USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 15
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The grand features of the scheme to which I principally object are the authority claimed by their courts, for which I find no war- rant in Scripture ; and the admission, expulsion, and discipline of members being carried on without the presence and concurrence of the body of the believers. Not that all are officers by any means ; the exclusive performance of these duties belongs to the proper officers whom Christ hath appointed. But this power is to be exercised in the body and not out of it.
Such are briefly my views on this point, and from all that is past have I not every reason to believe that I could not return and
! This was the germ of his commentaries.
2 For the American Home Missionary Society.
3 Mr. Ebenezer Sharpe.
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endeavor to have the church modelled on these principles without tearing it to pieces? And in its present infant state would, it be wisdom or duty to think of such a thing? Let me say, however, I do not wish to set up entirely another church, nor would my principles lead to any such consequences ; but all I wish is to keep as close as possible to the New Testament model, for I should then feel safest and have most hope of the presence and blessing of Christ. And I have learned that there are many churches in the Presbyterian connection which deviate still more widely than I propose from the authorized platform. I submit these views of the matter to your candid and Christian considera- tion, and as I began by saying that I now feel somewhat uncertain whether I shall return to remain permanently in Indiana, I wish, however, to hear from you as soon as practicable, as your answer will probably govern my final decision.
On receiving a reply to the foregoing Mr. Bush wrote, August 23, 1827, from Morristown :
I am willing to refer the matter to the Presbytery or Synod. Let either of these bodies be selected as judges, and if they upon a fair representation of the case declare that I cannot act conscientiously as a Presbyterian pastor, and that it would be improper and unfa- vorable to the interests of religion that your church should employ me, I will submit to the decision, withdraw from the connection, and endeavor to serve God and my generation some other way. On mature consideration I am not clear that my opinions of church government are unequivocally hostile to the confession when rightly understood. Therefore, it seems to me that so long as I do nothing and say nothing contrary to the true intent of the ac- knowledged standards of the church I ought not to be excluded from a post of usefulness which I have made great sacrifices to attain.
Late in the summer Mr. Bush returned to Indiana. But other clouds gathered about him. Theological debate was for the time abruptly closed, and all hearts were touched with sympathy by the severe illness of the pastor's accomplished and amiable wife. On the ninth of November she fell asleep. On the occasion of her funeral'
1 Mrs. Bush lies buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Indianapolis. The following is the inscription on the native stone: "Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Anna B. Bush, con-
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the Rev. William Lowry, whose lamented death in the swollen Whitewater occurred soon after, delivered a dis- course remarkable for its beauty and power.
1
The conflict, however, of a mind like that of Mr. Bush with the Presbyterian system, and with every fixed and rigorous system, was inevitable. Sorrow might interrupt the debate, but it could not solve the problem. Indeed it is more than likely that the wise influence of Mrs. Bush upon her husband had delayed his erratic course and prevented a much earlier divergence from the old paths.' At any rate, events were rapidly precipitated after the wife's hand had been withdrawn.
On the 25th of February, 1828, Mr. Bush addressed a letter to the session setting forth the terms, under three particulars, on which he was "willing to live and if it (should) be the Lord's will to die among the people of his charge." The three particulars were : (1) that the brethren have the privilege of being present at all meetings of the session ; (2) that he might consider him- self to have the hearty concurrence of the session in his privilege of talking, writing, publishing, or preaching, relative to the constitution, laws, and order of the church, whatever, whenever, wherever, and in what way soever he might think proper, if consistent with his general duty to Christ ; (3) that three hundred dollars be provided annu- ally for three fourths of his time, and as much more be paid him as might be raised.
This communication was succeeded by a lengthy and tedious correspondence, in which not the slightest prog- ress was made. It was the old meeting between "two irresistible forces"-a mind so independent that it first
sort of the Rev. George Bush, and daughter of the Hon. Lewis Condict, M. C., of Morristown, New Jersey. She died strong in the Christian hope, November 9th, 1827, aged xxvii. Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints."
1 The hiding of Glass's " Works " from her husband was one of the wifely expedients recalled by an Indianapolis friend.
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imagined chains and then chafed under them, and a half dozen Virginia and Kentucky Calvinists representing the venerable and symmetrical system of our church. The congregation was finally convened, March 10, 1828 ; Dr. Coe presented an elaborate defense of Presbyterian polity, and after considerable discussion and an adjournment till evening, application was made to Wabash Presbytery for a dissolution of the pastoral relation. The petition was granted at a special meeting at Indianapolis June 22, 1828. Mr. Bush brought the subject before Synod by complaint, and that body, with but two dissenting voices, sustained the Presbyterial action, at the same time declaring, how- ever, that said action "should not be understood to imply that (Mr. Bush's) private sentiments are so heretical that he ought to be disclaimed by the Presbyterian con- nection." 1 Synod also recommended to the session of the church to "use for the present all possible forbear- ance" and appointed a committee to visit the church and promote its harmony .? The tenor of this action of Synod induced the session to go, by complaint, to the court of last resort. Meanwhile the local excitement was greatly promoted by the preaching of Mr. Bush in the court- house to a separate congregation and his appointment of a stated prayer-meeting at his own house, after the dissolu- tion of the pastoral relation. This arrangement continued until March, 1829, when Mr. Bush finally withdrew and returned East.3 It does not appear, however, that he ever transferred his connection from Wabash to any other Presbytery of our church.
1 " Minutes Synod of Indiana," Vol. I., pp. 75-7.
2 " Minutes Synod of Indiana," Vol. I., p. 83 .
8 The Rev. John R. Moreland had been called to succeed him in the pastorate October 27, 1828. Mr. Moreland had spent the earlier years of his life as a boatman on the Ohio, and had enjoyed but small opportunities to obtain an education. His style of preaching was somewhat rough, but full of warmth and energy and often productive of the deepest impressions. His pastorate was terminated by his death, October 13, 1832.
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On the 29th of the following April he writes from Cincinnati :
You perceive by my date that I am still in this city of "bustle, brick, and business." I have concluded to make an effort to get my books into circulation, or at least into notice, and as they are not yet out of press, I shall probably be compelled to remain here till the latter part of May. In the mean time, in order to keep straight with men and things, and not grow poor myself while aiming to make others rich, I have embarked for a few weeks in the editorship of the Pandect, which without special efforts will not live.
Although I have not seen Mr. S. I am in hopes to get him to take out twenty-five copies of my pamphlet on "Ezekiel's Vision," which I will thank you to sell. .
Messrs. Campbell and Owen have been the great topics of talk recently. The two disputants have been seen, within a day or two, walking arm in arm through Main Street, so that the in- ference is, that though not both Harmonists, they are still harmonious.
At the opening of the following year he is again in his old haunts at Princeton, and writes :
When we last met, or rather when we last parted, I had little thought that my next communication would be dated Princeton, N. J. Yet here I am, the wheel of providence having rolled round and landed me where I was six years ago. I came to this place about three months since with the design of spending the winter in the prosecution of scriptural studies, with the valuable aid of the libraries and the learned society here to be enjoyed. You will probably think this a strange movement, yet if I as a conscien- tious man can justify it to myself, and be fattening in this green pasture while so many strayed sheep are wandering upon the mountains, you of course will be satisfied. I confess I have little hopes of making my steps plausible, and not any great anxiety to do it, but as I have always dealt freely and candidly with you, I will say that it is purely out of conscience that I am not employed at this time as a preacher and pastor. I can no more act in the Presbyterian connection than I can in the Roman Catholic.1 For my soul I dare not do it.
1 It will be seen how gradually but certainly his mind had drifted from his earlier be- liefs. This was 1830. In 1827 he had said : " I am not clear that my opinions of church government are unequivocally hostile to the confession when rightly understood."
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God has graciously, I believe, rewarded the stand I have taken against human usurpations with giving me an insight into his prophetic oracles that is most enrapturing. O how astonishingly have my views of heaven, the judgment, the resurrection, altered in two years' time. Yet the world, even the professing world, cannot, will not, receive it, and I shall as certainly be accounted a dreaming enthusiast as I am a living man. . It will finally be beyond dispute that in the great fundamental principles of my construction of the word of God, I am right. No thanks to me; for I acknowledge sovereign grace in every step. .. . I am delivering lectures weekly in the church on the Apocalypse. Dr. Alexander attends regularly-has declared himself well satisfied, and even more. May possibly publish hereafter. I think much of Indiana, and should be happy to sit down at your table . or your fireside, but am only able, sitting at my own, to assure you of the continued friendship and fellowship of your brother in the gospel.
In 1831 Mr. Bush was elected to the professorship of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the University of the City of New York, and thus was afforded the best advan- tages for prosecuting those investigations for which his genius and learning qualified him. His first important publication was the "Life of Mohammed," which ap- peared in 1832. It was succeeded the year after by a "Treatise on the Millennium," and subsequently by "Scriptural Illustrations." 1 In 1835 his " Hebrew Gram- mar" was issued, a second edition having been called for three years later. The publication of his commentaries on the Old Testament was commenced in 1840. The Hiero- phant, a monthly magazine, began its career in 1844. The same year he published his " Anastasis," replying to his critics in a kindred work on the "Resurrection of Christ."
It was in 1845 that Professor Bush openly accepted the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg, after which time he devoted himself to their defense. He translated Sweden- borg's diary from the Latin ; published with notes others of
1 Harper's Family Library, Vol. X.
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his writings ; made a "Statement of Reasons for joining the New Church," and became editor of the New Church Repository. In 1847 he published a work on "Mesmer- ism," and in 1857, "Priesthood and Clergy unknown to Christianity." Much study impaired his health and he - died at Rochester, N. Y., September 19, 1859. He was at the time pastor of a small Swedenborgian congregation there.
During his long residence in New York City his Indiana friends had opportunities to renew the old fellowship, which he welcomed as warmly as they. He also for a long time maintained a correspondence with some of them. Two of his letters of that period so fully reveal the tendencies of his mind and the kindliness of his heart, and are withal so characteristically expressed that they have more than local interest.
NEW YORK, September 1, 1831.
My Dear Friend: After a long, very long season of silence, I propose to become once more vocal, or at least significant, and to disturb the dormancy of speech ; a signal, I hope, for your doing the same thing. That I have not for nearly a year heard by letter the least syllable of news, good or ill, from Indianapolis I attribute in some measure to my own neglect ; for I doubt not my friends there would have had something to say to me had they known where to direct, or been at all certain that their written missives would have hit the mark. It has indeed so happened for the most part during the last two years and a half that my mode of life has been as unsettled as an Arab's, and even up to this hour I must say with Paul, "I have no certain dwelling-place." My anchor, however, for the present is cast in this haven and I am in hopes not to be under the necessity of weighing it again for a long time to come. At any rate my friends may be sure that any communi- cations addressed to this place will safely reach their destination.
I have had several opportunities, and such too as most wander- ing Levites would consider eligible, to fix myself in a permanent location ; but there has almost invariably been some vexatious condition about them that grated too harshly on my liberty-loving cords, and I of course refused them. I am still a sworn enemy to
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conditions, terms, pledges, vows, promises-to everything in fine that fetters the exercise of the most unlimited freedom both in opinion and action. And because all sects in religion are pester- ing the world with these miserable nuisances, I am an anti- sectarian, as warm a one as Richard Rush is an anti-Mason ; and then, lastly, because I am an anti of this description, I find favor and friendship next to nowhere. This has prevented my settle- ment. But my opinions on the subject of religious liberty are fixed, and I am ready, if needs be, to become a martyr to them. I know they will, they must, finally prevail. They may possibly be permitted to starve me and a few others to death before they eventually triumph, but their success is certain. The day of human creeds is drawing toward its sunset, to be followed by a long bright day of pure Bible law, the approach of which all good men will hail from the bottom of their hearts.
But, not to moralize, my present location is extremely pleasant. I have a nook monastic in the lower part of Greenwich Street, near the Battery, where I am pretty constantly employed ponder- ing my polyglots and plying my pen.1 My brother is an inmate under the same roof. I have matters forthcoming of which the speaking time is not quite arrived. One advantage of my present residence is that it affords me the opportunity of visiting my dear child at Morristown. He talks a great deal about his
1 This picture agrees with one presented by the Providence Journal soon after his decease, and referring to a period a little subsequent to the above. The Journal says : " The professor was twice married, the second time ten or twelve years ago, when his circumstances were somewhat improved. For several years he occupied a very small room in the fourth or fifth story of a building on the corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets, in New York, the walls of which were lined with old books, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German preponderating. On the floor, too, were piles of huge volumes in vellum-Bibles, commentaries, and lexicons in the oriental languages. A pine table, two or three wooden chairs, a small stove which retained its place the year round, and a cot bed, constituted his furniture. For years neither brush nor broom disturbed the accumulated dust of this secluded retreat, and here the professor wrote those transla- tions of and learned commentaries on several books of the Old Testament which have made his name widely known among theologians of Europe and America. On his second marriage this sanctum was abandoned and he removed his books to his dwelling. house in Howard Street, where he lived many years. Professor Bush was particularly fond of attending book auctions. It gave him a little harmless excitement, brought him in contact with literary men, who, like himself, were ever mousing about for rare and choice books, and enabled him to procure the books he wanted at low prices. Indeed it may be said that nine tenths of his books were purchased at auction ; besides as there were few competitors for the literature he sought, he often got Latin, Hebrew, German, and various oriental books for a mere song. After using his books a few years, and getting from them all he required, he would send them to auction to make way for others."
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mother, and when I showed him a ring that was hers he kissed it most affectionately two or three times.
I wish you would favor me with a letter filled full of all manner of news-personal, domestical, political, theological, statistical, topographical, biographical, and so on. I wish to know how your town prospers and promises and what important changes have taken place latterly among the inhabitants, such of them a'sHI know.
To the same :
NEW YORK, June 18, 1836.
The return of Mr. Sullivan, who has visited me several times, ·offers an opportunity too favorable to be lost of at least sending a greeting of friendship. It is pleasant thus just to hail each other, while sailing in our respective courses on the ocean of time, and gratefully hear the " All's well" returned from either party. May we ever be able to give this response mutually while voyaging onward to our final haven, and then have it ex- changed for the " Well done" of our Lord and master.
I am still mainly employed in the line of book-making, of which I send you a little specimen. My works have never as yet been very popular or profitable, but on the whole are perhaps looking up. I am now totis in illis in preparing a set of notes on the Old Testament, precisely on the plan of Barnes on the New. The first volume will probably be published next fall. I shall commence with Joshua and publish on the Pentateuch afterward.
As you may possibly have heard, I am now connected as literary editor with the American Bible Society. My duties are to superintend the text of all our editions, and to correspond with foreign translators. The work is pleasant and at present ·easy, but likely to become laborious by and by.
I am yet single, but not despairing of duplication. But, however enumerated, I beg you to set me down as your cordial and abiding friend and brother in Christ.
P. S .- My old friend, so to speak, Dr. C. is now in this region and visits me every once in a while, probably both glad of an opportunity to exercise toward each other certain Christian graces that would no doubt have lain dormant had we been otherwise affected toward each other in ancient times.
The personal allusion in the last sentence discloses a rare gentleness and goodness-qualities which character-
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ized the man throughout his career. From the brief account of it one may readily perceive that the long and warm discussion of vital questions at Indianapolis had on both sides been conducted with an uncommon degree of patience and charity. Both parties were determined and conscientious. The young pastor was born to seek out new ways ; his session was predestined to love remorse- lessly the old paths. They could not be harmonized. It is not often that such a conflict is closed with so successful a defense of the public interests and so small and so tran- sient an injury to private character and personal friend- ship. Those who knew Professor Bush in the early days of battle will cordially unite in bearing testimony to "the extent and variety of his learning, his rare courage, the unpretending simplicity and the kindness of his manners, his fervent and trustful piety."' In his odd story of Indiana life Professor Hall introduces Mr. Bush as "Bishop Shrub," and describes with the warmth of friendship. these same characteristics .? "I never saw him but once, within my recollection," writes another whose parents knew and loved him well ; " that was in New York City, when he made a long and affectionate call upon my father. He was a delightful talker, and, I suppose, in all his feel- ings, and in his treatment of others, a gentle, Christ-like man."
A volume of " Memoirs and Reminiscences of the late Professor George Bush" was published in Boston the year after his decease.
BAYNARD RUSH HALL was the son of Dr. John Hall, an eminent surgeon 3 in Philadelphia. Dr. Hall was a man of wealth. He died, however, when the son was but four years of age, and the property, except a small portion
1 Griswold's " Prose Writers of America," p. 356.
2 " "The New Purchase," p. 224.
3 The father's profession and residence readily explain the son's middle name.
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·of it, never came into the possession of the rightful heir.1 The latter was born in Philadelphia, in 1798, and com- menced his collegiate studies at the College of New Jersey, completing them, however, at Union College, New York, from which institution he graduated with honor in the .class of 1820. His friends wished him to study law, but his own inclination was for the ministry and he entered the seminary at Princeton in the autumn of the same year. On leaving the seminary, having received licensure from the Presbytery of Philadelphia, " he set out for the West.
He had married several years before, at the age of twenty-two, a lady whom he had formerly known in Phila- delphia and whose family had removed to Danville, Ky.3 From his own chatty pen, through a thin veil of fiction, we are led to the substantial truth as to his settlement in Indiana.
It was mere accident that turned our folks to their location in the New Purchase. The Seymours at the close of the last war with Great Britain resided in Philadelphia. Like others they risked their capital during the war in manufactories; and like others, when peace was proclaimed the Seymours were ruined. John Seymour, familiarly known among us as Uncle John, on his arrival from the South, where, during a residence of many years, he had acquired a handsome fortune, found his sisters, Mrs. Glenville and Mrs. Littleton, in great distress, their husbands being recently dead ; and having not long before his return buried his wife, who had, however, borne him no children, he im- mediately took under his protection the two widowed ladies, his sisters, together with the four children of Mrs. Glenville. Fearing his means were not sufficient to sustain the burden providentially cast upon him, at least in the way that was desirable, he resolved to remove to Kentucky. Accordingly the new-organized family all removed to the West, with the exception of Miss Eliza Glenville, who was left to complete her education with the excellent and justly celebrated Mr. Jandon.
1 Index volume of the Princeton Review.
2 Dickey's " Brief History," p. 16.
3 Reed's " Christian Traveller," p. 111.
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With this amiable and interesting creature, the young lady, Mr. Carlton, who somehow or other always had a taste for sweet and beautiful faces, became acquainted and was married. It had been part of the arrangement that Mr. and Mrs. Carlton should join the family in Kentucky, and that we should establish a boarding-school for young ladies; but now came a letter from John Glenville, that Uncle John, unfortunate, not in selling a very valuable property at a fair price, but in receiving that price in worthless notes of Kentucky banks, which, like most banks, every twenty or thirty years had failed, had with his remaining funds, as his only resort, bought a tract of government lands in the New Purchase; and that, if I could join hin, with a few hundred dollars, in a little tanning, store-keeping, and honest speculation, we might gain, if not riches, at least independence. He added that maybe something could be done in the school line.1
Thus allured to "Glenville," a little settlement not far from the present Gosport, Mr. Hall became, early in 1825, the principal of the State Seminary, located in 1820 upon the state lands adjoining the town of Bloomington, which were now for the first time opened. | He says :
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