The Log College (Alexander)

Description

Of the many volumes written on the Great ‌Awakening which changed the course of American history in the 1740s, none is more interesting than Archibald Alexander’s classic account recorded in this volume. Taking as his starting point William Tennent’s unpretentious theological school (contemptuously called the ‘Log College’), Alexander proceeds through a series of rich biographical chapters to trace the ministerial work of the students who entered pastorates at a time when deadness and formality reigned. ‘Never, perhaps, had the expectation of reaching heaven at last been more general or more confident.’

With Alexander we relive the story of their subsequent toil and success – their preaching and spiritual passion, their experiences of the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, their flesh and blood failings are all graphically portrayed.

Whether we read of Gilbert Tennent of whom Whitefield said, ‘hypocrites must either soon be converted or enraged at his preachings’, or of Samuel Blair, ‘a great textuary who studied the sacred oracles above all other things’, or of Samuel Finley who believed that ‘nothing more helped digestion than a hearty laugh’ and whose glorious death makes unforgettable reading, Alexander holds and moves us throughout. And such was his intention. Commenting on the fact that ‘none of the distinguished ministers of that period, except William Tennent, senior reached the age of seventy; and some of the most able and successful among them did not even arrive at the age of forty’, he writes: ‘These men may be said to have lived fast. They did much for their Lord in a short time. Being burning as well as shining lights, they were themselves consumed while they gave light to others. Oh that a race of ministers, like-minded, burning with a consuming zeal, might be raised up among us!

About the Author

Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia and raised in a godly home and educated at Liberty Hall Academy from the age of ten.  At seventeen, he became a tutor in the family of General John Posey but resumed his former studies a few months later. Converted in 1789, he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in 1791. He served for seven years as an itinerant pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward counties. In 1796, he became President of Hampden-Sydney College, but resigned in 1801 and visited England and New York. During that time, he met and married Janetta, the daughter of the celebrated blind preacher, Dr. Waddel. Immediately after he resumed his position at Hampden-Sydney college, but retired due to unrest among the students.

In 1807, Alexander accepted a call to Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. The College of New Jersey conferred on him the degree of DD in 1810, and in the same year he was elected president of Union College in Georgia, a fact which remained unknown even to his family until after his death.

Alexander was unanimously chosen as the leading professor of Princeton Theological Seminary on its organisation in 1812. He faithfully laboured there for forty years, until his death in 1851. He was always busy and hardly an edition of the Princeton Review appeared without an article from him between 1829-1850. With the exception of occasional sermons and contributions to periodicals, he did not publish anything until he was 52 years old. His first work was Outlines of the Evidences of Christianity (1823), followed by many other works. During his time at Princeton, he earned a reputation as an outstanding educator and became renowned for his understanding of the nature and effects of biblical piety.