Letters from the West. Nos. I and II.
James Dodson
[from The Covenanter, Devoted to the Principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 6.1 (August 1850) ed. James M. Willson. Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1850. pp. 11-14.]
LETTERS FROM THE WEST.
Elizabeth, West Pa., June 6, 1850.
Dear Sir—The readers of the Covenanter, as well as of the church of Christ, will be edified by hearing of her prosperity in the great valley of the Mississippi. As I have now been ten years labouring in this part of the Lord’s vineyard, with ample facilities for knowing the facts, I trust you will allow, in your pages, a place to lay them before God’s witnesses.
Fifty-one years ago, it is not known that there were more than twelve families of Covenanters West of the mountains. All these were in West Pennsylvania, except one in Kentucky. There was not one minister, licentiate, or student preparing for the work of the ministry; and only one little praying society, which met at the house of James Finney, in this neighbourhood. There had not been any settled minister,—no dispensation of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The growth of the church had been slow for thirty years, as the first family that displayed the flag of the covenant here, came West, 1769. Its location was in sight of the place, from which I now write you. The region now occupied chiefly by ten great states, was then nearly all forest,—“one boundless contiguity of shade.”
Now, there are twenty-six ordained ministers, all of whom, except three, are pastors of growing congregations, five licentiates, sixteen students of theology, a divinity school twelve years in operation, two colleges, and about forty youth prosecuting literary studies, most of them, it is believed, with a view to the ministry of reconciliation. In one of our colleges, the course of study is exclusively Christian literature.
There are ten organized, vacant congregations, and numerous flourishing missionary stations that will be ripe for settlement long before we can supply them with pastors. At present, there is a good degree of harmony in nearly all these congregations, thirty-four in number. Perhaps more unity of sentiment and co-operation, than could have been looked for, among a people collected from various and remote places, and of most diversified education and manners. They are dispersed, too, over a vast, extensive region of Country, from the Allegheny mountains, to far beyond the Mississippi, 1000 miles; and from Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, to Cincinnati, 500 miles, “Israel is like dew among the nations.” It is the Spirit of Christ only that can “strengthen the stakes,” so as to hold all together, when “the curtains are so far stretched out.”
God blesses for harmonizing these scattered, and, in some measure, discordant elements, the action of the presbyteries, which meet semiannually. At much expense and labour, the pastors, and with each commonly a ruling elder, travel often on bad roads and in stormy weather, two or three hundred miles, going to and returning from the sessions of these important judicatories. But they are, by this means, furnished with opportunities for performing missionary duty, and of collecting valuable knowledge respecting the condition of the churches, the state of society, and the physical character of the country. “Knowledge is power.” “He,” says Solomon, “that increaseth knowledge, increaseth strength.” This is true of every kind of useful knowledge. The principle of curiosity operates, with peculiar intensity, over all the West. This, with the very deep interest the Covenanters cherish for the church, makes the knowledge collected by ministers and elders in travelling, almost a common stock. All learn the joys and sorrows of all, and sympathize in both. Thus the bonds of Christian brotherhood are strengthened.
The increase of the church has been much greater in the West than in the East. Fifty-one years ago there were two organized congregations with pastors and five missionary stations, where they had fellowship meetings, and three licentiates. East of the mountains. Now, there are nineteen ministers, seventeen in pastoral charges, and six organized vacant congregations, two licentiates, five students of theology, and a few literary students. There are also some missionary stations. These statistics do not embrace the pastors in the British provinces.
The means which have been used by the Head of the church to produce these results, I intend to write you an account of, in future letters. In the meantime, let all pray fervently and effectually that God may sanctify our pastors and preachers, and bless all their labours,—that he will edify our own souls, and those of all bis saints,—and that he will make our humble testimony mighty through his Spirit, for the demolition of all the strong-holds of sin and Satan,
LETTER II.
In my first letter, I sent you some statistics indicating the increase of the church West of the mountains, and that it has been much greater than in the East; all our ministers, but six, in the West, have been educated, and a majority of them born here. Six of the Eastern ministers are from the West. All but one of our seven licentiates, have been born and received all their education here. Last winter, as I think I mentioned, we had but two students in the Divinity Hall from the Eastern states. In this letter, I give you some of the causes which produce these results. It is true, indeed, that as “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth;” so is the work of the Spirit, in stretching out the curtains of Zion’s habitation. Yet he works by means oftentimes within our apprehension. He does so in this matter.
1. The facilities of supporting families are great. Hence marriages are early, and the children are numerous. They are the hope of the church in every age and country. The natural increase of the Lord’s covenant society in the West is very encouraging, I know a family, whose father and mother were married in 1778, that, in seventy-two years, have increased to eighty-two, now alive. All the adults, male and female, except five, are communicants in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Six of these are ordained ministers, and several more are in a course of theological training for that sacred function.
The family of Abraham, in the line of the promised seed, from his call in Ur of the Chaldees, to the descent of Jacob, a period of one hundred and seventy-five years, increased to no more than seventy-five souls. Acts vii. 14. It is true, his descendants in the lines of Ishmael, and Esau, and the children of Keturah, were, at that time very numerous. But Israel and Esau only were of one wife. Were the eighteen families which are now in the church, to increase at the same rate, for the next hundred years, that the family has done for the last seventy-two, it would be a nation. And why not?
Sa far as I can learn, the family of which I have given you an account above, may be taken as a fair specimen of the natural increase of the sons and daughters of Zion in the great valley of the Mississippi. I am not aware that it has grown faster than others. Some, who are not, however, Covenanters, have multiplied, within my knowledge, in a much higher ratio.
2. The greater part, by far, of Covenanter children continue in the church, and dedicate themselves to Christ, at an early age.[1] Few make defection, or profanely sell their birth-right, like Esau of old. This remark, of course, does not extend to those schisms in which a considerable body of officers and people abandon our testimony together, and “go out from us because they are not of us.”
We have abundant reason of gratitude and rejoicing, that our Redeeming Head blesses the spiritual training of our sons and daughters, for giving them “an anchor, cast upon that which entereth within the veil, both sure and steadfast.” The means of his appointment are admirably adapted to this end, and powerfully operative, when employed with care. This is done in our Western congregations to a considerable extent. I think we are yet behind the families of our Eastern churches in the teachings of the nursery. The congregations here are diffused commonly over so large a territory that it is impossible for pastors to give that attention to children which is desirable, and which is not onerous in compact congregations. But this impediment is fast being removed.
All the children commit to memory, almost as soon as they can read, the Shorter Catechism, and the whole or a large portion of it is recited in every household weekly. The Larger, is also, to an increasing extent, used as a manual of family instruction. These are indications that the time is near at hand, when all our children will as soon as possible treasure up the whole of that most excellent compend of gospel truth and Christian duty, in the store-house of memory. The reading of the whole Old and New Testaments through, in order, in family worship, in the household oblations of the morning and evening, and the singing of the whole of God’s inspired psalm book, in order, are means used by all our families. These specifications are not given as peculiar to our Western churches. There is hardly a Covenanter family in the world, in which our youth do not enjoy all this training.
Children, when young, usually attend fellowship meetings, where they are catechised. If all these means are accompanied with ejaculatory prayer, as I trust they commonly are, the effectual teachings of the Holy Spirit “make them strong in the Lord and the power of his might,” to resist temptations that might otherwise seduce them from God’s covenant society. Very many parents see that their children read the whole Bible through and through, catechising them every Sabbath evening on the amount read and on the contents. The inspired psalms, the whole book, are being committed to memory by the children in many of our families. This is laying up, emphatically, “treasure in heaven.” Very young children are taught to make prayers for themselves, their parents, their brethren, and their ministers; at the same time, they are taught the distinctive principles of our Testimony, to know why we are Covenanters, and warned against the evils that are prevalent both in Church and State.
As our youth grow up, they are instructed to read the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Form of Church Government, Directory for Worship, National Covenant of Scotland, Solemn League and Covenant, and our Testimony.
Wise parents prohibit their sons and daughters from hearing “the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Were it not for these hallowed teachings, the irreligion of the common school books, association with corrupt fellow pupils and unsanctified teachers, would seduce thousands of Covenanters, in their young and tender years, from gospel faith and practice.
The Head of the church fulfils his promise, “that he will pour his Spirit upon our seed, and his blessing upon our offspring, and that all our children shall be taught of God.” He most graciously, “blessed be his name, for his mercy endureth for ever,” carries the lambs of his flock in his arms. The children “trained up in the way they should go, when old do not depart from it.”' Those that are planted in the garden of the Lord, “grow up and flourish all in our God’s holy place.”
Yours, truly,
FOOTNOTE:
[1] [In the East, we find not a few exceptions.—Ed. Covenanter. (i.e., James M. Willson)]