11 May 1709 A.D. Philadelphia Presbytery Petitions for Aid from English Presbyterians
11 May 1709 A.D. Philadelphia Presbytery Petitions for Aid from English
Presbyterians
Myers, David T. “May 11: Appeal to English
Presbyterians for Aid.” This Day in
Presbyterian History. 11 May 2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/05/may-11/.
Accessed 11 May 2015.
May 11: Appeal to English Presbyterians for Aid
A Plea for Ministers and Money
Most
of us can remember Paul’s vision which he experienced on his second missionary
journey of a man who called out to the apostle, saying, “Come over to Macedonia
and help us.” (NIV – Acts 16:9
) Well, we don’t have any record of any
visionary request for help, but early Presbyterians in this blessed land did
correspond with Presbyterians in the mother country just two years after the
organization of the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1707. There is a letter
written on May
11, 1709 to Presbyterians in London, England from
the Presbyterian ministers in the Philadelphia Presbytery appealing for more
men and money to help the infant Presbyterian Church get off the ground.
Listen to the pathos in their words:
“Unto
whom can we apply ourselves more fitly than unto our fathers, who have been
extolled in the reformed churches for their large bounty and benevolence in
their necessities! We doubt not, but if the sum of about two hundred
pounds per annum, were raised for the encouragement of ministers in these
parts, it would enable ministers and people to erect eight congregations, and
ourselves put in better circumstances than hitherto we have been. We are
at present seven ministers, most of whose outward affairs are so straightened as
to crave relief, unto which, if two or three more were added, it would greatly
strengthen our interest, which does miserably suffer, as things are at present
are among us.
“Sir,
if we shall be supplied with ministers from you, which we earnestly desire;
with your benevolence to the value above, you may be assured of our
fidelity and Christian care in distributing it to the best ends and
purposes we can, so as we hope we shall be able to give a just and fair account
for every part of it to yourself and others, by our letters to you.
“That
our evangelical affairs may be the better managed, we have formed ourselves
into a Presbytery, annually convened. It is a sore distress and trouble
unto us, that we are not able to comply with the desires of sundry places,
crying unto us for ministers. Therefore we earnestly beseech you to
intercede with the ministers of London, to extend their charity to us,
otherwise many people will remain in a perishing condition as to spiritual
things.”
It
is obvious that the seven ministers of the Presbytery of Philadelphia certainly
saw that the fields of America were ripe unto harvest. They also sadly
realized that the laborers were few so as to reap that spiritual harvest.
And so they, in a spirit of prayer, asked for both ministers and money to take
advantage of the opportunities for a wide and effective service in the American
colonies.
It
would be at a later date in the history of the American church, indeed several
decades from this date, that the question of where you were trained educationally
became an issue in the visible church. But at this early date in American
Presbyterian history, they were at a critical crossroads, as the letter above
proves. They needed more pastors and more money to support those who were
present in ministering to the masses.
Words to Live By: Such
a prayer and plea as this is never outdated, even in current
America. We might add the adjective “faithful” before the men who are
needed in our conservative Presbyterian and Reformed church bodies, but the need
is the same. Will you be a prayer warrior before our Sovereign God and
heavenly Father for Him to thrust out faithful laborers
into the harvest fields?
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