USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > The First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee : the addresses delivered in connection with the observance of the one hundredth anniversary, November 8-15, l9l4 > Part 15
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He was a most eminent man, greatly beloved and respected by everybody.
REV. OBADIAH JENNINGS, D.D.,
Was born in New Jersey, December 13, 1778, and died in Nashville, January 12, 1832.
He was installed pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in April, 1828, and continued as such until his death, when only one month more than 53 years of age.
He was a man of great intellectual power and dis- cernment.
Three beloved pastors of the First Presbyterian Church rest from their labors, and their remains are buried in beau- tiful Mt. Olivet. Although gone from among us they are not forgotten, and it is our privilege this day to visit and spread flowers upon their graves. These are their honored names :
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REV. JOHN TODD EDGAR, D.D.
Was born in Delaware, April 13, 1792, and died in Nashville, November 13, 1860.
He was installed pastor August 4, 1833, and served continuously twenty-seven years until his death.
REV. THOMAS VERNER MOORE, D.D.
Was born in Newville, Pa., February 1, 1818, and died in Nashville, August 5, 1871.
He was installed pastor January 17, 1869, and con- tinued as such until his death.
REV. THOMAS A. HOYT, D.D.
Was born on Beach Island, South Carolina, Jan- uary 31, 1828, and died at Bryn Mawr, Pa., June 29, 1903.
He was installed pastor February 1, 1873, and con- tinued as such until April 19, 1883.
It was a notable birthday which we are now celebrating, for one hundred years ago, on the 14th day of November, 1814, the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville began its life with a membership of seven. Seven has ever been re- garded by mystics and mythologists as a sacred number, a number having peculiar potency in both spiritual and ma- terial affairs. Be that as it may, it is surely the fact that the earnest and devoted seven who that day clasped hands in solemn covenant for the worship of God and the upbuilding of His church, began a work which in the providence of God, and by His blessing, has wonderfully prospered.
Let us briefly trace the record of that notable seven who, under the leadership of a zealous and devoted "man of God," the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, that day raised the ban- ner of the Cross, which, by the blessing of God, never has been and surely never shall be lowered.
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ROBERT SMILEY
Was the only male member of the little band and was 31 years of age at the date we are here to com- memorate.
From the tablet which covers his grave we learn that he was born in Ireland, September II, 1783, and died in Nashville on his 40th birthday, September 1I, 1823.
From the scant record at our command we are led to believe that he was a most earnest and devoted Chris- tian, a man of the highest integrity, and that he died as he had lived, "at peace with God and at peace with the world."
On September 7, 1823, he was chosen President of the first Sunday school society organized in Nashville.
He was the honored ancestor of many descendants who have ever "kept the faith," and was the first of the long line of ruling elders of the First Presbyterian Church, having been elected at its organization.
MRS. SUSANNA H. EWING.
Was the consort of Andrew Ewing, and was born in Philadelphia, Pa., December 25, 1737. She was, therefore, almost 77 years of age when this church was organized. At that time her husband had been dead about a year.
Their home was four miles south of the village, as it then was, on the road which is now the Granny White Pike, and when her death occurred, October 31, 1818, she was buried in the family graveyard near the resi- dence, and there her remains still rest beside those of her husband, under the shade of the great oak trees that surrounded her home, and in the midst of a landscape fair and beautiful beyond description, albeit less than fifty years later the wavering lines of contending armies
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swung to and fro across these graves where the dead slept so peacefully, for they were in the very line of the Confederate entrenchments at the battle of Nashville.
Of her husband, Andrew Ewing, it is recorded that he was of the Quaker persuasion ; "was one of the bright- est ornaments of that sect, and proverbially good, honest and charitable."
He was the first Clerk of Davidson County, holding that office from October, 1783, until his death, May, 1813.
Their many descendants have ever been eminent in social, business and professional life.
MRS. MARY MCNAIRY
Was the wife of Frank McNairy, the senior mem- ber of a family conspicuous in both the early and later history of Nashville and the State of Tennessee.
We have not been able to learn the record of her life, or the date and place of her death and burial. It is the belief of some of her descendants that she returned to North Carolina with her husband, and that they both died and were buried in that State.
MRS. JOSIAH NICHOL
Was born near King's Salt Works, Washington County, Virginia, September 22, 1781. Her maiden name was Eleanor Ryburn, and she was married at the place of her birth to Josiah Nichol, April 19. 1797, when less than 16 years of age. She died at Nashville, No- vember 19, 1864. Her grave in the old City Cemetery, unmarked by a monument, adjoins on the south side that of her husband, who died May 31, 1833, in the 62d year of his age.
Mrs. Nichol was a few days more than 33 years of
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age when this church was organized, and at that time was the mother of nine children, seven of whom were then living. Three others were born later. She is still well remembered with respect and affection by the older citizens of Nashville.
MRS. RUTH GREER TALBOT.
Due north from yonder courthouse two and one-half miles "as the crow flies," on the northern slope of one of the beautiful hills that encircle the city of Nashville, stands a substantial two-story dwelling that is now 124 years old. It was built of cedar logs cut from the surrounding forest and put together with wooden pins. When built it was of such stately magnificence as com- pared with other dwellings of that date that it was known far and wide as "The Mansion." This house, which is still occupied as a dwelling, was built by a man who came from the Watauga Settlement in East Ten- nessee, wearing upon his scalp a furrow plowed by a bullet at the battle of King's Mountain. He had been Sheriff of Washington County, then of North Caro- lina, and was Clerk of the Senate at the first meeting of the Legislature of the State of Franklin.
His name was Thomas Talbot, and with him came his wife, Ruth Greer Talbot. Two children came with them and shortly after their arrival the third child, Sophia Western, was born. Twenty-three years later the mother, Ruth Greer, and the daughter, Sophia Western, then the wife of Elihu S. Hall, became charter members of this church.
Ruth Greer Talbot was born April 29, 1768, at the home of her father, Andrew Greer, on the Watauga River about three miles above Elizabethton; was mar- ried when 17 years of age; moved to Nashville when 22 years old, where she died October 7, 1819.
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REV. JAMES I. VANCE, D.D., Pastor 1895-1900; 1910-
Hard by the "mansion" where she lived, in the thick shade of a beautiful grove, in the valley of the little stream now known as Page's Branch, is the quiet burial ground in which is her grave beside that of her hus- band, Thomas Talbot.
She was a woman of strong character, energetic and industrious; the mother of eight children, and is de- scribed as "an affectionate wife, a tender mother, an indulgent mistress, a kind neighbor and charitable to the poor."
SOPHIA WESTERN HALL,
The wife of Elihu S. Hall, was the daughter of Thomas and Ruth Greer Talbot, as already stated. The date of her marriage we have not been able to learn. Her death occurred January 21, 1816, and her grave is in the southeastern portion of the old City Cemetery, under the monument inscribed to her memory.
She was 23 years of age when she became a charter member of this church and in her 26th year at her death.
MARGARET L. ANDERSON
Was the wife of Col. Patton Anderson, U. S. A. Of her life we have been able to learn but little. In a foot- note in the history of this church prepared by Rev. R. F. Bunting. D.D., it is stated that he was in correspond- ence with her in 1868, and that she was then Mrs. M. L. Bybee and was living in Memphis. Dr. Bunting states that by her memory of the fact he was enabled to learn the date of the organization of the First Presbyterian Church.
From this it appears that after the death of Colonel Anderson she became the wife of Mr. Bybee and lived in Memphis, where she probably was buried.
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14
Thus we end the brief record of the illustrious seven who were the charter members of this church, a record each item of which might be expanded into a story of thrilling interest.
There were two others, Mrs. Felix Grundy and Mrs. Robert Lusk, who were not present at the organization, but whose names are so inseparably linked with the history of the early days and later life of the church in the century which ends today that failure to pay tribute to their memory and make record of their noble service would be inexcusable. We shall try to be brief.
MRS. ROBERT LUSK.
Matilda F. Fairfax, "Mother Lusk," as she was lov- ingly called by many in her later years, was a citizen of Nashville throughout her long life of nearly 89 years. Here it was she was born, January 15, 1810. Here she was married by the Rev. William Hume, October 7, 1829, to Robert Lusk, who for many years was the efficient Treasurer of this church, and here it was that she died, November 27, 1898.
Mrs. Lusk became a member of the First Presbyte- rian Church December 17, 1842, and then for fifty years, half the century whose passing we now commemorate, it was she whose hands prepared the communion bread, and with unfailing regularity provided for the sacred feast.
Again, when war swept over the city and the church and its contents were seized by the invading army for occupation and use as a hospital, it was she who de- manded and reclaimed the portrait of the late pastor. Dr. Edgar, also the cushions of the church and the pul- pit furniture; removed them to her home and stored them, together with the silver communion service, in her parlor, where they remained in safety until after
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the war was over and the church was restored to its rightful owners in 1865.
Let us honor her memory and decorate her grave in peaceful Mt. Olivet.
MRS. FELIX GRUNDY,
Whose maiden name was Ann Phillips Rodgers, was the daughter of John Rodgers and his wife, Sarah Dougherty, and was born in Virginia, December 6, 1779. She was descended from a notable family of Scotch- Irish Presbyterians, one of whom was President of Har- vard College in 1684. When but a child she came with her parents to Kentucky, where she was married to him who became so eminent as a lawyer and a statesman. In the winter of 1807-8 they removed to Nashville and at once Mrs. Grundy became active and zealous in the life of the First Presbyterian Church. To select one from the many incidents connected therewith :
We are told that in 1819 the Bible was excluded from use in the public school of Nashville, and then it was that Mrs. Grundy, believing that the public services of the church were inadequate for the purpose. determined that the children of the village "must be taught the way from earth to heaven." And so, in the face of very great opposition, even from church people, Mrs. Grundy opened a school on Sunday morning, July 2, 1820, with fifteen scholars. The use of church buildings for the purpose was peremptorily refused, and the school was opened in a little dilapidated cabin among the cedars in the rear of the McKendree Church.
And this was the planting of Sunday schools in Nash- ville. Behold the splendid fruitage! God has blessed the work, and we. nearly an hundred years later, come with thanksgiving, praise and gratitude to pay loving tribute to the memory of her who planted the seed.
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In yonder Olivet, where the earliest rays of the ris- ing sun and its latest beams as it sinks in the west rest in benediction upon her grave, flowers are spread by loving hands today, and in the bright future, as the years come and go, wherever her name shall be spoken and the story of her life be told, the glad voices of happy children and the grateful hearts of fathers and mothers will thank God that such a woman once lived ! And so we close.
"God be thanked that the dead have left still Good undone for the living to do ;
Still some aim for the heart and the will,
And the soul of a man to pursue."
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CHAPTER XI.
THE STAYING POWER OF PRESBYTERIANISM.
By PRESIDENT WALTER W. MOORE, D.D.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."-Isaiah 40:31.
These words were written for the encouragement of the Jewish captives in Babylonia. For nearly seventy years they had languished in exile and they were thoroughly dis- heartened. They were a broken and helpless people. Their deliverance and restoration to their own land seemed an utter impossibility. But the prophet declares that, so far from being an impossibility, it is a certainty, because it has been decreed by the Almighty, and He calls upon them to put their trust in God, the source of all power, and to bestir themselves and march forth in His strength, buoyant, energetic, persistent ; for "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; and they shall walk and not faint." What strikes us at first sight as curious about this statement is the order in which these results of faith in God are given-flying, running, walking. That seems to us an inversion of the natural order. We are apt to say, surely walking is easier than running, and running is easier than flying. We should have expected the prophet to say, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall walk and not faint, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall mount up with wings as eagles.
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But he does not say that. His order is not walking, running, flying, but flying, running, walking.
It sounds like an anti-climax. But it is not. On the contrary, as George Adam Smith has well said, it is a true climax, rising from the easier to the more difficult. It is a true description of Christian life and work. It is far easier to mount up with wings as eagles and to run and not be weary than it is to walk and not faint. It is far easier to kin -. dle a blaze of temporary enthusiasm about religion, or make a burst of speed in some new religious enterprise than it is to persevere through difficulties, dangers and disappointments. The most effective servant of God is not the man of ardent feeling or impetuous zeal, but the man of steadfast persist- ence-not the man who can fly or the man who can run, but the man who can plod. We do need the uplift of en- thusiasm, and we do need the dash of energy, but we need still more the power of endurance. A skyrocket is a beau- tiful thing and by no means without its uses ; a bonfire is a joyous thing, and by no means devoid of warmth, but a fire of good hickory logs or hard coals is better. The text describes three phases of religious experience-the ecstatic, the impetuous and the persistent. They are all of value, but the one that counts for most in the long run-the one that accomplishes most in the end-is the persistent.
Flying, running, walking-soaring, spurting, trudging- enthusiasm, energy, endurance-these three, but the great- est of these is endurance.
And that, my brethren, is the real reason why the Pres- byterian Church has done so great a work in the world and has won so great a place in history. No denomination in all the sisterhood of churches has shown more staunchness and steadfastness and persistence and "patient continuance in well doing." It is sometimes said that the reason for the great position of the Presbyterian Church in history is its intellectual force. But that is only a part of the truth.
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The quality which has given it an influence out of all pro- portion to its numbers is not primarily a quality of mind, but a quality of character. For, as the Saturday Evening Post has said, "Ability never amounts to much until it acquires two more letters and becomes stability." And whatever else men may say about you as a church, they all with one ac- cord give you credit for staying power, for steadiness, for perseverance. And they respect you for it. They know that while flying and running attract more attention than walking, while the obtrusive things of life win more ap- plause, it's the steady things of life that accomplish more results. A brilliant minister of a sister denomination said once that a Presbyterian congregation was more trying to him than any other because they had so little apparent enthu- siasm and looked at everything in such a sober-sided, steady way. "However," he added, "they have some good points, and one of them is that they will pull on a cold collar." He meant that like a staunch team of horses, they would do their duty at any time regardless of the state of their feel- ings. They pull whether they feel like it or not.
Professor Upham has said that there are two classes of Christians-those who live chiefly by emotion and those who live chiefly by faith. The first class, those who live chiefly by emotion, remind one of ships that move by the outward impulse of winds operating upon sails. They are often in a dead calm, often out of their course, and some- times driven back. And it is only when the winds are fair and powerful that they move onward with rapidity. The other class, those who live chiefly by faith, remind one of the mighty steamers which cross the Atlantic, which are moved by an interior and permanent force, and which, set- ting at defiance all ordinary obstacles, advance steadily and swiftly to their destination, through calm and storm, through cloud and sunshine. Those who depend for inspiration on the state of their own fluctuating feelings or on external
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conditions will be strenuous or slack in their work, accord- ing as the outlook is promising or unpromising, but those who wait upon the Lord, those who trust fully His unchang- ing wisdom, power and love, will work steadily on regard- less alike of their feelings and their circumstances.
We have an English colloquialism to describe a thing that starts well and then fails. We say it peters out. Dr. Denison has suggested that the expression is derived from the name of that impulsive. boastful disciple who in his earlier career was always making such a brave start and then failing to make good. Peter did this so often that that sort of performance had come to be known by his name. We say of a man who acts that way that he peters out. He lacks constancy, steadfastness, persistence. Now, your ideal Presbyterian is certainly not a quitter. He sticks to it. He sees the thing through. He works at it steadily. He bends all his powers to it as though the whole success of it depended on him. And yet he says, and says truly, that the whole success of it depends on God. Indeed, he so mag- nifies the sovereignty of God in salvation and in all re- ligious work, he so insists that divine power alone can ac- complish real results, that superficial observers sometimes accuse him of fatalism. They say, "You Presbyterians stress the sovereignty of God so much that you destroy the sense of human responsibility, you cut the nerves of human effort, you say God does everything, then there is no occasion for man to do anything, you put a premium on sloth." Well, the answer to all this is historic fact. It is precisely the people who have so exalted the sovereignty of God that have always done the most strenuous and per- sistent work for His Kingdom. And that is the teaching of our text. Wait upon the Lord, mount up with wings, run, walk. It is a trumpet call to faith in the sovereign power of God, who increaseth strength to them that have no might, and it is a trumpet call to the most intense and persistent self-exertion-flying, running, walking.
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The combination that God has ordained in order to the best success is trust and toil-absolute dependence on Him and manly self-dependence. And this is the combination that has made our people so great a force in human affairs. I am, of course, very far from claiming that Presbyterians have a monopoly of this combination. We honor it equally when we see it in our brethren of other churches. But we may claim, I think, without immodesty, that no denomination has exemplified this combination more signally than ours, - and that as a consequence none has shown more staying power in character and work.
There are three features of the Presbyterian system which have contributed powerfully to the making of this intelligent, steadfast, dependable type of Christian char- acter: First, the Presbyterian polity, or mode of church government; second, the Presbyterian type of worship, or forms of service, and third, the Presbyterian creed, or sys- tem of doctrine.
THE PRESBYTERIAN POLITY.
I. In its polity, or method of ecclesiastical organization and government, Presbyterianism is republican in its form and spirit. Its fundamental principles are personal liberty and constitutional organization.
A personal libery such as is involved in the Protestant doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, bringing every man face to face with God, and teaching that each indi- vidual "must for himself realize the priceless benefits and dignities of redemption," gives to every man personal worth, and cannot fail to put a premium upon the best development of all his powers.
The other principle is constitutional self-government.
Presbyterianism holds that church power rests not in the clergy but in the people, and that church government is administered not by a single individual, which would be monarchy, nor immediately by the people, which would be
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democracy, but by representatives of the people, chosen by the people, and sitting in constitutional assemblies. These representatives are of equal rank. Presbyterianism asserts not merely the parity of ministers, but the parity of Pres- byters, the teaching elder and the ruling elder have equal authority in all the courts. It is popular government by representative majorities. In short, the Presbyterian Church is an ecclesiastical republic.
Now, the very first necessity of a successful republic is general intelligence. Presbyterianism has thus been com- pelled by the genius of its organization, even by the instinct of self-preservation, to promote the education of all its peo- ple. A system which teaches that church power rests in the people and is administered by representatives of the people is of necessity the friend of the education of the people. This is the ground of Bancroft's statement that Calvin was the father of popular education, the inventor of the system of free schools.
The two great principles which characterize Calvin's system, viz : personal liberty or the worth of the individual, and republican organization or constitutional self-govern- ment, are both derived directly from Scripture, and it is in these two principles that we find much of the potency of Presbyterianism as a maker of character, a maker of men, a maker of citizens. It teaches that all men are the sons of the Lord Almighty, that all are equal and all are kings; that every soul is of infinite value and dignity and that each individual mind may be in direct communication with its Creator. With such a conception of man there can be no despotism in church or state. No prelate or king can be lord over another man's conscience.
The historic opposition of Presbyterianism to all tyranny in church or state is therefore not an accident. It is no accident that Presbyterianism has furnished more martyrs to Christianity since the Reformation than all the other
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churches combined. It is no accident that Presbyterianism has taken a leading part in all those great movements which have secured the religious and civil liberty now enjoyed by the foremost nations of the world. These things have sprung naturally and inevitably out of the Presbyterian es- timate of the worth of the individual and the Presbyterian theory of government by the people. "Civil and religious liberty are linked together. In whom does church power rest? In the people or in the clergy? When you settle that question you decide the question also of the civil liberty of the nation. If you decide that the power rests with the clergy, then you establish a principle which. by an inevitable analogy, associates itself with the principle that the civil power rests in kings and nobles." Hence the remark of Lord Bacon that "Discipline by bishops is fittest for mon- archy of all others. But if you settle, as Presbyterians do, that church power rests in the people, in the church itself, then from this principle springs the other, that civil power rests in the people themselves and that all civil rulers are the servants of the people." If there is liberty in the church, there will be liberty in the State; if there is no bishop in the church, there will be no tyrant on the throne."
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