Library of
Emory University
56229
MEMOIR
REY. ISAAC ANDERSON, DD„
LATE PRESIDENT OF MARYVILLE COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF
DIDACTIC THEOLOGY.
BY
KEY. JOHN J. ROBINSON.
"THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL SHINE AS THE STARS FOR EVER
AND EVER."
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR,
BY J. ADDISON EAYL,
KNOXVJLLE, TENN.
1860.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
J. ADDISON RAYL,
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, for the
District of East Tennessee.
PREFACE.
Christian Biography has always held a promi¬
nent place in the religious literature of every age.
To such a place its value and importance justly en¬
title it. In some respects, indeed, it possesses many
advantages over mere didactic writing—whether on
the subject of doctrinal truth or of practical piety—
which have always been understood and appreciated.
Hence we find the Bible abounding in biographical
sketches, which are so drawn out and interwoven
with the history of the times as to illustrate many
of the great truths of Revelation and impress them
more forcibly on the mind and heart. What mere
formal statement could so clearly announce and set
forth the doctrine of a special Providence as the
Scripture narrative of Joseph, or the life of Jacob ?
And how impressively, in the life of Moses, are the
power, wisdom, forbearance, and truth of Jehovah
set forth! To preserve, then, the record of the
lives of men distinguished for their usefulness and
piety is a sacred duty; for, apart from considera-
iv
PREFACE.
tions of a mere local character, such a life stimulates
and encourages all who are endeavoring to do good,
and sometimes wakes up the dormant energies of a
great soul that otherwise might have slept on
through life. The reading of a Christian biogra¬
phy proved to be the starting-point in the long, and,
if not brilliant, yet useful and honored career of
him whose memoir is attempted in the following
pages. May similar results attend the reading of
this unpretending volume! The life of Dr. Ander¬
son can but prove interesting to all who have sat at
his feet as their theological instructor, or who have
attended his ministry, as their religious teacher and
pastor.
The author would fain hope that it will prove in¬
teresting and profitable to others also, and that the
• reading of this memoir will kindle the zeal of many
young men who shall be stimulated and aroused to
"go and do likewise."
I here take occasion to state that the first five
chapters are made up from facts received directly
from Dr. Anderson himself. I took down and have
here preserved, as far as possible, the very words of
his narrative respecting his early life; his choice of
a profession; his missionary labors; and much of
the early history of the Institution.
PREFACE.
V
To those friends who have kindly furnished me
with his letters I here tender my thanks. I have
used them freely, hut only so far as I thought con¬
sistent with the peculiar nature of a private corre¬
spondence. In all the extracts I have made, I have
kept constantly before me the question, "Would he
approve this publicity?"
The work of preparing this memoir has been a
work of labor, but yet a work of love. After much
unavoidable delay, it is now sent forth with the
earnest prayer that God would use it to the pro¬
motion of his own glory.
1*
INTRODUCTION.
One hundred years ago, the region of country now
embraced within the limits of East Tennessee was an
unbroken wilderness. The earliest traders and hunters
who explored the country found neither wigwam, nor
village, nor any sign that ever human foot had trod the
virgin soil, save indeed that here and there were the
occasional camping-places of Indians, and through the
midst of it ran the great war trace or path along which
the northern and southern Indian tribes passed on their
warlike expeditions. Ten years later, and the tide of
emigration and civilization continuing to flow on west-
wardly, the Indians were forced to retreat before it and
seek an asylum and a home in the dark forests, and in
the lovely valleys, and along the beautiful streams of the
land which they already claimed, and had hitherto used
only as their own beautiful hunting grounds. A few
years later still, and the hardy pioneers from North Caro¬
lina, and Virginia, and Pennsylvania, built their houses,
forted and stockaded, on the banks of the Wautauga.
The red man could not yield without a struggle; the
curling smoke from the white man's cabin only stirred
viii
INTRODUCTION.
within him the dark, sullen, relentless spirit of revenge—
and revenge he had, cruel, merciless, devilish. But still
onward advanced the march of civilization, and before
it still the Indian retreated, until at length the germ was
safely planted of a great and glorious State. By-and-
by came the man of God, seeking the sheep in the
wilderness, preaching the gospel of peace, building the
school-house and the church, and taking an active part
in the establishment of a new commonwealth—Tidence
Lane, Charles Cummings, Samuel Doak—these, we be¬
lieve, were the pioneer preachers of Tennessee. In
1788, when Gideon Blackburn, then a young man, came
to Tennessee, there were but three Presbyterian minis¬
ters in the State. As far as we have been able to ascer¬
tain the names of these ministers, they were Samuel
Doak, Hezekiah Balch, and Samuel Houston. The lat¬
ter afterwards returned to Virginia. The first mentioned
was a native of Pennsylvania, but reared in Augusta
County, Virginia. His early education was superin¬
tended by Rev. William Graham, of Rockbridge County,
from whose academy he went to New Jersey College,
Princeton, then under the Presidency of Witherspoon.
He removed to Tennessee somewhere about 1776-9, and
soon entered on that career of usefulness which identifies
his name so intimately with the early literary and re¬
ligious institutions in the State. To him belongs the
honorable distinction of having founded the first institu¬
tion of learning in the Western country. As early as
INTRODUCTION.
ix
It85, an act of the Legislature of Franklin (now Ten¬
nessee) was passed, incorporating Martin Academy, of
which Dr. Doak was the founder.
Actuated by the same motives, imbued with the same
spirit, like the founder of the log college, the Blairs,
and Finley, and Graham, the pioneers of the Western
Church, addressed themselves to the hopeful and every
way useful and important work of educating youth, and
so laying deep the foundations of a new commonwealth
in the knowledge, virtue, and piety of the rising genera¬
tion. Hard by the sanctuary, they placed the school-
house, the academy, the college. Hence we find that
the first college incorporated by the Legislature of Ten¬
nessee, August 29, 1794, had for its president a Pres¬
byterian minister, the Rev. Hezekiah Balch, on whose
farm the institution was located. This was Greenville
College, of which the late Dr. Charles Coffin was for
many years president. At the same session of the Leg¬
islature, a second literary institution was incorporated
September 10, 1794, under the name and style of Blount
College, (now East Tennessee University,) located at
Knoxville; and here again we find a Presbyterian min¬
ister at the head of it—Rev. Samuel Carrick. At the
next meeting of the Legislature (1795) a new charter
was granted to Martin Academy, and under the act of
incorporation it took the name of Washington College,
Rev. Samuel Doak continuing its president. From
these and other schools of classical learning, not incor-
X
INTRODUCTION.
porated, but under the charge of Presbyterian ministers,
there went forth hundreds of young men who have
adorned the bar, and the bench, and the pulpit, and in
the humble walks of life have been useful and exem¬
plary. Nor did these ministers of whom we have
spoken confine their labors to the school-room or the
particular congregations to which they regularly minis¬
tered. They "went everywhere preaching the Word,"
in season and out of season, in the school-house, in the
private dwelling, in the shady grove; they were men who
could "endure hardness;" they preached the Gospel, for
the most part, at their own charges, and, like Paul,
could say, "these hands have ministered to my necessi¬
ties."
In those times there were no houses of worship,
except the rude building of logs, which was used for a
school-house through the week and served the purpose
of a sanctuary on the Sabbath. When, therefore, large
congregations assembled at the stated sacramental meet¬
ings, spring and fall, the grove was their sanctuary, the
preacher's sounding-board the blue sky, and the pulpit
the stump of a fallen tree, or a rude platform of logs
and boards. On these occasions, hundreds and even
thousands were wont to assemble, and the grand old
woods resounded, for days together, with the voice of
prayer and the notes of praise. These were truly primi¬
tive times, and dangerous too, for the red man still
prowled through the land, and neither the sacredness of
INTRODUCTION.
xi
the Sabbath nor the solemnity and reverence of the
white man's worship could quell within him the fell
spirit of revenge. " I have worshiped there," said
Dr. Blackburn, "when I had to carry my gun with the
rest of the men, and, placing it at the root of a tree,
have stood by it and preached."
But God greatly blessed their labors. There were
wonderful displays of divine grace under the preaching
of these truly apostolic men. "I preached in one
place," said one of these pioneers, "where there was not
a single professor of religion ; and in one year, though
they had only occasional preaching, there was a church
of one hundred and fifteen members."
On a pleasant day in the month of October, 1801, a
family of emigrants, consisting of the parents and seven
children, five sons and two daughters, slowly wended
their way into the Grassy Yalley, Knox County, Tenn.
Many days before, they had loaded their wagons with
whatever of household goods they could conveniently
take or ill spare, and, gathering a few of their best cat¬
tle, turned their backs on the old home in Bockbridge
County, Yirginia. They had come to seek a new home
in the West, where land was cheaper and fresher. One
of the sons (the first-born) had consecrated himself to
the Lord for the work of the ministry, and had com¬
menced his theological studies. But he chose to accom¬
pany the family to Tennessee and there complete his
preparation for the ministry. The hand of God was
xii
introduction.
guiding and controlling his movements in subserviency to
the divine purpose; the same wisdom and providence
which directed the father to seek a home in the West, in
Tennessee, in Knox County, and at the time too iu
which he did, brought thither the son also, for he was a
chosen vessel and God had a great work for him to do.
That work he successfully accomplished; for to him,
more than to any other man living or dead, is the Con¬
stitutional Presbyterian Church indebted for the growth,
extension, and stability which it now enjoys in East
Tennessee and in many portions of the South and West.
That young man was Isaac Anderson.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface 3
Introduction 7
CHAPTER I.
Ancestry—Early education—Studious habits—Liberty Hall
Academy 17
CHAPTER II.
Early religious experience—His grandmother's instructions
—Spiritual conflicts—Strong conviction of sin—Gropes
his way in the dark—Finds peace in humble submission
to God at the foot of the Cross—Makes public profession
of his faith 24
CHAPTER III.
Considers the question of a profession—Strongly inclines
to the profession of law—Is drawn and held by an unseen
hand to the claims of the Gospel ministry— Studies
divinity with Rev. Mr. Carrick—Interview with Rev. Dr.
Gideon Blackburn—Examined and licensed by Union
Presbytery 32
2
xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
Call to Washington Church—Missionary labors—Anecdote
of the Dutchman — Call to New Providence Church —
Characteristic letter to Lebanon Church — Removes to
Maryville 40
CHAPTER" V.
Efforts to increase the number of Presbyterian ministers in
East Tennessee—Goes to General Assembly at Philadel¬
phia— Visits the Theological Seminary at Princeton —
Returns home impressed with the necessity of doing
something to educate ministers at home—First class of
students—His discouragements, faith, and success—Lo¬
cation of Southern and Western Theological Seminary—
Struggle in the Synod—Triumph of his measure—Inau¬
gurated Professor of Didactic Theology—Persecution—
Valde Timidus—Letters—The absorbing desire of his
lite 51
CHAPTER VI.
A teacher for more than half a century—Ex-Governor Rey¬
nolds's testimony — His diligence — His multiplied labors
as an instructor of youth—His method of teaching—The
affection of his pupils 105
CHAPTER VII.
Qualifications as a pastor—Respect and love of his people
—Catechising—Sunday-schools—Seals of his ministry—
The "anxious seat" Ill
CHAPTER VIII.
Zeal and ability as a preacher—Impressive—Plain—Evan¬
gelical—Extemporaneous—Bold—Instructive—Indoctrin¬
ation of his people—The Wine Question 122
CONTENTS.
XV
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
His ecclesiastical relations—Decided course in reference to
the Exscinding Acts—Letters to brethren—Attendance on
meetings of Presbytery and Synod 134
CHAPTER X.
His benevolent spirit — The "one great idea" — "Ruling
passion strong in death"—"Distinguished benefactor of
man"—His artless simplicity—Anecdote—His modesty—
Entry in memorandum-book—"Charity seeketh not her
own"—Intercourse with the Indians—Their perfect con¬
fidence in him—The young lawyer's recommendation—
His interest in the development of the mineral resources
of the country—His love illustrated—His treatment of an
insult 146
CHAPTER XI.
Marriage—Mrs. A.'s character — A "help-meet" indeed —
Her illness—Death—His resignation to the Divine Will—
Extracts from letters 160
CHAPTER XII.
His children—Only one reaches maturity—All the wealth
of his affections lavished on his son — Advice on the
choice of a profession—All his hopes blasted—His son's
sickness and death—Extracts from letters—His submis¬
sion—His fond devotion to his grandchildren 167
CHAPTER XIII.
Interest in political questions—No partisan—amorpatrise—
Patriotic sermon on Fast Day — Love of the Union —
Extract from letter 178
xvi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
Personal appearance—Commanding presence—Eloquence—
Health—Iron constitution—Appearance in the pulpit—
Infirmities of age—Sudden shock to nervous system —
Anecdote—Painful evidence of failing in mind and body
—Last Sunday—Remarkable coincidence—House burnt
—Books and papers destroyed—His patient submission—
Removes to Rockford—His death—Monument 183
CHAPTER XV.
Hopkinsianism—Was Dr. A. a Hopkinsian?—Statement of
his theological views 194
CHAPTER XVI.
Conclusion 262
APPENDIX.
A. Calculations from prophecy respecting the Millennium .. 267
B. Fast-day sermon 270
C. Covenant of Redemption 293
MEMOIR
OP
BEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
CHAPTER I.
" SUE SAW HIM THAT HE WAS A GOODLY CHILD."
He was born March 26, 1780, in Kock-
bridge County, Virginia, ten or twelve miles
from Lexington. He was of Scotch-Irish de¬
scent. His ancestors emigrated from County
Down, Ireland, at an early period—his pater¬
nal grandfather in 1726, his maternal grand¬
father twenty or more years later. His great¬
grandfather and great-grandmother were both
at the siege of Derry. His father, William
Anderson, was an industrious, pious man,
cultivating his farm with diligence and afford¬
ing his children every facility within his reach
for procuring an education. He had five sons
and two daughters: Margaret, the youngest,
3
18
MEMOIR OF
who married William McCampbell, brother of
the late Rev. Dr. John McCampbell, of Jeffer¬
son Co.; Robert, a lawyer, and judge of cir¬
cuit court in East Tennessee; Mary, who mar¬
ried Bennet McCampbell, and resides in Knox
County; William E., a lawyer, and judge of
circuit court; Samuel, a lawyer, and also judge
of circuit court; James, and Isaac (the first¬
born) the theologian, preacher, and pastor.
At a very early age it was his delight to
visit the district school, situated about a mile
from his father's dwelling. The larger boys.
were very fond of him—attracted by his kind
and gentle behavior, no less than by the
sparkling intellect which flashed in his eye
and lighted up his face. He was often borne
on their backs to the school-room. There the
opening exercise of prayer attracted his no¬
tice and made a very strong impression upon
his infant mind and heart. For although he
had heard the minister pray at the church
on the Sabbath, and had heard his father
pray as the family gathered morning and
evening around the family altar, yet it was
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 19
something very wonderful, in his childish
view, that the schoolmaster should pray, in
that little log-house.
The first school he attended as a regular
scholar, was what is called a "subscription
school," taught by a Scotch master, whose
government and discipline were as strict as
his teaching was exact and thorough. Here
he acquired an excellent common-school edu¬
cation, the foundation of which had been laid
at home by his grandmother, of whom we
shall have occasion to say something by-and-
by. It may be mentioned here, however, as
evidence of his early promise, that he had so
far mastered the rudiments of the Latin lan¬
guage as to be able to read any of the less
difficult Latin authors at seven years of age.
Thus early did he give evidence of those
mental endowments, that love of study, that
spirit of earnest inquiry, that desire of knowl¬
edge, and that kind, loving temper, which, in
the mature development of his riper years,
distinguished him in all the relations of his
social and public life.
20
MEMOIR OE
When about fifteen or sixteen years of age
he entered Liberty Hall Academy, a classical
school, taught by Rev. William Graham, a
" most indefatigable and successful teacher of
youth." This institution was located within
a mile of Lexington, on the road leading from
that place to the Warm Springs. It was in¬
corporated early in the present century, and
is now known as Washington College—deriv¬
ing its name from the fact that General Wash¬
ington bequeathed a handsome legacy for its
endowment. It was in this institution, while
yet Liberty Hall Academy, that Dr. Archibald
Alexander, Dr. Baxter, of Virginia, Rev. John
Holt Rice, Dr. Conrad Speece laid the founda¬
tion of that reputation for learning and piety
which has given eminence to their names.
Here, also, the subject of this memoir pur¬
sued his classical studies with faithfulness,
diligence, and success. Strictly speaking, he
never was a member of college; but, as one
has well said of him, "he was a student out
of college." He was always a student, in the
best and strictest sense of the word; even
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 21
when the infirmities of age pressed upon him,
and the exhausting toils and labors of half a
century had worn his life almost away, he
still continued to study. Nor was he a mere
reader of books, skimming over the surface,
glancing at the contents, hurrying to the
finis. He studied them, sounded their depths,
if depths there were; extracted what was
good and true, rejected the bad and the false,
making the former his own by wholesome
meditation and inward digestion.
"Dr. Anderson was an indefatigable student
from the time of my first acquaintance with
him, which was about the year 1812. The
first opinion I formed of his constitution was,
that it was delicate and not likely to be capa¬
ble of much endurance. This opinion I pre¬
dicated on his complexion, which was, at
that time especially, quite sallow. . But I had
afterwards abundant reason to change my
opinion. His power of endurance as a stu¬
dent was certainly of a most extraordinary
character. Most men, after having spent the
whole day in exhausting labor, need the re-
3*
22
MEMOIR OF
laxation and refreshment of sleep during the
night; most men, after having taxed their
powers of body and mind in performing the
duties of the Sabbath, feel that their whole
frame, physical and mental, is in too great a
state of unrest to enter the school-room on Mon¬
day morning and again assume its drudgery.
Who could expect to pass half a century in
this course of unremitting labor and he a dili¬
gent student all the time?" This is the testi¬
mony of one who knew Dr. A.'s daily life,
and was well acquainted with his studious
habits. In the light of these facts, it may be
observed here as well as elsewhere, we dis¬
cover the true secret of his ability to sustain
himself as a preacher and teacher. He did
not rely on his natural gifts, although he
was highly endowed intellectually; he did
not rely upon some indefinable inflatus of the
Spirit to teach him what to say, but he ap¬
plied the powers of his mind closely to the
subjects concerning which he taught the peo¬
ple from the pulpit and the young men who
sat at his feet.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 23
After completing his studies at Liberty
Hall Academy, he returned home, and, until
the question of a profession was decided, em¬
ployed himself in reading history and the
lighter literature of the day.
24
memoir, of
CHAPTER II.
" THE UNFEIGNED FAITH WHICH IS IN THEE, WHICH DWELT FIRST
IN THY GRANDMOTHER LOIS AND THY MOTHER EUNICE."
When quite a child he was the subject
of deep religious impressions. His maternal
grandmother, who resided in his father's fam¬
ily, manifested great interest in her grand¬
child, and watched over him with a mother's
love and care. She it was who taught him
to spell and read, to fear and love God, and
to pray. It was her constant aim to impress
his mind with a sense of his obligations and
duties to God and man. It is not wonderful,
therefore, that one of his thoughtful habits
should be led to serious reflection and prayer,
under the prayerful instructions of this truly
godly woman. Without excitement or out¬
side pressure of any sort, the truth, as he had
learned it at his grandmother's knee, accom¬
panied by the spirit of God, began to have its
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
25
effect. While Christians around him were
cold and lifeless, the Great Head of the church
was preparing him as a chosen vessel for his
future service; and he who was afterwards to
he called on to guide perplexed and tempted
souls, was himself made to pass through sea¬
sons of deep perplexity and strong temptation.
He would often reason thus with himself: "I
have no holiness of heart, or of life, but I
must be holy; God requires it of me—'Be ye
holy, even as I am holyGod's claims cannot
he put off; I feel my obligations, but how to
meet them; I know my duty, but how to per¬
form it; I know my sinfulness and guiltiness,
but how to he holy—' hie labor, hoc opus est.'"
At such times it was his custom to retire for
prayer. Preferring the quiet and seclusion of
the grove, he resorted thither, to the trunk of
some fallen tree, and there he would " say his
prayers." But while engaged in this exercise,
thoughts of all the folly and mischief of which
he had ever been guilty would come rushing
into his mind and completely destroy every¬
thing like the expected satisfaction and enjoy-
26
MEMOIR OE
ment in prayer. To use his own language,
"it spoiled my prayers."
One Sabbath morning be retired as usual to
pray. During the whole exercise he was un¬
disturbed by thoughts of his wickedness and
sin, and thanked God that he had been able
to pray without once thinking of the sins of
the week. Returning to his room from the
grove, he read a chapter on prayer, by Dr.
Watts, in which he says: "We must confess
all our sins; not sin in general, but the very
sins we have committed." This convicted
him of increased guilt, for this was just the
contrary of what he had done that morning.
He closed the hook, sat in his chair, and con¬
fessed freely and frankly all his sins. This
only aggravated his case, for now his sins
seemed to stare him in the face and burden
his conscience with a weight which crushed
him to the earth. One ever-present feeling
now took possession of his heart: "I am not
a new creature: oh! I am.the chief of sin¬
ners."
Under the power of this solemn and har-
KEY. ISAAC ANDEKSON, D.D.
27
assing conviction, he would reason with him¬
self in the following manner: "I am not a
new creature—hut some persons are. Some
have been converted—some have found par¬
don and peace, why may not I?" Occasionally
he would make the effort to " get religion," as
the saying is; but instead of becoming better
he only grew the worse: the more he strug¬
gled to make himself good, the deeper he be¬
came convinced that " he had the worst heart
in the world"—"anybody can become a new
creature sooner than I." Groping his way in
the dark, concealing the exercises of his heart,
uninstructed in those practical things which
the inquiring sinner so needs and so longs to
know, in order that he may find pardon and
peace, he at length found the way of life and
that relief for which his weary soul thirsted.
He had often reasoned with himself thus:
"The same power which has made others
'new creatures in Christ Jesus,' can make me
a new creature. God is able and willing now
as ever, to save me as to save others." Under
the full influence of this reasoning, he went
28
MEMOIR OE
one day into the grove to pray. Kneeling
down near a small sapling, he confessed his
sins—poured into the ear of God the tale of
all his woe. While confessing his sins, he felt
that he was growing worse and worse—his
sins were becoming more and more aggravated
—his heart was beginning to despair—"noth¬
ing but almighty power can save me." In
the dust lay his soul, trembling, almost de¬
spairing, and yet feeling after God, if haply
he might find Him who giveth grace unto the
lowly, and who will cast out none who come
to him. Suddenly the thought came rushing
into his mind—"If alipighty power is neces¬
sary to save you, God has almighty power,
and he is as willing as he is able." Imme¬
diately he was convulsed with the intensest
emotions. His feelings, his convictions, his
fears, his dawning hopes, mingling together
in the tumult of his soul, overpowered and
bewildered him, so that when he came to him¬
self, he was crying out, " Here, Lord, Lord!
make my heart holy!" He rose from his
knees and walked to and fro in the grove in
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 29
the enjoyment of a peace that passeth all un¬
derstanding, and a joy which is unspeakable
and full of glory. In this happy, delightful
frame of mind he continued about a week.
At the end of that period the tempter as¬
sailed him with fresh temptations. In order
to harass and trouble him, he insinuated the
thought into his mind: "Ah, yes! you re¬
sisted God so long that he only sent you these
happy feelings that you might be deluded
and go on to destruction." This brought him
to his knees. He tried to pray, but his prayers
were nothing but empty forms—"a chattering
noise," to use his own words. He was in de¬
spair. At length it occurred to him that,
perhaps, if he were to go again to the place
where he first found relief, he might be deliv¬
ered from the fiery temptation. He sought
again, therefore, the little tree in the grove,
and there, on his knees, he threw himself at
the foot of the cross, submitted his heart
anew to God, and arose refreshed and peaceful.
For several months his experience alternated
between hope and fear—now he believed and
4
30
memoir of
was happy—anon his doubts overwhelmed
him and he was in despair. And thus he strug¬
gled on and upward in the divine life. If he
had disclosed his state of mind to his friends,
he might have received instruction and en¬
couragement, and so have been spared much
of the anxiety and distress which afflicted him
in his soul-struggles, in his feeling after God,
in his sore temptations and harassing doubts.
But the church was in a state of spiritual de¬
clension—little attention was given to spir¬
itual things beyond the mere formalities of
family and public worship. A "dead ortho¬
doxy" was more highly valued than a living
piety. The practical truths of religion were
not the themes of Sabbath instruction, or
topics of conversation at the fireside. Still
we can see the wisdom of the Providence
which left this young disciple to struggle
alone with his doubts and fears, which com¬
pelled him to search his own heart and try it
by the Word of God. It was but the disci¬
pline which was to fit him for the work which
the Great Head of the church intended him
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 31
to do. It was here, in this fiery experience,
amid these mighty struggles, that he acquired
that consummate skill in directing the in¬
quirer into the way of salvation, in resolving
the doubts and banishing the fears of the
timid and distrustful, for which he was dis¬
tinguished in after-life.
He made a public profession of his faith
by uniting with the Presbyterian Church, in
Rockbridge County, under the care of Rev.
Samuel Brown. This, however, was several
years after he indulged the hope that he was
a new creature in Christ Jesus, and, as well as
the writer could ascertain, was in 1797, when
he was in his eighteenth year.
32
memoir oe
CHAPTER III.
" HERE AM I, SEND ME."
We approach, now a period which, whether
we consider the struggle through which he
passed, or the conviction of duty which he
reached, is one of the most eventful of his
life. For many years he had felt that he
would become a preacher of the gospel. Now
that he had publicly confessed Christ, the
claims of the ministry pressed upon him and
stirred his soul to its lowest depths, as possi¬
bly no other question ever did in all his life.
He attempted to evade it, reason it away, or
procrastinate the decision of it. He would
say to himself: "I have neither religion nor
sense enough—I am not half such a man as
I ought to be. I cannot think of assuming
the functions of an office so sacred, so respon¬
sible." For two years this subject occupied
his thoughts. He felt that God was calling
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 33
him to the ministry, but shrunk from entering
it until satisfied he could do so from proper
motives. To his sensitive nature, quickened, if
possible, by the action of a tender conscience,
nothing was so revolting as the idea of seek¬
ing the sacred office from any other than the
purest, most unselfish, and honorable motives.
Hence he often subjected his motives, in de¬
siring "the office of a bishop," to the most
rigid scrutiny. "Am I actuated by a desire
to promote the glory of God by laboring for
the salvation of men? Or, do I seek mere
worldly distinction—a place of honor and of
ease?" These were the tests by which he
tried his spirit and motives. He had a cousin,
a classmate at Liberty Hall, and a pious man,
who studied law. This friend endeavored to
persuade him to study law also, employing
the very plausible argument, that he could
serve God as a lawyer as well as in the
ministry. This argument was furthermore
strengthened by the fact that his cousin was
a man of prayer, and kept the Sabbath holy.
Pious, conscientious lawyers, too, were greatly
4*
34
MEMOIR OF
needed—why could he not glorify God in
that way as well as in the ministry? He
would say to himself: "I must be moved in
view of the glory of God—I can glorify God
as a Christian lawyer—why not study law?"
Sometimes he would almost become reconciled
to be a lawyer, and once had made up his
mind to enter the office of his uncle; but
when the . time came to commence his studies,
he could not go. He was not satisfied. The
conflict was not ended. An unseen hand,
stronger than the attractions of the law—
mightier than the arguments and persuasion
of his cousin—more potent even than the de¬
ductions of his own logic, was controlling all
his movements, and leading him on to such
decisions with regard to duty as fully satis¬
fied him, and from which he never swerved.
Deeply pondering the important question, he
felt reconciled to study law, provided his mo¬
tive was to glorify God. This aspect of the
subject occupied his thoughts for several
weeks. At length he felt that he could study
law with this great motive as the main-spring
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 35
of all his actions. But just here the thought
presented itself: " If you can study law with
the desire to glorify God, as the supreme, con¬
trolling motive, this is all God requires in any
one who seeks the ministry—this is all that
is necessary to preach the gospel." Here he
rested. In this thought he found peace. He
decided to study for the ministry.
Thus ended a struggle, protracted through
a period of two years—a struggle which, in
one less conscientious, less influenced by a
sense of duty, less mindful of that which con¬
stitutes man's chief end, "to glorify God,"
might have been terminated sooner. But
with him the question of a profession was not
a question of convenience, of ambition, of
family pride, of pecuniary emolument, or of
worldly fame, but of principle, of real useful¬
ness, of capacity and desire to promote the
glory of God. Having, therefore, settled the
question satisfactorily, having determined to
devote himself, his life, his all, to the great
work of preaching the gospel, he conferred
not with flesh and blood, but applied at once
36
MEMOIR OF
to be taken under the care of Lexington
Presbytery as a "probationer to preach the
gospel." He thereupon commenced the study
of divinity with his pastor, Rev. Samuel
Brown, a divine whose solid learning, severe
logic, and metaphysical tastes gained for him
the title of the "Edwards of Virginia." About
this time his father removed with his family
to Knox County, Tennessee, and settled in
Grassy Valley, a few miles north of Knoxville.
Consequently, he transferred his connection
with Lexington Presbytery to the Presbytery
of Union—at that time composed of the follow¬
ing ministers: Rev. Messrs. Carrick, Gideon
Blackburn, Henderson, and Ramsay. He pur¬
sued his studies under the direction of Rev.
Samuel Carrick, an excellent and able man?
and withal a severe critic. The preceptor,
however, found in his pupil an overmatch for
him on some controverted points of divinity,
and he was not unwilling to hand the young
heretic over to Dr. Gideon Blackburn, who at
that time had charge of the church at Mary-
ville. Dr. B. invited him to his house at the
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
37
suggestion of Mr. Carrick, but without the
knowledge, on the part of his pupil, of the con¬
certed plan between Dr. B. and Mr. C. Dr. B.
adopted a sort of ruse, in order to catch him
and convince him of his error. He excused
himself, when the young theologian came to
see him, saying that he was just then very
much engaged with some business which re¬
quired his attention out of doors. But, as he
left the room, he asked, in a sort of half-care¬
less manner, "Isn't this and that true?" men¬
tioning some fundamental point in theology.
The answer was yes. By-and-by, Dr. B.
again entered the room, and, mentioning some
other point of doctrine, asked, "Is not this
true?" But without waiting for a reply, he
passed out of the room. In this way the after¬
noon passed away, and the young man was
left pretty much to his own reflections. After
tea the family gathered for evening worship,
at the close of which Dr. B. said, "Come with
me," and led the way to his study. They sat
up till midnight, discussing the doctrines of
what was then called New Divinity—at that
38
MEMOIR OP
time engaging the attention, and eliciting
heated controversy among the Presbyterian
ministers of East Tennessee. "At the close
of the interview," says Dr. Anderson, " I felt
that my head was as empty as a barrel, and
that my whole system of theology, which I
thought was firm and immovable, was com¬
pletely overthrown and demolished." For
weeks afterwards, his mind was busy with
the views of truth which he had received
from Dr. Blackburn. His thoughts were en¬
grossed with the peculiarities of the system
which now, for the first time, had challenged
his investigation. He felt that his own sys¬
tem of doctrine had been battered down, and
still he could not altogether assent to that
which was proposed to be substituted in its
place. At length, while riding along the
highway, profoundly meditating on those sub¬
jects which now engrossed all his thoughts,
the whole system of theology, as presented to
his mind by Dr. Blackburn, flashed upon him
almost in a moment, and he saw clearly that
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D D.
39
he had been all wrong before, and that Dr. B.
was right.
At the spring meeting of the Presbytery of
Union, April, 1802, after sustaining a satis¬
factory examination, and presenting the usual
" parts of trial," he was licensed to preach the
gospel.
40
memoir of
CHAPTER IV.
"always abounding in tiie work of the lord."
Soon after his licensure, he received and
accepted a call to Washington Church, in
Knox County, now, and for many years past,
under the pastoral care of Rev. Gideon S.
White. At the meeting of the Presbytery in
the fall of 1802, he was ordained and in¬
stalled pastor of that church. Here he la¬
bored nine years, deriving his worldly sup¬
port, for the most part, from his school and
farm. During the summer previous to his
installation, he had traveled through the
wild, mountainous portion of East Tennessee
included in the counties of Claiborne, Ander¬
son, Morgan, Fentress, Roane, etc. etc., and
preached as he had opportunity; sowing the
seed by the wayside, and calling on men
everywhere to repent. The moral destitu¬
tions which everywhere met his eye filled
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 41
him with compassion for the multitudes who
were as sheep having no shepherd. About
the time of his ordination, or soon after, the
Life of Whitefield fell into his hands. With
great avidity he devoured the contents of that
hook; and while he read and mused, the fire
burned. The apostolic zeal and unparalleled
success of that wonderful preacher so wrought
upon his mind and heart, that he resolved to
extend the sphere of his own labors, and to
carry, as regularly and frequently as he could,
the blessings of the gospel to the destitute
portions of the country, within his reach.
For this purpose he described a circuit of
about one hundred and fifty miles, around
which he traveled once a month for several
years. Leaving home on Monday morning,
he preached at the house of a friend, some ten
miles distant. The next day he gathered the
Dutch settlers on Clinch, and preached to
them the word of life; the next day he
preached near Clinton; the next day at a
point on Poplar Creek; the next day, which
was Saturday, on Beaver Creek; and so re-
5
42
MEMOIR OE
turned home ready for the service of the
Sabbath in his own church.
We have often heard Dr. Anderson recite
the following story, which, while it reveals the
rude, uncultivated manners of the people, as
well as the painful destitution of the means
of grace in the region of country through
which he traveled and preached, is illustra¬
tive also of the self-denying endurance, the
earnest zeal, the deep compassion of the mis¬
sionary himself.
He had an appointment to preach in a
neighborhood which he had never visited, and
where he was an entire stranger. As he ap¬
proached the house where he was to preach,
the woods " appeared alive with men, women,
and children, horses and mules." " The ends
of the earth seemed to have come together."
His quick eye, however, detected, in the midst
of the vast crowd about the door, one of the
largest men he had ever seen—a strong, sav¬
age-looking man, of herculean dimensions,
and withal a Dutchman, by name, Mosier.
As he caught a view of this son of Anak, he
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 43
said to himself, " If you are a good man, well;
if not, woe be to this community!" Unintimi-
dated by the savage bearing and uncouth pres¬
ence of his audience, he preached to them
"boldly, in the name of the Lord Jesus,"
After the service, Mosier approached and ac¬
costed him, " I wish, to pe sure, you'd breach
in my neighborhood."
"Haveyou a house to preach in?"
"No; but I puild you von house."
The appointment to preach in the Dutch¬
man's neighborhood was made, and on the set
day the preacher came. True to his promise,
Mosier had erected a house of worship—of
logs, of course. The interior accommodations
of seats and pulpit were also of poles from
the banks of the Clinch. A large and motley
crowd awaited the preacher's coming; and
although it was the Sabbath, the men had
brought with them their guns and shot-
pouches. The preacher passed into the house
and ascended the pulpit—the people crowded
around the house and peeped through the in¬
terstices. He arose and addressed them, invit-
44
MEMOIR OF
ing them to come in, explaining to them what
he was going to do. A few entered the house,
hut the openings between the logs were still
lined with curious eyes. He repeated the in¬
vitation. Others came in, emboldened by the
example of those who had first entered, and
conciliated by the kind yet solemn and de¬
cided manner of the preacher. But they ab¬
solutely refused to occupy the "log-sittings,"
preferring to crouch on their haunches upon
the dirt-floor. A few still remained outside,
but could not be induced to enter the house.
One man stood at the door, holding his horse,
offering the apology that his "beast was in
the habit of slipping the bridle." And here,
under these novel circumstances, many a poor
soul doubtless *heard, for the first time, of a
Saviour and the way of life. Here, too, was
sown the seed the fruits of which the great
Harvest Day alone can reveal.
During no period of his life were the labors
of Dr. Anderson more successful than during
the two years in which he performed this
missionary work—going " everywhere, preach-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 45
ing the Word." Hundreds, and sometimes
thousands gathered to hear him. With no
temple often but the silent forest, and no
pulpit but the stump of some fallen tree, this
man of God performed his mission of love in
the spirit of Whitefield, and with much of his
power and something of his success. Plain,
simple, unassuming, yet earnest, zealous, and
able, he preached Christ and him crucified,
not in the enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in. the demonstration of the Spirit, and
with power. Nor did he neglect his own peo¬
ple. He regularly ministered to them, break¬
ing to them the bread of life and building up
a strong and useful church. Between the pas¬
tor and his people the attachment was very
strong; so that in 1811, when he was invited
to take the pastoral care of New Providence
Church, Mary ville, they were loth to give him
up, and he shrank from the painful separa¬
tion. But in this, as in every important act
of his life, he did not allow his judgment and
sense of duty to be carried away by his feel¬
ings—he did not decide the question in view
5*
46
MEMOIR OF
of his inclination, but in view of what was
duty. He resigned his pastoral charge at
Washington, and accepted the call to New
Providence Church. This church had been
organized by Rev. Mr. Scott, (at what time
cannot now be ascertained,) who came to East
Tennessee as an Evangelist. It proved a suc¬
cessful enterprise; and under the care of Dr.
Gideon Blackburn, it had become one of the
most important Presbyterian churches in East
Tennessee. When, therefore, the pulpit be¬
came vacant by the resignation of Dr. Black¬
burn, the eye of the congregation was turned
to the pastor of Washington Church, as his
successor. The call was accepted. Two rea¬
sons determined his acceptance. He felt that
unless that church were speedily supplied
with a pastor, it would go down; and "the
strength and body of Presbyterianism lying
there, he determined to sustain and build
it up."
It is proper to state here, that at the time
of his removal to Maryville, he was also the
pastor of Lebanon Church, situated in the
rev. isaac anderson, d.d. 47
Fork of French Board and Holston. The let¬
ter which he addressed to the session of that
church explains fully the motives which in¬
fluenced him to exchange his field of labor.
" Gentlemen :—I have reluctantly reached
the conclusion which is rather painful, viz.,
that it is my duty to apply to Presbytery to
have my pastoral connection with Lebanon
Church dissolved, and I hope no opposition
will be made to it. I-am not induced to take
this step from any disgust to the people. I
am even passionately fond of my friends in
this church; but I have for some years past
viewed my situation with silent dissatisfac¬
tion. My sphere of action, both as a minister
of the gospel and a teacher, has been too lim¬
ited. I have often felt the conviction that I
was spending my life to little account at best,
without serving my day and generation in
any suitable manner. I have never gone in
quest of a place where I might have a hope
of being more extensively useful, but rather
shut my ears against any suggestion of the
48
MEMOIR OE
kind, from an overweening partiality for my
friends and acquaintances. Several places of
more public utility now spontaneously offer
and press themselves upon me. Duty imperi¬
ously bids me go. In obeying, I sacrifice some
of the most tender feelings of human nature.
Although a separation should shortly take
place, yet should Providence permit me occa¬
sionally to mingle my vows and songs of praise
with yours, I shall hail the event with joy. I
design (God willing) to continue preaching at
the Fork as usual until April next, for which I
want no compensation. No doubt the forked
tongue of busy malevolence will say a thou¬
sand ill-natured things about my conduct in
this matter—such as, 'the love of gain took
him away,' etc., etc.; yet these kind of reflec¬
tions move me but little, while, on the con¬
trary, I am about to remove with the expecta¬
tion of making a sacrifice of worldly interest."
This letter is quite characteristic. To do
good, on the largest possible scale, was Dr. A.'s
favorite motto. His ambition ran in the di-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
49
rection of doing good. Such a man as he
could not he confined within a narrow field of
usefulness; his spirit would chafe under the
restriction, and seize on the first opportunity
to escape. In the work at Maryville, he saw
a field opening up to his expanded view
which would enable him to " serve his day
and generation" in a manner consonant with
his feelings and his conviction of duty. Nor
did he confine his labors to New Providence
Church and his beloved Seminary. He
preached in all the region round about. " In
1819, when the Second Presbyterian Church
at Knoxville was organized, Mrs. Catharine
Parsons went herself to Maryville, sixteen
miles distant, to engage the Rev. Isaac An¬
derson, D.D., to preach to those associated in
the movement, and have them organized into
a church. His first sermon was delivered in
the court-house, from the words, 'For what
intent have ye sent for me ?' He was their
first preacher, and, during a period of ten
years, went over to Knoxville to preach once
every two weeks."
50
MEMOIR OF
His removal to Maryville took place in the
month of November, 1812, when he was in¬
stalled pastor of New Providence Church.
Nor was it blind chance which led him
thither. There was a great and special work
for him there. Nobly, faithfully, amid perse¬
cution, and discouragement, and self-denial,
has he done it. He is now reaping the rich
reward.
eev. isaac anderson, d.d.
51
CHAPTER Y.
"the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few."
After his removal to Maryville, he was
more and more affected by the moral and re¬
ligious destitution of the country. Ministers
were everywhere needed to break to perish¬
ing multitudes the bread of life. His exten¬
sive travels through the portions of East Ten¬
nessee embraced in the counties mentioned in
a previous chapter, as well as the more south¬
ern counties, had made him acquainted with
the real condition of the people. He was
moved with compassion. His spirit was stirred
within him. With that spirit of benevolence
for which he was always remarkable, he set
about the work of supplying those destitu¬
tions. He wrote to the Home Missionary
Societies, representing to them the spiritual
state and condition of the population of East
Tennessee, and asking earnestly for help.
52
MEMOIR OF
The reply was, "We are sorry for you, hut
can't help you." Discouraged by this result
of his application to the only human source
of relief, he prayerfully considered the ques¬
tion of making some effort himself to supply
the want. He was fully convinced that no
hope of help from abroad could be rationally
indulged, and that ministers, to preach the
gospel in East Tennessee, must be made, for
the most part, at home.
In the spring of 1819, he was a commis¬
sioner to the General Assembly, which met in
Philadelphia. Before returning -home he went
to Princeton, and visited the Theological Sem¬
inary, hoping to induce some of the young
men, who were about to enter the ministry,
to come to East Tennessee. Quite a number
of them, at his request, met him in his room
at the hotel. He there set before them, in
strong yet truthful terms, the great moral
wastes of the country where he lived—he
represented to them how destitute were, the
mass of the people of the means of grace—he
told them that multitudes there were as sheep
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D, 5-3
having no shepherd, and invited them to look
and see the harvest ready for the sickle. He
then put the question plainly, "Will not
some of you go with me and help me to
preach the gospel there?" The first question
asked in reply to this was, " What salary do
they pay their ministers?" Such a question
addressed to such a man as Dr. Anderson—a
man who had toiled and labored without
money and without price—whose own hands
•had ministered to his necessities while preach¬
ing the gospel—aroused his indignation, and
he replied, "-Go there and ask such a ques¬
tion, and as ministers of the gospel you are
ruined." Here again he failed, and the neces¬
sity pressed upon him with still greater force,
of educating young men for the ministry at
home. Returning home in company with the
late Rev. James Gallaher, he talked much
with him on this subject, which lay very near
his heart. Soon after his return, having
matured his plans, he commenced the work
which was henceforth to be the great work of
his life. A class of five was gathered, and a
6
54
MEMOIR OF
school of the prophets was opened in a small
brown house on Main Street, Maryville, not
far from his residence. This was the begin¬
ning of the Southern and Western Theologi¬
cal Seminary, known now, under the act of
incorporation, as Maryville College. Of this
first class, one is now in France—a distin¬
guished preacher—known there and here as
an able, pious, devoted minister of Christ.
He walked almost the whole way from New
England to Maryville; and if the institution
established by Dr. Anderson, in this its "day
of small things," had done nothing more than
to give to the world such a man as Rev. E. N.
Sawtell, D.D., American Chaplain to Seamen,
Havre, France, it would have accomplished a
great and noble work.
Here, then, as we have said, was the begin¬
ning of Maryville College. Here was laid the
foundation on which it was the absorbing ob¬
ject of the life of our honored and lamented
father to erect a superstructure which should
bless the world. He determined to collect all
the young men he could, and by some means
REV.. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 55
or other educate them for the ministry. In
order to facilitate his plans, he established a
hoarding-house, employing a man to board all
the students he should send him, and paying
him one hundred dollars per annum, and
board for himself and family. The supplies
for the hoarding-house he trusted in the Lord
to be provided. There was not a man to help
or indorse this enterprise, which to many
seemed extravagant and foolish, and to some
it appeared fanatical and tempting Divine
Providence. But he had faith, and he trusted
in God, for he was doing God's work. He
said to Squire M., "I have found a plan to
educate young men for the ministry," explain¬
ing to him all his boarding-house arrange¬
ments, etc. The only comfort he received
was, "Well, all I have to say is, they will
have hungry bellies." But he was not to be
discouraged. He had commenced right—he
was doing right—and he could trust the Lord
for the consequences. And, as if to manifest
his approbation of his servant's faith and
trust, the Lord honored and blessed the un-
56
MEMOIR OE
dertaking with special marks of his favor.
He sometimes had fifteen or twenty yonng
men at the hoarding-house, and sustained
them there; yet he never asked any man for a
single dollar. His own fields, under the bless¬
ing of God, who sent the sunshine and the
shower, yielded plentifully—sometimes "a
man came and brought the man of God
bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of
barley and full ears of corn"—and what was
lacking, God himself supplied in his kind
and gracious providence. One day a letter
came from the celebrated Dr. Emmons, in¬
closing seventy dollars, and stating that he
had understood he was engaged in educating
young men for the ministry, and he had sent
a few dollars to aid in the good work. Fre¬
quent donations in money—fifteen, twenty,
thirty dollars—from different quarters, were
made for the same purpose. This evidence,
so substantial and welcome, of interest in
the work in which he was engaged, encour¬
aged him to go forward, animating his faith
and increasing his trust in God. When, at
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 57
length, the question of a permanent location
of the institution came up before the Synod,
there was great diversity of opinion as to the
best place for it—whether west of the moun¬
tains or at Maryville. Some were strongly
in favor of establishing the seminary in
Middle Tennessee, perhaps at Murfreesboro,
which was at that time the seat of gov¬
ernment. At the head of the two parties
stood Dr. Gideon Blackburn and Dr. Ander¬
son respectively—the former contending earn¬
estly for some point west of the mountains,
the latter urging and defending the claims of
Maryville. Nor can we think it strange that
Dr. A. should contend for Maryville, when we
remember that the institution owed its exist¬
ence to him—the child of his prayers and
tears, begotten amid the travail of a soul
bowed down with a painful sense of the spir¬
itual destitutions of the country. In 1820 or
1821, the Synod met at Murfreesboro at the
same time the Legislature was in session.
The question of the permanent location of
the seminary came up for final adjustment.
6*
58
MEMOIR OF
It was discussed with great zeal and ability.
The struggle continued for several days. It
was then proposed to appoint a special com¬
mittee, to bring in a report on the best plan
of establishing a synodical institution—in¬
volving the question of its locality. This
was on Saturday evening, and the committee
were to report on Monday. The committee
was composed of Dr. Anderson and Dr. Black¬
burn. They agreed between themselves to
draw up, each, a plan, to meet at the office of
Hon. Samuel Anderson, Monday morning, dis¬
cuss the merits of the plans, and decide on
which should be reported to Synod and re¬
commended for adoption. They met as agreed
upon; each produced his plan. Dr. Anderson
handed his to Dr. Blackburn for examination;
Dr. B. looked at it, held it in his hand, con¬
versed freely about it, and, in a half-careless
way, allowed the paper to fall on his lap,
then to the floor, and then he deliberately
put his foot on it. In this way he signified
his dislike, if not contempt for it. But
Dr. A. was observing his movements. He
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
59
saw it all at a glance of that piercing eye,
which flashed with peculiar significance when¬
ever his great soul was intent on accomplish¬
ing some great object. He simply asked
Dr. B. how he liked the plan. Dr. B. said
nothing. They could not agree. They re¬
paired to the Synod, Dr. B. presented his
report, embodying his plan, and asked its
adoption. Dr. A, understood the movement,
and was determined not to be outwitted. He
rose and requested the clerk to read the paper
again. He then waited until all the mem¬
bers who wished to say anything had ex¬
pressed their views and feelings. He then
called for the action of the Synod on each
part of the plan separately, and finally on the
whole, showing with regard to each and every
part of the plan that it was impracticable and
improper, urging that the funds had been
donated for a special purpose, and were to be
used only on condition of the location of the
institution at Maryville, and that, therefore,
they could not be used elsewhere honestly
and in good faith to the donors. In every
60
MEMOIR OF
instance Dr. A. triumphed, and Dr. B.'s plan
was thus cut up and lost. Rumor having
reached the members of the Legislature that
there was to be a discussion between Dr. A.
and Dr. B., they came in large numbers to
the church where the Synod was convened, to
hear the debate. Colonel John Williams, of
Knoxville, was sitting just behind Dr. A., and
whispered to him: "This is the completest
triumph of a minority over a majority I ever
witnessed." At the next meeting of Synod,
at Columbia, the question was finally settled,
and the institution permanently located at
Maryville. Dr. Anderson was appointed the
Professor of Didactic Theology. The inau¬
gural services were very interesting. They
were held on the 25th September, 1822, in
the old stone church at Maryville. Rev. Dr.
Robert Hardin preached the inaugural dis¬
course, from Acts, ix. 20: "And straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he
is the Son of God." The theme of discourse
was—" Preaching Christ, the peculiar work of
gospel ministers." In "preaching Christ,"
HEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
61
were comprehended the following particulars,
which are here given to show how fully
and completely the minister who was then
and there set apart to his responsible work,
did preach Christ. The points are these: the
divinity and humanity of Christ, inseparably
united in one person; the grounds and import
of his Sonship; the nature and extent of his
meritorious righteousness;* the nature, ex¬
tent, and perpetuity of his sacred offices of
prophet, priest, and king; his influence in the
universe; the good of the universe, consisting
in the display of the divine glory and the
moral purity and felicity of intelligent crea¬
tures, suspended -on him as mediator; he is
the trial of the hearts of all intelligent crea¬
tures; the honors with which he is sur¬
rounded in the universe, the everlasting bond
of union among all holy creatures.
* "The complete righteousness of Christ, furnished for the
redemption of sinners, consists in his obedience and suffer¬
ings unto death. The atonement consists in Christ's suffer¬
ings, which were offered in place of the punishment of trans¬
gressors. Christ's obedience constitutes his merit or title to
reward."—Inaugural Discourse, p. 8.
62
MEMOIR OF
The improvement embraced the following
inferences: the success of the primitive min¬
isters of the gospel is to be attributed to their
having preached Christ; the necessity of in¬
creasing the number of faithful ministers of
the gospel; the most eminent qualifications
are desirable in the ministers of the gospel;
the necessity and importance of theological
seminaries.
This discourse was followed by one from
Dr. Anderson, on Hosea, iv. 6, and Malachi,
ii. 7: " My people are destroyed' for lack of
knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowl¬
edge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt
be no priest to me. For the priest's lips
should keep knowledge^ and they should seek
the law at his mouth; for The is the messen¬
ger of the Lord of hosts." The1 theme of dis¬
course was—" The great Head of the Church
requires knowledge as an indispensable quali¬
fication in the gospel ministry." In discuss¬
ing this sentiment, he shows that it has
always been God's method to instruct his
people by a studious and learned ministry.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 63
In the second place, the knowledge necessary
to the gospel minister is exhibited under the
following heads: of the scriptures; biblical
criticism; things new and old brought forth
by study of chronology, church history, didac¬
tic, polemic and pastoral theology; and especi¬
ally and chiefly a saving knowledge of Christ
and him crucified.
The closing words of Dr. A.'s discourse are
worthy of record here, and to be had in ever¬
lasting remembrance. They show in what
spirit he engaged in the noble and arduous
work in which he felt so deep and absorbing
interest.
"This day brings on an event that has
been the object of prayerful anticipation.
The necessity and importance of a theologi¬
cal seminary for this western country spon¬
taneously rose in the hearts of many indi¬
viduals about the same time. When the
subject was first mentioned, the coincidence
of sentiment was a matter of agreeable sur¬
prise. The same cause had given birth to
the same feelings. This circumstance was
64
MEMOIR OF
calculated to produce the conviction that the
time had come when something ought to he
attempted.
"And now, in the short time of three
years from the adoption of the constitution,
you are prepared to put the seminary into
formal operation. Hitherto the Lord has
helped us, and to his name we raise our
grateful Ebenezers.
"This institution was founded with the
most liberal views toward other Christian
churches. Not indeed to select professors
from the different denominations, or to place
its government under some half a dozen sects,
which would make it a Babel of confusion,
but to open its doors to young men of all
Christian denominations, and to secure to
them its privileges just to the extent they
may choose. * * * From these liberal
views and a practice as liberal, it is hoped the
institution will never depart. "What can a
generous public ask more at our hands ?
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 65
"Let the directors and managers of this
sacred institution propose the Glory of 'God
and the advancement of that kingdom pur¬
chased by the blood of his only begotten Son,
as their sole objects, and they need not fear
what man can do.
"Let this object be pursued with meekness
and persevering fidelity, leaving the event
with the great Head of the Church, and we
need not tremble for the issue."
Steadily, faithfully, prayerfully did he ever
keep this grand object before him, and to se¬
cure it wore away his life.*
When the question of incorporating the
institution arose, fresh difficulties sprang up.
The charter, as originally made, provided
that the trustees be elected by the County
Court. This ridiculous provision did not
meet the wishes of Dr. A., who desired to
place the institution, in toto, under the care
* The charge to the professor was given by the late
Dr. John McCampbell, of Jefferson County. It was solemn,
earnest, and affectionate, and worthy of the man and of the
occasion.
7
66
MEMOIR OP
and control of the Synod. This was effected
by an amendment to the charter, in 1846.
Previous to this, however—even before ap¬
plication was first made to the Legislature for
a charter—Dr. A., in order to bring the insti¬
tution before the public, published several
articles in the Knoxville Register, in which
he set forth the importance and advantages
of such an institution, especially in a country
enjoying a republican government. He ex¬
pressly disavowed all intention of making the
institution sectarian in any offensive sense.
He says: "What, then, is the object of this
essay? It is to call the attention of the pub¬
lic to consider the importance and necessity
of providing a competent supply of learned
and pious teachers and ministers, by some
well-devised plan, supported by the free-will
offerings of the people. The best interests of
the public loudly demand this. We need
them to teach the young and rising genera¬
tion, to refine the public taste, to pour the
light of science into our rising academies and
colleges, and to impart to us the lessons of
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 67
heavenly wisdom from the sacred desk. I
plead for no particular denomination—all
denominations of Christians hold the essen¬
tial doctrines of Christianity. I plead for a
learned and pious ministry to bless and adorn
our rising country."
In the fourth article he discussed the pro¬
position, "Can civil governments be so con¬
structed and administered that they will never
partake of the spirit and form of the govern¬
ment of the church that may be predomi¬
nant?" His object was perfectly plain to
every candid reader. If he had any sinister
purpose in view, it was certainly concealed
with a skill and ingenuity which has never
been equaled. But he had no such purpose.
He expressly disavows any intention of advo¬
cating the odious doctrine of the union of
Church and State; and yet the article aroused
the fears of a Rev. Mr. D., and so inflamed
his zeal for the church, that he responded to
the articles of Dr. A. He sounded the note
of alarm—he raised the hue and cry of
"Church and State" — "religious establish-
68
MEMOIR OE
ments"—"the government in danger"—"the
S. and W. Theological Seminary an engine of
oppression/' etc., etc. At this distance of
time, one cannot tell whether to he amused
at this "tempest in a tea-pot," or amazed at
the boldness of this self-constituted champion
of the church, in misrepresenting Dr. A.'s
true sentiments, and endeavoring to create
hitter prejudices against him and the institu¬
tion he was laboring to establish on the most
liberal principles, and for a most wise, benev¬
olent and important purpose* In his sixth,
and last article, he gives a succinct view
of the whole matter in controversy, and for
this reason it is here placed on permanent
record.
" I felt a hope from the beginning, that the
* A preacher once explained 2 Bangs, iv. 40, 41, as fol¬
lows : " There is death in the pot. But he said, Then bring
meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for
the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the
pot." The three legs mean the Trinity, the pot means the
Church, and the death in the pot means the Southern and
"Western Theological Seminary! To clear the pot of death,
destroy the Seminary!
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 69
Southern and Western Theological Seminary
was the creature of a gracious God, for the
diffusion of his truth and the advancement of
his glory. If so, its difficulties will be such
as to require that his own arm be made bare
in bringing it forward to the usefulness he
intends for it. There is a spirit abroad that
will persecute to secure ascendency. But the
ascendency gained by bearing the righteous
indignation of the Lord, in the unhallowed
opposition of men, is incomparably better as
an object of pursuit and enjoyment. The
first four numbers of 'Amicus Literarum'*
have produced heat and opposition from more
hearts and pens than one. Those who pro¬
fess to disagree in almost everything, have
agreed to oppose the Seminary. ' Republi¬
can' is tremblingly alive to the danger of the
doctrines of the Confession of Faith being
taught in the Seminary. 'Honesty's' nerves
appear to be equally affected with tremor, lest
those doctrines may not be taught. This is
* His norn de plume in tlie Register.
7*
70
MEMOIR OF
not the first time that two enemies have
united in their opposition to an object of com¬
mon dislike. Herod and Pilate could not
agree until the Saviour was the object of
common persecution.
"We propose now to examine—1. Whether
the first four numbers gave just cause for this
united opposition. 2. We will examine the
merits of the opposition.
"In the first number it was shown that a
profitable book might be written to explain
and enforce the duties and charities of a
social life, that in the progress of the work
the conclusions of various sciences might be
touched at or incidentally brought in as illus¬
tration or ornament. When the man of sci¬
ence reads this book he may be edified and
greatly pleased. From such a book proposi¬
tions might be taken that would appear con¬
tradictions to the person wholly unacquainted
with science; and that this book might be the
foundation of various and clashing opinions,
and give rise to different sects; that there
could be no method of harmonizing and unit-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 71
ing the minds of the people about it, only by
teaching them the various sciences alluded to
in the book. In the second number the prin¬
ciples of the first were applied to the Bible.
The Bible was considered as a communication
of part of the inexhaustible stores of light
and knowledge which reside in the Divine
Mind. In its scope, it took in the whole uni¬
verse, touched and glanced at every science.
That various propositions might be taken
from the Bible which were apparently contrar
dictory; that this fact gave rise to clashing
opinions and sects, and was seized with avidity
by the infidel heart, as a pretext for his infi¬
delity; but whoever understood theology sci¬
entifically, could as easily explain such propo¬
sitions as the philosopher could explain the
cases adduced in the first number. In the
third number it was shown that the clergy,
whether Pagan, Mohammedan, Jewish, or
Christian, were the living standards in every
age and country of the light, science, liberty,
and religion of the age and countries in which
they lived. In the fourth number the ques-
72
MEMOIR OF
tion was discussed, whether a civil govern¬
ment could be so constructed and adminis¬
tered as to be kept free from the spirit and
form of a church government which was uni¬
versally prevalent in the same country.
"The object of these discussions was, to
call the public attention to the duty and im¬
portance of voluntarily supporting an institu¬
tion which is designed to diffuse light, knowl¬
edge, science, and religion through a govern¬
ment which is happily republican in its form,
and the perpetuity of which depends on the
knowledge and virtue of the people. Now
what can there be in all this to disturb the
tranquillity and peace of any Christian, honest
elder, or republican? Is it because it is not
true, that philosophy contains apparently con¬
tradictory propositions ? Or is it because pro¬
positions cannot be taken from the Bible
which shall appear contradictions to the per¬
son who does not understand the sublime
principles of theology? Or are the minds of
honest elders and republicans disturbed be¬
cause 'Amicus' has maintained that the minis-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 73
ters of religion have been the living standards
of science and religion in every age, and that
the spirit and form of a church government,
which universally prevails in a country, must
influence the spirit and form of the civil gov¬
ernment of that country? If the true cause
of offense is to be found in the erroneous sen¬
timents of these numbers, or in the dangerous
tendency of the doctrines maintained, nothing
would have been more easy than to have re¬
futed them and pointed out their tendency.
Any tyro in philosophy could have shown
that there were no such propositions in phi¬
losophy as the first number contained. The
Bible is in everybody's hands; if there be no
foundation in that book for the propositions
of the second number, even 'Republican'
might have shown with half the labor he be¬
stowed in coining facts for his first number.
If the sentiments of the third and fourth
numbers were unsupported by history, its
pages were open to every reader. Its faithful
record of facts might have been adduced, and
if these facts had been in opposition to ' Ami-
74
MEMOIR OF
cus,' let it be so. But this is not the course
that has been taken, although it is obviously
the only fair, honest course. And there will
be little hazard in predicting that this course
will not be taken unless by some rash, in¬
considerate writer, such as 'Republican' or
'Honesty.' If philosophy, the Bible, and his¬
tory all unite to support the doctrines of the
first four numbers, why should there be oppo¬
sition? Surely the impulse must be great
that urges one to attack a cause founded on
such an immovable basis. I wish charity
herself may be able to assign some better
origin to such an impulse than that sheer self¬
ishness which cannot endure that God should
be loved supremely. The general diffusion
of light, knowledge, and religion will not
suit all men's designs. They have schemes
to execute, and objects to obtain, that are best
done in the dark. Like the owl in the fable,
they have mice to catch in the shade of
night, and should the sun rise before they are
caught, like the owl they will be in a trans¬
port of rage. For example, seminaries, acad-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 75
emies, and colleges do not correspond with
the views of atheists, infidels, and the disci¬
ples of Illuminism. These fountains of light
and religious knowledge equally disturb the
repose of that disposition which seeks the
honor, respect, and reverence which a re¬
ligious public gives the ministers of religion,
when, with the disposition, there is a con¬
sciousness of no qualification for the high and
responsible office, and no just claim to the
respect of the public. Mr. R. and H.'s own
consciences know how far such motives have
influenced them. And the public may form
an opinion for themselves when they have
inspected their productions.
"The Searcher of hearts has long since
assigned a reason why men do not love light.
It is because their deeds are evil. Their
schemes, interests, and designs court the dark¬
ness of mental ignorance. Whether this may
be the case with Mr. R. and H., I do not
know; but men are capable of acting from
such a motive. Hence the Pope has with¬
held the Bible from the laity. For the same
76
MEMOIR OF
reason kings and potentates, who are artful
politicians, have withheld from their subjects
a knowledge of the rights of man. For the
same reason others use every stratagem to
excite prejudice against doctrines, men, insti¬
tutions, etc. etc., even when they are sure
that all that is produced hy their efforts is
leer-eyed prejudice and blind passion.
sfc Hs $ $ sfc Hi Hs Hi
"The first four numbers of 'Amicus' have
produced heat and invective. Of what kind?
Has the truth of the sentiments been met
with argument or historic fact? No. Has
any opponent shown that the inferences in
favor of a seminary did not follow, and follow
fairly, from the doctrines of the first four
numbers? No; this has not been attempted.
But let us inquire: was there anything said
in those numbers against the creed, discipline,
or worship of any sect of Christians, to pro¬
voke the attack? No; not a whisper against
the creed or worship of any denomination.
There was a brief statement of the different
kinds of church government. It was said
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 77
that those different kinds of government
might be mixed, and that none of them were
capable of assuming the form of monarchy
except Episcopacy. And this, according to
' Republican,' was a ' violent attack on the
Episcopal mode of church government.' Sure¬
ly this man's jealousy has magnified a mole¬
hill to a mountain. But ' the feelings of the
weak clergy were disregarded;' and this was
very provoking. I can assure Mr. R. that
no one sect was aimed at. The examples
given were of almost all the sects known to
'Amicus.' * * * * * I know it may
appear to some ill-natured to inquire into the
motives that may possibly influence gentle¬
men in their opposition. But surely Mr. R.
will not think hard of it, who has assigned to
the advocates and patrons of the Seminary,
and to the most benevolent exertions of the
age, the most diabolical motives. Education
societies and seminaries, according to Mr. R.,
are to send out missionaries who are to 'twine
about the government,' get into the State Leg¬
islatures, have religion established, and over-
8
78
MEMOIR OF
tarn the civil and religious liberties of the peo¬
ple. But does the history of passing events
give the shade of suspicion that such are
the motives of the men engaged in this work?
What is the fact? These young missionaries
that were to be sent out in 4 swarms' to twine
around the General and State governments,
have, many of them, left their homes and
the blessings of the best government on
earth, and gone to lands of pagan darkness
—to Asia, Africa, and the isles of the sea,
and the wilds of America—to preach the
everlasting gospel to the heathen. * * * I
admit that opposition may proceed from an
honest love of truth and zeal for the best
interests of man. Such opposition will be
candid and argumentative.
" In this Seminary will be taught the Greek
Testament, Hebrew Bible, Jewish Antiqui¬
ties, Sacred Chronology, Biblical Criticism,
Metaphysics, Didactic and Polemic Theology,
Church History, Church Government, Compo¬
sition and Delivery of Sermons, and the Pas-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 79
toral Care. There is little or no difference
among Christians on these subjects, except on
didactic theology and church government,
and on even these there is an agreement on
many topics, especially in didactic theology.
Now, young men of all denominations may
study all the branches in which there is
agreement, and pass the others by, or hear
the lectures on these, and take what suits
them; then return to their own churches and
obtain license. This is every day's practice.
In Princeton are to be found Lutherans, Epis¬
copalians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and
Presbyterians; although part of the oath of
a professor in that, institution, on being inau¬
gurated, is: 'I do solemnly promise and en¬
gage not to inculcate, teach, or insinuate any¬
thing which shall appear to me to contradict
or to contravene, either directly or impliedly,
anything taught in the said Confession of
Faith or Catechism; nor to oppose any of
the fundamental principles of Presbyterian
Church Government, while I continue a Pro¬
fessor in this Seminary.' It is, as I have
80
MEMOIR OP
reason to believe, the same way in the Asso¬
ciate Reformed Synod's Seminary, and at
Andover. And I have no reason to believe
that it is otherwise in any seminary of any
denomination of Christians; nor have I ever
heard of one young man being proselyted or
leaving the church to which he belonged,
when he came to the Seminary. If Mr. R.
has, he has information on one point that I
have not. Now, Mr. R., your elaborate rea¬
soning on this point only shows your want
of acquaintance with these liberal and useful
institutions.
Amicus' has said, in his first number,
give men honest hearts, and make them ac¬
quainted with the principles of the science
alluded to in the book written to inculcate
the sweet charities of domestic life, etc., and
you would then drive the divisions respecting
this book from the abodes of men, etc. etc.
Mr. R. infers from this that i Amicus' wishes
to drive the various denominations of Chris¬
tians from the abodes of men —' sweeping
work.' I must tell Mr. R. that this is mere
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 81
sophistry. The expression was made use of
in relation to mere human science, and you
have applied it to the denominations of Chris¬
tians with a jealousy that little becomes that
charity that thinks no evil. You seem to
think it would be a sad thing, if Christians
should agree about the doctrines of grace.
Isaiah thought differently—'The watchmen
shall see eye to eye.' Isaiah, lii. 8. But sup¬
pose they should agree in this respect, would
this destroy the distinction of denominations?
Their modes of worship and church govern¬
ment would still be a ground of distinction.
The existence of distinct sects of Christians,
if it has done some harm, has done a great
deal of good. They have been a spur to each
other in works of love. They have been a
guard over each other respecting the sacred
text. And even this influence has had enough
to do lately to keep down the circulation of
another translation of the New Testament.
They have been of unspeakable advantage to
the world in another respect—they have sifted
and examined each other's doctrines, and thus
8*
82
MEMOIR OF
produced light and a spirit of inquiry. ' Re-
publican' says: 'If the constitution of this
Seminary had made any provision for a set of
teachers and professors of the different sys¬
tems of theology and modes of church gov¬
ernment, as embraced by the various denomi¬
nations in this country, this article would be
liberal,^ and command the respect of liberal-
minded men.' I would just ask, did you ever
hear of such an institution being organized
by any one sect of Christians in Christendom?
I am sure you have not. It would be poorly
governed and managed. It is said, but for
the truth of it I will not vouch, that one sect
of American Christians have withdrawn from
the American Bible Society. If so, there is
but poor encouragement to think they would
unite in a theological seminary. 'With this
testimony before us,' says Mr. R., 'we must
conclude that the Southern and Western
Theological Seminary is a twin sister of the
Eastern establishment, and a branch of the
same coalition.' Yet he says, 'I suppose it is
the production of the united learning and
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 83
talents of the Hopkinsian Church in Tennes¬
see.' What! a branch of the Eastern coalition,
and the production of Tennessee! These are
two strange properties to meet in one and the
same thing. This must be your 'resurrection
of the inconsistent.'
"And now, Mr. R., suffer me to take my
leave of you. I cannot, I will not, condescend
to reply to you any more. You may consider
me as vanquished, if you choose, and boast
of your victory; but no boast or abuse from
you can make me reply. You have asserted
that Hopkinsianism has been selected as an
instrument to effect the basest designs on our
government; that the object is to be effected
by the establishment of seminaries, etc., un¬
der the direction of Hopkinsian teachers; that
the clergy are at the head of this nefarious
scheme, under the mask of zeal for the Re¬
deemer's Kingdom. Sir, that there are any
designs against the government by any clergy
of any denomination, is, as I believe, incapa¬
ble of even the shadow of proof. But were
84
MEMOIR OF
even this proved, then it would have to be
shown how Hopkinsianism was a fitter in¬
strument for this than Arminianism, Soci-
nianism, or any other creed, even if Hop¬
kinsianism be what you say it is. You are
unable to show that any of them would have
such a tendency. You have slandered min¬
isters of the gospel, by saying that, under the
mask of zeal for the Redeemer's Kingdom,
they are engaged in this nefarious scheme.
You have given the world a string of asser¬
tions, right in the face of facts, for the pur¬
pose of slandering and defaming men who,
with their fathers and brothers, have fought
and bled for the liberty we now enjoy—men
whose record is in heaven.
" It is said there are several of you engaged
in these productions; if so, I take my leave
of you in inspired language: '0 my soul,
come not thou into their secrets, unto their
assembly, mine honor, be not thou united.'
Amicus Literarum."
This newspaper controversy was closed by
an article from the pen of the late Rev. James
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 85
Gallaher, that prince of satirists, who, over
the signature of Valde Timidus, made rare
sport of the idle fears expressed in the arti¬
cles of " Republican," and threw such a color¬
ing of absurdity and ludicrousness over his
positions, that he was driven from the field,
and the institution left to work its way
gradually into favor. It has now been in
successful operation thirty-five years, during
which time it has sent forth many ministers,
physicians, lawyers, and business men, who
look back to it as their Alma Mater.
How ardently he desired the prosperity of
the institution, how painful was the thought
of its failure, and how deeply he must have
been grieved at the attempt to remove it from
Maryville, and the efforts made to destroy it,
will be best seen in a few extracts from his
letters.
Nov. 25, 1818. "If we lie on our oars six
months longer, we will be completely sur¬
rounded. ***** if they succeed, they
verily believe we will die the death of a poor,
emaciated, worthless institution. I am not
86
MEMOIR OF
willing to die thus, for nineteen reasons: 1.
Because, in time to come, the sons of the in¬
stitution will have to say with a blush, we
were educated at the seminary whose putrid
carcass lies at Maryville. 2. Because one
fountain will be dried up, the streams of
which have fertilized the garden of the Lord.
3. Because it would gratify many who have
prophesied its death, and build them up in
the conceit that they were prophets. 4. It
would be a disgrace to this country. 5. It
would be a shame to the ministers. 6. It
would be a disgrace to the church. But you
are ready to say Stop, stop! these are reasons
enough."
April 10,1833. "Already have I borne no
ordinary 'heat and burden' for twelve or fif¬
teen years, as you well know; and yet about
sixty ministers have gone from this institu¬
tion to bless as many destitute regions by
their evangelical labors. Revival after re¬
vival has instrumentally been produced by
their labors, and many hundreds have re¬
joiced in the hope of the gospel. Yet little,
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
87
very little has been done by Christian lib¬
erality to sustain the Seminary in its opera¬
tions. ***** In the absence of funds,
you know how I have had to resort to one
expedient after another to procure teachers
and support them, until this method will do
no longer. * * * If I had had a salary I
would have retained these teachers at my
own expense, but my own service has been
almost entirely gratuitous. * * * * These
incessant cares and labors have worn me
almost down. Unless Christian liberality will
now come forward and aid the institution, I
see not how it can be sustained; yet I have
confidence in God that he will not let it
sink."
Feb. 3,1844. "Your success has excited in
me the hope that the time has come when the
great Head of the Church designs to favor our
institution. Amid poverty, self-denial, and
overwhelming exertion, it has sent nearly
one hundred laborers into the field, who have
gathered hundreds and hundreds into the fold
of the Good Shepherd."
88
MEMOIR OF
The letters from which the above extracts
are taken were addressed to the same indi¬
vidual, on the subject of an agency for the
institution. They reveal Dr. Anderson's deep
solicitude for the prosperity of the Seminary,
that it might be a blessing to the country and
the church.
When the effort was made, already alluded
to, to transfer the Seminary to another place,
"he was overwhelmed for a time with dis¬
couragement and sorrow, and, apparently,
was almost ready to give up the object of his
many prayers, tears, and labors." So writes
one of his early pupils. "He said to me at
that time," he continues, " that if his brethren
now, after all he had done to build up an
institution in which he could educate young
men for the Master's service, were thus de¬
termined to take it from him and send it off
to another State, and so defeat the object
for which he had lived, and hoped still to
live, he must submit; but it was one of the
severest trials of his life, and the darkest dis-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 89
pensation of Providence. The project, how¬
ever, was thwarted."
May 11, 1840. "I am still trying to find
out and qualify pious youths for the ministry.
God smiles on the effort to some degree. Yet
we have trials which, as far as man is the in¬
strument, we ought not to have. Yet the
ordering of Providence is infinitely right, and
these trials are the sword, the hand that
wields it is his. One among the many trials
we endure, is the treatment we have received
from the Education Society. You know that
our arrangements were once such, that with
about ten or fifteen dollars per annum for
each student, I could have supported al¬
most any number. At this stage of success¬
ful experiment, Dr. Cornelius visited us twice
and kindly offered us the aid of the Educa¬
tion Society; but after examining our whole
plan, doubted the propriety of our accepting
the proffered aid. At length Rev. Mr. Owen,
an agent of that society, came and urged the
importance and necessity of having the insti-
9
90
MEMOIR OF
tution connected with the Education Society.
He pressed his suit with such ardor, that at
length I reluctantly yielded. After the lapse
of some years, Rev. Mr. L. became an officer
of the Education Society, and in order to a
continuance of aid to our beneficiaries, the
following questions, propounded by him, in a
letter dated July 3d, 1839, must be satisfac¬
torily answered." (Here follow six questions,
respecting the board of instruction, course of
study, number of years required to complete
the literary and theological course, number of
students, character of the beneficiaries, and
the amount of aid derived from other sources.)
" These questions," he continues, " might have
been appropriate before they urged us to con¬
nect ourselves with them, or before they re¬
ceived us. They sought us, not we them.
And I degraded myself so far as to answer
these untimely and impertinent questions,
because I did not know then what I do now.
In another communication he holds the fol¬
lowing language: 'The literary appendage
to Maryville Seminary, would, in the present
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 91
state of public opinion, be considered an ob¬
jection to your institution, especially as it is
understood that competent literary instruc¬
tion, on moderate terms, is furnished in the
college at Knoxville.' This needs no com¬
ment, and I drop the subject."
To be misunderstood and indirectly ridi¬
culed, was peculiarly painful to one of his
sensitive temperament. He saw clearly, and
felt deeply, what the church has been slow to
perceive and understand, that an institution
must have for its controlling object the edu¬
cation of young men for the ministry, if it
would accomplish any valuable results in that
direction. Hence our State universities, our
institutions of lower grade, not under ecclesi¬
astical control, furnish comparatively very
few men for the Christian ministry.* Hence
the policy of almost every branch of the
church, of having its own schools and col¬
leges.
* Take as example tlie two institutions alluded to in the
above extract. One has educated and sent out into the min¬
istry about one hundred men; the other, about thirteen.
92
MEMOIR OP
At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Maryville College, March, 1853, Dr. A. was
appointed the chairman of a committee to
address Bey. E. N. S. on the subject of tak¬
ing an agency in behalf of the institution,
especially to collect funds to erect new build¬
ings for the use of the College. As this ad¬
dress embodies many facts in the history of
the institution, in his own words, we give it
entire.
" Reverend and dear Brother and Son in
the Gospel :—I sometimes hear of you through
the public prints, yet rarely of late. A con¬
siderable portion of your history is as fresh
in my memory as if it had taken place last
week. I never can forget our first meeting
at Knoxville, and the unvarnished story you
related to Mrs. Anderson and myself when
we arrived at Maryville. It moved all the
sympathy within us to tears of admiration
and gratitude to God for the great things he
had done for a very youth, in conveying him,
as on eagles' wings, to a strange land, to de¬
vote himself to the cause of the Lord Jesus.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
93
I alone am left to remember this interview
and your subsequent sojourn with us, so
pleasant to us both. Mrs. A. has gone to
her rest. She fell asleep in Christ, Novem¬
ber, 1851; but you had a place in her heart
and memory while she lived.
"You saw the beginning of the effort to
educate and bring into the ministry, poor and
almost penniless, but pious young men. You
witnessed the difficulties that were encoun¬
tered. Without funds, without buildings, al¬
most without a library, and opposed by dem¬
agogues and sectarians, by slander and every
low artifice. These young men must be fed,
and clothed, and educated. For years I
taught without compensation, cheered by the
hope, and desiring this, as my reward, that
they should be the instruments of turning
men from the service of sin and Satan, to the
love and service of God. Some of these
young men boarded with me without charge,*
* "Besides the six theological students, twenty in pre¬
paratory studies have been taught, and two boarded by the
Professor, (Dr. Anderson,) although he has received no com-
9*
94
MEMOIR OP
for the hoarding of others of them I paid out
of my own pocket. When they were sick,
we took them to our own house and nursed
them.
"After patient perseverance for some years,
Rev. Mr. Dickinson, who afterwards edited
the American Preacher, was commissioned to
solicit funds in the South, and obtained a
large amount on subscription and some money
received in hand. The subscriptions, I be¬
lieve, were never collected. The money was
used in the purchase of the lot adjoining that
on which the Seminary buildings stood. On
this lot there was a dwelling-house, which I
was permitted to use for the benefit of pious
students, preparing for the ministry. I em¬
ployed a Mr. C. and engaged to furnish pro-
pensation, and does not ask any, so far as he can do without
it. But his office, as Professor, yields him no salary at
present. If the board of the two young men be rated at
sixty-four dollars a year for each, and the tuition of all the
twenty-six at twenty dollars a year for each, his contribu¬
tions in boarding and tuition will amount to six hundred
and forty-eight."—(Seventh Annua Report of Presbyterian
Education Society, 1825.)
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 95
visions for himself and family, and give him
one hundred dollars per annum, if he would
prepare the food for the table for as many
students as I should send him. We solicited
donations of corn, wheat, hacon, and cloth¬
ing, and were pretty successful. I knew not
where the hundred dollars were to come from,
inasmuch as I received very little compensa¬
tion for teaching or preaching, and lived very
plainly and economically that I might do all
I could. Now I wish to remember, and record
with a thankful heart, the goodness of God—
that I did, again and again, receive by mail,
sometimes ten, fifteen, twenty dollars, from
men I did not know, who had never been so¬
licited to give, as well as from some I did
know. At one time I received seventy dol¬
lars from Dr. Emmons. So the contract with
Mr. C. was promptly met without incurring
debt, and many, students were thus effect¬
ually aided who are now ornaments of the
church.
"I come now to the third epoch in our his¬
tory. After your licensure, you took a com-
96
MEMOIR OE
mission as a soliciting agent. Your success
was such, that the Directors were able to buy
a farm adjoining the village, which was used
to aid in the education of pious young men
seeking the ministry. A steward was em¬
ployed ; each student was required to work as
much as half a day in the week; we raised
abundant crops; and about ten or twelve
dollars in cash covered the whole expense of
each student thus aided. But the students
were persuaded, by Rev. Mr. Owen, to receive
aid from an education society, in opposition to
my judgment and the judgment of Dr. Cor¬
nelius, who had visited us and examined the
whole arrangement. This finally worked the
ruin of the plan of the farm and boarding-
house.
"We have now reached a period when we
may say with the sons of the prophets, 4 The
place where we dwell is too straight for us.'
The times and the interests of the institution
make it indispensable that we should have a
new college building, roomy and commodious.
The people of the county, who have given so
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 97
much heretofore for this object, have sub¬
scribed for the new building liberally, and
others here and there, throughout the Synod,
have subscribed; but the sum subscribed falls
far short of the amount needed. Many
moneyed men, who have no regard for educa¬
tion, and still less for the cause of Christ, will
give nothing. How shall we raise the money?
I have said to the Directors that you could,
no doubt, raise the amount necessary, if you
would undertake it. They remember your for¬
mer success and your success in raising funds
for other objects, great and benevolent, and
have asked me to write to you, and entreat you
to come, if possible, to the help of your Alma
Mater. You aided her, when she was weak
and penniless, to rise to a state which enabled
her to maintain the poor and pious in prepar¬
ing themselves for the ministry. She has had
her infancy, and youth, and trials of middle
age. As you had the honor of sustaining
her in her infancy—cherishing her in her
arduous growth—now have the honor and
pleasure of lifting her up to maturity, that
98
MEMOIR OF
she may fulfill her mission of sending labor¬
ers into the great harvest-field until Christ's
second coming.
"Yours, with most affectionate remem¬
brance,
"Isaac Anderson."
These extracts show how deeply rooted
was the controlling desire of his life.
"Writing to a beloved ministerial brother,
he says:—
"Reverend and dear Brother W.: — I
have read your last letter, two or three
times, with interest. I wished to get all the
evidence the letter would give that your
health was improving, and I have felt some¬
what encouraged; still, I could wish that the
encouragement were more flattering. If any
one passion has governed me more than an¬
other, it has been to have qualified, devoted
Presbyterian ministers greatly multiplied.
The undying strength of this passion has
been the cause of several effects:—1. When
a minister has gone forth from this school of
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
99
the prophets, who has proved faithful to his
Divine Master and his cause, I have enjoyed
it exquisitely. 2. When any have gone into
the harvest-field and have proved lazy, ineffi¬
cient drones, it has been like a cancer on my
spirits. 3. When the faithful have been laid
aside by death, my aching heart has bowed
to the stroke without solace, except in the
assurance that the Lord reigns, and that he
loves his church infinitely more than I can
love it, and will take care of her best inter¬
ests with infinite skill. 4. When any are
laid aside from active service by sickness or
disease, it seems hard to think that they can¬
not be spared to do their Master's work; and
yet God sees otherwise, and, for reasons which
we cannot comprehend, disables or removes
the laborers from his vineyard."
In 1839 or 1840, the Synod of Tennessee
was led to consider the question, whether
something ought not to be done to place the
institution on higher ground, and to sustain
it. The opinion prevailed that another pro-
100
MEMOIR OF
fessorship ought to he founded: whereupon
Synod resolved that a Professorship of Sa¬
cred Literature should he founded, and that
a fund of fifteen thousand dollars should
be raised for that purpose. Lev. Thomas
Brown was appointed the agent to canvass
the churches and solicit subscriptions.
Dr. Anderson doubted somewhat the suc¬
cess of the undertaking. In a letter to Mr.
B., under date of February 3, 1844, he says:
" I was of the number who doubted whether
fifteen thousand dollars could he raised by
any exertion. But you have succeeded in
obtaining subscriptions to the amount of six
thousand dollars already—a sum that I would
not have had faith enough to raise in years *
I have always known that there was not a
cordial state of feeling toward the Seminary,
in the upper churches, that would lead them
* He was greatly mistaken in tliis. There was a time
when he could have easily succeeded in endowing more
than one professorship. His personal application to the
churches would have met with a most cordial response
everywhere.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 101
to co-operate with us might and main to push
it forward. This is accounted for by several
reasons. They were not with us to originate
the Seminary; for if they had been, the diffi¬
culties and opposition we had to encounter
and overcome, would have produced unity of
feeling, as common dangers, common enemies,
and common pursuits always do. Again, the
clamor of sectarians and demagogues has had
some influence, although they may not have
been aware of it. And lastly, but not least,
there is a feeling common to our race, that
the qualifications of those who live west of us
cannot be of the first order. I have learned
to bear with this foible of human nature
with great good humor. Your success has
excited the hope that the time has come
when God designs to favor an institution
that, amid poverty, self-denial, and over¬
whelming exertion, has sent nearly one hun¬
dred ministers into the field, who have gath¬
ered hundreds of the elect into the fold of
the Good Shepherd."
Some of the friends of the institution were
10
102
MEMOIR OF
not satisfied with the " minute" adopted by
the Synod, respecting the fund for the new
professorship. The minute provides, that
the professorship shall be under the direct
control of the Synod, and the Chair located
at Maryville for a term of eight years. They
saw in this the occasion of difficulty here¬
after. It was possible that, at the expiration
of the eight years, the chair might be re¬
moved and then the question would arise,
are we to have two seminaries? Dr. Ander¬
son's view of this matter is worthy of con¬
sideration. He says, in the letter from which
the extract above was taken: "Until I had
received this letter I had neither thought nor
said much on the subject. I admit that
there is a possibility that this subject, from
its aspect, may be a bone of contention at
some future day, and produce alienation
among brethren. God forbid it should be so!
Before that time shall arrive, if I live, I will
be seventy odd years of age, and I feel it to
be my duty and privilege to trust in God to
take care of his own cause. I also feel it to
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 103
be my duty and privilege to believe that
there will, at any time, be good sense, piety,
and benevolence enough in the Synod, to
manage the matter in that way which shall
appear to them to be most for the glory of
God and the good of the church. If the
present resolution and minute on the records
of Synod are liable to objections, the Synod
have it in their power to correct every error
that belongs to them, and good men will do
so. If the good of the church should require
the Seminary to have a different location,
every minister ought to be willing, and even
every donor, although he might have given
on the condition that the institution was not
to be removed from its present location. But
such disinterested benevolence is hardly to be
expected, even at the hand of Christians."
The original term of eight years, for which
the Chair of Sacred Literature was located at
Maryville, expired in 1856. The Synod ex¬
tended the term ten years longer. In 1858,
the institution was transferred by the Synod
of Tennessee to the care and control of the
104
MEMOIR OE
United Synod of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America, under whose
auspices it is earnestly hoped that it may
hereafter realize even more than the most
sanguine expectations of its lamented and
honored founder.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
105
CHAPTER VI.
"apt to teach."
His whole life, from the time he left Lib¬
erty Hall Academy until a short time before
he died, a period of about fifty years, was
employed more or less in teaching. In the
school of his first theological preceptor, Rev.
Samuel Brown, he employed a portion of his
time in teaching. After his settlement over
Washington Church, he established a classi¬
cal school, which he called Union Academy,
where a number of young men were edu¬
cated, some of whom became professional
men of distinction. Ex-Governor Reynolds,
of Illinois, speaks of this school in his "Life
and Times." He says: " The preceptor of
this school was an accomplished scholar and
divine, the Rev. Isaac Anderson, whose learn¬
ing and piety were known and appreciated
far and near. Nature bestowed on him great
10*
106
MEMOIR OF
strength and compass of mind. This gentle¬
man instructed a class of young men in his
college, and preached every Sabbath to his
congregation. He kindly received me into
his seminary, and was a warm friend and
benefactor. This institution of learning was
situated in a retired valley, where neither
temptation nor vice made its appearance.
It was six miles northeast of Knoxville, and
near the parson's house. A large spring
flowed out from the rocks near it, and the
whole scenery was charming. The building
was comfortable and 4 unpretending.' At this
college it was customary to read composi¬
tions on one Saturday, and on the next to
deliver orations. The teacher's gentle and
kind criticisms were intended more to soothe
my perturbed spirit than otherwise. The
orations were spoken to a full house, the
learned preceptor presiding with that noble
dignity which seems to be the birth-right of
the Rev. Isaac Anderson."
It was here, also, that several young men
sat at his feet as their theological teacher.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 107
He continued to teach after he removed to
Maryville, and at an early period in the his¬
tory of the Seminary he was employed, al¬
most without cessation, twelve hours every
day. "His diligence as an instructor of
youth," says one who knew him well, "was
untiring and patiently laborious. Few men
could have performed the labor of this kind
which he endured, had they been exempt from
all other labor and care. As a general rule,
his labors as a teacher commenced early and
continued late, with a very short interval at
noon. A part of the time he was in the
habit of hearing some recitations before an
early breakfast hour. That he should have
been enabled to pursue something like this
course during his whole life as an ordained
minister of the gospel, (which was, after dis¬
counting the time he sank into a state of
physical and mental collapse, about half a
century,) is a matter to be greatly admired
and wondered at."
As a teacher he was as accurate and thor¬
ough as it was possible for a man to be whose
108
MEMOIR OF
labors were so multiform and arduous. He
possessed the rare faculty of impressing him¬
self on his pupils, while at the same time he
required no servile assent to his mere dicta¬
tion. He could not brook such a thing. His
constant aim was to make his students think
and understand for themselves. In the in¬
struction of his theological classes, he adopted
the plan of his early preceptor and pastor,
Rev. Samuel Brown. Every student was re¬
quired to read, study, and write on the topics
which he announced to them from time to
time, as they progressed in the course. After
they had done what they could in this way
for themselves, he read to them the lectures
which he had prepared with great care. In
this way every student was benefited, be¬
cause each one was required to investigate
the subject for himself. He was not allowed
to depend upon a fellow-student, nor upon
the teacher j and if he had not capacity to
understand a subject sufficiently to anticipate
and comprehend the objections which had
been or might be urged against it, the teacher
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 109
himself would throw the objections in his
way and require him to remove them if he
could, and help him if he could not.* All
his pupils speak of him in those terms of
affection which denote their respect and ven¬
eration for his character as well as their at¬
tachment to him as a friend and teacher. " He
was a father to methis is the language they
uniformly use when speaking of him. And
this feeling of filial regard was the result of
his kindness and sympathy, and the manifest
interest which he felt in their happiness and
* " When I studied under the Doctor, his course was this :
He gave us a subject to study and write upon; he referred
us to, and required us to read different authors—authors who
differed widely in their views on the subject; he then read to
us a lecture of his own. After reading our essays, he asked
us a number of questions which he had written out in his
Theological Question Book. If we answered in accordance
with what he believed to be the truth, he passed on; if not,
he gave us his views, his reasons, and his Bible proof. If we
could not see just as he did on any point, he would urge us
to study the subject thoroughly and prayerfully, reminding us
that we were responsible to God for our belief, as well as for
our conduct."—(Extract from a letter from one of his first
pupils.)
110
MEMOIR OF
prosperity. "During the seven years," writes
one who was a member of that first class of
which mention is made in a previous chapter,
"that I lived in his family, I never looked
upon him in any other light, nor did he ever
exhibit any other feeling than that of the
kindest and best of fathers. No act or word
during that time, or since, ever passed be¬
tween us that did not savor of the most per¬
fect Christian confidence and a reciprocity of
mutual, paternal, and filial affection. So
deeply rooted had my attachment to that
good and great man become, that when I
received my commission to 'Go, preach the
Gospel,' and was obliged to tear myself from
him, it seemed that my very heart-strings
were breaking. In a word, if I have done
any good m this world of sin and death, I
owe it all, under God, to that most disinter¬
ested and devoted of his servants, Dr. Isaac
Anderson."
rev. isaac anderson, d.d.
Ill
CHAPTER VII.
" FEED THE FLOCK OF GOD OYER WHICH THE HOLY GHOST HATH
MADE YOU AN OVERSEER."
For the special work of a Christian pastor
he was eminently qualified. Wielding an in¬
fluence over his church which commanded
the respect and unbounded confidence, as well
as the love of his people, he used it for good,
and for good only. Such, too, was the genial
temper of his mind, and such the well-known
kindness and benevolence of his heart, that
his people felt no restraint in approaching
him freely, or in seeking from him that con¬
solation or instruction or counsel which they
needed. They held his person, his family,
his office, in such high esteem, as almost to
amount to a sort of preacher-worship. The
children, too, not less than the parents, re¬
garded him with profoundest veneration; and
as they grew up under his ministry, they
112
MEMOIR OF
became all the more attached to him as their
pastor and friend. Wherever he went in his
pastoral intercourse with his people, he al¬
ways had a kind word for every member of
the family; and especially did he know well
how to minister consolation whenever he en¬
tered the "house of mourning." Often, in a
single sentence, would he convey to the mind
of the suffering Christian, such relief and
comfort as few are capable of giving in the
course of a long conversation. As an exam¬
ple of this, it may be related, that he was
once conversing with a Christian lady who
was rapidly sinking to the grave under that
most subtle and dreadful disease, consump¬
tion. She was speaking of the approach of
death, and lamenting that she was not ready
to die, because she had not "dying grace."
His simple reply was, " Madam, you neej^ not
expect to have grace to fit you for death un¬
til you come to die—we do not need ' dying
grace' to live by, but to die by." This was
sufficient to place the whole matter in a pro¬
per light and satisfy the mind of the invalid,
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
113
while at the same time it filled her soul with
sweet comfort and consolation.
As a pastor, Dr. A. was justly considered
as in almost every respect a model worthy of
all imitation. Not only in the pulpit, but at
the fireside, in the sick chamber, and at the
bed of death, no human presence was so
much desired by his people as his. A mind
well stored with the word of God, and a
heart whose sympathies were tender and
strong, made him a fit counselor and a
warmly attached friend. His regard for the
spiritual welfare of his people, his untiring
devotion to the interests of the church, his
faithful and able instructions in the pulpit
and elsewhere, his godly example, his self-
denying labors, his disinterested benevolence,
have been excelled by few, and show him to
have been a true shepherd. And such he
was; for he fed the church of God over
which the Holy Ghost had made him an
overseer: he was an example to the flock;
was apt to teach; no striker; given to hospi¬
tality; patient; not covetous. As illustrative
11
114
MEMOIR OF
of these remarks, it is sufficient to note the
following facts:—
1. He was greatly desirous of making his
people an intelligent people as to the truths
and doctrines of the Bible. To this end
he not only brought forth things new and
old out of the treasury of the Word, every
Sabbath, but he prepared long lists of ques¬
tions and answers for the different quar¬
ters of his congregation, on the Evidences of
Christianity and the Inspiration of the Bible.
These questions were published in the village
newspaper, with reference to which the editor
remarks, in his issue of December, 1836 : "On
the first page of to-day's paper will be found
a list of questions and answers in proof of
the authenticity and genuineness of the Scrip¬
tures, prepared by the pastor of New Provi¬
dence Church, and designed for Messrs. Hun¬
ter, Early, Tedford, and Ewing's quarters
of this congregation. These questions and
answers are so simplified that the weakest
mind can understand them. As these ques¬
tions and answers are to be sufficiently studied
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 115
by the members of New Providence Church
as to enable them to bear an examination, we
would suggest the propriety of using the
numbers of the paper in which they are con¬
tained with great care," etc. etc. In this
way he instructed his people, and, what with
his preaching and catechising, he succeeded
in training up a people who were once re¬
markable for unusual intelligence respecting
the truths of revelation.
2. He was a warm friend and advocate of
Sunday-schools. A few years since, in a con¬
versation with an agent of the American Sun¬
day-School Union, he expressed his views on
this subject in the following manner, viz.:—
"In the first place, I would take for my
text—e Train up the child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he will not
depart from it.' That is what the Sunday-
school undertakes to do—to train up the
young. For if the children are not trained
right, it is certain that they will act wrong
when they are grown up. If parents take
little or no oversight respecting the spiritual
116
MEMOIR OP
welfare of their children, it is not to be ex¬
pected that they will fall into correct habits
of thinking or acting toward God. This
work of the Sunday-school is, therefore, one
which commends itself to every intelligent
mind, as accomplishing that which cannot
and must not be overlooked and neglected.
It does succeed in training up the young.
"In the second place, the Sunday-school
works up a peculiar reverence for the Sab¬
bath. The children feel that the day is to
be devoted to the special object of studying
the Bible, and acquiring a knowledge of its
precepts. It is a work which is done mostly
on the Sabbath, which is therefore regarded
as a day sacred above all others.
" These are the great benefits attending the
Sunday-school, which all should wish for and
strive to secure; and it is certainly a poor
school that will not do something to produce
these results.
"Many Sunday-schools seem to have failed
somewhat in their influence, and with good
reason. The chief work lies with the teach-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 117
ers. They must, themselves, act in a consist¬
ent manner. If the scholar sees his teacher
to be thoughtful, circumspect, loving the
study of the Bible, and evincing a great re¬
gard for the Sabbath, he is sure to copy him,
and thus acquires in early life a truly reli¬
gious character. He grows up with the prin¬
ciples of religion firmly imbedded in his soul,
which always manifest themselves in his
walk or conversation. Those schools that
fail are usually conducted by teachers who
are negligent in these particulars.
"To give you an illustration of what a
teacher may do for a scholar, I well remem¬
ber going once to a day-school, when I was
so small that I had to be carried on the back
of a larger boy. The teacher used to sing
and pray, which so deeply interested me that
these simple acts were often thought upon
afterwards, and produced a great and lasting
impression for good.
" Our children in Maryville would think it
dreadful if they had no Sunday-school to at-
11*
118
MEMOIR 01
tend. All who go to it now will always want
one, after they are grown up, and will en¬
deavor to form them wherever they may live.
Every one that has been a member of a good
Sunday-school never feels right if he lives in
a neighborhood and does nothing to have a
school formed there. It becomes equally as
necessary to him as to have preaching.
"The Sunday-school books are plain, in¬
teresting narratives, which any child, who
can read, will read with interest. They form
the best reading in the world for children.
"It is my firm opinion, founded upon much
observation, that there is nothing equal to
the Sunday-school for communicating to the
youth collected in our towns and in neighbor¬
hoods the knowledge of their duties to God
and to one another. And we ought to do far
more than we have yet done, to make the
schools already formed more efficient, and to
have them established in the communities
about us. It is certainly an institution which
is blessed of God."
3. His remarkable success may be allowed
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 119
to bear testimony to his fitness for the pas¬
toral office. For a period of fifteen years
there was a revival in his congregation, every
fall or winter. He was the spiritual father of
hundreds who attended his ministry. God
honored him largely as an instrument in his
hands of winning many souls to Christ. In
the village and surrounding country where
he labored, father and son and grandson, the
mother and her daughters, looked upon him
as their spiritual father, for he had baptized
them all; it was under his preaching, or as
the result of his preaching and prayers, that
the grandparents turned to God; it was under
his ministry that the father and mother gave
their hearts to the Saviour; it was through
his instrumentality that the children were
led to the Cross. He has been considered
(whether justly so or not, it would be dif-
cult to tell) as the first to establish what is
called the "anxious seat."* Whether this
* Davidson, in his History of the Presbyterian Church in
Kentucky, states this as a fact well known and not disputed.
120
MEMOIR OP
was his invention or not, he used this "meas¬
ure" at his sacramental or protracted meet¬
ings, and hundreds sometimes flocked to the
seat designated, asking the instructions of
God's ministers and an interest in the prayers
of God's people. He did not, indeed, regard
the "anxious seat" as anything more than a
means of bringing the awakened sinner to
take some decisive step—of confirming him
in the way of duty, if he were disposed to
waver and hesitate—and of throwing around
him the sympathies of God's people, and ex¬
citing in them a deeper interest in his salva¬
tion. "Mine eye affecteth my heart." The
heart of a Christian is much more deeply
affected when he sees the impenitent asking
the way of life. And, however much this
"measure" is and has been condemned as
disorderly, fanatical, and harmful, it was in
his hands liable to none of these objections.
It can be, and it is, and has been greatly per¬
verted and abused, and, doubtless, often used
for fanatical purposes; but this is no conclu-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 121
sive argument against its sober, legitimate,
and guarded use. Imperfect men will abuse
anything, however good in itself or suscepti¬
ble of being applied to a valuable or useful
purpose.
122
MEMOIR OF
CHAPTER VIII.
" AND MY SPEECH AND MY PREACHING WAS NOT WITH ENTIC¬
ING WORDS OF MAN'S WISDOM, BUT IN THE DEMONSTRATION
OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER."
As a preacher, we may say of Dr. Ander¬
son, that "the pulpit was his joy and his
throne." He loved to preach, and therefore
preached often—twice on the Sabbath in his
own church at Maryville, and not unfre-
quently once every Sabbath at some point
within the hounds of his large parish. He
also attended a number of "sacramental
meetings," and preached many sermons. In
season and out of season, at home and abroad,
in the church and the dwelling-house, at the
camp-ground or in the forest, he was always
ready to lift up his voice in the proclamation
of the grace of the gospel to perishing souls.
It was his custom also, when traveling, to
preach whenever occasion offered. In this
way, doubtless, he dropped the seeds of truth
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 123
into many a heart, which afterwards sprang
up and brought forth fruit. At a moderate
estimate, he must have preached, during the
years of his active service, at least two hun¬
dred sermons every year.
He was an impressive preacher. The
framework of his discourses was logically
shaped and fitted, and strongly braced by the
Word of God, quotations of which abounded
in all his sermons. After he had thus skill¬
fully prepared the way, the doctrine was
made the basis of fervid appeal to the under¬
standing and conscience of his hearers. His
eloquence answered perfectly to the defini¬
tion which has been ascribed to Dr. Lyman
Beecher, " eloquence is logic set on fire."
"When impassioned," says one who knew
him in his palmiest days, "he was truly elo¬
quent, and sometimes commandingly and
resistlessly sublime."
He had great power of communicating his
thoughts clearly and in such, simple language,
that all who heard him might understand.
The late Dr. Allan, of Huntsville, Alabama,
124
MEMOIR OF
after hearing him on a certain occasion, said:
"I have been in Philadelphia, New York,
and Boston, and have heard their greatest
speakers; I have been in Liverpool, London,
and Manchester, and have listened to the
preaching of their most distinguished men;
but that man (pointing to Dr. Anderson) is
the greatest man I ever heard." A physi¬
cian from the State of New York once heard
him preach in a log-cabin in one of the coves
of East Tennessee. He remarked: "Well, I
suppose, that every child in the assembly to¬
day understood the doctor perfectly. Like
Webster, he conveys his most sublime
thoughts in such plain language, that any
one of the humblest capacity can understand
him."
He preached Christ and him crucified. This
he considered the sum and substance of all
evangelical and successful preaching. It is
true, there was much of the so-called hard
doctrine of Calvinism in his discourses; but
everything was presented in its relation to
the Cross. And if, in his sermons, there was
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 125
much of God's character, of the divine attri¬
butes, of the divine law, of the sinner's cor¬
ruption, and guilt, and ruin; if the child of
God was urged to a high standard of holy
living; if the awful scene of the judgment
and the terrific doom of the lost were por¬
trayed with overwhelming power and pressed
on the sinner's heart and conscience,—yet
amid it all, he held up the Cross plainly,
constantly, earnestly. The atonement was a
favorite theme; its fullness, freeness, and per¬
fect adaptation to the sinner's wants,—these
were points on which he loved to dwell. If,
therefore, he labored to remove all the false
foundations of the sinner's hope, if he caused
him to see and feel that he was ruined for¬
ever, he never failed to point him to Christ
as the rock on which he might build, with
safety, his hopes for eternity. He thus made
the atonement the grand central truth of re¬
velation, and the preaching of Christ and his
Cross the burden of his message to a guilty
and ruined race.
He peached extemporaneously. By this
12
126
MEMOIR OP
is not meant that he preached without prepa¬
ration. On the contrary, "his smiting was
generally with a blade he had previously
fabricated and furbished, although he could
make a good one at the time, when it was
necessary." He did not trust to the inspira¬
tion of the time, and place, and circum¬
stances, to supply the thoughts, hut only the
words of the discourse. He very seldom
used a manuscript; indeed, never in his ordi¬
nary preaching. He generally placed within
the leaves of a small-sized Bible a brief,* con¬
taining the heads of discourse, a few leading
and suggestive remarks, and his proof texts,
either cited or written out in full. This he
did to secure perfect accuracy. He distrusted
his memory—which he often charged with
* A few of these are still preserved by a friend, who had
them in possession at the time his house was burned. They
are curious and rare specimens of "notes," exhibiting great
care and taste in their preparation. The manuscript leaf is
about three inches long and two wide, and the "book" is
made up of four leaves. Two of the books are about two
inches square, and all of them bear the marks of having
been well " thumbed."
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 127
treachery—and would not rely on that, for
either the precise thoughts or the exact lan¬
guage of the passages of Scripture quoted.
He preached whatever he believed to be
true, "with all his might," "line upon line,
precept upon precept." One sermon or two
did not suffice him when he wished to fami¬
liarize his people with a subject which he
deemed peculiarly interesting and important.
Of this, three examples will be given by way
of illustration, as well as for the sake of
bringing out some facts which may appear
here as well as elsewhere.
During the early part of his ministry at
Maryville, he wished to indoctrinate his peo¬
ple thoroughly in the true view of Christ's
work of atonement. For this purpose he
preached a long series of sermons on that
and related topics, so that every mind might
he familiarized with what he ever considered
the grand central truth of the gospel.
When the leading temperance men of the
times sprung upon the churches what was
called the "Wine Question," his mind seized
128
MEMOIR OP
upon it with great avidity. He saw the
strong defense of their position, and enlisted
at once for the conflict. Such was his un¬
compromising hostility to alcohol in all its
forms—he was such an irrepressible foe to
the drinking usages of society—that he was
wont to say, when "fencing" the communion¬
table, as it was called, that he would lose his
right arm before he would invite to the
Lord's table any one who used intoxicating
liquors as a beverage. When, therefore, it
was argued that at the institution of the
Supper it was incredible that any but unfer-
mented wine was used; that raisin-juice was
the fruit of the vine, and therefore properly
called wine; that the drugged and brandied
wines of commerce were unfit for sacramental
purposes, especially when so many reformed
inebriates were, by the grace of God, brought
into the church; and that the purchase of
such wines encouraged their manufacture and
sale, and thus indirectly aided in producing
the intemperance which they caused, it is not
to be wondered at that he rejected at once the
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 129
wine of the shops, and substituted the raisin-
juice. Of course this movement met with
great opposition in some quarters, and also
with no little ridicule. But this opposition
was occasioned not so much by an unyielding
partiality for the wine of commerce, as by
dislike to the article proposed to be substi¬
tuted in its place. This was regarded as
quite as far on the verge of the opposite ex¬
treme. The raisin-juice looked like cider,
and had no resemblance whatever to blood to
recommend it as a fit emblem of the purple
stream which flowed from the wounded side
of the crucified Kedeemer. This circum¬
stance, however, he regarded as of very
slight importance, compared with the fact,
on the one hand, that the wines known
under the names Sweet, Madeira, etc., were
drugged and brandied, and on the other,
that the raisin-juice had this to recom¬
mend it, it was made from the grape. What¬
ever may have been then, or may be now,
the views of individuals on that question as
to its abstract merits, there can be no diver-
12*
130
MEMOIR OF
sity of opinion among those who knew Dr. A.,
that he was actuated by a sincere and honest
zeal for the purity of the Christian ordinance,
and a benevolent regard to the weakness of
some who might be tempted to return to
their cups. It was not for the sake of inno¬
vation, but simply and solely because he be¬
lieved his position was sustained by the Word
of God, and because some souls were put in
jeopardy by the temptation furnished them in
an ordinance of God's house. The idea, to
him, was monstrous, that the ordinance of
the Lord's Supper should in anywise endan¬
ger the welfare of a single soul, when it was
so easy to put that temptation out of the
way. Hence, the remark is unkind which is
found in one of Dr. Daniel Baker's letters,
written during a visit to East Tennessee in
1843. Speaking of Dr. A., he says: "Among
other things, he has abolished the use of wine
at the Sacrament, and uses raisin-water. Oh,
the poor Church of Christ, how it has been
troubled by some of its professed friends!"
How gratuitous and misplaced was this con-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 181
dolence, all know who knew Dr. A.'s charac¬
ter. There never lived a man more devoted
to the peace and welfare of the church. But
he was not understood by some, and especially
by such as could, in derision, call the Semi¬
nary over which he presided the "nest of
Hopkinsians."
When David N. Lord published his Expo¬
sition of the Apocalypse, Dr. A. procured it
for examination. He had always had a great
fondness for the study of prophecy;* espe¬
cially was he interested in the Kevelation by
John of Patmos; every commentary on this
book he read and studied; but he often re¬
marked that none ever satisfied his mind
until he read Mr. Lord's. This Exposition
he considered the most masterly production
he had ever met with, on the subject of
Christ's Second Coming and the Millennium.
He was full of the subject, and for about two
years he preached on it once every Sabbath.
He was a bold preacher. Fearless of man's
judgment, he shunned not to declare the
* See Appendix A.
132
MEMOIR OF
whole counsel of God. He maintained what
he believed to be the truth; he denounced
sin in all its forms; he resolutely refused to
utter "smooth things," with a firmness and
constancy which neither gold, nor fame, nor
ease could bribe. In his palmiest days there
were few men who could excel him in the
pungency of his appeals, the pathos of his
entreaties, the earnestness of his exhorta¬
tions, or the awe-inspiring strain with which
he sought to persuade men by the terrors of
the Lord. His commanding form, his ex¬
panded brow, his flashing eye, his powerful
voice, his irresistible logic, his intimate ac¬
quaintance with the Word of God, his in¬
tense earnestness, his unaffected sincerity,
his well-known and honored character, all
conspired to make him one of the most re¬
markable and successful preachers of the first
half of the nineteenth century.
God abundantly blessed his labors. He is
the spiritual father of hundreds who pre¬
ceded him to heaven, and of many yet living.
Thousands, also, have been converted through
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 133
the instrumentality of the men whom he edu¬
cated for the ministry; and oh, what a crown
of rejoicing now adorns his brow! With what,
a rapturous strain does he sweep the harp of
gold and join in anthems of praise to Him in
whom he believed and trusted, and for whose
service he toiled in self-denying labors almost
above measure!
134
memoir. of
CHAPTER IX.
" THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD, THE PILLAR AND GROUND
OF THE TRUTH."
In his ecclesiastical relations he was a lead¬
ing man. His influence in Presbytery and
Synod was always seen and felt. The devo¬
tion, zeal, and ability with which he conse¬
crated himself to the cause of Christ com¬
manded the love and respect of his brethren,
wherever he was known, but especially of his
copresbyters of the Synod of Tennessee, and
gave great weight to his opinions on any sub¬
ject affecting the interests and the welfare of
Zion. At the time of the unhappy division
which rent in twain the Presbyterian Church,
he did not wait to see how others would feel
and act. He took no counsel of mere policy
or convenience. He would hear of no com-
promise whatever, when he saw that a ques¬
tion of right and of justice was involved.
rev. isaac anderson, d.d. 135
He said to himself—" If all the world go with
the exscinding party, there is one man who
will not. I will go alone rather than in
company with any ecclesiastical body whose
proceedings I can no more countenance or
indorse, than I can indorse or countenance
the Roman Catholic Inquisition."
During the troublous times of 1837, when
the civil and political world were agitated
and disturbed, as well as the church, he
writes under date of May thirteenth:—
"Reverend and dear Brother H.:—Yours
of April eighth came in due time. It is enough
to give a man the ' blues.' But it is in exact
accordance with the distraction of the whole
country. If there be one demon more than
another whose name and nature is Discord,
that demon is certainly let loose in the United
States. Distraction, confusion, and distrust
are written on the whole pecuniary and com¬
mercial interests of the country. Nullifica¬
tion and anti-nullification, slavery perpetual,
and crazy abolitionism, have enlisted their
136
MEMOIR OF
thousands under their parti-colored banners,
with drawn swords, and steel thirsting for
blood. The church has caught the pestifer¬
ous plague, and sounds no other notes than
conventions, division, separate assemblies, and
down with heretics! But the climax of all
the mad fooleries is, that a professed lover of
the church, purchased with a Saviour's blood,
should be opposed to the Foreign Missionary
Society—a society catholic, devoted and effi¬
cient; that has successfully raised the stand¬
ard of the Cross in the very heart of the
dominions of darkness and superstition. But
so it is. And even Presbyterian ministers
are found in these ranks of shameful opposi¬
tion. Oh, what is man! Angels must look
upon him with loathing. But if God bears
with them, you and I must, and let our light
shine amid the darkness."
Writing a few months later, to a former
pupil, at that time in a foreign country, he
says:—
"You have, perhaps, heard that our be-
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 137
loved Zion is torn and bleeding at every pore,
by the high-handed measures of a dominant
party in the last General Assembly. What
will be the consequence, God only knows.
But the Lord reigns, and that is enough. The
measures of the last Assembly have not been
surpassed in any Protestant church, since the
Reformation, for injustice, oppression, and
tyranny. I have hope that the love of free¬
dom, which filled the hearts of our fathers in
'76, is still of sufficient strength in the Pres¬
byterian Church, to put down these measures
and their abettors. I have understood that
the ministers in are on the wrong side,
and have passed some miserable resolutions
in their Synod. The Presbytery of U. meets
next week, and I have no doubt will take
strong ground against these arbitrary meas¬
ures."
What the measures are here complained
of, are brought to view in the following ex¬
tracts from letters addressed to the same
individual, one bearing date May 1, 1839,
the other August 2, 1839.
13
138
MEMOIR OF
"The unhappy controversy which has rent
and distracted our beloved Zion will soon ter¬
minate by the separation of the parties. Each
will, then, adopt its own policy and pursue its
own course. The 0. S. party have lost the
suit, and the N. S. Assembly declared to be
the true General Assembly. I hope ecclesi¬
astical aspirants have been taught a lesson
that will not be forgotten the next hundred
years. That an accidental majority should,
in order to secure a majority in all future
Assemblies, cut off hundreds of ministers
and thousands of church members, without
charge, proof, or trial, or opportunity of de¬
fense, is not to be borne. But that they
should do it in the face of a written consti¬
tution, in violation of ordination vows, and
against all truth, justice, and right, is too
bad even for the dark ages of Popery."
"You have heard the disgraceful tidings,
that the Presbyterian Church is rent in twain
by the wrath and ambition of man. The O. S.
party have regarded this Seminary with an
evil eye for years. While the warfare raged
EEV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 139
that at length divided us, the ministers
from this institution, whd were members of
the Assembly, stood in solid phalanx to re¬
sist the usurpation. Every shot they fired
did execution. Hence we are hated with a
deadly hatred. It has been said on the floor
of the Reformed Assembly, that 'East Ten¬
nessee was the most polluted place on earth,
and the Synod ought to be put down as a
common nuisance.' At their meeting in May
last, they passed a decree dissolvingx>ur Sy¬
nod, and extending the Synod of West Ten¬
nessee so as to embrace our bounds, and gave
to it our name. But what does all this avail,
while that Mordecai (the Seminary) sitteth
at the king's gate? He (it) must be hung on
a gibbet. Accordingly, in a conclave of 0. S.
cardinals and bishops, it has been decreed
that an 0. S. seminary shall be established in
East Tennessee, and so well endowed as to
eclipse and kill out that odious Mordecai at
Maryville. We will not be able to stand up
against the wealth and numbers of the 0. S.
party, and our friends say that the division
140
MEMOIR OF
has so disorganized things everywhere, that
many cannot come to our help until it is too
late. Tyranny, consolidation, ecclesiastical
usurpation,—these are the order of the day.
Those who are engaged in these things exert
themselves, per fas et nefas, to cover the land
with their abominations. They stop at no¬
thing, for with them the end sanctifies the
means. Truth or error is preferred just as
they think the one or the other may best sub¬
serve their ends. Is this too severe a judg¬
ment? Look at the facts as their own re¬
cords show. They cut off four Synods in
defiance of the spirit and even the very letter
of the constitution, and justify themselves by
solemnly saying: First. These Synods never
were, in form or in fact, a part of the Pres¬
byterian Church. And yet their own records
show that they were, and so convict them of
falsehood. Secondly. These Synods grew out
of the Plan of Union. But the wise ones among
them know that this is not true. Thirdly.
They keep a jubilee because they succeeded
in rending the church asunder. In one place
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 141
they say they did it to get clear of heresy;
in another place, to rid the church of aboli¬
tionism. And one might ask, what will they
not do or say? It is a trying time to the
friends of the Constitutional Presbyterian
Church, and it becomes them to be on their
watch-tower, for the enemy is on the alert.
This Seminary is almost the only instrument
in the South and West, which Constitutional
Presbyterians have to maintain the cause of
truth. Will not the Great Head of the Church
give us favor in the eyes of the people, if we
act from love to his truth, and desire for the
prosperity of his Kingdom?"
On no subject, perhaps, did he ever express
himself so strongly as on this. His spirit
burned with righteous indignation, whenever
he spoke or heard of those acts of 1837-8,
which involved a virtual abrogation of the
constitution of the church, and whose ten¬
dency was to sap the very foundations on
which the safety and peace of the church
depended. He could find no language strong
13*
142
MEMOIR OF
enough to express his profound regret that
men could be found in the Presbyterian
Church, who could trample the constitution
under foot and inflict such gross injustice and
wrong on their brethren. To his firmness
and decision at this crisis; to his unyielding
attachment to the constitution; to his prompt
espousal of the cause of his injured brethren,
may be attributed much of the stability and
growth, and present influence of Constitu¬
tional Presbyterianism in the South and West.
In the quite recent division which has re¬
sulted in the organization of the United
Synod, it would be easy to conjecture on
which side he would have stood. But we
are not left to conjecture. For although he
had passed away from the scene of his labors,
and conflicts, and triumphs, he has left be¬
hind him an expression of his views which
would have identified him most heartily with
the cause of the United Synod. Writing to
a relative, under date of August 14, 1846, he
says:—
" Our Assembly met, discussed the question
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 143
of slavery with a Christian spirit, and parted
with kindlier feelings and more brotherly love
than they had when they met. I hope the
discussion will be overruled by God for good.
The church is not commissioned to interfere
with the relation of king and subject, or of
master and slave, but to instruct in their
mutual duties and enforce obedience by the
tremendous motives of the Gospel, and dis¬
cipline master or slave who may be members,
but do not perform the mutual duties required
by the Gospel."
This covers, either expressly or by fair im¬
plication, the peculiar ground of the United
Synod. It cannot be doubted, that were he
still among us to bless us with his counsels,
he would treat with virtuous indignation the
unconstitutional act of recent Assemblies, as
he did the odious acts of '37; for he loved
truth and justice, and hated even the appear¬
ance of unfairness and of wrong.
In his attendance on the meetings of Pres¬
bytery and Synod, he was punctual and faith¬
ful, until the infirmities of old acre had ren-
" O
141
MEMOIR OF
dered it impossible for him to leave home,
lie felt that the interests of the church re¬
quired of every minister and ruling elder
that they should always be in their places in
the judicatories of the church, to consult to¬
gether about the welfare of Zion. Nor did
he regard these meetings as simply business
meetings. He looked forward to them as
seasons when good should be done in the
edification of the church and the salvation of
sinners.
In a letter, bearing date September 13,1851,
he says:—
"But I have a particular object in writing
at this time. Our Synod is to meet in C.,
tenth of October. That is a new and import¬
ant place, and is likely to become more and
more so continually. It is an object worthy
of the attention of the whole Synod to give
an impulse to Presbyterianism in that town.
I hope you will go to Synod. Let the Synod
aim more in doing good to the place, even if
they should stay a day or two longer, rather
than hastening to get through their business
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 145
and returning home as soon as possible.
Preach every day, twice in daylight and
once at night. I hope you will go without
fail. I have written to Brothers R. and M.,
to be sure to go. And let all preach and
pray like devoted Pauls."
This is wholesome advice, not perhaps
unnecessary at the present time, when our
Presbyteries and Synods meet and adjourn
without the manifest blessings of the Spirit
on themselves and the church where they
assembled.
116
memoir of
CHAPTER X.
"love thinketh no evil, seeketh not her own, vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up."
If there ever lived a man who illustrated
in his life the doctrines he taught from the
pulpit and the professor's chair, that man
was Dr. Anderson. Love was the sum and
substance of his teaching and his life. He
had a heart large enough and loving enough
to embrace within its benevolent desires all
mankind. He had a broad philanthropy, a
hearty good-will to man, which led him to
labor for the salvation of the humblest slave
as well as for the proudest child of fortune.
Any object of want or suffering never failed
to move his sympathies and elicit his charit¬
able benefactions. In his benevolence he was
no respecter of persons. The African, the
Indian, the foreigner from whatever land, was
to him as a brother, and as such he felt under
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 147
obligation to promote, as far as he could, bis
temporal and eternal welfare. "I became
personally, and I may say, intimately ac¬
quainted with Dr. Anderson in 1817, just
forty years before his death. Perhaps early
in the year following, I made a profession of
religion underpins ministry, and joined a
Bible-class under his care and instruction.
During the whole period of my acquaintance,
from the time above mentioned until his
death, I thought him to be eminently a man
of one great idea, and that was, the glory of
God in the salvation of men. This appeared
ever to fill his enlarged and benevolent soul.
All his plans and efforts through life appeared
to have that object in view. The last time I
saw him he was on his death-bed. His bodily
strength had failed and his mind was almost
gone. As I sat by his bedside he fixed his
eye earnestly on me for a few moments, and
then repeated the lines,—
' I long to see the season come
When sinners shall come flocking home.'
"After repeating these lines, he asked me if
148
MEMOIR OF
some one had not used the words. I replied,
they were the words of one of the poets.
The tears started in his eyes, and he said:
'Everything that does not somehow or other
fall in with that sentiment, is like throwing
cold water upon me. I can't stand it.' It
then seemed to me that I had, in those few
words, an epitome of Dr. Anderson's life and
character."
So writes one of his earliest pupils, who
knew him long and well, even as a son knows
a father.
Another writes: "I would, unspeakably,
rather be Isaac Anderson than any of the
Alexanders, or Caesars, or Bonapartes of the
world. They may be long remembered as
the scourges of the earth, as fearful rods in
the hands of an angry God, for the chastise¬
ment of ungodly nations; but while the name
of Isaac Anderson has a place in the memory
of man, or on the historic page, he will be
regarded as the honored servant of God and
a distinguished benefactor of man. His life of
beneficence was like an unobstructed stream,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 149
flowing gently and constantly, without cata¬
ract, or cascade, or subsidence, fertilizing and
adorning whatever grew along its even way
as it passed through the valley of time to the
ocean of eternity. Its way could be discerned
from afar by the rich verdure and precious
fruits that grew on its banks, or overhung its
channel."
It was the all-pervading influence of this
love to God and man, this disinterested be¬
nevolence which he not only taught, but re¬
duced to daily practice also, which led him
to offer himself as a "living sacrifice" to God
and His cause.
"I consider," writes one who knew him
well, "the peculiar type of Dr. Anderson's
piety, which stood out in such bold relief
and caused him to tower so high above his
brethren, and which so deeply impressed my
own mind, to consist in that entire conse¬
cration of himself and all his powers to the
cause of his Divine Master—always alive to
Christ and His cause; dead to the world and
its charms; so perfectly unselfish as to be
14
150
MEMOIR OF
quite unable to understand how the opposite
could exist in others; in a word, laying him¬
self on the altar, a ' whole burnt-offering,'
keeping back no part of the price."
He was a man of the most artless sim¬
plicity, for "love thinketh no evil." What
has been said of another may, with strictest
truth, be said of him: " He was most distin¬
guished for a childlike simplicity. Kind in
his nature, with a heart overflowing with
sympathy, most apt to lend a ready ear to
the professions of men, nothing was easier
for him than to bestow his confidence, and
thus become the victim of imposture. He
was an entire stranger to all those arts to
which cunning and unscrupulous men resort
for the accomplishment of their ends, and
was therefore incapable of playing a part."
Any tale of woe poured into his ear, if at all
plausibly constructed or related, was sure to
meet with a hearty response. Knowing this,
many an impostor has sought his services to
prepare a subscription-paper, and his name
was certain to head the list. It may be
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 151
thought by some who read this, that this
aspect of his character should have been
passed by unnoticed. But there are imper¬
fections in the best examples of human char¬
acter; there are spots on the sun; and this
infirmity only makes his character appear all
the more lovely, since it sprung from a
charity—a love so deep and strong, so unsus¬
pecting and confiding, that it thought no
evil. Guileless himself, he did not suspect
hypocrisy in others. An anecdote is related
of him which aptly illustrates this point. A
man once came to him, offering to sell him a
quantity of gypsum; he represented it as a
good article and just the thing for the fields
of the doctor's little farm. He bought it. It
was seven miles distant; he had not seen it;
he relied solely on the representations of the
man who sold it to him. But lo! when the
gypsum was brought home, it proved to be
nothing but common carbonate of lime, of
which there was already a superabundance
on his farm.
Of his modesty, springing from a charity
152
MEMOIR OF
which vaunteth not itself, his whole life af¬
fords most abundant evidence. He never
boasted of what he had done, or of what he
had suffered for Christ's cause; nor did he
trumpet his good deeds, his kindness to the
poor, his benefactions to pious and indigent
young men preparing for the ministry. His
charities were unostentatious. Indeed, his
teaching and preaching were, in a great meas¬
ure, a charity, for during a pastorate of forty
years, he received very inadequate compensa¬
tion for his services. But of all the evidence
which has met the eye of the writer of these
pages, there is none which so forcibly illus¬
trates this remarkable exhibition of benevo¬
lent character, as a simple entry in one of his
memorandum books. At the foot of the page
there are three or four lines in Latin, which,
being interpreted, mean, that on a certain
day in the year of our Lord 18—, he had
sent so many pounds of bacon to a poor
widow.
It was his charity, which thinketh no evil,
is not puffed up, and seeketh not her own,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 153
which inspired confidence in him, in all who
knew him well and intimately. Of this a sin¬
gle example only will be adduced. Partly for
the purpose of invigorating his health by active
out-door exercise, hut chiefly with a view to
increased means of carrying forward his pro¬
ject of educating young men for the ministry,
(for this was ever uppermost in his plans,)
he became connected with a road company,
which undertook to construct a Macadamized
road over the Smoky Mountains, having its
termini at Maryville, Tenn., and Franklin,
N. C., respectively. The Tennessee portion
only was built; and this was due to the en¬
ergy and industry with which Dr. A. pushed
forward the work. He was employed to
superintend it, and to pay off the laborers.
These were Indians. Of course he was
brought into frequent and intimate inter¬
course with them, both on the mountains and
in his own house. His uniform kindness, his
strict integrity, his scrupulous regard for
their rights, inspired them with the most
unbounded confidence. They respected his
14*
154
MEMOIR OF
word above all law or oath, and they re¬
garded his person as though he were a demi¬
god sent among them for their special protec¬
tion against the meanness and fraud of their
unscrupulous white brothers. In 1843, a
commission was sent out by the General Gov¬
ernment, to adjust certain land-claims with
the Indians. A young lawyer from Mary-
ville accompanied the commission to Murphy,
N. C., and offered his services to John Timp-
son, the leading man of the tribe. Timpson
told him very frankly that he could not
recommend him to his people, because he
was wholly unacquainted with him, and it
would cost him his life to recommend one
who should prove to be wanting in integrity.
"But," said he, "if you could get a letter of
recommendation from Dr. Anderson, it would
be the surest passport you could have to the
confidence of a Cherokee." This letter was
obtained, and is still preserved as a choice
relic by the lawyer above referred to.
It is stated above, that all Dr. A.'s plans
had reference to the one absorbing purpose of
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 155
his life, the education of young men for the
ministry. In the light of this fact, it will be
seen why he manifested so much interest in
the mineral resources of the country. It was
not because he was to be benefited that he
took so much interest in these things. On
the contrary, it was because he saw in the
increasing wealth of the country increasing
hope of help for his beloved Seminary, and
increasing encouragement in the work of the
world's conversion. This will appear, from
the following extract from a letter dated
January 7, 1847: "The discovery has lately
been made, that our country is full of coal,
zinc, copper, tin, perhaps much silver, and
surely many rich lead veins, and probably
much gold. A pretty general interest is ex¬
cited, and a good many shafts are being sunk.
I hope, ere long, these valuable metals will
be obtained, and our hills and mountains
may one day bring to the Lord's treasury the
gold and the silver, which are his own, to aid
in sending the Bible to all the world, as well
as thousands of missionaries, and to establish
156
MEMOIR OF
on the coast of Africa a republic of civilized
and Christianized people of color. I do pray,
if these metals exist, (of which I have little
doubt,) that they may soon be brought to do
their part in promoting the cause of Christ
and the best interests of man." What better
commentary on the words of the Apostle—
"Charity seeketh not her own!"
But it must not be forgotten here, that
although such was the character of Dr. A.,
as given above, yet he could feel an insult
most keenty. He never retaliated or avenged
himself—he was too pure and charitable for
that—but he knew what was due to his dig¬
nity and honor. He therefore scorned all
meanness, all obsequiousness, all injustice.
Of this there is proof in the following extract
from a letter dated February 6, 1833: "I
have reflected on the insult that both you
and I received at , and have come to
the deliberate conclusion, that neither you
nor I ought to go there again. I have made
up my mind that I will not, unless my
wounded feelings are healed by a reparation
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
157
as large as was the insult. But now for the
troublesome question, ought we to invite
to our meeting? I answer deliberately, no.
Why not? Would not this look like retalia¬
tion? If this should be the reason why we
did not invite him, it would he wicked.
Then what is the reason? Because we can¬
not go to and maintain an honorable
and dignified deportment. But if we bring
him to our meetings, it will have the appear¬
ance of a mean, dastardly, sycophantic spirit,
crouching at the feet of . And whenever
a man acts in such a way as to lose the ap¬
pearance of independence and self-respect, he
becomes degraded in the view of the public,
loses his influence and power of doing good,
and is the object of contempt. But how are
we to treat ? When we providentially
meet with him at Presbytery or Synod, or
elsewhere, treat him with kindness and re¬
spect; and let us take care to say nothing
to injure his usefulness." Blessed spirit of
charity, forbearance, honor, truth! Would
God there wTere more of it in the hearts of
158
MEMOIR OE
Christians! It is the very spirit of the Mas¬
ter himself; it was, in an eminent degree,
the spirit of him whose character is here
recorded.
One more instance only of his modesty, as
illustrating the charity which vaunteth not
itself, will here be given before the subject is
dismissed. June 3, 1815, he preached a ser¬
mon in Cove Spring Church, on the Divinity
of Christ, from John, xx. 31, and 1 John,
v. 20. Immediately, on its delivery, he was
requested to furnish a copy for publication.
Subscriptions were taken and the sermon
published. Writing to an intimate friend, he
says: " Inclosed I send you proposals for pub¬
lishing a sermon. I am not pushing myself
on the public. I preached in Cove Spring
Church, and in less than ten minutes, I was
requested to let it be published. I asked for
time to consider—from Saturday to Monday;
by the time I was to answer they had sub¬
scribed for eighty copies. I do not state this
to convince you that the sermon is a good
one, but to justify myself in publishing."
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 159
Thus did he wish to avoid even the appear¬
ance of conceit or boldness. The sermon was
published at Rogersville, by John B. Hood.
It is an elaborate discussion of the doctrine
of the Divinity of Christ, with an Appendix,
in which he refutes the Socinian objections
of Mr. Worcester in his work styled "Bible
News."
160
memoir of
CHAPTER XI.
"a prudent wife is from the lord."
October 19, 1802, he was married to Flora
McCampbell. His union with this estimable
lady was fraught with many blessings. She
was intelligent, kind, economical, and pru¬
dent, and in every respect a help-meet for
him. There are many, even now, who rise
up and call her blessed. Many a young man,
far from home, in a strange land, has felt the
power of her kind words, and the value of
kind attentions. This passing tribute to her
memory may meet the eye of some who
once found in her a mother, ever ready to do
all in her power to contribute to their com¬
fort while prosecuting their studies.
How much the church is indebted to Mrs.
A. cannot be estimated. Much of her hus¬
band's usefulness is to be attributed to her
hearty sympathy with him in the great mis-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 161
sion of his life. He says himself of her, in
a letter to a friend a few months after her
death: " Memory brings up vividly before me
her person, her habitual piety, her prudence
and discretion in the domestic circle, and in
her intercourse with friends and neighbors,
her disinterested benevolence and promptness
to encourage me in all my public duties as a
pastor and teacher of young men preparing
for the ministry. 4 He that findeth a wife
findeth a good thing.' I feel and own my
indebtedness to a gracious God for this good,
for fifty years."
His plans for doing good, his generous hos¬
pitality—sometimes, perhaps, too generous,
became too burdensome to her—she never
wished or attempted to thwart. To feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, minister to the
sick, sympathize with the afflicted, was his
life-long work; and it was hers also, until
she faded away and sank peacefully into the
grave. And though no marble monument
marks her last resting-place in the old
church-yard, yet her name lives in the mem-
15
162
MEMOIR OF
ory of those who knew her, and only knew
to praise.
Several months before her decease, his let¬
ters give evidence of most painful anxiety.
Writing to her sister, he says: "But you are
more anxious to learn the state of your sis¬
ter's health. This is to me, also, a subject of
deep solicitude. It gives me frequent errands
to Him who is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, and is able to succor those
that are tried. That age and infirmity are
wasting her strength and constitution, there
can be no doubt. Yet, as a general thing,
she is exempted from much pain or heart-
sickness. The Gospel, the blessed Gospel of
Christ, affords divine help and consolation
under such dispensations of Providence. Our
Heavenly Father is infinitely wise and be¬
nevolent. He will take care of the child of
his grace."
An account of her last illness and death
is best given in his own words, as seen in the
following letter, written December 20, 1851.
It is given almost entire, not only as exhibit-
key. isaac anderson, d.d. 163
ing his estimate of her character, but espe¬
cially as manifesting his grateful appreciation
of the divine goodness and humble submis¬
sion to the divine will.
"Reverend and vert dear Brother:—We
sometimes hear from P., and fear you are
called to endure severe trial, either in lament¬
ing the death of a beloved son, or in watch¬
ing at his dying bed. I pray that a gracious
God may sustain you and the afflicted mother.
'Affliction makes the promise sweet:
Dear Lord! though hitter is the cup,
That cannot hurt which comes from thee—
'Tis dashed with thy unchanging love.'
"I have lately felt the chastising rod.
Your sister, my beloved wife, departed this
life, November 15,1851. You know the dis¬
ease was the same that removed your dear
mother to her heavenly home. My wife has
had the same kind of cough for twelve or
fourteen years. It wasted her strength, and
insensibly undermined her constitution. For
the last two or three years especially, its
164
MEMOIR OE
debilitating effects became more and more
evident. Since July, 1850, she became so
feeble, that I thought it my duty not to be
absent, except very rarely, from home at
night. But oh! how good was God to us!
She suffered, comparatively, little heart-sick¬
ness or pain, yet felt both occasionally. I
never saw her depressed in spirits; but, on
the contrary, always cheerful, patient, and
resigned. She always regarded her case as
incurable, and viewed death as the certain
result. Hence death was a subject with
which she was familiar, and which she
viewed with as much composure as she
would going to rest in bed. One day, in
speaking of dressing a corpse in a black
dress, (which is not now uncommon,) she ob¬
served, she did not like it, as it looked like
they went to the grave mourning.
"The day before she died, she took her
accustomed walk in the garden, and read the
Bible and religious books and papers as
usual. She also knit and sewed. About
midnight, she experienced great pain in her
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 165
back and breast. I immediately rose, gave
her the usual remedies, and sat up with her
until daybreak—the first time I had to do
so during the twelve or fourteen years—
when she fell asleep. At ten o'clock she
awoke, and, having eaten her breakfast, con¬
versed cheerfully with those in the room, and
felt that she had passed safely through the
' spell,' (as she called it,) and might not have
another for two or three weeks. After sup¬
per, however, she fell asleep, and awoke no
more, until she awoke in Paradise with her
Saviour, her sainted son, mother and father,
and many she loved on earth. She died with¬
out a groan or struggle, or irregular motion
of the limbs or of the muscles of the face or
eyes. She was lovely in death.
"I do remember her many virtues with
gratitude to God. Prudent and discreet in
her intercourse with society, respected by all,
kind without ostentation, not letting the left
hand know what the right hand did, firm
and resolute in her purposes, prayerful, and
a lover of God and of good men. The word
15*
166
MEMOIR OP
of God dwelt in her richly, and she sought
and loved the truth. How great is my debt
of gratitude to God for such a wife! And
yet, with all these grounds of consolation, I
deeply feel the bereavement. I miss her at
every turn, and in a thousand things, besides
her counsel and advice. It is the Lord, who
cannot do but what is best."
With humble submission he bowed his
head to the painful stroke. At the open
grave he expressed his grateful sense of the
kindness which had been shown him during
his affliction; but not a murmur escaped his
lips. And when, seven years after, he him¬
self was laid by her side in the old church¬
yard, "who can tell in what shadowy plain
of the land of all delights, by what river of
gladness in the country of their Father, by
what fountain, what high rock, what flower-
clad bank, they met, who had been so long
separate? For I know well that when he
reached that land, her lips were first to greet
him, her arms first to infold him, her voice
the voice of the angel that God sent to lead
him to his feet."
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
167
CHAPTER XII.
"JOSEPH IS NOT."
Of his children, (there were six of them,)
five sons and one daughter, all died in early
infancy, except Samuel, his third son, who
was born March 11,1810. Around this child
his affections gathered in all the strength of
a nature so ardent and loving as his. With
assiduous care, he sought to train him up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and
well was he repaid by the affectionate duti-
fulness, the upright deportment, the sincere
piety of his son, who grew up to manhood,
respected and beloved by all who knew him.
It is natural to suppose that such a father
would greatly desire to see such a son actively
engaged in tho work of the ministry; and
yet, when the time had come for him to
make choice of a .profession, we can but ad¬
mire the wisdom with which the father re-
168
MEMOIR OF
plies to the earnest questioning of his son, as
to the path of duty. In a letter, written for
his son's eye only, he says:—
"Dear Son:—You ask me a very solemn
question, 4 What shall be my occupation for
life?' You must answer to God, your judge,
for the choice you make. I will, however,
give you a few directions. Ask God, on your
knees, to guide you, by his unerring wisdom,
in this important matter, and faint not in
praying, until you feel that" you have the
approbation of God in the choice you make.
Be sure that your motive in making the
choice be to please God, to glorify him, and
to do the most good in the world. Next, let
your judgment be well informed, that you
may not make an erroneous choice. If you
choose from the above motives, being suffi¬
ciently enlightened, then you will have the
approbation of the God who will surely judge
you. It will be your duty not to be hasty in
this matter. It will be bpth your duty and
privilege, first to complete your education,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 169
and then, if you should not study divinity as
a candidate for the ministry, yet to read the¬
ology so as to get some general and accurate
idea of the great subjects contained therein.
The reasons why you should do this, are—1.
It is the only knowledge that has real intrin¬
sic worth to the soul, and will do us good in
eternity. 2. It is the knowledge which will
qualify you to be useful to the church, what¬
ever be your calling in life. After this, I
would have no objection to your reading
medicine as a science, and then, if Provi¬
dence said so, to practice. But there is no
need of being rash or hasty. I commenced
my education at eight years of age and con¬
tinued until I was twenty, before I entered
on the duties of a profession; and this was
soon enough."
But all his plans, all his bright anticipa¬
tions, all his pleasant hopes concerning this
son, were doomed to disappointment. Dis¬
ease fastened on him its relentless grasp,
until death came and claimed the victim for
170
MEMOIR OF
his own. October 22,1841, he writes: "I am
nursing my only child, and have been for the
last five weeks; the greater portion of the
time I have not removed my clothes to go
to bed. What the result will be, only God
knows; the prospect of his recovery is not
flattering; I have to lift him up and down as
a helpless child." What must have been the
intense anxiety of his mind during this pro¬
tracted illness of his only living child!—
Doubtless there was an alternation of hope
and fear, and a fierce strife between the
natural father and the submissive Christian.
That the latter triumphed, is best seen from
the following extract from a letter written
January 23, 1842: "Our Heavenly Father
has seen best to try us, last fall, with a sore
bereavement. Our only and beloved son
Samuel died on the fifteenth of last Novem¬
ber, and has left us childless at the age of
threescore; and but for the two children, a
son and daughter, which he has left, my
name and progeny would have no place in
the church militant. These children keep up
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 171
my spirits very much, and but for them I
sometimes feel that my sorrow would bring
me to the grave. Yet we have had every¬
thing that could console and support us under
such a bereavement. His blameless, unspot¬
ted character from a boy, his patience and
resignation during two months of most ex¬
quisite sufferings, console us. From the very
first of his sickness he thought he might not
live, yet death had no terrors for him. God
not only gave him calm resignation and most
extraordinary patience, but holy joys and tri¬
umphs that often rose to raptures, amid which
his sufferings were forgotten. Often would he
say, 'I shall have a body like Jesus; I will
be like him, feel like him, and be with him
forever.' It would more than fill my letter
to detail his sufferings, his triumphs, and his
language. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, for all
his mercies! I hope to praise Him in heaven,
where my son is, forever. I had to remain at
his bedside from about the middle of Septem¬
ber to the fifteenth of November, when he
expired in my arms. During this time, I
172
MEMOIR OF
never took off my clothes to go to bed; yet
the Lord so sustained my health and strength
that I never became weary. Often would my
affectionate son look up in my face, and say,
'You will have a spell of sickness; you can¬
not stand this; as your anxiety and excite¬
ment wears off you will be sick.' Yet God
did sustain me. May the Lord abundantly
sanctify to us this severe but righteous chas¬
tisement! You can form but a feeble concep¬
tion of the trial to aged parents, to bury
their sixth and last child.* Oh, how it ought
to wean us from earth, and how much it
would and does bring me to look to the many
dear brethren whom I have had some little
hand in bringing into the ministry, to fill the
* A most affecting illustration of the strength and tender¬
ness of his paternal affection is found in the mournful utter¬
ances of his bleeding heart at his son's newly-made grave.
A short time after his death he visited the grave, accompa¬
nied by his son's widow. He said, "If I could, I would
bring some men here and dig up his body that I might look
on him once more; but it is childish to feel thus, and I have
never mentioned it before."
Sometimes, when riding over his farm, he would find him¬
self saying aloud, "My son, my son!"
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 173
place of a dutiful son! With whom shall we
now live, our son, the hope of our declining
days, in the grave? 0 cruel grave! But
Jesus has made it to his people a bed of rest.
Who will wipe the clammy sweat of death
from our brows? 'Joseph is not.' But God
will never leave us, nor forsake us, and will be
better to us than many sons and daughters."
How lovely is this spirit of submission,
this quiet relinquishment of an only and be¬
loved son, this grateful recognition of the
Divine goodness to the suffering child, over
which his heart yearned with parental ten¬
derness !
After the death of his son, his heart poured
out the wealth of its affections on his grand¬
children. They were his comfort, his joy, his
hope. Tenderly, carefully, faithfully did he
watch over them, instruct them, guide them.
Their absence from home made home almost
desolate. His letters to them when absent
on a certain occasion show how fondly he
cherished them as the comfort and solace of
his old age. It will not be incompatible with
16
174
memoir of
the dignity of this sketch to insert here some
extracts from two of these letters. They
present that aspect of his character which
did not meet the public eye, but which is an
essential part of it. He was a man, a father,
a parent bereft of his last child in his old
age; he therefore responds to the promptings
of an affectionate heart, bereaved and seek¬
ing comfort in these grandchildren—the son
and daughter of his beloved son. During the
summer of 1848, they left home on a visit to
the relations of their stepfather, in Jefferson
County. Writing to them under date of Au¬
gust fifth, he says:—
" Dear Children :—I went to Mr. P.'s two-
days-meeting and preached four sermons in
two days, and Sunday night went home with
Dr. G. It was nine o'clock when we reached
his house. Next morning the doctor and I
went up to the place where Aunt M. lives.
Your aunt and uncle were well, and little C.
as fine a boy as ever. Then I started with
Mr. M., Mr. S., your uncles W. and J., and
Mr. S. C., to go to the top of Smoky Moun-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 175
tain—oh, how it did rain on us!—and when
we got there we had no tent fit for a dog, and
so small that only two or three had room to
sleep; the rest slept none. How much bet¬
ter off you were who had a good house!
Next day we all went into Cade's Cove and
heard Mr. M. preach: we then came to Eldo¬
rado, then to your Aunt M.'s, and the next
day I came home.
" A day or two after you went away,1 Tippy'
became sick one evening; we knew no reason
for it; he did not care to go to his roost;
next morning he was missing, hut was hunted
for up and down by all, but has never been
found. We suppose he crept into some secret
place and died. Fido and Carlo are in fine
glee. We have plenty of ' roasting-ears;' but
I fear the melons will all be gone before you
get home. Grandmother has been quite sick,
but is now much better. You must remem¬
ber us to your mother and pa, and to all
your new friends generally. You ought to
go to see that good old uncle, Dr. McCamp-
bell, and all his family, as I expect you will.
176
MEMOIR OE
"But, dear children, behave so well that
every good person will love }mu; and behave
so well that God will love you and bless you.
God will not love you unless you love him
and keep his commandments. God tells us
in the Bible, that we ought always to pray
and not to faint. Not to faint, means that
we must not forget to pray, nor become tired
of praying. Love and obey cheerfully your
ma and pa. If you do all these things you
will be happy and beloved by everybody."
Then comes a message from the grand¬
mother, about the turkeys, guineas, and
chickens, and how Fido "came near hanging
himself"—all matters of the deepest interest
to the children. He then adds: "B. and I.
must read this letter over and over, until
they can read it without help after the first
time. Then you must write us a good, long
letter, and not get anybody to help you. Be
good children, and grow better every day.
Farewell."
Three weeks after, he wrote to them
again:—
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 177
"Dear Children:—We hope you, and ma,
and pa, and all the friends are well. We are
as well as usual, but lonesome, and long for
the time when you will get home. The
ducks, guineas, turkeys, and chickens are in
great glee, and the two puppies. The little
guineas can get up to the top of the apple-
trees and then fly to the top of the house.
All the melons, peaches, and roasting-ears
will be gone before you get home. Bellzora
will not own I. when he returns, nor let him
own her as his beast.
"I hope you both try to remember your
Creator in the days of your youth. Remem¬
ber your prayers, and learn to fear to sin
against God. Learn from the Good Book
God's commandments, and do as that holy
book tells you. Grandmother says she longs
to see you all at home.
"Your affectionate Grandfather.
"P.S.—R. must work at this letter until
she can read it easily."
16*
178
MEMOIR OF
CHAPTER XIII.
"righteousness exalteth a nation."
Dr. Anderson was not an inattentive ob¬
server of events in the political world. Al¬
though he took no part in mere party politics,
and was, therefore, no partisan, yet he was
interested in all the political questions of the
day, and in everything which affected the
character, rights, and prosperity of his coun¬
try. The amor patriae, was strong in him.
His intimate acquaintance with biblical his¬
tory had enabled him to assume a much
more elevated and correct stand-point for
viewing all political questions, than was oc¬
cupied by such as looked at them only from
a human point of view. In other words, his
motto in politics was—"Righteousness ex¬
alteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any
people." All legislative enactments, State or
Federal, which either winked at sin, or con-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 179
travened the divine statutes, he regarded as
wrong and wicked, exposing the nation to
divine judgments. He was the uncompro¬
mising foe to all forms of injustice or oppres¬
sion, whether legalized or not, and especially
to whatever involved national rights and
national honor. During the last war, the
President issued his proclamation, appointing
the 8th of September, 1813, as a day of hu¬
miliation and prayers. On that day, Dr. A.
preached a sermon "On the Moral and Poli¬
tical Causes of the War,"* in which he dis¬
cusses the following propositions, viz.
1. In contests between nations, the Lord
espouses the cause of the righteous and makes
it his own.
2. Those who will not help their country
against an unjust enemy incur the divine dis¬
pleasure.
The whole discourse breathes the very
* This sermon will be found in the Appendix. It is
deserving of a careful perusal, as embodying sentiments not
unworthy the consideration of every American citizen.
180
memoir op
spirit of true patriotism, while it also shows
how God punishes national sin.
He admired and loved the union, and in all
proper ways did what he could to strengthen
the bonds which bind the States together.
He could not brook the thought of its disso¬
lution. He writes, under date of July 27,
1849:—
"You are agitated with politics. I pray
that God may preside over your elections and
the deliberations of your statesmen. I am
cheered with the hope that K. will not give
any countenance to that most abominable
political heresy of the vilest schismatics—
'Come, let us dissolve the union of these
States.' This is an unpardonable heresy.
Dissolve the Union! The Union is the hope
of the world, and, under God, promises to
break down civil and religious tyranny. The
Union is the only safeguard these States have
against anarchy, and civil discord with all its
horrors. I used to say as far back as 1832-3,
that the man who silently thought of such a
thing ought to be hung; and, if he spoke it,
rev. isaac anderson, d.d. 381
deserved some severer fate. The ' union, one
and indivisible,' ought to be the motto of
every American and every philanthropist.
A few Tennesseeans have the recklessness to
hint at the dissolution of the Union. They
belong to the Calhoun school. Benton, in
his address to his constituents, has attempted
to show that Calhoun is a base man, and he
(Benton) is a base man if he has lied on Cal¬
houn—one or the other is true—and I have
no evidence that Benton has misrepresented
Calhoun. The Book of Revelation says, a
vial is to be poured out on the atmosphere
which surrounds the globe. The other vials
were limited to certain places, and produced
certain limited effects; but the vial poured
out on the air is to affect the whole inhab¬
ited earth. Idolatry, Mohammedanism, hie¬
rarchies, civil governments, everything in
which there is found anything vile and
wicked will be carried away, as chaff by a
tornado, and all nations will then submit to
the reign of Jesus Christ, and the wisdom
of the princes of this world will come to
182
MEMOIR OE
naught. Amen. The effects of that vial may
excite the madness of our demagogues to
shiver this Union, that God may chastise
us for our great national sins. It is to be
lamented that the politics of this world
should draw away the public mind so much
from the one thing needful; but God will
take care of his own glorious cause, however
careless and indifferent we may be."
bey. isaac anderson, d.d.
183
CHAPTER XIV.
"know ye not that there is a prince and a great man
fallen this day in israel?"
In his maturity, the person of Dr. Ander¬
son was tall, commanding, and somewhat in¬
clined to be corpulent. His frame, however,
was not unusually large, as they were sur¬
prised to find who prepared his body for the
grave. In the excitement of speaking, his
majestic form seemed, sometimes, to swell
into almost gigantic proportions, as he poured
forth a torrent of appeal. His eloquence at
such times has been not inaptly compared
to a "mighty rushing wind." At the com¬
mencement of his ministry, his health was
feeble. He possessed, however, a naturally
robust constitution, but it had been enfeebled
by close study. He was emaciated, and want¬
ing in strength to endure the labor of preach¬
ing a sermon thirty minutes long. But his
184
MEMOIR OF
labors as an evangelist, to which allusion
oi /
has been made in a previous chapter, were
blessed, not only to the saving of souls, but
to the restoration of his health; so that for
many years he knew not what it was to
weary under the most exhausting labor. In
the saddle, riding to and from his distant ap¬
pointments, in the heat of summer and the
winds and snows of winter; in the pulpit,
laboring with the strength and zeal of a man
in earnest; in the class-room, enduring that
which is most trying to the constitution, con¬
finement within-doors and sedentary habits;
on his farm, toiling with his own hands to
eke out a scanty living and secure the means
of doing good,—wherever he was, whatever
he did, his natural force seemed not to abate
under a pressure of labor which would have
crushed a man of less vigorous constitution.
But that which arrested the attention and
excited the admiration of every beholder,
was the remarkably sweet expression of his
countenance, and the facile power of his eye.
On the Sabbath, when he rose in the pulpit
REV. ISAAC" ANDERSON, D.D. 185
to commence the service, the impress of a
more heavenly serenity, a more placid benev¬
olence, a calmer dignity, is seldom seen on
human brow. But if the broad expanse of
his noble forehead made no false impression
of the strength and depth of his intellect,
neither did the benevolent expression of his
countenance testify falsely of a spirit whose
broad philanthropy could and did take in all
the world. And although his eye seemed to
look you through, yet it often sparkled with
mirthfulness, for he was always cheerful; or
was bedewed with tears of kindness and
ve, for his heart was tender and could be
touched with the feeling of another's infirm¬
ities and sorrows.
During the last ten or twelve years of his
life, he was under the necessity of sitting
when he preached; and for the last two or
three, used a crutch in walking. This dis¬
ability was occasioned somewhat in the fol¬
lowing manner. He was one day walking in
the rear of his dwelling, when he was sur¬
prised by a sudden shock which prostrated
IT
186
MEMOIR" OF
him. He looked behind him to see who it
was that had struck him, for his first impres¬
sion was that some malicious person had
thrown a stone at him. His physician found,
however, on examination, that one of the
nerves which proceed from the "lumbar" or
"sacral plexus," which distribute themselves
to the skin and muscles of the lower extrem¬
ities, had been paralyzed. Many will re¬
member how minute and particular he was
in explaining the matter, with the aid of a
drawing in a work on anatomy. From this
affliction he never recovered; it was not only
a source of pain to him, but of inconvenience
also, for it disabled him in a great measure
from riding on horseback. This was his usual
mode of travel. His last riding horse was
quite a favorite with him, although blind
and old. An anecdote is related of him,
which at least shows the estimate he placed
on the traveling qualities of the blind mare.
He was, on a certain sacramental occasion,
at Philadelphia, Monroe County, assisting
Rev. Mr. B. Now it so happened that Mr.
REV. ISAAi "ANDERSON, D.D. 187
B. had been appointed by his Presbytery a
commissioner to the General Assembly, and
be had made arrangements to start on the
journey the Monday of the meeting. The
night before, on retiring, some one was re¬
quested to call Mr. B. in the morning in sea¬
son to take the train, and the room where
he expected to lodge was designated, so that
there could be no mistake. For some reason
or other, however, Mr. B. did not lodge in
that room, but in the room with Dr. A.
They retired, fatigued with the labors of the
day, and slept with that sweet sleep which
God gives his beloved. Imagine their aston¬
ishment, when aroused the next morning by
the shrill whistle of the locomotive, instead
of the friendly voice of the person who had
promised to wake them early! They sprang
out of bed, Mr. B. hurried on his clothes, and
left the room in haste, but only to hear again
the shrill whistle of the locomotive, and to
see the train already in rapid motion. Dis¬
appointed and at a loss what to do, he re¬
turned to the room. Dr. A. offered his con-
188
MEMOIR OF
dolence and sympathy, expressing great regret
that he should be disappointed in setting out
on his journey. At last the doctor conceived
a happy idea. "Ah," says he, "I tell you what
you can do, Brother B. My mare is in the
stable: just hurry and have the bridle and
saddle put on her, mount and put whip, and
when the train stops for breakfast you will over¬
take it!" The passengers took breakfast at
Cleveland, forty miles away! It was the first
time he had seen a railroad, and he could not
at once rid himself of the idea that the stand¬
ard of speed in traveling was in the faithful
performance of the old sorrel mare. He was
not fond of traveling by railroad. Keturn-
ing from a trip to Chattanooga, he observed,
that he greatly preferred riding his old mare,
for she never ran away, or scared, or stum¬
bled!
For the last four or five years of his life
he failed rapidly. His mind, as well as his
body, seemed to grow more and more feeble,
so that the last sermon he attempted to
preach gave unmistakable evidence that the
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 189
fire had well-nigh gone out. This sermon
was preached at a private house for the ac¬
commodation of an aged female,* whose in¬
firmities prevented her from going to the
house of God, and who, by an interesting
coincidence, heard him preach his first and
his last sermon. At this deeply affecting
service, it was hut too evident the venerable
pastor and the aged disciple were alike tot¬
tering on the brink of the grave. And so
the event proved. She died the day before
he did, in her eighty-eighth year.
Early on the morning of March 17, 1856,
the village was aroused by the ringing of
hells and the cry of fire. From every direc¬
tion the startled villagers hurried to the scene
of conflagration; but the devouring flames
could not be arrested. His dwelling, library,
furniture, provisions, and clothing of himself
and family were all consumed. Among the
first to reach the spot was the brother of the
writer. What was his surprise and grief to
* Mrs. Mary Tedford.
17*
190
MEMOIR OF
see Dr. Anderson in the street, seated in his
arm-chair, on which hung his clothes, as he
had laid them off the night before. The
prompt and efficient exertions of his grand¬
daughter alone, under God, saved him from
the horrible fate of being burned to death.
When it was discovered that the house was
on fire, her first thought was of her grand¬
father, who, with her brother, occupied the
same apartment. He slept soundly. This
was his habit, and when awakened was usu¬
ally bewildered for a short time, as if he
could not collect his thoughts. She knew
this; and when she found the door locked,
exerted all her strength to arouse him by
loud knocking. Finally, she succeeded in
awakening her brother; the door opened, but
her grandfather was still in bed, although the
room was rapidly filling with smoke. She
told him of the imminent danger, but he
seemed not to comprehend her. No time was
to be lost. With the aid of her brother, she
dragged him from bed and hurried him out of
the room. He wanted to dress—but no; there
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 191
was no time for the toilet when the fire had
already begun to crackle and flame on the
wall of the room. As the fire increased in
fury, it became necessary to move him at a
greater distance. She went to him and told
him it was necessary to move him farther off.
To this he objected. She said to him, " Then,
grandfather, I will stay with you, and we
will be burned together." " Well, daughter,"
he replied, "let us move out of the way."
When two gentlemen were bearing him away
.to a neighbor's house, he uttered not a word
save this, " My library is burned up." Not a
book nor a manuscript was saved—not even
a Bible; all were swept away by the relent¬
less flame. And although this calamity was
heavy, and he felt it as such, yet he would
never suffer himself or any member of his
family to complain. As in all the afflictions,
bereavements, disappointments, and losses of
life, so in this calamity he felt that it was all
for the best, because God reigns and doeth all
things well.
From this time until his death, a period of
192
memoir of
ten months, he failed rapidly. Every atten¬
tion was given him by an affectionate daugh¬
ter-in-law and her husband and children.
They ministered to his wants, and left noth¬
ing undone which could promote the comfort
and peace of his declining days. He expired
at Rockford, Wednesday morning, January
28, 1857, and was buried in the old church¬
yard at Maryville, by the side of his son,
whom he so fondly loved, and of his wife,
who for half a century was his dearest com¬
panion and friend.
Over his grave, members of his church and
other friends have erected a monument with
the following inscription:—
(east pace.)
In SUmflrg
OF
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
Born in Rockbridge County, Ya., March 26,1780.
Ordained and installed Pastor of Washington Church, in
Knox County, Tennessee,
1802.
Installed Pastor of New Providence Church, Maryville,
1812.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
193
Inaugurated President and Professor of Didactic Theology
in the Southern and "Western Theological Seminary,
(now Maryville College,)
1822.
Died January 28,1857.
" Servant of God, well done,
Rest from thy loved employ;
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."
(north pace.)
Members of New Providence Church join with other friends
of the deceased in erecting this Monument, "not because
they fear they will forget, but because they love to remem¬
ber him" whose dust sleeps beneath it.
194
memoir of
CHAPTER XV.
" FOR AS CONCERNING THIS SECT, WE KNOW THAT EVERYWHERE
IT IS SPOKEN AGAINST."
Many, into whose hands this Memoir will
fall, will naturally expect that something
should be said of Dr. Anderson's theological
views. For more than thirty years he was a
Professor of Theology, and scores of young
men received their theological education from
him. They, of course, will desire a per¬
manent memorial of him in this respect.
Others, too, who have heard him spoken of,
perhaps in derision,* as a Hopkinsian, will
like to know what a Hopkinsian is, and
* It was reported through the country, that he believed
and taught that we ought to be " willing to be damned in
order to be saved;" that there were "infants in hell not a
span long;" that God "made the non-elect just to damn
them." These, and other calumnies, were industriously cir¬
culated with a view to break down the institution he was
laboring to upbuild.
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 195
whether he was one; at least what he was,
to whom the term was applied. It is, there¬
fore, due his memory that his theological
opinions should be correctly stated. This
will be attempted in this chapter. "Without
note or comment, without expressing assent
or dissent, the writer deems it sufficient for
the purposes of this Memoir, if Dr. Ander¬
son's views are placed before the public in
precisely that light which he would himself
approve, were he yet living to judge of its
correctness and truth.
The name Hopkinsianism was originally
applied to the system of divinity elaborated
and published by Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of
Newport, R. I. Dr. H. flourished near the
close of the last century, and died in 1803.
He was a graduate of Yale College in 1741;
was afterwards a pupil of President Edwards,
and an inmate of his family until he was set¬
tled as pastor over the church at Great Bar-
rington, Mass., in 1743. He continued here
until 1769. In 1770, he was settled in the
ministry at Newport, R. I., where, with the
196
MEMOIR OF
exception of three years during the American
Revolution, he lived and labored until the
day of his death, December 20, 1803, a pe¬
riod of thirty-three years. He was endowed
with a strong, clear intellect, developed and
matured by unwearied application to study.
He was represented by some as having
"ingeniously attempted to blend Calvinism
with Arminianism." The head and front of
his offending, in the view of those who were
called "old Calvinists," seems to have been
his rejection of the doctrine of the imputa¬
tion of Adam's sin. Yet he held and taught,
what an Arminian would utterly reject, that
the posterity of Adam were affected by his
sin in such a way and to such an extent that
they come into the world with a corrupt na¬
ture, which invariably develops itself in per¬
sonal sin and personal guilt, which, if unre-
pented of and unpardoned, issues in personal
condemnation and ruin.
He held and taught that Christ suffered
the penalty of the law; that the curse of the
law was executed on the Redeemer, by which
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 197
he has bought, redeemed his people from the
curse, and opened the way for their pardon
and complete redemption. And yet he says
also, that the sufferings of Christ were only
equivalent to the penalty—that they were
not of the kind, degree, or duration of the
penalty which the law threatens, and which
the finally lost shall endure. This is pre¬
cisely the position of many zealous Calvinists
of our own day, and is certainly unacceptable
to Arminians.
He taught that regeneration is the work of
the Holy Spirit, made certain to all the elect
as the faithful carrying out of the covenant
of redemption. Arminians reject all this.
He taught that the "doings of the unre-
generate" were sinful, that no promises of
grace were made to them, and yet that the
Gospel requires the ministers of Christ to call
upon all men everywhere to do their duty—
that is, to submit at,once to God; to repent
and believe. Arminians, who insist so much
on the use of means, would not receive this
doctrine. However, it must be observed, that
18
198
MEMOIR OF
Hopkins did not undervalue the means of
grace. He warned the sinner against reli¬
ance upon them, or neglect of them as that
which would greatly aggravate their con¬
demnation.
He taught the doctrine of the final perse¬
verance of the saints in holiness. This doc¬
trine Arminians reject.
Pie taught that the sinner's inability to
love and serve God was moral, not natural—
i.e. that his inability consisted in the want of
inclination or disposition to obey the will of
God, and not in the want of the powers
necessary to constitute him a free moral
agent, and consequently accountable. On
this point, perhaps, an Arminian might agree
with him, just as there are many parts of
every evangelical system in which all Chris¬
tians agree.
Now, in all these points there is evidently
no attempt made to blend Calvinism with
Arminianism. So far from it, there is no
sympathy whatever in the teachings of these
two systems so widely distinct on these fun-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 199
damental doctrines. But these are not,
strictly speaking, the peculiarities of Hop-
kinsianism. These are—
1. That God is the holy, efficient cause of
all things, of all thoughts and volitions, all
acts and events, holy and sinful. Hopkins
held that the nature of sin consisted entirely
in the intention or disposition of the heart.
Combining this with the doctrine stated
above, that the sinner's inability is moral,
and the doctrine that God foreordains whatso¬
ever comes to pass, he inferred that it was no
impeachment of the divine character to say
that God is the holy efficient cause of all acts
and volitions, holy and sinful; or that he not
only decreed the existence of sin, but that he
exerted his own power to produce it; or that
he was, in this sense, the author of sin. He
abhorred the idea that God was the guilty
cause of sin, and uniformly argued that if
God, as the first great cause, was the origin or
cause of moral evil, this was so far from im¬
puting moral evil to him, or supposing that
there is anything of that nature in him, that
200
MEMOIR OP
it necessarily supposes the contrary; and that
in being thus the cause of moral evil there is
no sin. He quotes, with approbation, what
Edwards says, in his "Inquiry into the Free¬
dom of the Will," on God's being the author
of sin.
2. He taught that holiness or virtue consisted
in disinterested benevolence. He argued that
love to God and love to our neighbor, which
the law of God requires, is of the same nature
and kind, and the one implies and involves
the other. If so, that the love required in
the one case being a disinterested affection, it
must be the same in the other case also. Its
disinterestedness he endeavors to prove by
-the words of the Apostle—"Love is kind;
seeketh not her own." The proofs on which
he relies to establish the doctrine, are—1.
That the whole moral character of God is
comprehended in love—"God is love." This
love is manifested in the gift of his Son to
die for those who are not only undeserving,
but enemies also. This love Christians are
required to imitate. It is disinterested, for it
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 201
seeks the good of beings in general. Love to
God, who is infinitely the greatest and the
sum of all being, consists primarily and essen¬
tially in good-will or friendship of heart to¬
ward him; in acquiescing and rejoicing in his
existence, honor, and infinite felicity; and in
seeking the promotion of his glory. This
implies all the virtuous love required in the
divine law. 2. That Jesus Christ was a re¬
markable instance of disinterested benevo¬
lence, in which Christians are to imitate him.
"Even Christ pleased not himself;" "While
we were yet sinners Christ died for us;" " For
your sakes he became poor." 3. That disin¬
terested affection is essential to a disciple, as
appears from the words of the Saviour, Mat¬
thew, xvi. 24, where he teaches that loving
our relatives and our friends would not dis¬
tinguish us from other men—even the worst
of them. We must have disinterested benev¬
olence, which would embrace even our ene¬
mies. 4. Our Saviour enjoins disinterested
benevolence when he says, "If any man will
18*
202
MEMOIR OP
come after me, let him deny himself." 5.
The summary of the moral law, as given by
Christ himself, shows that all true religion
consists in disinterested affection—"Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. This is the first and great command¬
ment. And the second is like unto it: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Aware that this doctrine was liable to be
misunderstood and misrepresented, he threw
around it such safeguards as he deemed
necessary for its protection. Thus he af¬
firmed that a benevolent person will and
ought to have regard for his own interests
and happiness, which regard is necessarily
included in disinterested affection. He must
not desire his own interests, simply because
they are his own, that is, selfishly, but be¬
cause his happiness is worth as much as his
neighbor's, other things being equal; so that
disinterested affection requires him, inasmuch
as he is nearest to himself and is most in his
own view, to attend to his own interests, not
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 203
simply and only because they are his, but be¬
cause he is included in being in general.
3. He taught that sin consists in selfish¬
ness. This is implied in the foregoing. As
holiness consists in disinterested affection, so
selfishness—that is, love of self supremely—
is the root and essence of all sin. It is
enmity against God, the foundation of spirit¬
ual blindness, the source of idolatry, of pro-
faneness, impiety, pride, ambition, covetous-
ness, sensuality, falsehood, injustice, oppres¬
sion, envy, wrath, clamor, evil-speaking, and
error; it being itself a lie.
4. He taught that in order to saving faith,
the sinner must approve the divine conduct,
even though God should cast him off forever;
which, however, was not intended to imply
that he must love misery or hate happiness.
By this he simply meant that the sinner
should be in such a state of mind as that he
should feel and acknowledge that if he were
condemned to eternal death, it would be what
he deserves and what God would be just and
good in inflicting. But this does not imply
204
MEMOIR OF
that, in order to be saved, he must first be
willing to be damned.
5. He taught that the introduction of sin
into the world is, on the whole, for the gen¬
eral good. God has chosen the present sys¬
tem, and it involves a direct impeachment of
his character, to say that it is not the best.
But it includes evil, moral and natural; yet
does it give occasion for a full, perfect, and
glorious display of the infinite perfections of
the divine nature, exhibiting his mercy and
his hatred of sin.
The question now arises, is there a generic,
vital, fundamental difference between Hop-
kinsianism and Calvinism? There is, per¬
haps, no better way of answering the ques¬
tion than by recurring to a discussion of this
very point which arose about fifty years ago,
soon after the foundations were laid of the
Theological Seminary at Andover. It was
asserted, that the creed of the Seminary,
which the professors were required to sub¬
scribe, was Hopkinsian. On the other hand,
it was contended that the creed was Calvin-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 205
istic. The argument was, briefly, if the creed
be Hopkinsian, it is also Calvinistic, where¬
fore Hopkinsianism and Calvinism are fun¬
damentally the same. The proposition in
the creed, that "supreme love to God consti¬
tutes the essential difference between saints
and sinners," was understood to imply the
doctrine of disinterested benevolence. And,
as the doctrine that all sin consists in selfish¬
ness, follows from this, it was inferred that
these two fundamental tenets of Hopkinsian¬
ism were found in this article of the creed
to which no Calvinist could object.
Again, it was implied in the creed, that
"in order to faith in Christ, the sinner must
approve in his heart the divine conduct, even
though God should cast him off forever."
This doctrine, as we have seen, was taught
by Hopkins. President Edwards teaches it
in his sermon on Romans, ix. 18. "God in¬
sists that his sovereignty be acknowledged
by us, and that, even in this great matter—a
matter which so nearly and infinitely con¬
cerns us as our own eternal salvation. This
206
MEMOIR OF
is the stumbling-block on which thousands
fall and perish, and if we go on contending
with God about his sovereignty, it will be
our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary
that we should submit to God as our sover¬
eign and the sovereign over our souls; as one
who may have mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and harden whom he will." Again,
in his sermon on the justice of God in the
damnation of sinners, he says: "Now by this
it is evident that you are not willing to ac¬
cept of Christ as your Saviour, because you
never yet had such a sense of your own sin¬
fulness, and such a conviction of your great
guilt in God's sight, as to be, indeed, con¬
vinced that you lay justly condemned to the
punishment of hell. You never was con¬
vinced that you had forfeited all favor, and
was in God's hands and at his sovereign dis¬
posal, to be either destroyed or saved just as
he pleased." Of the same import are the
words of the Psalm, which Calvinists do not
scruple to sing—
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
207
" My lips with shame my sins confess
Against thy law, against thy grace :
Lord ! should thy judgments grow severe,
I am condemned, but thou art clear.
Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,
I must pronounce thee just, in death;
And if my soul were sent to hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well."
As to the divine decree, human agency, the
introduction of sin into the world, the creed,
Hopkins and the Westminster Assembly were
shown to have taught substantially the same
things.
" There is no more difference between Cal-
vinists and Hopkinsians," writes Dr. Samuel
Spring in 1795, "than there is between a
tree and its branches, or between first princi¬
ples and consequences. The broad founda¬
tion which supports our ample superstructure
was long since deeply and firmly laid in the
first principles of Calvinism." Every one ac¬
quainted with Hopkins's system knows that,
aside from those doctrines which are held in
common by all evangelical Christians, there
is not a single tenet taught by him peculiar
208
MEMOIR OF
to Arminianism. "While, therefore, Hopkins
did announce some doctrines peculiar to his
own system, yet the essential principles of
his theology are Calvinistic; opposed, on the
one hand, to Arminianism, and on the other,
to Antimonianism. Subsequent to his times,
some who held the doctrines of disinterested
benevolence, the divine .efficiency, sin consists
in selfishness, developed fully, what Hopkins
taught obscurely, respecting the Atonement,
viz., that it was for the race. This doctrine
of unlimited atonement was supposed to give
an Arminian coloring to the whole system.
But it was held in connection with other re¬
lated doctrines, such as the covenant of re¬
demption, election, the sovereignty of divine
grace in regeneration, and thus became quite
another doctrine from that held by Armi-
nians.
If now it be asked, was Dr. Anderson .a
Hopkinsian, the answer is, he was; though
by this is not meant that he adopted Hop¬
kins's system in toto, nor that he received,
without examination and subjection to the
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON", D.D. 209
inspired Word, the ipse dixit of any man.
Was he, then, no Calvinist? The question
seems almost impertinent to one who knows
with what tenacity he held to the Confession
of Faith and Catechisms of the Presbyterian
Church. «Why, then, was Hopkinsian used
as a term of reproach or of derision, when
applied to him ? Partly because the doctrines
he held and taught were opposed to Armi-
nianism on the one hand, and to Antinomian-
ism and Hyper-Calvinism on the other; and
partly because they were not understood, and
consequently were misrepresented. What,
then, did he hold and teach? Happily, the
documents are at hand which will determine
the question fairly and authentically.
1. He attached great importance to the
study of natural theology, and laid great
stress on its teachings as confirming the
teachings of Revelation. His system of di¬
dactic theology opens with a lecture on this
subject, in which he urges the study of it
upon ministers of the Gospel especially; first,
because it teaches by facts, against which
19
210
MEMOIR OF
there is no reasoning, and which are more
convincing than mere declarations; secondly,
because it contains the certain principles of
interpretation by which we may arrive at
the true meaning of the essential doctrines
and requirements of the Gospel.
2. He held and taught the doctrine of
plenary inspiration. He held that the sacred
writers were inspired even as to the ipsissima
verba.
3. He held and taught the doctrine of de¬
crees, understanding by decree, not the thing
purposed or decreed, but the purpose itself of
the divine mind. He considered the decrees
of God as the one, absolute, unchangeable
purpose or volition of God; the execution of
which is not left to mere second causes, but
is effected by the holy agency of God him¬
self; that is, by the efficiency of his one
divine volition. His views may be more
fully seen in the following letter—one of four
—addressed to a friend, who desired informa¬
tion respecting the forms of expression pecu¬
liar to what was then called New Divinity or
Hopkinsianism,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 211
"To J. s., Esq.
"Dear Sir:—I have received from you a
friendly, judicious letter, written, as I believe,
in the true spirit of disinterested benevolence.
You say you are a friend to what you call
the new system of Divinity in general, hut
that there are several modes of expression
peculiar to it, to which you cannot be recon¬
ciled, viz.: 'that God is the author of sin;
disinterested benevolence; that we ought to
love God to such a degree as to be willing to
be damned for the sake of his glory.' It does
not appear from the face of your letter, that
you expected an answer; but, as you have
taken it for granted, that I and those whom
you are pleased to style my brethren, are
advocates for these modes of expression, it is
desirable that you should know exactly what
are our views. Perhaps others may labor
under the same difficulties of which you com¬
plain; if so, an answer may possibly relieve
them as well as yourself. I am not willing
to allow that the sentiments to which you
refer are new. They are demonstrably as
212
MEMOIR OF
old as the Bible. But every theologian will
say the same thing of his own sentiments, be
they what they may. Not to insist, there¬
fore, on this point, I am confident the system
is essentially or radically the same with the
doctrines of the Reformation as taught par¬
ticularly by Calvin, and adopted by our
church in its Confession. There is, indeed,
some improvement in the clearness of scrip¬
tural demonstration, and in showing the con¬
nection and consistency of the doctrines of
divine revelation. Those who receive Dr.
Hopkins' explanation of the doctrines which
are contained in the Bible and our Confes¬
sion and Catechism, are called Hopkinsians,
in opposition to those who receive the light
and motive scheme; or those who adopt a
system of Calvinism moderated or qualified
by Arminianism; or to those who choose not
to follow pure Calvinistic first principles to
their legitimate issue. But it is not my de¬
sign to spend time to show that the system is
one with the doctrines of the Reformation.
Every well-read divine acquainted with the
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 213
system, knows this to be the fact. You have
candidly confessed, that if there he any nov¬
elty, it consists in the modes of expression.
I will venture to say, that the same candor
will lead you to acknowledge that no writers
have more accurately and perspicuously de¬
fined the terms they use.
"I will now consider the objections of your
letter. Is God the author of sin ? I answer,
no. By author, I choose to understand an
agent, whose agency directly and immediately
produces an effect or event of any kind, the
nature of which he approves. You are the
author of the letter I am answering; your
thoughts and your will were employed in
producing it; and, perhaps, your pen also.
If you employed an amanuensis, he was the
author of the shape of the letters that com¬
pose the words; but you were the author of
the thoughts or ideas and the words. Then,
God is properly the author of that which is
produced or brought about by his direct or
immediate agency, the nature of which he
approves, without any free agency coming
19*
214
MEMOIR, OE
between bis agency and tbe event so as to
produce it; and no otber being is tbe author
of that thing.
" Sin is in tbe exercises, volitions, or tempers
of tbe heart. Hence, it is evident that there
can be no agency between tbe exercise of tbe
human heart and sin to produce sin. Then
sin belongs to the sinner entirely: it is his
own act and deed, and no other being's in the
universe.
"But at the bottom of this sentiment there
is no belief with me, as with many errone¬
ously called Calvinists, that man has a self-
determining power of will; or, that his think¬
ing and willing rest on a subtle, undefinable
substratum, as the Indian philosopher had
the world to rest on the back of a deer, and
the deer to stand on the back of a tortoise.
The earth hangs balanced well on God's firm
decrees; so does the existence of every crea¬
ture. We have no principle of self-existence
or of self-action. 'The heart of the king is
in the hand of the Lord; he turneth it whith¬
ersoever he will.' 'Not that we are sufficient
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 215
of ourselves to thirik anything as of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God.' ' In God we
live, move, and have our being.' According
to Solomon, the heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, and he turns it as he
pleases. But, if the king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord, from analogy, the hearts
of all intelligent beings, from Gabriel down,
are also in the hand of the Lord, and he
turneth them as he pleases; yet sin is in the
exercises of the heart, and belongs exclusively
to the heart. According to Paul, our suffi¬
ciency even to think a thought is of God;
and we have our being, with all its move¬
ments, in him. Paul, it seems, had not
adopted the modern philosophy, falsely so
called, viz., that when God made all things,
he imparted to them principles of action and
self-motion, and retired, leaving them to work
their own way. Both Solomon and Paul have
spoken according to sound philosophy. Every¬
thing, existence and event, may be arranged
under the two grand genera, cause and effect.
The mind of man cannot conceive of a thing
216
MEMOIR OP
that does not belong to one or other of these.
Then thinking and willing are either cause
or effect. If they can, with truth, be ranged
under cause, then they are uncaused. But
whatever is uncaused, is self-existent, eternal,
independent, and everywhere present. Then
thinking and willing, wherever found, are self-
existent, eternal, etc. But these words ex¬
press exclusively the attributes of Deity;
then thinking and willing, wherever they ex¬
ist, are really and truly God. Who does not
see at first blush, the absurdity and folly of
such a conclusion?
"Then thinking and willing in creatures
are effects. Effects of what? Of the provi¬
dential agency of God. Adam had a first per¬
ception and a first volition, with which his
mental existence commenced. It will be ad¬
mitted that God directly and immediately
created his spirit—that is, his divine creative
agency produced a thinking, willing existence.
The first perception could not produce a
second, without assigning to it creative
power; nor, indeed, could anything else, ex-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 217
cept the Almighty energy of Jehovah. 'Our
sufficiency to think a thought is of God.'
e There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration
of the Almighty giveth understanding.' It
may he satisfactory here to introduce and
establish a distinction of some importance,
viz., that volition, as existence or being, is
distinct from sinfulness or holiness. The one
is real being or entity, the others are the
qualities of being or predicates necessarily
belonging to an existence of a particular
kind under particular circumstances. If the
distinction just made be not admitted, no
reasonable doctrine of mental identity can be
maintained. A being consisting of several
constituents is the same. But if one of the
constituents be taken away, it destroys the
sameness of the being; or, if one be taken
away and another substituted directly oppo¬
site in its nature, the sameness is destroyed.
If the limb of a tree be cut off and another
grafted in from a different tree, this would
not destroy the identity of the tree; because
it would be a tree without the limbs. But, if
218
MEMOIR OF
the removal of the limb would have destroyed
the being or species of the tree, a limb from
another would not restore either of them.
First. Volition is an exercise or act of the
will, which has its whole existence in succes¬
sive volitions. But each volition has the
same entity or essential being that the will
has; and, if sinfulness be the very being of
the volition—holiness being an existence the
very opposite of sinfulness—when the voli¬
tions of the sinner become holy, there would
be a total change of the being, and these
opposite existences cannot constitute the same
individual will. Secondly. If there be no
distinction between volition as being or en¬
tity, and sinfulness or holiness, then sinful¬
ness is the proper object of good-will, and it
would be contrary to every dictate of benev¬
olence to wish its destruction in any case.
Thirdly. If the distinction be rejected, the
difference between natural and moral ability
and inability falls to the ground. If sin be
the very being of volition, then sin is as
much a natural existence, as any other exist-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 219
ence; of course, it would be naturally impos¬
sible for a will that consisted of sinfulness to
be an existence that consisted of holiness;
for the last would be the destruction of the
first;*or rather, they would be two distinct
beings, that could no more constitute the
same individual will, than Satan and Gabriel
can be the same individual at different times.
"It will be necessary, however, to guard
against inferring from this distinction, that
volition may exist without sinfulness or holi¬
ness. Volition is a necessary existence. Let
any man try. to stop thinking and willing,
and he will soon find how vain the effort;
the very trial would be a volition. He could
as easily cease to be, as cease to will. Voli¬
tion is not only necessary, but it is also neces¬
sarily sinful or holy, because they all take
place under moral law, and can no more ex¬
ist without one or the other, than matter can
exist without some shape or figure. But one
figure rather than another is not necessary to
the being of matter, nor is its particular
figurability a constituent of its being. So
220
MEMOIR OF
sinfulness or holiness belongs necessarily to
volition, but there is 110 necessity that it
should be one rather than the other, arising
out of the nature of its being. God may
create matter and determine under what
figure it shall exist, but he cannot create
matter existing under no shape. He may
likewise produce volitions, and determine
whether they shall be sinful or holy, but a
rational creature cannot have volitions that
are neither sinful nor holy. In the case of
matter, the existence is wholly inert, but in
the other case the existence is voluntary ex¬
ercise preceded by perception. And every
man has the evidence of his own conscious¬
ness, that when two objects are presented,
he may choose either of them, and that he
is under no natural necessity of choosing
malevolently rather than benevolently.
"Perhaps these arguments may be too
much compressed for the plain man, unac¬
quainted with metaphysics, to understand,
but the logician and philosopher know that
it would be worth their characters to oppose
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 221
them. And the plain man can easily see
that they are at agreement, in their conclu¬
sions, with the express language of holy writ.
Then, according to Scripture and sound phi¬
losophy, to God alone belongs causation, and
he alone is uncaused. He is the holy, effi¬
cient cause of all our thoughts and volitions.
There is no agent between him and these
effects, causing them and producing them.
But before God could be the author of sin,
his agency and causation must include an
approbation of sin, and so he sinful; to sup¬
pose which would he blasphemy. If a man
should tell me he meant no more by the ex¬
pression 'author of sin,' than what is fairly
implied in the above cited Scriptures, I would
tell him his ideas, then, were right, but that
he offended against propriety of language by
the use of the phrase; and, if he were a
public speaker, I would importune him to
drop it and use more appropriate language.
"Before I quit this point, I must take the
liberty of showing the agreement between
my views and our excellent Confession of
20
222
MEMOIR OF
Faith, on this point. I have always felt that
this would he an easy task, not only on this
subject, but on every subject in that excellent
book. The Confession says, chap. v. § 4:
'The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom,
and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest
themselves in his*providence, that it extend-
eth itself to the first fall and all other sins of
angels and men, and that not by a bare per¬
mission; but such as hath joined with it a
most wise and powerful bounding, and other¬
wise ordering and governing of them in a
manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends;
yet so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth
only from the creature and not from God;
who being most holy and righteous, neither
is nor can be the author or approver of sin.'
"'God, the great creator of all things, doth
uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all crea¬
tures, actions, and things, from the greatest
to the least.'
"' God, from all eternity, did, by the most
wise and holy counsel of his will, freely and
unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 223
pass; yet so as thereby, neither is God the
author of sin, nor is violence offered to the
will of his creatures, nor is the liberty or con¬
tingency of second causes taken away, hut
rather established.'—(Chap. iii. § 1.)
"My sentiments and the sentiments of
those whom you call my brethren, could not,
I believe, be better expressed than they are
by the above quotations. We have no desire
to explain away these articles of our Confes¬
sion, or to mitigate and qualify them by the
sophistry hatched in the school of James Ar-
minius. I believe they express the sentiments
of both your head and your heart as fully
as ours. I wish I had good reason to believe
the same thing of all who call themselves
Calvinists and Presbyterians. I find that
each of the points you have given me to dis¬
cuss will occupy a letter, if it be confined to
any reasonable length. I therefore close this
one by subscribing myself yours affection¬
ately,
"Isaac Anderson.
"Maryville, October 21, 1816."
224
memoir of
4. He held and taught that the whole
moral character of God was comprehended in
holiness, and that the whole of holiness was
comprehended in love or benevolence; that
the divine purpose was the foundation or
basis of the divine foreknowledge; that God
chose from eternity those on whom he would
exert regenerating power and bestow eternal
life; that God makes sincerely a gracious
offer of salvation to all men; that neither the
decree of election nor of reprobation renders
the sinner blameless, or makes God the au¬
thor of sin, or countenances the objection
that if the doctrine of election be true, the
more sin the better.
5. He taught the doctrine of the covenant
of redemption, as finding in it the true ground
of the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints in holiness; as establishing the doc¬
trine of election; and showing that God was
self-moved in saving sinners, and not from
any foreseen good works in them. He styles
it "the first, most sublime and useful of
all covenants." He was wont to present it
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 225
somewhat in the form employed among men,
yet adhering strictly and reverently to the
language of the Scriptures *
6. He held and taught that man by nature
is totally depraved; that he is regenerated by
the sovereign Spirit; that in regeneration the
lost image of God is restored—which image
is love; that no new faculty is bestowed;
that the Spirit's work does not suspend, or in
anywise interfere with man's free agency;
and that regeneration is a work of sovereign
grace.
7. He held and taught that Christ offered
himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the
world; that therefore the atonement is un¬
limited, offered to all, and designed to meet
the demands of the divine government, and
make it right and proper for God to justify
every one that believeth in Jesus. Hence he
rejected the doctrine that the sins of the elect
only were atoned for; that their sins were
* See Appendix 0.
20*
226
MEMOIR OF
imputed to Christ; and that he suffered the
penalty of the law.
8. He held the doctrines of justification by
faith, adoption, perseverance of the saints in
holiness, resurrection, judgment, and a future
state of endless reward and punishment.
9. He held and taught that sin and holi¬
ness have their seat, not in the understand¬
ing, but in the heart or will; that holiness
consists in disinterested benevolence, and sin
in selfishness; that the object of general be¬
nevolence is the whole universe of intelligent,
sensitive beings; that the object of supreme
benevolence is God and God alone; that
capacity for happiness is the measure of good¬
will due to each created individual; that
"selfishness is a supreme regard for myself,
not because I have capacity for happiness
which is properly the object of regard, but
merely because I am myself;" that disinter¬
ested benevolence, when properly understood,
does not require us to neglect our private
business to attend to the business of others,
but that one "cannot love himself too much,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 227
if he loves God supremely, and his neighbor
as himself."
On these points his views may be seen in
the second letter to his friend, which is here
subjoined.
"Dear Sir:—I propose to consider the
second point to which you object in your let¬
ter, viz., the use of the phrase disinterested
benevolence. You seem to think that these
words are very unsuitable to express that
holy, heavenly frame of heart which charac¬
terizes a saint in the sight of God. I must
candidly acknowledge that I think our lan¬
guage does not furnish us with better. But
let us appeal from our own private judgment,
to the standards of the English language—
for people will understand words as their dic¬
tionaries explain them. In the second place,
we will examine how good writers apply
them. And lastly, consider whether they
can be defended in their application to dis¬
criminate Christian character.
228
MEMOIR OF
"1st. How are these words explained by
the standards of the English language?
"Disinterested. Superior to regard of pri¬
vate advantage; not influenced by private
profit; without any concern in an affair.
("Walker.)
" Uninterested. Not having interest. {Ibid.)
"Interested. Concern; advantage; good;
influence over others; share; participation;
regard to private profit. {IUd.)
"Johnson and Sheridan define these words
in the very same way; as also does Jones.
"Disinterested. Yoid of self-interest; impar¬
tial; unbiased. (Baily.)
"Interest. Advantage; concernment; ben¬
efit; credit; power; right. {Ibid.)
uBenercolentr-enee. Disposition to do good;
kindness; kind; having good-will. (Walker.)
uBenevolent-ence. Good-will; that sort of
love which disposes one man to confer kind¬
ness on another; bearing good-will; favora¬
ble, friendly, affectionate, kind. (Baily.)
"Selfishness. Attention to one's own inter-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 229
est without any regard to others; self-love.
(Sheridan.)
"Johnson and Walker give the same defi¬
nition.
"Selfish. Minding chiefly his own interest.
(Baily.)
"Selfish. Yoid of regard for others. (Jones.)
"Permit me to close the rear in the words
of St. Paul—'Men shall be lovers of their
own selves; covetous, boasters,' etc.
"Such are the definitions, given by the
standards of the English language, of the
words that are intimately concerned in the
discussion of this subject. Agreeably to these
definitions, interested and uninterested are op¬
posing words; and disinterested is properly
opposed only to selfishness. Nothing can be
more easy and natural than to distinguish
between the interest, profit, or advantage a
person has in an object, transaction, or event,
and the regard or feelings of his heart toward
that object, transaction, or event. Interested,
or uninterested, is applied to the first; and
disinterested, or selfish, to the last or the ex-
230
MEMOIR OF
ercises of the heart. To illustrate this plain
distinction—General Washington had a great
interest, in common with the rest of his coun¬
trymen, in the issue of our struggle for inde¬
pendence ; however, he was not influenced by
interested, selfish, or mercenary motives, but
was disinterested or impartial, superior to re¬
gard of private advantage. This eminent
man was so far from being void of regard for
others, that he excelled in public affection.
Sometimes these words are used in rather a
metaphorical sense, and applied to the mo¬
tives and regards of the heart toward an ob¬
ject; e.g. such a man's heart is interested in
an affair—that is, his heart, or affections, or
passions are excited, roused, and engaged
about the matter, without meaning to express
whether his heart is engaged selfishly or be¬
nevolently. Another is actuated by inter¬
ested motives—that is, he is selfish or merce¬
nary in his feelings. Again, we say such a
man is uninterested in his feelings. We
mean he feels a coldness, apathy, and indif¬
ference toward the object, whether it is the
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 231
glory of God, religious principles, or public or
private happiness. Disinterested is some¬
times used to express a person's having no
concern or profit in an affair. But it is
always in cases where the strong presump¬
tion is that the motives and regard of the
heart are involved. A disinterested witness
is one who has no profit in the decision that
may be given in a lawsuit. But if it could
be proved that he was the subject of the
same motives that a depraved man would be,
had he, as a witness, a special interest in the
trial, he would not be called a disinterested
witness. On the other hand, had a witness a
special interest in a trial, but it could be
proved satisfactorily that he felt as a good
man would do who was a witness, but had no
interest in the affair, he would be properly
called a disinterested witness—so that the in¬
terest, or the contrary, in the trial, is the
presumptive proof that the man's heart is
selfish or disinterested. But I believe these
words are never used, except when the mo¬
tives of the heart about an affair are directly
232
MEMOIR OP
or indirectly intended to be expressed. But
suppose the words interested and uninterested,
in general usage and according to the diction¬
aries, did not exclusively relate to the con¬
nection between a person and an object or
transaction extra of himself and his improper
attachments; and that disinterested did not
apply exclusively to the right exercises of the
heart toward that object or transaction, which
is a supposition contrary to fact; yet if theo¬
logical writers tell us, they use the first to
express the advantage or disadvantage we re¬
ceive from something out of ourselves and
our selfish feelings to it, and the latter to ex¬
press righteous feelings toward that some¬
thing, this ought to be sufficient.
"2d. We will show how different writers
use these words.
"' Self-love, or selfishness, consists in a moral
agent's placing his happiness in what he views
as his own private, personal interest, and in
nothing else, in distinction from the interest
or happiness of any other being, and in con¬
tradiction to it. Self-love regards nothing
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 233
but self as such, and subordinates every
being and everything to this, and opposes
everything which, in the view of the selfish
person, opposes him and his selfish interest.
Disinterested benevolence is pleased with the
public interest and the greatest good and hap¬
piness of the whole. This is the highest
good to the benevolent person. In this he
places his happiness, and not in the interest
and happiness of any individual or of himself,
any further than it is consistent with the
greatest interest and happiness of the whole,
and really included in it and serves to pro¬
mote it.'—Hojphins.
"4 Pure religion essentially consists in dis¬
interested, humble, self-denying love to men,
for the Lord's sake, and from love to him.
Without some measure of this holy love, no
doctrines, forms, confidence, high affections,
real or apparent devotion can prove a man
an accepted worshiper of God.' — Scott on
James, i. 17.
"'Nothing can exceed the genuine mag¬
nanimity and disinterested love expressed in
21
234
MEMOIR OF
this most beautiful passage.'—Scott on Philip-
pians, ii. 17.
" < Our affection to God seems to be capable
of the same division as our affection to our
fellow-men, benevolent and selfish. I think
it undeniable, that there is a disinterested love
to God which terminates directly upon him¬
self, without any immediate view to our own
happiness, as well as a discovery of our great
interest in his favor.'—Witherspoon, Moral
Philosophy, Lecture vii.
" (A disinterested desire of knowing the
truth, with a willingness to follow it, is a
preparation of the heart which only God can
give. By nature, self rules in the heart.
When this idol is brought low, and we are
truly willing to be the Lord's, the good work
is begun.'—John Neicton.
" < This epistle breathes the warmest grati¬
tude and most disinterested affection.'—Dod¬
dridge.
"4 The pity which arises on sight of per¬
sons in distress, and the satisfaction of mind
which is the consequence of having removed
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 235
tliem into a happier state, are instead of a
thousand arguments to prove such a thing as
disinterested benevolence.'—Spectator, vol. viii.,
No. 588.
"' Sure I am that it is entirely contrary to
the spirit of the Gospel for its ministers to
be actuated by interested motives.'—Rev. Mr.
Larey, of Serampore.
"'You are the disinterested benefactors of
mankind.'—Home on Missions.
"The authorities we have now produced
ought to be amply sufficient to settle a dis¬
pute about a word. To these I could add a
host more, were it necessary. Wherever the
English language is spoken, in Asia, Europe,
or America, and by whatever denomination,
Churchman, Methodist, Baptist, or Presbyte¬
rian, or whether by an individual or society,
historian, philosopher, divine, or lawyer, if
holy, impartial love is to be expressed, they
spontaneously say disinterested benevolence,
love, motives, or affections; nor do I know
an unexceptionable writer who uses these
words in a different sense.
236
MEMOIR OF
"It is a question worthy of an answer,
how the expression disinterested benevolence
came to be taken by some men, and in a few
neighborhoods, for indifference to all religious
principles and to all happiness and interest,
public and private; for neither English dic¬
tionaries nor classical writers justify or even
excuse such a mistake. I believe it origi¬
nated in known, willful opposition to the doc¬
trine, that God is to be loved supremely for
his own sake, and his glory to be sought as
the ultimate object. Some who oppose this
great doctrine are men of address and tal¬
ents, and they employ all their art to make
their opposition to truth to pass for zeal for
it. They pun upon words, confound distinc¬
tions, and address the passions of the people;
all to make proselytes. Others oppose it for
want of examination; others from over-fond¬
ness for criticism. They have seen in the
spelling-book, that the addition of dis to a
word often changes its meaning; as, approve,
d^'s-approve. Hence they infer, without the
apprehension of a mistake, that disinterested
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 237
is diametrically opposite to interested. Others
are purely selfish in their opposition. It is
their interest to prevent some men, and some
things and places, from being popular; and
mere circumstances have made this the pro¬
per string to harp upon.
"You will not say that I am supporting a
doctrine by dictionaries and uninspired men.
No, sir. It is only what is the appropriate
use of a word. We do not differ in ideas and
sentiments on this subject—only about proper
words to express our ideas.
" 3d. Is there any good reason for discrimi¬
nating Christian ; affection by disinterested
love, benevolence, motive, affection—for these
all mean the same thing? Love is a word
that applies to several distinct subjects. Its
applications will be best understood by first
considering the nature of man. Man is com¬
pounded of an animal and mental existence.
To our animal nature belongs exclusively a
number of affections that get the same name
with a number of affections that belong ex¬
clusively to the soul. The affection between
21*
238
MEMOIR OF
husband and wife, between the sexes, be¬
tween parents and their offspring, are animal
affections, and are called by the common
name love. The mind perceives the exist¬
ence of these affections and wills about them;
but the perceptions and exercises of the mind
are not these animal affections themselves;
nor does the will change them; but may
direct and restrain them. We are also the
subjects of pity, sympathy, gratitude, and
various local attachments which are denomi¬
nated affections. The love and affections
now considered are in themselves neither
sinful nor holy; they belong essentially to
our very nature; the believer and unbeliever
are equally possessed of them. We discover
the same affections in the animal creation.
We are also the subjects of a love that be¬
longs exclusively to the soul, which may be
thus represented: the understanding has an
object presented to it and has a distinct per¬
ception of its properties; the will acts toward
it in exercises called good-will, choice, appro¬
bation, delight—these exercises of the will
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 239
are called love. This love is purely mental,
and there is a plain distinction or two that
belongs to it. First, there may he "an appro¬
bation, choice, or delight in the will, in the
view of the object, solely because the person
thinks it is connected with his private, sepa¬
rate interest and advantage—this is selfish¬
ness. Secondly, the will may choose, approve,
and delight in the object, solely on account
of the qualities and properties of which the
object is possessed—this is the love of com¬
placency. Thirdly, the object may be capa¬
ble of happiness and misery, and the will
may exercise strong desires and wishes for its
well-being—this is called the love of good¬
will. The last two are called disinterested
benevolence.
"Aside from all names of distinction, the
will is plainly the subject of these three ex¬
ercises. It is certainly important to know
when we speak of one or of the other, and
the words that have been used for this pur¬
pose are plain and easy.
"Again, benevolence is used to express a
240
MEMOIR OF
holy, upright state of heart; but not exclu¬
sively in this sense. The sympathies and
affections which we have from our very con¬
stitution and creation, when acted out, get
the name of benevolent affections—as, for
example, pity and compassion, when they
lead us to supply the poor or relieve the dis¬
tressed. But the unregenerate have these
affections as well as the regenerate. It is
certainly not safe to use such language as
may lead people to think that these original
affections of our nature constitute true re¬
ligion in whole or in part. Nothing is more
common than to say of a kind, humane, com¬
passionate man, he is benevolent. Are we not
to make the necessary distinction ? Most cer¬
tainly. Then, as disinterested applies to the
exercises and motives of the heart exclusively,
and marks out the moral quality of the mo¬
tives, what word more suitable ? If we merely
speak of benevolence, it may be asked what
kind of benevolence. Is it the tenderness
and kindness of unregenerate men that is
meant, or genuine holiness? But if we say,
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 241
disinterested benevolence, no other question
can be asked, if the words are understood;
for they mean, in their plain and obvious im¬
port, impartial good-will to God and man.
Then the alliance of the adjective disinter¬
ested with love, motive, affection, benevo¬
lence, is natural and appropriate, and is
according to the nature and reason of things.
On the other hand, interested love means a
love that regards no interest or concern but
my own private, separate advantage. This
is the import of words as established by use.
But your letter condemns a religion of this
kind, and every Christian abhors it. When
interested is applied to the motives of the
heart, it means the same thing as selfish.
"I would now go on to show that the Bible
is full of that religion I call disinterested.
But this you do not desire, as your letter is
filled with it. However, take the case of Job.
Satan accuses him of having no sort of re¬
ligion, but interested or selfish. {Job, i. 9,10.)
The Lord gave him permission to take from
Job all for which, he considered, Job served
242
MEMOIR OF
God. It is done. Job sticks to his integrity.
Satan then says, I did not take in enough,
when I first accused—' Skin for skin, all that
a man hath will he give for his life.' Go,
says God, and make his" life a curse to him.
It is done. Job's wife reproaches him for re¬
taining his integrity, and bids him curse God
and die. His disinterested heart replies,' Thou
speakest as one of the foolish women speak-
eth. What! shall we receive good from the
hand of God and shall we not receive evil?'
I have not heard of Satan's advocating selfish
or interested religion since. Shall we be less
orthodox than Satan?
"But this letter has swollen to an immod¬
erate length. I must come to a close by
making two remarks—1. We are, without re¬
generation, the subjects of all the love and
benevolence of which we are capable, except
the last two which I noticed in explaining
the exercises of the will. The love there
described toward God, his law and kingdom,
is only produced by the spirit of God. 2. We
may have disinterested love to an object in
rev. isaac anderson, d.d. 243
which we have the highest interest—hence
we see why it is that God addresses our fears,
hopes, and love for happiness to persuade us
to love him with disinterested affection.
"I am, etc.,
"I. Anderson.
"Maryville, October 23, 1816."
10. He held and taught that man was cre¬
ated pure and holy, placed under law which
he transgressed, and, as the federal head of
the race, his fall involved his posterity in the
evils of a corrupt nature, so as that every
child is born into the world with a depraved
nature which uniformly acts itself out in per¬
sonal sin, deserving of death. Hence he re¬
jected the doctrine of the imputation of
Adam's sin to his posterity.
11. He held and taught that the means of
grace, which consist principally in the truths
of God's word and the various methods of
conveying them to the mind, are to be dili¬
gently used, though not of themselves effica¬
cious in regenerating the heart. Yet it is
244
MEMOIR OF
through or in connection with them that the
Spirit ordinarily operates on the heart. Hence
that there is more hope of an awakened sin¬
ner than of a stupid one, although both ought
to be urged to immediate repentance and sub¬
mission as the first duty.
12. He held and taught the doctrine of the
Abrahamic Covenant or the covenant of grace,
the seal of which was originally circumcision,
but is now baptism; the condition, faith on
the part of the parent; and the promised
good, the child's salvation.
13. He held and taught the doctrine of
unconditional submission to the authority of
God, as being most perfect and absolute.
This doctrine not being correctly understood,
and having, therefore, been caricatured, gave
occasion for a third letter to his friend.
"Dear Sir:—The last thing objected to in
your letter is a particular mode of express¬
ing the doctrine of unconditional submis¬
sion. The mode of expression of which you
complain is this: genuine submission or hu-
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 245
mility implies a willingness to be damned, if
the glory of God should require it. I do not
propose answering you any otherwise than by
exibiting what I believe to be the truth on
this subject.
"You will admit that there is a distinction
between the precepts and the penalty of the
divine law, and also between the transgres¬
sion of law and the suffering of the penalty
of law. Without these distinctions we should
be subject to the greatest confusion in our
conceptions of many divine subjects, and
would run into many gross absurdities. To
mention but one—most Christians believe
that Christ suffered the curse of the law in
the room of sinners; then, if the above dis¬
tinctions are not admitted, Christ transgressed
the law, which is contrary to the whole word
of God. Some understand the word damna¬
tion as embracing in its proper meaning both
the malignant temper of the heart, which is
the transgression of the law, and the suffer¬
ings inflicted by the government of God on
the transgressor for his crimes. This, to me,
22
246
MEMOIR OF
is to confound all distinction between pre¬
cept and penalty, sin, and suffering for sin.
Neither the English word damnation nor the
word in the original, of which it is the trans¬
lation, properly means both these things, but
only that punishment to which a sinner is
righteously condemned by his judge for his
transgression of law. But I admit that peo¬
ple generally understand it as including both,
and the mistake is not a dangerous one; for,
in the perfect moral government of God,
none will be damned but sinners, and no im¬
penitent sinner will finally escape damnation.
But still sin and its punishment are distinct.
I am willing, also, to admit that the expres¬
sion, willing to be damned, conveys a wrong
sentiment to ninety-nine out of a hundred
hearers; therefore I do not use it, nor ap¬
prove of others using it. But now I have
conceded all you are to expect. I am now
ready to state what I do and must defend, as
I must answer for it at the bar of God,
namely, that it is in the very nature of true
religion to make us willing to be treated as
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 247
we deserve. This very temper is that with
which religion commences in the heart of a
sinner, and is among the brightest and most
glorious features of true religion through life
and through eternity. On this subject I could
dilate with pleasure, but the brevity of a let¬
ter forbids it. The sentiment is supported by
the following arguments:—
1. eeeI love them that love me.' (Prov. viii.
17.) God has no love for sinners except the
love of good-will; such a love as a good man
may have for a fellow-man whose character he
hates. It is morally impossible that God should
love sinners, (except with the love of good-will,)
for they are unlovely, their hearts are opposed
to all that is good, and to love and be pleased
with a sinner would be to be sinful. (i%. 1.18.)
Then if there ever be any complacential love
between God and the sinner, the sinner must
first begin to love God; and there is always
good ground on which the sinner may begin
to love God, for God is always the same, and
infinitely lovely. And as soon as the crea¬
ture begins to love God, then he has some-
248
MEMOIR OE
thing in him which God can love. But be¬
fore the creature begins to love God, his
justice, holiness, and truth are all opposed to
him as a sinner, and stand in dreadful array
for his destruction. Then with just such
views of God, the sinner must submit to him
and begin to love him; for he cannot know
that God will have mercy on him until the
Spirit bears witness with his spirit that love
to a holy and sin-avenging God is in him;
and, sir, this is an argument that all the
sophistry on earth cannot refute or gracefully
gainsay. 'If their uncircumcised hearts be
humbled, and they then accept the punish¬
ment of their iniquity, then will I remember
my covenant.' (Leviticus, xxvi. 41, 42.) I
once heard of a preacher who told the people
from the pulpit that this punishment meant
temporal punishment. God save me from
such comments on his Word! 'I will ap¬
point over you terror, consumption, and the
burning ague; ye shall be slain by your ene¬
mies; and if ye will not be reformed by me,
by these things, I will bring seven times
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 249
more plague upon you according to your
sins; I will send the pestilence on you; ye
shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh
of your daughters; I will cast your carcasses
upon the carcasses of your idols; I will make
your cities waste; I will bring the land into
desolation; ye shall perish among the hea¬
then, and the land of your enemies shall eat
you up; they that are left shall pine away in
their iniquity.' This is the connection of the
passage. Now, sir, suppose such a punish¬
ment brought on this land, how soon would
those who fell under it survive it? The end¬
less ages of eternity alone would measure
their misery. And do such evils involve
temporal punishment only—what then would
imply eternal misery?
"2. If we consider what sin deserves we
shall soon be convinced that eternal misery
alone is the just desert of sin. Against
whom is sin committed? Against an infi¬
nitely holy God, and in violation of a perfect
law. Then it deserves eternal death. What
evil would the uncontrolled tendency of sin
22*
250
MEMOIR OF
produce? Infinite mischief to God and his
kingdom. Then the sinner deserves to feel
as much evil as his sins have a tendency to
produce. Sin deserves the wrath of God and
his curse, both in this life and the life that is
to come. (Dent. xix. 19; Gal. iii. 10.)
"3. What is humility? It is not a painful,
envious sense of another's superiority. Nor
is it the submission that an inferior owes to a
superior. Nor is it the condescension of a
superior to an inferior. Nor is it involuntary
abasement. What then ? It consists in self-
abasement. Being willing to lie as low as
our sins deserve. (Luke, xv. 19; Job, xlii. 6;
Gen. xxxii. 10.) The humble sinner ap¬
proves the justice that condemns him, and is
willing to bear the punishment he deserves.
This was the temper of Eli. (1 Sam. xv. 25,
26.) This was the temper of David when he
saw thousands falling under the avenging
sword of the destroying angel. ' Even I it is,
that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as
for these sheep, what have they done? Let
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 251
thine hand, I pray thee, 0 Lord my God, be
upon me,' etc. etc. (1 Chron. xxi. 17.)
"4. eAccept the punishment,' etc. Can
any humble disciple of the meek and dis¬
interested Jesus complain, My heart revolts at
the thought of being in the hands of a righteous
and holy God so completely and absolutely as
this? Is not God to be trusted without limi¬
tations and conditions ? If not, who will im¬
pose them upon him? Or can God be too
much exalted in the hearts of his creatures?
Or can a sinner feel too much self-abasement?
Do you admit that sin deserves God's wrath
and curse, both in this life and that which is
to come? Do you admit that it would be
righteous in God to inflict this deserved pun¬
ishment? Must you approve or disapprove of
God's justice in order to be a Christian? Did
a man ever approve of that which he was not
willing to accept? Consult your own heart
for the answers. It must reply: it cannot
help it; acceptance and approbation of an
object of choice are the very same thing.
Your heart, your conscience, your Bible, all
252
MEMOIR OF
tell you that heartfelt religion approves of
the law in precept and penalty; approves of
the truth, justice, and holiness of God, which
incline him to execute the sentence of the
law on all sinners. And can your conscience
and Bible also tell you that it is not right to
have a heartfelt acceptance of the punish¬
ment of your iniquity? Impossible. Can
you distinguish between the exercise of ap¬
proving of Christ as he is exhibited in the
Gospel, and accepting him as a Saviour? Just
as easily as you can distinguish between sin
and a transgression of the law. The heart's
approving of an object is the heart's accept¬
ing of that object.
"5. Let us look at the reasonableness of
this sentiment. The government and law of
God are holy, just, and good. It is righteous
in God to carry into execution his law, and
the heart that does not feel so must be in a
state of rebellion; but God cannot receive
one in such a state. Again, sinners are not
prepared to accept mercy, who are not willing
to sink as low as divine justice can sink
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 253
them, or who do not see and approve God's
justice and freely resign themselves into his
hand. Let me illustrate this. A son has
offended in so high a degree that it becomes
the duty of the father to chastise him; the
son attempts to escape; the father commands
him to come back; the son replies, I will come
to you if you will not chastise me. If the father
agrees to this condition, then the son has a
claim on the father to go free from punishment,
and does not feel that it is an exercise of mercy
to let him escape. But if the father tells him
plainly he must come back without any con¬
dition, and the son returns, feeling that he
deserves punishment, willing to accept of it,
and_ approving of that trait of character in
his father which inclines him to chastise an
offending son, he not only shows a right tem¬
per toward his father and justice, but is pre¬
pared to feel that if his father forgive him,
that it is mere mercy, an unmerited favor.
And if he sees that it becomes consistent
with family government, for the father to
pardon him through the merit of another
254
MEMOIR OF
brother, how will it endear that brother to
his heart! Through this medium he will ac¬
cept his father's favor. - But this will not de¬
stroy in him the willingness to be treated as
he deserves; and this willingness is so far
from destroying his hope or assurance of his
father's favor, that it is the experimental
ground on which he is sure of enjoying that
favor, for he knows that his father looks on
this temper in him and is pleased.
"Let me ask, what would be the feelings
of good citizens who had been present at the
trial of a murderer and heard his guilt proved
plainly, when they saw him executed, would
they not all approve ? Will not the righteous
all approve of the condemnation of the wicked
at last? Suppose the murderer, just before
his execution, becomes a good man, what would
his feelings be? Would his goodness of heart
be the very opposite of goodness of heart in
others? or would he not join with them in
approving his condemnation and execution?
Surely. Would it not be very incongruous
for the saints in the judgment day to join in
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 255
the sentence of condemnation of the wicked,
seeing they deserved the same, if they were
not willing to accept it? Would this be doing
to others as we would that others should do
to us ?
"Some, to avoid the conclusion of these ar¬
guments, ungenerously confound the willing¬
ness, of which I have been speaking, with
desire. Let us try to what this confusion
will lead. Our catechism tells us that the
tenth commandment requires a full content¬
ment with our own condition. It refers us to
Heb. xiii. 5, and 1 Cor. x. 10: 'Be content
with such things as ye have'—'Neither mur¬
mur ye as some of them also murmured.'
Let me suppose a condition. A man is cast
into a dungeon, his wife and daughters are
prostituted before his eyes, and then his
whole family sold for slaves to cruel task¬
masters. He is to be fully content, willing
to submit, yet he may honestly desire to
change this condition. But this desire must
he under such government as that the man
would not willingly do wrong to change his
256
MEMOIR OF
state. Would it not be uncandid to say that
the catechism or Bible requires him to desire
such a condition, because they require him
willingly to submit to the providence of God,
and thus bear his state without murmuring?
6Wherefore doth a living man complain; a
man for the punishment of his sins?' Again,
Paul tells us, 'If X be an offender, or have
committed anything worthy of death, I refuse
not to die.' [Acts, xxv. 11.) Paul was willing
to die if he deserved to die; but it would be
ridiculous to say that he desired to die the
death of a criminal. Many Christians are
willing to bear poverty, persecution, and even
death, for the sake of Christ and his king¬
dom; yet no man in his senses desires and
wishes for these evils.
"I have now given you my views on what
you deem exceptional things in what you
style New Divinity. I believe my brethren
agree with me. If your difficulties, or rather
objections, are removed, I shall feel amply
compensated. I feel that your letter is an¬
swered. If you should feel so too, then
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 257
others may have relief by seeing this answer.
You are at liberty to let them have the op¬
portunity, in any mode you may think best.
I have not taken your letter, paragraph by
paragraph, and answered it. This I did not
think the most advisable method. But if
these letters are correct, yours is answered,
and the plan I have adopted is the most con¬
cise. I fear this letter may be too concise; I
hope not. May the Lord direct us all in our
inquiries after truth, and bring us at last to
his heavenly kingdom.
" I am yours affectionately,
"I. Anderson.
"Maryville, Oct. 25, 1816.
"In support of the doctrines advocated in this
letter, you may consult Matt, xxiii. 11,12, and
xvi. 25; Mark, viii. 35; Luke, ix. 24, and
xvii. 33; 1 Peter, v. 6."
The foregoing statement will sufficiently
indicate the general drift of his theological
opinions. The letters bring out what was
peculiar in his views on the points discussed.
23
258
MEMOIR 0E
It may not be out of place here to cite his
own testimony to his orthodoxy. In a letter
to Rev. Dr. E. N. S., who had been appointed
an agent to solicit funds for the College, he
writes, under date of March 26,1853: "Would
not our New School brethren in New York
and Pennsylvania sympathize with us in our
persevering struggles, and come to our help?
The doctrines of President Edwards and Dr.
Edwards, of Dwight and Strong, and old Dr.
Spring, and writers of this school, are the
doctrines taught here. Would they not help
us in our emergency? Would not the lovers
of these doctrines in New England aid us to
spread these glorious truths?"
But whatever may be said of his ortho¬
doxy, he always brought his views to the
most rigid tests of the inspired Word. A
"thus saith the Lord" was worth more to
him than the opinions or reasonings of com¬
mentators or divines. A tenet, unsupported
as he believed by the Word of God, was re¬
jected as unworthy and hurtful. His theo¬
logical lectures—those he was accustomed to
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 259
read to his classes, of which a large portion
was destroyed by the fire which consumed his
dwelling, March, 1856—gave abundant evi¬
dence of careful preparation, of close thinking,
of large acquaintance with polemic divinity,
and an accurate and extensive knowledge of
the Scriptures. They were written, indeed,
in a style wholly destitute of ornament, and
at times loose and uncouth, but nevertheless
clear and strong. They had neither the sys¬
tematic arrangement of Dwight, nor the easy,
fluent style of Woods, nor the learning of
Knapp; but they seem to be drawn from
the Word of God—free from all taint of
rationalism, eschewing all subtle refinements
and unmeaning abstractions, all "handling of
the Word of God deceitfully." Truth was
his object, and he sought to attain it in the
love of it, by a simple, manly, prayerful
searching of the Scriptures.
From the day when he determined to con¬
secrate himself to the work of the ministry,
he conscientiously sought to know the truth,
and as zealously contended for it when he
260
MEMOIR OP
found it. He was not a controversialist, as
that term is generally understood. From
mere partisan discussions, heated discussions
of mere sectarian questions, he always shrank.
But when a manly opponent threw down the
gauntlet, and he supposed God's glory would
be served, he was always ready to accept the
challenge. When the arena of doctrinal con¬
troversy was fairly opened, he was willing to
enter the lists in behalf of what he deemed
the truth. Wherever the interests of religion,
the cause of truth, the glory of God, required
discussion, whether in the pulpit or from the
press, he was not the man to shrink from his
duty. The exhortation of the Apostle lost
none of its force on his mind and heart, for
he "earnestly contended for the faith once
delivered to the saints." Hence, he was ever
ready, in the lecture-room, in the pulpit, at
the fireside, on the highway, to give a reason
for the hope that was in him, and for the
faith which he cherished in the great doc¬
trines of revealed truth. He was fond of the
work of theological instruction, not only of
KEY. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 261
his pupils, but also of his people. One of the
elders of his church came to him one day
for the purpose of discussing some doctrinal
points, and apologized for so doing. " I wish,"
said Dr. A., "that all the members of my
church would come as you have done and
talk with me on these deeply interesting and
important subjects."
Dr. Anderson's published writings are few
in number. Copies of an occasional sermon
and essay are still extant. That he did not
write more for the press may have been owing
to his excessive diffidence about such things,
or to his dislike of the pen. He never wrote
anything when he could avoid it—indeed,
during the more active period of his life he
had no time to devote to the mechanical
labor of writing. His lectures, however, were
written in full.
23*
262
MEMOIR OF
CHAPTER XYI.
A word or two in conclusion. God gave
to the subject of this memoir a work to do,
and sustained him in it until it was accom¬
plished. With singular steadfastness he kept
his eye on that which, at the outset of his
ministry, he had proposed to himself as the
only object worth living for; as the highest
end at which he could aim; as the most
blessed result he could desire for himself or
others—the glory of God. The hosannas of
the multitude had no charms for his ear; the
fires of worldly ambition were never kindled
in his breast; envy, the meanest of human
passions, found no place in his heart; the fear
of man had no power to control his thoughts
and actions. With singleness of purpose, for¬
getful of self, intent on doing good, he de¬
voted himself and all God gave him, to the
service of his Master. With compassionate
REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D. 263
yearnings for the salvation of souls, with con¬
suming zeal for the advancement of the Re¬
deemer's kingdom, he labored and suffered,
that he might win souls to Christ and enlarge
the borders of Zion. Hero is not an idle
word when applied to him; for in suffering
and action alike he was a model of true hero¬
ism. If the achievement of a lovely, sym¬
metrical Christian character; if the unselfish
toils and labors of a ministry of fifty years;
if self-sacrificing efforts to supply the desti¬
tute with ministers of the Gospel; if remarka¬
ble success in winning souls to Christ,—if these
are evidences of true greatness, then was he
great. Adopting the language of David, we
may say, "a great man has fallen in Israel."
For several months the sad event was ex¬
pected, and those who watched over him with
so much solicitude were not unprepared for
it when it came. They marked the gradual
decay of his physical energy, the going out of
the fire of his intellect, the return to second
childhood, the helplessness of a second in¬
fancy, the giving way at last of nature, and
264 REV. ISAAC ANDERSON, D.D.
the release of a soul that now glows and
burns with more than a seraph's joy around
the throne of God. Thrice blessed art thou
now, thou glorified saint, as thou shinest as
the stars of heaven and shalt shine forever
and ever ! Pregnant with sacred memories is
thy name and character!
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A.
Maryville, Tenn., July 15, 1842.
Reverend and dear Brother :—
* * * * you are studying the Prophecies—
a field without limits. I will give you a synopsis of
East Tennessee views, relative to the Man of Sin
and the Jews.
Daniel, viii. 14, contains a vision of 2300 years.
Daniel, xii. 7,
3^ times are three years and a
half; or forty two months; or
twelve hundred and sixty days
—i.e. prophetic years which
will end with 2300.
Rev.
u
a
vii. 25,
xii. 14,
xii. 6,
xi. 3,
xi. 2,
xiii. 5,
(267)
268
APPENDIX.
From 2300 which began 490 years before Christ, (Dan.
Take 490 ix. 24-27,)
Remains 1810. After Christ's death the 2300 years end.
Add 33£ = length of Christ's life.
[christ falls.
1843£ prophetic years after Christ's birth, Anti-
Take 26^= difference between 1843^ prophetic years
and 1842 civil years.*
Remains 1817 from Christ's birth, Antichrist falls.
Take 4 years, since the Christian era begins too
late by four years.
1813 civil years.
After the year 1813 a.d. is out, Antichrist comes to his
end—i.e. in 1814 a.d.
From 1810 prophetic years from Christ's death to the fall
of Antichrist,
Take 1260 = the time of the Beast's reign.
[Sin.
550 prophetic years = rise of the Beast or Man of
Add 33£ = age of Christ.
[the Beast.
583-|- = prophetic years from Christ's birth to rise of
Take 8| = difference of prophetic and civil years for
583|-. [the Beast.
575 = civil years from Christ's birth to the rise of
Take 4 years = Christian era too late.
[the Beast.
571 civil years from Christ's birth to the rise of
civil years. prophetic years.
From 1814 From 1843£
Take 572 Take 573£
1242 1260
* The difference for one year is five and one-fourth days.
APPENDIX.
269
Hence the 1242 civil years are equal to -1260 pro¬
phetic years—the period of the reign of the Man
of Sin.
According to this calculation, which you will be
able to understand with some labor, the reign of the
Man of Sin, during a period of 1260 years, is out;
but the millennium is not here. Because after the
1260 years is out, there is a period of thirty years,
and another period of forty-five years, both of
which are to be fulfilled before the millennium com¬
mences. Add then seventy-five years to 1242, and
you have 1889. Take one year and a month, the
difference between civil and prophetic years for
seventy-five years, and we have 1888 for the com¬
mencement of the millennium. During the thirty
years many shall run to and fro; knowledge will be
increased; the wicked will do more wickedly; and
the Jews will return to their own land. During the
forty-five years everything will be prepared for the
reign of the Messiah on earth for one thousand
years, or three hundred and sixty thousand.
24
270
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX B.
"Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, curse ye
bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty."—Judges, v. 23.
These words are a part of a divinely inspired
song which was sung by the Prophetess Deborah,
and Barak, the son of Abinoam, to celebrate the
remarkable victory obtained over Sisera and his for¬
midable host. Israel had done evil by transgressing
the covenant of the Lord, and God had sold them
into the hand of Jab in, King of Canaan, who
mightily oppressed them for twenty years; so long
was it before they were brought to confess their sins
and look to God for deliverance. After this lapse
of time they returned and cried to God for help,
and God raised them up a deliverer. "Deborah, a
prophetess, sent and called Barak, and said unto
him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded,
Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with
thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali
and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw
unto thee, to the River Kishon, Sisera, the captain of
APPENDIX.
271
Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude;
and I will deliver him into thine hand." This little
band of patriots followed their pious but heroic
leader, and discomfited the whole host of Sisera,
although he had nine hundred chariots of iron; for
the Lord fought against Sisera.
Meroz appears to have been a city somewhere
near the scene of this interesting action, the inhab¬
itants of which refused to aid the little band of
heroes that followed Barak. Their neutrality was,
no doubt, dictated by a secret dissatisfaction to the
laws and ordinances of God and a criminal attach¬
ment to the idolatry and customs of the Canaanites,
or perhaps by cowardice. Their neutrality argued
so criminal a state of heart and motives so base that
the angel of God's presence, who is none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, although free from all bitter¬
ness of heart, commands, " Curse ye Meroz, curse
ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they
came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the
Lord against the mighty."
Our text supposes that the inhabitants of Meroz
should have viewed the cause of Israel as the cause
of Heaven, and that in coming to aid Israel they
would have come to the help of the Lord. But why
the cause of the Lord ? For this reason: Jabin was
272
APPENDIX.
actuated by a lust of prey and domination, which is
a violation of God's law; but Israel only wished to
defend their rights and liberties, while they ac¬
knowledged God's right to reign, his overruling
providence, and put their trust in the arm of Om¬
nipotence.
Then the following propositions are contained in
the text:—
1. In contests between nations the Lord espouses
the cause of the righteous and makes it his own.
2. Those who will not help their country against
an unjust enemy, incur the displeasure of Heaven.
1. In contests between nations, etc.
A righteous nation is one in which the rulers and
the ruled fear God and regard his authority with
holy and impartial hearts. This benevolent state of
heart, abounding in every right exercise, would lead
them to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly
before God. Such a nation would be called by men
a righteous nation. To such a people God would
say, "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests
and an holy nation." {Ex. xix. 6.) A people of
this character would diligently hearken unto the
voice of the Lord their God, to observe and to do
all his commandments. Then would God set them
above all the nations of the earth. {Deut. xxiv. 1.)
APPENDIX.
273
There is a national righteousness that God, in
his providence toward men, regards in some degree,
which falls far short of the above description. That
is it where a nation is led publicly to express their
dependence on God and their trust in him, from a
full conviction that his providence* rules over all.
2. And from a conviction of God's right to com¬
mand and the obligation of the creature to obey,
they pay a decent and courteous attention to the
ordinances and commands of Heaven. Agreeably
to this sentiment we see it recorded of Amazia—
" He did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, but not with a perfect heart." (2 Chron.
xxv. 2.) The observance of the divine commands
by Amazia, and his public acknowledgment of God's
authority and providence, were calculated to honor
God before the nation. Therefore, God, in giving
a history of his visible character, says—"He did
that which was right." But that it might be seen
that God was not deceived, and that Amazia ought
to have done these things with a holy and honest
heart, it is added, "but not with a perfect heart."
A nation cannot, with propriety, be said to be
* God's providence is his most holy, wise, and powerful,
preserving and governing all his creatures and all their
actions.
24*
274
APPENDIX.
righteous that does not at least come up to this
last description.
A nation which is righteous in either of the senses
which we have now described, will show a religious
regard for the Sabbath. God has expressly com¬
manded, "Remember the Sabbath, day to keep it
holy." This command is as binding on nations as
on individuals, for God is King of kings and Lord
of nations. And a nation whose public laws and
institutions violate the Sabbath, either directly or
indirectly, certainly fly in the face of God's au¬
thority, deny his right to command, and their obli¬
gation to obey. Does not the carrying and opening
of the mail on the Sabbath savor too much of this
spirit? The arrival and opening of the mail, by the
authority of a public law, is not only a breach of
the Sabbath, but is a great temptation to the people
to leave the private and public acts of worship to
read the news and spend God's day in conversation
on politics. Would any nation disposed to acknowl¬
edge God's authority and man's obligation to obey,
make thus light of a plain and positive command of
Heaven? In times of war and public danger, when
dispatch in carrying expresses is necessary and im¬
portant, it would be lawful for the bearer to ride on
the Sabbath, but in times of peace and security it is
APPENDIX.
275
without excuse. And I am sorry to add, that al¬
though almost every Christian society in the govern¬
ment have petitioned Congress on this subject, the
petitions have been laid under the table with indif¬
ference and neglect. Suppose those employed in
carrying the mail should at once become conscien¬
tious in obeying God's commands and neglect to
proceed with the mail on the Sabbath, what would
be the consequence? They would be liable to a
penalty. Suppose, in this case, they were brought
before the supreme tribunal of the land for trial,
and should answer, "Whether is it right in the sight
of God to hearken unto you more than unto God,
judge ye," how would the judge give sentence?
Certainly according to the laws of the land. Then
the law of the land and the law of God are at war
with each other.
A sinful disregard for the authority of Heaven in
commanding the observance of the Sabbath, is
chargeable on all those State Legislatures that have
fixed the commencement of courts of justice on
Monday, as it is impossible that the officers of court
should attend on that day without traveling on the
Sabbath. And, to say the least of it, this law,
sanctioned by the authority of the State, lays a
temptation, if not compels its officers, to violate a
276
APPENDIX.
plain, positive, and benevolent institution of the
God of the universe. And if a judge be liable to a
penalty for not opening and holding court on Mon¬
day, because he has no other reason but that his
conscience would not let him travel on the Sabbath,
then, in this case, human laws punish a man for the
observance of the laws of God. Yet the people of
this nation, favored with the volume of inspiration
and the means of grace, and even professed Chris¬
tians, will elect men as legislators, who, they know,
pay no regard to the Sabbath of the Lord in their
private life, and of course will not in their legisla¬
tive acts. Thus the authority of the Sabbath is
broken down—a wide door is opened for swearing,
lying, stealing, and committing uncleanness. "Hear
ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for
the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of
the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor
knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and
killing, and lying, and stealing, and committing
adultery, they break out; therefore shall the land
mourn." (Rosea, iv. 1, 2, 3.) Mourn with the op¬
pression of famine, pestilence, and the calamities of
war, brought on them by the judgments of God for
their sins.
A righteous nation will acknowledge the provi-
APPENDIX.
277
dence of God in all their public transactions and
State documents. If the providence of God brings
them from the state of colonies and vassalage to
freedom and independence by their own exertions,
the act of the State declaring independence will be
preceded by an appointment for observing a day of
fasting and prayer, to seek the divine counsel and
support; and the instrument containing the decla¬
ration of independence will express a sense of the
overruling and disposing providence of the God of
nations. A Christian people should begin and close
all their legislative councils and courts of justice by
an act of worship, expressive of their sense of God's
presence and superintendence. It is truly humbling
to reflect that legislators in Christian countries can¬
not be distinguished by any religious rites from the
legislators of infidels or atheists. Has the holy
providence of an omniscient God nothing to do with
legislative bodies? Is it not with God to give wis¬
dom to the counselor and to hide understanding
from the prudent? (Isaiah, iii. 1, 3, and xxix. 14.)
If courts of justice were opened by a solemn address
to that God who loveth judgment and hateth oppres¬
sion, would it not deeply impress all concerned with
a sense of the presence of that Almighty Being
who noticeth every transaction and will bring every
278
APPENDIX.
thought, word, and decision into judgment? Would
it not make a salutary impression on jurors and wit¬
nesses—while it would be a natural expression of
the sentiments of a people who feared God and re¬
vered his authority? I lament that my beloved
country has continued to have so few national ac¬
knowledgments of God and his holy providence.
With God's hook in my hand, I cannot doubt that
these things are offensive to Heaven.
If the fear of God properly influences a nation,
they will, in their elections of the officers of govern¬
ment, have a special regard to the sentiments, re¬
ligious as well as political, of the candidate. They
will also he particular about his moral character. It
will not he a matter of indifference whether he be¬
lieve in ten Gods or in one; or whether he acknowl¬
edge or deny the authority of God's Word; or
whether in his private life he show a decent respect
to divine institutions, or neglect and contemn them.
God hath said, "When the righteous are in author¬
ity the people rejoice, but when the wicked hear rule
the people mourn." (Prov. xxix. 2.) "Righteous¬
ness exalteth a nation, hut sin is the reproach of
any people." [Prov. xiv. 34.) These will he found
to be immutable truths, notwithstanding the infidelity
of the licentious and profane. Can we expect any
APPENDIX.
279
regard will be shown to divine laws in legislative
bodies, when the members are infidels or men of
abandoned lives? That nation which by righteous¬
ness has secured the favor of the Lord of hosts, if
they frame a constitution, will religiously secure the
rights of conscience and regard the rights of men.
In these respects the United States are righteous
above all the nations of the earth. Truth requires
us to make a painful exception with regard to the
situation of those people among us whose native
country had the criminal misfortune of lying under
the sun's path, and whose complexion has been de¬
termined by his vertical beams. With this excep¬
tion, our constitution and laws secure to us our civil
and religious liberty more effectually than the laws
of any other nation on earth. In a word, since
nations first began to be, none have lived under so
happy a form of government, or enjoyed so equita¬
ble an administration of laws. Here we have, nor
ever had," a rival. The heart bounds with pleasure
and gratitude at the very recollection of our repub¬
lican form of government. The citizen who would
not rally around the standard of this government
and defend it with his fortune and life deserves to
be execrated by all the virtuous and good.
A righteous nation will be strictly just in her in-
280
APPENDIX.
tercourse and treaties with other nations. The
United States, on this subject, I think may appeal
to Heaven as the witness of their integrity. Let any
man of candor read the diplomatic correspondence
between our government and the governments of
France and England, and divest himself of all party
feeling, he must admit that we have made no unjust
demands, nor put up any unrighteous claims. Power
and interest determine right with most nations. To
this nefarious plan the government of the United
States is a proud exception. How long and peace¬
fully have the Canadians dwelt beside us; how
strictly have we regarded the rights of even the In¬
dian tribes at great expense to ourselves! To a na¬
tion less just, all these long since would have fallen
a prey—ambition, lust of power, or avarice fur¬
nishing some wretched pretext. What is the situa¬
tion of the Indians who bordered on the British
dominions in the East Indies, or the Spanish in the
West? An American rejoices in so triumphant a
proof of our national integrity and love of peace.
A nation whose character fills up the foregoing
description of righteousness is secure of the favor
and protection of Heaven in all their contests with
their more unrighteous neighbors, as is evident from
the whole history of God's providence toward Israel.
APPENDIX.
281
We will select but one or two instances besides tbe
one with which our text stands connected. The
Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the
East, in the days of Gideon invaded the land of
Israel with a most formidable host; to this vast
multitude Israel had no adequate force to oppose;
their only resource was the protection of Him who
is Lord of hosts; they made supplication to him;
the Lord heard and delivered them by the hand of
Gideon and a chosen company of three hundred men.
What a striking proof that the race is not to the
swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those to
whom the Lord showeth favor because they honor
his name! (Judges, vi. vii. viii.)
In the days of Hezekiah, Sennecharib, King of
Assyria, invaded Judah with a mighty host, saying,
"Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord,
saying, The Lord surely will deliver us." (2 Kings,
xviii. 30.) But the rulers of the people put their
trust in God and asked his direction. The Lord
answered, " He shall not come into the city; I will
defend it and save it." (2 Kings, xix. 38, 34.) Hear
the result. The angel of the Lord went out that
night and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an
hundred fourscore and five thousand. (35 v.)
The revolutionary war may also be adduced as a
25
282
APPENDIX.
proof of our sentiments. The British king and parlia¬
ment attempted to enslave the land; we remonstra¬
ted and petitioned; they treated our humble peti¬
tions with scorn and neglect. Rather than be en¬
slaved, we committed our cause to God, and declared
ourselves a free and independent people. But these
blessings must be obtained by contending with the
numerous fleet and veteran army of Great Britain,
whose recent victories were almost coextensive with
the earth. How shall we oppose so formidable a
host, without an army, without a navy, without arms
and money? Our cause was the cause of Heaven;
and Jehovah, the God of battles, led us to victory,
freedom, and independence. How many Tories there
were among us who came not to the help of the
Lord against the mighty; and how many of them
did the angel of the Lord curse bitterly! With the
circumstances and events of this glorious struggle
before us, who can doubt whether the Lord espouses
the cause of the righteous that put their trust in
him?
2. Those who will not aid and support their coun¬
try against an unjust and oppressive enemy incur
the displeasure of Heaven.
Wherever the Holy Scriptures have recorded the
conflicts between the righteous and the wicked, the
APPENDIX.
283
oppressor and the oppressed, they have universally
asserted that the battles which the righteous fought,
or were called to fight, were the battles of the Lord;
and those who fought them are viewed as his servants,
entitled to divine counsel and protection—"All this
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with
sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's."
(1 Sam. xvii. 27, and xxv. 28.) Then those who
will not aid in such cases with all their might, refuse
.to take part with the righteous Lord against his ene¬
mies and the enemies of human happiness. Hence
it necessarily follows that the Lord is displeased
with those who act such a part—" Cursed be he
that keepeth back his sword from blood." (Jer.
xlviii. 10.)
We will now inquire what are the political causes
of the war, that we may see on whose side right
lies. The Berlin and Milan decrees of the French
and the British orders in council subjected us to
evils unnecessary and oppressive. We remonstrated,
made every fair proposal to induce these belligerents
to remove those oppressive decrees and orders, so
far as they related to us. Ambition made them deaf
and insensible to the claims of justice. Besides
this, each of these nations has captured and burnt
our ships, and seized on their lading for a prey, when
284
APPENDIX.
we were peaceably pursuing a lawful trade under
faith of treaties of friendship. They have captured
our seamen, and Britain has impressed them to nav¬
igate her vessels or fight her battles. This last
power has injured us most, whether first or not, be¬
cause she had it most in her power. "We have de¬
termined, to resist these wrongs, and we have begun
with the enemy that pressed us most. The evi¬
dences that the enemy with which we are now at
war, treating us unjustly, are but too glaring.
Could you hear the groans of our impressed sea¬
men, torn by the hand of British violence from
their native country, their families, and friends;
confined in a floating hell; compelled under the lash
to fight the battles of an ambitious nation, would
you doubt whether our cause was the cause of right¬
eousness and of Heaven ? I do not know that Britain
claims it as a right to take our citizens; it would be
too barefaced to avow such a right; but under pre¬
text of taking her own citizens, they have laid vio¬
lent hands on thousands of Americans. Their rule
on this subject has given every wicked or ignorant
commander of a vessel the liberty of wantonly
sporting with the lives and liberties of our country¬
men. Have they not, in numerous instances, re¬
fused to hear the legal and authentic documents^of
APPENDIX.
285
citizenship from our unfortunate mariners who have
fallen into their hands ? The truth is, their apology
for this conduct is hut a wretched pretext for the
diabolical crime of man-stealing—a crime that the
Lord hateth. "He that stealeth a man and selleth
him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely
he put to death." [Ex. xxi. 16; Deut. xxiv. 7; 1
Tim. i. 10.) But this guilty nation had long been
accustomed to kidnap the people of the unhappy
climes of Africa, and thereby have involved us in
national guilt, from which, I am afraid, we shall not
soon be clear. For several years they have turned
their blood-stained hands on us. The angel of the
Lord saith, Curse ye him bitterly, who will not come
to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Again, we have remonstrated ^th them against
their orders in council; we have plainly told them
of the injuries we have sustained by them, but in
vain. Their ears have been deafer than an adder's.
They have stirred up and armed the savages against
us, and made them their allies in the work of de¬
struction—although their known mode of warfare is
indiscriminate carnage—the innocent babe and ven¬
erable matron, equally with the soldier, is butchered
and scalped; and, to finish the tale of horror, these
scaips are bought with British rum and gold. The
25*
286
APPENDIX.
depravity of our enemy may be seen in the manner
in which they wage war. Have not our present
enemies abandoned the rules of honorable war and
the usages of all civilized nations, and even sunk
beneath the barbarous savages of the forest? Wit¬
ness the scene at Hampton, Virginia—the chaste
matron and blushing virgin are given up to the
brutal lust of the soldiery; the shrieks of despair
of the miserable victims are heard by the citizens
who can afford no relief, but wring their hands in
hopeless agony. And oh, unutterable! this is the
reward promised to the soldiers by the very officers!
For the honor of human nature, let not the execra¬
ble deed blot the page of history. It would dis¬
grace the annals of the black prince of hell. Vir¬
gins and matrons^ let your female eloquence rouse
your brothers, husbands, and sons to go to the help
of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty. Plead the cause of your sex, or they
may yet witness you given up by British officers
to the hellish lusts of incarnate fiends. The blood
runs cold at the prospect, and horror seizes every
thought.
Some, perhaps, are ready to say, we acknowledge
that the British government has for a number of
years mistreated the American nation, but we are
APPENDIX.
287
not disposed to aid our government in this war with
all our heart and might, because we have for a long
time been opposed to the administration for setting
aside our once rising navy; and also on account of
the embargo, non-intercourse laws, etc. etc. On
this subject let me observe, men may honestly and
impartially differ in their views respecting the best
measures for government to adopt. Those in favor
of one measure may honestly think that the system
adopted by others is calculated to bring calamity
and distress on the nation, while those who adopt
the measures may honestly think that they are the
very best. Men may differ thus widely in their
political views, and be honest and firm friends to
their country; but when the opposition of sentiment
is carried so far, that either the one or the other of
the parties would join to aid the enemy of their
common country, it becomes criminal, even to trea¬
son, at least of heart. It would at least be modest
in a minority to suppose that the measures of their
own choice, had they been adopted, might have
failed to secure peace and prosperity to the coun¬
try; while it is uncharitable in the majority to
charge the minority with being Tories, or enemies to
the government, merely because they do not ap¬
prove of some of the public measures.
* * * * * % *
288
APPENDIX.
From the view we have taken of this subject, we
infer that the moral cause of our present calamities
arising from drought, dissension, and war, is our
national sins; but the political causes of the war
are the injustice of the French and British govern¬
ments. As a nation, we have disregarded the public
laws of the God of heaven; we have made laws the
observance of which violates the Sabbath of the
Lord our God; we have disregarded the rights of a
great part of the population of our favored country;
by our laws we have said, that they shall not enjoy
that which the laws of nature and of God have said
shall never be taken from any human being except
for crime; practical infidelity has crept into our na¬
tion—God has said, "When the wicked rule, the
people mourn." By our elections we have said that
this is a mistake in God's words. Brethren, we
should this day pray fervently, that the eyes of the
people may be opened to see their national sins, and
that the hearts of the people and rulers may be dis¬
posed to repentance and reformation, that God may
turn away the fierceness of his wrath from us. If we
will but humble ourselves and call upon God, he will
deliver us. We should arm ourselves in the fear of
God for battle, for we have not sinned against
Britain, but they against us. The Lord of Sabaoth
APPENDIX.
289
will defeat and confound their rage, if we will break
off from our sins; "For the Lord your God is he
that goeth with you to fight for you against your
enemies to save you." (Deut. xx. 4.)
If those whose only crime is that they do not af¬
ford actual service against the enemy incur the dis¬
pleasure of Heaven, what shall we say of those
among us who are so far from coming to the help of
the Lord against the mighty, that they aid the
enemy by affording them provision or giving them
information that may assist them in the work of
death against us? Can cupidity have so far got the
ascendency as to annihilate every consideration of
the public good? If aid of this kind be afforded, it
prolongs the war by which hundreds are to bleed to
death, and by which widows and orphans are to be
made. Will lust for money lead any of the people
of America to such treasonable acts? Must they not
answer in the great day of accounts for the sorrows
of the widow, the beggary of the orphan, the vio¬
lated chastity of the virgin and the matron, and the
groans of the dying? So far as the enemy is able
to inflict such evils through their aid, they are
chargeable with it before God.
Have we given any cause to the Creeks to war
against us? Surely none; except it be the large
290
APPENDIX.
annuities they receive from us and protection in the
enjoyment of their lands, etc. etc. No. British
rum and Albion gold have roused their lust for
rapine and blood. We are exposed to their incur¬
sions; let us carry the war into their country, and
go in such numbers as to overwhelm them at once.
The paltry consideration, that we may not be paid
if we go in greater numbers than will be ordered,
should not, I hope will not, stop us a moment. Let
us trust to the generosity of the General Govern¬
ment, and fly to protect our land from desolation
and blood. Brethren, our country is engaged in
war; we have inquired, and acknowledge that our
national sins against Heaven have brought this
chastisement upon us. We have asked, who is
guilty, we or Britain ? The irresistible answer is,
Britain. Then let none feel the spirit of supine-
ness; all have something to do; apathy on this
subject would be criminal. Wives and daughters,
inspire your husbands, brothers, and sons with pa¬
triotism and courage. Lift up your voices in de¬
fense of your country's cause, and point to them the
path of active duty. Tell them the call of their
country is the call of God.
Finally. In the history of Israel we learn in
what manner God deals with nations. "Israel did
APPENDIX.
291
evil in the sight of the Lord," is assigned as the
reason, in the overruling providence of God, of all
their calamities, whether of drought, pestilence, or
war. "Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
the anger of the Lord was hot; therefore he sold
them into the hands of their enemies." (See the
first four chapters of Judges.) The nation to whom
God sold them were many times more wicked than
Israel, yet the Lord overruled their wickedness as
the means of chastising Israel, ("the wicked are
thy sword," Psalm, xvii. 13,) meaning at the same
time, when he had effected this righteous purpose, to
punish them for the unhallowed motives that ac¬
tuated them against Israel. The following passage
is in point: " 0 Assyrian, the rod of my anger and
the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will
send him against a hypocritical nation, and against
the people of my wrath .will I give him a charge to
take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread
them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit,
he meaneth not so, but it is in his heart to cut off
and destroy nations not a few. But when the Lord
hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion
and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the
stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of
his high looks." (Isaiah, x. 5-12.) In the fifteenth
292
APPENDIX.
verse of the same chapter, God calls him the ox, the
saw, the rod, the staff, which strongly expresses that
he was but the mere instrument of God's providence.
Then follows a description of the awful judgments
determined against the king of Assyria. How ap¬
plicable is this passage to the subject we have been
considering! God is using the ambition, the tyranny,
and lust of domination in France and Great Britain,
to scourge us for our national sins. But if we look
into the counsels of Heaven by the light of his word,
we will no doubt see that heavy judgments are de¬
termined against them for their sins; and their
treatment of us would stand conspicuous in the
black list of their national crimes. What have we
to do as a nation? Break off from sin and turn
unto the Lord; cease to profane his Sabbath; ac¬
knowledge his providence in all our national con¬
cerns and documents; call by our votes on the men
who fear God to rule us, and supplicate the divine
protection. If we will do this, the Lord will fight
our battles and save us; for, as it regards the politi¬
cal causes of this war, we are on the Lord's side.
We have not impressed British seamen nor invaded
their rights in any way.
APPENDIX.
293
APPENDIX C.
The importance which Dr. Anderson attached to
the doctrine of the covenant of redemption, led him
to devise the most impressive manner of presenting
it. Hence a member of his second class remarks in
a recent letter: "The doctor's theory on the sub¬
ject of the covenant of redemption was rather origi¬
nal with him; at least I know of no one who has
treated that important subject as he did." In an
essay on the Covenant of Redemption, published in
1813, he first attempts to establish the doctrine by
a course of reasoning based upon the divine exist¬
ence, perfections, and tri-personality. He then pro¬
ceeds to give the Scripture proof of the existence of
a covenant.
"For the satisfaction of those who may not be able
to see the agreement between the premises and con¬
clusion of the above reasoning, who nevertheless will
yield implicit faith to the testimony of God's Word,
we now subjoin the Scripture proof of the existence
of such a covenant, in three separate columns.
26
APPENDIX.
SPIRIT.
1. Jehovah
the Spirit
agrees to an¬
oint Jesus
Christ and
consecrate
him to his
work. Isaiah,
lxi. 1; Luke,
iv. 18.
2. Agrees to
reveal the will
of God toman.
2 Pet. i. 21; 1
Cor. ii. 13.
condition that he bear John, vi. 38.
their iniquity and then
give them eternal life.
"He shall see of the
travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall
my righteous servant
justify many, for he
shall bear their ini¬
quities ; therefore will
I divide him a portion
FATHER.
1. Jehovah the Fa¬
ther covenants to
give all power in hea¬
ven and on earth to
the Son. "All power
is given unto me in
heaven and earth."
Matt, xxviii. 18; John,
xvii. 2. "Thou hast
given him power over
all flesh."
2. Agrees to give
to the Son, of the hu¬
man family as a re¬
ward, until the Son
should be satisfied, to
divide him a portion
with the great, on the
SON.
1. Jehovah the Son
agrees to the proposal.
" Sacrifice and offer¬
ing thou didst not de¬
sire. Then said I, Lo
I come; in the volume
of the book it is writ¬
ten of me: I delight
to do thy will, 0 my
God." Ps. xl. 6, 7;
Heb. x. 5-9.
2. Came into the
world to perform the
conditions proposed
by the Father. "For
I came not to do my
own will, but the will
of him that sent me."
APPENDIX.
295
FATHER.
•with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil
with the strong; be¬
cause he hath poured
out his soul unto
death." "Thou hast
given him power over
all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as
many as thou hast
given." Isa. liii. 11,
12; John, xvii. 2.
3. Covenants to up¬
hold his Son in the
work of redemption,
and destroy his ene¬
mies. "Fear not; I
am with thee. I will
strengthen thee, I will
help thee, yea, I will
uphold thee with the
right hand of my right¬
eousness. They that
strive with thee shall
perish. Behold my
servant whom I up¬
hold. I have put my
spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judg¬
ment to the Gentiles.
3. Agrees to lay
down his life at the
will of his Father.
"I lay down my life
for the sheep; no man
taketh it from me. I
lay it down of myself.
This commandment I
received from my Fa¬
ther." John, x. 15,
17,18.
3. Agrees to
make a saving1
application of
the atonement
to the hearts
of the elect.
"He shall re¬
ceive of mine
and show unto
you." John,
xvi. 15; comp.
7, 11, 13, 14;
1 Cor. ii. 10-
12. The Spirit
from eternity
agreed to act
the above part
in the plan of
296
APPENDIX.
FATHER.
He shall not fail nor
be discouraged, till he
hath set judgment in
the earth. I will give
thee for a covenant of
the people." Tsa. xli.
10, 11, and xlii. 1-7.
4. Agrees to give
the Son a certain num¬
ber of the human fam¬
ily as a reward of his
obedience and suffer¬
ing, on condition that
the Son certainly save
them and give them
eternal life. " This is
the Father's will, that
of all which he has
given me I should lose
nothing"—" Should
give eternal life to as
many as thou hast
given me." John, vi.
37-39, and xvii. 2.
4. Agrees and de¬
termines to give eter¬
nal life to all the Fa¬
ther gave him. "All
that the Father giveth
me shall come to me."
John,\i. 37, and xvii.
24.
SPIRIT.
redemption,
for the Spirit
is very God,
and designs to
act before he
does work;
but all his de¬
signs as God
are eternal;
of course his
consent or
agreement to
do the work is
from eternity.
APPENDIX.
FATHER.
5. Agrees to accept
the vicarious obedi¬
ence and sufferings of
the Son. Isa. xlii. 21;
Matt. iii. 17, and xvii.
5; John, viii. 29.
6. Covenants to ex¬
alt him to his right
hand and give him a
name above every
name. " Made him¬
self of no reputation,
etc. etc.; wherefore
God hath highly ex¬
alted him and given
him a name which is
above every name."
Phil. ii. 7-11.
SON.
5. Completes the
whole work of re¬
demption. "I have
finished the work
which thou gavest me
to do." "It is fin¬
ished." John, xvii. 4,
and xix. 30.
G. Agrees to exer¬
cise his mediatorial
offices forever for the
good of the church
militant and trium¬
phant. Heb. iv. 14,
and v. 6, 9, 10.
(Texts on this point
are very numerous.)
7. Agrees to resign
his delegated power
over the kingdom of
nature, back to the
Father, when he, the
Son, has wound up
the purposes of grace
in this world. 1 Cor.
xv. 24-28.
298
APPENDIX.
Whoever will attentively consider the Scriptures
referred to in these columns, must see that it is a
Scripture doctrine, that there existed from eternity
a compact between the sacred persons of Jehovah,
respecting man's redemption. It is not necessary
that this covenant be formally written, signed, and
sealed, as among men, in order to be binding. This
would be a gross idea of God. The covenant is
recorded in the archives of the Eternal Mind, and
published to man by the blessed Gospel.
To impress this sublime subject on the mind of
the reader, I will now present it in the view of a for¬
mal covenant. You will not esteem the attempt too
daring, if the language be scriptural.
THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION, BETWEEN THE
COEQUAL PERSONS OF THE ONE JEHOVAH.
I, Jehovah, the*Father, of the one part, do cove¬
nant and agree to delegate to Jehovah, the Son, all
power in heaven and earth, to be used in promoting
the designs of redemption. And I, Jehovah, the
Father, covenant and agree to uphold Jehovah, the
Son, by the right hand of my righteousness, while
he brings in an everlasting righteousness by obedi¬
ence and death. I, moreover, do covenant and agree
APPENDIX.
299
to give a certain number of the human family to my
coeternal and coessential Son as a reward of his obe¬
dience and death, on condition that he, the Son, bear
their iniquities and give them eternal life. I further
agree to accept the Son's vicarious obedience and
sufferings on behalf of lost sinners, and to anoint
my Son by my Spirit with the oil of gladness; to
exalt him to my right hand and give him a name
above every name, on condition that the Son under¬
take and accomplish the work of redemption.
I, Jehovah, the Son, of the other part, do cove¬
nant and agree to undertake and perform the above
conditions; to become God Incarnate; to render
perfect obedience to the divine law, and pour out my
soul unto death, as a ransom for sinners. Moreover,
I do accept as a reward, the exact number the
Father hath given to me, and do agree and covenant
to save them every one; and when I have wound up
the purposes of grace and subdued all enemies, then
will I deliver up the kingdom to God, even the
Father, that God may be all in all.
I, Jehovah, the Spirit, the third person of the
Divine Essence, as proceeding from the Father and
the Son, do covenant and agree to anoint the Son
with a holy unction without measure, and consecrate
him to his ministry. Moreover, I covenant and
300
appendix.
agree to make an effectual and saving application of
the atonement to the hearts of all the elect, for the
glory of the One Jehovah.
Agreed and entered into from eternity. Witnessed
and sealed by the-Three Persons of the Undi¬
vided—
I AM THAT I AM.
FINIS.