This Day in Presbyterian History:
First overtures from a presbytery
At the second meeting of the first presbytery in the American colonies, meeting on March 11 – March 26, 1707, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the teaching and ruling elders proposed and voted in the affirmative on a series of overtures designed to propagate Christianity. They were presented by Jedediah Andrews, one of the original seven presbyters, and John Boyd, the first ordained minister in the Presbytery of Philadelphia.
The first overture instructed each minister in their respective congregations to read and comment upon a chapter of the Bible each Lord’s day, as discretion and circumstances of time and place would admit them. It is obvious from this first overture that the presbytery believed that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were inspired of God, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. The Bible, and the Bible alone, would be the guide for its ministers and laypeople in their respective churches.
The second overture is interesting because the ministers were recommended to begin and encourage private societies. In other words, they were to organize and encourage Christians to gather together for various Christian endeavors. An example of this was the organization of the Fund for Pious Uses, which was the subject of the devotional described on January 11. It is clear that they believed that Christianity should set the standard in every sphere of life. Therefore the Christian faith inside and outside the church needed to be encouraged.
The third and last overture stated that every minister in the Presbytery was to supply neighboring towns with ministers, especially in desolate places where ministers would be lacking. They were to take the opportunities granted them to be home missionaries, in other words.
These first overtures of this small but soon to be active Presbytery stated clearly that the message of biblical Christianity was to propagated throughout the new world in obedience to the Word of God. At subsequent meetings of the Philadelphia Presbytery, it was noted that these first three overtures were being accomplished.
Words to Live By: Until Jesus comes the second time, all believers are to buy up every opportunity to share His love in word and deed.
Through the Scriptures: 1 Samuel 1 – 3
Through the Standards: Christ’s Exaltation in His Ascension
WLC 53 — “How was Christ exalted in his ascension?
A. Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having after his resurrection often appeared and conversed with his apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations, forty days after his resurrection, he, in our nature, and as our head, triumphing over enemies, visibly went up into the highest heaven, there to receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections thither, and to prepare a place of us, where he himself is, and shall continue til his second coming at the end of the world.”
Image source: Opening page of Records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1841. Scan prepared by the staff of the PCA Historical Center.