22
October 1880 A.D. Rev.
William Swan Plumer Passes—“Old School” Presbyterians in North and South
October 22: William Swan Plumer
An Old School Presbyterian Ministers in
both North and South
William
Swan Plumer was not a name which I had recognized until someone gave me a
commentary written by him. It was filled with the rich meat of the
Word of God, and I wanted to know more of his spiritual gifts.
Born
in July 26, 1802 in Darlington, Pennsylvania, William
Plumer was of the Scottish heritage. When he turned nineteen
years of age, he walked to Lewisburg, Virginia to begin spiritual training
at the Academy of the Rev. John McElhenney, known as the Apostle of Western
Virginia, where he learned the first fruits of Christian education.
Moving on to Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, he continued
his studies under Dr. Baxter. Finally, he entered
Princeton Theological Seminary in 1825. Two years later, he was
licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Orange and began two
congregations in Virginia and North Carolina. Ordained in
1827, he began a long series of pastorates in Petersburg, Virginia and
Richmond, Virginia from 1830 – 1846. It is interesting to me that he left
the south to be at Franklyn Street Presbyterian in Baltimore, Maryland for
twelve years. Then for another eight years, he was at Central
Presbyterian in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, while teaching at Western Theological
Seminary as well. He finished up his teaching call while a professor of
theology at Columbia Theological Seminary. He went to his heavenly
home on October 22, 1880.
He was
the preeminent pastor and teacher of the church. He evidently had a voice
which stopped people in their tracks to pause and listen. He was a soul-winner
par excellence as soul after soul met the Redeemer and were converted. He was a
pastor’s pastor as well, and met the needs of his congregations with pathos and
sympathy, when that was needed.
As a
church pastor, William S. Plumer also watched the movements away from
the faith once delivered unto the saints. At the 1837 General Assembly, he powerfully
made the distinction between the Old School Presbyterians and the New School
Presbyterians clear and plain. There was a call to come out and be
separate from the entangling alliances which the New School Presbyterians had
with the Congregationalists. Thus when the Assembly voted to stop their
compromising union, Rev. Plumer had a large part in preserving the Calvinistic
convictions of the General Assembly, to say nothing of the biblical basis of
Presbyterianism.
Words to live by: It
is often a case where the people in the pew only recognize the emoluments
of a person if he has a string of degrees behind his name and is recognized in
the leading organizations of the church. Then a man by the name of
William Plumer comes along and we hear and see the Spirit of God residing in
a pastor and teacher, and our minds are overcome with what God can do
through a mere man. The only qualification which God recognizes in His
servants, for loving and obedient service to Him, is faithfulness. Let us
be faithful to the Word of God in the places where He has put us.
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