USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 10
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" Of the nativity and early training of Dr. Alexander, we are not, at this late day, prepared to speak with certainty. So far as a general im- pression remains upon the mind of the writer, he entertains the opinion that Dr. Alexander was a native of Pennsylvania. He graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1760 ; was licensed to preach the Gos- 7
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DR. JOSEPH ALEXANDER.
[1800-1810.
pel by the Presbytery of Newcastle in 1767, and in October of that year was dismissed as a licentiate to the Hanover Presbytery, and accepted a call from Sugar Creek, N. C. He was ordained at Buffalo on the 4th of March, 1768. and in May following, was installed pastor of Sugar Creek, N. C., where he for several years performed the duties of his office in the midst of a population deservedly ranked amongst the most intelligent, virtuous and patriotic of the early settlers of the American colonies. In so fair a field, his highly cultivated mind, professional zeal, and ardent patriotism, all found ample scope for successful devel- opment. Under the mighty causes then at work to stamp upon the American mind its permanent character, young Alexander felt the vivifying influence, and soon became prominent as a powerful preacher and an earnest remonstrant against the oppressive measures at that day sought to be enforced upon the colonies in America. However painful the task to relinquish a station of service in which he found so mneh that accorded alike with his tastes and with what he had pro- posed to himself as the great aim of his life, nevertheless, so urgent were the calls that with distressing frequency fell upon the minister's ear, from hundreds of destitute churches and congregations, all over the Southern country, that our young minister felt it impossible longer to resist the " Macedonian cry," and in obedience to the suggestions of duty, yielded the pleasant and flourishing field of his labors to other hands, and removed with his family to South Carolina. About the year 1776 he settled in Bullock's Creek Congregation, York (then Camden) District, of which he assumed the pastoral charge, and entered promptly upon the duties of his mission. He found himself surrounded with a moral waste stretching in all directions over an immense area, with here and there the cabin of a pious Pennsylvanian or a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian. From these Bethels in the wilderness, the morning and the evening prayer had come up in remembrance before God ; and in answer, the dawn of a gospel-day was now rising upon the darkness which had so long enshrouded the Broad River Valley.
Like Paul at Athens, the newly arrived minister felt his spirit stirred within him, as he surveyed the wild and rugged fields he had under- taken to cultivate.
All his resources were taxed to their utmost to meet the exigencies of his people, but implicitly confiding in the pledges of the Master whom he served, and encouraged and sustained by the hearty co-operation of the few pious families whose urgent appeals had brought him amongst them, he diligently persevered in his work, and saw it advance with slow but steady progress. In the tract of country he occupied, the forests abounded with game, and the streams with the finest of fish. Luxuriant grasses clothed the hills, and almost impenetrable cane- breaks darkened the creek and river low-lands Hence with the exception of the labor required to cultivate a few acres planted in corn and wheat, to bread the family, and a patch planted in tobacco, and another in indigo (the commercial staple of upper Carolina at that day) to procure a few dollars to meet unavoidable, expenses, the settlers along the Broad River and its tributaries, composing what was then called Bullock's Creek Congregation, passed their time in what the Mantuan Bard would have termed "inglorious ease." The amusement of fishing and hunting furnished not only a delightful entertainment to the pleasure-loving lords of the forest and their wild growing lads, but at the same time contributed largely to the stock of materials necessary to family subsistence, and were, therefore, looked upon as a commenda-
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ble feature in their system of provisional economy. Meanwhile the culti- vation of the mind, and the importance of subjecting the moral and reli- gious elements of our nature to the renovating and transporting power of the Gospel, seemed to be matters that few had bestowed a practical thought upon. This state of things rendered it necessary for Mr. Alexan- der to undergo immense labor in bringing the scattered materials on which he had to operate within the sphere of his ministerial influence. Noone who properly estimates the unyielding nature of inveterate habits, forti- fied by the native hostility of the human heart to the offices of religion, but will at once admit that nothing short of Divine wisdom and power could have directed and crowned his efforts with success. To win this numerous class of the population to virtue and religion, he must first conciliate their attachment to himself, which he accomplished, after a time, by means of regular family visitations. The familiar and friendly intercourse established in this way between himself and his thought . less parishioners soon won upon their regards, and secured a patient ear to such suggestions as he chose to offer on the subject of religion, as he sat by their firesides, encircled with a listening household.
Ere long, our judicious and zealous pastor had the satisfaction to look down from his pulpit on a Sabbath morning and mark, now one, and then another, and there a third one, of the families upon whom he had bestowed his attentions and his prayers, timidly entering the doors of the church, and, fearful of attracting the notice of the congregation, quietly seating themselves in the nearest vacancy to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. From witnessing the fruits of this apostolic measure, Mr. Alexander was stimulated to ply his energies with an industry so untiring that, in due time, a crowded auditory thronged the house of worship and gave evidence of their appreciation of the gospel at his mouth by a profession of their faith in Christ, and an exhibition of the fruits of that faith in a life of practical holiness.
Thus, under the early ministry of Dr. Alexander, was a church-altar erected on Bullock's Creek, and a flame enkindled upon it which has not ceased to give forth its light through all the changes of well-nigh a century. up to the present hour So long as he was able to serve the Church as a minister, he was careful to employ a portion of his time in fostering the growth of family-religion by going from house to house throughout his congrega ions, conversing with heads of families, in- structing the youth and children of the household, and uniting with them in prayer for the Divine blessing. He was accustomed at stated periods to conduct catechetical examinations, held on his own appoint- ment in the several quarters of his congregations, at which both old and young were strictly enquired at concerning their knowledge of Divine truth. and their experience and progress in practical religion. Those wisely-directed labors were productive of the very best fruits. The congregations under his care advanced apace in the acquisition of Bib'e knowledge, the pastor and elders were cheered with frequent and large accessions to the communion of the Church from the youth under their joint care and instruction, and the several churches in charge of the beloved minister became vigorous and flourishing branches of the " True Vine." clothed in beauteous foliage, and laden with the fruits of righteousness.
In addition to the church of Bullock's Creek, Dr. Alexander organized (as we have been informed) Nazareth Church, in Spartanburg District, and Salem Church, in Union District-a section at that day composing a part of Ninety-Six-in each of which his ministry contributed greatly
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to advance the cause of religion, and to further the interests of our National Independence.
During the lapse of nearly forty years, embracing the memorable period of the American Revolution, Dr. Alexander continued to serve the churches which his labors had been blessed in planting and rearing up until within the last three or four years of his life, when the infirmi- ties of age forced him to demit his pastoral charge, and to rest forever from his ministerial toils.
We have learned, from the men who grew up under his ministry, that his style of preaching was bold and pungent, leading the under- standing captive to the demonstrations of truth, and the applicatory appeals with which he was accustomed to close his sermons, terrible as the storm, scattering in fragments the strongholds in which sin and im- penitence seek shelter and repose. Fidelity to the character and to the valuable services of this excellent man demands that a note be made of the influence of his efforts in the cause of his country, as well as in that of the Church and the Gospel.
Of so ardent a type was Dr. Alexander's patriotism, that from the days when the Stamp Act and Boston Port Bills passed the British Par- liament until the hour when the smoke cleared away from the last gun fired in defence of our National Independence, the glowing fires of his truly American heart, impatient of control, burned with intenseness in his conversation, and with the force of lightning shot from the pulpit, when on suitable occasions he drew the picture of our country's wrongs, and in the names of humanity, liberty and religion, summoned her sons to the resene. His unfaltering and spirited hostility to British tyranny and oppression, and to Tory butchery, arson and plunder, pro- cured for him a prominence that frequently perilled his property, his person, and the regular exercise of his professional functions. But he had, with mature deliberation, transferred his temporal all on board the bark of the Revolution, and resolved to share her fortunes, and with her to sink or swim.
In the dark day of Carolina's prospects, when the British and Tory ascendency lowered like the clouds of death over her sky, from the seaboard to the mountains, so fierce and threatening was the storm that raged around the partisan preacher, and so deep was his hold upon the affections of his people that the few men and lads of Bullock's Creek not ont at the time in the public service, habitually repaired to church on the Sabbath morning with their rifles in their hands, and, stationing themselves around what the next generation called " The old Log Meet- ing House," guarded the minister and the worshipping congregation while he preached the Gospel to them On the very spot where these services to God and the country were performed has the writer sat and listened with spell-bound attention to the recital of these stirring scenes, at the lips of some of the venerable actors themselves, as the tears shot down their cheeks, and told with an impressiveness still more forcible than their words, the price it had cost them to place in our hands the charter of Freedom and the unchallenged right to worship the God of our fathers according to the sanctions of the Bible and the dictates of conscience. May Bullock's Creek preserve the legacy unim- paired so long as civil liberty and sound Christianity are allowed one acre on earth they can call their own.
Emerging from the perils of the revolution, South Carolina, from the peculiarly trying position allotted her in the bloody drama, presented a picture calculated to awaken the tenderest sympathies of the human
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heart. Her farms and plantations had been burned with fire-her fac- tories, work-shops, academies and school-houses, that had escaped the vandalism of the foe, were left to silence and decay-the sires and sons, the mothers and daughters who had survived the carnage of privations incident upon the war, were reduced to poverty-in a word, the plow- share of devastation had torn through and ruptured all the resources of her former prosperity. But thanks to Heaven over the dreary desola- tion, the voice of liberty and independence now rung with a restorative power and awakened into life and activity the intellectual, the moral, and the physical energies of all classes, and immediately summoned them to the noble work of repair and improvement Ever ready to move with the foremost in planning and prosecuting measures promo- tive of good to mankind at large and to his countrymen in particular, Dr. Alexander, impressed with the duty of lending his aid to the diffu- sion of learning throughout the State, embarked with other literary men of the country in the business of opening schools and seminaries for the benefit of the children and youth, who from the necessity of the times had been hitherto almost entirely neglected. About the year 1787, he opened a capital school near his own residence, situated a little over a mile southwest of Bullock's Creek Church, and in a few months the infant seminary was thronged with young men from his own and the adjoining Districts. For a number of years he continued to discharge the duties of Preceptor with eminent ability, and had the happiness in after years to see many of his pupils in stations of honor and usefulnes as clergymen, physicians, jurists and statesmen. Many Presbyterian ministers, who from the beginning of the present century until the time of their death contributed largely to give strength and extension to that arm of the Church in York and the neighboring Districts, had been not only classical students of his, but were also indebted to him for their early attainments in Theological science The late venerable Governor Johnson furnishes to the memory of many of us, a specimen of the solid stamp of true South Carolina character and early scholarship with which himself and many others of Dr. Alexan- der's pupils were permitted during a long life, to adorn society and benefit the State. Governor Johnson entertained while he lived, a high regard for his venerated Preceptor, and spoke with pride of his once flourishing academy standing on a ridge-land in the Bullock's Creek forest.
From an intimate personal acquaintance with a number of the old men of Bullock's Creek congregation, who had grown up from children under the ministry of Dr. Alexander and who were tried and honored officers and soldiers of the Revolution, and members and elders of the church, the writer had an opportunity of forming a tolerably accurate estimate of the mighty results which acrue both to the Church and the State, from the permanent labors of an enlightened and faithful gospel ministry. The religion, the morality, the patriotism and the sound- common sense maxims of the Bible, had been brought to bear, with a steady and formative influence upon the youthful mind in the congre- gations with whose interest and progress the greater part of Dr. Alex- ander's life had been identified, and the result was that a generation of men matured under his pastoral instructions, whose worth to their country as soldiers in war and as citizens and Christians in peace, is beyond all our powers of appreciation. What these men had been on the field of battle we could only learn from the pen of the historian; the scars which they carried on their persons, and their own recital of
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the scenes of mortal strife through which they had passed; but what they were as men and as citizens are know, for we listened to their words and looked upon their lives as they passed with noble and venerable bearing before our eyes. As Christians, they bowed with reverence to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, in all they believed and in the duties they performed. The family altar, the sanctity of the Sabbath and the House of God, were enshrined in their hearts. Their lives were a lucid comment on the wisdom, the purity and the strength of primitive Presbyterianism as an embodiment of the doctrines of Chris- tianity and of the elements of national prosperity and greatness. But they have passed from amongst us, and with the venerated man whose labors and example contributed so much to make them all they were, have gone into the communion of an immaculate and glorious church- fellowship near the throne of God, and are become citizens of an illus- trious commonwealth, the grandeur and perpetuity of whose honors and immunities were not won by the valor of the soldier on the battle- fields of earth, but were achieved by the blood of the cross, and are bestowed by the hand of Him who is the Prince of the kings of the earth.
Dr. Alexander closed his eventful life on the 30th of July, 1809 in the 74th year of his age, and was buried in the churchyard at Bullock's Creek. A simple stone taken from the mountain quarry of our District, stands at the head of his grave, inscribed with his name, his age, and the time of his death, and marks the resting place of all that was mortal of this eminently useful and patriotic Divine. L.
York District, July 24th, 1855.
Rev. James Gilliland, Jr., was licensed by the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, April 8th, 1802, and was or- dained the pastor of Nazareth and Fairview, on the 7th of April, 1802. (Vol. I, p. 626.) He was a lively speaker, a good scholar and popular in his manners. The church flourished greatly under his pastorate.
BETHESDA CHURCH enjoyed the labors of its beloved and excellent pastor the Rev. Robt. B. Walker. "As to the nu- merical strength of the church previous to this century we have" says Mr. Harris, " no definite information, but it was probably large from the first. In the beginning of the century we have been informed, the membership was about one hundred."
Since the year 1804, when large additions had been made to the membership, we have reliable data, from which we ascertain that the average annual report of members for fifty years was one hundred and sixty, being the highest in 1818, when it was nearly four hundred, and lowest in 1850, when, in consequence of the years of immense mortality preceding and also the extensive emigration to the West, it was reduced to one hundred and five (105.)
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1800-1810.]
There must evidently then have been frequent and impor- tant accretions to the communicants in the church to fill up the breaches made by death and emigration, and this is what might be expected from the character of her ministry, and the churche's known fidelity to her children and families, and by the aid of the Divine Spirit. But besides this gradual but constant increase of members, there was at intervals a very large influx into her communion, for Bethesda has enjoyed several seasons of general religious awakening, and as Father Walker used to say, " the people expected one every fifteen years." The first of these occurred in the beginning of this century, and we shall permit the lamented Bishop to describe it :
In 1802, the wonderful work of grace which commenced in Kentucky, extended to this region of country. "In the spring, or early in the sum- mer of this year, a " protracted meeting" was appointed at Bethesda, at which time the first " Cump Meeting," was held at this Church. The neighboring ministers were invited and masses of men assembled in expectation of a revival. They came from the two Carolinas ; some as far as thirty and forty miles, to attend this solemn occasion. Revivals of great power had already appeared in some of the surrounding con- gregations ; but a special work of grace appeared now in Bethesda. It passed through that vast assembly like some mighty whirlwind. "The people were moved as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind." Subjects were taken from almost every age, class, character and condi- tion. Hundreds retired from that assembly who had felt the mighty power of this work, and very many returned to their homes "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God."
Thus commenced that remarkable work in the congregation, known as the "old revival," and which continued with great power between three and four years. Such masses now crowded the house of God, that in pleasant weather want of room compelled them to retire to the grove. They assembled early on Sabbath morning at the place of worship, not for worldly conversation or amusement, but to transact business for the eternal world. Immediately on their arrival, not waiting on the pres- ence of the pastor, the people commenced prayer, praise, religious conference and conversation with the anxious enquirer. In such exer- cises, in connection with public worship, was the day measurably spent, and at evening the people retired to their homes with an overwhelming sense of eternal things possessing the soul. Meetings for prayer during the days or nights of the week were appointed in different parts of the congregation and attended by crowds, for they now considered secular pursuits as secondary to the interests of eternity. Such was the all- prevailing solemnity resting on the public mind that fashionable amuse- ments, sports and pastimes which had been so common, disappeared, as darkness does at the approach of dawn, and the chill of winter with the return of spring. The business of life was not neglected ; but such was the absorbing interest then felt in the things of the soul that wherever men assembled, were it even to repair or construct the roads, to raise the house, clear the fields, or remove the rubbish, and even to
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" husk the corn," (at other times demoralizing) the work of grace then progressing, and the salvation of the soul, were the general topics of conversation. And even when they assembled at the house on such "occasions, to take their meals, it was not uncommon to spend a time in social prayer and praise, and religious conference, before resuming their labor.
" Those were happy golden days, Sweetly spent in prayer and praise."
What number of persons became hopeful subjects of grace during this revival, can be learned in eternity alone. Many from a distance, it is believed, were savingly impressed while attending protracted meetings at Bethesda, who returned to their homes, and whose subsequent his- tory was of course unknown to this Church. Many hopeful subjects of this gracious work united themselves to other branches of the Church, and large additions were made to this Church. It is known to some of you, I am informed, that at the commencement of this gracious work the number of persons in actual communion in this Church, did not amount to eighty, and at the close of the revival it largely exceeded three hundred ! And even after the Church supposed the revival to be at an end, its gleanings for years continued to come into the Church. From all I can learn, I am induced to believe that Bethesda alone received more than three hundred members on profession of their faith as the fruits of this one revival.
There were some things connected with this work which were very peculiar in their nature, in relation to which good and judicious men sincerely differed. Of these I am not at this time called to express an opinion. Some who came into the Church afterwards dishonored their profession ; but the large mass, as you yourselves are aware, gave evi- dence of genuine piety. There are still some subjects of that revival living among us, whom we love and revere ; but the greater part are " fallen asleep." So that whatever may be said of the alleged irregulari- ties and excesses of those times, certain it is, that this Church and com- munity have reaped lasting benefit from that work of grace. Unbelief and skepticism were confounded, and in many instances compelled to acknowledge that it was the " finger of God." The caviler was silenced ; the hardened sinner and even the bold blasphemer were melted and subdued, and changed. Many who once had been leaders in sin, now resembled the man in the Gospel, who, from a wild demoniac, was seen " clothed in his right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus." The Church made much advancement. For in addition to its large accession of numbers, the people of God were refreshed and invigorated, and took a higher position in the community, and religion acquired an ascendency over the public mind, which it had not previously held here and which to some extent has continued to this day.
To this the writer of this historical sketch can add that he has a list of names, David Sadler. Ro. Steele, Ro. Love and Frank Ervin, of persons who at the commencement of this religious interest signed a pledge to one another that they would not yield to the influences now developing so exten- sively among the people, but, as the result proved, all of these were during the meeting, made genuine converts, thus
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evincing the power of efficacious grace and God's " making the wrath of man to praise him."
Of the ministers who have arisen from this congregation we mentioned the names (Vol. I., pp. 611, 614) and gave something of the history of the two McElhenny's, James and John, the ministry of one of whom began in the close of the last century, of the other in this. Rev. John McElhenny, D. D., who was licensed by Lexington Presbytery, in 1808, died in 1871, since our first volume was published, and was buried among the lamentations of good men, and yet were their sorrows mingled with alternate joy, that one who had labored so faithfully and so long, and whom the age in which we live has cause to remember, has gone up higher to receive his reward. Bethesda Church reported 150 members in 1805, and 139 in 1810.
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