John Chambers

, that "When Mr. Duncan about this time renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church into which the Associate Reformed, with Dr. Mason and others h

n the Patapsco declared that Mr. Chambers was no longer a licentiate under their care, and handed him back his papers. Again was John Chambers preacher of the gospel rejected of

suspiciously by the fathers and lords in the church, where should h

rested in religious matters for two or three years before I left Baltimore. There were five or six of us young men, as students of Mr. Duncan, and we had organized some meetings through the city of Baltimore, and God was with us; and the warm heart-if I had any warm heart at all-that I brought to Philadelphia, was kindled at the altar of those dear young brethren. How

of them being the large-hearted scholar, James Patriot Wilson, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, predecessor of Albert Barnes, and then fifty-six years old. The other was Rev. Thomas Harvey Skinner, D.D., pastor of the Fifth Presbyterian Church in Locust street, and who, twenty-six years afterwards, became the famous professor in union Theological Seminary of New York City. Both o

e Dwight professorship in the Theological Department of Yale College. The young seminary opened in 1822 was therefore but three years old when Mr. Chambers appeared to be ordained. Whatever may be the true label we put upon Dr. N. W. Taylor, he was one of the greatest of America's theologians when the appeal was being taken from Calvin to Christ. He taught a modification of Hopkinsism which many Presbyterians re

. How strange are the variations and how curious is the progress of orthodoxy! Most of the great revivalists of this country were nourished in the Congregational churches; and, from Finney to Moody, th

teachers had modified the original Calvinism. Of Dr. Tyler it has been well said that "In forming his system he began not with mind, but with the Bible, and he looked for no advances in theology except such as come from a richer Ch

difference, as now discoverable only under the microscope of research, are of no practical importance. Hardly any one except the hair-splitting philosophers can state them. They

rs, as well as to Dr. Leonard Bacon, afterwards the fam

eath thy g

fathers cro

y trod the w

d psalm they w

3

Until his death, the day before Christmas of 1881, he was a commanding figure in American history. Of the council which ordained Mr. Chambers he was the scribe. It will be seen at a glance that t

ntic. It was an era of mighty conquests over nature, and the heart of the young man who was thrilling with the spirit of the age and of the ages, beat high with hope. He, too, wanted to do great things for God and help in making the world better. He sought out those add

er, at the request of Rev. Dr. T. T. Munger, author of The Freedom of Faith,

District of New Haven County, convened by letters from t

3

Day, D.D., E. Scranton, S. Merwin,

or, and Mr. Bacon, Scribe. The

, and producing proper testimonials of his standing as a member of the church of Christ; of his regular license to preach the Gospel, and of his having passed through a period of probation, with prop

ordination this evening

ining prayer to be offered by Mr. Merwin, during which Messrs. Stebbins, Fitch and Merwin to impose hands; the charge to be given by Mr. Stebbins; the righ

The ordination took place ac

quest, was admitted a m

were read

Bacon,

es

itch, D.D., Livingstone[40] Professor of Divinity in Yale College, and then Mr. Chambers

ay transform itself into a Council for the time being. In Connecticut the Consociation, or standing council, performed this function

ch was governed according to Presbyterian form and usage. So strong and deep was his faith in the validity of non-Episcopal and non-Presbyterian ordination that he showed it all his life by his works. He ordained during the course of his ministry several young men to the work of the gospel. One of these impressive ceremonies I myself witnessed,

of non-Episcopal Ordination", or, more exactly, the validity of[41] ordination by the congregation, according to the method of the primitive Christian Churche

iotheca Sacra, f

the first Sunday in January, 1826, several new communicants and administered for the first time the memorial supper of Jesus. It was a day long to be remembered, for between seventy and eighty souls were on this oc

o his church, said: "Thus it seemed that the tide of God's favor wa

ype="