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Written by James H. Smylie
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Wednesday, 23 October 2002 00:00 |
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In 1895, Henry Van Dyke, pastor of the Brick church, New York City, wrote The Story of the Other Wise Man, which is still in print and still a favorite at Christmastime. It is about a Persian, Artaban by name, who follows the Christ star. Because he stops on his pilgrimage to assist the needy, he misses meeting the three Magi in Bethlehem.
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Written by James H. Smylie
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Monday, 08 July 2002 12:00 |
 Peter Marshall, born just 100 years ago in Coatbridge, Scotland, shot across our American sky, a ministerial star of the 1940s and 1950s. With a technical and mining school education, Marshall docked at Ellis Island in 1927, and worked as a day laborer in the East and South until experiencing a call to minister. He enrolled in Columbia Seminary in 1928, graduated magna cum laude and was ordained in 1931. He had already made a name for himself during the Depression with a sermon, 'Singing in the Rain,' which he preached all over Georgia.
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Written by James H. Smylie
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Monday, 02 July 2001 12:00 |
The Library of Congress and Montpelier, Va., are holding 250th birthday celebrations this year for James Madison, fourth President of the United States. Although not as well-known as more deistic celebrities Washington and Jefferson, the Virginian deserves attention as the chief architect of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the new United States of America.
 Readers ought to take note of this occasion because of Madison's Presbyterian connections as pointed out in G. W. Sheldon's recent brief but suggestive book, The Political Philosophy of James Madison (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 2001).
Although short physically, Madison stood tall intellectually with a lifelong appetite for knowledge and wisdom. He was nurtured by his Anglican family and Presbyterian ministers Donald Robertson and John Witherspoon, Scottish Presbyterian transplants to the New World.
In 1763 at the age of 12, Madison began five years of study at Robertson's Virginia boarding school. His teacher introduced him to languages, the Bible, with a Calvinist twist probably from the Westminster Confession, Greek and Roman historians and philosophers, and more contemporary greats such as Locke and Montesquieu.
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Written by James H. Smylie
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Monday, 01 January 2001 12:00 |
Nobody really knows exactly what the Native American word 'Neshaminy' means. It was the name of a creek in Bucks County, Pa., after which William Tennent named a Presbyterian church in 1726. The congregation, now Neshaminy-Warwick, celebrates its 275th anniversary during this calendar year. All Presbyterians have been refreshed by these Neshaminy watering holes because of Tennent's concern for both the life of the mind and of the heart.
 Tennent -- a Scot, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh (1695) and an Anglican minister -- left Scotland for Ireland and the Anglican Church for the Presbyterian. In 1718 he and spouse, Catherine, daughter of a 'dissenting' minister, sailed with four young sons and their sister to the New World to gain greater 'liberty of conscience.'
He was received into the Synod of Philadelphia after renouncing his Anglican connections, accepting the Westminster Confession and catechisms and delivering an 'eloquent Latin oration,' impressing the body with his erudition. After a pastorate on Long Island, he settled in Bucks County, where he gathered a congregation beside Neshaminy Creek in the Pennsylvania wilderness. It is reported that he built an impressive church house of hewn stone.
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Written by James H. Smylie
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Monday, 01 January 2001 12:00 |
The PC(USA) General Assembly has declared July 2000-June 2001 the 'Year of the Child.' By a happy providence, this All Hallows Eve, Oct. 31, is also the 50th anniversary of the United Nation's International Children's Emergency Fund's 'Trick-or-Treat' program.
UNICEF was created by the world body in 1946 to assist children who had been neglected during World War II and its aftermath -- without regard to race, creed, nationality or political consideration.
This year UNICEF will honor Presbyterian minister Clyde Allison and his wife, Mary Emma, now retired in Lowell, Ind., for coming up with the idea to turn the day before All Saint's Day to a useful purpose. These Presbyterians still took seriously the admonition of Jesus: 'Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven' (RSV).
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