Log college - Alexander - IV - Chapter 5

Required reading
The log college by Archibald Alexander (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 5 (Memoir of the Rev. Gilbert Tennent continued).

My summary
Today we continue to hear of the work of Gilbert Tennent.

Firstly we are told about his move to Philadelphia to pastor a church after his disputes with the synod.

Then we hear of his trip to Great Britain to raise money for youth at the College that were unable to defray the expenses of their education.

Next we are informed of Gilbert Tennent's final years.  This is followed by excerpts from a eulogy published by a young gentleman of Philadelphia.

To finish the chapter, we are given a list of Gilbert Tennent's publications.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed the description of his preaching in the eulogy: '" As his presence was venerable, and his voice commanding, so his very appearance in the pulpit filled the minds of his hearers with a kind of religious awe. . . . The thunderings and mighty vociferations of Mount Sinai seemed to roar from the sacred desk, when he denounced the wrath of God against him that transgressed but once God's law, which he knew to be spiritual, and that nothing but a perfect obedience — which man in his fallen state is unable to perform — would satisfy its demands. Hence, he made it his constant practice to sound the alarm of God's curse abiding on the whole human race ; and taught that to doom man to everlasting misery would be highly consistent with the mercy and justice of Jehovah. But while he enforced the truth of inspiration, ' that in Adam all die,' he was no less warm in proclaiming, that in Christ all shall be made alive.' And as he knew how to wound, so he knew how to pour the oil of consolation on the bleeding conscience. The blood of Jesus, that sacred healing balm, was his grand catholicon for sin-sick souls. This alone was what he recommended as sufficient to procure case to the trembling sinner; with the love of God to man — in sending his beloved Son into the world, to redeem a race of rebel sinners, by bearing on the accursed tree the heavy punishment due to man's enormous crimes, in order to translate him to the regions of eternal joy. '

Sounds like the gospel was the centre of his preaching!

Next week's reading
Read Chapters 6 (Memoir of the Rev. Gilbert Tennent continued) and 7 (The college of New Jersey).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.