West Port Experiment

“My district,” a snapshot of 19th century evangelistic visitation

August 20, 2009 by westportexperiment

From the diary of Sir Michael Connal, evangelical Presbyterian merchant in Glasgow:

“November 6 [1838].—Visited two poor women, as a member of the Stirlingshire Charitable Society; one a Mrs. Buchanan, a poor object, five children. just out of scarlet fever, three stairs up in a back land in the High Street; dreadful poverty, suffocating smell, rags, filth; these sights should make me more and more active in doing good. I feel more and more satisfied with my position in providence; may I improve it aright, devoting mind and body to the pursuit so far as is consistent with Christian light and love. May I be blessed in my mental pursuits as enlarging and strengthening my mind.”

“March 12 [1844].—How various my employments often in the evening. Visited a Roman Catholic dying of consumption. Attempted to speak, but was put off with many excuses. Took up a missal and read a few verses of the 51 st Psalm.”

“October 28 [1844].—On Monday evening called round upon various families in my district. I was interested in one family especially. How much real elegance and politeness and decorum there is in a family under the influence of religion, however poor.”

“January 13 [1846].— . . . On New Year’s Day went to call in the Spoutmouth on the woman Mackay; found that she had died that morning. Got a lesson not to speak harshly to those whom I visited. Was much pleased with the affection of the Roman Catholic woman, with whom she lived, for the deceased.”

“October 2 [1847].—I have had much pleasure in visiting through my district. How much contentment, how much happiness, with very little of this world.”

“April 5 [1848].—Went through my district; found the people glad to see me.”

“October 10 [1850].— . . . I have been pressed in spirit to purchase the Dovehill Church. I think that schools could be opened there to advantage. I do think that it is my duty to turn to the next great means of the elevation of that district of the city in the institution of a school. . . . I know that it will cost me labour and trouble, but I have undertaken the adventure knowing that I have many opportunities to accomplish successfully now what I may not have at a future time. I pity the cold selfishness of some so-called Christians. Nothing but earnestness will do. Devotedness of purpose is the characteristic of Rome; why not of Protestants?“

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Vignettes from 19th Century District Visitation, Visitation Evangelism | Leave a Comment »

Spurgeon: “The Minister’s fainting fits”

July 29, 2026 by westportexperiment

The following chapter comes from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students. I remember reading this chapter after a season of pastoral burnout and finding it such a tonic to my weary soul. It certainly also speaks to the sensitivity that such great men had for the real struggles of emotional and mental health from a very intimate, first-person perspective!

* * * *

As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There maybe here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust. Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shone right joyously did not always walk in the light.

Posted in Christian Life & Experience, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Mental Health, Pastoral Theology | Leave a Comment »

Recent reading: Tribe and Fair Sunshine

July 27, 2026 by westportexperiment

Just finished Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. A really thought-provoking, short non-fiction book that explores how bankrupt modern society is in meeting our deeper needs for identity, social belonging, and human purpose. Writing from firsthand experience in warfare, he reflects on the paradox of how men actually find hidden blessings in their battlefield “bands of brothers,” only to find the highly fragmented, individualistic society to which they return has nothing to offer them but a complete void. No wonder traumatic events like war and other tragedies, which band people together in a common purpose, actually reduce the incidence of mental health problems or at least mitigate them.

A little more from Wikipedia:

In Tribe, Junger discusses how the human experience is profoundly different in modern society compared to in the small groups (or tribes) in which people have historically lived. While people in tribes were interconnected and dependent on each other, people in modern society, he argues, often feel detached from their neighbors and experience deep fissures along sociodemographic lines. The modern man may go his whole life without needing to put himself at risk to help other people, given the availability of the police, fire department, and other emergency services; despite being surrounded by people, the modern person may also feel incredibly alone and isolated. These observations give rise a central question of Junger’s book: why do veterans often express that they were happier in times of war than at home?

As a caveat, bear in mind that the author is not a Christian and presupposes the theory of evolution in appraising social phenomena.

Also reading the modern classic Fair Sunshine with the family on the Lord’s day. Jock Purves gives compelling accounts of various Presbyterian heroes and heroines from the late 17th century persecutions in Scotland under the cruel tyranny of the Stuarts. Definitely for high school readers and up, both in terms of language level and mature content. The tortures, while not gratuitously explained, are conveyed enough to disturb any reader. But such wounds are sweet, as the are the bearing in the “body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

One of the most moving things in these accounts are the farewell speeches of these noble martyrs on the gallows. A sample here from Hugh McKail in 1666, when he was only 26 years old:

Now I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations; farewell, the world and all of its delights; farewell, meat and drinks; farewell, sun, moon and stars.

Welcome, God and Father; welcome, Sweet Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant; welcome, Blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life; welcome, death. O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed my soul, O Lord God of truth!

Truly, these are such “of whom the world was not worthy.”

I might just add that we have found Douglas Bond’s books written for children about the Covenanters really good. Start reading Duncan’s War with your family, and you’ll likely read the rest!

Posted in Culture, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Sabbath/Religious Reading, Social Issues | Leave a Comment »

Gillespie’s Aarons’ Rod on the two swords 1

July 27, 2026 by westportexperiment

The following taken from Book 2, Chapter 4 of Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, pp. 184-194.

* * * *

CHAP. IV. Of the agreements and differences between the nature of the Civil and of the Ecclesiastical Powers or Governments.

Having now observed what our opposites yield to us, or we to them, I shall for further unfolding of what I plead for, or against, add here the chief agreements and differences between the Civil and Ecclesiastical powers, so far as I apprehend them. They both agree in these things: 1. They are both from God; both the Magistrate, and the Minister is authorized from God, both are the Ministers of God, and shall give account of their administrations to God. 2. Both are tied to observe the Law and Commandments of God: and both have certain directions from the Word of God to guide them in their administration. 3. Both Civil Magistrates and Church Officers are Fathers, and ought to be honoured and obeyed according to the fifth Commandment: Utrumque scilicet dominium, saith Luther, Tom. 1. fol. 139. both Governments, the Civil and the Ecclesiastical, do pertain to that Commandment. 4. Both Magistracy and Ministry are appointed for the glory of God as Supreme, and for the good of men as the subordinate end. 5. They are both of them mutually aiding and auxiliary, each to other. Magistracy strengthens the Ministry, and the Ministry strengthens Magistracy. 6. They agree in their general kind; they are both Powers and Governments. 7. Both of them require singular qualifications, eminent gifts and endowments, and of both it holds true, Quis ad haec idoneus? Both of them have degrees of censures and correction according to the degrees of offences. Neither the one nor the other may give out sentence against one who is not convict, or whose offence is not proved. Both of them have a certain kind of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori. For though the Ecclesiastical power be spiritual, and exercised about such things as belong to the inward man only; yet as Dr. Rivet upon the Decalogue, pag. 260, 261. saith truly, there is a two-fold power of external jurisdiction which is exercised in foro exteriori: one by Church-Censures, Excommunication, lesser and greater, which is not committed to the Magistrate, but to Church-Officers: Another, which is Civil and coercive, and that is the Magistrates. But Mr. Coleman told us, he was persuaded it will trouble the whole World to bound Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction, the one from the other; Maledicis pag. 7. Well: I have given ten agreements. I will now give ten differences.

The difference between them is great; they differ in their causes, effects, objects, adjuncts, correlations, executions, and ultimate terminations.

Posted in Christendom, Church of Scotland, Establishments, The Civil Magistrate, Two Kingdoms Theology | Leave a Comment »

Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod on the two swords 2

July 27, 2026 by westportexperiment

The following selections are taken from George Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming (1646).

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7. That there is a distinction between Magistracy and Ministery, even Jure Divino. That the civill Magistrate hath not power to abolish or continuate the Ministery in abstracto at his pleasure; nor yet to make or unmake Ministers in concreto, that is, to ordain or depose Ministers, as he thinks fit.

8. As the Offices are distinct (g) so is the power; Magistrates may do what Ministers may not doe: and Ministers may doe what Magistrates may not do.

9. It is Juris Communis, a principle of common equity and naturall reason, that the directive Judgement in any matter doth chiefly belong to such as (by their profession and vocation) are devoted and set apart to the study and knowledge of such matters, and (in that respect) supposed to be ablest and fittest to give Judgement thereof. A consultation of Physicians is called for, when the Magistrate desires to know the nature, symptomes, or cure of some dangerous disease. A consultation of Lawyers, in Legall questions. A Councell of War in military expeditions. If the Magistrate be in a ship at Sea, he takes not on him the directive part of Navigation, which belongs to the master, with the mates and pilot. Neither doth the master of the ship (if it come to a Sea-fight) take on him the directive part in the fighting, which belongs to the Captain. And so in all other cases, Artifici in sua arte credendum. Wherefore though the Judgement of Christian prudence and discretion belongs to every Christian, and to the Magistrate in his Station; and though the Magistrate may be, and sometime is learned in the Scriptures, and well acquainted with the principles of true Divinity, yet ut plurimum, and ordinarily, especially in a rightly Reformed and well constituted Church, Ministers are to be supposed to be fittest and ablest to give a directive Judgement in things and causes Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall: with whom also other ruling Church-Officers do assist and joyne, who are more experimentally and practically (they ought also, and diverse times are more Theoretically) acquainted with the right way and rules of Church-government and censures; then the civill Magistrate (when he is no ruling Elder in the Church, which is but accidentall) can be rationally or ordinarily supposed to be.

10. There is some power of Governement, in the Church given to the Ministery by Christ: else why are they said to be set over us in the Lord, and called Rulers and Governours, as we shall see afterward?

[171-172]

Finally, The Presbyteriall Government hath no such liberty nor arbitrarinesse, as Civill or Military Government hath: there being in all civill or temporall affairs a great deal of latitude left to those who manage the same, so that they command nor act nothing against the Word of God. But Presbyteriall Government is tyed up to the rules of Scripture, in all such particulars as are properly spirituall and proper to the Church; Though in other particular, occasional circumstances of times, places, accommodations, and the like, the same light of nature and reason guideth both Church and State; yet in things properly Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall, there is not near so much latitude left to the Presbytery, as there is in civill affairs to the Magistrate.

Posted in Christendom, Church of Scotland, Establishments, The Civil Magistrate, Two Kingdoms Theology | Leave a Comment »

Archibald Alexander on “melancholy”

July 12, 2026 by westportexperiment

The following is a chapter in Thoughts on Religious Experience (1844) by the first president of Princeton Seminary, Archibald Alexander. One of my all-time favorite books and a high-watermark treatment of the subject from a confessionally Presbyterian perspective. This particular chapter deals with the sensitive and difficult subject of “melancholy” and “insanity,” or what we might call medical health. It is noteworthy how very thoughtful he was on the topic, acknowledging that trouble of the mind is not always or exclusively a purely spiritual disorder; and that physicians of the soul ought to partner as far as possible with physicians of the body in treatment.

* * * *

CHAPTER IV.

Causes of diversity in experience continued—Effect of temperament—Melancholy—Advice to the friends of persons thus affected—Illustrative cases—Causes of melancholy and insanity.

We have before shown how the principle of spiritual life is affected in its appearance by two circumstances—the degree of vigor given to it in its commencement, and the degree of knowledge and maturity of judgment which one may possess above another. We now come to another pregnant cause of the great variety which is found in the exercises and comforts of real Christians, and that is the difference of temperament which is so familiar, and which so frequently modifies the characters, as well as the feelings of men in other matters. There can be no doubt, I think, that the susceptibility of lively emotion is exceedingly different in men under the same circumstances. People of strong affections and ardent temperament, upon an unexpected bereavement of a beloved wife or child, are thrown into an agony of grief which is scarcely tolerable; while those of a cold, phlegmatic temperament seem to suffer no exquisite anguish from this or any other cause. Not that they possess more fortitude or resignation, for the contrary may be the fact; but their susceptibilities are less acute. And this disparity appears in nothing more remarkably than in the tendency to entertain different degrees of hope or fear in similar circumstances. For while some will hope whenever there is the smallest ground for a favorable result, others are sure to fear the worst which can possibly happen; and their apprehensions are proportioned to the magnitude of the interest at stake.

Now, is it amazing that men’s religious feelings should be affected by the same causes? When two exercised people speak of their convictions, their sorrows and their hopes, is it not to be expected that with the same truths before their minds, those of a optimistic temperament will experience more sensible emotions, and, upon the same evidence, entertain more confident hopes than those of a contrary disposition? And, of necessity, the joy of the one will be much more lively than that of the other. Thus, two people may be found, whose experience may have been very similar as to their conviction of sin and exercise of faith and repentance; and yet the one will express a strong confidence of having passed from death unto life, while the other is afraid to express a trembling hope. Of these two classes of Christians, the first is the more comfortable; while the latter the safer, as being unwilling to be satisfied with any evidence but the strongest.

Posted in Christian Life & Experience, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Mental Health, Pastoral Theology | Leave a Comment »

Worship not the world

July 11, 2026 by westportexperiment

Beautiful without doubt is the world, excelling, as well in its magnitude as in the arrangement of its parts, both those in the oblique circle and those about the north, and also in its spherical form. Yet it is not this, but its Artificer, that we must worship. For when any of your subjects come to you, they do not neglect to pay their homage to you, their rulers and lords, from whom they will obtain whatever they need, and address themselves to the magnificence of your palace; but, if they chance to come upon the royal residence, they bestow a passing glance of admiration on its beautiful structure: but it is to you yourselves that they show honour, as being all in all. You sovereigns, indeed, rear and adorn your palaces for yourselves; but the world was not created because God needed it; for God is Himself everything to Himself — light unapproachable, a perfect world, spirit, power, reason. If, therefore, the world is an instrument in tune, and moving in well-measured time, I adore the Being who gave its harmony, and strikes its notes, and sings the accordant strain, and not the instrument. For at the musical contests the adjudicators do not pass by the lute-players and crown the lutes. Whether, then, as Plato says, the world be a product of divine art, I admire its beauty, and adore the Artificer; or whether it be His essence and body, as the Peripatetics affirm, we do not neglect to adore God, who is the cause of the motion of the body, and descend to the poor and weak elements, adoring in the impassible air (as they term it), passible matter; or, if any one apprehends the several parts of the world to be powers of God, we do not approach and do homage to the powers, but their Maker and Lord. I do not ask of matter what it has not to give, nor passing God by do I pay homage to the elements, which can do nothing more than what they were bidden; for, although they are beautiful to look upon, by reason of the art of their Framer, yet they still have the nature of matter. And to this view Plato also bears testimony; for, says he, that which is called heaven and earth has received many blessings from the Father, but yet partakes of body; hence it cannot possibly be free from change. If, therefore, while I admire the heavens and the elements in respect of their art, I do not worship them as gods, knowing that the law of dissolution is upon them, how can I call those objects gods of which I know the makers to be men?

Athenagoras of Athens, A Plea for the Christians, ch. 16

Posted in Apologetics & Evidences, Natural Law, Natural Theology, Patristics, Vox Patrum, Worship, True & False | Leave a Comment »

Recent reading: Dachau & the Western Front

July 11, 2026 by westportexperiment

Aubrey and I just read A Theatre in Dachau by Hermanus Knoop. This was the second book by a Dutch Reformed minister who was thrown into this notoriously vicious concentration camp in World War II and lived to tell. And what a testimony it was. Knoop used as theme his narrative the “theatre” or “spectacle,” first used under inspiration by the Apostle Paul, “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” (1 Cor. 4:9). While the scenes he recounted were of unspeakable horror and inhumanity, the spectacle of Christians like him were paradoxically the very inverse of what their tormentors saw. While they saw contemptible and despicable weakness in their victims, those with faith—including their Christian readers—witnesses nothing short of the “beauty of holiness.” And Knoop, of course, witnessed the glory firsthand:

In the concentration camp of Dachau the God of all grace did wonders of grace by His Word and Spirit every day. Oh, it was indeed a dreadful time for me that I spent there, and yet it is not at all a hollow phrase when I say that I would for no amount of money have missed this time of my life, since it was so unspeakably rich in grace. I saw God there. The Lord was in this place. It was a house of God and a gate of heaven.

This book was more of the same, which we read together some years back: Faith and Victory in Dachau by Jack Overduin—also by the same publisher, Inheritance Publications. Just like Knoop’s account, it all came down whether this Reformed minister should “obey God rather than men.” Either the Reformed Churches, ministers, schools, and parents capitulate to their Nazi occupiers and peddle their propaganda for them, or they resist and pay. Rev. Overduin paid. And so his stirring account in the bowels of Dachau. Both of these books are so worth reading, though this one you may need to find it on the used market.

Rewinding a generation to World War I, my daughter Annie and I read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque in anticipation of watching the cinematic remake back in 2022. This classic novel portrays enthusiastic fresh-faced German boys volunteering themselves for their existential awakening (or rather, mortification) in the trenches of France. The book was truly great, and the film definitely did it justice. The scene where the protagonist finds himself in a crater between the trenches, ineffectively trying to finish off a dying French soldier, is so powerful. As the unconscious dying man gurgled, the German found in the nameless man’s pocket a picture of him and his family back in France. The humanity of it all came down on him hard. War is a taste of hell, and it is simply madness to court it.

The other moment that struck me was the scene portraying the Treaty of Versailles signed in a passenger train car. While watching it in the theater, I leaned over and whispered to Annie. When the French later surrendered in World War II in 1940, the Führer ordered that very same train car be found and re-used ceremonially for their capitulation to the Germans. In many ways, World War I ended and World War II seminally began in 1917 when the Allies imposed extreme war reparations that became wholly unbearable for Germany. While Hitler proved a madman, he certainly had a flair for poetic justice. If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. Interestingly, the Nazis banned the book precisely because it frowned on German nationalism and war-mongering.

Posted in Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Sabbath/Religious Reading | Leave a Comment »

Tithes, the Covenant of Grace, and the Christian tribute

July 9, 2026 by westportexperiment

“The principles involved in this plan for the support of the religious orders are still applicable. God alone is the absolute Proprietor of all things. We are all stewards, and are responsible for the use, no less than the acquisition, of what we may have. By the covenant of grace, a competent livelihood is still secured to all the true children of Abraham. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come (1 Tim. iv. 8). And God still retains His claim to a tribute. And is it not a just and interesting view of the matter to say that this tribute is properly due to Christ as priest? It is through Him that God blesses His people. It is through Him they serve and worship God.”

Alexander Stewart, The Tree of Promise

Posted in Covenant Theology, Pietism, Vital Godliness, Vox Patrum, Wealth: Wisdom & Warnings | Leave a Comment »

Rutherford’s Due Right on the temporal & spiritual swords

July 9, 2026 by westportexperiment

Samuel Rutherford on the two jurisdictions, the “two swords” of a Christian realm in his Due Right of Presbyteries (1644):

Christ hath provided an Ecclesiasticall power to remove scandals betwixt church and church; for the Magistrates power is civill, and put forth by the Sword, and by carnall weapons. Christs aime in this, Mat. 18.19. is to remove scandals, and gaine soules. v. 15. If he heare thee, thou hast gained thy Brother. The Sword of the Magistrate is not ordained to gaine soules to Repentance. That Lord who careth for the part of a visible church, doth he not far rather care, in a spirituall way, for the whole (310-311)?

The following is a lengthier passage addressing the particular issue of how a Christian magistrate may or may not use his power to “compell persons to a Church profession.”

* * * *

Quest. II. Whether the Magistrate hath power to compell persons to a Church profession?

Anent Magistrates sundry things are questioned to make presbyteriall government odious. And first our brethren complaine that our Churches are constituted by the authoritie of the Magistrate, (a) Robinson saith, it was a presumptuous enterprise, that people were haled against their will into covenant with God; to sweare obedience to the protestant Faith, being a profane multitude, living before in grosse idolatry, and that by the authority of the supreme magistrate; for the commandement of the magistrate (say they) can make no members of the visible Church, or of Christs body, because it is a voluntary act of obedience to Christ, that men adjoyne themselves to the visible Church. Ergo, none can be compelled thereunto by the authority of the Magistrate; faith may be compelled; it cannot bee compelled. For the clearing of this question, these considerations are to be weighed.

Posted in Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Establishments, Samuel Rutherford, Two Kingdoms Theology | Leave a Comment »