USA > Missouri > Presbyterianism in the Ozarks : a history of the work of the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in Southwest Missouri, 1834-1907 > Part 37
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UNITED PRESBYTERIANS
The United Presbyterian church has but two organizations in Southwest Missouri, and one of these was organized by the Reformed Presbyterian church. This church is located near Sylvania in Dade county. Reformed Presbyterians settled in Dade county just after the close of the civil war. On the 10th of August, 1871, they were organized into a church by Revs. James Wallace, W. W. McMillan and Elder James Hutcheson. Forty-nine members entered the organization and W. M. Edgar and Thomas McDermit were elected ruling elders. The church was subsequently transferred to the United Presbyterians. It has enrolled a body of sterling men and women but has paid the penalty of isolation from other churches of the same faith and order and has frequently been unable to secure the stated ser- vices of a pastor.
The First United Presbyterian church of Springfield was or- ganized October 23, 1892. Messrs. Samuel Kidd, George Bybee and J. R. George were the charter elders. Rev. John Teaz, D. D., was the first pastor. He has been followed in the pastorate by
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Revs. J. W. Long, D. D., S. A. Moore and J. H. Gibson, D. D., ali men of strength, stability and piety. The church has a member- ship of 83, worships in a neat frame house and has a commodions parsonage.
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CHAPTER IX.
COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANISM.
On the roll of the Old Kickapoo church are these names:
16 (Servant) Simon.
17 (Servant) Hagar.
18 (Servant) Samnel.
19 (Servant) Mary.
20 (Servant) Wiett.
21 (Servant) Charles.
Among the charter members of the First Cumberland church of Springfield is enumerated "Leah, a black woman." Similar records might be found in other Pioneer Cumberland churches and in Presbyterian churches as well. They are the pathetic me- mentoes of an institution that belonged to other days. Before the civil war the Cumberland church carried on rather an exten- sive work among the negroes and in process of time the congre- gations were segregated. The minutes of the Ozark Presbytery for September, 1872, contain this entry: "The stated clerk of Presbytery was ordered to address by circular letter the colored congregations in our bounds, setting forth their relationship to the Presbytery, and the duties growing out therefrom to their ministers." In October of the same year the Springfield Pres- bytery appointed a commission to examine Lewis Fulbright, a colored candidate under care of the Presbytery. This commis- sion was instructed to ordain him if in its judgment such a step was proper even though he was found deficient in some branches. The reason for this instruction was based on the fact that the colored brethren had expressed a desire for a separate Presby- tery. The commission was farther instructed to memorialize Synod to organize the new Presbytery in the event that said com- mission did ordain the candidate.
From the life of Rev. A. A. Young we learn that "At this meeting of Ozark Synod, (1872), the colored brethren in
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the bounds of the Synod presented a memorial, asking the Synod to constitute them a Presbytery, to be under the care and compose an integral part of the Green River Synod of the Cum- berland Presbyterian church (colored), said Presbytery to be known and styled 'The Missouri Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Colored.)'"
Synod granted the request, "And thus was organized the first Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (col- ored) in the great State of Missouri."
The Presbytery is now called Kansouri Presbytery. This Presbytery met in Greenfield, Missouri, Aug. 13-16, 1908. The minutes of this session indicate that there were seven ministers in attendance and the churches given are Springfield, Bethel, (P. O. Hartville, Mo.), Oak Grove, (P. O. Hartville, Mo.), Marsh- field, Greenfield, Ash Grove, Nogo-all of which appear to be in Missouri and Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and Topeka, Kansas. The Cave Springs church applied for membership in the Presbytery at this session and its request was granted. The Presbytery ap- pointed a commission to "Take under advisement the location and operation of a Presbyterian school in Southwest Missouri." The commission consists of Revs. B. F. Foster, and H. Harvey and Mr. Wm. Smith. The Springfield church, known as Gibson Chapel, has a commodious and modern house of worship-built of brick and costing in the neighborhood of $15,000. To make this house a possibility at least four of the members mortgaged their own homes-and I believe lost them. The church has a membership of about two hundred.
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APPENDIX
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PRESBYTERIAN ADDRESSES.
PREPARED FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS.
Note .- The following addresses were prepared for the va- rious occasions indicated under the separate addresses. It is be- lieved that collected in this form they will add to the permanent and general value of this work. If in some instances the reader finds himself traversing the same ground twice or more times he will bear in mind the fact that they were prepared at times sep- arated by a lapse of months or years.
THE MEN AND TIMES OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
(Delivered before the Presbytery of Ozark. Monett, Mo., Septem- ber, 1898).
I sha'l reverse the order suggested by my theme and give a sketch of the times and men of the Westminster Assembly. The limitations of my subject forbid me the pleasing task of reviewing and passing judgment upon the monumental work of these men -the Westminster Standards. We may consider the times as an interpretation of these standards, or we may ask whether or not the times were propitious for the formulation of a creed or whether or not the men were endowed with abilities of heart and mind commensurate with the task. The Westminster As- sembly convened during the closing decade of the Thirty Year's War. It was in session when the Peace of Westphalia was de- clared. The Assembly gave permanent expression to the relig- ions convictions of a large body of the reformers. In 1517 Lit- ther nailed his theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. In 1648 the peace of Westphalia was signed. The intervening era marks the uprising of the people against their oppressors. It was a struggle for political freedom, for intellectual freedom. for religious freedom.
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When once men began to think they dared to think in the face of the frowns of a tyrant. And when once men dared to believe, they dared to believe though the stake or the tortures of the inquisition awaited them. Ever since Charlesmagne had made his donations to the church the Popes had asserted temporal power. Political and religious questions were so intermingled that the jealousies and ambitions of princes protracted the con- flict between Catholics and Protestants and made it possible for Ferdinand to pass into the Beyond with the stain of ten million lives on his soul. These political complications together with the mutual jealousies of Lutherans and Calvinistes sometime ar- rayed Catholic against Catholic and Protestant against Protes- tant. The lover of pure religion reads of the lukewarmness of Protestant princes, and the jealousies that protracted the bloody conflict and is forcibly reminded of the divine lament over rebel- lious Israel : "O, that they were wise that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up?" For all this the general trend of this chequered narrative is onward and upward. Then as now, "A man is a man for a' that.' And 'there were giants in those days.' Cardinal Richelieu unprinci- paled but world-renowned for his statecraft, died a few months before this assembly convened. Contemporary with the men of the assembly were Galileo the scientist, and Gustavus Adolphus, who in his last battle led his intrepid warriors into the fight sing- ing Luther's hymn, "Our God, He is a Tower of Strength." And though the hero was buried under a heap of dead, and trampled on by horses, he had given the enemy a blow from which they never recovered. To the generation preceding this belonged the noble Conde, the princely Coligni, and the illustrious Henry of Navarre. In that generation strode the majestic figure of Wil- liam the Silent, who to crush the tyrant's power cried "Break down the dikes, give Holland back to the ocean," and Europe said sublime! Nor must we forget that the boyhood of the men of the Westminster Assembly was passed amid the splendors of the Elizabethan era of literature. Of that era an historian has. said. "Not the age of Pericles in Greece, the Augustinian age of Roman letters, the age of the Medici in Italy, or of Louis XIV in France was equal to the era of Elizabeth, in its splendid out- burst of intellectual activity."
It was then that Shakespeare wrote his 37 plays in which "he has poured forth for us and for posterity the swelling, the heroic, the sublime symphonies of love and battle, mingled with the mutterings of remorse, the cooings of hope, the dying ac-
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cents of despair." It was then that Francis Bacon lived, of whom it has been said "A brain as luminous as that of Plato- a thinker, a philosopher-an iconiclast knocking the bust of Ar- istotle from the pedestal of scholasticism ; too great to be appre- ciated and too weak to be great; such was Francis Bacon, found- er of the inductive philosophy which has carried us beyond the pale of medieval learning, laid our hand gently on the hand of nature, and taught us to know."
Thirty-two years before the Assembly convened our author- ized version of the Bible was made. In some places the revisers may have given us a more accurate translation and they may have followed better manuscript texts; but as an English classic and for its formative influence on our mother tongue the author- ized version remains the despair of translators. Less than twenty years after the close of the Assembly, Milton wrote the one great epic of the English language. Thus to a period of less than 100 years belong the philosophy of Bacon, the dramas of Shakes- peare, the King James version of the Bible, the landing of the pilgrims. the Westminster confession of faith and Paradise Lost -and I am not the man to say that the Confession of Faith is the least of these.
To understand rightly the religious conditions of the times a brief sketch of the reformation in England is essential. That reformation was outwardly effected by the breach between Henry VIII and the Pope. Henry Tudor was a king who had a convenient and elastic conscience. Not until he had become enamored of the charms of Anne Boleyn did his conscience tell him it was wicked to live in wedlock with his deceased broth- er's widow. The queen in question was the aunt of Charles V. and for this reason Pope Clement VII. found it impolitic to as- sent to the annulling of the king's marriage. But the royal pas- sion of a Tudor under the guise of a tender conscience would not brook the opposition of a Pope. In rapid succession came the fall of Wolsey, the elevation of Cranmer, the secret marriage with Anne, the divorcement of Catherine, the birth of Elizabeth, the disestablishment of the monasteries and nunneries and the establishing of the king as head of the church.
Henry Tudor who now usurped the place claimed by the old man on the banks of the Tiber-but belonging rightly to King Emmanuel-was the same king whom that piece of infallibility had egregiously styled "The Defender of the Faith." Henry had six wives and three children and although the whims of the king made the logic of events pronounce both of his daughters ille- gitimate, they in turn after their brother sat on the English throne.
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During the reign of Edward VI. the rupture with Rome be- came more complete. It was determined to make the religious doctrine and practice conform to the standard of the reforma- tion. The English prayer book was prepared. A law was pass- ed forbidding the enforced celibacy of the clergy. The remain- ing monasteries and nunneries were suppressed. And Cranmer and the Protestants formulated a new creed. This creed consist- ed at first of 42 articles but was afterward reduced to 39. It was not materially different from the Calvinistic creeds of the continent. At the death of Edward, Mary became queen of a people to whom her person and religion were repugnant. Nor did her marriage with the infamous Philip of Spain ingratiate her with the people. The Catholic reaction under bloody Mary was short lived. Even members of parliament exulted in the death of a queen who could inflict martyrdom on such man as Ridley and Latimer.
Elizabeth was a Protestant by the exigencies of her birth. Had she professed anything else she would have virtually sanc- tioned the decree of her own illegitimacy. If at heart the queen had a religion it was probably Catholic. During her reign Ro- manizing and high church tendencies were prevalent. Ridpath says as a result of her preference, "The church of England took its station between the high flown formalism of Rome and the utter non-formalism of the sectaries-that St. Paul's cathedral until this day stands midway between St. Peter's and a Quaker meeting house."
Then arose that conflict with the Puritans.
James Stuart-the successor of Elizabeth-had all he want- ed of Presbytery in Scotland. And Charles I. was intent on car- rying ont his principles of absolutism.
But whence came that mighty force that abjured ritualism, that decried prelacy, that contended earnestly for the reformed faith, that sought purity of heart and life? Was it the offspring of the lustful Henry VIII., Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Crom- well, kings, queens and archbishops? Nay verily! It has been said that England had no Luther in the 16th century because she had her Luther in the 14th. The influence of Wyclif "the morn- ing star of the reformation," never waned. Side by side with the external reformation of Henry and Cranmer and Edward VI. was a spiritual reformation. The Lollards were in England, and William Tyndal was there. And it has been said that Puritanism was there 100 years before it had a name. The flower of this pristine Puritanism sheds its fragrance in the twentieth chapter of the confession: "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men
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which are in anything contrary to his word, or beside it, in mat- ters of faith or worship." For this principle the reformers con- tended during the reigns of the Tudors and the first two Stnarts.
The reformers in England were doctrinally at one with the reformers in Scotland, Holland, and Switzerland. The early lea- ders of the established church admitted that there was no essen- tial difference between bishop and Presbyter, and many of them were inclined to grant concessions to the Puritans in the nature of a simpler ritual. But formal and fawning prelates sided with the crown. Weak men suppressed their convictions. Liturgists were elevated to places of prominence. Puritans were martyred or driven into exile in Holland or America. Royalty and Episco- pacy were arrayed against Parliament and Puritanism. Parlia- ment became Puritan and the Westminster Assembly was call- ed. The official call of the Assembly is entitled : "An ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for the call- ing of an assembly of learned and godly divines, and others, to be consulted with by Parliament, for the settling of the govern- ment and liturgy of the church of England, and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said church from false asper- sions and interpretations. Passed June 12, 1643."
This ordinance declares that "many things remain in the liturgy, discipline, and government of the church, which do nec- essarily require a further and more perfect reformation than as yet hath been attained;" "That the present church government by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors, commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending upon the hierarchy, is evil and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom * * * that the same shall be taken away, and that such a government shall be settled in the church as may be most agreeable to God's Holy Word and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the church at home and nearer agreement with the church of Scotland and other reformed churches abroad."
The Assembly as originally constituted by ordinance was composed of 121 ministers and thirty lay assessors. Others were added from time to time, chiefly to fill the vacancies made by re- fusal to attend or by death. The Assembly convened July 1. 1643, in Henry VII. chapel of Westminster Abbey. About 21/2 months were occupied with the revision of the 39 articles. But when Parliament found it necessary to invoke the aid of the Scots and the Solemn League and Covenant was taken, the Scottish commissioners were admitted and the scope of its purpose was enlarged.
Henceforth, meeting in the Jerusalem chamber, they ad-
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dressed themselves to the task of formulating new standards. The men of this assembly had plenty of learning, linguistic, pat- ristic, oriental and biblical. On the meager salary of less than $1.00 a day they assembled from year to year. They debated, searched the scriptures, fasted and prayed. Their task of formu- lating the Westminster standards was completed in 1648; and although the Assembly was never formally adjourned, "it dwind- led by degrees and vanished with the Parliament that gave it birth."
Most of these divines were in Episcopal orders when called to the Assembly, three or four were bishops. There were those who favored the continuance of Episcopacy; others were Inde- pendents, but the majority were Presbyterians. Baxter said: "The divines there congregated were men of eminent learning and godliness, and ministerial abilities and fidelity; and being not worthy to be one of them myself. I may the more freely speak that truth which I know even in the face of malice and envy that, as far as I am able to judge by the information of all history-the Christian world since the days of the apostles had never a Synod of more excellent divines."
I quote now from Johnson's encyclopedia: "The Westmin- ster Divines had learning scriptural, patristic, scholastic, and modern, enough and to spare, all solid, substantial and ready for use. Hence their work has stood the test of time and is still val- ued and honored. Almost all of them were graduates of Ox- ford and Cambridge. Several of them had been honored to suf- fer in defense of the truths they taught, and many of them had the courage afterward to bear suffering, insult, and poverty ra- ther than renounce their creed, or abandon their views of church polity and discipline.
Twisse, the prolocutor of the Assembly, was a man not only of subtle and speculative genius, but also of profound learning. Herle, who succeeded him as prolocutor, was, according to Ful- ler, 'so much Christian, scholar and gentleman that he could unite in affection, with those who were disjoined in judgment from him.' White and Burgess * * * were both men of acknowl- edged eminence. * * * Reynolds was a divine 'eloquent, learned, cautious and at the restoration was made bishop of Norwich. Calamy was a more cautious and liberal Calvinist still; he, too, was offered but declined a bishopric. Arrowsmith, 'the man with the glass eye,' and Tuckney * * * successively professors of di- vinity at Cambridge, were men of high scholarship. # * * Staun- ton was a "walking concordance:' Seaman. an 'invincible dis- putant ;' Lightfoot, Coleman and Gataker were all distinguished oriental scholars; and the last named. after Ussher and Solden * was accounted the most learned man in England. The age
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is acknowledged to have been an age of great preachers, and in the first rank among these fall to be numbered the following members: Gonge, on whose preaching Ussher and others con- gregated in the metropolis did not disdain to attend; Manton, in whom 'clear judgment, rich fancy and happy eloquence met;' Marshall, whose yet more impressive oratory is said to have se- cured for him greater influence with the Parliament than ever Land enjoyed with the court; Calamy, who delighted in that ex- perimental strain of discourse which ever touches the hearts of men ; Burroughs and Greenhill, 'the morning and evening stars of Stephany ;' Hoyle, who 'reigned in schools and pulpit;' Palmer, who could preach ably and attractively in French as well as in English ; Caryl, long popular with the learned audience of Lin- coln's Inn; and Goodwin, one of the most successful expository preachers of the age.
With these were associated the very elite of the Scottish min- isters and elders. Henderson, whose learning and culture even royalty acknowledged; Rutherford, twice invited to a professor- ship in Holland ; Gillespie, prince of disputants, who with the fire of youth had the wisdom of age; and Baillie * * * Johnstone,
and the great Marquis of Argyll, who both suffered afterward on account of their principles ; Londan and Lord Maitland.",
Such were the times and such were the men of the West- minster Assembly. When we remember that they were at work on our subordinate standards nearly five years we must be con- vinced that they did their work thoroughly.
What of the future? The Presbyterian churches are not the largest in this country; our church has yielded an influence for righteousness second to none. It will probably never be as large as some-at least as long as men unduly emphasize forms and ceremonies or love an easy religion.
But as long as she remains true to her history and traditions ; as long as infidelity, rationalism and materialism demand a cour- ageons and uncompromising foe; as long as men exalt the Word of God as the only infallible rule of faith and practice; as long as men believe that "God alone is Lord of the conscience;" and as long as men love liberty and righteousness, so long the outlook of Presbyterianism is "as bright as the promises of God."
Sometimes too slow to get to the front, sometimes cu!tivat- ing other vineyards to the neglect of her own, sometimes unpop- ular with the ignorant and always so with the vile the Presby- terian church has not grown in this country as it should. But I believe with the general diffusion of intelligence in which she has a conspicuous part her growth will be more rapid.
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FOREFATHERS' DAY ADDRESS.
(Delivered before the Congregational Club of Springfield, Mo., December 21, 1899.)
N. B .- This address was the last of a series delivered by clergymen of different denominations, and was interspersed with extempore parts. The Episcopal clergyman objected be- cause he did not have the last word and proclaimed the Episco- pacy of Washington. The speaker admitted the fact that Wash- ington was an Episcopalian, but retorted that he was so depend- ent on Presbyterians to sustain him in arms that at the close of the Revolution as an appreciation he gave $40,000 to found a Presbyterian college in his own State.
De Tocqueville has said: "By the side of every religion is to be found a political opinion connected with it by affinity. If the human mind be left to follow its own bent it will regulate the temporal and spiritual institutions of society in a uniform man- ner, and man will endeavor, if I may so speak, to harmonize earth with heaven." The political opinion that is in affinity with Presbyterianism is republicanism. John Knox told Mary: "If princes exceed their bounds they may be resisted by force." Froude calls this utterance "The creed of republics in its first hard form."
I hold with those who maintain that a man's conception of Deity have a controlling influence in the formation of his char- acter and the regulation of his conduct. The unfaithful servant in the parable excused his idleness by saying: "I knew thee, that thou art an hard man." His conduct was regulated not by the master's character, but by the servant's conception thereof. The stone cut out of the mountain that has made Presbyterianism the foremost friend and champion of liberty, civil and religious, is the sovereignty of God. God's freeman cannot long be slave to any man. This basic principle is the common heritage of all Calvinistic bodies. The opponents of Calvinism, and especially the self-styled "liberals" in religion, have thought of this system as the unfaithful servant thought of his master. They dismiss it with a sneer and a taunt as harsh and unrelenting. When the Almighty wished to convince Job of his ignorance and impotence He asked : "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" And Calvinism, without boasting, asks its enemies: "Where wert thou when I was fighting the battles of freedom in every civilized country that possesses that priceless boon ?"
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