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A SEEMON,

"DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1853.

GEORGE DUFFIELD, Ja.

Qmxun lnsbgferaiu«-

A SEEMON,

DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1853.

GEORGE DUFFIELD, Jr.,
PASTOR OF THE COATES' ST. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

" THE GLORY OF CHILDREN ARE THEIR FATHERS." — Prov. Xvii. 6.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY ISAAC ASHMEAD.
1854.

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.

: THE GLORY OF CHILDREN ARE THEIR FATHERS." — PrOV. Xvii. 6.

"He is worthy for whom thou shpuldst do this,"
said the Jews on one occasion to Jesus, " for he loveth
our nation and hath built us a synagogue." Be it mine
to show that the church, to-day for the first time
making her appeal to her children, and whose cause I
undertake to plead before you, is also worthy of assis
tance. The occasion is a sublime and a solemn one —
1500 churches, and as many ministers, entering the
gates of Zion, and making a simultaneous effort to
extend the gospel to the destitute — this is the com
munion of saints indeed. Who is it that asks ? and
what is asked for ? These are the points to which I
would now invite your attention.
Eighty years after the arrival of the Mayflower at
Plymouth, and twenty years after the landing of Wil
liam Penn from the good ship Welcome at Coaquanock,
a merchant sloop might have been seen entering the
Capes of the Delaware. That sloop is to our denomi
nation what the " Welcome" is to Pennsylvania, and

4 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
the " Mayflower" to Massachusetts, and these United
States. What Elder Brewster is to the Congregation-
alists, Roger Williams to the Baptists, Asbury to the
Methodists, and Bishop White to the Episcopalians,
Francis McKemie, the owner of that sloop, is to Ame
rican Presbyterians.
While the little vessel, laden with the precious germ
of all that we have since been as a church, is making
her steady way to the newly constituted city of Phila
delphia, let us indulge a very proper curiosity as to
the man, by whose hand it has pleased God in his
Providence to plant this germ. We shall find him in
every way worthy of the honor that is thus conferred.
His native country is Ireland, where, at the early
age of fourteen, he was converted to God through the
instructions of a pious schoolmaster. Baptized in the
Irish Presbyterian Church, and there educated and
ordained, he early and deeply imbibed the enlarged
and enlightened liberality of sentiment that prevailed
at that time, both in the Irish and the English branches
of the Presbyterian Church, and which, not long after
his ordination, found so noble an expression in the
Union, whose articles are still extant, by which the
Presbyterians and Independents of England agreed to
bury their distinctive names in that of United Brethren.
Willing to tolerate other denominations beside their
own ; readily admitting tne distinction between essen
tial and non-essential doctrines, and very far indeed
from believing with their Scotch Presbyterian brethren,
that such a distinction was itself a fundamental error ;
claiming no such divine authority for each peculiar
shade of doctrine or disciphne, as would deprive them,

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 0
by a fixed and inevitable necessity, of all possible
liberty of change, concession, or compromise, and wise
enough to leave some matters of inferior importance
to be determined by the Providence of God, we cannot
be too thankful, in view of the great work that God
would one day give him to do, that the young
McKemie, on his first entrance upon the work of the
ministry, should find himself .surrounded by such a
genial and invigorating atmosphere. Thoroughly quali
fied for his work also by a classical, a legal, and a theo
logical education, a man of most indomitable courage
and perseverance, and possessed withal of a sufficient
amount of this world's goods to render him somewhat
independent in his circumstances, we are not surprised
to find that when an application was made to Lagan
Presbytery, in Ireland, in December, 1680, for a
minister to come to the Colonies, by " Col. Stevens, in
Maryland, beside Virginia," that the lot should fall
upon McKemie.
Arriving in 1682, and "resolving to submit himself
to the sovereign Providence of God," his great aim
seems to have been to preach the gospel to the desti
tute, and to search out localities to which he could
safely invite other ministers of a similar evangehcal
spirit from abroad. First, within a mile of his wealthy
and benevolent friend, Col. Stevens, in Somerset
County, he organizes the Rehoboth Church, which is
consequently the oldest Presbyterian Church, the
cradle of Presbyterianism in these United States. In
1690 we find him collecting a congregation in Acco
mack, just on the dividing fine between Virginia and
Maryland. Alarmed and incensed at his evangehcal

6 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
labors, the Episcopal clergy carry him over the Bay to
Williamsburg, to answer for the crime of preaching the
gospel. But their opposition is in vain. Conciliated
alike by his talents and his fascinating address, the
Governor becomes his friend, gives him a general
license to preach, and hcenses his dwelling-house as a
place of worship. Meanwhile we hear of him in Wor
cester County, in North Carolina, in Barbadoes, and
elsewhere, with equal prudence and zeal, sowing beside
all waters the good seed of the word of God. " The
London Missionary Society," to which we have before
alluded as " The United Brethren," or, as Dr. Miller
has it, " a respectable body of Dissenters in the city
of London," having ceased, after two years, to make
any further appropriation for the support of their mis
sionary, he was obliged, hke Paul at Corinth, to engage
in secular business. This, however, fell out rather for
the furtherance of the Gospel. His business being
mercantile, and himself the owner of the vessel, it was
thus in his power to visit and preach in many places
that he would have been obliged otherwise to neglect.
Thus too it was that somewhere about the time of
whjch we speak we find him on his way to Phila
delphia. Hitherto he has had a good reward for his labor;
in spite of all the embarrassment and opposition he has
been called to encounter, and that single-handed and ¦-
abne, he has now under his care no less than four
flourishing churches. His first anxiety is to have
them supplied with a faithful and efficient ministry.
This makes it necessary for him to return to his native
country, and to his former friends in England, to enlist

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 7
anew their interest for the gospel in America. His
usual success attending his application, on his voyage
back he is accompanied' by two fellow-laborers and
fellow-countrymen, John Hampton and George McNish,
whom he had inspired with a portion of his own enthu
siasm, and who were as little bigoted and exclusive as
he was himself. The ministry thus secured, and no
doubt beginning to see that he was now about to lay
the foundations of many generations, his next great
anxiety, in order " that their evangehcal affairs might
be the better managed," was to organize a Presby
tery. In the selection of materials for this purpose, two
courses were open for his adoption. One was to stand
like Jephthah and his Gileadites, at the passage of the
Jordan, and cut off every Ephraimite who could not
lisp the ecclesiastical shibboleth with precisely the
same sibilation as himself and other Presbyterians
across the water. The other was to anticipate the far
reaching wisdom that afterwards prevailed with such
a glorious result in our national affairs ; viz. taking
the elements of Presbyterianism just as he found them,
to arrange, to harmonize, and to mould them afresh, in
their form at least, if not their substance, after a model
of his own. American Presbyterianism is no more
British Presbyterianism, than American liberty is
British liberty.
It was on this wise that the system was first in
troduced to Scotland by John Knox. " Before the
common people," (the " rascal multitude," as they
caLed them,) " had time or opportunity of being in
structed or indoctrinated in the principles of the

8 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
Reformation — before there were any Sessions, or Pres
byteries, or Synods instituted, a few clergymen with
the nobility, formed themselves into a kind of general
Assembly : planned > or rather adopted, the doctrinal
Confession of faith, wliich Knox brought with him
from Geneva; seized upon the patrimony of the
church, as they called it ; deposed the former bishops,
and appointed in their stead over their dioceses, su
perintendents, or a kind of itinerant bishops with very
limited powers, to take the old parishes under their
care, remove disorderly and immoral incumbents, locate
better ministers where they could be found, over the
said parishes, and where suitable ministers could not
be found, to appoint readers as a temporary supply.
This was according to the model established by the
Scotch Reformers, and their first General Assembly.
* * * All the power of the Church commenced from,
and existed in a General Assembly, which organized
inferior courts, when it was found expedient and ne
cessary, and imparted to the courts below, such powers
and privileges as it chose, and retained such as it
chose. This system began at the top, and worked
downward. It commenced in times of comparative
darkness and ignorance, respecting civil and religious
rights, privileges, and freedom; and becoming the
established religion of the realm, it retained all the
advantages thereby secured to itself, with a tenacity/
peculiar to the nation to the present day, to the exchW
sion of all other sects or denominations, excepting
those in subordination to itself. It would fraterni^
with no other sect, admit none other into its pulpi|
or church judicatories, nor open a fraternal correspri

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 9
dence with any other. Hence, when compelled by
circumstances to attempt a union with the Enghsh
Presbyterians, who were far more moderate, and less
restrictive than themselves, they would not amalga
mate. In New England, they wanted all their system
or nothing; nothing less would satisfy them than to
have Presbyterianism established there by law, to the
exclusion of every other system."* The idea of pre
ference without exclusion, was heresy.
The Father of American Presbyterianism was of a
widely different spirit. Either previous to his depar
ture from Europe, or immediately upon his return, he
became acquainted with the Rev. Jedediah Andrews,
who in the autumn of 1698, came from New Englahd
to Philadelphia, and officiated as an Independent mi
nister. His congregation then occupying the storehouse
of the Barbadoes Company, in common with the Bap
tists, is now represented by the First Presbyterian
Church on Washington Square. Agreed as to their
doctrine, in Calvinism : as to the sacraments, alike in
their nature, mode, and subjects; as to the parity of
the ministry; above all, in the noble charity of the
gospel, magnifying the things in which they agreed,
rather than those in which they differed, it was not
difficult, it was just what we would have expected in
the circumstances, that these kindred drops should
mingle into one. Accordingly, A. D. 1705, McKemie
and Andrews, together with Hampton, McNish, and
three others, John Wilson, Samuel Davis, and Natha
niel Taylor, were organized as the mother Presbytery
of Philadelphia. Half of them were Irish Presbyte-
* Hill's American Presbyterianism, passim.

10 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
rians; the other half Congregationalists probably, and
from a subsequent letter of Mr. Andrews to a friend.
at the East, in which he says, "that they could all
submit to the Presbytery readily enough, though
mostly from New England," we have as good an idea
as we could desire ofthe kind of Presbyterianism that
was then established. Others may call it " loose," we
call it liberal. Others may denounce it as " a laxer
system," we glory in it as just what it ought to have
bedn. As one has well said, "Its connection with
Scotland was slight and incidental. McKemie was
Presbyterian, and he secured that form of government.
Andrews was content provided it was liberal." Ame-.
rican Presbyterianism then, was what American Pres
byterianism as represented in our branch of the
Church is now, American and not foreign; some
thing of its own kind, and not a mere exotic.
Our attachment to it is like that of a Jew to Pales
tine; both national and religious. We love it as we do
our liberty, because it is the growth of our owji soil.
Presbyterianism is good, the Presbyterianism of the
Waldenses in the 7th Century; the Presbyterianism
of the Reformed Churches in France, Germany, Hol
land, Hungary, Geneva; and Scotland, apart from its
individual peculiarities ; to each of these we willingly
accord the praise to which they are entitled by their
history, and the fruits that they have borne through
many generations; Iwit for our own country, for the
19th century, for our children, and our children's chil
dren, we do most sincerely and unfeignedly beheve
that American Presbyterianism is better. Take away
the word American, and with it the representative

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 11
principle, and the love of chartered rights as guaran
tied by a written constitution; make the animus of
the Church, other than what it is now and ever has
been since its original formation; give a legislative
power to the General Assembly, and a discretionary
power at such times as it may deem expedient, to
over-ride the Constitution itself, and we would feel
but little zeal to see this system established and per
petuated. The draft that the Assembly has made
upon the churches, whether honored or dishonored,
would be a matter of indifference to us. We would
not feel as we now do, that not to have it met would
be a calamity. A Church that has such an origin as
we have described, should be dear alike to the heart
of the patriot and the Christian.
Let us trace its progress. As in the formation of
our National Constitution, every step of the way, from
the Colonial to the State, and from the State to the
General Government, the rights of the people were
carefully secured by their representatives and went
upward, so was it in the history of American Presbyte
rianism; A. D. 1717. The number of churches having
greatly increased, the mother Presbytery was divided
into four, and out of these the first Synod was consti
tuted, viz. the Synod of New York and Philadelphia.
Among other advantages secured by this arrangement
was the right of appeal to a higher court, viz. that of
a private member from the decision of a Session and
a Presbytery; and that of a minister from the decision
of a Presbytery. A.D. 1788, the original Synod was
divided into four, and out of the whole was constituted
as the great bond of union for all the churches, the

12 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
General Assembly. Thus after four score years in
building, our ecclesiastical structure was at length com
pleted ; not a Monarchy, hke the Papal Church ; not
an oligarchy, like the Episcopal, or Methodist Episco
pal; not a Democracy, hke the Congregational, but a
Republic. Religious rights m the Church, are secured
in the same manner as civil rights in the States. The
Church is the township ; the Presbytery, the county ;
the Synod, the judicial district; the General Assem
bly, the congress, composed of representatives from
all parts of the land. If we read aright the history
of our country, and understand the working of its in
stitutions, American Republicanism is nothing but po
litical Presbyterianism. Those who doubt the assertion,
we refer to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen
dence, which anticipated that of Jefferson, and was its
model; to the history of Witherspoon in the Conti
nental Congress; and to the history of the Constitu
tion itself.
From the form of American Presbyterianism, let us
turn to what is of still greater importance, its spirit.
When after preaching the sermon in New York,
A. D. 1707, (the only one still extant,) to "the small
congregation," which afterwards became the First
Presbyterian Church there, McKemie was arrested by
Lord Cornbury, saying, " You shall not preach your per
nicious doctrines here," he boldly rephed, "As to our
doctrines, my Lord, we have our Confession of Faith,
which is known to the Christian world; and I chal
lenge all the clergy of York to show us any false or
pernicious doctrines therein." His doctrinal senti
ments were undoubtedly those of the Westminster
Catechism. No one will dispute his orthodoxy, though

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 13
there are not a few who would in vain endeavor to
conceal his liberality.
" In the organization of the Presbyterian Church in
this country," says Dr. Miller, "they had not for
mally and publicly adopted any particular Confession
of Faith, or ecclesiastical Constitution. They acted
under a plan rather understood, than officially ratified."
This continued until A. D. 1729, when the question
of adopting the Confession of Faith became a matter
of most earnest and anxious deliberation. The points
presented were the following :
1. To adhere to the Westminster Confession of
Faith, Catechisms, and Directory, without the least
variation or alteration, and without any regard to the
distinction of essential or non-essential articles. Or,
2. Utterly "to disclaim all legislative power and
authority in the church ;" to leave to the discretion of
the individual such articles as " were not essential or
necessary in doctrine, worship, or government," and to
recognize " the point of essentials arid circumstantials"
as an article so important as to be absolutely "indis
pensable." The former was foreign Presbyteriamsm ; the latter
was American Presbyterianism; and that the latter
had the preference is evident from the following
minute : —
" The Synod do unanimously acknowledge and
declare, that they judge the Directory for worship,
disciphne, and government of the Church, commonly
annexed to the Westminster Confession, to be agree
able in substance to the Word of God, and founded
thereupon, and therefore do earnestly recommend the

14 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
same to all their members, to be by them observed as
near as circumstances will allow and Christian pru
dence direct."
This minute, in connection with several others of
similar import and spirit, known as the Adopting Act,
has always stood out in the history of our church, hke
the Declaration of Independence in the history of our
nation. It is the real and only foundation on which
we rest as a denomination. We want no better. The
Confession of Faith with the Word of God, and not
instead of or above it! The essential and necessary
articles of thai Confession, — this was the common
ground on which the fathers met. It is still the
ground of their children ; first as laid down a second
time in 1758, and then again by our own Assembly
in 1839 ! Like the fabled shield,, on which the
heavenly smith had wrought the anticipated history
of Roman glory, we see at once in this Act our protec
tion and our dearest hopes. Let us trust the one and
cherish the other.
But to illustrate still further the spirit of American
Presbyterianism, take the plan of union in 1801.
Perhaps the great Head of the Church sees it best
that Christendom should be broken into different com
munions, lest human wisdom should improve a general
union to a secular use and worldly grandeur. Perhaps
it may be true, according to the remark of J. J. Gur-
ney, "that in the variety of administration, through
wliich the saving principles of rehgion are permitted
to pass, there is much of a real adaptation to a corres
ponding variety of mental condition." Be this as it
may, the spirit of union is one with which we cannot

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.

15

fail to sympathize. We honor good old Dureeus,
who, in the seventeenth century, spent thirty years
in travelling for the purpose of uniting the Pro
testant churches of Europe ! We honor the " United
Brethren," of whom we have already spoken, as actu
ated by a similar desire. We honor the " Evangehcal
Alliance," and are only sorry that its success has not
been commensurate with its aim ! And when we find
our General Assembly in 1801 adopting regulations,
" with a view to prevent ahenation and promote union
and harmony," and " strictly enjoining on all their
missionaries to the new settlements to endeavor, by
all proper means, to promote mutual forbearance and
accommodation between those inhabitants who hold
the Presbyterian and those who hold the Congrega
tional form of government," We honor them. Stript of
all the peculiarities, which externally separate them
from one another, we are bound, in the exercise of
that charity that never faileth, to love all whom Christ
loves ; where the difference is little to make it still
less ; and, where it is possible so to do, to merge it
altogether. The spirit of McKemie at the beginmng;
of the adopting act in 1729, and of the plan of union
in 1801, is one of which we need never to be ashamed.
True, the history of this plan has been somewhat of
the strangest ! What was intended to promote exter
nal union has, at length, divided us among ourselves.
Our brethren of the other branch of the Church abro
gated it because it promoted Congregationalism. On
the other hand, our Congregational brethren have with
drawn from it because it favored Presbyterianism.
Meanwhile we, who have stood by the covenant of our

16 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
fathers, through evil report and good report, and have
suffered the loss of all things for its sake, have yet
this comfort left, that Francis had at the battle of
Pavia, "We have lost all but honor." We believe
that our fathers were right, and that what we lose
now by imitating their example, we shall gain in the
future. Wickedness is always weak,
But truth is young and strong.
The last illustration we adduce of the spirit of
American Presbyterianism, is one that we by no
means present with the least pleasure. The test
question, and one that will alone determine in the
eyes of the nation, whether they are worthy of the
name of American Presbyterians, is, where were they
in 1776? In answering for the clergy, we answer for
the people, also, whose hearts, and the hearts of their
people were as one in the matter of the Revolution.
Not with the Methodist clergy, who in pbedience to
ecclesiastical authority, had either withdrawn from the
country, or remained only to observe a strict neutrar
lity. "We are no Republicans," said Mr. Wesley,
"and never intend to be!" Not with the Episcopal
clergy! "As a body, the Episcopalians of the coun
try were either openly or covertly devoted to the
Enghsh interest, and great numbers of their clergy
resigned their charges and went home in disgust, while
those who remained as a general thing, both preached
and prayed against the cause of the Colonies."
Thompson's reply to Schuyler, p. 266.
Not with enemies, or neutrals, were Presbyterians

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 17
to be found, but heart and hand, and soul, with their
Congregational brethren of New England for liberty,
and against oppression ! The name of the martyred
Caldwell, and many a chaplain on the rolls of the re
volutionary army, and of those who officiated in the
old Continental Congress, through all the times that
tried men's souls, will tell you where! So also will
the sermons then preached and still extant; the heavy
rewards offered for their heads by the British gover
nors; the confidential letters of Washington, who de
pended much on them for information by which to
carry out his plans; the well-known hostility of the
invading army which, as in the case of the old Pine
Street Church of this city, almost invariably destroyed
every parsonage in which they lived, every edifice in
which they worshipped! And more than all, the
mightier weapon than any named in war, that they
were enabled to wield, the ministerial prayer meeting,
which they established for the especial purpose of im
ploring the blessing of the God of armies, upon their
country, in her great struggle for independence ; these
things will show the value and efficiency of the sup
port which they rendered at that eventful' period.
"There," said one of them, whose name is attached to
the Declaration of Independence, and who thus, ad
dressed his fellow patriots : " There stands the widow
of my dear Henry, and these his orphan children.
His brother died bravely by his side, fighting for free
dom. But God knows my heart! I had rather all
my remaining sons should fall in the field of battle as
their brothers fell, than see the noble cause now sur
rendered. By the graves of your fathers, who on this

18 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
ground withstood and conquered the wild and ferocious
Indians — by the love of your mothers, divinely pre
served from the war-club, the scalping knife, the toma
hawk — by the purity and honor of your daughters,
your sisters, your wives, now threatened with rapine
and pollution — by the hope of unborn posterity, for
whom chains and fetters are now clanking in your ears
— by the authority, and in the name of the great God,
who has said the world shall be free, I beseech, I
conjure you arouse! Rush to sustain the Eagle of
Liberty while yet it flies ! Let the mother say to her
son, Go, and God be with you. Let the wife encourage
her husband ! Let the sister cheer, animate, urge her
brothers to go where honor, rehgion, and their country
call. These gray hairs must soon descend into the
sepulchre; yet I would infinitely rather they should
descend thither by the hands of the pubhc executioner,
than desert at this crisis, the sacred cause of my coun
try!" It was this same man, who in 1788, reported
the original Constitution of our Church, which was not
only adopted the same year as our National Constitu
tion; but to which the latter is largely indebted as its
model. Piety will have died out of the Church, and
patriotism out of the land, when the name of Wither-
spoon is forgotten.
To praise such men as these, if that were all, were
an easy matter. Virtus laudatur et algef. " The
true way of testifying our respect and love for the
departed," says a Roman annalist, "is not to follow
them with an unavailing grief, but to remember their
wishes and fulfil their injunctions." The Church that
they commenced in the midst of persecutions, and

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 19
established while the smoke was yet rising from the
crimsoned field of war, is not yet obsolete. Dear for
all the memories of the past, growing with the growth,
and strengthening with the strength of our common
country, it still retains its original form; it breathes
the same hberal spirit; it is equally worthy of present
support, and future enlargement. As God has made
the debt of love we owe him, payable to our fellow
men, so we owe a debt to our ancestry, equalled in
magnitude only by that which we owe to posterity,
and in a similar manner, made payable to them. Serv
ing our day and generation, according to the highest
style of meaning to be attached to this expression, we
are to hve for the world, and for all coming time!
How to do this is an easy problem. The best way to
hve for the world, is to hve for our country, and to
adopt as our motto, " Our country for the sake of the
world." The best way to hve for our pountry, is to
hve for the Church. The family, the State, and the
Church, these are God's institutions, whatever man's
may be ; and only as these are maintained can society
be perpetuated, defended and sanctified. The best
way to hve for the Church as a whole, is to hve for
that particular portion of it where God has cast our
lot. Neutrals in the Church, like neutrals out of it,
are too often if reports are true, hke the combined
fleets at present under the walls of Constantinople,
they are there, but what good do they do !
For our own part, we love the American Presbyte
rian Church in these United States, because we love
our country, and the Church universal. Holding as
we do nine out of twelve essential doctrines of truth

20 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
and order in common with every evangehcal denomi
nation, the difference between us and the Methodists
is, that we put God first, and" not second in the order
of salvation: between us and the Episcopalian, the
parity of the clergy ; we do not believe in Lords
over God's heritage; between us and the Baptist,
that we come into the Church not as individuals, but
as families: between us and the Congregationalist,
that we wish a constitution to protect our rights, and
not have them subject to the mere will of a majority :
between us and the brethren of the other branch of
the Presbyterian Church, whether we shall take the
Confession of Faith as Edwards was willing to take it
for " substance of doctrine," as it was introduced by
McKemie, adopted in 1729, re-adopted in 1758, and
held by Davies and others, or whether we shall hold it
to be the very pattern showed in the mount, sentence
for sentence, word for word, and letter for letter, ex
cept for purposes of excision. Or to state this matter
as it has been well stated by another, " Whether a
man should be executed before he is tried, or tried
before he is executed !" We glory in the things in
which we agree with other evangehcal denominations;
we are not ashamed of those in which we differ.
Pardon, in this connection, another allusion; (for
sometimes out of the fullness of the heart the mouth
will speak.) We love this portion of the Presbyterian
Church, which one day, we trust, will have the name
of the American Presbyterian Church, as it already
has the thing, because it has been slandered, greatly
slandered, deliberately and perseveringly slandered by
those who have cast out our name as evil, and said, Let

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 21
the Lord be glorified. To be reproached as bigots by
infidels, is nothing more than we might expect of those
whose hatred of religion is in exact proportion to its
purity. The accusations of fatalism, infant damnation,
and such like caricatures of Calvinism, we can readily
pardon on the score of ignorance in those that make
them ; but to be told, and have all the world told, in
print, and that stereotyped, and pubhshed edition after
edition, that we believe what we do not believe, that
we do not believe what we do, in reference to such
fundamental doctrines of the gospel as depravity,
atonement, and regeneration by the Holy Ghost, is
now, and always has been, considered by us a matter
so unkind, so ungenerous, so utterly unhke everything
we have a right to expect of those who ought to know
us better, that if we should undertake to express our
feelings on this subject, we would not know where to
begin ; if we began, where to end. Only thus much
we will say, — call it perversity, a sense of justice, a
law of moral compensation, or what you will, just in
proportion as our beloved church has thus been covered
with obloquy, misrepresentation, and contempt, have
we learned to love her more, for Christ's sake, and to
appreciate her real merits for her own.
But the days of our ecclesiastical mourning seem
about to end. Lo ! the winter is past, the rain is over
and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time
of the singing of birds is come, and the voice, of the
turtle is heard in our land ! This very 100,000 doUars
that is demanded, and on all hands admitted to be so
greatly needed, is an evidence, than which we want
none better, that our condition is not that of a deno-

22 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM.
mination that decayeth and dieth away. The neces
sity for an increased expenditure is an index of pros
perity in temporal affairs : why is it not also a mark
of the divine favor in spiritual ? More capital is only
wanted, when more of it can be employed to good
advantage ; or, to change the figure, " It is a maxim
in the military art," said Napoleon, "that the army
which remains in its entrenchments is beaten." We
are glad to see that the maxim is likely to have no
apphcation in reference to us, for we are now upon the
advance !
" Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the
towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation fol
lowing !"
Look at the increase of our church since 1837 ! In
Synods, 63 per cent. ; in Presbyteries, 56 per cent. ;
in churches, 42 per cent. ; in communicants, 74 per
cent. ; in licentiates, 47 per cent.
Look at her schools of the prophets in New York,
Auburn, Cincinnati, Maryville.
Look at her relative position in such States as New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Illi
nois, Tennessee ; and superiority in such cities as New
York, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, Detroit, Chi
cago! Look at her government, so perfectly in harmony
and sympathy with the government of these United
States !
Look at her principles : those that have withstood
the test of ages elsewhere, and are now reproduced in
a form in which they will last for ages to come ; and

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM. 23
doubt, if you can, that this is a plant which the Lord
hath planted, and which shall not be rooted up !
It may be an error, my brethren ; it may be one of
those day-dreams that pass away, just in proportion as
our shadows lengthen and our sun declines, but the
delusion is, at least, a pleasant one while it lasts, and
is in our heart of hearts too deep to be willingly aban
doned, — that American Presbyterians, purified seven
times, as they have been in the crucible of God's mys
terious providence, are one day to have a name and a
place, nobly pre-eminent among the tribes of our
national Israel ! and that they, who once said to the
man of God, whose memory still hallows these walls,*
and whose crown shines so resplendent in heaven,
" We do not know you, sir," and sent him home, with
a broken heart, to die ; will find that the Nation does !
that God has made the wrath of man to praise him,
and the remainder thereof he has restrained.
Even now, methinks, I catch the not far distant
strain, " 0 ! thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not
comforted, behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors,
and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will
make thy windows of agate, and thy gates of carbun
cles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all
thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great
shah be the peace of thy children. In righteousness
shalt thou be estabhshed: thou shalt be far from
oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for
it shall not come near thee."
* Rev. James Patterson, in whose church this sermon was repeated.

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