August 11 Today in OPC History

On this day in 1863, a remarkable Christian passed from this life to the next. That man was Lewis Henry Machen, the paternal grandfather of J. Gresham Machen. Lewis Machen served for 23 years as the Principal Clerk of the United States Senate. He also owned and operated a successful farm in Fairfax, Virginia, known as “Walney.” Machen was a Presbyterian by conviction, and served for some years as an elder in the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Washington DC. During the New School/Old School controversy, he maintained the strong Calvinistic commitments of the Old School. His church, however, voted to affiliate with the New School Assembly. The maturity, grace, courage, honesty and conviction that the grandson would display during the Presbyterian Conflict were also present in the grandfather. The following letter was written by Lewis Machen in 1837 to explain his resignation and transfer from his church to a congregation of the Old School. In style and in content, it foreshadows his more famous grandson:

“The manifestation of opinion, in the recent election of the Pastor of the Church, leaves me no room to doubt the prevailing sentiment. By the choice which they made they distinctly ratified the acts of the Session, and gave their adhesion to the New School Assembly. To remain longer in their communion would neither conduce to the benefit of the Church, nor to my own spiritual improvement. If I attempted, while remaining, to check by reason, persuasion, or remonstrance, the force of the prevailing error or misapprehension, I should be regarded only as a refractory member, daring to resist the will of a majority and to think for himself. If I remained a silent and passive spectator, this apparent acquiescence would make me a participator in their acts, or, at least, render me a very equivocal supporter of the cause which my conscience approved.

I have therefore been compelled, by a sense of what is due to others as well as to myself, to retire from your communion.

It cannot be disguised that the Presbyterian Church is rent into two parties, differing essentially from each other on fundamental points; the one maintaining the Calvinistic doctrines of the Confession of Faith according to their obvious meaning; the other, either denying them altogether, or so explaining them as to make them in effect Arminian or Pelagian. Twenty years ago I assented to the Doctrines of the Confession of Faith, not without hesitation, but after the best examination in my power, and with a conviction of their conformity with the divine will, revealed in Scripture. Subsequent reflection and experience have furnished no cause for recantation. I shall adhere, then, to the standards of the Church, and to that division of its members which shall most unequivocally, and consistently, maintain them.

In pursuing this course, I am actuated by no unfriendly spirit, and I have felt the difficulties which surround the points in controversy. To reconcile the foreknowledge of God, and his absolute control over all events, with that free agency of man which makes him accountable for the moral conduct upon which these events apparently depend, is not the work of human reason. The brightest intellect has never yet penetrated the mysterious cloud which envelopes this subject. Taught by experience the fallibility of my judgment, I bow with submission to that Divine Word which represents God as the moral governor of the world and the absolute disposer of events; operating by his spirit upon the hearts of men; and, according to the councils of his own will, making some of the fallen posterity of Adam vessels of wrath, and others vessels of mercy. I do not impugn the sincerity, the purity of motive, or the ability, of those engaged in the propagation of opinions, which many, equally sincere and pure and able, have deemed erroneous or pernicious. But forced by circumstances to take a position on one side or the other, I prefer submitting to any inconvenience, and sharing any obloquy, to a negative support, or actual abandonment of the cause of truth and vital Christianity. In adopting an alternative which at best is painful, I can only pray the Great Head of the Church so to influence the hearts and guide the determination of his professing followers as to banish all discord, error, and self-delusion, and hasten his reign of universal righteousness and peace. I remain,

Your affectionate brother in Christ,

L.H. Machen,

Late Elder in the 4th Presb. Church.”