USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > History of the sesqui-centennial of Paxtang Church, September 18, 1890 > Part 5
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1. From the first it showed itself the earnest and steadfast friend, the zealous promoter and liberal patron of EDUCATION. Its ministers were educated men. To this we know of no exception. The people were intelli- gent, and were not content that their children should be without the opportunities and advantages of educa- tion. The newness of the country and their hardships and privations must not prevent this. As a rule the school-house was found hard by the sanctuary. Here the rudimental branches of education and the Cate- chism were faithfully taught. Text-books were few, and far from perfect. But careful preparation and thorough mastery of whatever was undertaken were demanded. Thus was education in the true sense- that of drawing out and unfolding the mental and meral powers-secured. It was quite different from superficial skimming over a wide surface, and eram- ming to surfeit with the heterogeneous gatherings.
Nor were they satisfied that the advantages of the parish school alone should be enjoyed. Higher insti- tutions of learning-academies-were established at 7
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various points more than one hundred years ago .* On territory then, but no longer belonging to us, were
*In this connection the following may be interesting :
William Graham, son of William Graham, was born in Paxtang township, then Lancaster county, Province of Pennsylvania, on the 19th of December, 1745. His father, of Scotch parentage, came from the North of Ireland, as did his mother, whose maiden name was Sus- annah Miller. His early years were spent on the farm, but by dint of hard labor and perseverance, so characteristic of the Scotch-Irish youth of that day, he prepared himself for admission to the college of New Jersey, (now Princeton,) where he graduated in 1773. He taught in the grammar school connected with that institution, while studying theology under the tuition of the Rev. John Roan.
Among the papers of Rev. John Roan we have the following account : "Wm. Graham enter'd 10br, 23, 1767.
1768. Jan. 23-31, absent.
Ap. 2-25, absent.
May 1, abs't some days.
June 13, returned 8br. 2d.
Dec'r. 24, some days absent.
Went away Feb. 4, 1769. In all here 9 months. I told his father, June 10, 1769, that it should be charged at about £8 pr. annum, viz .
.6:00:0
Rec'd. Dec'r 21, 1769, of ye above
4:10:0 Again, May, 1771
Jan. 18, 1773 0:07:0
. 1:10 : 0
Lent to Wm. Graham Nov. 15, 1773 0:10:0
Jan. 19, 1774 . 1:05:0
From the foregoing it would seem that as late as 1774, he was a stu- dent of Mr. Roan's.
Mr. Graham, on the 26th of October, 1775, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia, to which locality his family had previously removed. When the Presbytery determined to establish
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academies at Pequea,* Fagg's Manor, and New London, (afterwards Delaware College;) and on territory now belonging to us, at Harrisburg, Gettysburg, (Dobbin's Academy,) Carlisle, and Shippensburg-also at Hagers- town, Md., until recently belonging to us. But little less than one hundred years ago academies were estab- lished at Chambersburg, Newburg, (Hopewell Academy,) Bedford, and Cumberland, Md. For the last twenty years the latter two have not belonged to this Pres- bytery.
A little over a hundred years ago was founded by Presbyterians and located at Carlisle, Dickinson College -an institution which in point of character and influ-
a school for the rearing of young men for the ministry, they applied to the Rev. Stanhope Smith, then itinerating in Virginia, to recommend a suitable person to take charge of their school, upon which he at once suggested Mr. Graham. Prior to this a classical school had been taught at a place called Mt. Pleasant, and there Mr. G. commenced his labors as a teacher, and there we find the germ whence sprung Washington College, and the now celebrated Washington and Lee University of Virginia. Mr. Graham died at Richmond, Va., June 8th, 1799. He married Mary Kerr, of Carlisle, Pa., and by her had two sons and three daughters. His eldest son entered the ministry, but died young ; the other studied medicine, settled in Georgia, and died about 1840 .- Notes and Queries.
*The second oldest Presbyterian settlement in Lancaster county, Pa., was along the headwaters of Pequea creck, in Salisbury township. The congregation was organized in 1722, and was supplied by New Castle Presbytery. On October 13, 1724, Rev. Adam Boyd was the first ordained pastor .- Samuel Evans.
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ence was well nigh, if not quite, the equal of Nassau Hall in the earlier days of these two schools of learning.
Moreover, the character of the people, the promi- nence of their leaders, the weight and influence of the church in this region, and the fitness of location, led the General Assembly, more than three fourths of a century ago, to turn their thoughts to one of the towns of the beautiful Cumberland Valley as a suitable place to locate its first Theological Seminary. Princeton, however, was too influential a competitor. It was the only competitor. But if Princeton carried off the palm and can boast that oldest and honored school of the Prophets, Chambersburg, her vanquished rival of that day, has now an institution for the education of the daughters of the church of which we may justly be proud .*
2. The Presbyterianism of this region has always been characterized by the great importance which it attaches to the services of the sanctuary. By our ances- tors the preaching of the word was held in the highest regard. Hence, one of the first things they did when settled in sufficient numbers in any locality, was to "supplicate" Presbytery to send ministers to preach to them, to administer the sacraments, and, not unfre- quently, to catechise their children. As soon as possi- ble the settlement of a pastor was secured, and, with the permission of Presbytery as to location, a house of
*Wilson Female College.
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worship was speedily erected. This was generally a log building, rudely furnished. But here the message of God was delivered in earnest and impressive words, and was eagerly received into good and honest hearts. More commodious and substantial buildings took the place of these log structures as occasion required and the pecuniary circumstances of the people improved.
Many of these early Presbyterians had to go six or eight miles to church. But the Sabbath found them regularly in their places. They came to listen not to a single discourse but to two, with an intermission of thirty minutes intervening. This intermission was quite an important feature. During it the people were assembled in groups about the spring, (for if possible a spring was selected as the place for locating a house of worship,) the simple lunch was partaken of, and con- versation was freely entered into-sometimes devout, sometimes otherwise. But even when unwittingly the weather and the crops and family affairs and the affairs of other people's families became the absorbing topics of conversation, there was something very delightful in these comminglings and communings. The people were brought very near to each other. They were made to realize their oneness in relation to God, to his church, and to each other as a community. Thus there sprang up among them a strong bond of union, such as in many places is unknown in church life to-day.
At that early day preaching was almost the only
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service enjoyed in the sanctuary. The weekly prayer- meeting and lecture had not yet come into existence, and Sabbath-schools were unknown. To this we know of but a single exception, that of a school established by Ludwick Haeker, just one hundred and fifty years ago, at Ephrata, Lancaster county. This school was kept open until the building in which it was held was taken for a hospital during the revolutionary war. The modern Sabbath-school had not as yet sprung into existence.) It was not until 1781 that Robert Raikes gathered together the ragged urchins of Gloucester, England, into a school upon the Lord's day, and paid a shilling a day to the female teachers employed to instruct them. There was no child's play connected with that school, and the shilling was well earned. The children were taught from 10, A. M., to 12, M. Then there was an hour's recess, after which they read a les- son and were taken to church. After church they re- peated the catechism until 5, and were then dismissed with the solemn charge to "go home at once and quietly."
The introduction of the Sabbath-school into the United States dates back about eighty or eighty-one years. In the territory covered by the Presbytery of Carlisle one hundred years ago, and in which there was no Sabbath-school of any denomination, there are now between thirty and thirty-five thousand children collected in the Presbyterian Sabbath-schools alone. How
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many there would be at the end of a year, if the schools were conducted after the manner of Robert Raikes' school, " deponent saith not."
But, although the Sabbath-school was then an insti- tution unknown, the careful instruction and training of the children of the households and churches were by no means unknown. Faithful home instruction in the Shorter Catechism was the rule. Each Sabbath evening the high priest of the family assembled his household and heard it recited. And annually did the pastor, by his examinations, ascertain how well the home work had been done. This system of instruction caused the children and youth of the church to be well indoc- trinated in the principles of our religion. Moreover, it made strong men and women, possessed of intelli- gence and imbued with sound principles, prepared to act well their part in church and society. A large pro- portion of the men thus reared in this region have shown themselves strong men-strong men in the bus- iness affairs of life, in the learned professions, upon the bench, and in public and political affairs, alike of the State and of the Nation. Were there none but the chil- dren of Christian families to be looked after and cared for, we should to-day, with all the light which observation and experience have thrown upon the subject, say that the old was better than is the new. But viewed in the light of the otherwise uncared-for multitudes, we regard the Sabbath-school as one of the greatest blessings, and
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one of the most potent agencies for good known in con- nection with the Christian church. We rejoice in the work which is being accomplished by it.
3. Let us view our subject in a doctrinal point of view. The Presbyterianism of this region has always honored the word of God as of supreme authority in all matters of religious faith and practice. It has, at the same time, steadfastly held and firmly maintained the doc- trines set forth in the standards of our church. This holds true not only in regard to periods of harmony and quiet in the church, but likewise in regard to the unhappy periods of discord and strife-and sometimes of division, too-which lie along the pathway of our history.
If we go back to the years called afresh to mind by this wonderful concourse of the sons and daughters of old Paxton* and Derry and Hanover, and the "English
*We write and we speak the name, Paxton. In all minutes and records, whether written or printed, of Presbytery, of Synod, or of General Assembly, from 1732 down to date we do not know of a single instance in which the name is not spelled Paxton. t
+Governor Evans, in his Diary of July, 1707, spells the word Peix- tan ; and in a road order of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Lancaster county in 1739 the word is spelled Paxtang, and likewise in an affidavit made before a justice in Lancaster in 1744. And in the petition to Rev. John Elder, dated September 26, 1754, the petitioners describe them- selves as "inhabitants in the Township and Congregation of Paxtang." And in the deed of the church fromn Foster's heirs, the word is spelled Paxtang. At the same time authority is divided, some contending, with Mr. West, that the proper way to spell the word is Paxton. Those who
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Presbyterian church of Harrisburg,"* and the descend- ants of the sturdy Presbyterians of this general region, we find the church, one hundred and fifty years ago, tossed upon the angry billows of a troubled sea-dis- cordant, contentious, rent. We refer to the Old and New Side controversy. Then was the plow-shear of division most ruthlessly driven through the Old Done- gal Presbytery and through her churches. Few indeed were the congregations in which it was not felt. Divis- ion prevailed in Upper Pennsborough (Carlisle) church, culminating in the settling of two pastors-the elder George Duffield and John Steel-men alike distin- guished as lovers and defenders of the truth and lovers and defenders of their country. The same was true of Upper West Conococheague church, resulting in the organization of Lower West Conococheague church. East Conococheague church was rent, nor were her divisions healed until the beginning of the present cen- tury. In Adams county the divided state of sentiment led to the organization of Lower Marsh Creek and Round Hill churches on a distinctly New Side basis, by the Rev. Andrew Bay, a member of the Presbytery of New Castle. For a time three of the pioneer churches of Cumberland Valley-ever valiant in defense of the
delivered addresses spelled it both ways. Under these circumstances and believing the weight of authority to be in favor of Paxtang, we have followed it, except where the writers have insisted upon Paxton .- ED. *The corporate name of Market Square church.
!
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faith of the Fathers-got, as it were, clear outside the Presbytery ; and from 1742 to 1755 were served by the distinguished John Blair, of the Presbytery of New Castle. I refer to Big Spring, Middle Spring, and Rocky Spring churches. And how was it on this his- toric ground ? For thirty years, commencing in 1745, Paxton church had her two places of worship-one on this spot, of hallowed associations and sacred memories, where we meet to-day; the other two miles northeast of this, long known as the "John Roan church." No trace of any thing connected with it now remains except the resting place of the departed. The one was served by that noble man, John Elder, the other by that scarce less noble man, John Roan-both then in the vigor of early manhood. In like manner Old Derry church was divided-one portion clinging to Mr. Elder, the other to Mr. Roan. They, too, had their separate places of worship. But throughout this great schism in the church, which mainly grew out of differences of views and practises in regard to measures and methods con- nected with the services of the sanctuary and the wor- ship of God, there was no division among ministers or churches upon doctrinal points. Both parties adhered to the standards of the church. Both parties were equally ready to subscribe the same declaration of their faith and to maintain and defend the doctrines of the church .*
*Thus the "Adopting Act" of 1729 (Records of Pres. Ch., p. 94)
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In like manner the names of ministers of both parties are found appended to " The Formula wherein to sub- scribe and adopt the Westminister Confession of Faith and Catechisms,"* which prefaced the first volume of the
was received and accepted by the men of both parties, as was also the "Declaration" of 1736, in which adherence is declared to the West- minister Confession of Faith and Catechisms and Directory for Wor- ship, without the least variation or alteration, and without any regard to the distinctions made in the "Adopting Act" between essential and non-essential articles.
And it is an interesting fact in history, to which special attention may properly be directed to-day, that this "Declaration," promulgated by the Synod of Philadelphia, in 1736, was the result of a "Supplication of the people of Paxton and Derry," calling attention to what they re- garded a loop-hole in the Adopting Act of 1729, which admitted of a distinction between essential and necessary articles of the Confession, and those which are non-essential and unnecessary, (Records of Pres. Church, pp. 126, 127.)
*A formula wherein to subscribe and adopt the Westminister Confes- sion of Faith and Catechisms.
I having seriously read and perused the Westminister Confession and Catechisms, doe declare, in the sight of God and all here present, that I doe believe, and am persuaded, that so far as I can discern and under- stand said Confession and Catechisms, they are in all things agreeable to the Word of God, taken in the plain and obvious sense and mean- of the Word, and accordingly, I doe acknowledge them as the confes- sion of my faith, and doe promise, through divine assistance, forever to adhere thereunto.
I also believe the Directory for the exercise of worship, Discipline, and Government, commonly annexed to the Confession, to be agree- able to the Word of God, and doe promise to conform thereunto in my practice as far as in emergent circumstances I can attain unto."
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Records of the Presbytery of Donegal. A fac-simile of which will be found in the History of the Presbytery of Carlisle.
If we come down one hundred years from the time of the great schism of the last century in the Presbyterian church, to the unhappy division, which in 1838 rent the church into the Old and New School bodies, we find the same thing holding good in regard to the loy- alty of the Presbyterianism of this region to the stand- ards of the church. Both parties were distinct and em- phatic in their utterances concerning and firm in their adherence to these standards. No one questioned the attitude of the Old School party. And the Old School men put on record the following words concerning the New School brethren who went out from the Presby- tery of Carlisle : "We are not disposed to call in ques- tion their orthodoxy."* And the New School Presby- tery of Harrisburg, at its second meeting, held May 19, 1840, declared that its "members received and adopted the Westminister Confession of Faith and Cate- chisms, Larger and Shorter, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." Moreover it emphasized this declaration by adding, "that no one can honestly subscribe these standards, or remain in the church after subscribing them, who is conscious of holding any opinions at variance with the system of truth therein exhibited." Had some of the present
*Records Pres. Carlisle, July 31, 1838.
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members of the Presbytery of New York belonged to this body, they might have understood this action as a notice served on them to vacate.
And when, in the good providence of God the time came for considering and voting upon the basis of re- union between the two branches of the church, we find the Presbyteries of Carlisle and Harrisburg occupying substantially the same platform. In their desire for, and action looking to re-union, they were in advance of the general church. The Presbytery of Carlisle put the following words on record, (October meeting, 1867 :) " We say from the depths of our hearts we desire re- union with the other branch; and we rejoice to know that we are coming closer and closer together on those great and glorious distinctive features of doctrine and polity which are embodied in the Confession of Faith. No other re-union than this is worthy the name of union. It would be but a union in form, and not in spirit. Alienations and divisions and jealousies would be the fruit of it." And the Presbytery of Harrisburg, at its October meeting put on record, the following as its action : " We distinctly protest against any formal basis for such an arrangement, other than an honest subscription to the Confession of Faith, such as was given by all officers of our church at the time of their ordination ; and that we regard no subscription to our standards as fair and honest, which implies the accept- ance of its articles merely for substance of doctrine, or
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in any sense contrary to their appropriate historical significance, as opposed to Antinomianism and Fatal- ism on the one hand, and to Armenianism and Pelagi- anism on the other." Nothing stronger or more ex- plicit than this could be desired.
And what I have said in regard to the loyalty of the Presbyterianism of the past in this region to the standards of the church, I may, with equal propriety, say of the Presbyterianism of the present. It is true that on that important question, "Do you desire a re- vision of the Confession of Faith ?" which occupies the mind of the Presbyterian church to-day, there exists diversity of sentiment amongst the members of our Presbytery. There are those of us who would be well content that our standards should remain as they are. And there are others who would be glad to see changes made in the mode of stating important doctrines of our church, so as to obviate obscurity and remove the possibility of misunderstanding and misrepresentation. But whilst there exists this diversity of opinion upon the question of revising the Confession of Faith, hon- estly held and manfully expressed, there is no diversity of sentiment in regard to the Confession of Faith itself, as containing the system of doctrine which we receive and hold and teach.
4. Those who composed the Presbyterian church of an early day were distinguished for their public and patriotic and fearless spirit. The Presbyterianism of
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this region, to a very large extent, furnished the men who stood for the defense of the colonists against the cruel attacks of the denizens of the forest. It may have been because of the undaunted courage of the early settlers, almost all of whom were Presbyterians, that they were located where they were by the author- ities. Positive evidence of this may not be at hand; but the facts in the case furnish very strong presump- tive evidence. The peace and quiet enjoyed by the non-combative Quaker and the phlegmatie German, whose homes had been allotted them further east, was at the expense of the hardy and brave Scotch-Irish Presbyterian frontiersmen. They stood as sentinels and guardsmen against the sudden and furious ineur- sions of the treacherous and wily savages, incited and sustained, as they often were, by the unscrupulous Frenchman, whose hatred for the English knew no bounds. I apprehend that the noble characters and heroic deeds of these men are but illy understood and poorly appreciated by very many at the present day. The grievous and shameful wrongs which the red man has since been made to endure have rendered men oblivious to the wrongs and cruelties then perpetrated by him.
I honor the men who heroically defended their homes and their wives and their little ones. I honor the memory of the gallant Rev. Col. John Elder, for more than half a century pastor of this church and old
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Derry. I honor the memory of his brave Paxton Boys. Whilst I deprecate the cruel scene of the Conestoga massacre, I am not, and cannot be, unmindful of the deceit and perfidy of its victims, and the cold-blooded murder of women and children committed by the "Stranger Indians," whom they harbored.
I honor the memory of the intrepid Rev. Capt. John Steel and the men of the Conococheague settlement who were enrolled under him for the defense of the community, and whose trusted rifles were found by their side when, on the Sabbath day, they frequented the sanctuary and listened to the messages of peace and salvation from the lips of their leader.
On the other hand, I confess I have but little patience with the man who, regardless of the facts of history or prompted by a spirit of hostility to Presbyterianism, speaks contemptuously or disparagingly of the men who acted so prominent and so noble a part amid the perilous scenes of that day. Fresh and fragrant may their memories live with us and with those who come after us.
When the time came, in the history of the colonies for resisting the wrong and oppression of the mother country, for proclaiming them free and independent States, and for maintaining their rights and securing their liberties, these same Presbyterians were found in the forefront ; and throughout the conflict they played no unimportant part. For a full century before being
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transplanted to the virgin soil of America, the Presby- terianism which found its way to this region had been trained in the hard school of experience to hate wrong and oppression. The church polity under which its people had been reared made them the natural foes of usurpation and the friends and advocates of human rights. Its system of government taught the right of representation in the church ; and, by parity of reason- ing, in civil government, as well.
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