18
August 1873 A.D. Mr.
(Rev.) Gardiner Springs Dies—Presbyterian Pastor of Brick Presbyterian and
Author of Gardiner Resolutions & Splitting of Old School General Assembly.
Also Board Member of Princeton Theologial Seminary.
No
author. “The Gardiner Spring Resolutions.” PCA
Historical Center. N.d. http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html. Accessed 16 May 2014.
The
Gardiner Spring Resolutions|
After the
Adopting Act of 1729, the deliverance
known as the Gardiner Spring Resolutions of 1861 is arguably one of the most
significant actions ever taken in the history of the Presbyterian Church. In
essence, the resolutions required pastors and members of the Presbyterian
Church in the U.S.A. to swear political allegiance to the Federal Government
of the United States. By themselves the resolutions would have been
controversial enough, but their proposal and enactment came just at the start
of the Civil War. The effect of the resolutions was to split the Church north
and south. Moreover, it cast the Northern Church in the direction of
increasing political and social involvement while at the same time initiating
in the Southern Church a doctrinally based aversion to social and political
involvement that reigned for almost 100 years. Gardiner Spring was born in 1785, attended Berwick Academy in Maine and later graduated from Yale University in 1805. In 1806 he married Miss Susan Barney and moved to Bermuda where he worked as a teacher while studying law. By 1808 he left that teaching position to be admitted to the bar in Connecticut, but within a short time came to explore a call to ministry, attending Andover Seminary from 1809 - 1810. His first pastoral call was to the Brick Church of New York City in 1810 and his entire ministerial career of 63 years was served at this post. 18 August 1873 A.D. Rev. Gardiner Spring Passes—Author of Gardiner Resolutions Splitting Northern & Southern Presbyterian
Archivist. “August
18: Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D.” This Day in Presbyterian History. 17 Aug 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/08/august-18-rev-gardiner-spring-d-d-2/. Accessed 17 Aug 2014.
August 18: Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D.It Remains a Message for Our Time.
This day, August 18th, marks the death, in 1873, of the Rev. Gardiner
Spring. He was already 76 years old when he proposed his “Resolutions” at the General Assembly of the Old School
Presbyterian Church in 1861. Those were the Resolutions that split the
denomination North and South. But long before Spring achieved infamy with his
“Resolutions,” he had been, since 1810, the pastor of the Brick Church in New
York City. In fact, his entire ministerial career of 63 years was spent at
this one church.
Born in 1785, he was educated at Yale and for a short time practiced law
before entering Andover Theological Seminary to prepare for the ministry. A
powerful preacher, he became a prominent pastor in that City and in the
Church at large. Spring made great use of the press as an auxiliary to his
preaching of the gospel, and a number of his works remain in print to this
day. In 1816, Rev. Spring brought the following message on New Year’s Day, a
message having to do with the subject of the revivals of religion.
To read or download the entire message in PDF format, click here. (http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/Spring-1816-Done.pdf. )
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.
2 Chronicles
29:16-17:—
And the Priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify.
The passage just recited may give a direction to our thoughts. When
Hezekiah came to the throne Aof Judah, he found religion in a low and
languishing state. His father Ahaz was not only an idolatrous king, but
notorious for his impiety. The torrent of vice, irreligion, and idolatry, had
already swept away the ten tribes of Israel, and threatened to destroy Judah
and Benjamin. With this state of things, the heart of pious Hezekiah was deeply
affected. He could not bear to see the holy temple debased, and the idols of
the Gentiles exalted; and though but a youthful prince, he made a bold,
persevering, and successful attempt to effect a revival of the Jewish
religion. He destroyed the high places; cut down the groves; brake the graven
images; commanded the doors of the Lord’s house to be opened and repaired;
and exhorted the Priests and Levites to purify the temple; to restore the
morning and evening sacrifice; to reinstate the observation of the Passover;
and to withhold no exertion to promote a radical reformation in the
principles and habits of the people.
The humble child of God in this distant age of the world, will read the
account of the benevolent efforts of Hezekiah and his associates, with devout
admiration. As he looks back toward this illustrious period in the Jewish
history, his heart will beat high with hope. Success is not restricted to the
exertions of Hezekiah. A revival of religion is within our reach at the
commencement of the present year, as really as it was within his, twenty-five
hundred years ago. But to bring this subject more fully before you, I propose
to show,
What a revival of religion is;
The necessity of a revival among ourselves;
What ought to be done in attempting it;—and
The reasons why we may hope to succeed in the attempt.
I. What is a revival of religion?
We have never seen a general revival of the Christian interest in this
city. In two or three of our congregations, there have been some seasons of unusual
solemnity, which have from time to time resulted in very hopeful accessions
to the number of God’s professing people. But we have not been visited with
any general outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we talk about revivals of
religion without any definite meaning; and hence, many honest minds are
prejudiced against them. Some identify them with the illusions of a disturbed
fancy; while others give them a place among the most exceptionable
extravagancies, and the wildest expressions of enthusiasm. But we mean none
of these things when we speak of revivals of religion. It is no illusion—no
reverie—we present to your view; but those plain exhibitions of the power and
grace of God which commend themselves to the reason and conscience of every
impartial mind.
The showers of divine grace often begin like other showers, with here and
there a drop. The revival in the days of Hezekiah, arose from a very small
beginning. In the early states of a work of grace, God is usually pleased to
affect the hearts of some of His own people. Here and there, an individual
Christian is aroused from his stupor. The objects of faith begin to
predominate over the objects of sense and his languishing graces to be in
more lively and constant exercise. In the progress of the work, the
quickening power of grace pervades the church. Bowed down under a sense of
their own stupidity and the impending danger of sinners, the great body of
professing Christians are anxious and prayerful. In the mean time, the
influences of the Holy Spirit are extended to the world; and the conversion
of one or two, or a very small number, frequently proves the occasion of a
very general concern among a whole people.
Every thing now begins to put on a new face. Ministers are animated;
Christians are solemn; sinners are alarmed. The house of God is thronged with
anxious worshipers; opportunities for prayer and religious conference are
multiplied; breathless silence pervades every seat, and deep solemnity every
bosom. Not an eye wanders; not a heart is indifferent;—while eternal objects
are brought near, and eternal truth is seen in its wide connections, and felt
in its quickening and condemning power. The Lord is there. His stately
steppings are seen; His own almighty and invisible hand is felt; His Spirit
is passing from heart to heart, in His awakening, convincing, regenerating,
and sanctifying agency upon the souls of men.
Those who have been long careless and indifferent to the concerns of the
soul, are awakened to a sense of their sinfulness, their danger, and their
duty. Those who “have cast off fear and restrained prayer,” have become
anxious and prayerful. Those who have been “stout-hearted and far from
righteousness,” are subdued by the power of God, and brought nigh by the
blood of Christ.
The king of Zion takes away the heart of stone and gives the heart of
flesh. He causes “the
captive exile to hasten, that he may be loosed, lest he die in the pit and
his bread should fail.” He takes off the tattered garments of the
prodigal; clothes him with the best robe, and gives him a cordial welcome to
all the munificence of His grace. He brings those who have been long in
bondage out of the prison house; knocks off the chains that bind them down to
sin and death; bestows the immunities of sons and daughters, and receives
them into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
And is there any thing in all this so full of mystery, that it has no
claim to our confidence? Behold that thoughtless man! Year after year has
passed aaway, while he has been adding sin to sin, and heaping up wrath
against the day of wrath. But the Spirit of all grace suddenly arrests him in
his mad career. The conviction is fastened upon his conscience that he is a
sinner. Fallen by his iniquity, he views himself obnoxious to the wrath of an
offended God. He sees that he is under the dominion of a “carnal mind;” his
sins pass in awful review before him, and he is filled with keen distress and
anguish. He is sensible that every day is bringing him nearer to the world of
perdition, and he begins to ask, if there can be any hope for a wretch like
him? But, O! how his strength withers, how his hopes die! He is as helpless
as he is wretched, and as culpable as he is helpless. The “arrows of the
almighty stick fast within him, the poison whereof drinketh up his spirits.”
But behold him now! In the last extremity, as he is cut off from every
hope, the arm of sovereign mercy is made bare for his relief. The heart of
adamant melts; the will that has hitherto resisted the divine Spirit, and
rebelled against the divine sovereignty, is subdued; the lofty looks are
brought low; the selfish mind has become benevolent; the proud, humble, the
stubborn rebel, the meek child of God. Jesus tells the despairing sinner
where to find a beam of hope; the voice of the Son of God proclaims “forgiveness of sins according to the
riches of his grace;” the Angel of peace invites and sweetly
urges the soul, stained with pollution, to repair to the blood of sprinkling;
stung with the guilt of sin, to look up to Jesus for healing and life.
Is this an idle tale? Nay, believer, you have felt it all. And if there
is no mystery in this, why should it be thought incredible, that instances of
the same nature should be multiplied, and greatly multiplied in any given
period? If there are dispensations of grace above the ordinary operations of
the Spirit, they may exist in very different degrees at different times. And
if the immediate and special influences of the Holy Ghost are to be expected
in the edification of a single saint, or the conversion of a single sinner,
why may they not be expected in the edification and conversion of multitudes?
It is not above the reach of God’s power; nor beyond the limits of His
sovereignty. God can as easily send down a shower, as a single drop; He can as
easily convert two as one; three thousand as one hundred.
Now this is a revival of religion. We do not pretend to have traced the
features it uniformly bears, because it bears no uniform features. God is
sovereign. “The wind bloweth
where it listeth.” Still, wherever God is pleased to manifest His
power and grace, in enlarging the views, in enlivening and invigorating the
graces of His own people, and in turning the hears of considerable numbers of
His enemies, at the same time, to seek and secure His pardoning mercy, there
is a revival of religion. Read the rest of
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