§ 99. The Westminster Standards in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

§ 99. The Westminster Standards in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Sources.

I. On the part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church:

The Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Revised and adopted by the General Assembly, at Princeton, Ky., May, 1829. Nashville, Tennessee (Board of Publ. of the C. P. Ch.), 1875 (pp. 286). The same book contains also the Shorter Catechism, the Form of Government and Discipline, the Directory of Worship, and Manual.

The history of the origin of the schism is contained in the Circular Letter of the late Cumberland Presbytery; the Reply to a Pastoral Letter of West Tennessee Presbytery.

II. On the part of the Presbyterian Church

Samuel Baird: Collection of the Acts, Deliverances, and Testimonies of the Presbyterian Church. Philad. (Presbyt. Board), 1855; second ed. 1859, pp. 640 sqq. Contains the official acts of the General Assembly on the origin and disorders of the Cumberland Presbytery.

Wm. E. Moore: A New Digest of the Acts and Deliverances of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1861, p. 95 (on the validity of the Cumberland Presbyterian ordinances), and p. 448 (on terms of correspondence).

Robert Davidson: History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky. New York, 1847 (Ch. ix. pp. 223 sqq., 'The Cumberland Presbyterian Schism').

Historical and Doctrinal.

James Smith: History of the Christian Church, including a History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Nashville, 1835.

H. B. Crisman: Origin and Doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 1856, new ed. Nashville, Tenn. 1875.

Richard Beard (D.D. and Prof. of Syst. Theol. in Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee): Why am I a Cumberland Presbyterian? Nashville, Tenn. 1872. By the same: Lectures on Systematic Theology, 3 vols. Nashville (Board of Publ.). Comp. his Art. in Johnson's Universal Cyclop. 1876, Vol. I.

F. R. Cossitt: Life and Times of Rev. Finis Ewing. Louisville, 1853.

HISTORICAL.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, so called from its birth-place, the 'Cumberland Country' in Kentucky and Tennessee, took its rise in an extensive revival of religion which began in the southwestern part of Kentucky in 1797, and reached its height in 1800 and 1801, among a population mostly of Scotch-Irish descent. Methodist ministers took part in it. This revival called for a larger number of ministerial laborers than could be supplied in the regular way by the few Presbyterian institutions of learning then existing. Hence the Presbytery of Cumberland ('at the recommendation of the Rev. Mr. Rice, the oldest Presbyterian minister then residing in Kentucky') licensed and ordained a number of pious men without a liberal education, and allowed them, in subscribing the Westminster Confession, to express their dissent from what they called the doctrine of 'fatality,' i.e., the doctrine of absolute decrees. The Synod of Kentucky demanded a re-examination of these ministers and candidates; this being refused, it dissolved the Cumberland Presbytery in 1806. The General Assembly confirmed the action, but ultimately recognized the Cumberland Presbyterians as an independent organization, and entered into terms of correspondence with them as with other evangelical denominations. [1578]

The dissenters organized an independent 'Cumberland Presbytery,' February 4, 1810, consisting of four regularly ordained ministers, six licentiates, and seven candidates. The presbytery grew into the Cumberland Synod in 1818, and this adopted a Confession, Catechism, and Form of Church Government. The Confession was the work of a committee of which the Rev. Finis Ewing was the leading spirit. The Cumberland Synod was divided into three (1828), and a General Assembly was formed, which held its first session in May, 1829. This Body subjected the Confession of Faith to a final revision. 'In so doing, the Synod and General Assembly only exercised an undeniable right, allowed by the God of the Bible and secured by the civil constitution; and discharged what they conceived to be a duty to the Church and the world. . . . Let the work be tried neither by tradition nor the fathers, but by the holy Scriptures.' [1579]

The Cumberland Church has since spread rapidly, and extends now from Western Pennsylvania to Texas and California. It furnishes the proof that people may be good Presbyterians without being Calvinists.