adger and J. L. Girardeau.
Both editors were professors in the Seminary their publication is
the work of Columbia's greatest mind. Both editors labored for
the evangelization of the negro in the Charleston Church, and de-
lighted to preach in colored churches in Columbia during their pro-
fessorships. The editors affirm that Southern Christians were ac-
tively engaged in efforts to afford the slaves judicious religious
instruction, and opportunities for securing the salvation of their
souls through the gracious provisions of the Gospel. "Dr. Thorn-
well was always the earnest advocate of the evangelization of a peo-
ple whom Providence had made dependent on the Southern Church
for a knowledge of Christianity. With all the energy of an enthu-
siastic nature, and all the power of his mighty, impassioned elo-
quence, he ever in private and in public, on the platform, in the
pulpit, and on the floors of ecclesiastical assemblies, pleaded for
the Gospel to be given to the slaves. Nor was this zeal his, alone.
His brethren in the ministry throughout the South reckoned the
negroes as their parishioners, and preached to them in a style
adapted to their capacities. If the mass of the colored race has, in
any measure, been prepared for the responsibilities and duties of
freemen, so suddenly thrust upon them, the fact is due mainly to the
preaching of Gospel Ministers, the instructions of the Sabbath-
school, and the training of Christian families. The Southern Church

M Malone, p. 396; pp. 387, 388, quoting letter of C. to Van Buren.
^Semi-Centennial, p. 409.

132 Columbia Seminary and

makes no boast that she did her whole duty to the souls of the slaves.
As before God, she has much to confess; but as before men, she
can honestly affirm that she did not neglect the spiritual interests
of the negro, but sincerely endeavored to lead them to Christ." 94

The minutes of the Synod of South Carolina and other references
support these statements. The earlier records have been referred to.
The narratives of 1853, 1854 and 1858 speak of increasing and sus-
tained interest in this cause and of large colored accessions to the
churches. 95 Dr. Bean declares that, in this decade, many ministers
were giving one-half their time to the instruction of the slaves. 96 He
gives the following figures for a church in lower South Carolina in
1853:

"The John's Island and Wadmalaw Church had 359 communicants,
of whom 330 were colored. In 1851, membership in Charleston
(S. C.) Presbytery was 2,269, of which 1,440 were colored." 97

Dr. James Woodrow gives the following figures for the number of
colored communicants in the states in the vicinity of the Seminary,
before these colored brethren became separated during Reconstruc-
tion; in South Carolina 5,767 communicants; in North Carolina
5,490 communicants; and in Georgia 1,109 communicants in one
Presbytery. 98

Dr. Henry A. White, also a former professor in the Seminary and
a wide student of Southern history, declared that in 1860 nearly
500,000 negroes were members of. the various churches. 99 Rev.
R. C. Reed, sometime professor in the Seminary, also uses this
figure of half million negroes being brought into the Church in the
days of slavery. 100 His reference and a book review in the Southern
Presbyterian Review of January, 1882, show that the half-million
figure is taken from a book entitled Our Brother in Black, by Presi-
dent A. G. Haygood of. Emory College, Southern Methodist Publish-
ing House, 1881.

The same men who labored for the slaves continued to love the
colored brother and labor to hold him in their fellowship. The

"'Thornwell, Vol. IV, p. 380.

"Min. of Synod of S. C. for 1853, p. 18 ; 1854. p. 30 ; 1858, p. 31.

' M The Presbyterian Church in S. C, p. 54.

m Ibid, pp. 51, 52.

08 Dr. James Woodrow, p. 580, article Jan. 20. 1881.

""White, p. 306.

^Southern Pres. Revieiv, Jan., 1885, p. 97.

The Missionary Enterprise 133

Presbytery of South Carolina in 1867 adopted a paper, written by
Dr. Adger, stating their unwillingness to constitute a Freedman's
Church, i. e., a church purely and solely of colored (people) into
which white people could not be received, because, "The ground of
color is a schismatical foundation on which a church may not be
built." 101

Dr. Adger has preserved a heart-breaking letter from Dr. J. L.
Girardeau to himself, on this subject. 102 Dr. Girardeau narrates
how the question of admitting negro members into our Church was
raised at the Synod of 1873. He earnestly favored this admission.
"I never, from the beginning, was in favor of separating the two
races, of cutting off as I expressed it the negro race from the
white, like casting loose a tow-boat from a great steamship in the
middle of a stormy ocean."

The subject came up by overture from this Synod and from Mis-
sissippi, and "the Assembly voted that way (i. e., for separation)
unanimously, excepting one vote that of the writer."

"The issue was retention of the colored people in our Church or
organic separation from them. I did not theoretically approve of
separation, but, as the whole Church was going that way I practically
went with it, but under protest." . . . "Theoretically, I still think
the policy of retention the better one; but practically, separation now
seems a necessity. But I cannot write as I wish. I grow tired and
sick."

"That Assembly effected an organic separation between the two
races ecclesiastically, so that the colored, if it desired to do so, could
withdraw from any formal relation to the white." He narrates how
he explained this at a congregational meeting. The old people op-
posed the separation, "but Young Africa was in favor of it." . . .
"That was how the breach occurred."

The change of the economic, legal, social, and political relation-
ships and views of the colored people during reconstruction eventu-
ated, to the profound sorrow of such Seminary leaders as Adger and
Girardeau, in their organic separation from the white Presbyterian
Church. An article in the Southern Presbyterian Review of April,

101 Quoted from Presbytery of S. C. Min. in the Pres. Church in S. C. since
1850.

w2 My Life and Times, pp. 176, 177.

134 Columbia Seminary and

1868, on The Future of the Freedmen attributes a part of this result
to the activities of ministers (white and black) sent from the North
to preach, who "are simply political emissaries" (p. 272). But the
labors of men like Jones, Adger, and Girardeau could not be for-
gotten, no matter what the provocation. In 1885 Dr. R. C. Reed
a man who was to give the best quarter century of. his life to Colum-
bia wrote in the Southern Presbyterian Review, urging the South-
ern Presbyterian Church to do something more adequate for the
freedmen. 103

To this new call Columbia has contributed Dr. C. A. Stillman
(Class of 1844) and Dr. J. R. Howerton (Class of 1885). The life,
labors, and love for the colored brethren of such men have brought
into being an institute for the training of colored ministers at Tus-
caloosa, Alabama, now known as Stillman Institute. The Souvenir
o\ the 1924 Assembly describes Dr. C. A. Stillman as the founder
and father of this Institute. It is sending a small, but steady, stream
of colored preachers into the work of building up colored churches
and Sunday Schools in the South, and into the foreign mission serv-
ice. Among these latter may be mentioned the recently deceased
colored brother, William H. Sheppard. Sheppard helped open the
Southern Church's mission in the Congo; and later labored in the
work of colored evangelization under the Southern Church in Louis-
ville, Kentucky. 104

The 1927 minutes show, as a result of Stillman Institute, the Synod
of Snedecor Memorial, with 45 colored ministers; 48 churches; 1573
communicants; and 165 (about 10%%) added that year on confes-
sion of faith. 105

The Chalmers of the Disruption
Columbia's greatest contribution to Southern Presbyterian mis-
sions was J. Leighton Wilson, denoted by his illustrious biographer,
Hampden C. DuBose, as "The Chalmers of the Disruption." 106

And perhaps the greatest single service rendered to the Southern
Church by Dr. Wilson was the report of the Committee on Foreign

103 Article, The Southern Pres. Church and the Freedmen, Jan., 1885, S. P. R.,
p. 83. Cf. The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, pp. 134, 142.

104 White, p. 456.

^Minutes, 1927, p. 268.

xm Memoirs of Rev. John Lighton Wilson, D.D., by Hampden C. DuBose, D.D.,
p. 258.

The Missionary Enterprise 135

Missions to this First Southern Presbyterian General Assembly. In
this report, adopted by a Church struggling to birth in the throes
of an agonizing war, is seen "the sublime spectacle of faith" ... "a
Church hedged in by a cordon of armies, looking out upon the whole
world as its field." 107

"Finally, the General Assembly desires distinctly and deliberately
to inscribe on our Church's banner as she now first unfurls it to the
world, in immediate connection with the Headship of her Lord, His
last command: 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every creature'; regarding this as the great end of her organization,
and obedience to it as the indispensable condition of her Lord's
promised presence, and as one great comprehensive object, a proper
conception of whose vast magnitude and grandeur is the only thing
which, in connection with the love of Christ, can ever sufficiently
arouse her energies and develop her resources, so as to cause her
to carry on, with vigor and efficiency which true fealty to her Lord
demands, those other agencies necessary to her internal growth and
home prosperity. The claims of this cause ought therefore to be
kept constantly before the minds of our people and pressed upon
their consciences." 108

Wilson's early love for the colored brother, both at home and
abroad, has been noticed. He labored for almost, twenty years
(1833-1852) under the A. B. C. F. M. in the African mission first
at Cape Palmas, then in the Gaboon Mission. His work involved that
of. naturalist, explorer, linguist, and author as well as preacher.
Wilson's Western Africa: Its History, Condition and Prospects, New
York, 1856, an encyclopaedic book, received the highest praise from
Dr. Livingstone. 109 His biographer gives Wilson large credit for the
final suppression of the African slave trade. A British naval squad-
ron was at work trying to break up this evil practice. There was
agitation in England to recall the squadron. Wilson wrote an urgent
paper in favor of the maintenance of the squadron in African waters;
and sent it to a wealthy Bristol merchant. The merchant gave it to
Lord Palmerston, who published it in the British Blue Book. The

107 Memoirs of Wilson, p. 252.

108 Minutes, 1861, pp. 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17. DuBose, Memoirs, p. 251. John-
son, T. C, The Southern Presbyterians, pp. 341-342. American Ch. History,
Vol. XL

^Memoirs, p. 190.

136 Columbia Seminary and

Premier had it widely disseminated, and afterward informed Wilson
that, with the publication of his article, all English opposition to
the retention of the African squadron ceased. 110

Returning to America on account of ill-health, Dr. Wilson was
elected a Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
in 1853. The Memoirs preserve letters from Mr. Wm. Rankin,
Treasurer; and from Dr. John D. Wells, President of the Board
each testifying to the high esteem in which Wilson was held by his
associates in this office. Of particular moment was Wilson's ad-
vocacy of the sending of Rev. A. G. Smyington, at his own request,
to Brazil. By this act the Presbyterian Church launched its mis-
sionary work in Latin America. Dr. Charles Hodge, who came into
close contacts with Dr. Wilson in connection with the frequent visits
of the Secretary to the Seminary, is quoted as having said to Dr.
Samuel B. Jones that, "Dr. Leighton Wilson was the wisest man in
the Presbyterian Church, and had more of. the apostolic spirit than
any one he ever knew." 111 Dr. Wilson's training in the thoroughly
organized offices of the New York Board was to be invaluable in
the organization of the work in the South.

With the outbreak of the war he saw, from his New York watch-
tower, the great power, the tremendous forces of the North, and
their fixed determination to crush secession the hopeless odds; but
he declared: "My mind is made up. I will go and suffer with my
people." 112

On the advice of the Presbyterian Convention held in Atlanta he
visited the Indian Missions in the summer of 1861, so that he was
ready to present this work to the first Southern General Assembly as
a definite foreign missionary work ready for its immediate care. The
missionaries to the southwestern Indian tribes, the Choctaws, Chick -
asaws, Seminoles, and Cherokees, were ready to cast in their lot with
the Southern Church; and this trust was by that Church accepted
"with joyful gratitude to God." 113

The first Assembly practically placed the organization of its For-
eign Mission Avork in the hands of Columbia Seminary. It elected

""DuBose, Memoirs, p. 219. Tenney, Souvenir of Assembly, 1924, p. 141.

'"Memoirs, p. 243.

"-Memoirs, p. 247.

^Minutes, 1861, pp. 16, 44-48. Memoirs, p. 251.

The Missionary Enterprise 137

for Secretary Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, D.D. a member of Colum-
bia's first class and the first student president of. its Society of Mis-
sionary Inquiry. It elected for Treasurer Dr. James Woodrow,
Perkins Professor of Natural Science in connection with Revela-
tion. 114

Dr. Wilson nominated Columbia as the location of the Commit-
tee; and in the home of Professor Woodrow work was centered for
many years. 115 One reason Wilson gave for locating in Columbia
was the facility with which a committee could be organized of the
able ministers there. In addition to Dr. Woodrow. at whose home
he stayed during the monthly meetings. 116 on the first committee were
Professors Thornwell. Howe and Adger of the Seminary Faculty,
A. A. Porter and F. P. Mullally of the alumni and a group of
Columbia elders most closely connected with the Seminary. 117

In this work the business and executive ability, the multifarious
service, and unswerving honesty of Dr. James Woodrow were of in-
valuable aid. Testimonials by Dr. A. M. Fraser, Dr. Thomas H. Law,
and General W. A. Clark show that, in order to revive the Southern
Presbyterian in 1865, Dr. Woodrow^ hauled its printing press to
Columbia with a cart, a mule, and at times his own shoulder (p. 38 ) :
and in Columbia at a personal loss published both this and the
Southern Presbyterian Review (pp. 38, 172). 118 A part of his own
home was set aside as the Presbyterian Publishing House. Dr. Law
says, "He proposed to open and conduct a book depository in Colum-
bia for the supply of our people with much needed religious lit-
erature" (p. 59). "In carrying out these plans Dr. Woodrow be-
came a sort of factotum of our Church in this section. We looked
to him for information on all subjects; we got our books and writ-
ing materials at his hands; and even sent all kinds of Church con-
tributions through his hands" (p. 60).

Owing to the serious embarrassments to the work of the Executive
Committee of Domestic Missions caused by the war, Dr. Wilson pro-
posed to the General Assembly of 1863 a temporary union of the

"'Minutes, 1861. pp. 29 ? 37.
^Memoirs, p. 29.
""Memoirs, p. 294.
"'Minutes, 1861, p. 29.
118 Dr. Jas. Woodrow, p. 172.

138 Columbia Seminary and

two committees. This step was taken by that Assembly. 119 The
United Committee on Domestic and Foreign Missions was composed
of the same executive officers and included the same members of the
Seminary Faculty as the former Committee of Foreign Missions. It
was a Columbia Committee, centering and functioning from the
Seminary. 120 The consolidated committee resolved to try to put one
chaplain in every brigade. The secretary sent out a circular letter
to eighty ministers and before July Assembly met in May sixty of
these brethren were in the field. 121 Among the foremost of the Con-
federate war chaplains, stands the names of Benjamin M. Palmer
Columbia Seminary's rich gift to New Orleans and John L. Girar-
deau, called from his colored mission to preach the religion of power
to the soldiers. 122

It was in sustaining, holding together, building up the torn frag-
ments of the Southern Zion after the war, that Dr. J. L. Wilson and
his committee shine with brightest brilliance. No sooner did the
bugle call to battle cease to be heard than he seized the gospel
trumpet and, with its clarion notes, summoned the Church to action.
He breathed upon the Church the spirit of consecration, awoke the
slumbering energies of the people to fresh resolve, encouraged the
faint-hearted. His office became the "connectional centre" of the
Church, and as corresponding agent he was her chief director. "In
the Southern Synods no one has ever equalled him in the power for
good he exerted, and we believe it is impossible in the future for any
man to obtain the position of commanding influence that he exercised
during the ten years following our civil struggle." 123 He helped
ministers find their fields or exchange them, and churches find min-
isters; he secured and disbursed the funds to maintain struggling
churches. In 1865 he called "for the restoration of our crippled
and broken-down churches." To the next Assembly he presented the
Sustentation Plan, which was to be the life of the feeble, the new,
and the border churches for many years. 124

Minutes, 1863, pp. 123, 138, 146.
VM Minutes, 1863, p. 148.
li!1 DuBose, Memoirs, p. 253.

"G. A. Blackburn, Life Work of John L. Girardeau, p. 106 ff. White, 5. P.
L., p. 370.

V2 *Memoirs, 259.
V2 *Minutes, 1866, pp. 9, 49.

The Missionary Enterprise 139

This resulted in a change of. the Committee's name, from Commit-
tee of Domestic Missions to Committee of Sustentation; but the
personnel continued to be the same as that of the Committee of
Foreign Missions, and the center of the organization and work, the
Seminary. 125 Dr. Craig, a successor to Dr. Wilson in the home work,
declares that, but for this effort of sustentation by Wilson's Commit-
tee, "Many churches would have fallen into disorganization." Dr.
DuBose declares that Dr. Wilson was gifted as a financier; in that,
even in years of financial ruin, people listened to the earnestness and
solemnity of his appeal and gave with self-denying hand; in that,
in times of threatened disaster, he would go to the liberal Presby-
terians of Kentucky and Missouri, spend a couple months going from
church to church with soul-stirring addresses and secure the funds
for this work ; and in that he administered his funds with utmost wis-
dom. "We doubt if the finances of the Church, in any period of the
history of God's people can show greater returns from small invest-
ment than from the money spent in Home Missions during the decade
succeeding the war." 126

A member of the Columbia Committee, Dr. A. A. Porter, 127 was
sent to visit the state of Texas. His stirring report touched the Com-
mittee, and Dr. Wilson sounded and re-sounded the appeal for men
for Texas until they were found and sent. Dr. R. L. Dabney is
quoted as saying in The Christian Observer that "Dr. Wilson saved
Texas to our Church." Other plans which Wilson advocated were
the "Relief Fund" for the families of deceased ministers, from which
has grown the work of. Ministerial Relief and the Annuity Plan; and
a special collection for the evangelistic work. 128

In the department of Foreign Missions Dr. Wilson kept alive the
work for the Indians during the war. He found a way, even amidst
Reconstruction, to establish a mission at Hangchow, China by the
sending of Rev. E. B. Inslee and family there in June, 1866 ; 129 to
send Miss C. Rouzone back to her native land, Italy, under the sup-
port of the Southern Church, to aid the Waldensian Church; to open
the Brazil Mission and the Colombia Mission in 1869. 130

125 Cf. e. g. Minutes, 1869, fly leaf if numbered would be p. 368.

^Memoirs, pp. 261, 262, 263.

127 Class of '42 Catalogue 1907-7 appendix, p. 32.

^Memoirs, p. 263.

129 Report Committee F. M. in Minutes Asembly, 1867, p. 161.

130 Minutes, 1869, p. 406.

140 Columbia Seminary and

With the improvement of home conditions came also a mission to
Greece, and one to Mexico, and finally one to Africa the continent
which had enjoyed the strength of his own youth.

A Notable Succession

Nor has the Seminary's influence in directing the great missionary
forces of the Church ended with Dr. Wilson. Dr. R. C. Reed points
out that, "in furnishing secretaries for the Committees of both Home
and Foreign Missions, Columbia Seminary has done a notable part ";
that for almost twenty years (1883-1900) Dr. J. N. Craig, an alum-
nus of the Seminary, had the Home Mission work in hand; 132 and
that the retiring Executive Secretary of. Home Missions, Dr. S. L.
Morris, is a Columbia man. Dr. Morris' wise and energetic admin-
istration, already extending over more than a quarter of a century,
"has marked a new and striking era in this vastly important and ever-
expanding department of the King's business." 133

Dr. Morris has found time, somehow, to produce several valuable
books, in his own and other fields of thought. The wide dissemina-
tion of these books, through Bible classes, mission study classes,
Circles and Brotherhoods, has deepened the Church's denominational
consciousness, accentuated her sense of responsibility and obligation,
and stimulated her endeavors. Among these are: At Our Own Door, 1M
The Task That Challenges, Christianizing Christendom, Presbyterian-
ism, Principle and Practice, The Country Church, Its Ruin and Rem-
edy, The Romance of Missions, The Fact of Christianity, etc. 135

Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters mentions, in the home field, the labors of
the following Columbia workers and organizers: Josephus Johnson,
A. P. Smith, and S. F. Tenney in Texas; T. D. Witherspoon and E.
M. Green in Kentucky. 136

Many others are equally entitled to honorable mention for their
valiant service in the homeland. But the thousand sons of Colum-
bia have always been willing to belong to

^Memoirs, pp. 256-279.

182 Cf. also Souvenir Assembly 1924. by Tenney, p. 163.

L88 Reed, A Historical Sketch Bulletin C. T. S., March, 1922, Vol. XII, No.
IX, pp. 11, 12.

18 *S. L. Morris, D.D., Richmond, 1917, Pres. C. of Publ.
^Souvenir of General Assembly 1924, by S. M. Tenney.
181 'Columbia Theol. Seminary, A Retrospect, 1901, pp. 30, 31.

The Missionary Enterprise 141

"The legion that never was listed,
That carries no color nor crest,
Yet split in a thousand detachments
Is breaking the road for the rest."
On the present executive force of the Foreign Mission Com-
mittee Columbia is represented by Dr. J. 0. Reavis, for ten years
Professor of English Bible, Missions, etc., in the Seminary; and by
Dr. C. Darby Fulton, an alumnus with a record for distinguished
missionary service in Japan. 137

On the basis of his earlier Retrospect and the Catalogues of the
Seminary, Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters gives the following list of Colum-
bia Theological Seminary Alumni who have gone as Foreign Mis-
sionaries:

To Africa

F. McC. Grissett, Cameroun, W. Africa.

Samuel H. Wilds, Luebo, Congo Beige, Africa.

C. L. Voss.

J. Leighton Wilson.

Hoyt Miller, Ex. '19.

To India

L. L. McBryde.
M. M. Charlton.

To China

S. R. Brown, R. C. Way, J. W. Quarteman, J. K. Wight, J. A.
Danf-orth, H. C. DuBose, J. N. Montgomery, H. M. Smith, P. C.
DuBose, Geo. A. Hudson, S. I. Woodbridge, H. L. Reaves, W. P.
Mills (Y. M. C. A.), W. B. White.

Japan

S. R. Hope, R. E. McAlpine, S. P. Fulton, C. Rees Jenkins, W.
B. Mclllwaine, C. Darby Fulton, V. A. Crawford, H. H. Bryan.

United States of Columbia, and thence to Mexico and Cuba
J. G. Hall.

To the Indians

A. M. Watson, C. J. Stillman. J. H. Colter, J. J. Read, J. C. Ken-
nedy.

"Minutes, 1927, p. 3.

142 Columbia Seminary and

Brazil

Wm. C. Emerson, J. R. Baird, H. S. Allyn, A. L. Davis, W. G.
Neville, Geo. Henderlite, R. D. Daffin, J. Knox Johnston, William
LeConte.

Korea

L. 0. McCutchen, D. A. Swicord, John McEachern, W. A. Linton.

Mexico

Walter E. Shive.

Persia

Knoshaba Shimmon.

Central America
J. T. Butler

Siam

Alexander Waite, James Waite.

The Church fruitage of the work of. Dr. Wilson, his co-laborers,
and successors on the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, has
been a missionary communion. For the five years ending 1928 the
Southern Presbyterian Church has contributed from $1,200,000 to $1,-
500,000 per year for the support of its foreign missionary enterprise.
The year which closed April 1, 1928, saw $1,662,443.84 contributed
for Foreign Missions. 138 Its per capita gifts for all denominational
benevolences for the same period have been about twelve dollars a
year. 139 A summary of the 1926 mission statistics shows that she
has a native Christian constituency of 103,620; a native communi-
cant membership of 47,879; a force of 499 foreign and 3,606 native
workers, laboring in 1,664 outstations and 314 organized congre-
gations. 140

A comparison of. these figures with the givings and per capita giv-
ings of the Old School Assembly would indicate that the Southern
Presbyterian Church has had some success in realizing the purpose
avowed for it by Dr. Thornwell "to bring out the energies of our
Presbyterian system of government." 141 In 1859, under that Board
system against which Thornwell protested, the Old School Assembly,

^Presbyterian Standard, April 18, 1928, p. I.

'Minutes 1927, p. 270.

'Report of Executive Committee to the General Asembly (U. S.), 1927, p. 5.

1 Minutes Southern Assembly 1861, pp. 59, 60.

The Missionary Enterprise 143

with 279,630 members, contributed $114,962 for Foreign Missions,
and slightly less than two dollars per capita for all denominational
benevolences. 142

Social Service
Among the sons of Columbia sent out by the Southern Presby-
terian Church, perhaps none has a deeper hold on the affectionate
memory of the church than Hampden C. DuBose the biographer of
Dr. J. L. Wilson. Dr. DuBose was a South Carolinian, a Confeder-
ate Soldier and for almost fifty years a soldier of the Cross, claim-
ing for his King the city of Soochow, China (1872-1910). He
preached indefatigably in the market and the street. He used his
pen in translating and in writing a religious literature for the
Chinese. Among these works he translated a book by his old Semi-
nary professor, Dr. Wm. S. Plumer The Rock of Our Salvation.
He was made President of the Chinese Anti-Opium League, and
wrought so effectively in that endeavor that the movement to sup-
press the opium traffic became "the strongest movement in China." 143
Mr. Tenney described its victory thus:

"He (DuBose) appealed to Rt. Hon. John Mosley, to members
of the British Parliament, to President Roosevelt, to the American
consuls in China, and interviewed Governor Chen of. the Province of
Kiang-su, to Viceroy Luan Fang in Nanking, who suggested 'a
memorial signed by the Missionaries,' promising to present it to the
Throne. Dr. DuBose wrote the memorial, secured 'the signatures of
1,333 American and British missionaries,' and these were presented
to the Throne on August 19th. On September 20th, the Imperial
Edict was issued, 'An almost verbatim copy of the memorial writ-
ten by Dr. DuBose.' " 144

Dr. H. A. White quotes this estimate of Dr. DuBose, made by an
observing traveller in the East: "This daring and chivalrous soldier
of a great ideal lived to see the approach of the consummation of the
noblest ministry a white man ever rendered China." 145

An excellent example of a crusader for civic righteousness is to be
found in the protagonist of. the non-secular character of the Church,

li2 Minutes Assembly 1859 (0. S.), pp. 538, 747.
143 White, p. 456.

144 Tenney, Souvenir Assembly 1924, p. 67.
145 White, p. 456; Tenney, Souvenir, p. 67.

144 Columbia Seminary and

Dr. B. M. Palmer, Jr. In the effort to free the State of Louisiana
from the lottery Dr. Palmer took a most conspicuous part. 146 In
addition to earlier services, he was called upon to make the key-
note speech in the campaign of 1891, carried on by the Louisiana
Anti-Lottery League. On this occasion he was introduced by Colonel
Wm. Preston Johnston, Chancellor of Tulane University, as "the
first citizen of New Orleans" (p. 554). The following tribute to
this speech by a Jewish Rabbi would indicate that he measured up
to the occasion and the introduction:

"I have heard the foremost American public speakers, in the
pulpit and on the rostrum. Beecher commanded a more lurid
rhetoric than Palmer. For a combination of logical argument
and noble and brilliant rhetoric, neither he nor any other has
equalled Palmer, when he was at his best. I heard him that
night in the Grand Opera House. Always, except on this oc-
casion, when listening to an address, even a great one, I have
been able to say to myself, how far do you agree with the
speaker? What do you reject? How far will you go with him?
Where will you stop? But I give you my word, sir, that night
Dr. Palmer did not permit me to think for myself, but picked
me up and carried me whithersoever he would. It did not seem
to me that it was Palmer that was speaking. He spoke as one in-
spired. It seemed to me that God Almighty was speaking
through Palmer. He had filled him with His Spirit and Mes-
sage as He filled the Hebrew prophets of old." 147

Perhaps an even stronger testimony from this distinguished Rabbi
i? the fact that the next morning after the speech he advised a wealthy
friend to draw out of. the lottery, declaring that it was doomed, for
"Dr. Palmer has spoken." This speech aroused the moral sense of
Louisiana, and was regarded by the able Rabbi as essential to the
victory of the anti-lottery crusade (563). Under Palmer's inspiring
leadership the victory was won and the lottery banished.

Dr. S. M. Tenney, the curator of the Historical Foundation of the
Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, has had this to say in the
introduction to a souvenir issued for the General Assembly of 1924:
"Much is said today of the ministry and social problems. Our Church
is noted for its conservatism. Yet among these (leaders of the
Church) are three whose names will ever be connected with great

14C T. C. Johnson, Life and Letters of B. M. Palmer, pp. 552-563.
147 Johnson, p. 562.

The Missionary Enterprise 145

social reforms, Dr. J. L. Wilson with the cessation of the British
slave traffic, Dr. B. M. Palmer with the expulsion of the lottery
from our borders, and Dr. H. C. DuBose with the opium reform in
China." 148

In a day when every organization is stressing its accomplishments
in the field of social betterment, Dr. Tenney has chosen to summar-
ize the accomplishments of. the Southern Church in that field, and
he has used wholly the names of Columbia alumni.

With this record of the work of some of the illustrious sons of the
Seminary should be placed the name of another of the sons of
Columbia a son, not of the class rooms of the institution; but of
her families and of her homes, of her religious faith and life. The
man who has probably done more than any other statesman in his-
tory to give the world an international conscience was, in this sense,
a son of Columbia. Her library fed his alert mind; her sacred
rhetoric awoke the strains of eloquence in his soul.

In a series of prayer meetings held in the old Seminary Chapel,
the boy Tom was converted and confessed his Saviour. 149 Virginia,
the mother of Presidents, needs no recessional to foster her pride as
the place of. his birth; Episcopacy seeks no throbbing elegy to hallow
the cathedral tomb of his body; but alas! how little has a debtor
world remembered this School of the Prophets as the communion of
the saints in which and of which, by God's grace, his spirit was re-
born for eternity.

The father of this great American was Professor of Pastoral and
Evangelistic Theology and Sacred Rhetoric in Columbia Theological
Seminary during the years when the boy was changing from child-
hood to manhood. 150 His maternal uncle, Dr. James Woodrow, was, in
the same institution, Perkins Professor of Natural Science in Con-
nection with Revelation. 151 A sister married Dr. George Howe, the
son of that professor who exceeded all others in years of service given
Columbia. This sister, Mrs. George Howe, was a frequent visitor to
the White House until her death. 152 The mingled and various emo-
tions which the name of this son have brought to the patriots of a

""Prefatory note. Souvenir Assembly San Antonio, Texas, 1924.
"Authenticated bv Dr. S. L. Morris and Dr. A. M. Fraser.
'"Catalogue C. T.S., 1927. p. 64; Dr. J. R. Wilson. 1870-1874.
351 Ibid, 1861-1886.

152 Daniels, Josephus. The Life of Woodrow Wilson, Philadelphia, 1924. pp.
32-40.

146 Columbia Seminary and

score of nations, to the statesmen of the world, to the idealists of all
climes, to every lover of peace, are too many and too deep to here
present. Sympathizing with and sharing in these emotions, Colum-
bia rejoices in the privilege which was hers of giving, for this world
vision and service, of her blood, of her homes, of her faith, of her
ideals, of two of her names, honored for their Columbia devotion and
ability doubly honored as they stand united in this rich gift of the
Seminary, this twentieth century apostle of world brotherhood, world
democracy, world peace Woodrow Wilson.

*&&/&

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AND

THE THOUGHT OF THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIANCHURCH

Contributions of the Seminary to the Thought of the
Church.

Publications, Periodicals, Reviews, Books.
Library and Lectureship.
Thinkers, Educators, Moderators.

Contributions in Special Spheres of Thought.
Interpretation.

Natural Science in Connection with Revealed Religion.
Philosophy.
Theology.

"On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing
great but mind." Sir William Hamilton, Quoted by J. H. Thorn-
well, Vol. I, p. 183.

148 Columbia Seminary and

Contributions of the Seminary to the Thought of
the Church

A Seminary is an educational institution, established to stimulate
the mental life of the Church. It has to be finally evaluated, not by
its numbers or external equipment, but by its efficiency in stimulat-
ing the thought life of its constituency. Can Columbia justify her
hundred years of history by the enrichment she has given to the
mental activity of the Southern Presbyterian Church? A study of
such a question can be made in several ways. Has the Seminary been
the nursery for periodicals and the alma mater of authors? Has
she furnished a place and facilities for study in her library? Has she
given a forum for the expression of thought in lectureship? Has
she been awake to the currents of thought, philosophical, critical,
scientific, theological? Has she striven to understand the prevailing
Zeitgeist and to orient her pedagogical approach to meet the kaleido-
scopic movements of world thought? Has she been trapped and
trammelled in a little understood heritage of the past, "content to
acquiesce in intellectual bankruptcy," 1 or has she striven to give a
reason for confidence in her rich deposit of faith the inheritance
from the past?

Periodicals
Of weekly periodicals, Columbia men have contributed to the
editing of several.

The Charleston Observer was started by the same group of
Charleston pastors who promoted the organization of the Seminary
and at about the same time. 2

Dr. W. S. Plumer edited The Watchman of the South in Rich-
mond. 3

To The Southern Presbyterian, the Seminary contributed its
founder, Dr. A. A. Porter, and, as Editors, Dr. James Woodrow, Dr.
W. S. Bean and Dr. J. F. Jacobs. 4

Helton, A Study in Christ ology, Introd. XXVIII, XXIX, London, S. P. C. K.,
1922, published 1917.

-Archives, Vol. I. Letter of R. B. Cater. Feb. 14, 1927, files The Charleston
Observer, Vol. I, No. 1, in C. T. S. Library.

'Watchman of the South, file in C. T. S. Library.

4 Dr. James Woodrow, Character Sketches, etc., p. 3. The Southern Presby-
terian, file in C. T. S. Library.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 149

The Southwestern Presbyterian enjoyed the editorial services of
Professor James Woodrow, and Drs. H. M. Smith and Dr. R. Q.
Mallard, '55, Columbia men. Dr. S. I. Woodbridge, '82, was editor
for a number of years of the Chinese Christian Intelligencer ; while
Dr. R. C. Reed of the faculty was co-editor of The Presbyterian
Standard from 1905 until his death, 1924. 5

Reviews

Of more importance for the stimulation of thought were the re-
views and monthlies published at the Seminary. The most notable
of these was the Southern Presbyterian Review, published from 1847
to 1885 at Columbia, S. C, by "an association of ministers." The
Synod of S. C, in 1846, endorsed and commended the proposed plan
of a Southern Theological Review, "as important to the true interest
of the Southern Church, as suited to subserve the cause of Christ, and
to promote sound learning and doctrinal knowledge among us." Dr.
W. M. McPheeters states that the founders were Dr. Thorn well and
Dr. Palmer ; and the managing editor, for many years, was Dr. James
Woodrow. 6

The alphabetical index published in the Thirty-fifth Volume
shows that the articles and book reviews deal with the fields of
theology, ecclesiology, missions, exegesis and criticism, philosophy,
civics, history, education, science, worship, Christian conduct, etc.
This periodical offered an opportunity for the expression, by pro-
fessors and ecclesiastical leaders, of the great fundamental principles
governing their plans of teaching, courses of action, principles of
theology. The result, as the Nestor of our Seminary, Dr. Wm. M.
McPheeters, recently suggested, was that the men of the Seminary had
well wrought out architectonic principles and carefully concatenated
systems sustained by abstract reasonings. In discussing a question
they dug down to its fundamental presuppositions.

Thornwell and other writers in the Southern Presbyterian Review
mined as deeply into the underlying principles of. theology, as ever
did Calhoun into the underlying principle of civil polity. 7

^Souvenir of the General Assembly of 1924. p. 129, Presbyterian Standard,
files in C. T. S. Library.

*A Retrospect, p. 33'. cf. T. E. Peck. Miscellanies, Vol. II, p. 361. Printed
Min., 1846, p. 18.

7 Thornweirs Collected Writings, Esp. Vol. I. Peck, Miscellanies, Vol. II, p.
360 ff.

150 Columbia Seminary and

Moreover, the publication was an avenue for the expression of
differences. Each writer must needs write, expecting to have his
positions challenged, even in his own circle. Dr. Thornwell's views
on the Board and the Elder questions were as strenuously contested
by Dr. Thomas Smyth, of Charleston, as they were by Dr. Charles
Hodge. 8 Dr. Adger took strong ground against his friends, Drs. Wm.
Cunningham (of Scotland) and Chas. Hodge (of Princeton), on the
question of Calvin's doctrine of the supper. 9 The offices of the
evangelist and of the deacon produced a large literature of contro-
versy. 10

The review of foreign publications was a window for the Church,
into the field of. international scholarship. In addition to the im-
mediate clientele of the Seminary, articles were contributed by Drs.
Peck and Dabney of Richmond; Drs. R. J. Breckenridge, Stuart
Robinson and B. B. Warfield of Kentucky; Dr. A. A. Porter from
Texas, etc. The Review was thus the agency for stimulating the
thought of the Southern Church for forty years. 11 Dr. Thornwell
was also a contributor and, for a short while, editor of the Southern
Review, published in Charleston, S. C. 12

With the passing of the Southern Presbyterian Review (1885), a
successor to it was launched by Dr. Summey of Chester, S. C, a
member of the Board of Directors of the Seminary. On this, The
Presbyterian Quarterly, Dr. R. C. Reed of the faculty and Dr. R. A.
Webb of. the Alumni were Associate Editors. The Quarterly ap-
peared in 1887 and continued until 1904. Dr. George Summey, the
promoter, continued to be the guiding spirit in the publication. It
was published first in Atlanta and New York; later in Richmond by

Whittet and Shepperson. (Files in Seminary Library).

Near the close of the last century, another series of publications
began to be issued by Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters and a group of as-
sociates from Columbia. This publication, edited by Dr. McPheet-
ers and his colleague, Dr. D. J. Brimm, was first entitled The Re-

8 Thornwell's Works, Vol. IV. S. P. R., Vol. II, p. 1 ; Vol. IV, p. 33. Smith's
Works, Vol. II; Presbytery and Prelacy, p. 546.

S. P. R., XXVII, p. 133.

ao S. P. R., Vol. 34, pp. 96, 106, 235, 277 ; Vol. 33, p. 333, etc. Deacon S. P. R.
Vol. 30, pp. 1-31, 117-32; pp. 191, 628, 355, etc.

U S. P. R., Vol. XXXV.

n -'T. E. Peck, Miscellanies, Vol. II, p. 361. Files Southern Review in C. T. S.
Library.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 151

ligious Outlook; later The Religious Outlook and Bible Student.
The files of these publications are preserved in the private library of
Dr. McPheeters at the Seminary. In 1900 the work was re-organized
and The Bible Student was issued each month from Columbia. The
editorial staff of this periodical consisted of Drs. Wm. M. McPheet-
ers, B. B. Warfield, G. T. Purves, S. M. Smith, D. J. Brimm, and
John D. Davis. It was published by the Bryan Printing Company
of Columbia, S. C. Articles appear on all fields bearing on the
study of the Bible, principally by members of the faculties of Prince-
ton and Columbia Seminaries. The publication of this work testi-
fies to a very close interpenetration of the Columbia thought by that
of the Princeton School. 13

But there are frequent articles in The Bible Student from profes-
sors in other institutions, and individuals. A cursory view finds
among the contributors such names as: Drs. R. A. Webb, W. H.
Marquess, A. T. Robertson, W. H. Johnson, C. A. Salmond, A. C.
Zenos, R. L. Stewart, F. R. Beattie, Willis J. Beecher. 14

In 1906 the periodical was re-organized as The Bible Student and
Teacher and published by The American Bible League, 86 Bible
House, New York City. Of the new publication Dr. Daniel S. Greg-
ory was Managing Editor and Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters, Associate
Editor. This change necessarily resulted in the publication's being
less closely affiliated with the Seminary.

Books
Columbia Seminary has encouraged authorship. Beginning with
the field closest at hand, she has had a succession of men writing on
the subject of history from her origin to the present. Dr. Geo.
Howe has contributed a monumental work on the History of the
Presbyterian Church in South Carolina until 1850, written from
manuscript records of the Synod and the Presbyteries, and being the
only reliable history of this subject. 15

"Hodge's "'Three Volumes" shared with Thornwell's works the position of
being the accepted theology at Columbia; the scholarship of the larger Semi-
nary was freely drawn on by Columbia both in this periodical and for the
Smyth lectureship; Princeton was recognized as the place for postgraduate
theological study; the admiration for Dr. B. B. Warfield reached such a point
that the initials "B. B. W." became almost the last word on a question.

"The Bible Student. Vols. I & II, 1900, Bryan, Columbia, S. C, Seminary
Files.

15 Dr. Howe also has a book on Theological Education, New York, 1844.

152 Columbia Seminary and

Dr. Charles C. Jones published The History of the Church of God
During the Period of Revelation, New York, 1867, together with a
number of pamphlets on The Religious Instruction of the Negroes.

Dr. John Bailey Adger has preserved much of the history of the
Seminary in his autobiography My Life and Times (Columbia,
1859).

Dr. R. C. Reed's magnus opus is The History of the Presbyterian
Churches of the World, adapted for use in the class room (Phila-
delphia, 1905). He has also written the following pamphlets: The
History of the Southern Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N. C, 1923;
John Knox, His Field and Work, Richmond, 1905 ; What is the King-
dom of God? Richmond, 1922, etc.

Dr. Henry Alexander White's historical writings have been recent-
ly summarized by Prof. George A. Wauchope, Ph.D., University of
South Carolina. Dr. Wauchope says : "The history of the South was
his (White's) specialty, his earliest and his latest love, and here he
attained national recognition as an authority." 16

One group of Dr. White's writings is a series of school histories
written for the children of the South, e. g. Beginner's History of the
United States, The Making of South Carolina, etc. (p. 14) .

Dr. Wauchope finds three of White's works admirable examples
of literary biography and historical narration. These are charac-
terized by scholarly accuracy and are carefully documented. They
are Robert E. Lee and the Southern Confederacy, 11 Life of Stonewall
Jackson, The Scotch-Irish in America.

Of Dr. White's works, more closely related to the Seminary, are
The Southern Presbyterian Leaders, N. Y., 1911; The Gospel of Com-
fort, the Stone Foundation Lectures at Princeton, and The Pentateuch
in the Light of the Ancient Monuments.

In the field of Church Government, ThornwelTs Collected Writ-
ings, Vol. IV, and Girardeau on the Diaconate have been referred to.
Dr. A. T. McGill, an honorary alumnus, published a Treatise on
Church Government, Philadelphia, 1888; and Dr. Thomas E. Peck,

1<! Memorial Bulletin issued by C. T. S. October, 1927, Bryan & Co., Columbia,
p. 13.

^Heroes of the Nation's Series, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897, Life of Stonewall
Jackson, 1907, American Crisis Series; The Scotch-Irish in America (Ibid, pp.
14, 15).

Southern Presbyterian Thought 153

who was for a short time in Columbia and later a private student
under Dr. Thornwell, is known by his Notes on Ecclesiology (2nd
Edition, Richmond, 1892).

In the field of Theology, Thornwell's work is found in his Collect-
ed Writings. Dr. B. M. Palmer's chief work is The Theology of
Prayer, Richmond, 1904. In this department Dr. John L. Girardeau
has written Calvinism and Evangelical Arminianism (Columbia,
1890); The Will in its Theological Relations (Columbia, 1891);
Theology as a Science Involving an Infinite Element, in the Life
Work of J. L. G. by G. A. Blackburn (Columbia, 1916) ; Discussion
of Theological Questions, Richmond, 1905. Dr. G. H. Cartledge,
'48, published The Perpetuity of the Abrajiamic Covenant, Richmond,
1890.

Dr. R. A. Webb, an alumnus of Columbia, has written The Christ-
ian s Hope (Jackson, Miss., 1914) ; Christian Salvation, Its Doctrine
and Experience (Richmond, 1921) ; The Theology of Infant Salva-
tion (Richmond, 1907). Dr. S. S. Laws, sometime of the faculty,
published The At-Onement by the Christian Trinity, in 1919.

Dr. Thornton Whaling has published Questions on Theology (Co-
lumbia, 1916) . The most voluminous Columbia writer was Dr. Wm.
S. Plumer. In addition to many devotional works (e. g. Vital Godli-
ness) , commentaries (e. g. On the Psalms), he has written, in the
field of Theology, The Rock of Our Salvation (the American Tract
Society, N. Y., 1867), and The Grace of Christ (Presbyterian Board
of Publication, Philadelphia, 1853). Among the recent contribu-
tions to the Columbia Theology are The Grace of God, the Smyth
Lectures (1917) by Dr. Wm. S. Plumer Bryan, an alumnus of the
Seminary, while Dr. C. O'N. Martindale, Ph. D., '92, has an answer
to the timely question, What It Means to Be Christian? Chicago,
1927.

The Library and Lectureship

The early development of the Seminary Library was principally
the work of Dr. Geo. Howe as Librarian and Dr. Thos. Smyth as
chief supporter and patron of the library. Local collectors were
appointed in each Presbytery. Dr. Howe and Dr. Smyth secured the
buying of foreign volumes. The records show early authorizations

154 Columbia Seminary and

of such sums as $1,500.00 and $1,800.00 to be expended by Dr.
Smyth for these purposes. 18

In 1845 the report of the librarian and the Board's Committee
boast of "one of the best libraries in the whole country'' About
forty-five hundred volumes secured at an expenditure of $4,595.00
and the result of many gifts. 19

Books were Dr. Smyth's hobby. His personal library numbered
twenty thousand volumes. He states his purpose in making this
collection, as follows: "I studied Bibliography, in order to collect
a large systematic, Presbyterian, Theological and Literary Library,
as an armory for our ministers and churches in Charleston, similar
to that of Dr. Williams in London. As it increased, I labored tc
adapt it for a Theological Seminary, in which I hoped it ultimately
would find a providential location." 20

The minutes of 1856 record a great forward step in the history of
the library. The Board approved the action of its Committee on the
Library in purchasing "Valpy's Latin and a Variorum Classics, 190
volumes, and a porion of the library of Rev. Thomas Smyth, D.D.,
of Charleston, S. C, about 1L,000 volumes; so that the Library now
consists of over 16,000 volumes, and is one of the best in the United
States." 21 In connection with this purchase the great liberality of
Dr. Smyth, in abating the prices of his books, is commended. The
following year, the exact number of books in the library is declared
to be 16,574. 22 His son, A. T. Smyth, declared that the purpose
of stimulating the thought of the Church through the library and
lectureship in the Seminary was, next to the work of the ministry,
"the most cherished wish and desire of my father's heart." This
wish caused father and son to arrange an endowment for the cherish-
ed interests. Dr. Thomas Smyth died August 20, 1873. 23 The Minutes
of the Board, 1874, record the setting apart of stock for the endow-
ment of (a) the Seminary Library, (b) a Presbyterian lectureship
in the Seminary, (c) the publication of Dr. Smyth's works. 24 The

'"Archives, Vol. II, p. 366, p. 1019 ff.
'"Archives, Vol. II, pp. 654, 883, 938.

-"Quoted in Memorial Address of Rev. T. R. Brackett, Smyth's Works, Vol.
X, p. 782.

'-'Minutes of Board, Appendix Min. Synod of S. C, 1856, pp. 44, 45.

"Minutes of Board in Min. Synod, 1857, p. 33.

'^Minutes Synod of S. C, 1873, p. 14.

24 Minutes Board of Directors, beginning 1862, p. 219 ff.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 155

income of the library fund, when it had sufficiently accumulated,
was to be used one-third to pay salary of librarian; one-third in
purchasing new books; one-third in library incidentals (Ibid, p.
222). With the funds so set aside, each professor is now allowed to
purchase books to the sum of one hundred dollars a year in his own
department. This has helped to gradually increase the library and
bring in a small, but steady, flow of recent works. A number of
other libraries have been left, in whole or in part, to the Seminary;
among the latest additions so secured have been from the libraries of
Dr. J. Wm. Flinn, Dr. H. A. White, Dr. R. C. Reed, Dr. David Finley,
Dr. Chas. L. Vedder, Dr. Edwin Muller, Dr. M. L. Hutton, Dr. S. M.
Smith, Dr. W. B. Arrowwood, Dr. Wm. E. Boggs, Dr. Thornton
Whaling. Under the third purpose of Dr. Smyth's reservation, his
works were collected and reprinted (1908-12) by his son-in-law, Rev.
Prof. J. Wm. Flinn. 25 And these ten large volumes have been dis-
posed of to the students of Columbia Seminary at the small sum of
$2.50 for the set. The last set which the Seminary could sell was so
disposed of during the session 1926-27.

The funds for the Presbyterian lectureship became available in
1911, and on this, the Thomas Smyth Foundation, the following
lectures have since been delivered:

1911 Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D., Princeton, New
Jersey. Subject: The Theistic View of the World.

1912 Casper Rene Gregory, D.D., LL.D., University of Leipsic,
Germany. Subject: Theological Movements in Germany
During the Nineteenth Century.

19 "3 Robert E. Speer, LL.D., New York City. Subject: Some
Missionary Problems Illustrated in the Lives of Great Mis-
sionary Leaders.

1914 Robert A. Webb, D.D., LL.D., Louisville, Kentucky. Sub-
ject: The Doctrine of the Christian Hope.

1915 William Hoge Marquess, D.D., LL.D., New York City.
Subject: The Period from Abraham to Joshua as Illus-
trated by the Results of Archaeological Discovery.

1916 J. Campbell White, A.M., LL.D., Wooster, Ohio. Sub-
ject: Missions and Leadership.

1917 W. S. Plumer Bryan, D.D., Chicago, Illinois. Subject:
The Grace of God.

25 Columbia, S. C, R. L. Bryan, 1908-1912.

156 Columbia Seminary and

1918 Benjamin B. Warfield, D.D., LL.D., Princeton, New
Jersey. Subject: Counterfeit Miracles.

1919 Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D., Princeton, New
Jersey. Subject: Christianity and the Modern Man.

1920 A. H. McKinney, D.D., New York City. Subject: Guiding
Girls to Christian Womanhood.

1921 Louis Matthews Sweet, S.T.D., Ph.D., New York. Sub-
ject: The Origin and Destiny of Man in the Light of
Scripture and Modern Thought.

1923 J. Sprole Lyons, D.D., Atlanta, Georgia. Subject: Ser-
monic Sources.

1923 L. E. McNair, D.D., Jacksonville, Florida. Subject: Pas-
sion in Preaching.

1923 W. McF. Alexander, D.D., New Orleans, Louisiana. Sub-
ject: The Man and His Message.

1923 J. B. Hutton, D.D., Jackson, Miss. Subject: Regulative
Ideas in Preaching.

1923 James I. Vance, D.D., Nashville, Tenn. Subject: Sermon-
izing.

1923 Dunbar H. Ogden, D.D., Mobile, Ala. Subject: The
House in Which the Minister Lives.

1924 Egbert W. Smith, D.D., Nashville, Tenn. Subject: The
Call of the Mission Field.

1925 A. M. Fraser, D.D., Staunton, Virginia. Subject: Church
Unity.

1925 Samuel L. Morris, D.D., Atlanta, Georgia. Subject: The
Fact of Christianity.

1927 J. Gresham Machen, D.D., Princeton, New Jersey. Sub-
ject: The Virgin Birth.

1928 C. R. Erdman, D.D., Princeton, New Jersey. Subject:
The Life of D. L. Moody.

1929 Wm. T. Ellis, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Subject: Ex-
plorations and Adventures in Bible Lands.

1930 Wm. C. Covert, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Subject: Worship and Spiritual Culture.

1931 W. P. Paterson, D.D., LL.D., Edinburgh, Scotland. Sub-
ject: The Christian Interpretation of History. 26

Educators
Another evidence of the stimulation of thought by the Seminary
is the group of alumni she has trained and sent out as educators.

'Catalogue of C. T. S.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 157

In addition to a number of her own professors, four out of the
present six Columbia has contributed to the theological faculties of
several of her sister institutions. To Union Seminary (Va.) she
has given Dr. Thomas R. English, '75, and Dr. Thos. E. Peck, a
student for a short time at the Seminary and privately directed in
his studies by Dr. Thorn well. 27 To Louisville Seminary she has
given Dr. C. R. Hemphill, '74, Dr. Edwin Muller, '84, Dr. Francis
R. Beattie, Dr. Thornton Whaling, '83, Dr. R. A. Webb, '80; to
the theological departments at Clarksville (Southwest Presbyterian
University) Dr. Joseph R. Wilson (professor in Columbia 1870-74),
Dr. R. A. Webb, Dr. Thornton Whaling, Dr. Jas. E. Fogartie, '77; to
Kobe Theological School, its President, Dr. S. P. Fulton, '87; to
Stillman Institute, Dr. C. J. Stillman, '55, Dr. J. R. Howerton, '85. 28
Among the college presidents and professors, she has furnished to
the University of South Carolina three presidents, J. H. Thornwell,
D.D., James Woodrow, D.D., D. M. Douglas, D.D., and Professors
J. Wm. Flinn, D.D., Wm. P. Riviere, H. R. Murchison, D.D., B. S.
Hodges, and R. D. Bass. To Clemson College, she has given Prof.
Wm. H. Mills, '97; to the Presbyterian College of South Carolina,
she gave its founder, W. P. Jacobs, D.D., '64 (also widely known as
the founder of Thornwell Orphanage), three other of the presi-
dents, E. C. Murray, D.D., D. M. Douglas, D.D., and John McSween,
D.D., and four of its professors, J. F. Jacobs, W. S. Bean, D.D., D.
J. Brimm, D.D., F. Dudley Jones, D.D.: to Bingham Military Acad-
emy, Wm. Banks, '40.

To Davidson College, she has given President Luther McKinnon,
Professor C. M. Richards, D.D., '95, and Professor E. A. Beaty, '24;
to Arkansas College, President J. I. Long, D.D.; to Indian Territory,
Rev. J. J. Read; to Washington and Lee University, Prof. J. R.
Howerton, D.D.

Of leaders in the field of. female education she has contributed
Rev. J. M. H. Adams, the Yorkville Seminary; Rev. Wm. Curtis,
Principal, Limestone Springs Academy; Rev. S. K. Axson, D.D., and
Rev. H. Hendee, Principals, the Synodical Female College at Greens-
boro, Ga.; Rev. T. F. Montgomery, Principal, the Masonic Female

^So Tenney, Souvenir The General Assembly 1924, p. 41. Cf. Vaughan,
Miscellanies of T. E. Peck, D.D., Vol. Ill, pp. 8. 9.

28 Years from Appendix of Alumni Catalogue 1906, pp. 30-56.

158 Columbia Seminary and

College, Auburn, Ala.; S. R. Preston, D.D., and Rev. J. H. Alex-
ander, Principals, the Female College of Wytheville, Va.; S. R.
Preston, D.D., and S. C. Byrd, D.D., '92, Presidents of Chicora Col-
lege; W. R. Atkinson, D.D., President, Presbyterian College for
Women; 29 A. M. Fraser, D.D., LL.D., President, Mary Baldwin Col-
lege, Staunton, Va. 30

Moderators

The Moderators of the General Assembly may be taken as the
Church's estimate of her leaders. The Seminary can refer, from her
list of alumni and honorary alumni, to: J. H. Thornwell, D.D. (Old
School Assembly) ; Benj. M. Palmer, D.D.; George Howe, D.D.; W.
S. Plumer, D.D.; H. M. Smith, D.D.; J. L. Girardeau, D.D.; C. L.
Stillman, D.D.; Thos. A. Hoyt, D.D.; T. D. Witherspoon, D.D.; H.
R. Raymond, D.D.; H. C. DuBose, D.D.; C. R. Hemphill, D.D.; Geo.
T. Goetchius, D.D., '71, Assembly '98; E. M. Green, D.D., '63, As-
sembly, '98; Robert Q. Mallard, D.D., '55, Assembly '96; Wm. T.
Hall, D.D., '58, Assembly '02; S. M. Neel, D.D., student two years
Columbia Seminary, Assembly 1904; J. T. Plunket, '80, Assembly
1905; J. R. Howerton, D.D., '85, Assembly 1907; Wm. E. Boggs,
D.D., '62, Assembly 1909; T. S. Clyce, D.D., 90, Assembly 1912; C.
W. Grafton, '73, Assembly 1916; A. M. Fraser, '79, Assembly 1919;
A B. Curry, D.D., '75, Assembly 1921; R. C. Reed, D.D., Faculty
1898-1925, Assembly 1922; Thornton Whaling, D.D., Alumnus, Pro-
fessor, President, Assembly 1925. 31

Contributions in Special Spheres of Thought

In studying the thought life of a thological institution for the
past one hundred years, one naturally looks for contributions to
the Church's thinking in those spheres in which the great movements
of thought, in the last century, have taken place. These spheres have
been summarized as criticism, the contribution of the sciences,
philosophy, and theology. 32

What, if. any, "awareness" has Columbia shown to these great
thought movements?

'Wm. M. McPheeters, A Retrospect, 1901.
""Reports of Exec. Comm. to General Assembly, 1927, p. 27.
31 A Retrospect, W. M. McPheeters. Souvenir of Assembly of 1924. Cat-
alogue of C. T. S. Assembly Minutes 1927, p. 2.

32 Moore, E. C, Christian Thought Since Kant, N. Y., 1915.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 159

Interpretation

At the very beginning of its history, Columbia Seminary was
brought into touch with the best American knowledge of the princi-
ples of hermeneutics and critical study. This resulted from the
early accession to the faculty of Professor George Howe alumnus
and Abbott Resident of Andover Theological Seminary. 33 During
the years of Howe's residence at Andover, the Professor of Sacred
Literature was Dr. Moses Stuart, the man whom Dr. Leonard Bacon
calls the father of exegetical sciences, not only for America, but for
the English speaking world. 34

Mr. Howe was also Librarian; and as early as 1832 he reported
the purchase of foreign volumes in his own department. At the same
time he urged the buying of many such works. 35 Even during the
year when Howe was only temporary instructor in languages, Dr.
Goulding reported that he (Howe) had not only taught Hebrew, New
Testament Greek, and Exegesis; but also, the first principles of Her-
meneutics. m Professor Howe's first report gives a most enlightening
view into his conception of what these first principles were:

"I am free to confess that I have not succeeded, according to
my wishes, in leading all the students in my department into
that critical grammatical interpretation which I believe to be
the only satisfactory and safe method of studying sacred Scrip-
tures. This is attributable, in part, to my own unskillfulness;
but also, as I must believe, to the circumstances that the Masters
in sacred criticism are not to any considerable extent in the
hands of our students. I feel that the judicious expenditure
from time to time, as the Directors may be able to afford, of a
small sum in the purchase of books in this department will
greatly facilitate our studies and contribute to the formation of
those habits of interpretation essential to the proper pursuit of
theological inquiries." 37
To similar effect he writes in a letter, dated July, 1831:

"My attempt has been to initiate my class into the science
and art of Biblical interpretation" . . . "The study of
languages is subservient to the exegesis of Scriptures. The class

zz Andover Theological Seminary, General Catalogue, pp. 83, 99, 15. Semi-
centennial of C. T. S., p. 392.

:i4 Bacon, History of American Christianity, p. 378.

^Archives, Vol. II, p. 73.

38 Dr. Goulding's Report to the Board, 1831, Archives, Vol. I, pp. 713-714.

37 Archives, Vol. II, p. 75.

160 Columbia Seminary and

in recitation is called upon to translate, explain the exact force
of each word and particle, then to give the general sense of
the passage as connected with the contet: at the same time
explaining all allusions to the manners and customs of the age
and country in which Matthew wrote." . . . "The fundamental
rule I have insisted on is that they should throw themselves
back into age and circumstances of the writer to imagine how
they would feel and understand if they had been the speakers,
actors, hearers, and first readers of the things the Evangelist
records." 38

The basis of this study of interpretation is the translation of
Ernesti's Elements of Interpretation made by Professor M. Stuart
and published with his notes thereon. 39 In the same connection
reference is made to Stuart's A Hebrew Chrestomathy (Andover 2nd
Ed. 1832), as the basis of the Hebrew study. The Library, with
others of Professor Stuart's works on grammar and exegesis among
the earliest books, bears its testimony to the esteem in which Howe
held this preceptor, and the debt which the infant institution owed to
this early American pioneer in solid critical studies Dr. Moses
Stuart. 40

Dr. Howe continued to teach Hermeneutics in the Seminary for
over fifty years. Therefore, these early statements of his purpose
and ideals will correctly indicate the kind of exegetical study done in
the Seminary for the first half, of its existence. Of course there was
a development of these ideals by maturer study of the years on the
part of the professor ; and there was a growing supply of tools in the
library for such work by the students and the professor.

In his book on Theological Education, Howe definitely condemns
the allegorical method of Alexandrian exegesis:

"We have indeed to regret the false principles upon which he
(Origen) proceeded in interpreting the word of God, and the

38 Archives, Vol. I, p. 918.

Archives, Vol. I, pp. 713-714, 917; Ernesti, Elements, Andover, 1832.

'"Note: e. g. shelf eleven contains:

A Greek Grammar of the N. T., by G. B. Winer, trans, by M. Stuart, Andover,
1825.

A Grammar of the Hebrew Language, by M. Stuart, Andover, 1828.

Course of Hebrew Study, by M. Stuart, Andover, 1830.

A Hebrew Chrestomathy, by M. Stuart, Andover, 1832.

A Grammar of the N. T. Dialect, by M. Stuart, Andover, 1834.

A Manual of the Chaldee Language, by Elias Riggs, Andover, 1832.

Dissertation on the Original Languages of the Bible, by Zahn, et al., trans,
with notes by M. Stuart, Andover, 1827.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 161

errors into which his speculative mind led him; yet his life of
toil and study, expended principally on the education of the
rising ministry, shows us the estimation in which this educa-
tion was held by the Church." 41

On the other hand, he speaks of a school in Caesarea (c. 290), "in
which the study of Scriptures was pursued with great earnestness;"
and of M alchion, "head of a scientific school at Antioch" ( Ibid pp.
77, 78). In this Antiochian School, "learned Presbyters . . .
busied themselves with zeal in Biblical studies in the fourth century"
(Ibid). He urges teachers in our theological institutions to inquire
whether our system of Seminary instruction and discipline is all that
it ought to be, or is capable of being made. "Is it as thorough, pene-
trating into those deep thoughts and investigations into which the
words of the Holy Ghost lead forth the minds of men?" I Ibid p.
151).

Not less important than the ability, knowledge, care which Dr.
Howe brought to the Department of Biblical Literature and Exegesis,
was the magnificent example of sacrificial loyalty which he there
evinced. It may be doubted whether the history of American
Christianity affords any nobler examples of the self-forgetting mind
of the Master, and any finer response of His constraining love than
is afforded by this young professor when, at the age of thirty-four,
he declined an attractive offer to become Professor of Sacred Liter-
ature in Union Theological Seminary, New York. 42

At the time of this call there was well-nigh everything in the
Columbia situation to justify his leaving. Needed funds and endow-
ments had not been forthcoming; 48 his friend, McDowell, had been
unable to help the Seminary, on account of the political turmoil
(Ibid); his work was handicapped for lack of materials to work
with (Ibid, p. 74) ; his heart was torn by the loss of the wife of his
youth (Ibid, pp. 75-77) ; a scurrilous attack had been made on the
professors by the Columbia Times and Gazette (Ibid, pp. 395, 405,
406) ; the brethren were whispering suspicions of unsoundness in the
faith (Ibid, p. 1160) ; these whisperings led to a protracted interview
by a committee of the Board; 44 the school was made the butt of re-

"Theological Education, pp. 72-77.

"Prentiss, Fifty Years of the Union Theol. Seminary, N. Y., 1889, p. 24.
Howe's History of Pres. Church in S. C, Vol. II. Biographical Sketch.
"Archives, Vol. II. p. 69.
"MS. Minutes of the Board, Vol. I. p. 153.

162 Columbia Seminary and

marks to the effect that it was a "poor sickly institution." 45 The offer
came in the midst of the turmoil of the Old School-New School strife,
October, 1836 (Ibid 2; 1143-1144). It came from "the Moderate
Men" in the Presbyterian Church to one of irenic temper. 46 It
offered competent support, a wider field of effort, opportunity to
pursue the studies to which he was devoted, a prominent connection
with a larger and more influential institution. He declined it, solely
because he had dedicated himself to the Columbia institution for the
building up, through it, of the wastes and borders of "our Southern
Zion," believing that, somehow, the fate of "our beloved country"
and the kingdom of God was connected with the building up of. "this
Seminary on our Southern Shores." 47 An institution which boasts
an example like this can never be poor in the things of the spirit.
Around the life and character thus tested and revealed, the Seminary
clustered for over half a century until the contagion of the conse-
cration of this Northern-born saint had kindled a flame of like conse-
cration in the hearts of his Southern pupils; and had engendered a
loyalty which would never suffer to fail that institution for which
he had given the full measure of devotion.

The extended service of Dr. Howe, and the scarcely less extended
service of Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters, in this department, make unneces-
sary the mention of many names in discussing the field of Biblical
Literature and Exegesis. Columbia has ever rejoiced in the pearl
of great price which she has given to her sister Seminary, Louis-
ville, in Dr. Charles R. Hemphill, '74, a professor in this department
in Columbia Seminary from 1882 to 1885. But Dr. Hemphill's long
and rich service at Louisville, since leaving Columbia, make it proper
that his teaching be left for the history of that institution.

The third longest period of service, in this field, was that of Dr.
Henry Alexander White, A.M., Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., 1903-1926. That
Dr. White endorsed and followed the sound exegetical methods of
Dr. Howe may be discerned from his characterization of Howe's
teaching: "Sound methods of Hebrew and Greek exegesis were dis-
seminated by him throughout our Southern country. As much as any

45 Archives, Vol. II, p. 640.
i0 Archives, Vol. II, p. 1160.

'"Archives, Vol. II, pp. 1143, 1144. Reed, Bulletin C. T. S., March, 1922, pp.
8,9.

iB Catalogue, 1927, p. 64.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 163

other man among us, he labored for the maintenance of a high stand-
ard of ministerial training." 49

Rev. Neal L. Anderson, one of the most diligent students of Scrip-
tural Criticism in the Southern Presbyterian Pulpit, commends the
critical care of Dr. White's exegesis. He remembers that, as a stu-
dent, "Doctor Hodge repeatedly expressed appreciation of his
(White's) mature scholarship, and critical insight into the meaning
of the New Testament text." 50 "It was due to this revelation of his
gifts, while still a student of the Seminary, as well as his distinguish-
ed service in Columbia Seminary, that Princeton Seminary confer-
red on Doctor White the honor, in recent years, of inviting him to
deliver the Stone Lectures" (Ibid, p. 24) . He graduated with a repu-
tation for exact and critical scholarship (p. 24). As a teacher, "he
was, above all else, the exegete, leaving matters of Theology to his
distinguished colleagues" (Ibid, p. 25). "Conservative in his think-
ing, Doctor White never feared genuine progress, but always opposed
critical Bolshevism that ignores or rejects the assured results of
Christian experience and scholarship" (Ibid, p. 25). Dr. Ander-
son characterizes Doctor White as "the Christian scholar" (Ibid,
p. 26).

The present incumbent of the Chair of Old Testament Literature
and Exegesis has already a record of over forty years' service in this
department a record which his friends hope is destined to continue
until it shall equal the half century of Dr. Howe's service. It is diffi-
cult to speak, as one desires, of the living. Fortunately, in this case,
Dr. McPheeters has carefully worked out and printed his funda-
mental principle of hermeneutics; and, therefore, attention can be
focused upon his teaching, and the work shall bespeak the work-
man.

Dr. McPheeters begins his discussion of the Science of Interpreta-
tion with the question "Is a Science of Interpretation Possible?"
To this question, "an intelligent answer presupposes insight (1) into
implication of term science; (2) into nature of subject matter with
which interpretation has to do; (3) into the problem thus presented
to the interpreter." 51

"White on Howe. Southern Pres. Leaders, p. 258.
^Bulletin C. T. S., October, 1927, p. 23.

51 Wm. M. McPheeters, The Science of Interpretation, printed by Bryan Co.
Columbia, S. C, p. I.

164 Columbia Seminary and

After considering a number of definitions of "science," Dr. Mc-
Pheeters declares: "If there be a science of interpretation: (1) it
must be a body of principle, rather than of specific rules; (2) these
principles must completely cover all the problems of interpretation;
(3) they must be so systematized as to be easily comprehended and
retained, and conveniently applied; (4) there must be some ultimate
principle in which they can all be reduced to unity; (5) there must
be some characteristic method insuring a high degree of verification
and control of results once obtained" (p. 4).

The subject matter of interpretation is limited in this discussion to
written instruments (p. 4). A particular writing is defined as "the
record in thought-symbols of such and such a kind of the mental,
moral and spiritual functionings of a personality, so and so con-
stituted, and so and so circumstanced, in its efforts to produce such
and such effects upon other personalities whom it conceives as so
and so constituted and so and so circumstanced" (p. 5).

The problem f.or the interpreter, which is presented by the analysis
of this definition, is twofold:

First Phase of the Problem: "For a person so and so constituted
and so and so circumstanced to ascertain with precision and com-
pleteness the significance and force of the functionings of another
person so and so constituted and so and so circumstanced, who is
functioning through thought symbols of such and such a kind with a
view to producing such and such results upon other persons whom
it conceives of as being so and so constituted and so and so cir-
cumstanced" (pp. 8, 9). The factors giving rise to this problem
are: (a) the difference between the thought symbols used by the
writer and those of the interpreter. "Hence the essence of the in-
terpreter's task here is (1) negatively to divest himself of. his own
racial genius; (2) to reconstruct the racial genius and history of the
people whose thought symbols have been employed in the writing
under examination; (3) to invest himself with that racial genius in
a word, to Hellenize, or Hebraize his mind" (9). (b) The difference
between the personalities of the writer and the interpreter (9). (c)
The differences between the circumstances of the person being in-
terpreted and those of the interpreter (10).

The Second Phase of the Problem is: "For a person so and so
constituted and so and so circumstanced adequately to exhibit the

Southern Presbyterian Thought 165

significance and force of the thought symbols in a given writing to
other persons who are so and so constituted and so and so circum-
stanced" (10). The factors giving rise to this problem are the same
as those mentioned in the case of the interpreter himself, with the
difficulties enhanced by the fact that it is easier for the interpreter to
Hellenize his mind than to Hellenize his mother tongue and that
such is the closeness of relation between thought and thought symbols
that it is difficult to change the latter without marring the former.

Dr. McPheeters offers two well known examples as the data for
a satisfactory answer to the question proposed "Is a Science of
Interpretation Possible?" The first is the case of Miss Helen Keller
from The Story of My Life (pp. 11-14) ; the second is the history of
the decipherment of the Persepolis inscriptions I pp. 14-18).

From the decipherment of the Persepolis inscriptions, it is to be
noted that the methods employed in solving the problem were: in-
spection a given context examined with a view to observing and
classifying the phenomena presented; comparison phenomena pre-
sented by one context were compared with those presented by an-
other and the larger context, linguistic, literary, historical, constant-
ly invoked; scientific experiment trying results obtained in one
context with another formulating theories and testing their validity
employing data determined in one context to throw light on a
different context. The conditions which determined the advance to-
wards a final solution were: (1) enlarging and perfecting the con-
text linguistic, literary or historical; (2) unceasing care in inspec-
tion, comparison and testing (p. 18).

From this inductive study he offers the following, as the Architec-
tonic Principle of the Science of Interpretation: "The context that
is to say, the original context, and the entire context determined and
will disclose the significance and force of the symbols which together
constitute a given writing" (19). The architectonic character of
this principle is established by the facts that it determines the con-
stituent elements of the Science of Interpretation and their relation
one to another; that it insures the unity of the science; that it pro-
vides a characteristic method, yielding results capable of a high
degree of verification and control (20-21). The method is "the re-
construction of the original context with completeness and pre-
cision"; the objective character of the context assures verification
and control (21).

166 Columbia Seminary and

The Constituent Parts of a Science of Interpretation, as furnished
by the architectonic principle, are: Grammatical Interpretation (gen-
eral and special) ; Literary Interpretation; Historical Interpretation;
Logical Interpretation; Psychological Interpretation (p. 20).

Following this study of the Science of Interpretation, Dr. McPheet-
ers has worked out a careful study of the Art of Exegesis. He defines
art as "skill in the application of correct principle for the ac-
complishment of a given purpose." 52

This is usually acquired by a study of the best models and by
practise. The foremost master of Exegesis proposed is Dr. August
Dillman in his Commentary on Genesis. In this study of Dillman,
Dr. McPheeters calls attention to the function of Special Introduc-
tion "to ascertain and exhibit the significance of the larger histori-
cal and literary contexts of which a given writing is a part" (p. 1) ;
and shows the importance which Dillman attaches thereto. In the
course of the study the branches of Interpretation employed by Dili-
man literary, grammatical, logical, rhetorical, historical are care-
fully examined (p. 19). The dependence of one branch of interpre-
tation on another is studied (p. 15). Interpretation and apprecia-
tion, comment and criticism upon the work of this master Exegete
(1-32) are made.

This study is followed with outline references, questions, etc., for
a similar exegetical study by the students in several of the psalms.

There are still preachers in the Southern Church who use texts
as pretexts for sermons (e. g., on the Old Theology from the un-
deniable nature of wine "the old is better"). But these are men
who were never drilled in "the sovereignty of the immediate con-
text" by Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters. The men who have safely passed
the three years study under this exact and exacting master go forth
to find the meaning which the text had for the writer and the first
reader, and to proclaim that meaning.

Dr. McPheeters' approach to the questions of Old Testament Liter-
ature and Criticism may be indicated by the texts which he uses in
his study; e. g. Dr. W. J. Beecher's The Prophets and the Promise
(N. Y., 1905), and Reasonable Biblical Criticism (1911). With the
former as a guide, the testimony from prophecy is so oriented

'Studies in Exegetical Method based on Dillman on Gen. I-II, 4a-b.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 167

that the principal weight is placed on the promise, rather than
detailed predictions; in the historic continuity and verisimilitude of
a nation's life is laid the foundation for the Old Testament apolo-
getic.

This department has taught the investigation of the Bible as liter-
ature. It has striven for grammatico-historical exegesis; for the
recognition of the influence of individual idiosyncrasies; for inter-
pretation in the light of the Weltanschauung, the Zeitgeist, the En-
vironment; for the sovereignty of the immediate context. But in
studying the Bible "like other books" it has been insisted that the
study ought not to begin with the assumption that the Bible is in all
aspects like other books; and that the study thereof ought not to be
dominated by a naturalistic conception of history. 53 The author of
this scientific study of the principles and art of exegesis has con-
tinued to hold the loftiest views of the plenary inspiration of Scrip-
ture.

In Dr. E. D. Kerr, a Hebrew scholar, trained in his subject at Co-
lumbia, Princeton and Chicago, a teacher endowed with the rare gift
of leading his students into a genuine knowledge of and love for
languages; and Dr. Hunter B. Blakely, a student of exegetical method
and practice under some of the best masters of that art in America
and abroad such as Dr. B. B. Warfield of Princeton, Dr. A. T.
Robertson of Louisville Baptist Seminary, Dr. A. E. W. Rawlinson
of Oxford, Dr. Adolph Deissman of Berlin, Dr. McPheeters has had
colleagues of like appreciation of sound criticism and exegetical
procedure.

The accessus of the last named may be said to signalize a needed
step in the thought-life of the Seminary and the Southern Presby-
terian Church a tangible sign to both that the day of international
scholarship has arrived. When he began his work Dr. Blakely had
had over two years of concentrated study in Edinburgh, Oxford, and
Germany. A trail had been more clearly blazed, a requisite for a
professorship in a Southern Presbyterian Seminary more distinctly
marked out, namely, some "awareness" of current movements in the
field of international thought.

Dr. S. A. Cartledge laid a solid foundation in Greek under Dr. W.
H. Bocock of the University of Georgia, and has since built a worthy

^'Interpretation, pp. 31. 32. 33.

168 Columbia Seminary and

superstructure in New Testament critical and exegetical scholarship
under Dr. McPheeters and Dr. Blakely of Columbia, and Dr. S. J.
Case and Dr. Edgar Goodspeed of Chicago.

Natural Science in Connection with Revealed Religion

Darwin's Origin of Species, published in 1859, is said to be
cardinal for the whole movement of natural science in relation to
Christian Thought. 54 In the same year in which this fundamental
book was published, there was made in the Southern Presbyterian
Church a genuine effort to establish a rapprochement between natural
science and Christian truth. This effort was made at Columbia
Theological Seminary.

The minutes of the Board of 1859 narrate a donation of $50,000
made by Judge Perkins of Mississippi to the Seminary. Half of this
sum was to be used to endow a professorship in the Seminary, which
was ordered styled the "Perkins Professorship of Natural Science in
its Relations to Revealed Religion." 55

The Instrument of Conveyance from Judge Perkins states :

"First, as we live in an age in which the most insidious at-
tacks are made upon Revealed Religion through the natural
sciences; and as it becomes the Church, at all times, to have
men capable of defending the Faith once delivered to the
Church, it is the object and design of the said John Perkins, and
it is hereby ordered and directed, . . . that thirty thousand
dollars shall be vested, as a permanent fund for the endowment
of a Professorship" (Ibid, p. 44).

An account of the steps and purposes leading to this foundation
is given by Judge Perkins' pastor, Rev. James A. Lyon, D.D., Colum-
bus, Miss., in the April, 1860, issue of The Southern Presbyterian
Review;^ and more briefly, in Dr. James Woodrow's Inaugural
Address? 1 Dr. Woodrow declares that the plan originated in the ef-
forts of Dr. Lyon (p. 370) ; and therefore Dr. Lyon's account of the
origin is the fundamental source for the purposes leading to such a
plan. Dr. Lyon finds the need for a study of the connection between
the natural sciences and revealed religion in the rapid progress of
the scientific department of human knowledge, and in the use made

5t Moore, E. C, Christian Thought since Kant, p. 154.
b ' a Minutes of Synod of S. C, Appendix, pp. 41, 45, 68, 69.
B6 Vol. XII, pp. 181-196.
r,1 Dr. James Woodrow, edited by M. W. Woodrow, pp. 366-370.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 169

by infidelity to invalidate the authority of Divine Revelation. He finds
the suggestion for such a course in Professor Hitchcock's The Re-
ligion of Geology. 38

The initial steps towards this foundation were taken in Lyon's
Presbytery Tombeckbee Presbytery in the autumn of 1857 in
the form of an overture to the Synod of. Mississippi. This Synod in
1859 approved the overture and endorsed the plan I p. 182). Dr.
Lyon declared that the Synod was influenced by facts and consider-
ations something like the following fp. 182 ) :

I. That the amount of time devoted in the colleges and uni-
versities to the study of natural sciences "is exceedingly meager com-
pared with the wide and ever-widening field noAv embraced by that
subject" (p. 183). So that the young pastor is not equipped to deal
with objectors to religion versed in science (pp. 184, 185).

II. "A second object ... is to furnish our young theologians with
such enlarged views of science and its relationship to revealed re-
ligion as will prevent them from acting with indiscreet zeal in de-
fending the Bible against the supposed assaults of true science" ( p.
185). "What a ridiculous book might be made ... if. all that has
been written by the impulsive and self-conceited zealots in defense of
the supposed assaults of science upon the Bible was collected into
one huge conglomeration" (187).

III. A more important consideration is that "the works of nature,
of which natural science is but a systematic delineation, constitute
the first great revelation that God has made of himself" (p. 188).

IV. Natural science "is an indispensable concomitant of the
Bible, in order to unfold and illustrate its great and ever expanding
truths" (p. 191).

Dr. Lyon closes by removing objections concerning lack of time
and of money for such an undertaking. The last objection has been
bountifully met by his venerable parishioner, John Perkins of "The
Oaks," near Columbus, Mississippi (p. 195).

The personal reminiscences of Rev. Dr. Thomas H. Law, who
entered the Seminary in 1859, and a note by Miss Marion W. Wood-
row, a careful student of the whole story of her father's connection
with the Seminary, state that it was Judge Perkins' wish that his

58 S. P. R., April, 1860, pp. 181, 182.

170 Columbia Seminary and

pastor, the Rev. Dr. James A. Lyon (Columbus, Miss.), should be
elected as the first incumbent of this chair. The duty of electing to
the various chairs, devolving upon the several Synods in rotation,
fell upon the Synod of Georgia. Dr. Howe and Dr. Thornwell from
the Faculty visited the Synod in the years 1859 and 1860, respect-
ively, to urge the carrying out of Judge Perkins' wish. But the
Synod had already, unofficially, decided to elect Dr. James Wood-
row; and the incidental statements of Dr. Thornwell just back
from a visit to Europe that Heidelberg University was warm in its
praise of Dr. Woodrow only served to confirm that decision. 59 Thus
elected by his own Synod Dr. Woodrow removed to Columbia in
January, 1861, and entered upon the work of his new chair at that
time. 60

A sketch of Dr. James Woodrow by Rev. Dr. J. Wm. Flinn is in-
cluded in Miss Woodrow's book. Dr. Flinn traces Woodrow's an-
cestry back through Dr. James Woodrow (1637-1709), a Covenanter
preacher, then professor of theology in the University of Glasgow
(1692-1707) ; and through this Dr. James Woodrow's wife Mar-
garet Hair to the Stuarts and King Robert, the Bruce (Ibid, pp.
5-9). The James Woodrow of this study was educated at Jefferson
College, Pennsylvania; and at the Lawrence Scientific School at
Harvard University under the renowned Louis Agassiz (p. 9). Dr.
Flinn declares that Agassiz's friendship for Dr. Woodrow thereafter
was lasting, and his influence "profound and permanent" (p. 10).
Agassiz's achievements were an inspiration to Woodrow's efforts. His
noble Christian character gave the joy and strength that a man of
his high soul feels in the presence of a kindred spirit that cherishes
the life ideal he loves. Dr. Woodrow's students in college and
seminary caught, from him, the admiration he felt for his own great
teacher. 61

In 1856 Woodrow took the degree of A.M. and Ph.D. in Heidelberg
University, "summa cum laude." Dr. Flinn further states, "im-
mediately upon Dr. Woodrow's graduation he was offered a full pro-
fessorship in Heidelberg University" (p. 10). But the young south-

Dr. James Woodrow Character Sketches and His Teaching. Edited by
Marion W. Woodrow, Bryan Co., Columbia, S. C, 1909.

00 Minutes of Synod of S. C, appendix, p. 45. Dr. James Woodrow, p. 57.
So also Dr. Flinn, Ibid, p. 14.

" Flinn, Ibid, p. 10.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 171

erner of. twenty-eight declined the honor because of his love for his
own people and his Church. While abroad he made friendly ac-
quaintance with many of the noted scientists of the world, such as
Virchow, Quatrefages, Tyndall, Huxley, Lyell (p. 11).

From 1853-1861 Dr. Woodrow was professor of Natural Science
in Oglethorpe University, during which period Sidney Lanier, "the
Tennyson of the South," was a student there. Dr. Flinn reports a
conversation with Lanier in 1881, during which the poet declared
himself more indebted to Woodrow than to any living man for
shaping his mental attitude toward nature and life. While teaching,
Woodrow found time to do supply preaching and was ordained there-
to in 1859 (pp. 12-13).

On undertaking his work at Columbia, Dr. Woodrow set forth his
conception of the task assigned him, with a request for endorsement,
or counsel and instructions in changing that view. He sets forth
three possible ways in which the harmony between natural science
and revelation might be evinced. From Natural Theology the argu-
ments for the Being of God might be developed; the analogy which
subsists between nature and revelation in other respects than Natural
Theology might be shown; the design might be to evince the harmony
where this has been doubted or denied. This last plan involves an
endeavor to show that objections to the Scriptures (in this rela-
tionship) spring either from science falsely so called, or from in-
correct interpretations of the words of the Holy Bible (p. 372) . The
professor purposes to devote his chief energies to this last phase of
the relationship subsisting between natural science and revealed re-
ligion. "Some of the leading points of supposed antagonism be-
tween science and revelation" (p. 373) are the age of the earth
(p. 373) ; the prevalence of death before the fall of man (p. 374) ;
the extent of the flood (pp. 374, 375) ; the unity of the human
race (p. 375) ; the age of man (p. 376).

To meet these questions Woodrow affirms that an intimate ac-
quaintance with both things to be compared must be sought "with
the most untrammelled freedom of inquiry" (p. 377). His con-
viction is that "truth is one," "that every part of. the Bible is the
very word of God," . . . and therefore absolutely true, "and that
nothing will be found inconsistent with it in the established teachings
of natural science" (pp. 377, 378). On a preliminary analysis of

172 Columbia Seminary and

the basal principles of science he finds that: we must receive as
certainly true such things as "the teaching of. geology respecting the
antiquity of the earth, and the gradual nature of the processes by
which the Creator brought it into its present condition" (p. 379) ;
as certainly false (or wholly unproven) the teaching of such ethnol-
ogists as deny the specific unity of the human family; as in doubt the
character and extent of the Noachian deluge" (p. 379) .

He advocates a testing of the findings of science apart from our
preconceived notions; an exegesis of. Scripture without a torturing
"to fit our preconceived opinions of its meaning"; but with the help
of all the knowledge of manners and customs which geography,
astronomy, etc., may furnish. "In comparing results due to the
imperfect character of science, to uncertainty concerning interpreta-
tion of certain passages of Scripture, to the possibility that language
may have been inadequate to convey the ideas for which we are look-
ing (as perhaps in the case of creation, p. 382), we may expect to
find many unadjusted differences. In such cases the purpose of the
professor will be to suggest one or more possible and probable
views of the existing relations, compatible with belief of the truth of
both" (p. 383).

Conflicts between science and religion have been accentuated by
"the groundless belief" that the Bible "is also a text book containing
the whole body of. scientific truth of every kind"; by the mistake
of "taking as a formal scientific explanation of a phenomenon that
which is merely a description of it in ordinary language" (p. 384) ;
by the eager desire to bring the sacred text into accordance with the
last doubtful utterance of science, or by a no less real accommoda-
tion of the interpretation "to the somewhat antiquated and distorted
form of science which has reached the less educated classes of man-
kind" (p. 385). He laments the spirit that would crush all progress
in science lest such progress disturb cherished views. Instead, every
inquiry after truth should be encouraged and regarded with approba-
tion. "Let the Church show herself the patroness of learning in
everything" (p. 386). He closes with an appeal to the Triune God
of truth for wisdom in prosecuting his work (p. 387) , 62

Dr. Woodrow's plan is similarly described by Dr. A. M. Fraser
(pastor emeritus Staunton, Va.). 63 "He was thus led to canvass

''Inaugural Address in Dr. James Woodrow, by M. W. Woodrow, pp. 365-387.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 173

evolution with his students/' Dr. Fraser, however, avers that Dr.
Woodrow never taught evolution in Columbia Seminary. He affirms
that he was a member of the last class before which Woodrow dis-
cussed that subject (1880) ; and that at that tune Woodrow did not
embrace evolution in any form, and his influence was against it (p.
42).

Dr. Wm. E. Boggs, a student and later a colleague, sums up the
significant principles wrought out by Dr. Woodrow as: "Non-Con-
tradiction" rather than didactic agreement, or concurrence between
science and Scripture: and "no scientific teachings are to be sought in
the Bible." 64

The records of the Board show that after a suspension for lack
of funds the Seminary was re-transferred by the General Assembly
to the Associated Synods of South Carolina. Georgia, and Alabama. 65
In the report of their re-opening is found the first whiff of an evolu-
tion question. The statement of the Board on re-opening is a message
of great joy, since our beloved Seminary, after two years, re-opened
September 14, 1882; and this Seminary is manned by those who,
among other things, will not "covertly teach evolution or other in-
sidious errors that undermine the foundation of. our precious faith." 66
After such a statement, Dr. Woodrow evidently felt called upon to
make his position clear. So in his report of 1883 he set forth, again,
his principle of "non-contradiction." He declares that the Bible does
not teach that the earth had not been in existence more than a week
before man was created ; and that except in the case of man the Bible
teaches nothing as to God's method of creation only the fact that
He created. Therefore, he holds, "it is not teaching anything con-
tradicting God's work to say that he may have formed the higher
beings from the lower by successive differentiations." 67

At the same meeting of the Board a resolution was introduced by
Rev. Dr. J. B. Mack, the Secretary of the Board and its financial
agent, 68 requesting Dr. Woodrow to give fully his views, as taught
in the institution, upon Evolution as it respects the world, the lower

Dr. James Woodrow. p. 43.

u Dr. James Woodrow. p. 81.

"MS. Records of Bd.. Vol. II. p. 394.

M MS. Records, Vol. II, p. 397.

"Ibid, p. 409.

^So Dr. T. H. Law. Dr. Jas. Woodrow. p. 63.

174 Columbia Seminary and

animals, and man, and to publish the same in the Southern Presby-
terian Review. 69

The request was repeated the following year, with an acceptance of
Dr. Woodrow's offer to use this theme for his alumni address, May
7th, 1884. 70 Dr. Wm. E. Boggs states that in preparation for this
address Dr. Woodrow reviewed de novo the whole question of Evolu-
tion; and in so doing, he reached the conclusion that the evidence for
the truth of evolution as defined by him was now such as to make it
"probably true." 71 Dr. Adger quotes from a letter of Dr. Woodrow
to himself of date March 18, 1898: "In the Seminary, long before
1884, I discussed the subject of Evolution, giving my opinion at the
close of each discussion that the reasons in its favor were in-
sufficient. But for years I taught that it made no difference to us, as
believers in the Bible, whether it was true or not; that the Bible,
rightly understood, was silent on the subject."

"While preparing the address I had consented to deliver in 1884,
I, of course, reviewed the whole matter most carefully for months.
I was more fully convinced than ever that the Bible was silent, and
that it, therefore, makes not the least difference whether we accept
evolution as true or reject it as foolishly absurd. But at the same
time the evidence forced me to change my opinion that it was not
true to the opinion that it is probably true. That is the change I
refer to in my address." 72

The Board by a vote of eight to three, declared that, while the view
of the professor is not endorsed, still "there is nothing in the doc-
trine of evolution as defined and limited by him which appears in-
consistent with perfect soundness in the faith." 73

The address itself is entitled, Evolution. It contains a reiteration
of the principles of non-contradiction. The Bible and science
just as different sciences in their contents are so entirely different
"that it is vain and misleading to be searching for harmonies." 74
All we are entitled to ask "as regards the relations between astron-
omy and the Bible is that they shall not contradict each other; not

00 MS. Minutes of Bd., Vol. II, p. 421.

70 Ibid, p. 445.

,l Dr. Jas. Woodrow, p. 84.

"Quoted in Adger, My Life and Times, p. 664.

73 MS. Minutes of Bd., Vol. II, p. 451.

7i Dr. James Woodrow, p. 618.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 175

that they shall agree with each other" (p. 619). Further, "The
Bible does not teach science; and to take its language in a scientific
sense is grossly to pervert its meaning" (p. 620) . Speech is accurate
when it conveys exactly the sense intended it need not carry a scien-
tific explanation of the phenomenon.

He holds that creation and evolution are not contradictory; but
that evolution within the limits of natural science necessarily deals
only with the mode in which the effect is produced, while creation
deals with the power which produces the effect.

Once he describes evolution as the Creator's purpose to create
present and intermediate past organic forms not immediately but
mediately (p. 643). In treating of the nebular hypothesis there
seems to be a reference to Spencer's definition of evolution, 70 "The
homogeneous has been transformed by successive differentiations
into the heterogeneous" (p. 636). The evolution question is, "Did
the universe come into its present condition immediately or mediate-
ly, instantly, in a moment, or gradually, through a long series of
intermediate stages?" (p. 626).

The hypothesis of Evolution is generally defined as descent with
modifications (pp. 629, 631, 636, 642). He finds the same probabil-
ity for believing that the body of man was derived from previous
organic matter as that the bodies of the existing animal species were
(p. 632). The soul of man, "which bears God's image and which
differs so entirely, not merely in degree but in kind, from anything in
the animals" (p. 632), is held to have been immediately created; as
also immediate creation alone bridges the gaps between the non-
existent and the existent, the inorganic and the organic (p. 632).
The arguments for the doctrine of descent with modifications are:
"The way in which animals have succeeded each other, beginning as
far back as we can go and coming down to the present; the series
of resemblances which connect them from the lowest to the highest,
exhibiting such remarkable unity of plan; the existence of rudi-
mentary organs; the geographical distribution of animals" (p. 642).
Throughout the article Dr. Woodrow affirms his unchanged convic-
tions concerning Revealed Religion. In particular, he affirms, "I
have found nothing in my study of the Holy Bible and of natural
science that shakes my firm belief in the divine inspiration of every

75 H. Spencer, First Principles, pp. 305, 396.

176 Columbia Seminary and

word of that Bible, and in the consequent absolute truth, the absolute
inerrancy, of every expression which it contains from beginning to
end" 76 (p. 632).

In applying this principle to the origin of man's body, the state-
ment that "God formed man of the dust of the ground" seemed, at
first, utterly inconsistent with the belief that man is the descendant of
other organized beings. But a reference to the usage of dust in the
first chapters of Genesis shows that the word dust is used to describe
Adam when he was flesh and bone, and to describe the food of
serpents flesh and blood. Therefore the word seems to imply
previously existing matter without reference to whether it is inor-
ganic or organic (pp. 631, 632). In regard to the soul of man, and
in regard to the formation of the first woman which it seems is the
real test of the strength of the professor's avowed convictions con-
cerning Scripture he affirms that there are "unsurmountable ob-
stacles in the way of fully applying the doctrine of. descent" (p.
632). He follows this with a paragraph which for the exaltation of
the supernatural in the historical sense of that term has seldom
been equalled. Evolution is not "true of man in his whole being,"
and, since man is the image of God, "in man's entire history God has
continually been setting aside the ordinary operations of the laws by
which he controls his Creation" (p. 633). Though man so closely
resembles the animals in his body, yet, as a whole, "his origin as well
as his history" is different from theirs.

From Dr. Woodrow's speech in his own defense before the
Synod of South Carolina further light is thrown on his teaching. 77
In this speech he compared his doctrine to the theory of "creation-
ism" in theology. "That doctrine represents the body of each human
being as derived from its parents by natural generation as mediate-
ly created; while each soul is immediately created and is imparted to
the derived animal body by God's direct power. By one mode or
process the animal body is brought into existence, then by an en-
tirely different process the soul is brought into existence and united

70 Note: It would be difficult to find more clear-cut and unqualified state-
ments of what has been recognized as the esssence of historic Christianity than
are to be found in Woodrow's sermon on "The Lamb of God." "He is God
with us, the One who is over all. God blessed forever." "What he underwent
was a full equivalent of all the penalties merited by all who would follow him
and accept the salvation which He purchased with His blood. Heb. 2:14."

77 Adger, pp. 498-525; Dr. Jas. Woodroiv, p. 721.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 177

with the previously formed animal body." 78 He also finds a like-
ness existing between the first and the second Adam; in that in the
origin of both there has been a mixture of the natural and the
supernatural, of creation mediate and immediate. 79

Dr. E. M. Green testifies, on the basis of. "many conversations"
with Dr. Woodrow on the subject of Adam's body, that Woodrow's
purpose "was not to establish any hypothesis of evolution as to this
he was indifferent but it was to prove the silence of Scripture re-
specting the mode of the creation of Adam's body." 80 His aim in
this was to open a way whereby the scientists of his day, respected by
him as earnest inquirers after truth, might believe, as he did, in
Divine Revelation (pp. 47, 48). The Bible account of the forma-
tion of Eve's body would not allow him the recognition of the evo-
lutionary process in her case. For this inconsistency he jeopardized
his scientific standing and was much criticised. "But he was first
loyal to Scripture, and, secondly, loyal to science as he understood
it" (p. 49). Asked why he had not simply stated evolution as a
hypothesis, he replied that he had been asked to give his views and
he could not do otherwise than honestly give them. "He said
that the evolution controversy had been a costly one to the Church
and to himself personally, but that it was worth all it had cost, that
it had been educational, the ministry of the Church had been lifted
to broader and more intelligent views, and it was impossible that
such a controversy should ever again occur in the Church." 81

Dr. Woodrow stood forth as the defender of. the scientists against
charges heedlessly hurled against them by theologians, in a series of
articles in the Southern Presbyterian Review. An article entitled,
Geology and Its Assailants, appeared in the April, 1863, number of
the Review. Ten years later he published an answer to several at-
tacks by Dr. R. L. Dabney upon Anti-Christian Science. 82 This
answer was entitled, An Examination of Certain Recent Assaults on
Physical Science.

While commending Dr. Dabney's zeal, in the light of his views on
the subject, Prof. Woodrow nevertheless declares his belief that Dr.

T8 Adger, p. 517.

''"Ibid, p. 518.

*Dr. James Woodrow, p. 47.

81 Dr. E. M. Green in Dr. James Woodrow, p. 51.

82 5. P. R., July, 1873.

178 Columbia Seminary and

Dabney's views "are not only not true but are also dangerous,"
because they will lead to the rejection of the Scriptures by scientists
who regard Dr. Dabney as their true interpreter. 83 Woodrow main-
tains that "our minds are equally fallen (and therefore fallible)
when we inquire into the meaning of statements in Scripture, and
when we inquire into the meaning of facts in nature" (p. 411). Dr.
Woodrow agreed with Dr. Dabney in a condemnation of "vain de-
ceitful philosophy" which had no observed facts for its foundation;
but affirms, in opposition to Dabney, that physical science is not such
a philosophy, since physical science is based exclusively upon facts
any one may verify for himself (p. 414). He takes radical excep-
tion to Dabney's view that the perpetual animus of these sciences is
toward atheism (p. 417). He finds that the danger of this, as of
other studies, is not in the study but in the student. He finds a
number of errors in Dabney's presentation of the teachings of science.
For instance, "That science does not teach the nebular hypothesis
is sufficiently evident from the use of the term 'hypothesis.' '' "Hy-
pothesis" is exactly equivalent to "supposition," and is used by scien-
tific men to show their care that the suggestion should not be re-
garded in any other light than that of a supposition (p. 421). The
coloring of certain words such as "sensuous," and "naturalism" are
objected to as tending to excite prejudice against the scientists (p.
430). The fundamental postulate of the article is that natural
science per se is neither atheistic nor Christian (p. 434) . The article
closes with a quotation of. the stern rebuke given by Lord Bacon in
the Advancement of Learning to the theologians who condemn too
deep a scientific search for truth (pp. 454-457), and with Sir John
Herschel's vindication of the study of natural philosophy (pp. 458-
459). A reply to Dr. Dabney's answer to the above appeared in
the Review for April, 1874, entitled, A Further Examination of Cer-
tain Recent Assaults on Physical Science. 84 Dr. Woodrow's efforts
were toward a just appreciation of science and scientists, an endorse-
ment of every genuine search for truth, a presentation of Scripture
which a scientist might accept, and the saving of the large group of
scientists for the Kingdom.

6i Dr. James Woodrow, p. 409.
8i Dr. James Woodrow, pp. 460-507.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 179

The Opposition to Dr. Woodrow's Views

The request for the publication of Dr. Woodrow's views on evolu-
tion was made by Dr. J. B. Mack, the Secretary and Financial Agent
of the Board. Through the courtesy of Rev. J. B. Mack, manuscripts
of his grandfather have been made available. The manuscript of
an article written for the Southern Presbyterian gives Dr. Mack's ac-
count of the trouble concerning Dr. Woodrow's address:

"In May, 1884, Dr. Woodrow delivered his address. At the Vicks-
burg Assembly it became a topic of conversation and it became evi-
dent that the brethren in the Mississippi Valley would not support
Columbia if Dr. Woodrow remained there; and this is clearly proved
by the action of their Synods last fall. Soon afterwards the election
of Dr. Dabney at Clarksville (i. e. to the Theology Department of
Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tenn. ) ... I
felt that with such a teacher at Clarksville and with Dr. Woodrow
at Columbia there was no hope for much patronage to our Seminary
from the West." . . . Dr. Boggs had often said "that it was a
doubtful matter whether he (Dr. Woodrow) was of any advantage
to our Seminary." . . . "While previously differing from him (Dr.
Boggs), I now not only felt that he had been right, but but felt that
Dr. Woodrow ought to resign." 85 He states that he discussed this
question of seeking Dr. Woodrow's resignation with Dr. Boggs; that
Dr. Boggs agreed to personally present the matter to Dr. Woodrow;
and that Dr. Woodrow declined to resign (p. 7).

According to this account, institutional rivalries, the fear of the
name of Dr. Dabney, whose views Woodrow had several times op-
posed in the press, the deliberate judgment of Drs. Mack and Boggs,
entered into the beginning of the Woodrow controversy.

A first hand account of the Woodrow question as debated in the
Synod of South Carolina ( 1884) is preserved by Dr. J. B. Adger.
Dr. Adger's testimony is valuable as that of one who attended and
participated in the debate (p. 461), and who was quoting the cur-
rent news accounts thereof (p. 460). His report is valuable on ac-
count of his historic training and experience, and broad appreciation
of the views advocated by men on both sides. He presents his own
speech in favor of Dr. Woodrow (pp. 461-463) ; he does not flinch

'Manuscript, p. 5.

*Life and Times, p. 457 ff.

180 Columbia Seminary and

from giving the caustic arguments with which it is met (p. 463) ;
he pleads for a fair judgment by "the intelligent student of ecclesias-
tical history" upon those who opposed his own and Dr. Woodrow' s
views on this occasion "our people were not any more in possession
of all science than educated people were three hundred years ago,"
etc. (p. 458). Dr. Adger's own arguments in support of Dr. Wood-
row are forcible. "If you listen to this outcry, a loud shout of.
triumph will go up from the camp of unbelief. It will be said, you
selected your men ; you put forward your best man ; you said to him,
study the question of the relation of Scripture and science, and the
very first time he spoke you could not bear to hear what he said"
(p. 461).

But not less emphatically does he report the arguments of the
other side. Dr. J. B. Mack declared that seven points of similarity
show that the doctrine of Darwin and that of Dr. Woodrow are alike.
"The theory contradicts the interpretation given by the Church to sev-
eral passages of Scripture. The Church interprets the 'dust' in the
Bible literally. Every man's interpretation of the Bible constitutes
his Bible. The Presbyterian interpretation of the Bible is the Presby-
terian Bible" (p. 465). Rev. W. F. Junkin, D.D., said in part,
"My sincere conviction is that the students of this doctrine of evolu-
tion, as it is commonly understood, will become more scientific than
their instructors themselves. Let them take home with them the
theory of evolution and believe it on the authority of a successful
leader. Will they stop at the point where their honored professor
would stop? I trow not, sir" (p. 467).

Dr. Girardeau s Argument Against the Teaching of Evolution in
Columbia Seminary

It is evident from Dr. Adger's account that Dr. J. L. Girardeau
was regarded as the generalissimo of the anti-evolution men in the
Synod of South Carolina (pp. 460-478) ; and the real author of the
minority report condemning "the inculcation and the defense of the
said hypothesis, even as a probable one" (p. 460, 478 note). The
substance of two of his own speeches at Synod (Oct., 1884) were
published by Dr. Girardeau. 87 In this pamphlet the speaker sets
forth carefully the question at issue. Dr. Woodrow is not charged

'"Columbia, S. C, Wm. Sloane, 1885, Evolution in C. T. S.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 181

with heresy; and "there is no ground, in fact, upon which a charge
of heresy in this case could be based" (p. 5). He opposes "the en-
dorsement of Dr. Woodrow's exposition of the relations between the
Bible and Natural Science as plain, correct and satisfactory"; and
the "judgment that Dr. Woodrow's hypothesis of. evolution is con-
sistent with perfect soundness in the faith, and by necessary infer-
ence the Board's consent to its being inculcated in the theological
Seminary" (p. 6) .

Girardeau subjects the principle of non-contradiction to the laws
of logic Identity, Contradiction (or non contradiction) and Ex-
cluded Middle (pp. 8, 9). He concludes that the true formula is,
"we are not to look for the harmony of identity"; but "for the har-
mony of non-contradiction" (p. 10).

Dr. Mack's argument is repeated, "Whether or not the Church's
interpretation of the Bible be identical with its absolute and infallible
meaning, so long as she sincerely believes it so to be, it is the
Bible to her" (p. 12). But the Church has ever yielded an interpre-
tation of the Bible contradictory to a settled conclusion of science
( 13) . Conflict and contradiction are "between the Church's interpre-
tation of the Bible and scientific hypotheses," "between theology and
scientific hypotheses" (p. 13).

He urges the .prohibition of the inculcation and defense of Dr.
Woodrow's hypothesis as either a proved or a probable hypothesis.
He deprecates the effort to decide that Dr. Woodrow's hypothesis
contradicts the Bible in its absolute sense (p. 15). The question is
between Dr. Woodrow's hypothesis and the Bible as our Church in-
terprets it (p. 15). A scientific hypothesis contrary to our Church's
interpretation of the Bible ought not to be inculcated in our theologi-
cal seminaries (p. 15).

As long as Dr. Woodrow taught evolution expositorily, without
expressing any opinion in its favor, there was no contradiction; but
when he holds it as probable, his view contradicts "my interpretation
of the Bible" and "my interpretation of the Bible is the Bible to me"
(p. 20). He is at pains to show that the Professor of Didactic and
Polemic Theology, in inculcating extra-scriptural, metaphysical
hypotheses, takes care that between these hypotheses and the Church's
interpretation of the Bible there is the harmony of non-contradiction
(p. 20). He holds that professors are debarred from inculcating

182 Columbia Seminary and

within the Seminaries contra-confessional doctrines and views, even
tho they conscientiously believe those views to be true. "The Stand-
ards are our impregnable rampart against error" (p. 22). In the
case of a conscientious conviction contrary to the Standards the
Professor may be silent in regard thereto; or withdraw from the
Seminary (p. 22) . Efforts to alter the Standards should be made by
professors as members of church courts, not as professors (p. 23).

The other main proposition submitted is that Dr. Woodrow's view
of evolution is an unproved scientific hypothesis which is contrary
to our Church's interpretation of the Bible (p. 23). He holds that
the Westminster Standards teach the doctrine that creation out of
nothing proceeded concurrently with those six days, or periods, and
that this is contrary to Dr. Woodrow's views that creation ex nihilo
occurred in absolutely the first instance only (p. 24). Again, he
holds that Dr. Woodrow's view, that the dust of which Adam's body
was formed was organic dust, contradicts the Church's recognized
views that the aforesaid dust was inorganic dust (pp. 26, 27) ; and
that in five particulars. The inculcation of this hypothesis has placed
the Seminary "on the edge of deadly peril." Its continuance will
brand the institution as "the Evolution Seminary" (p. 35).

The fundamental key to the difference between Dr. Girardeau and
his colleague, Dr. Woodrow, is, probably, to be found on page 30 of
this pamphlet. Dr. Girardeau writes:

"The ground has been taken that Christianity itself is an in-
stance of evolution. To this astonishing statement I reply:
'There is a manifest distinction to be observed a distinction
which I have heard Dr. Woodrow himself point out, and in
which I agree with him, between the progressive development of
a plan by supernatural interventions of an intelligent author
and evolution by inherent forces in the things evolved.'

"He, Dr. Woodrow, objected that he was misrepresented that
he had expressly asserted the contrary. He misunderstood me,
as I afterwards learned. I supposed him to object to the state-
ment that he had approved such a distinction, and answered that
nevertheless it was a good one. But he excepted against the
statement as to the nature of evolution as having come from him.
I did not, however, say self-originated or self-subsisting forces.
I used the word inherent; and if evolution does not proceed by
forces, however originated or sustained, inherent in the things
evolved, I know not what it is."

Southern Presbyterian Thought 183

Dr. Woodrow was pre-eminently a scientist. His training, former
teaching, study, practical work, were scientific. 88 He approached the
question of evolution from the scientific direction. Scientific evi-
dences made certain particularly defined and delineated portions of
the hypothesis probable to his thinking.

Dr. Girardeau was a philosopher and a logician, revelling in ab-
stract principles and sustained reasonings as even this pamphlet
abundantly manifests. 89 His lectures on philosophical questions,
already noticed, fairly bristle with references to Spencer. 90 His con-
ception of evolution here presented, as "by inherent forces in the
things evolved," is based on the definition of evolution given by
Joseph Le Conte. 91 Dr. Girardeau was looking primarily, not at the
probability that evolution might be true in a particular phase of
biological history, but at the whole sweep of the term in its philo-
sophic connotation not at the arc but at the circle. He saw that the
logic of this philosophic evolution made Christianity an instance of
evolution, and erased the supernatural.

Dr. Woodrow advocated scientific evolution as a hypothesis prob-
ably true here and there along the line, e. g. the body of Adam. Dr.
Girardeau opposed philosophic evolution, the doctrine that the whole
history of existence can be explained as the progress upward and
onward by resident, or inherent, forces. The Southern Presbyterian
Church needed the contribution and distinctive thought of both the
protagonists in this memorable debate before the Synod of South
Carolina. Dr. Girardeau furnished the antithesis for Dr. Woodrow's
thesis. It was too much to expect a synthesis in the heat of con-
troversy.

In his speech in his own defense Dr. Woodrow maintained that he
stood where Luther had stood at Worms, "With regard to the charges
against me, if any man can prove that they are true by the word of
God, I will repent and recant; but until then, here I stand; I cannot
do otherwise; God help me Amen. And so stand I." 92 The fact

^He was the directing genius in the work of producing medicines for the
Confederate Army, Dr. Jas. Woodrow, pp. 36, 53, 138.

89 P. 8 in re. Logic; p. 20, etc., for Metaphysics.

^Girardeau, Discussion of Philosophical Questions, pp. 17, 357; p. 30.

ai Evolution Its Nature, Its Evidences and Its Relation to Religious Thought.
Joseph Le Conte, p. 8, 2nd Ed., N. Y., Appleton & Co.

e2 Adger, Life and Times, p. 518.

184 Columbia Seminary and

that Dr. Woodrow was not charged with teaching contrary to the
Scriptures in their absolute sense but only contrary to the Southern
Presbyterian interpretation of the Scriptures ought not to be over-
looked in evaluating the man and his teaching. He felt that he stood
under a definite conviction, holding a position not contradictory to
the Scriptures, face to face with an ecclesiastical interpretation of
Scripture in so far he stood where Luther stood. The difference
was that Luther's conviction was one positively resting on the word
of God Woodrow's was negatively not contradictory to the Word
of. God.

After Dr. Woodrow had been heard at length in his own de-
fense, the matter was voted on by Synod. Both the original reports
were defeated, and the following compromise motion adopted:

"That in the judgment of this Synod the teaching of evolu-
tion in the Theological Seminary at Columbia, except in a pure-
ly expository manner with no intention of inculcating its truth, is
hereby disapproved." 93

The Synod of Georgia, 1884, debate is also preserved by Dr. Adger
(pp. 526-536) . The opposition to Dr. Woodrow was led by Rev. Dr.
G. B. Strickler; while Dr. Woodrow spoke in his own defense and
was defended by his colleague Dr. Wm. E. Boggs. If Dr. Mack's
account of the beginning of the trouble is correct, then Dr. Boggs
had, in the meantime, changed sides. Disapproval of the teaching
of the theory of evolution as contained in Dr. Woodrow's address
was voted (pp. 527, 536). The Synods of Alabama and South
Georgia and Florida voted similarly. 94 The matter was rushed into
the General Assembly by overtures from a number of Presbyteries.
The Assembly of 1884 commended the action of the Board in
requesting the Perkins Professor of Science in connection with Reve-
lation to lay before the Church his views touching evolution. 95

The Assembly of 1886, in answer to several overtures on the
genetic evolution of man (p. 8), which arose out of the Woodrow
Controversy, appointed a special Committee on Evolution. The
majority report of this committee was adopted (p. 26) and is as fol-
lows:

""Adger, p. 526, Minutes Synod of S. C, 1884.

'"Adger, p. 536.

^Minutes of G. A., 1884, p. 231.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 185

"To the several overtures on the subject of the evolution of
man sent up by the Presbyteries, the General Assembly returns
answer as follows, viz:

"The Church remains at this time sincerely convinced that the
Scriptures, as truly and authoritatively expounded in our 'Con-
fession of Faith' and Catechism,' teach

"That Adam and Eve were created, body and soul, by im-
mediate acts of Almighty power, thereby preserving a perfect
race unity,

"That Adam's body was directly fashioned by Almighty God,
without any animal parentage of any kind, out of matter pre-
viously created from nothing;

"And that any doctrine at variance therewith is a dangerous
error, inasmuch as, in the methods of interpreting Scripture it
must demand, and in the consequences which by fair im-
plication it will involve, it will lead to the denial of doctrines
fundamental to the faith." 96

The same Assembly declared Dr. Woodrow's views "repugnant
to the Word of God and to our Confession of Faith," and directed
the controlling Synods to dismiss the said Rev. James Woodrow,
D.D., as professor in the Seminary (pp. 40, 41, 44).

The General Assembly of 1888, on regular appeal from the Presby-
tery of. Augusta and the Synod of Georgia on the charge that Dr.
Woodrow was teaching and formulating opinions and doctrines "in
conflict with the sacred Scriptures as interpreted by our standards,"
adjudged "that Adam's body was directly fashioned by Almighty
God of. the dust of the ground, without any natural parentage of any
kind. The wisdom of. God prompted Him to reveal the fact, while
the inscrutable mode of His action therein He has not revealed." 97

A full and documented account of the actions in the Woodrow
prosecution is preserved by Dr. Adger; but is considered of in-
sufficient bearing upon the theme of this dissertation for its further
detailed presentation. 98 After ineffectual efforts on the part of the
Board of. Directors to remove Dr. Woodrow the Board being either
unable or unwilling to proceed against Dr. Woodrow on grounds of
removal provided in the Constitution 99 the Synod of 1886 passed a

""Minutes Assembly, 1886, p. 18.

"'Minutes, p. 408, cf. pp. 381, 388, 391, 399, 401. 409.
w Adger, pp. 537-600, 603-648.

,h 'i. e. "unfaithful in his trust, or incompetent to the discharge of his duties,'
Article II of The Constitution of C. T. S. Adger, pp. 538, 540.

186 Columbia Seminary and

motion , presented by Dr. Girardeau, providing that, in case Dr.
Woodrow declined to resign, the Board be instructed to declare the
Perkins Professorship vacant. 100 The Synod of 1887 endorsed the
action of the Board in removing Dr. Woodrow, in accordance with
the instructions given the previous year. 101

Before the death of Dr. Woodrow, resolutions, introduced by his
friend and supporter, General W. A. Clark, were passed by the Board
of Directors of the Seminary, removing any and all aspersions or
implications upon his character, standing, or theological orthodoxy,
which might be drawn from this or other actions of the Board. 102
He had continued to represent the Church in the General Assembly
and to take a useful part in its deliberations. In 1901 he was honored
with the Moderatorship of the Synod of South Carolina. 103

Dr. Adger's comments are: "that Dr. Woodrow's hypothesis of
evolution was overwhelmingly defeated in the ecclesiastical bodies;
that the vital lesson for the Church is that her mission is religious
that "she is not to enter into the domain of natural science" (p. 650) ;
that a more just regard for the proper rights of Presbyteries, of
ministers, and of proper Presbyterian legal procedure would have
saved the Church much disturbance; that the history of this globe "is
on some points traceable through unmeasurable periods" (p. 657) ;
that "Man, as to his body, is an animal" (p. 661), and that Wood-
row's theory on this question ought to receive thoughtful consider-
ation; that there is nothing in the Hebrew word translated "dust"
forbidding Dr. Woodrow's interpretation (pp. 648-664).

Of more importance, to the subject in hand, is the relation of the
Seminary to this matter since the Woodrow controversy. The first one
to be installed as formal President of the Seminary thereafter was an
ardent supporter and defendant of Dr. Woodrow in the General As-
sembly of. 1888 104 and in the Synod of South Carolina 105 in the same
year, Dr. Thornton C. Whaling. Dr. Whaling professed to carry for-
ward the duties of the Perkins Professorship in connection with his
other duties, and endeavored to show that God was as truly the creator

100 Minutes Preserved by Dr. Adger, Life and Times, pp. 601. 602.
101 MS. Minutes of the Board, Vol. II, p. 557. Minutes of Synod preserved by
Adger, p. 602.

102 MS. Minutes of Board, Vol. IV, p. 426.
103 Dr. James Woodrow, pp. 27, 45.
104 Adger, p. 598. Minutes, 1888, p. 400.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 187

of man whether he came by the short route of immediate fiat or the
long route of evolution (i. e. as to his body). In recent addresses to
the student body of the University of North Carolina, Dr. Whaling
emphasized Dr. Woodrow's fundamental principles, namely, that the
Bible is not a text book of science; and the non-contradiction of
God's word and God's works. 106

Dr. Melton Clark, a son-in-law and intimate friend of. Dr. Wood-
row, is now teaching English Bible and Pastoral Theology in the
Seminary. Dr. Clark declares that he agrees entirely with Dr.
Woodrow's positions in the controversy. Those who hear Dr. Clark
know that he also agrees with Dr. Woodrow's lofty views of the
inerrancy of Scripture, and the truth of the great doctrines there
taught.

The Nestor of the Faculty came to Columbia when no evolution-
ist was admitted thereto. 107 Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters has told his
classes of recent years that he left Union Theological Seminary
( Richmond, Va. ) firmly convinced that yom in the first chapter of
Genesis meant a period of twenty-four hours, and that, therefore,
there was irreconcilable conflict between the teachings of science and
of Scripture. He declares that, as far as he knows his own mind, he
has been influenced by nothing save the Hebrew radicals; but, by
that influence, has changed his interpretation and now he holds yom
in Genesis to be a period of indefinite length. He further finds a
clear distinction between bara used of creation and the purposeful
omission of bara, the use of Hiphil forms, etc., expressing second
cause formation.

In his course in Apologetics Dr. W. M. McPheeters devotes con-
siderable attention to evolution. The first effort is to fix the mean-
ing of evolution as a term of scientific definition. Formal definitions
of evolution by such men as Herbert Spencer, Huxley, James Sully,
Joseph LeConte, E. G. Conklin, Wiedersheim, Prof. W. Patton, H.
H. Newman, are collated. Thus Evolution as a term of scientific
definition is shown to be: (1) cosmologically inclusive; (2) genetic-
ally continuous; (3) wrought by resident natural forces; (4) ex-
clusive of ab extra control, guidance, interference, volition or de-

106 Minutes of Synod, preserved by Adger. p. 603.

106 Whaling. T.. Science and Religion Today. U. of N. C. Press, 1929.

107 MS. Minutes of Board, Vol. II, pp. 630-632.

188 Columbia Seminary and

sign. Sir J. Arthur Thompson is quoted to show that science, as at
present conceived, has no place for "God" in its vocabulary. 108

The discussion is continued with a synopsis of an article entitled,
Creation vs. Evolution, by B. B. Warfield, The Bible Student, July,
1901; which synopsis is presented in mimeograph to each student.
The ideas of evolution and creation are first presented in sharp anti-
thesis. Evolution is defined as "an eternal flux," "the production of
all things out of. their precedent conditions, through the natural inter-
working of the forces intrinsic to the changing material." Otto
Pfleiderer's discussion of "Evolution and Theology" is quoted to
show that if the evolutionary mode of thought be chosen "it must be
uniform in all fields of investigation, in history as well as in nature"
to the exclusion of the supernatural from every sphere of action,
either as nature miracle or as spiritual miracle. "Causal thinking"
is the great contention. Evolution is unrolling, a change of state,
modification; creation is origination. Prof James Sully, Wieder-
sheim, et al., are cited as showing that the two conceptions are mutual-
ly exclusive ; and that the latter in the interest of evolution is polem-
ically anti- super naturalistic. It is against such a conception of evolu-
tion such a conception which he held to be inherent in the word
and the thing that Dr. Girardeau protested. And his antithesis to
evolution is thus carefully and explicitly taught at Columbia Theo-
logical Seminary. The word taken in its etymological meaning, in
its logical implication, and in its anti-supernaturalistic coloring, is
expressly rejected.

However, this synopsis not less clearly allows that which Dr.
Woodrow believed as "probably true"; and for which he contended
in the speech on Evolution. Discussing the question of. "Mediate
Creation" the synopsis says, "What does Dr. (J. A.) Zahm do with
'Mediate Creation "... "If it is meant that at the formation of
Adam there was an act of absolute creation producing the immortal
spirit, which accompanied the derivative creation by virtue of which
his body was formed (not created) from the lower animals; or that
at the birth of every human being there is an act of absolute creation
of the soul, accompanying the act of 'derivative creation' by which
the body is derived from its parents Dr. Zahm is really allowing

^Introduction to Science, p. 213.
100 Mimeograph Synopsis, pp. 1-4.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 189

here for the category of 'mediate creation' of the old divines without
being aware of it, a category standing between his 'absolute creation'
by which an origin is given to the world and his 'derivative creation'
by means of which God's providence leads second causes to the pro-
duction of effects level to their power, indeed, but wrought only in
accord with His will." "By 'Mediate Creation' is really meant the
truly creative acts of God occuring in the course of His providential
government, by virtue of which something absolutely new is inserted
into the complex of nature something to the production of which
all that was previously existent in nature is inadequate, however
wisely and powerfully the course taken may be led and governed
something for the production of which there is requisite the im-
mediate 'flash of the will that can.' By the recognition of this mode
of production, a third category is erected, alongside the products of
creation pure and simple and of providence pure and simple, viz:
products of creation and providence working together, and each con-
tributing something to the effect: Mixed products of the immediate
and the mediate activity of God. As Wollebius expresses it, it is
creation not ex nihilo, but ex materia inhabili supra naturae vires.
Now the issue raised by the so-called theistic evolutionists in their
attempt to make evolution do all the work subsequent to the primal
act of creation is just whether such a category as 'mediate evolution'
exists, whether there are any products of. the divine power which are
inserted into the course of providence by an immediate operation of
God, and emerge as something new, to the production of which the
second causes operative in the case are inadequate." 110

Now this statement of the case for "mediate creation" is exactly
the thing Dr. Woodrow contended for under the name of evolution
even the illustrations (e. g. "Creationism") are the same. 111 If
evolution be defined as this synopsis holds and as Dr. Girardeau
understood it, a product of forces intrinsic in the evolving stuff, then
Dr. Woodrow was wrong not in the substance of his hypothesis
but wrong in naming his hypothesis evolution. Probably most
thorough-going evolutionists today who take the trouble to under-
stand Dr. Woodrow would deny that he was a real evolutionist he

110 Mimeographed copy, pp. 8, 9.

in In private conversation April, 1931, Dr. W. P. Paterson of Edinburgh, ex-
pressed his doctrine of "evolution" in similar terms, using Creationism as his
illustration.

190 Columbia Seminary and

was too completely a supernaturalist. 112 But if there is still a place
f.or another definition of evolution for such a term as that here used,
"mediate evolution" then the thing Dr. Woodrow sometimes called
"evolution," sometimes called "mediate creation," a mixed mode of
action between creation and evolution, at once natural and super-
natural, will continue to commend his thesis to many. Dr. Wood-
row's own address is, perhaps, a warning of the elusiveness of the
usage of the word evolution. He varies in his usage from a Spencer-
ian conception to that of "mediate creation." Others who use the
term may vary more. With Dr. Woodrow as an example, one cer-
tainly need inquire into the sense in which the term is used before
condemning a man who calls himself "an evolutionist." Dr. Wood-
row is the proof that a minister of unswerving faith in Scripture
even his opponents being witness that his views are not heresy 113
can hold "as probably true" a theory which he designates as evolu-
tion. Who shall say that there may not be others?

In a condition of thought in which evolution carries with it the
purely naturalistic connotation, the Seminary's teaching on the sub-
ject is the condemnation of the term. But in the statement of the
case, there is allowed a synthesis of the thing for which Dr. Woodrow
contended (his thesis minus the term which he used to designate it),
and the thing f.or which Dr. Girardeau contended (his antithesis).
Truly the labours of neither have been in vain in the mysterious
providences of God. Dr. Woodrow's articles on Science and Evolu-
tion were widely circulated and have proved a modus vivendi to
many scientific students and teachers, 114 particularly in the South,
men who have been led to accept evolution, in a certain field, "as
probably true"; and who at the same time have held unmoved their
faith in the Lord Jesus as their supernatural Saviour. Dr. Girardeau's
antithesis has saved the Southern Presbyterian Church from the very
real danger which Dr. Junkin pointed out in the debate in the
South Carolina Synod, the danger inherent in the word, the etymol-
ogy, and the connotation of evolution, the danger that the pupils

112 The effort to align Dr. Woodrow with a thorough-going evolution which
leaves no place for the unique supernaturalism of historic Christianity to say
the least lacks critical discrimination. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs also errs in stat-
ing that Dr. Woodrow was removed from the ministry on account of his views.
The New Science and the Old Religion, p. 401.

m Cf. MSS. Minutes of Bd., Vol. IV, p. 426.

lll Dr. James Woodrow, p. 49.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 191

would not stop where their teacher stopped, that "mediate evolution"
would soon become real evolution, that naturalism would pare down
the grand particularities of the historic Christian religion.

The propriety of a synthesis which will allow a man to hold
Woodrow's hypothesis and at the same time maintain Girardeau's
antithesis is confirmed by reference to several twentieth century
authorities. Dr. Warfield, Princeton's great scholar, concludes his
article by defining the Christian's attitude toward evolution :

"What, then, is to be the attitude of the Christian man toward
the modern doctrine of 'evolution'? He is certainly to deny
with all the energy given to him that the conception of 'evolu-
tion' can take the place of 'creation' as an account of the origin
of the universe. 'Evolution' offers no solution of the question of
origins. For its operation it presupposes not only a somewhat
already existent which can unroll into fresh forms, but a some-
what within which all that is subsequently evolved already po-
tentially exists. And he is to deny with equal strenuousness that
the conception of 'evolution' can take the place of that of
'mediate creation,' as an account of the origination of new some-
whats in the course of the divine government of the world.
Things have come into being since the first origin of the world
which did not lie potentially within the primal world-stuff,
needing only to be deduced from it. If nothing else, the God-
Man has come into being; and that not as a product of the prece-
dent conditions in the w r orld, but as an intrusion from without
and above. And with him, the whole series of events that con-
stitute the supernatural order of the Kingdom of God. Nor is
there any reason to doubt that the same intrusion of purely
creative force, productive of. something absolutely new, may
have occurred also in the natural order of the first creation
say at the origin of self-conscious, immortal beings in the com-
plex of nature. On the other hand, the Christian man has as
such no quarrel with 'evolution' when confined to its own sphere
as a suggested account of the method of the Divine Providence.
What he needs to insist on is merely that Providence cannot do
the work of creation, and is not to be permitted to intrude itself
into the sphere of creation, much less to crowd creation out of. the
recognition of. man, merely because it puts itself forward under
the new name of 'evolution.' " 115

115 Warfield, B. B., Creation vs. Evolution, The Bible Student, July, 1901. Cf.
Woods, W. C, Ph.D., Emergent Evolution and the Incarnation, Morehouse,
1929.

192 Columbia Seminary and

More recently Dr. Paul Storey of Chicago shocked his Classical
Club with a brilliant paper on evolution which supported the main
lines of the synthesis proposed. He recognizes the propriety of using
evolution as a biological hypothesis, and offers no objection to such
scientific procedure. However, he finds that the general popularizer
of evolution presents it as a dogma rather than as a hypothesis, insists
on applying it in every intellectual discipline-history and literature
as well as the natural sciences; and in presenting it either inculcates
or insinuates mechanism. This means "the denial of all possibility
of a controlling purpose in the mechanism of the universe, or a soul
in the mechanism of the brain." "A mechanistic evolution, a ma-
terialistic neurology, and a behavioristic psychology consistently
thought out, are quite incompatible with anything that can honestly
be called religion. To teach them on the same campus would be,
to those who think, a jest; and to those who feel, a tragedy." 116

The same definition of evolution which Dr. Girardeau used in the
Synod of South Carolina was used in a debate between Professor
Kirtley Mather of Harvard and the Reverend John Roach Straton
of New York, at Harvard University, Session 1926-27. Professor
Mather accepted Joseph LeConte's definition with the proviso that
the forces might be inherent either in the organism, or in the en-
vironment, or in both interacting. The debate was whether evolu-
tion was compatible with Christianity. The climax of the discussion
was a series of questions addressed by Straton to Mather:

Q. Do you believe that Jesus died? A. Yes.

Q. And do you believe that He was buried? A. Yes.

Q. Do you believe that He arose again from the dead? A. (No
answer) . 11Ga

The last question cannot be categorically answered without giving
up evolution as denned by LeConte, or giving up Christianity as it
has been historically understood.

Therefore there is an ultimate point in the Christian geodesic at
which evolution must be met. That point is not the Garden of Eden;
but the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea. The absolute and infallible
sense of "dust" in Genesis two has not been determined. Organic

not,

G Shorey, Paul, Evolution, a Conservatives Apology, Atlantic Monthly, Oct.,
1928. Cf. More, L. T., The Dogma of Evolution.

11(>a Cf. Mather, K. F., Miracles and Prayer in a Law-Abiding Universe in his
Science in Search of God, N. Y., 1928.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 193

dust is as compatible with the doctrine of mediate creation ( or if one
prefers mediate evolution) as is inorganic dust. But the corpse of
Christ can never be resurrected by the forces inherent in a rock tomb,
nor by those intrinsic to a dead body nor by the forces of such
environment interacting with those of. this lifeless organism.

The Christian man has no controversy with the scientist who holds
that evolution is one of God's ways of working; but as long as one
is a Christian he can never agree that evolution is the one and only
factor in history and nature, or the only way of God's working. As
a scientist one may see fit to oppose either or both of the above state-
ments. In particular he can easily find grounds for disputing the
latter. Entropy is, perhaps, as well attested in physics 117 as evolu-
tion is in biology. But this last view must be opposed in the interest
of Christianity. A Pauline statement of the synthesis might be:
"There are diversities of operations ( energizings) , but it is the same
God which worketh all in all" (1 Cor. 12:6) ; but "if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain" (1 Cor. 15:17).

In line with the purpose of the Perkins gift the present course in
Apologetics seeks to acquaint the students with the implications for
religious thought of the revolutionary changes in the field of astro-
physics, e. g., Eddington's new concept of. natural law; entropy's
challenge to inorganic evolution; the porosity of the atom and the
principle of indeterminacy as helps in the visualization of the spirit-
ual control of natural forces and the acceptance of supernatural in-
tervention; the probability of the uniqueness of protoplasmic life on
this planet; Jeans' mathematical argument for the existence of
God. 118

Philosophy

Throughout the history of the Seminary a study of philosophv has
been, to some extent, involved in the attention devoted to natural
theology. 1 - But a markedly increased interest in philosophy and
the study thereof is to be associated with the connection of Dr. J.
H. Thornwell with the Seminar). This connection began with his
election as Director in 1838. 121 In November, 1837, Dr. Thornwell
was made a professor in the College of. South Carolina, located in

n 'Eddington, A. S., The Nature of the Physical Universe, p. 84. Cf. Clarke,
Austin. Zoogenesis, for other factors in addition to evolution in biology.
n8 A Pilgrimage to Science. Christian Observer, March 18. 1931.
Min. Synod of S. C, 1840. appendix, p. XIX.
y21 Archives. Vol. II, p. 507.

194 Columbia Seminary and

Columbia; and the department of Metaphysics was committed to
him. 122 Practically from this time until his death, Thornwell re-
sided in Columbia. 123 During this period he was the "regular" sub-
stitute for the Seminary professors when they were sick, or absent
raising funds. 124 Finally he gave up his other connections to devote
his full time to the Theological Seminary. 125

The whole influence and teaching of Thornwell tended to bring to
the study of theology that apprehension which thorough knowledge
of the currents of philosophic thought gave. Thornwell's biographer
says, "the industry with which he ploughed the field of philosophy is
proved by the existence, amongst his manuscripts, of a course of lec-
tures covering the entire field, all prepared within the two years in
which he taught in this department." And after years of copious
reading added wide stores of. knowledge to the foundations laid by
this two years' professorship of. Metaphysics. 126 High testimonials to
Thornwell's thorough scholarship and marked ability in this great
field of thought, by Sir William Hamilton, Mr. George Bancroft, the
historian, Hon. John C. Calhoun, Dr. J. L. Girardeau, Dr. B. M.
Palmer (Jr.), are preserved by the latter in his biography. 127 Thorn-
well followed Sir Wm. Hamilton in describing Plato and Aristotle
"as the opposite poles of human thought, between which speculation
has continued ever since to oscillate"; and made himself thoroughly
familiar with them in their original sources. His familiarity with the
mediaeval scholastics "was equally great," particularly with Thomas
Aquinas and Suarez. "The modern philosophy had, of course, passed
under review in its original sources. The chief masters, Bacon, Des
Cartes, Locke, Leibnitz, the Scottish School at home and in France,
Kant and his Disciples, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, were his daily
companions." 128

As to Thornwell's position, Palmer writes, "Taking his departure
from the English and Scotch schools, that all our knowledge begins

122 Palmer, Life of Thornwell, p. 147.

V2S Ibid.

12i Ci. e. g. Report of Faculty to Board, Min. Synod of S. C, 1846, p. 31.

125 1856-1862 Appendix Catalogue C. T. S., 1927, p. 64. 1855 Accessus as
shown by Report of Board, 1855, Min. of Synod, p. 35.

12r, Palmer, pp. 151, 152.

127 Palmer, Life and Letters of Thornwell, pp. 536-538, 379, 305-306, 541. Cf.
ThornwelVs Collected Writings, Vol. II, p. 452. So Dr. Thornton Whaling.
Thornwell Centennial Addresses, pp. 22, 23.

128 Palmer, pp. 536, 537.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 195

in experience, he concurred with them in the doctrine of fundamental
beliefs as necessary to it, and by which alone it is made available." 129
Knowledge begins in experience, yet "experience must include con-
ditions in the subject which make it capable of intelligence." "There
must be a constitution of mind adapted to that specific activity by
which it believes and judges." The mind is "subjected to laws of
belief under which it must necessarily act." . . . "Certain primary
truths involved in its very structure." As, "undeveloped in experi-
ence, these do not exist in the form of propositions or general con-
ceptions, but irresistible tendencies to certain manners of belief, when
the proper occasions shall be afforded." When "developed in experi-
ence and generalized into abstract statements, they are original and
elementary cognitions, the foundation and criterion of all knowl-
edge." . . . "The laws of belief qualify the subject to know, they
cannot give the things to be known. These are furnished in experi-
ence; which thus not only affords the occasions on which our primi-
tive cognitions are developed, but also the objects about which our
faculties are conversant." 130 "The law of causation is at once a law
of thought and a law of existence." 131

A letter from Dr. J. L. Girardeau, published and endorsed by Dr.
B. M. Palmer, constitutes the best presentation of Thornwell's place
in philosophy, coming, as it does, on the authority of the two keenest
philosophic minds which he instructed.

Dr. Girardeau writes:

"You insist that I shall give you my conception of the place
which Dr. Thornwell occupied in philosophy.

1. "It is not difficult to fix his general position. He em-
phatically belonged to that class of thinkers who advocate what
is known as the Philosophy of Common Sense, in contradistinc-
tion from the class whom he designates as Sensationalists. As
both these classes hold that the materials of knowledge are in
part derived from contact with the external world through sen-
sation, they are distinguished from each other by the affirmation
or denial of certain primary intuitions, or fundamental laws of
belief, implicitly contained in the constitution of the mind,
which, brought into contact with the material derived from the
external world, enable us to know" . . .

Ibid, p. 539.

130 Thornwell's words quoted in Palmer, pp. 539, 540.

131 Thornwell Coll. Writings, Vol. I, p. 57.

196 Columbia Seminary and

2. "In so far as Dr. Thornwell maintained the principles of.
the Common Sense Philosophy in opposition to the Sensation-
alists, he is in alliance with the Absolute Ontologists of Germany
and France. How is he to be distinguished from them? He
himself answers the question. He divides the class of Common
Sense Philosophers into two schools: that of the Rationalists,
who not only make the fundamental laws of belief independent
of experience for existence, but also for development; and that
of those philosophers who, admitting that these primary
principles are independent of experience for their existence,
ground their development in experience alone. This latter
school he designates the school of Experience. He definitely
claimed to belong to this school. He utterly repudiates the view
of the Rationalists, who evolved from these fundamental laws of
belief a Philosophy of the Absolute and Unconditioned. He
maintained that these laws would lie dormant and inoperative,
were they not developed by the occasions which are furnished in
experience. But Kant, who, in his advocacy of the ideas of. pure
reason, so far made common cause with the Rationalists in their
opposition to Sensationalists, utterly opposed their ontological
speculations. Dr. Thornwell, however, was not a disciple of
Kant in reference to the office discharged by the fundamental
laws of belief. Kant was a pure subjectivist. The certainty of
existence for which he contended was altogether subjective. The
Scottish school, on the other hand, found in the fundamental
laws of belief vouchers and guarantees for the real existence of
the external world; they grounded the objective certainty of.
knowledge in the subjective necessity of believing. This was Dr.
Thornwell's position." . . .

3. "He was . . . very clearly a natural realist."

5. "He was very strenuous in maintaining, with Hamilton, the
doctrine that all human knowledge is phenomenal and relative.
He held, with him, that substance is, in itself, unknowable; that
what we know is the phenomenal manifestation."

7. "He rejected the Kantian distinction between the under-
standing and the pure reason and assigned the primary truths,
fundamental beliefs, to the understanding. He accepts the
Kantian doctrine that space and time are native conceptions of
the mind and, as such, condition all thinking."

"Thornwell differed from Hamilton most markedly on the
question of Divine Providence. Instead of Hamilton's chasm
between fatalism and chance, Thornwell enumerated three hypo-
theses; that of the Casualist, who asserts an absolute commence-
ment; that of the Fatalist, who asserts an infinite series of rel-
ative commencements; that of the Theist, who asserts a finite
series of relative commencements, carried up in the ascending

Southern Presbyterian Thought 197

scale to a necessary Being, at once Creator and Preserver. He
held that the extremes of casualism and fatalism are not only
inconceivable, but that they are self-contradictory, and, there-
fore, false. The hypothesis of theism he conceded to be also
inconceivable, but he maintained that it is not self-contra-
dictory, and that upon the principle of excluded middle it must
be true. However, he affiliated more closely with Sir Wm.
Hamilton than with any other representative philosopher."

"In reference to conscience, he mentions that the 'Divine Gov-
ernment' of Dr. McCash, had brought out views which he had
before held, and had it in mind to publish. Perhaps, to Dr.
Thornwell is due the first explicit announcement of the great
formula: the fundamental laws of rectitude, implicitly contained
in the conscience, sustain to it the same relation which the funda-
mental laws of belief, implicitly contained in the understand-
ing, sustain to it." 132

It is principally in regard to this last point moral philosophy
that the work of Dr. Thornwell is directly available. A series of
Discourses on Truth, delivered by him to the students at the College
of South Carolina, were published by Carter of New York in 1855
and reprinted in Thornwell's Collected Writings. 133

A copy of. these sent to Sir Wm. Hamilton elicited a highly flatter-
ing commendation thereof. 334

The Discourses treat of the following subjects: The Ethical System
of the Bible; The Love of Truth, in two discourses; Sincerity;
Faithfulness; Vows; Consistency. In the first, Thornwell declares,
"The true light in which redemption should habitually be contem-
plated is" that of a Divine institute of Holiness. Its immediate end
is to restore the union between ourselves and God which sin has
broken" (p. 474). "The first step in real moral improvement is
faith in the Son of God. When that step is taken we begin to live"
(p. 475).

Discussing The Love of Truth, he maintains that we are responsible
for our opinions in so far as we are responsible for the motives and
influences under which we form them. The love of truth for itself,
is the law in conformity with which all our intellectual processes
should be conducted. "The end of every inquiry should be knowl-
edge, the aim of every investigation simple and unadulterated truth"

in2 Letter of Dr. J. L. Girardeau, quoted in Palmer, pp. 543-545.
VA *ThornwelVs Coll. Writings, Vol. II, p. 451 ft".
m Ibid, p. 452.

198 Columbia Seminary and

(p. 496). "Evidence is the measure of assent" (p. 501). "As we
know by and through the mind, we can only know according to the
laws of mind; all error may consequently be traced to some trans-
gression of the laws of belief" (p. 502). "All efforts to restrict
freedom of debate and the liberty of the press should be watched
with caution, as prejudicial to the eliciting of evidence and the
propagation of truth" (p. 511). He expresses disapproval of argu-
ing on the wrong side of a question as a proof of skill, warns against
the love of applause and the fear of ridicule, the substitution of sar-
casm for argument (pp. 512-518). The love of truth is the founda-
tion of all solid excellence "it makes the man of principle" (p.
518).

Turning from theoretical to practical truth, he finds three marks
which should characterize truth of life and conduct. First, there is
sincerity, "which obtains whenever the signs, whatever they may be,
by which we intentionally communicate ideas, exactly represents the
state of our own convictions" (pp. 519-520). Then there is faith-
fulness, which "consists in fulfilling the engagement and meeting the
expectations which we have knowingly and voluntarily excited" (p.
521). The third thing is consistency "or harmony of character"
(p. 522).

"These three sincerity, faithfulness and consistency comprise
the whole duty of practical veracity. The opposite of the first is de-
ceit in its Protean shapes of lying, hypocrisy, and flattery; the op-
posite of the second is fraud; and the opposite of the third is incon-
stancy or fickleness" (p. 522).

A study of Dr. Thornwell's works shows that he was a philosophic
theologian. His treatises on the arguments for the Being of God in
the light of Kant's Critique, on the limits of our knowledge of God,
or the formal nature of sin, 135 justify the remarks made of him, "His
passion was for speculation. He revelled in abstract thought, and
soared with delight even to the utmost verge of the knowable and
thinkable in the world of mind." 136 It is this power of sustained
thought which has made the Columbia theology a power in the
Southern Church. And it may be said that the writing of theology

Thornwell Coll. Writings, Vol. I.
'Palmer, p. 536. Cf. Thornwell, Vol. Ill, p. 24.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 199

along these massive lines makes necessary some presupposition of
philosophic knowledge to use aright the same.

On the other hand, it should be not less clearly emphasized, that
Thornwell was a Christian philosopher, with an unfaltering rever-
ence for the authority of the Word of God. His characteristic re-
mark was, "if. there is but one passage of Scripture against us, our
speculations must go to the winds." 137

The successors of Dr. Thornwell have been men who appreciated
the value of studying theology, in the light of the best philosophical
thought. That Dr. Palmer, Thornwell's immediate successor, 138 ap-
preciated the value of this discipline, will have been sufficiently evi-
dent by the quotations and references already made from his life of
Thornwell. The biographer has revealed himself, not less than his
subject. 139

The longest professorship in the department of Didactic and
Polemic Theology since the death of Thornwell was that of Dr.
J. L. Girardeau, 1875- 1896. 140 Dr. Girardeau felt a keen interest in
philosophy. His son-in-law declares that his library was more
theological than homiletical, and more philosophical than theologi-
cal; and that the study in which he most delighted was philosophy.
He regarded a system of philosophy as a necessity for every system
of theology. His discussions of- philosophical questions were found
among his literary remains, carefully prepared and marked "com-
plete." They were published by his son-in-law, Rev. Dr. George A.
Blackburn, in 1900. 141 The editor characterizes the book as "a
supplement to Hamilton's Metaphysics," which the Seminary students
were expected to read in connection with the course of lectures. The
subjects dealt with in these discourses are: Introduction, defining
terms, dividing the subject matter, setting forth the author's philo-
sophic position, viewpoint, and end to be accomplished; The End of
Philosophy, "an ultimate principle of unity" upon which the elements
of the soul, the external world in immediate contact with us, and
the universe at large, may be collected into unity (p. 27) ; Conscious-

137 Palmer. p. 545.

1S8 Catalogue, 1927, appendix, p. 64.
139 Palmer, pp. 535-546, 147-151.
Catalogue, 1927, appendix, p. 64.

141 Discussions of Philosophical Questions, bv J. L. Girardeau. Preface by G.
A. Blackburn. Richmond. Pres. C. of Publ., 1900.

200 Columbia Seminary and

ness, with special reference to Sir Wm. Hamilton's views; The
Authority of Consciousness; Cosmothetic Idealism; Berkeley's Ideal-
ism; Objective Idealism; Pantheism; Sir Wm. Hamilton s Doctrine
of Casualism; Spencer s Relativity of Knowledge; The Argument for
the Being of God from our Cognitive Nature; Mr. Spencer s Agnostic
Philosophy ; Physiological Psychology; Spa,ce What Is It?

Girardeau's epistemology is that, by consciousness, we have not
only the immediate knowledge of the subjective phenomena of our
own souls (p. 49) ; but also an immediate knowledge of the external
world 142 (p. 50). Consciousness, immediate knowledge, and percep-
tion, in relation to the external world, are held to be one and the
same (Ibid). Consciousness and perception are different names for
the same faculty (p. 84). Therefore, he holds that "it is impossi-
ble to doubt the testimony of consciousness to a phenomenal fact
without doubting the existence of a consciousness itself" (p. 94). He
concurs with the Scottish School in affirming the substantive differ-
ence between matter and spirit "contrasted in the antithesis of exist-
ence"; but "related in the synthesis of knowledge" (p. 18). He
denotes the view he advocates as "natural realism" 143 (p. 51).

Dr. Girardeau offers a high tribute to "the views of the profound
German philosopher, Jacobi." He declares, "with the exception of the
defects implicated in them, they will, in the destined triumph of truth
in a golden age, be brought to the front and win a wider and happier
recognition" ... "a consummation devoutly to be wished" (p.
25) . The inference can scarcely be avoided that Girardeau's chart of
intelligence, found on the next page, is profoundly affected in the
special function assigned to the Believing Faculty by F. H. Jacobi,
whom Ueberweg characterizes as "the philosopher of faith." 144

142 Cf. Alexander, Time, Space and Deity, pp. 16, 21, 24, "compresence,"
"togetherness." Or for a much closer approximation cf. D. C. Macintosh's
theory of critical natural realism as a form of epistemological monism which
may be called "critical realistic monism, or more briefly critical monism." The
Next Step in the Epistemological Dialectic in The Journal of Philosophy, April
25, 1929.

Sed contra. Lovejoy, Revolt vs. Dualism. "Between 'nature' and experience
there is a radical discontinuity," p. 265. Relativity and the quantum theory
support this bifurcation, i. e., epistemologicat du a lism, pp. 263-264.

1,:! Cf. Macintosh. D. C, The Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 161 ff.

144 F. Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, trans, from the 4th German edition by
G. S. Morris, N. Y., 1888, pp. 194, 198-200.

Southern Presbyterian Thought

201

CT g

CD

n

Eh CD 5*
o

13
3
cr

S 3 *

CTQ

5? 3T CD

o
3

CD

13

CD
O

CD
GO

~

o
^ o 5T

5 leg-

O OP
13

5-

B

re

cr

73

a

o

-
cd

x
3

cr
13
cd
o

CD

!=0

CD

13

CO

X

W

CD

CD

3

13

i-j

pa

CD

i

X

CD

cd

3

o

3

a-

n

o

3

X

2.
o'

c

X

3
CD

X

5. W

x* 3

CD m.
O

cr
13

c^ CT

h-. CD

1 n

x

o

O 3 h^o

C6

3

^3 m x g

I 3 3 g |

% O 3 - ^

O 13 *=- 3- H

*i <r+ cd a

cr n |

S 3 ^
w ~

M CD

re
S
<?

Ore? ^

re 3
Ct>

a-

n n cd

O 13

3
O
g -

ctT
a-

CD

Q . CD

CC x
3- CD

2 O 3-

3 3 p

CD J3" 2

3 C 3

3 W

cf^. r

Cr p x

3- H ^

2 Cfq 3 3 3

< o 3- 3

o

CD

75
CD

* !?
3 .

CL

1
CtT

a-
era

CD

o o aq

3 3 3-

x c <-'

x 3

x '-J

2. w

x' 3
3- ID

-5: r

cr p ^

cr

2 c&
2. ^j

3

CD

cr g

i I

cr

13
CD

5-

CD

C^

cr ?^

O X

3

cr

13

CD

cr s^

re

CO

H

cr

CD

n

o

TO CD

cr

CD

H

cr

-
o

o

Cb

re

*+* 3

2 n

r o

Co Cfq

1-

SKI

o

re

re
re

CD

o

CD

<;

CD

3
O

CD -
Q-

CD

>

>
-

H
>
H

202 Columbia Seminary and

According to Dr. Girardeau's chart, there are three faculties of
mediate knowledge Representative Faculty, Thinking Faculty, Be-
lieving Faculty. Faith has a double function. First, it is a voucher
for the other faculties of knowledge. Secondly, faith is as truly a
source of knowledge as is reason. 145 On this last premise, Dr. Girar-
deau was led to develop, in his inaugural address, the thesis that
Theology is a Science, Involving an Infinite Element. The endorse-
ments of this thesis by two of Dr. Girardeau's successors, Dr. W. T.
Hall and Dr. Thornton Whaling, give to the view the standing of a
particular philosophico-theological tenet of the Seminary. 146

Dr. Hall thus summarizes the position of Girardeau: 147

"Faith being a source of knowledge, our author proceeds to
discuss the question, 'Have we a valid knowledge of the Infinite
Being?' This he tests, both in the sphere of natural and super-
natural revelation. The conclusion reached is that in neither
sphere is a knowledge of God as Infinite attained by the cogni-
tive reason. Must we, therefore, abandon hope of reaching such
knowledge? By no means. In all our knowledge there are two
elements, one of which addresses itself to the cognitive powers,
the other to the believing faculty. It is the joint operation of
these two classes of faculties that gives the full result. We
know substance; only, however, as it is manifested through its
properties. When the phenomena are apprehended by the facul-
ties of cognition, the existence of the substance becomes known
by an immediate and necessary act of faith. In. like manner,
when the world is apprehended as contingent, the believing
faculty, under the law of the casual judgment, infers a self-
existent Creator. And the process is the same in the sphere of
Supernatural Revelation, the necessary conditions being furnish-
ed by the life-giving energy of the Holy Ghost. Man was made
to know God. There is, in every soul of man, a fundamental
faith which adapts it to the knowledge of the Infinite Being.
This proposition will bear the test of all the criteria by which
fundamental beliefs are discriminated. And when this native
faith is developed by a cognitive experience, it gives valid
knowledge of the Infinite God."

"Still another question in this connection is raised by the
author. Granting that we have a valid knowledge of the Infinite
God, he goes on to inquire, Ts it possible for the reason to
employ it as an element in the processes of science?' The sig-

1,r 'Cf. Thornton Whaling in The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, p. 294.
ua The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, p. 192, 292, 393 ff.
U1 lbid, pp. 192, 193.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 203

nificance of this question will be recognized at once by all who
have reflected upon the difficulty of finding a satisfactory defini-
tion of theology, or of allowing to it. in strictness of. speech, the
character of a science. In grappling with this problem, the
author notices first that we may define without limiting. For in-
stance, unless we are Pantheists, we must distinguish the divine
substance from all created substance. And yet we do not limit
it. Again, we distinguish one divine attribute from another, but
do not limit any of them. Again, it is admitted that, while we
know the fact of God's existence, we do not know how He exists.
It is the fact that God is Infinite that we know. It is revealed to
faith. It is susceptible to affirmation and negation mav be
made a term of human judgments. In like manner, a divine
attribute cannot be perfectly comprehended by us, but it may be
known as an infinite perfection by faith; and as known may be
made the subject or the predicate of a proposition. Cognition
may furnish one term, and faith the other, and the proposition
be valid. For example, we are entitled to make the affirmation;
the justice of God is infinite. Cognition gives justice a particu-
lar kind of perfection, as the subject, and faith gives the term
infinite as predicable of justice. Here, then, we have an in-
finite element as a valid constituent of a premise, and as other
premises may be construed in the same way, legitimate con-
clusions may be drawn. But if we may reason about the infinite
and from the infinite, it is manifest that it may constitute a valid
element in human science under the limitations, however, which
have been pointed out."

In view of the recent developments in Behaviouristic Psychology,
the Chapter on "Physiological Psychology" is of special interest.
Prof. G. T. Ladd's book, Physiological Psychology, is highly evaluat-
ed as "the most satisfactory book upon this subject" (p. 437) ; is
commended in so far as the new science deals with the relations of
mind and body as its proper object-matter. But Girardeau objects
to the view that, by investigating the correlations between the struc-
ture and the functions of the human nervous mechanism, conclusion
as to the laws and nature of the mind can be drawn. 148 He declares
that the conditions required for the development of a science of
physiological psychology are such as to make it an extremely diffi-
cult thing to reach trustworthy results thereby (p. 441).

Girardeau's criticisms upon the claim that psychology and
physiology are reducible to unity as one and the same science are:

'References to Physiological Psychology, p. 4. quoted p. 448.

204 Columbia Seminary and

1. "The presumption is mightily against this claim." A line of
thinkers from Plato to Lotze admit the distinction between psychol-
ogy and physiology (pp. 447, 448). Opinions so universally held
can only be overthrown by proofs (p. 449) . Such a revolution will
exceed any revolution accomplished in the field of science, and will
strike at the very foundation of morals and religion making "no
real difference between a moral principle and a sensation" (p. 450) .

2. The investigations of the sciences of psychology and physiology
proceed by different methods.

His final consideration is whether ultimately mind and body are
one and the same entity (p. 470 ff). In this section he endeavors
to refute the arguments of Dr. Bain in Mental Science. One great
defect he finds in this work is the absence of allusion to God
which he regards as eminently consistent. "A psychology without
a soul is the correlative of a philosophy without a God" (p. 485).
This discussion is closed with two incidents of personal observation
which revealed the difference between soul and body. The soul
showed brilliance of light, as the body pased into the shadow of
death (pp. 492-495).

The last discussion presents arguments to show that space and
duration are neither relations, nor conditions either of existence or of
thought, nor substances; but are perfections of the Infinite Spirit 149
(pp. 18; 496-515).

Dr. Thornton Whaling ventures the assertion that the Southern
Church will recognize, in Girardeau, her greatest philosopher. 150

Among the Seminary alumni, Dr. J. R. Howerton was for many
years Professor of Philosophy in Washington and Lee University;
and is the author of Freedom and Causality. 1 ^ 1

Dr. Whaling averred that he was a disciple of Thornwell and
Girardeau, and as such a philosophical theologian. In ^accord with
this platform, as President of the Seminary 152 (1911-1921) he ar-
ranged his classes so that, in the Junior year, the hours for Systematic

149 Cf. Alexander, Samuel, Space, Time and Deity, London, 1920, pp. 341-342.
(Time-space is the infinite substance, "the stuff of things." But, space and
time are attributes of the universe or Space-Time or God, or the One.)

""The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, p. 287.

151 Tenney, Souvenir, p. 99.

^"Catalogue C. T. S.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 205

Theology were given to the study of Prof. Ralph Barton Perry's
Present Philosophical Tendencies? ,)3

The intricacies of this work were somewhat simplified by a series
of questions and answers prepared by the professor. Dr. Whaling
used Prof Perry for criticism of other systems; and himself differed
from Perry's Neo-Realism in the direction of the Scottish School of
natural realism. He favored the dualism of being rather than the
"neutral entities" of. panobjectivism; and so anticipated Lovejoy's
declaration that the revolt against psychophysical dualism has
failed. 154

At the present time, in tracing the course of Christian thought
an effort is made to present as a background the principal philo-
sophical movements, and to consider their relations to the theologi-
cal views of the corresponding period; while Psychological Apolo-
getics seeks to demonstrate the fact of consciousness and the fallacy
of Behaviourism. 155

It is evident that three elements have entered into the structure of
the theory of knowledge as it has been propounded at Columbia.
With the Empiricist, there is the recognition that knowledge is de-
rived from the external world through sensations, and as such is
phenomenal. With Kant, there is the recognition of primary princi-
ples or categories in the mind, such as space and time, conditioning
all thinking. With the Scottish School, in this constitution of the
mind there are found vouchers and guarantees for the real exist-
ence of the external world. The ultimate trustworthiness of observa-
tions is based upon the veracity of consciousness. "The categories
are both principles of thought and principles of being." 150 This
third element, "the fundamental laws of belief," "the subjective
necessity of believing," the believing faculty as the voucher for the
other faculties of knowledge and as a source of knowledge, is the
striking element in the Seminary's philosophic presentation. Faith,
"the cornerstone of the heart," 10 ' is the keystone in this arch of
thought.

^Present Philosophical Tendencies, N. Y.. Longmans Green & Co., 1916.
154 Lovejoy, A. O., The Revolt Against Dualism, Norton, 1930.
15:, King, Behaviorism, a Battleline, Cokesbury Press. Apologetics, 1930, Class
papers bound C. T. S. library.

^Brightman, E. C, An Introduction to Philosophy, N. Y 1925, p. 97.
157 Luther, M., Tischreden.

206 Columbia Seminary and

Other . systems have failed to acknowledge with the same frank-
ness their cardinal foundation, or to define faith- judgments as true
forms of knowledge. But in some form, every comprehensive
Weltanschauung has had to accept something as data to be received
on faith, in some sense of that variously used and abused term. Even
Dr. Loyd Morgan, in fitting his Spinozistic Emergent Evolution into
the Realist's "Time Space Deity" pyramid, confesses that the
basal elements thereof are held with acknowledgment that they can-
not be proven. 158 Meanwhile Dr. Knudson avers that "faith is the
ultimate ground of every philosophical system"; that faith alone
bridges "the gulf between thought and reality"; that the ultimate
justification of all our faculties is to be found in an "auto de fe." 159
Lovejoy denies that physical realism rests on a blank act of "animal
faith"; but confesses a general faith in the orderliness of physical
reals. 160

As between the two modern schools which are challenging the at-
tention of the older Natural Realists, the Columbia philosophy has
more in common with the Personal Idealists of the Bowne-Bright-
man-Knudson type than with the Neo-Realists. Neither of these
schools accept external, material reality as adequately as did the
Common Sense Realists. The Neo-Realist discards such a meta-
physical question in the interest of epistemology and their "logical
or neutral entities." The Personal Idealist is inclined to follow the
Absolute Idealist in making the physical universe a manifestation of
spirit. But for the Personalist that abrogation is in the interest of
vital personalities, not of "logical entities," "the scholasticism of
epistemology." Both Thornwell and Girardeau realized the pro-
priety of, and need for, a unifying element in all philosophy. "The
insatiable demand for unity, ever crying out from the depths of our
souls, forbids our being satisfied with the bewildering multifarious-
ness of phenomena." 161

In the field of natural philosophy Thornwell found this unity pre-
sented as substance and attribute, as thinker and thought, as cause

158 Morgan, Loyd, Emergent Evolution, pp. 24, 33. Alexander, Samuel, Time
Space and Deity.

:59 Knudson, A. C, The Philosophy of Personalism, pp. 67, 140-153, New
York, 1927.

100 Lovejoy, A. O., The Revolt vs. Dualism, pp. 267-268.

101 Girardeau, Discussions of Philosophical Questions, p. 323.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 207

and effect. 102 Of these three, he felt that the reasoning which sup-
ported the idealist view of the Thinker and his Thought was the
more cogent, and this unity was the more attractive to him. The
suggestion that "consciousness, the unicity of the Thinker and the
multiplicity of his Thought, gives the analogy to the solution of the
problem of monism and pluralism, is certainly very apt. The place
which Columbia theologians have given to the spiritual and personal
realities lends sympathy to the personalistic as against the neo-real-
istic interpretation of the universe. Thornwell avers that God is first
of all the God of. men rather than first of all the God of nature. He
holds that the government of the natural world, "the dead universe,"
is subservient and in order to the higher spiritual ends, the ethical
harmony, of the universe. The government of the lower is in the
interest of the government of the higher. 163 He reiterated Hamilton's
dictum, "On earth there is nothing great but man. In man there is
nothing great but mind." Girardeau held as axiomatic, "spirit as
greater than matter."

The visible creation is transient and doomed to perish (Hebrews
1:10-12); while the things that are not seen are eternal (II Cor.
4:18). The highest, the unchanging, realities are personalities; the
ultimate values are personal; in its ultimate meaning the universe is
a plurality of persons. The highest purpose of physical universe is
to manifest the wisdom and power of God. Though distinct from
God, it is a medium of communication between persons.

One essential difference between the Realism of Thornwell and
theistic Personalism, the most attractive monistic philosophy, is to be
found in the doctrine of creation. As a philosopher "thrilled" by
the Word of God, Thornwell held fast to the doctrine of. creation
ex nihilo; while Girardeau declared the doctrine of God's creation of
the Universe, non-spiritual as well as spiritual, was vital to theism. 164
Their doctrine of creation rests on a philosophy of Being, rather than
of Becoming; while the Boston School is bringing about a recrudes-
cence of the doctrine of continuous creation hitherto associated with
New England Calvinism. For the Natural Realist this is counter to
the testimony for the external reality of matter found in Empiricism

102 Thornwell, Collected Writings, Vol. 3. p. 365.

103 Thornwel,l, Collected Writings, Vol. 3, pp. 187-188, 272-273. Girardeau,
Discussions of Philosophical Questions, p. 318. Cf. Dr. James Woodrow, p. 633.
1<M Girardeau, Discussions of Philosophical Questions, p. 159.

208 Columbia Seminary and

and in the fundamental constitution of the human mind; and, there-
fore, incompatible with trust in the veracity of the Creator of both
the physical and the psychical, the Maker of. both the laws of being
and the laws of thinking. Dr. Girardeau reasons': "The thinking
faculty furnishes, in connection with cosmical phenomena first per-
ceived by the presentative faculty, then represented in the imagina-
tion, and finally mounting into concepts under thought relations, the
empirical conditions upon which a faith- judgment is reached that
positively affirms the fact of creation. This is conceded by the abet-
tors of the theory before us with reference to the origination by
causal efficiency of personal spirits." . . . But in addition the
Natural Realist "affirms a free Creator. Acting freely and not neces-
sarily, he caused some being not analagous to his own" (i. e. not
personal). 165 A unity for the duality of being can only be found
in their common origination. Thornwell holds that physical reality
is "a nature apart and distinct from God"; and that finite substances
have a being, dependent to be sure, but still a being of their own,
possessed of active properties in relation to each other. 166 He would
have held with Dr. W. W. Fenn of Harvard that external reality is
present to God; rather than that it is identical with God.

But creation not only gives real existences and both final and
second causes; it also guarantees pure theism. For the Columbia
School, God rather than the universe is the ultimate reality. Creation
ex nihilo shows His sovereignty to be absolute, limited neither by
man nor by nature. 167 The outcome in the Boston School is a finite
deity and a self-limited sovereignty. 168

For the Columbia School, God is the absolute person, wholly self-
conscious, since He has acted in a genuine creation, and creation is
the most distinctive mark of personality. 169 In Him is the flash of
the will that can. His act of creation reveals Him as the self-de-
termining and self-acting as well as self-knowing Person. In their
search for truth the Columbia philosophers ultimately rested their
minds in an act of faith in special revelation and in the veracity of.

ia5 Girardeau, Discussions of Philosophical Questions, pp. 163, 322.

168 Thornwell, Collected Writings, Vol. 3, pp. 231, 230, 265.

107 Cf. Hodge, C. W., The Significance of the Reformed Theology. Van Til,
C, Notes on Apologetics.

]08 Brightman, E. S., The Problem of God. Knudson, A. C, The Doctrine of
God.

169 Cf. Pupin, M., The Neiv Reformation, p. 264 ff.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 209

the Creator, whose stamp of verification is the constitution of the
human mind.

Theology

The theology of Columbia Seminary is, first of all, a Confessional
Theology. The Constitution, found in the Manuscript Minutes of the
Board for 1833, declares, "The design of this institution is, and
ever shall be, to educate young men for the gospel ministry, who
shall believe, love, and preach the doctrines of the Bible, as set
forth in the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States of. America." 170

This Constitution, the revised Constitution of 1844, and the pres-
ent Form of Government, require a subscription by every professor
on inauguration.

The form of the subscription has remained essentially unchanged.
The original reads:

"In the presence of God and this Board I solemnly subscribe
the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America, as a just summary of the doctrine contained
in the Bible, and promise and engage not to teach, directly or
indirectly, any doctrine contrary to this belief, while I continue
a professor in the Seminary." 171

The subscription records of the various professors are preserved in
the Manuscript Minutes. For example, J. H. Thornwell, p. 467; J.
B. Adger, p. 501; James Woodrow, p. 607. The first professors re-
ferred to the Confession of Faith as part of the instruction in Theol-

ogy- 172

In 1837, the professors refer to their solemn oaths to maintain
the standards of the church, and to the alumni as "specimens of theft*
doctrine." 173 Eleven years later they speak of their endeavors to
carry out, in their teaching and example, these great doctrines. 174

The recent professors, Dr. Thornton Whaling and Dr. J. B. Green,
have both continued the direct teaching of the Westminster Confes-
sion of Faith.

170 MS. Min. of Board, Vol. I. p. 101.

171 MS. Min. of Board, Vol. I, p. 105, cf. pp. 501. 607, 467. Of. Plan of Gov-
ernment, Sec. Ill, Art. 5. p. 8, Bryan. Columbia. 1919.
^Archives, Vol. I, pp. 874, 1831.
173 Archives, Vol. II, p. 1159.
^Archives, Vol. II, p. 975.

210 Columbia Seminary and

Very strict confessional ground was taken by Dr. Girardeau in
the Evolution Controversy. He held that professors were debarred
by their subscription from inculcating contra-confessional views;
that the standards were the impregnable ramparts against error;
that to teach what is contrary to any statement of the doctrinal stand-
ards, was to teach what is contrary to some statement of doctrine in
the Scriptures. 175

In the Historic Address to the Synod of South Carolina, 1885,
he urged those who object to subscription to the standards in their
historic sense not to come into the Presbyterian ministry. He affirm-
ed that the standards were the most effectual barrier which men could
oppose to the introduction of. error. 176

Moreover, this confessional theology has been Old School Calvin-
ism. In the momentous years of 1837 and 1838, the men of Colum-
bia Theological Seminary were called on to declare themselves. The
Charleston Observer of June 24, 1837, preserves a set of resolutions
endorsing the Philadelphia Pre-Assembly (Old School) Convention.
These resolutions were drawn up by Harmony Presbytery and signed
by Dr. George Howe, as Stated Clerk. Dr. Thomas Goulding, first
professor in the Seminary; and Dr. A. W. Leland of the Faculty
were members of this Assembly. Also from South Carolina came
Dr. John Witherspoon, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Columbia, and Dr. J. H. Thornwell. Virginia sent Dr. Wm. S.
Plumer. 177 All of these were active in their support of the Old
School positions. 178 Dr. Witherspoon was chairman of the Com-
mittee on Bills and Overtures, and was on the Committee of Ten on
the State of the Church. 179 "Overtrue No. 1, viz. Testimony and
Memorial of. the Convention, in relation to errors and irregularities
in the Presbyterian Church," was referred to a committee of seven of
which Dr. Plumer, and Dr. Leland were members (p. 418) ; and
action in regard to this question was shaped, presented, and in part,
defended, by this Committee. 180

^Evolution in C. T. S., by J. L. Girardeau, pp. 22, 31, 32.
170 J. L. Girardeau, Historical Address to Synod of S. C, p. 66, Whittet &
Shepperson, Richmond, 1886.

^Minutes Assembly, 1837, p. 414.

17S Minutes Assembly, 1837, pp. 422, 425, 426, 440, 443, 445.

Ibid, pp. 415, 427, 430-436.

180 Ibid, pp. 419, 421, etc.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 211

The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia elected Dr. John
Witherspoon and Rev. J. H. Thornwell to the Board of Directors of
the Seminary in 1838, 181 and from this time until his death, 1862, the
latter continued in increasingly close connection with the Semi-
nary. 182 Mr. Thornwell presented the following paper commend-
ing the Old School positions in the Synod of 1838. 183

"Whereas, disputes and contentions, which have existed among
the members of the Presbyterian Church, have resulted in a di-
vision of our Communion into two denominations, differing
from each other, as we suppose, on topics of faith, involving
essential elements of the Gospel Plan: and whereas, it is the
duty of all the courts of the Church to contend earnestly for the
faith once delivered to the saints: we. as a Synod feel called
upon, in the present crisis of our ecclesiastical affairs, to bear
this, our solemn testimony, for the truth as it is in Jesus, in
opposition to the errors and heresies which are now abroad in
the land.

"1. It is a fundamental article of the Christian faith that the
guilt of Adam's first sin is imputed to all his posterity, descend-
ed from him by ordinary generation, so that they are born in a
state of condemnation and depravity: that this imputation is im-
mediate and direct, having no reference to their subsequent con-
currence in his sin by voluntary transgression, but founded sole-
ly upon the fact that he was constituted, by the sovereign ap-
pointment of God, their federal head and representative.

"2. It is a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel that Jesus
Christ was actually the substitute of a chosen seed; that He as-
sumed their legal responsibilities, and rendered a true and
proper satisfaction to Divine justice on their behalf, by enduring
the penalty of the law in their name and stead; that the obed-
ience and death of Christ constitute the alone ground of a sin-
ner's acceptance before God, and that 'to all those for whom
Christ purchased redemption He doth certainly and effectually
apply and communicate the same.'

"3. The inability of the sinner to comply with the demands
of the Divine law. to believe the Gospel, or to exercise any holy
affection, is absolute and entire: so that regeneration is effected
alone by the direct and immediate agency and power of God the
Spirit; the subject of this work of grace being passive, in respect
to the vital operation of renewing the heart. We believe, more-

" MS. Min.. Vol. II. p. 43.
^Catalogue. 1927. p. 64.

183 MS. Min., Vol. II. pp. 37. 53. 59. 60. Palmer. Life and Letters of Thorn-
well, pp. 214. 215.

212 Columbia Seminary and

over, that the saving grace of God is always efficacious and
invincible, and its final triumph sure.

"4. We believe that the form of. doctrine usually called Hop-
kinsianism, though a milder form of error than Taylorism or
Pelagianism, is inconsistent with the Presbyterian standards;
and, if fully carried out in its consequences and results, is utterly
destructive of the fundamental principles of the Gospel.

"5. This is our solemn testimony of the truths of the Gospel.
And for the satisfaction of those brethren who have been per-
plexed with anxiety and doubt in regard to the Theological in-
struction which is given in our Seminary, or in our pulpits, that
as Professors of the Theological Seminary and members of this
Synod (we) do pledge ourselves that no contrary doctrines
shall be taught in that Seminary, or in our pulpits, and that
as Professors and Ministers we will endeavor to guard our
pulpits and hearers against all the heresies condemned in this
testimony."

There were 49 votes for this resolution including Cater, Howe,
Witherspoon, Leiand, Smyth, McDowell, with eight against. 184

The catalogue record of professors shows that these same Old
School men continued directly to guide the teaching of the Seminary
until about 1880. 185

It is safe to say that the Old School influence has determined the
teaching of the school to the present.

The earliest references to theological text-books point to the lec-
tures and then the printed Works of Professor Leonard Woods, of
Andover. 186 Woods was an avowed opponent of Taylorism. From
the explicit condemnation of Hopkinsianism in the Thornwell Resolu-
tions of 1838, it may be inferred that the Andover Hopkinsianism was
one matter of which the Board used great plainness of speech to the
Faculty in 1836. 187

Statements by Dr. Adger 188 and by Dr. Palmer 189 show that the
chief text book used by Dr. Thornwell was Calvin's Institutes.
Palmer, himself, used Thornwell's manuscript lectures with the In-
stitutes. Drs. Adger and Girardeau edited Thornwell's works and

184 MS. Min., Vol. II, p. 60.

'^Catalogue shows: Dr. Wm. S. Plumer, Professor in Seminary 1867-1880;
Dr. George Howe, Professor 1831-1883.
^Archives, Vol. I, p. 874.

187 Leonard Woods' Works, Minutes of Bd., Vol. I, p. 149.
]88 Li/e and Times, p. 232.

Columbia Seminary and 213

these have been a staple for class study in Columbia ever since. Rev.
John Blackburn has the copy of Thornwell's Writings with Dr.
Girardeau's notes on the margin an eloquent testimony to the
class room use made by Girardeau of this book. Dr. D. M. Douglas,
President of. the University of South Carolina, stated that Dr. W. T.
Hall used, almost exclusively, Thornwell and Hodge ( i. e. Systematic
Theology by Charles Hodge, Scribner, 1871) in the Systematic de-
partment. Dr. Whaling taught the Thornwell-Palmer-Girardeau
Theology; but used Hodge as a text. Dr. J. B. Green uses Dr.
Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology, with Thornwells and Dr. R. A.
Webb's works as collateral texts. Dr. Webb is regarded as the last
exponent of the Columbia Theology whose work has been published.

The continued teaching of the Westminster Confession has tended
to bring out, from time to time, certain emphases in that document
which find small place in Dr. Hodge's treatment. Some of these
emphases will be briefly noted, together with some of the different
subjects which have been regarded as the center and organizing
principle of theology.

Justification

As a student seeking the way of- salvation, Thornwell stumbled
upon the Westminster Confession of Faith and "cast anchor" in its
chapter on Justification. 190 Small wonder then that he found here
the center of gravity.

In his inaugural address, Dr. J. H. Thornwell discussed the central
principle of "Dogmatic Theology as a Science." Rejecting the view
of the Dutch School that the doctrine of the Covenants is central;
or that the fact of redemption, the incarnation or the Person of
Christ can be such a principle, he holds, "the central principle of all
Theology is justification, and every Divine system of religion is only
the answer which Divine wisdom gives to the question: How shall a
moral creature be justified? If that creature be considered simply
as a creature made in the image of God, the answer is the Religion
of Nature; if that creature be considered as fallen, as a sinner, the
answer is the Religion of Grace."

""Life of B. M. Palmer, by T. C. Johnson. Richmond, Pres. C. of Pub.. 1906,
p. 272.

,0 "Palmer. p. 80.

214 Columbia Seminary and

He goes on to say that, while the principle of justification is not an
original and essential principle of moral government, yet this
principle has operated in the Covenant of works, determining the
modification of the whole system of natural religion, (1) by limit-
ing probation as to time; and (2) by concentrating it as to persons;
whence federal headship.

The great question of. revealed religion is, How shall a sinner be
just with God? The solution of this question, consonant with the
essential principles of moral government, necessitate all the pro-
visions of the covenant of grace the incarnation, the person of the
Saviour, His humiliation, His death, His resurrection, and ascension,
and His coming at the last day to judge the world. "All the facts
of His history and mediation depend upon God's purpose to justify
the ungodly." Further "we are justified to the guarantee of holi-
ness. iyi

In setting forth this principle Dr. Thornwell was following the
earliest Columbia tradition. Hon. J. H. Lumpkin, Chief Justice of
Georgia, was a member of Dr. Thomas Goulding's Session. Of Dr.
Goulding's preaching, Mr. Lumpkin says: "The doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith he regarded as the epitome of the Christian system, and
. . . (it) formed the favorite theme of his ministrations." 192

The Life of Dr. Archibald Alexander indicates that the doctrine
also had a primary place in the thinking of the first professor in
the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Princeton.

The Federal Theology.

Perhaps nothing shows more clearly that Dr. Girardeau, while a
disciple of Thornwell, was an independent thinker, than his procla-
mation that the federal or representative principle is of first import
and regulative influence in the Reformed theology. (If further
proof be sought it can be found in the marginal notes in his own
copy of ThornwelVs Collected Writings these show many sharp
differences in details of exposition.)

Dr. Girardeau's Semi-Centennial Address is entitled The Federal
Theology; Its Import and Regulative Influence. 193

^ThornwelVs Collected Writings, Vol. I, pp. 580, 581.
~ Semi-Centennial, p. 185.

a Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at
Columbia, Columbia Pres. Publ. House, 1884, p. 96 ff.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 215

The principle of representation was involved as an essential ele-
ment in the covenant of redeeming grace (p. 99). This covenant
to Christ was a covenant of works requiring of Him perceptive and
penal obedience (p. 99) . As the head and representative of His elect
seed, He secured justification for Himself and His seed in Him
(p. 101). Christ Himself was justified in the sense that His imputed
guilt was removed by God's justifying sentence and His justification
involved the justification of His elect seed (p. 102). The elect were
in mass justified in foro Dei in the justification of Christ as their
federal head and representative (p. 103) ; and they are several-
ly justified in foro conscientiae when, in the period of their earthly
history, they actually exercise faith in Christ (p. 113). On the basis
of their representative or virtual justification the elect are invested in
the court of. heaven with a right and title to eternal life; and on this
basis, at God's appointed time, their Advocate and Intercessor sues
out for them the gift of the Holy Spirit, who regenerates and "enables
them to exercise that faith which conditions their conscious and ac-
tual union with Jesus," and hence their conscious or actual justifica-
tion (pp. 103, 104). 194

The same principle to an opposite result is followed through
in the case of federal representation in Adam and federal imputa-
tion of his condemnation (pp. 107-111).

The regulative influence of the federal theology upon the doc-
trines of natural religion and upon those of supernatural religion is
carefully traced out (p. Ill ff). It is maintained that this principle
shows the incompetency of. the Pelagian and of the Arminian doc-
trines (pp. Ill, 112). This theory makes other Calvinistic theories,
whether Dr. Shedd's realistic theory of. generic unity, or President
Edward's theory of sovereign constitution, superfluous (p. 113).
The theory of propagation and of mediate imputation is also ruled
out as unnecessary (pp. 114, 115) ; as also the theory of Concurrence
(that federal guilt and subjective depravity so concur in the same
concrete and inseparable experience that neither is in order to the
other (pp. 115-116).

The regulative influence of the federal theology is shown in af-
fording "the only tolerable solution" of the mysteries which hang
over the moral history of the race. It shows that "our inability is

'Cf. Thornwell, Coll. Writings, Vol. II, p. 282.

216 Columbia Seminary and

not original; it is penal" (p. 119). It shows that the only dealings
of God with the race are covenant dealings; and salvation is only
through the covenant of grace (p. 120).

In the field of Supernatural Religion the representative principle
has the solution of the question of. the relations of justification and
regeneration and offers the following ordo salutis: forensic justi-
fication (or implicit justification) ; intercession, suing out the grace
of the Holy Spirit for the sinner (implicitly justified) ; regeneration,
uniting the sinner vitally and spiritually to his federal head; faith
and actual justification (pp. 121-123) . On this principle the electing
decree is found to be utterly unconditioned; atonement, particular;
vocation, efficacious and irresistible; perseverance, certain; the en-
thronement of Grace, secure (pp. 124-125).

Adoption

Still another key-note in the Columbia Theology is the doctrine of
Adoption, a subject not indexed in Hodge's Systematic Theology.
Discussing Dr. Thornwell as a theologian, Dr. Thornton Whaling
said:

"The most valuable work of our master Theologian was ac-
complished in the Theology of Redemption by the supreme and
regulative place he assigned Adoption. In fact the organic and
unifying principle in Thornwell's theology is found in his doc-
trine of Adoption. The question proposed, both in natural re-
ligion and in supernatural religion, was the same, viz : how may
a servant, through adoption, become a son. In the Covenant of
Works the question relates to a righteous servant; in the Coven-
ant of Grace to an unholy and condemned servant; but the end
proposed in each case is the same, the change from the status of
a servant to that of a son through adoption. From this point of
view, Election is election 'into the adoption of sons.' Justifica-
tion is a means devised by which the standing of the servant may
be so assured that adoption of sonship shall certainly follow;
Federal Headship, again, is a sublime means which the adoptive
decree utilizes, in order that the one who is represented shall
receive this gracious benefit of the change from the status of a
servant to that of. a son; Regeneration is the effective way in
which the spirit of sonship is made real in those who have secur-
ed the adoption of sons. No other system of theology has as-
signed so large a place to this ruling conception which occupies
so supreme a position in the Scriptures and in religious experi-
ence. And in making Adoption central, Dr. Thornwell is at

Southern Presbyterian Thought 217

once the more scriptural and the more philosophic. This is his
chief achievement as a Theologian, making a distinct advance
upon the Reformed Soteriology and that of all subsequent think-
ers, by giving Adoption the regal position assigned to it in
revelation, and belonging to it in Christian experience, and
which theology ought to recognize in its systematic construction
of Scripture and experience by giving Adoption the same in-
fluential and regulative place in the doctrinal system." 195
Dr. Girardeau also gives to adoption a fundamental place in his
own and in Thorn well's theology. But Dr. Girardeau (and Dr.
Whaling) held that Adam as created was both a son and a servant;
while Dr. Thornwell and Dr. J. B. Green hold he was created a
servant only. 196 Dr. Girardeau divides objective soteriology into
two parts, justification and adoption. The former is grounded in
the obedience of Christ as the servant of the Father and entitles his
people to appear before God's throne. On the other hand, Christ's
obedience as a son grounded His people's adoption as children in
God's house and entitles them to sit at God's table, confirmed in all
the rights, immunities and privileges of his children. The grounds
of Adoption are the eternal purpose of God, and union with Christ
naturally (by His Incarnation), vitally (by regeneration), and feder-
ally (by imputation of. his filial obedience).

All the powers of Dr. Girardeau's eloquence are called into play
to magnify the blessedness of adoption. The adopted are heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ with an indefeasible title to an in-
heritance which is "all that can be conceived or believed as embraced
in the paternal favor and love of God" here and hereafter, "the
riches of grace and the riches of Glory." It signifies "Home!"; "in-
effable communion," immunity from slavish obedience or fears;
boldness of access; liberty of communion as children; the whole-
some, loving, saving discipline of children in God's family; the en-
joyment of all conceivable good in God as the portion of. the soul. 197
Dr. Girardeau's well marked copy of Breckenridge's Subjective
Theology shows that the excellent treatment of Adoption there found
was heavily drawn upon.

VJ6 Thornivell Centennial Address, Spartanburg, S. C, Band & White. 1913.
pp. 28-29.

"'"Girardeau, J. L., Discussions of Theological Questions, p. 453.

107 Girardeau The Doctrine of Adoption in Discussions of Theological Ques-
tions, p. 428 ff. Richmond, Pres. Com. of Pub!., 1905.

218 Columbia Seminary and

Dr. Thornton Whaling published an article setting forth this
central tenet of the Columbia Theology, in the Princeton Theologi-
cal Review for 1923, p. 233. Dr. R. A. Webb has devoted marked
attention to it.

But if the primary sense of theology, as the word of God, 198 or
the revelation of God, is to have a genuine place in determining its
central or unifying principle, some principle must be sought which
bespeaks the nature, being, or self-revelation of God in Himself
and not only a great principle in His relationships with His creatures.
A study of Dr. Thornwell's Collected Writings presents two princi-
ples for such consideration spirituality and holiness.

The Spirituality of God
The only conception of God's being which can seriously be con-
sidered as disputing with His holiness the central place in the Thorn-
wellian system is the spirituality of God. God in Himself is inde-
finable. Man's finite conceptions of Him can be expressed. The ex-
pression of these concepts should begin with the recognition that,
as to His genus, God is Personal Spirit 199 (Vol. 1.158-161). No
believer in God as immaterial reality can desire more emphasis than
Thornwell placed upon this doctrine. 200 He said, "The spirituality
of God is the foundation of all religious worship it is the founda-
tion of all the Divine attributes" (p. 173). As spiritual, God is
necessary life and activity self-moved and self-determined (p. 183).
As spiritual activity, His is the highest of all activity "the activity
of thought and will" (p. 184). "Because spiritual, God can com-
mune with our spirits" (p. 186, cl pp. 510-512) ; and become the
portion of our souls. Further, this thought is carried into the
human realm as of primary importance. "On earth there is nothing
great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind" (quoted p.
183). A natural or fundamental image of God consists of those
spiritual properties which belong to man as a person the faculties
of intelligence, conscience and will (p. 236). Such a nature is the
indispensable condition of the moral image of God. It is the sine

W8 Ein investigare deum in sua inscrutabili altitudine, Calvin quoted by
Thurneysen. Das Wort Gottes und die Kirche, p. 4. Chr. Kaiser Verlag,
Munchen, 1927. Cf. Meeter, H. H., The Fundamental Principles of Calvinism,
Ref d Press, pp. 26-28.

100 So in effect Girardeau, Discussions of Philosophical Questions, p. 28.

200 Vol. I, p. 179.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 219

qua non of the moral similitude of God (p. 236). This expression
seems to give the key to the relative placing of spirituality and holi-
ness in Thornwell's system. Spirituality is the foundation, the neces-
sary condition, the sine qua non of religion, and of theologv
whether as the study of God or of man. But that condition being
supplied and implied, holiness is the vital determinant in the system-
atization. Nevertheless, this great natural principle is never lost in
the system. Under the force of this thought the Columbia Theology
has affirmed the self-determination of the will in the supreme case
of the sin of the first parents, and so has definitely broken the com-
plete reign of the dogma of Determinism. 201

The central place of the spirituality of the Church an inference
from a high conception of the spirituality of. God has been else-
where treated. Another effect of this principle has been the simplic-
ity and spirituality of worship. As Dr. Girardeau led the worship,
there was no reading in concert, no repeating of creeds and prayers;
"but only the simple, oldtime Presbyterian worship consisting of
solemn, earnest prayers led by the minister, plain congregational
singing, the impressive reading of the Scripture," the exposition of
the Word, and an offering. In this plain bill of spiritual fare, instru-
mental music and, generally, trained choirs were never allowed,
being regarded as without New Testament warrant. 202

The students passing under the forty years of Dr. W. M.
McPheeters' professorship have all been drilled by precept and
prayer in the dictum that "God is spirit, and that they who would
truly worship Him must worship Him with their spirits."

The Holiness of God

The most distinctive and most vital doctrine of the Columbia
Theology as revealed by the present study is that of the holiness of
God. This principle stands out as determining the formulation of
and space given to many of the themes discussed in ThornwelVs Col-
lected Writings. Whether or not it is the logical center, it is the vital
cemter of the Thornwellian Theology.

201 Dr. Thornton Whaling, Thornwell as a Theologian in Thornwell Centennial
Addresses, p. 28. Cf. J. L. Girardeau. The Will in Its Theological Relations,
Chap. I, Columbia, S. C, Duffie, 1891.

202 T. H. Law in The Life Work of J. L. C, pp. 141, 142. J. L. Girardeau,
Instrumental Music in the Church.

220 Columbia Seminary and

The Reformed Theology has been characterized as the vision of
God in His majesty, of the King in His beauty. 203 Dr. Thornwell
laid hold of the beauty of holiness, the supreme vision of God, to
bow souls in adoration, humility, and absolute dependence upon
Him. In emphasizing this element as the very life of God, Dr.
Thornwell is standing in the line between Charnock 204 and B. B.
Warfield, 205 both of whom make God's holiness His crown and His
glory. More generally, this element has found a large place in P.
T. Forsyth The Cruciality of the Cross; 20 in Harris E. Kirk's, The
Consuming Fire; 207 and is a vital element in Edward Thurneysen's,
Das Wesen der Reformation 20 *

One can not define terms that are, in their very nature, indefinable.
It is impossible to scale the inaccessible heights of the Divine Holi-
ness with a definition. In this Alpine effort, Dr. B. B. Warfield was
compelled to fall back upon a negative or apophatic method: Ac-
cording to its Hebrew etymology the central thought is found to be
division, "specifically separation from the world conceived as a sin-
ful world. When we call God holy, then, the central idea in our
minds concerns His absolute and complete separation from sin and
uncleanness. Not that the idea has this negative form as it lies in
our minds. There is no idea so positive as that of holiness; it is the
very climax of positiveness. But it is hard to express this positive-
ness in a definite way, simply because this idea is above the ideas ex-
pressed by its synonyms. It is more than sinlessness, though it, of
course, includes the idea of. sinlessness. It is more than righteous-
ness, although again it includes the idea of righteousness. It is more
than wholeness, complete soundness and integrity and Tightness,
though, of course, again it includes these ideas. It is more than
simpleness, high simplicity and guilelessness, though it includes this
too. It is more than purity, though, of course, it includes this too.
Holiness includes all these and more. It is God's whole, entire, abso-
lute, inconceivable and, therefore, inexpressible completeness and

203 C. W. Hodge, The Significance of the Reformed Theology Today. Printed
as Addresses at his Inauguration, p. 19.

204 Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God, New Edition, Lon-
don, H. G. Bohn, 1860, especially p. 469.

- m Faith and Life, Longmans, Green & Co., N. Y., 1916, p 443.

2on The Cruciality of the Cross, H. & S. London.

' 2l)1 The Consuming Fire, Harris E. Kirk's. N. Y., 1919.

S08 Das Wort Gottes und die Kirche, pp. 15, 16.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 221

perfection of separation from and opposition to and ineffable re-
vulsion from all that is in any sense or degree, however small, evil.
We fall back at last on this negative description of it just because
language has no positive word which can reach up to the unscal-
able heights of this one highest word, holiness. It is the crown of
God, as mercy is His treasure; as grace is His riches, this is His
glory. Who is like unto God, glorious in holiness?" 209

But in its etymological derivation and its Biblical usage, the term
the Holiness of God should also be construed as carrying in itself the
thought of the exaltation of. God. The conception of One set apart
above, distinct from, implies separation from the creaturely limita-
tion inherent in man. This element is virtually that which is often
expressed as "the transcendence of God." Dr. George Adam Smith
finds this thought symbolized in Isaiah's vision of the Lord high and
lifted up and expressed in the seraphim trisagion:

"Generally speaking, then, holiness is equivalent to separateness,
sublimity. . . . Better expression could not be found for the full
idea of Godhead. This little word Holy radiates heaven's own
breadth of meaning. Within its fundamental idea distance or differ-
ence from man what spaces are there not for every attribute of
Godhead to flash? If the Holy One be originally He who is dis-
tinct from man and man's thoughts, and who impresses man from
the beginning with the awful sublimity of the contrast in which He
stands to him, how naturally may holiness come to cover not only
that moral purity and intolerance of sin to which we now more strict-
ly apply the term, but those metaphysical conceptions as well, which
we gather up under the name 'supernatural,' and so finally, by lift-
ing the Divine nature away from the change and vanity of this world,
and emphasizing God's independence of all beside Himself, become
the fittest expression we have for Him as the Infinite and Self-
existent. . . . The Holy One is not only the Sinless and Sin-ab-
horring, but the Sublime and the Absolute too." 210

Thornwell followed Charnock in making holiness the glory of all
of God's other perfections. 211 But he seems to have gone beyond
Charnock in making the holiness of God almost the synonym for the

209 Warfield. B. B.. Faith and Life, pp. 443, 444.

210 Smith, G. A.. The Book of Isaiah, Vol. I, The Expositor's Bible, p. 65.
Armstrong, N. Y., 1900.
211 Charnock, p. 469.

222 Columbia Seminary and

nature of God; and in the nature of God as thus conceived, rather
than in the will of God, he laid the ultimate foundation for his
theological structure. He declares:

"As moral character in man depends upon dispositions and
principles back of his volitions, must there not be something
analogous in God, something in the very nature and grounds of
His being which determines His will to command and forbid
what it does? Unquestionably there is; it is the holiness of the
Divine nature, that essential rectitude of His being, which con-
stitutes His glory and without which we could not conceive Him
to be an object of worship or reverential trust. Holiness is rep-
resented in the Scriptures as the very life of God. In all other
beings it is an accident separable from the essence; in God it is
His very sell It pervades all His other attributes and perfec-
tions and makes them to be preeminently Divine. His infinite
knowledge, tempered by His holiness, becomes wisdom. His
infinite power, wielded by that same holiness, becomes the guard-
ian of justice, truth and innocence. His infinite will, impreg-
nated with holiness, becomes the perfect standard of rights and
duty. This perfection is God's crown and glory. 212 He declares
that holiness is not restricted or co-ordinated with the other
moral perfections of God, but is inclusive of them. 'It is that in
which they are contained, from which they spring, and by which
they are determined. They are so many expressions of it.' 'It
may be styled a transcendental attribute, that, as it were, runs
through the rest and casts a glory upon every one, it is an at-
tribute of attributes.' 'In matters of greatest moment He is
brought in swearing by His holiness, which He is not wont to do
by any single attribute, as though it were a fuller expression of
Himself an adaequatior conceptus, than any of the rest.' 'The
reason of such representations is that holiness implies the full-
ness and energy of God's delight in righteousness. It is the very
life of that love and blessedness which flows from His own self-
sufficiency. God is love In other words God, as a holy being,
contemplates Himself as His own infinite good; and the blessed-
ness of the Divine nature is but the delight of the Divine holi-
ness in being what He is It is the fullness of love to His own
perfections which determines Him to express them and to stamp
them in some degree upon every work of His hands. Hence His
holiness pervades His whole being; underlies every Divine ac-
tivity; prompts every Divine energy.' 213

2V2 Thornivell's Col. Writings, Vol. I, p. 357.
2 Thornwell's Col. Writings, Vol. I, pp. 367, 368.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 223

"Without holiness His patience would be indulgence in sin
His mercy a fondness His wrath a madness, His power a
tyranny, His wisdom an unworthy subtility."

Turning from theology proper to anthropology, the centrality of
the idea of holiness is not lost. Man was created "in actual posses-
sion of knowledge, righteousness and true holiness." 214 "There is
no middle betwixt sin and holiness. Every moral being must be
either holy or sinful" (p. 231). That man is said to have been in
the image of God implies positive holiness. It is true that this phase
is sometimes transferred to our spiritual and personal nature, but
the thought is that this nature is the indispensable condition of holi-
ness; it is the subject in which it must inhere. 215 "But the strict and
proper acceptation of the phrase is holiness holiness of nature, or
habitual holiness." "The image of God consists generally in true
holiness, and this holiness, as the universal spirit or temper of the
man, manifests itself in knowledge and righteousness" (p. 236).
Adam's proper spiritual discernment of God "was holiness as it ir-
radiates the understanding" (p. 237).

Dr. Whaling has mentioned, as first and foremost "among the
striking instances of Thornwell's originality," the large place and
novel treatment which he gives to Christian Ethics as a section of
Systematic Theology. Concluding his first discussions on Truth,
Dr. Thornwell says, "I have now completed what I had to say upon
the ethical system of the Bible. The true light in which redemption
should be habitually contemplated is that of a Divine institute of
holiness." 216 One ground of his objection to the Roman Catholic
system is that "her doctrine of venial sins ... is utterly incompatible
with those awful impressions of the malignity of the least depar-
ture from rectitude which the holiness of God imparts." 217

Thornwell finds that sin, objectively considered, is non-conformity
with the law. But the moral law is the expression of God's will.
And God's will is not arbitrary or capricious; it is grounded in the
very nature and being of God. It is determined by "the holiness of
the Divine nature, that essential rectitude of His being, which con-
stitutes His glory and without which we could not conceive Him to

"-"Ibid, Vol. I, p. 229.

^Thormvell's Col. Writings, Vol. I, p. 236.

2W Ibid, Vol. II, p. 474.

^ThornwelVs Col Writings, Vol. II. p. 372. cf. 377.

224 Columbia Seminary and

be an object of worship or reverential trust" (p. 357). Sin, therefore,
is "the transgression of the law, disobedience to God and contradic-
tion to His holiness" (p. 361).

Sin in its subjective determination is traced back to "the want of
holiness." A subjective consideration of sin shows that "supreme
devotion constitutes the moral condition of the soul indispensable to
holiness" (p. 358) ; that this devotion is expressed in love; and that
a negation of the feeling of devotion and dependence (i. e. inde-
pendence, estrangement from God, self-affirmation) is the root
thought in sin. "As love to the creature in a state of holiness is de-
termined by its relations to the purpose of God, so, in a state of
sin that love is determined by relations to our own views and selfish
purposes" (p. 260).

In considering the formal nature of sin, Dr. Thornwell shows that
moral distinctions are necessary as being grounded, not in the arbi-
trary will, but in the very nature of God. He finds also that all right
motives and actions go back to a unity in the holiness of God. "What
God's holy will mbraces, that is right; what it rejects and abhors,
that is wrong." Truth, justice, benevolence, temperance find their
unity in conscience, and conscience is what the holiness of God loves
and approves (p. 370). "Holiness in man pervades the soul in all
forms of its existence as a nature or as an exercise. It is light to the
understanding, beauty to the heart, and good to the will" . . . "Its
longings are after God distinctly as the holy God." . . . "It is
ravished with the glory of the Lord because that glory is only the
splendour of His holiness. It is fundamentally the principle of
supreme love of Him as the supreme good." Therefore the notion of
right in a creature ought to be carried up to that of the good. "There
must be the love of the thing as beautiful and becoming, as assimilat-
ing the soul to God and bringing it into a condition to enjoy His
favour." Sin, then, is nothing but the contrast of holiness enmity
toward God. It is rebellion against God opposition to God and
opposition even to Him in the height of His glory, His holiness. It
is the denial of the creature's fundamental relation of dependence
and the putting up of self as the rival and enemy of God. "Sin stands
revealed in awful malignity as a profane attempt to dethrone the
Most High and to exalt ourselves to His glory and sovereignty" (p.
393).

Southern Presbyterian Thought 225

Out of this sense of sin as the contrast of holiness, Thornwell
stresses the polluting effect of sin. 218 "It recoils upon ourselves and
in separating us from the source of all real and solid good, it robs
the soul of its native beauty and excellence, pollutes them in every
faculty with foul deformity, makes them a hideous and ghastly spec-
tacle a loathsome and putrid mass to all intelligent beings that
have retained their integrity." The sinner "is morally ulcerated from
head to foot; he is a universal mass of. gangrenous matter. He is
covered with filth." Sin is the original ugly, and nothing is ugly
except in consequence of its analogy to sin. With sin, as the senti-
ment of the ugly, the vile, the dirty, the mean, comes the sentiment
of shame. As the opposite to the beauty of His holiness Thornwell
paints sin as heinous, hateful, filthy, foul and ugly.

But, according to Thornwell, holiness comprehends the righteous-
ness of God righteousness is what holiness affirms. And the justice
of God is His holiness acting in His power. And when sin stands be-
fore this manifestation of the holiness of God, it is seen in its
blackness of guilt. Conscience, the echo of. the holiness of God,
brings the soul into the depths of agony with her solemn declaration
that sin ought to be punished and that sin will be punished. The
moral law as the expression of the very nature of God is ineradicable.

Therefore, the violation of the law brings the inexorable necessity
of punishment. "The necessity of punishment is as inexorable as
the necessity of obedience. It is not a thing which God may insti-
tute or abolish at will without reflecting on His glory. It is a thing
which He must do, or cease to be the holy and just God. The end
of punishment is to uphold the majesty of the law." And the law is
the necessary expression of the nature of God. God's character is
inexorably pledged to the punishment of sin he can no more fail
to punish sin than he can lie. Divine justice is simply the triumph
of Divine holiness. 219 "In the penal fires of. hell we contemplate
the inextinguishable hatred of God to all forms of iniquity. They
result from the purity of infinite holiness in terrible collision with
guilt." 220 "It is a radical principle of all religion that no sin is un-
conditionally pardoned." 221 The opposition of God to sin is the

Thornwell's Col. Writings, Vol. I, pp. 400-424.
a9 Thornwell's Col. Writings, Vol. I, pp. 406-424.
220 Ibid, Vol. II, p. 244.
""Ibid, Vol. II. p. 375.

226 Columbia Seminary and

opposition of His nature as holy to sin for God to do other than
take vengeance of sin would be for Him to violate the fundamental
attributes of His nature.

The flaming glory of the holiness of. God is revealed for Thorn-
well in the consideration of the sacrifice of Christ as that of a holy
priest. This theme is presented in two of Thornwell's Addresses
preserved in Vol. II of his Collected Writings: The Priesthood of
Christ; and The Sacrifice of Christ, the Type and Model of Mission-
ary Effort (pp. 265-290; 449). Here Thornwell presents the glory
of God not only in the saving work which is done, not only even in
the Lord of glory who does it, but in the sublime way in which it
is done, the work of a priest. "That our substitute, ransom and
surety should be a priest is grace on top of. grace the exuberance
of grace" (p. 272). More recently, Dr. P. T. Forsyth in The Person
and Place of Jesus Christ has declared, "New Testament religion is
a priestly religion or it is nothing. It gathers around a priestly cross
on earth and a Great High Priest in the heavens it means the priest-
hood of each believer and the collective priesthood of the Church
as one" (p. 12). The same writer makes the fundamental action of
Christ's death a prime regard for the holiness of God. 222

Thornwell represents the soul of the Lord Jesus as burning with a
holy adoration of God, as He sees the Father in the radiant glory of
His holiness. And from this vision he gathers the unescapable argu-
ment for the necessity of the atonement: "When I consider His soul
as a pious offering, and then reflect that He celebrates the grace and
the condescension of God in accepting the gift; when I consider the
extent and severity of His sufferings, and then remember that all
were to express to the universe His sense of the Divine holiness, I
ask no more: I am satified that thus it must be that without the
shedding of blood there could be no remission. So intense was His
conviction that His death was indispensable to the righteous pardon
of the guilty, that He seems to have coveted the cross, and to have
been straitened for His baptism of blood. He could not brook the
thought that man should be saved at the peril of the Divine Glory,
and whatever His Father's honour demanded He was prepared to
render at any cost of self-denial to Himself" (p. 420).

2 The Cruciality of the Cross, p. 205, etc.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 227

But more than the need of the atonement, Thornwell teaches here
the beauty of the atonement. In the priestly work is seen, not a
price demanded, but a sacrifice freely offered, a heart of. adoration
and worship under the falling darkness and sacrifice, a heart so full
of the sense of the glory of holiness that it rejoices to glorify that
holiness even at such a cost to itself. "The whole transaction is an
august and glorious act of worship." The sacrifice of the Great High
Priest is the most glorious litany ever chanted, the grandest dox-
ology ever sung worship of the glory of holiness at its highest and
noblest. "We feel that God is glorious, that the law is glorious, for
Christ glorifies them." We "enter into the awful reverence for God
which invests the cross with the sanctities of worship and converts its
shame into glory. The beauty of holiness gilds its terrors" (pp.
419, 426, 279, 280). The atonement is defined, as, "guilt expiated
by an act of worship."

Instead of a feeling of the harshness of God which sometimes
comes from exclusively contemplating the legal aspects of the cross,
Thornwell's vision of Calvary focuses the eye on the light of the
holiness of God and ravishes the heart with the glory of the Triune
(p. 281). It is with the free, voluntary, spontaneous, self-devotion of
the priest that the offering is made. It is made with his heart full
of mingled adoration and zeal for the Divine glory, and sympathy
and love for those He represents (pp. 419-422). Our happiness was
not purchased at the expense of the rights of another; "and though
there was an immense cost of suffering and blood, it was never for
a moment begrudged, never for a moment sustained with reluctance.
We have no occasion for regrets that the blessings which we enjoy
have been put into our hands by cruelty, injustice or overharshness
and severity to others. They are the free gifts of that sublimest of
all spirits the spirit of the priest" (p. 276). Entering into the
scene and into the workings and emotions of the Saviour's heart, it is
maintained that nothing less than the Divine nature could be the
dwelling place of such holy zeal and such ineffable love (p. 427). At
one and the same time, adoration of the glory of holiness and the
energy of that same holiness are manifest ; the Father is reflected in
the Son. "The piety of the Priest flows from a fountain of inex-
haustible fullness" the holiness of God. In His own unspotted
holiness He confesses the guilt of His brethren and adores the justice
which dooms Him to woe as their substitute. With profound ado-

228 Columbia Seminary and

ration of. the Divine character, He, in His own spontaneous act, lays
His life upon the altar, virtually saying; "Take it, it ought to be
taken; let the fire of justice consume it; better ten thousand times
better, that this should be than that the throne of the Eternal should
be tarnished with an effeminate pity!" The grandest hymn of praise,
of worship, of adoration of the Lord glorious in holiness, arose when
the High Priest of our Profession offered up Himself a voluntary
sacrifice to express the love of God, to satisfy the justice of God, to
magnify the holiness of God.

Justification, the Federal Theology, Adoption, have all found
prominent places in the Columbia Theology. But the supreme
theme in God's self -revelation is "the idea of the holy." That theol-
ogy is the vision of the Lord glorious in holiness; the vision of sin
as the contradiction of His holiness; the vision of redemption as an
institute of holiness; that vision of the saving Cross which the
Fourth Gospel presents as Jesus' own, "Holy Father, Glorify Thy
Name!" 223

223 John 12:28; 17:11. Cf. Vos. T, The Self -Disclosure of Jesus, pp. 302-305.
Doran, 1926.

~ 4 Since completing this work the writer has been privileged to read the
private diary of the Reverend Robert Z. Johnston, in whose pastorate at Lincoln-
ton, N. C, he was first permitted to see the light of day. It is a pleasure to
note that this first pastor endorsed the views herein set forth on two matters
which will probably be disputed. Commenting on the evolution controversy,
December 14, 1884, Dr. Johnston expresses an appreciative judgment of Dr.
Woodrow in accord with that set forth in this book. There are several refer-
ences in Johnston's account of his experiences as a student at Columbia
Seminary, 1858-1861, which sustain the position that the holiness of God is
the vital center of the Columbia Theology, e. g. a lecture by Dr. Thornwell to
the Junior Class on the ethical system of the Bible; a sermon by Dr. Adger on
the text Exodus 15:11, delivered March 6th, 1859; the statement, "I do think
Dr. T(hornwell) is the most profoundly pious man I ever saw."

Southern Presbyterian Thought 229

BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. MANUSCRIPTS

I. Manuscripts in Vault of Columbia Theological Seminary 1928:
Archives of the Seminary, Vol. I, Vol. II. Shelf 481, No. 14. 15.

Letters, original reports, minutes, constitutions, etc.

Date March, 1826, to c. 1849, principally 1826-36.
Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary.

Vol 1, December 14. 1827 to November 22, 1861.

Vol. 2, May 6, 1862 to May 7. 1888.

Vol. 4, May 8, 1889 to 1909.

Vol. 5, 1909 to 1919.
Minutes of the Faculty of the Theological Seminary.

Second Book of Records begins 1850, but incorporates a history of the origin
of the Seminary and the principal acts of the first book (first book burned).

Vol. II begins 1871.

Extant Vol. Ill begins 1884

Vol. IV begins 1896.

Vol. V begins 1918.
The Society of Missionary Inquiry of the Seminary.

Constitution of, organized February, 1831, organization, etc.

Constitution (Revised), Committees, By-Laws, etc.

Records of the Society of Missionary Inquiry, February 21. 1831-1855.

Records of the Society of Missionary Inquiry, 1855-1880.
Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Southern Board of Foreign Missions,

January, 1834-March, 1842.
*Minutes of the Presbytery of South Carolina.

1. Rough Minutes to be transcribed in due time into a book to appear before
some venerable synod. 1785-1788.

2. Minutes of the South Carolina Presbytery Book A. 1784-1790.

3. The Minutes of the Presbytery of South Carolina. 1785-1799 (inclusive),
transcribed by J. B. Davis, approved by Synod.

4. Minutes of the Presbytery of South Carolina, 1800-1814. i. e.. the Second
Presbytery of S. C, 1800-1814. The Presbytery of S. C, 1810-1814 (the
First Presbytery having been dissolved 1810).

*Minutes of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia.
Vol. I, November 4, 1813 to November 29, 1836. app. May 26. 1838. Wm. S.
Plumer, Moderator.
Vol. II, November 8, 1837, to October 17, 1857, app. May 28. 1859. W. L.

Breckenridge, Moderator.
*Minutes of the Synod of South Carolina.
October, 1859-1860, app. with exceptions. Wm. C. Backus. Moderator. May
30, 1861. Held by the General Assembly, U. S. A., during the War and
returned thereafter damaged by water and fire.
Records of the Congregational Association of South Carolina, c. 1801-1822.

II. Manuscripts in private library of Rev. John Blackburn. Atlanta, Ga. :
Communicant Roll Book of Colored Members of Zion Presbyterian Church

(Charleston, S. C.)
Rules for the Government of the Colored Members (of same).
Minutes of the Session of Zion Presbyterian Church, 1858-1867.
Notes of J. L. Girardeau.

III. Private Library of Rev. J. B. Mack, Jr.:
Manuscripts of Dr. J. B. Mack in re. Evolution Controversy.

IV. Whaling, Dr. Thornton.

1. Why the Southern Church Prefers Organic Union.

2. Address before the Chicago Presbyterian Social Union, 1913.

*Since transferred to Historical Commission, Montreat, N. C.

230 Columbia Seminary and

B. SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAHY

Published and Printed Books and Articles.

Adger, J. B. My Life and Times. Richmond, 1899.

Alexander, W. A. A Digest of the Acts of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in the U. S., Rev. 1922, Richmond.
Bean, Wm. S., Mills, W. H., Jones, F. D. History of the Presbyterian Church

in South Carolina Since 1850. Columbia, S. C, 1926.
Blackburn, Geo. A. The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau. Columbia, 1916.
Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, The.
Adopted Assembly 1879, Richmond.
Same, Revised Edition 1925, Richmond.
Charleston Observer, The. Charleston, S. C.
Catalogues of Columbia Theological Seminary. Columbia, S. C.
Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Phila., 1921.
Daniel, Eugene. Church Polity and Worship. In, Memorial Volume of the

W estminster Assembly. Richmond, 1897.
Dabney, R. L. Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic

Theology. Fourth Edition, Richmond, 1890.
DuBose, Hampden C. Memoirs of J. Leighton Wilson, D.D. Richmond, 1895.
Girardeau, John L. The Diaconate, In S. P. R. XXX, XXXI, XXXII.
Evolution in Columbia Theological Seminary. Columbia, 1885.
Historical Address to the Synod of South Carolina. In Historical Addresses,

Richmond, 1886.
The Life Work of J. L. Girardeau, D. D. Columbia, 1916.
Discussions' of Philosophical Questions, Richmond, 1900.
Gillespie, Richard T. Columbia Theological Seminary in The King's Business

in the Synod of Alabama. Birmingham, 1927.
Howe, George. History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. Colum-
bia, S. C. Vol. I, 1870; Vol. II, 1883.
A Discourse on Theological Education. N. Y., 1844.
Jones, C. C. A Catechism of Scripture Doctrine and Practice for Families and
Sabbath Schools for the Oral Instruction of Colored Persons. Philadelphia.
Third Edition, 1852.
Religious Instruction of the Negioes in the U. S. Savannah, 1842.
Johnson, T. C. Calvin's Contribution to Church Polity. In Calvin Memorial
Addresses. Richmond, 1909.
Life and Letters of Benjamin Morgan Palmer. Richmond, 1906.
Laws, S. S. The At-Onement By the Christian Trinity. 1919.
Malone, Dumas. The Public Life of Thomas Cooper. Yale U. Press.
Mallard, R. Q. Plantation Life Before Emancipation. Richmond, 1892.
Martindale, C. O'N. Whn It Means to Be Christian. Chicago, 1927.
McPheeters, Wm. M. Columbia Theological Seminary, a Retrospect Involving
a Responsibility. 1901.
Interpretation. (Printed not published.)

Studies in Exegetical Method. (Printed not published.) Bryan, Columbia.
S. C.
Minutes of the General Assembly (South), Augusta. Columbia, and Rich-
mond, 1861-1927.
Minutes of the Synod of South Carolina. 1840-.
Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United

States of America. Philadelphia.
Morris, S. L. At Our Own Door. Chicago, 1904.

Presbyterianism; Its Principles and Practice. Richmond, 1922.
The Task That Challenges. Richmond, 1917, etc.
Peck, T. E. Miscellanies of T. E. Peck, D.D. Three volumes. Richmond,
1895-1897.

Southern Presbyterian Thought 231

Notes on Ecclesiology. Richmond.
Palmer, B. M., Jr. Life and Letters of James Henley Thornwell. Richmond,

1875.
Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the W orld. 1905. Re-
printed 1917, Philadelphia.
A Historical Sketch in Bulletin Columbia Theological Seminary. Columbia

1922. Vol. XII, No. IX.
History of the Southern Presbyterian Church. Charlotte. 1923.
Robinson. Stuart. The Church of God with Appendix. Philadelphia. 1858.
Semi-Centennial of Columbia Theological Seminary. Columbia, 1884.
Southern Board of Foreign Missions.

Annual Reports Fifth. Charleston. S. C. 1839; Sixth. Charleston. S. C,

1840.
Missionary Papers:

III. Prospects of the Heathen for Eternity. Thomas Smyth. Charleston.
1836.

IV. The Missionary Spirit. J. L. Merrick. Charleston, 1836. etc.
Southern Presbyterian Review. Columbia, S. C. 1847-1885. Volume XXXIV

Index.

Statutes of South Carolina, Vols. VIII, XII, XV, XVII, XXII.

Stacy, James. History of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia. Atlanta. 1912.

Smyth, Thomas. Complete Works. Ten Volumes. Reprinted Bryan. Colum-
bia, S. C, 1908-1912.

Tenney, S. M. Souvenir of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States. San Antonio, Texas, 1924.

Thorn well, J. H. Thorn welTs Collected Writings. Four Volumes. Edited by
Adger and Girardeau. Richmond. 1873.

Thornwell Centennial Addresses. Before the Synod of S. C, October. 1912.
T. H. Law, A. M. Fraser, Thornton Whaling. Spartanburg, S. C, 1913.

Wilson, John S. Necrology, the Dead of the Synod of Georgia. Atlanta, 1869.

Wilson, J. Leighton. Western Africa. Its History. Condition and Prospects.
N. Y., 1856.

White, Henry Alexander. Southern Presbyterian Leaders. N. Y.. 1911.
Robert E. Lee and the Southern Confederacy. N. Y.. 1897.
Life of Stonewall Jackson. Philadelphia, 1909.
The Making of South Carolina. N. Y., 1906, etc.

In Memoriam of Henry Alexander White. Bulletin of Columbia Theological
Seminary October, 1927, Vol. XXI, No. 1. Addresses: G. A. Wauchope,
Ph. D.; Neal L. Anderson, D. D.

Woodrow. Marion W. Dr. James Woodrow. Character Sketches and His Teach-
ing. Columbia, S. C, 1909.

Whaling, Thornton. Science and Religion Today. U. of N. C. Press, 1929.

C. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andover Theological Seminary, General Catalogue. Boston. 1908.

Bacon, L. W. A History of American Christianity. 1897. Scribners, N. Y..

1925.
Batiffol, Pierre. Primitive Catholicism. Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.
Barclay. Alexander. Protestant Doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Glasgow. 1927.
Beecher, W. J. The Prophets and the Promise. N. Y., 1905.

Reasonable Biblical Criticism. 1911.
Biblical Repertory. Princeton, 1848.

Brightman, E. S. An Introduction to Philosophy. N. Y., 1925.
Carlyle, A. J. & R. W. History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West.

Four Volumes.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Trans. J. Allen. London,

1844.

232 Columbia Seminary and

Charming, Wm. E. Works, Volume II. Slavery. Eleventh Edition. Boston,

1849.
Charnock, Stephen. Discourses Upon the Existence and Attributes of God.

New Edition. London, 1860.
Cunningham, William. Theological Reformation.
Daniels, Josephus. The Life of Woodrow Wilson. Phila., 1924.
Darwin, Charles. Origin of Species. 1859.
Dillman, August. Genesis Critically and Exegetically Expounded. Translated

by W. B. Stevenson, Edinburgh. 1897.
Ernesti, J. A. Elements of Interpretation, translated with notes by N. Stuart.

Andover, 1822.
Forsyth, P. T. The Cruciality of the Cross. London, H. & S., 1908, 1909.
Gwatkins, H. M. Early Church History to 313. Bishop Hasting's Dictionary

of the Bible. N. Y., 1900.
Hamilton. The Philosophy of Sir Wm. Hamilton, edited O. W. Wight. N. Y.,

1858.
Harnack, Adolph. The Constitution and Law of the Church. N. Y., 1910.

Crown Theological Library.
Hatch, Edw. The Organization of the Early Christian Churches. Fifth Edition.

London, 1895.
Hodge, Charles. Biblical Repertory. 1848.
Hort, F. J. A. The Christian Ecclesia. Macmillan, 1914.
Kirk, Harris E. The Consuming Fire. N. Y., 1919.
Keller, Helen A. The Story of My Life. N. Y., 1903.

LaPiana, George. Lectures on History of Christian Institutions. Harvard, 1927.
LeConte, Joseph. Evolution Its Nature, Its Evidences and Its Relation to

Religious Thought. Second Edition, N. Y. Appleton & Co.
Ladd, G. T. Elements of Physiological Psychology. N. Y., 1900.
Lightfoot, J. B. Essay on the Christian Ministry. 1868. Re-published in St.

Paul's Epistle to Philippians. Macmillan, 1915.
Lovejoy, A. O. The Revolt Against Dualism. Norton & Co., 1930.
Lindsay, T. M. The Church and the Ministry. N. Y., 1902. Quoting F. Loofs

in Studien und Kritiken, 1890.
Meeter, H. H. The Fundamental Principles of Calvinism. Grand Rapids, 1930.
Morgan, C. Lloyd. Emergent Evolution. 1923.
Moore, George F. Judaism. Harvard, 1927.
Moore, E. C. Christian Thought Since Kant. N. Y., 1915.
Ogilvie, J. N. The Presbyterian Churches of Christendom. Edinburgh, 1925.
Perry, R. B. Present Philosophical Tendencies. N. Y., 1916.
Prentiss. Fifty Yars of the Union Theological Seminary. N. Y., 1889.
Relton, H. M. A Study in Christology. London, 1917.
Robinson, J. Armitage. Essay on the Christian Ministry. In H. B. Swete,

Early History of the Church and the Ministry. Second Edition. London.

1921.
Schaff, Philip. Creeds of Christendom. Fourth Edition, 1884.
Stuart, Moses. A Hebrew Chrestomathy. Second Edition, Andover, 1832.
Streeter, B. H. The Primitive Church. Macmillan, 1929.
Spencer, H. First Principles, etc. N. Y., 1888.
Trent, Council of

Canones et Decreta Sacrosanti . . . Rome, 1834.

Canons and Decrees of the Sacred . . . Translated Waterworth, London,

1848.
Catechism for Curates, tr. J. Donovan, Dublin, 1829.
Trumbull, H. C. Yale Lectures on the Sunday School. Phila., 1888.

Southern Presbyterian Thought

233

Thurneysen, Eduard. Das Wort Gottes unci die Kirche. Miinchen, 1927.
Thompson, R. E. Presbyterians. American Church History Series. N. Y., 1900.
Ueberweg, F. History of Philosophy. Trans. N. Y., 1888.

Warfield, B. B. Faith and Life. N. Y., 1916. Creation vs. Evolution, The
Bible Student. 1901.

iWl

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Published by

DENNIS LINDSEY PRINTING COMPANY, Inc.

421 Church St. Decatur, Ga.

rl I M 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II ] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111111(11 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 t < 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I i 1 1 1 r 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

John Bulow Campbell Library
Columbia Theological Seminary
^Decatur, Ga. 30031

John . . Library

Columbia lhe<_.oyical Seminary

Decatur, Ga. 30031

ifov"

1 -'

A_

DATE DUE

23

-

l*&

H D %

lH

a^^ti

MAY 5 - 1

\ 1 t\mi o-i-iT.

jii

FoTW

'**+-*

Mt

itrjcv;

BM 4070 .C794S RS

Robinsorir William Childs

Columbia Theoloaical
Seminary and the Southern