THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JAMES HENLEY THORNWELL, by Dr. B. M. Palmer, reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, and Box 652, Carlisle, PA 17013, first published 1875, republished 1974. 614 pp.

Luder G. Whitlock, writing in the Fall 1974 Westminster Theological Journal compared the role of James Henley Thorn well in the Southern Presbyterian Church with that of the reformer, John Knox, in the development of Presbyterianism in Scotland. Although he lived over a century ago (1812–1862), Whitlock sees his influence continuing in the new Presbyterian Church in America. This reprint after 100 years, of his biography written by his friend and contemporary, B. M. Palmer, enables us to get acquainted with him—and it is an acquaintance worth making, especially in connection with some of our major problems.

Presbyterian from Conviction

At first the somewhat florid, sentimental style of writing takes us back to an earlier time, when the nation was young and its civilization was largely concentrated along the narrow colonial strip of Atlantic coast. Obstacles of narrative style recede as one’s interest is aroused in the 8-year-old who had lost his father, leaving a poor widowed mother to provide as best she could for a family of five. Influenced early by the Welsh Baptist mother, later by a Methodist preacher/school-teacher who took him into his home, his further education sponsored by two Episcopalians (one a wealthy planter and the other, with whom he came to live, a lawyer from the North) Thornwell was in the course of his schooling brought step by step to personal conversion. Reading a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith which he had bought for a quarter in the town book store led to his confession of faith as a Presbyterian and then studying for the ministry. He felt personally inclined to the pastorate of churches, but, a phenomenally brilliant student, he was three times soon called away from such labors to become a professor. First he taught in the South Carolina College at Columbia where he was to take a leading role in combatting the religiously destructive influence of a deistic predecessor. Later he became president of that institution. Afterward he became leading professor in Columbia Theological Seminary.

Struggle for a Biblical Church Order

Having become a Presbyterian through personal study and conviction rather than by tradition, Thornwell (like some other converts to Calvinism) was more deeply committed to maintaining that doctrine and church order than were many other Presbyterian leaders. He was convinced that the rule of elders or “presbyters” was the form of church order which the Bible taught. Therefore he argued persistently, but unsuccessfully, in the assemblies of the (Northern) church against down-grading the elders. He saw that done when they were not permitted to share in the laying on of hands at the ordination of a pastor and again in the church rule which permitted presbytery meetings to be held if only three ministers were present. The conviction that the Bible placed the rule in the church in the hands of elders and their assemblies led him to oppose the development of “boards” to do the churches’ work. He saw these boards as an unbiblical importation of the congregationalists from a secular world, lacking the Biblical Presbyterian church structure. We find him warning

I believe that the Boards will eventually prove our masters, unless they are crushed in their infancy. They are founded upon a radical misconception of the true nature and extent of ecclesiastical power . . . (p. 233).

“. . . our church is becoming deplorably secular. She has degenerated from a spiritual body into a mere petty corporation. When we meet in our ecclesiastical courts, instead of attending to the spiritual interests of God’s kingdom, we scarcely do anything more than examine and audit accounts, and devise ways and means for raising money (p. 224).

I believe that the entire system of voluntary Societies and ecclesiastical Boards, for religious purposes is fundamentally wrong. The Church, as organized by her Head, is competent to do all that He requires of her. He has furnished her with the necessary apparatus of means, officers and institutions, in Sessions, Presbyteries, Elders, Pastors and Evangelists. Let us take Presbyterianism as we have it described in our Form of Government, and let us carry it out in its true spirit, and we shall have no use for the sore evil of incorporated Boards, vested funds, and travelling agencies (p. 225).

I am satisfied that what . . . we need most, is a revival of pure religion in all of our churches. The cause of Missions lags, and all our interests decay, because the Spirit of life, to a mournful extent, is withdrawn from our congregations. The Church has almost dwindled down into a secular corporation; and the principles of this world, a mere carnal policy, which we have nick-named prudence, presides in our councils. Until she becomes a spiritual body, and aims at spiritual ends by appointed means and makes faith in God the impulsive cause of her efforts, our Zion can never arise and shine, and become a joy and a praise in the whole earth (p. 228).

Thorn well’s view of Presbyterian Church order as that prescribed by the Bible repeatedly brought him into conflict with other Presbyterian leaders who held that many such matters were left to the discretion of the church to arrange as might seem expedient. Whitlock in the Journal article already mentioned refers to one monumental debate with Charles Hodge in which Hodge called Thornwell’s view “hyper-hyper–hyper High Church Presbyterianism” and Thornwell retorted that Hodge’s principles were “no, no, No, Presbyterianism, no, no, No Churchism” (p. 54).

The issues raised by Thornwell are live issues today. They received much attention and discussion in the organization of the new Presbyterian Church in America. Our current arguments against opening of church offices to women are based on the principle Thornwell saw and maintained so clearly that the Bible must be the authoritative guide to a Reformed church order. In our churches problems and frustrations with a growing bureaucracy, Thornwell’s keen diagnosis of what was happening in his church is illuminating and helpful. He pointed out that the Bible teaches some structural principles about how the Lord would have His church organized with ordained officers and their assemblies. When beside this Biblical system of officers and assemblies, churches establish an increasingly independent bureaucracy of Boards and executives in a pattern borrowed from the business world, who instead of obeying the church officers and assemblies begin to ignore or rule over them, then the Lord’s order for His churches is being subverted and it can hardly expect His blessing. (In the March OUTLOOK I pointed out how this is happening especially in our denominational finances.) Thornwell’s call for return to the Biblical church order (which we call Reformed or Presbyterian) is loud and clear and as urgently needed today as it was 140 years ago.

The Threat of Unconstitutional Government

The account of Thornwell’s influential political role in the secession of the confederate states and his leadership in the formation of a separate Southern Presbyterian Church brings us into a fascinating era of our nation’s history regarding which there has been much misunderstanding. The issue as he saw it was not slavery. Thornwell was himself prepared to move for its elimination (p. 482). The real issue was constitutional government. Does the majority have the right, disregarding its constitution, to impose its will on the minority if it is powerful enough to do so? Does might make right? This was the argument of Thornwell and other southern government and church leaders against the North. As we look back after more than a hundred years we see the evil of slavery outlawed by the Civil War. A less desirable legacy of that war and the Northern policy in it was the development of a federal bureaucracy which can step into any community and order what schools its children shall attend and how they must be transported, who may be hired.or fired as teachers, and what may be read or taught in a classroom. The run–away growth of federal regulatory agencies, unrestrained by the limitations of the constitution, as courts appeal to or ignore at will, encroaches upon our freedoms, guarantees inflation of our money and threatens our whole economy with bankruptcy. Bringing the cancerous development of the federal government back under control is coming to be generally recognized as one of our most immediate and baffling national problems. The South, although wrong in defending the monstrosity of slavery, may have been in principle, right in opposing the monstrosity of a lawless and enslaving federal government. In our current problems we might profitably learn something from Thornwell and his associates about the responsibilities and limits of constitutional government in both church and state.

Personal and Family Piety

The biography gives many a glimpse of the warm personal and family godliness that characterized . Thornwell and his family. A century ago people often died of illnesses which modern medicine has found ways to treat or prevent. The increased health of our time we ought to appreciate, but the awareness of the uncertainty of life and the urgency of seeking the Lord early, keenly felt by our spiritual forebears we ought to regain. The death of a daughter, Nancy, just before she was to be married, prompted Thornwell while grieving, to rejoice in her faith and to observe in a letter, “My second daughter is a professor of religion, and I think, a true child of God . . . . Pray for us, my dear friend; especially pray that I may have no unconverted child.” We would profit by closer acquaintance with Thornwell, the great Presbyterian church father, as well as with his present spiritual successors, whose Biblical, Reformed faith and cause is also ours.

Bibliographical note: The Banner of Truth Trust has also reprinted The Collected Writings of James Henley Thornwell in 4 volumes.

It has reprinted a biography of Thornwell’s contemporary famous Southern Presbyterian leader The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney by Thomas Cary Johnson. Dabney’s career as preacher, church leader and educator and his convictions were similar to Thornwell’s. When the seminary in which he was teaching was closed by the Civil War he became for a time an adjutant general aide to General Stonewall Jackson in the Confederate army. Of him his biographer wrote, “He is the most biblical of the great American theologians. His exposition and defense of the  Westminster Standards is more of the nature of an exposition of the Scriptures bearing on the parts of the system.” Comparing him with the other most famous Presbyterian theologians, the writer continued, “in practice no one of them made so much of the ‘thus saith the Lord,’ in comparison with his philosophical arguments . . . not one of them . . . saw so clearly the infinite difference between the profoundest human speculation and the absolute teaching of God’s Word” (p 555).

Regarding the political issues raised by the lives and writings of these men, it may also be of interest to our readers that the Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company has recently issued a revised edition of C. Gregg Singer’s A Theological Interpretation of American History. Singer shows that the United States Constitution has a different spirit and was drawn up by different authors than the earlier Declaration of Independence. The writers of the Constitution, although by no means all Christians, revealed much more Christian influence on their political views than did the writers of the earlier document. Singer traces the liberal attacks on the Constitution and what it embodies of Christian principle through the nation‘s history. The new edition is similar to that of1964 except for the addition of about 50 pages of discussion of later political developments up to the election of the Reagan administration. This book would interest readers who might like to con.sider further the southern Presbyterian theologians’ views regarding the U.S. Constitution and their bearing on our current government policy crisis.