The Blind Preacher

The father-in-law of Archibald Alexander was James Waddel, for whom his son James Waddel Alexander was named. James Waddel was an Irish-American minister who became blind at the age of 48, but despite his handicap, he is remembered as one of Virginia's most famous Presbyterian preachers. His preaching skills were so legendary that the great orator Patrick Henry ranked him with Samuel Davies (who mentored Waddel) as the two greatest orators he had ever heard. And thus the account of his preaching we have by William Wirt, Patrick Henry's biographer, gives us a picture that is probably closer to non-fiction than fiction.

William Wirt, The Letters of the British Spy, pp. 80-86:

It was one Sunday, as I travelled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous, old, wooden house, in the forest, not far from the road side. Having frequently seen such objects before, in travelling through these states, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship. Devotion alone, should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess, that curiosity to hear the preacher of such a wilderness, was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and very spare old man...his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shrivelled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of a palsy, and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. The first emotions which touched my breast, were those of mingled pity and veneration. But ah! Sacred God! How soon were all my feelings changed! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees, than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the sacrament, and his subject, of course, was the passion of our Saviour. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times: I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that in the wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic, a new and more sublime pathos, than I had ever before, witnessed. As he descended from the pulpit, to distribute the mystic symbols, there was a peculiar, more than human solemnity in his air and manner, which made my blood run cold, and my whole frame to shiver. He then drew a picture of the sufferings of our Saviour...his trial before Pilate...his ascent up Calvary...his crucifixion...and his death. I knew the whole history; but never, until then, had I heard the circumstances so selected, so arranged, so coloured! It was all new: and I seemed to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deliberate, that his voice trembled on every syllable; and every heart in the assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases, had that force of description, that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews...the staring, frightful distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet...my soul kindled with a flame of indignation, and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively clenched. But when he came to touch the patience, the forgiving meekness of our Saviour...when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in tears to Heaven...his voice breathing to God, a soft and gentle prayer of pardon on his enemies, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"...the voice of the preacher, which had, all along, faltered, grew fainter and fainter, until his utterance being entirely obstructed by the force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into a loud and irrepressible flood of grief.. The effect is inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the congregation. It was some time before the tumult had subsided, so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual, but fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for the situation of the preacher. For I could not conceive, how he would be able to let his audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. But...no: the descent was as beautiful and sublime, as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic. The first sentence with which he broke the awful silence, was a quotation from Rousseau: "Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ, like a God!!" I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before, did I completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on delivery. You are to bring before you the venerable preacher...his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian and Milton, and associating with his performance, the melancholy grandeur of their geniuses...you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling melody...you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the congregation were raised...and then, the few minutes of portentous, death-like silence which reigned throughout the house...the preacher removing his white handkerchief from his aged face, (even yet wet from the recent torrent of his tears) and slowly stretching forth the palsied hand which holds it, begins the sentence..."Socrates died like a philosopher"...then pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both, clasped together, with warmth and energy to his breast, lifting his "sightless balls" to Heaven, and pouring his whole soul into his tremulous voice..."but Jesus Christ...like a God!" If he had been indeed and in truth an angel of light, the effect could scarcely have been more divine. Whatever I had been able to conceive of the sublimity of Massillon, or the force of Bourdaloue, had fallen far short of the power which I felt from the delivery of this simple sentence. The blood, which, just before, had rushed in a hurricane upon my brain, and, in the violence and agony of my feelings, had held my whole system in suspence; now ran back into my heart, with a sensation which I cannot describe; a kind of shuddering delicious horror! The paroxysm of blended pity and indignation to which I had been transported, subsided into the deepest self-abasement, humility and adoration. I had just been lacerated and dissolved by sympathy, for our Saviour, as a fellow creature; but now, with fear and trembling, I adored him as..."a God!"

If this description gives you the impression, that this incomparable minister had any thing of shallow, theatrical trick in his manner, it does him great injustice. I have never seen, in any other orator, such an union of simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude, or an accent, to which he does not seem forced, by the sentiment which he is expressing. His mind is too serious, too earnest, too solicitous, and, at the same time, too dignified, to stoop to artifice. Although as far removed from ostentation as a man can be, yet it is clear from the train, the style and substance of his thoughts, that he is, not only a very polite scholar, but a man of extensive and profound erudition. I was forcibly struck with a short, yet beautiful character which he drew of our learned and amiable countryman, Sir Robert Boyle: he spoke of him, as if "his noble mind had, even before death, divested herself of all influence from his frail tabernacle of flesh;" and called him in his peculiarly emphatic and impressive manner, " a pure intelligence...the link between men and angels."

This man has been before my imagination almost ever since. A thousand times as I rode along, I dropped the reins of my bridle, stretched forth my hand, and tried to imitate his quotation from Rousseau; a thousand times I abandoned the attempt in despair, and felt persuaded that his peculiar manner and power, arose from an energy of soul, which nature could give, but which no human being could justly copy. In short, he seems to be altogether a being of a former age, or of a totally different nature from the rest of men. As I recall, at this moment, several of his awfully striking attitudes, the chilling tide with which my blood begins to pour along my arteries, reminds me of the emotions produced by the first sight of Gray's introductory picture of his Bard.

On a rock, whose haughty brow,
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Rob'd in the sable garb of woe,
With haggard eyes the poet stood;
(Loose his beard and hoary hair,
Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air!)
And with a Poet's hand and Prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

Guess my surprize, when, on my arrival at Richmond, and mentioning the name of his man, I found not one person who had ever before heard of James Waddell! Is sit not strange, that such a genius as this, so accomplished a scholar, so divine an orator, should be permitted to languish and die in obscurity, within eighty miles of the metropolis of Virginia!

Of Ivory Towers and Fresh Air

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Eccl. 3.1)

Samuel Davies, Letter to William Holt (his brother-in-law in Williamsburg, Va.):

I am as happy as perhaps creation can make me. I have a peaceful study, the venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me. I very much question if there is a more calm, placid, and contented mortal in Virginia.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Introduction to Kubla Khan:

On awakening [from his dream, the author] appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter!

James W. Alexander, Journal:

§ 12. Against Solitude.—A life of study has always appeared to me an unnatural life. Is it not better to converse with the living than the dead? Some one will yet have to write a book on the excess of literature. The ancient Greek way of studying abroad, in the Porch, or the Academy, on the Bissus and under the platanus, among the haunts of man, was better for the health both of body and mind. Recluse habits tend to sadness, moroseness, selfishness, timidity, and inaction. The mind has better play in aprico. Collision produces scintillation of genius, and proximity of friends opens a gush for the affections. The early Christians seem to have been out-of-door people, rehearsing to one another the wisdom which had been given to them orally. Lessons which go from mouth to mouth, take a portable shape, because dense, pithy, and apothegmatic: such are the proverbs of all ages. We are made for action, and life is too short for us to be always preparing. A breath of pure air seems to oxygenate the intellect, and the best thoughts of the scholar are sometimes during the half hour of twilight, when he has laid aside his books, and taken his walking-stick. Then he is more of a man, feels his fellowship not only with nature, but with his kind. I sometimes wish I had been less a reader of books; that I had exercised my prerogative over the beasts of the field, mastered horses, or traversed countries as a reckless pedestrian. Ever turning the thoughts inward produces corrosion. We should have something, it is true, within, but it should tend outwards. He has not fulfilled his vocation, who has spent his score of years in solitary delight over ancient authors, and eaten his morsel alone. Gray, with all Greece in his mind, pacing up and down the green alleys of a college walk, was but half the man he should have been. Horace Walpole, revelling in the virtu of Strawberry Hill, degenerated into a mere toyman, and filled the most elegant letters extant with the matching of old chairs and Sevres china. It is to let the mind run to seed in a corner; transplantation is necessary. To live for others is the dictate of religion. And what to do for others is best done by actual approaches, face to face, eye looking into eye, and hand pressing hand. It is not enough to say, this or that recondite pursuit may turn to somebody's advantage. So it may, if you live to be a Methuselah or a Lamech. But your ever-increasing stock should not be all hoarded. The sum is, go forth among mankind. Lay aside the cowl, and make one of the great company. Every day renew the electric touch with the common mind. Fall into the circle, to give and take good influences. It is not too late if your heart is not ossified to the core. I hope it is not so bad as that in Tully's phrase, locus ubi stomachus fuit, concaluit. It is worth an effort. The air of a saloon or a market-place will do you good, and you will gain something from brushing the crowd in a thoroughfare.

§ 22. Books and Solitude.—Much may be learned without books. To read always is not the way to be wise. The knowledge of those who are not bookworms has a certain air of health and robustness. I never deal with books all day without being the worse for it. Living teachers are better than dead. There is magic in the voice of living wisdom. Iron sharpeneth iron. Part of every day should be spent in society. Learning is discipline; but the heart must be disciplined as well as the head; and only by intercourse with our fellows can the affections be disciplined. Bookishness implies solitude; and solitude is apt to produce ill weeds: melancholy, selfishness, moroseness, suspicion, and fear. To go abroad is, therefore, a Christian duty. I never went from my books to spend an hour with a friend, however humble, without receiving benefit. I never left the solitary contemplation of a subject in order to compare notes on it with a friend, without finding my ideas clarified. Ennui is not common where men properly mingle the contemplative with the active life. The natural and proper time for going abroad is the evening. Such intercourse should be encouraged in one's own house as well as out of it. Solitary study breeds inhospitality: we do not like to be interrupted. Every one, however wearisome as a guest, should be made welcome, and entertained cordially. Women surpass men in the performance of these household duties; chiefly because they are all given to habits of solitary study. The life which Christ lived among men is a pattern of what intercourse should be for the good of society. I have a notion that the multiplication of books in our day, which threatens to overleap all bounds, will, in the first instance, produce great evils, and will afterwards lead men back to look on oral communication as a method of diffusing knowledge which the press has unduly superseded; and that this will some day break on the world with the freshness of a new discovery.

On the Late Cloudy Weather

James W. Alexander, Journal:

On the Late Cloudy Weather

Clouds on clouds have long been here,
Overhanging all our sky;
Scarce a sunny hour did peer
Through the mantle spread on high.

Yet we know the sun is still
Reigning in his bridegroom power,
And the happy instant will
Pour his radiance through the shower.

Then the tinted promise-bow,
Spanning woods and meads, shall smile,
Then the cornfields brilliant glow,
If meek patience wait a while.

Nature is the type of grace --
Spirits have their cloudy time;
'Tis, alas! our present case,
While we wait the dawn sublime.

Yet in darkness we will hope,
He is coming who is Light,
Thought we may disheartened grope
For a season -- as in night --

He is coming; lo! his beam
Gilds already yonder hill,
Streaks of opening clearness seem
The horizon's edge to fill.

Come, expected brightness, come,
We are panting for thy ray,
Let not hopeless grief benumb
Souls that do thy word obey.

Weeping may a night endure,
Yet the morning shall be joy;
Trust the promise -- it is sure,
Hopeful toil be thine employ.

He who loves me makes my day,
Clouds but minister his will;
Christ is waiting to display
Charms that every wish shall fill.

Sublimity

J.W. Alexander, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D.: First Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, pp. 29-31:

But in this same valley, and not very remote from the objects of which I have spoken, there is one which, I think, produces the feeling which is denominated the sublime, more definitely and sensibly than any that I have ever seen. I refer to the Natural Bridge, from which the county takes its name. It is not my object to describe this extraordinary lusus naturae, as it may be called. In fact, no representation which can be given by the pen or pencil can convey any adequate idea of the object, or one that will have the least tendency to produce the emotion excited by a view of the object itself. There are some things, then, which the traveller, however eloquent, cannot communicate to his readers. All I intend is, to mention the effect produced by a sight of the Natural Bridge on my own mind. When a boy of fourteen or fifteen, I first visited this curiosity. Having stood on the top, and looked down into the deep chasm above and below the bridge, without any new or very strong emotions, as the scene bore a resemblance to many which are common to that country, I descended by the usual circuitous path to the bottom, and came upon the stream or brook some distance below the bridge. The first view which I obtained of the beautiful and elevated blue limestone arch, springing up to the clouds, produced an emotion entirely new; the feeling was as though something within sprung up to a great height by a kind of sudden impulse. That was the animal sensation which accompanied the genuine emotion of the sublime. Many years afterwards, I again visited the bridge. I entertained the belief, that I had preserved in my mind, all along, the idea of the object; and that now I should see it without emotion. But the fact was not so. The view, at this time, produced a revival of the original emotion, with the conscious feeling that the idea of the object had faded away, adn become both obscure and diminutive, but was now restored, in an instant, to its original vividness, and magnitude. The emotion produced by an object of true sublimity, as it is very vivid, so it is very short in its continuance. It seems, then, that novelty must be added to other qualities in the object, to produce this emotion distinctly. A person living near the bridge, who should see it every day, might be pleased with the object, but would experience, after a while, nothing of the vivid emotion of the sublime. Thus, I think, it must be accounted for, that the starry heavens, or the sun shining in his strength, are viewed with little emotion of this kind, although much the sublimest objects in our view; we have been accustomed to view them daily, from our infancy. But a bright-coloured rainbow, spanning a large arch in the heavens, strikes all classes of persons with a mingled emotion of the sublime and beautiful; to which a sufficient degree of novelty is added, to render the impression vivid, as often as it occurs. I have reflected on the reason why the Natural Bridge produces the emotion of the sublime, so well defined and so vivid; but I have arrived at nothing satisfactory. It must be resolved into an ultimate law of our nature, that a novel object of that elevation and form will produce such an effect. Any attempt at analyzing objects of beauty and sublimity only tends to produce confusion in our ideas. To artists, such analysis may be useful; not to increase the emotion, but to enable them to imitate more effectually the objects of nature by which it is produced. Although I have conversed with many thousands who had seen the Natural Bridge; and although the liveliness of the emotion is very different in different persons; yet I never saw one, of any class, who did not view the object with considerable emotion. And none have ever expressed disappointment from having had their expectations raised too high, by the description previously received. Indeed, no previous description communicates any just conception of the object as it appears; and the attempts to represent it by the pencil, as far as I have seen them, are pitiful. Painters would show their wisdom by omitting to represent some of the objects of nature, such as a volcano in actual ebullition, the sea in a storm, the conflagration of a great city, or the scene of a battle-field. The imitation must be so faint and feeble, that the attempt, however skilfully executed, is apt to produce disgust, instead of admiration.

Letter from Charles Hodge to his wife Sarah, dated May 28, 1828, in A.A. Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge D.D. LL.D. Professor in the Theological Seminary Princeton N.J., p. 197:

My Beloved Sarah: -- I have seen the Alps! If now I never see any thing great or beautiful in nature, I am content. I felt that as soon as I saw you, I could fall at your feet and beg you to forgive my beholding such a spectacle without you, my love. You were dearer to me in that moment than ever. I left Basel about one o'clock with a young English gentleman for Lucerne. We rode about fifteen miles and arrived at the foot of a mountain. As the road was steep and difficult, we commenced walking up the mountain in company with two Swiss gentlemen. We ascended leisurely for about two hours before we reached the top. I was walking slowly with my hands behind me, and my eyes on the ground, expecting nothing, when one of the Swiss gentlemen said with infinite indifference -- "Voila les Alpes." I raised my eyes -- and around me in a grand amphitheatre, high up against the heavens, were the Alps! It was some moments before the false and indefinite conceptions of my life were overcome by the glorious reality. The declining sun shed on the immense mass of mingled snow and forests the brightness of the evening clouds. This was the first moment of my life in which I felt overwhelmed. Every thing I had ever previously seen seemed absolutely nothing. The natural bridge in Virginia had surprised me -- the Rhine had delighted me -- but the first sudden view of the Alps was overwhelming. This was a moment that can never return; the Alps can never be seen again by surprise, and in ignorance of their real appearance.

Blessings of Trial

J.W. Alexander wrote in his private journal:

The trials which befall us, are the very trials which we need. The little daily excoriations of temper speedily heal themselves, but when the pain lasts, they have an errand to accomplish, and they accomplish it. These, as well as greater sufferings are ordered. They must be submitted to with patience, resignation, and meekness, and if they enable us to see ourselves, and gain a victory over our pride, they are of great value. Instead of vain and impotent wishes to fly from them, or the circumstances which occasion them, it is the part of manly virtue to fear and forbear, and by grace to wax stronger and stronger.

Pray Me Full, Preach You Full

As was mentioned in a sermon preached tonight on Heb. 13.17, it is a saying among Dutch Reformed ministers to their congregants: "Pray me full, and I'll preach you full." What a true saying, which illustrates how much pastors -- and other church officers -- need and depend upon the prayers of the saints.

Another version of this sentiment is found in the old adage quoted by J.W. Alexander in his classic Thought on Family Worship, pp. 148-149:

The primary advantage of family-prayer to the church, is that it is answered. It is no small thing for any congregation to have daily cries for God's blessings on it ascending from a hundred firesides. What a spring of refreshment to a pastor! The family-devotions of praying Kidderminster, no doubt, made [Richard] Baxter a better minister, and a happier man; and it is possible that we are reaping the fruits of them, in his "Saints' Rest," and "Dying Thoughts." We have all heard of the preacher who told his flock that he had "lost his prayer-book," meaning their prayers; as also that good quaint saying of the last age, "A praying people makes a preaching minister." Such aid has been well compared to that of Aaron and Hur. Faithful and affectionate Christians never fail to remember their spiritual guide in their household supplications.

Thomas Murphy's Recommended Pastoral Library

The following is a list of recommended books that should be had and consulted by the Christian minister in his library prepared by Thomas Murphy, an Irish-American Presbyterian, who was born in Country Antrim in 1823 and died in New Jersey in 1900. Where possible and desirable, I have provided links to online edition of the works he cited for easier reference.

Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology; The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office (1877), pp. 144-147:

In order to give some assistance in the selection of books, we would name a few upon the respective branches of ministerial study. We pass by general reading and culture, for it is with the minister in his special calling as pastor that we are now concerned. We give only a few authors as many as may serve at the beginning of the ministry a sort of indispensable apparatus for commencing the great work. At least, the pastor's library should be stocked with most of these as soon as circumstances will allow. The books we name have been well tried, and are recommended by persons whose judgment is worthy of confidence.

1. Books of general reference. Webster's or Worcester's English Dictionary -- this should be a constant companion; Roget's Thesaurus of English Words; some good general Encyclopaedia if possible.

2. Interpretation of Scripture. Cruden's Concordance; Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Hackett's edition; Simmons' Manual; Wheeler's Analysis and Summary of Old Testament History; Whitney or Barrow's Sacred Geography; The Land and the Book.

3. Commentaries. On the whole Bible, Henry's Commentary; Critical and Experimental Commentary by Jamieson, Faussett and Brown; Lange's great Bible work is a thesaurus of scriptural exposition which may be secured as the wants of the pastor require. Many of the best expositors have written on only one or a few books of Scripture. A detailed list of some of the most useful of these may now be given: On Genesis, Murphy, Jacobus, Bush; on Exodus, Murphy, Jacobus, Bush; on Leviticus, Bush, Bonar; on Numbers, Bush, Keil and Delitzsch; on Deuteronomy, Keil and Delitzsch; on the whole Pentateuch, Calvin; on Joshua and Judges, Bush, Keil and Delitzsch; on Ruth and Samuel, Keil and Delitzsch; on Esther, McCrie; on Job, Barries; on Psalms, Barnes, Calvin; on Proverbs, Bridges, Stuart; on Ecclesiastes, Bridges; on Song of Solomon, Newton; on Isaiah, Barnes, Alexander; on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Henderson; on Ezekiel, Fairbairn; on Daniel, Barnes, Auberlin, Stuart; on the minor prophets, Henderson; on Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, Moore; on the four Evangelists, John J. Owen; on Matthew and Mark, Alexander; on John, Hutch[e]son; on Acts, Alexander, Hackett, Jacobus; on Romans, Hodge, Turner; on Corinthians, Hodge; on Galatians, Luther; on Ephesians, Hodge; on Philippians and Colossians, Eadie; on Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Barnes; on Hebrews, Stuart, Owen; on James, Barnes, Pattison; on Peter, Barnes and Leighton; on John and Jude, Barnes; on Revelation, Stuart, Barnes and Auberlin.

4. Theology. Systematic Theology, by Hodge; Hill's Divinity; Dwight's Theology; Dick's Theology; Outlines of Theology, by A. A. Hodge; Pictet's Theology.

5. Church History. Mosehim's Ecclesiastical History; Shedd's History of Doctrines; Kurtz's Sacred History; Schaff's Apostolic Church; McCrie's Life of Knox; History of the Church in Chronological Tables, H. B. Smith; The Ancient Church, by Dr. Killen; D'Aubigne's Histories.

6. Church Government and the Sacraments. Miller on the Christian Ministry; Miller on the Ruling Elder; Primitive Church Officers, J. A. Alexander; Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity; Coleman's Primitive Church.

7. Sermons. This field is a boundless one, and we give only a few books which are known to be of standard value: South's Sermons; Robert Hall's Sermons; Sermons of John M. Mason these should be read by all means; Davie's Sermons; Archibald Alexander's Practical Sermons; Gospel in Ezekiel, Guthrie; Principal Cunningham's Sermons, amongst the best in the language; Spurgeon's Sermons; Bishop Horsley's Sermons, among the best.

8. Practical Piety. Russell's Letters; Rutherford's Letters; A Kempis; James's Earnest Ministry; Winslow's Precious Things of God; Baxter's Reformed Pastor; Daily Meditations by Bowen; Owen on the Glory of Christ a work of pre-eminent value; Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness -- Dr. Alexander said this should be read once a year; Howe's Delight in God; Flavel's Keeping the Heart.

9. Christian Biography. Lives of McCheyne, Simeon, Henry Martyn, Hal[y]burton, Archibald Alexander.

10. Great Puritan Writers. John Howe -- all of his works. Says James W. Alexander, "A little reading in the pages of great thought will sometimes set one thinking, as if by a happy contagion. Such pages are those of John Howe." Owen, especially on Hebrews Dr. Mason used to say all his theology was from this. Some of his most valuable productions are on "Spiritual-Mindedness," on the "Glory of Christ," on "Forgiveness of Sin," "Indwelling Sin," and "Mortification of Sin;" Baxter, especially his "Saints Rest" and "Reformed Pastor," Leighton's works; Flavel's works highly recommended; and Charnock on the "Divine Attributes."

11. On Sabbath-school Work. "Sunday-School Idea" (Hart); "Sabbath -School Index" (Pardee); "Preparing to Teach" (Presbyterian Board).

The minister who has secured most of these books is furnished with the best of reading for many a day, and with authorities on almost all subjects that can come before him in his profession. Of other authors he will find out the value in the progress of his ministry, and purchase them as new wants arise. It was an excellent advice of Dr. Archibald Alexander that ministers should buy books only as they are actually needed, and not to be stored away on the shelves of the library for future use. Our last advice is to be sure of getting only the standard and very best authors.

Thankful Review

James W. Alexander in 1854 published Plain Words to a Young Communicant, since republished by Banner of Truth as Remember Him. It is a brief book but rich in spiritual wisdom. Following the celebration of the Lord's Supper at my church today, and in remembrance of the many mercies of our good God, I write to share this particular bit of post-communion wisdom from Alexander's little book:

34. Thankful Review

Through the tender mercies of our God, there are many cases in which the young communicant retires from the Table of the Lord, strengthened and encouraged. The cardinal truth of Christianity has been set before his thoughts and becomes incorporated with his faith. He has seen Jesus (John 12:21). His views of the infinite freedom of salvation have been made more clear. The evidences of his acceptance with God have become brighter. He is more disposed than ever before, to yield himself as a sacrifice, soul, body and spirit, which is his reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). Where any part of this is true, you have new causes for gratitude. It is 'the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit' (Isa. 48:17). Now is the time, to bless him for this grace, and to beg the continuance of it. Now is the time to set a watch against relapses, and to carry into effect the vows which you have made at the Lord's Table. In the future, you will look for the recurrence of this sacrament with a lively expectation, founded on experience.

Eutaxian Humor

Today's Friday Funny comes from a book that revolutionized the American Presbyterian church in the 19th century. Charles W. Baird -- who, like his brother, Henry M. Baird, was a Huguenot historian of note -- published Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches in 1855. It was successful in moving American Presbyterians away from the form of worship sketched by the Westminster Assembly's Directory of Public Worship and towards liturgical forms of worship more akin to Anglicanism. In fact, James W. Alexander had this to say about this book in a letter dated June 13, 1855: 'If the Eutaxian Liturgy come into actuality, the only result will be to train people for the "Common Prayer"' (Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D. D., Constituting, with the Notes, a Memoir of His Life (1860), p. 208).

Be that as it may, one particular anecdote provided by Baird in this book (pp. 83-84) strikes the funny bone.

We may be allowed to vary these souvenirs by adducing one of the more lively cast. It is connected with the baptismal service. When the famous [Jean] Claude was pastor of the church at Charenton, near Paris (about the middle of the seventeenth century), he was called on one occasion to perform the marriage ceremony between two Huguenots in high life; of whom the bridegroom was a decrepit septuagenerian, leading to the altar a young girl of some sixteen summers. As the minister saw this ill-matched couple advancing up the aisle to meet him, whether by accident or design we cannot say, he opened his book to the baptismal form, and addressed the disconcerted bridegroom with the interrogation: "Dost thou here present this child to be baptized?"

Happy 200th Birthday Joseph A. Alexander!

Joseph Addison Alexander was born 200 years ago on April 24, 1809 in Philadelphia. The son of Archibald Alexander and brother of James Waddel Alexander (and William Cowper Alexander -- Cowper, the poet, was certainly appreciated in the Alexander family), J.A. Alexander went on to become one of America's premier 19th century Biblical scholars.

He wrote commentaries on Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Acts and the Psalms. His sermons were published (and highly regarded), along with other works including a geography of the Bible (with his brother James) and essays on primitive church polity. His literary output was rich, especially considering that he died young, in his 52nd year of life. His letters and a few poems have been published as well. He died without last words, seemingly suddenly, and he was mourned by all. After his death at Princeton, where he had graduated and served the seminary in various capacities as professor for many years, in 1860, Charles Hodge addressed the next meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America with a moving tribute to his dear friend as he sought for the appointment of a new professor to be assigned to Princeton.

A.A. Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge, pp. 444-445:

In the death of Joseph Addison Alexander we have lost our great glory and defense....I regard Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander as incomparably the greatest man our church has ever produced. His intellect was majestic not only in its greatness but in its harmonious proportions. No faculty was in excess, and none was in defect. His understanding, imagination and memory were alike wonderful. Everything was equally easy to him. Nothing he ever did seemed to reveal half his power. His attainments in classical, oriental and modern languages and literature were almost unexampled. His stores of biblical, historical and antiquarian knowledge seemed inexhaustible. To all these talents and attainments were added great force of character, power over the minds of men, and a peculiar facility in imparting knowledge. His thorough orthodoxy, his fervent piety, humility, faithfulness in the discharge of his duties, and reverence for the Word of God, consecrated all his other gifts. His complete mastery of every form of modern infidelity enabled him to vindicate the Scriptures as with authority. He glorified the Word of God in the sight of his pupils beyond what any I ever saw had the power of doing. Princeton is not what it was, and can never expect to be what it has been. You cannot fill his place. The only compensation for such a loss is the presence of the Spirit of God.

He was buried in the family plot at Princeton Cemetery, but "he being dead yet speaketh" (Heb. 11.4), and his beloved memory is cherished by those who have read his rich writings. As Matthew Poole said, "Ministers are living Books, and Books are dead Ministers; and yet though dead, they speak. When you cannot heare the one, you may read the other."

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to rightousness as the stars for ever and ever. Dan. 12.3

Incessant Bible Study

Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office, pp. 110-115:

INCESSANT STUDY OF THE BIBLE.

This is a duty which must be placed amidst the very first of all the duties that devolve upon the pastor. We must come back to it again and again and again as we treat of his all-important calling. In that holy office he must study many things, but this most yea, more than all other things put together. We would endeavor to impress this point as strongly as possible. The minister must study the Bible for his own heart-culture ; he must study it for all his official duties ; he must study it until he grows to love the study ; he must study it until he gets his mind saturated with it ; he must study it to keep up freshness and variety in his preaching ; he must study it every day ; he must study it until his dying day.

The pastor may depend upon it that a thorough knowledge of the oracles of God would prove to be the right arm of his strength. It would give vigor to his faith. It would impart robustness to his Christian character. It would clothe his preaching with irresistible power. It would furnish him with the best preparation in his attendance upon the sick, the inquiring, the young, in ecclesiastical affairs and in every other branch of his work. What skill is to the mechanic, what eloquence is to the orator, what taste is to the artist, what wisdom is to the statesman, that, and still more necessary, is a profound knowledge of the Scriptures to the minister. All experience proves this to be so. From the very nature of the case this must make him strong ; without it, he cannot but be weak as an ambassador of God. The testimony of all devoted and successful pastors establishes this truth beyond a question.

A few sentences from the pen of that great and good man, Dr. James W. Alexander, will serve as specimens of what is reiterated thousands of times by those who have had the ripest experience : "Constant perusal and re-perusal of Scripture is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not. This is one of the most observable differences between old and young theologians. Give attendance to reading." In another connection he says : "The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible without note or comment, and we frequently find them among men who have had no education better than that of the common school. It was this which gave such animation to the vivid books and discourses of the Puritans. As there is no poetry so rich and bold as that of the Bible, so he who daily makes this his study will, even on human principles, be awakened and acquire a striking manner of conveying his thoughts. The sacred books are full of fact, example and illustration, which, with copiousness and variety, will cluster around the truths which the man of God derives from the same source. One preacher gives us naked heads of theology ; they are true, scriptural and important, but they are uninteresting, especially when reiterated for the thousandth time in the same naked manner. Another gives us the same truths, but each of them brings in its train the retinue of scriptural example, history, a figure by way of illustration, and a variety hence arises which is perpetually becoming richer as the preacher goes more deeply into the mine of Scripture. There are some great preachers who, like Whitefield, do not appear to bestow great labor on the preparation of particular discourses, but it may be observed that these are always persons whose life is a study of the word. Each sermon is an outflowing from a fountain which is constantly full. The Bible is, after all, the one book of the preacher. He who is most familiar with it will become most like it, and this in respect to every one of its wonderful qualities, arid will bring forth from his treasury things new and old."

The minister who has laid hold, as a living fact, of this one thought of the pre-eminent importance of being deeply imbued both with the letter and the spirit of the word of God is already mighty for his work.

Look at the Bible. The pastor has to do with it at every point of his work. He must come to it in every thing he undertakes. He is nothing without it. It is all in all to him in his office. It is more to him than any than all other books that were ever penned. The Bible contains his credentials as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. It is the message which he is appointed to reiterate with all fervor to his fellow-men. It is the treasury from which he can ever draw the riches of divine truth. It is the Urim and Thummim to which he has constant access, and from which he can learn the mind of Jehovah with all clearness. It is the audience-chamber where he will be received into the presence of the Lord and hear words of more than earthly wisdom. It is the armory from which he can be clothed with the panoply of salvation. It is the sword of the Spirit before which no enemy can possibly stand. It is his book of instructions wherein the great duties of his office are clearly defined. The chief rules of his sacred art are here. There is nothing which it is essential for him to know but is revealed here either in express terms or in inferences which are easily studied out. It is a mine of sacred wealth for the clergyman, the abundance of which he can never exhaust. The deeper he goes, the richer and more unbounded will its treasures appear. Well was it said by Dr. W. E. Schenck : "That volume alone contains the warrant for the sacred office he bears. In it alone is found the record of his great commission as an ambassador of God. It alone authoritatively exhibits and defines the official duties he must perform. It alone tells him of the glorious rewards he may expect if he be found faithful. Nay, more, it contains the subject-matter for all his preaching and his other professional labors." It is a shame for a preacher not to be a master in the knowledge of the Book of books, which is everything to him.

It is well that we should strive to impress this great duty and privilege of the minister by the authority of eminent workers in the sacred office. Their experience and testimony should be deeply studied. " The study of the Bible is the special duty of every individual who would understand the truth of God and be prepared to make it known to others. Burnet, speaking of ministers in his own times, says, The capital error in men's preparing themselves for that function is that they study books more than themselves, and that they read divinity more in other books than in the Scriptures. This, it is to be feared, is as true now as it was then; and if so it must be attended, inevitably, with very injurious consequences both to the ministry and the Church. For as the Bible is the source of divine knowledge, so it is of spiritual strength, and every holy affection and purpose.

"Melanchthon recommended, as the first requisite in the study of theology, 'a familiarity with the text of the sacred Scriptures, and in order to this that they should be read daily, both morning and evening. The daily devotion of Luther to the sacred text is well known, and it was this that made him strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.'

"Dr. Campbell, in his treatise on systematic theology, says, Devoutly study the Scriptures themselves if you would understand their doctrines in singleness of heart. The only assistance which I would recommend are those writings in which there can be no tendency to warp your judgment. It is the serious and frequent reading of the divine oracles, accompanied with fervent prayer; it is the diligent study of the languages in which they were written ; it is the knowledge of those histories and antiquities to which they allude.

"President Edwards, as the result of his own experience, said, I find that it would be very much to my advantage to be thoroughly acquainted with the Scriptures. When I am reading doctrinal books or books of controversy, I can proceed with abundantly more confidence and can see upon what foundation I stand.

It has been truthfully said : "When scholars furnish themselves with stores of other writers, besides the Scriptures, and being little conversant in the Scriptures draw the Scriptures to the authors whom they most af-feet, and not their authors to the Scriptures, their divinity proves but humanity, and their ministry speaks to the brain, but not to the conscience, of the hearer. But he that digs all the treasures of his knowledge and the ground of all religion out of the Scriptures, and makes use of other authors, not for ostentation of himself, nor for the ground of his faith, nor for the principal ornament of his ministry, but for the better searching out of the deep wisdom of the Scriptures, such an one believes what he teaches, not by a human credulity from his author, but by a divine faith from the word. And because he believes therefore he speaks, and speaking from faith in his own heart, he speaks much more powerfully to the begetting and strengthening of faith in the hearer."