Lectures on Important Subjects in Divinity (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Lectures on Important Subjects in Divinity
...)
Excerpt from Lectures on Important Subjects in Divinity
ON Opening a book, we naturally feel a desire to know something of its origin. To satisfy this curiosity, we say to the reader, that these Lectures were commenced by the Author, when a Theological School was taught in his neighborhood And the general plan was pursued after the school had been discontinued.
An edition of these Lectures was printed, in 1827, for the Cumberland Presbyterian Synod. The work was well received. The publication of another edition has been repeatedly called for. It is now issued as a publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Board. The copy right has been donated to the Board.
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Finis Ewing was the primary founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Denomination on February 4, 1810.
Background
Finis Ewing was born on July, 10, 1773, in Bedford county, Virginia, the last of the twelve children of Robert and Mary (Baker) Ewing. From boyhood he lived on the frontier near Nashville, Tennessee, becoming tall and hardy, a leader in sports and Indian warfare.
Education
Ewing obtained some advanced schooling, and profited by the debates of a "literary society. "
Career
Out of a formal religion, the preaching of James McGready brought Ewing to a vital Christian experience, and he showed gifts for the ministry.
In the great Cumberland revival of 1800 the presbyteries of Transylvania and Cumberland, unable to answer the calls for preachers, licensed and ordained some men, Ewing among them, who did not satisfy Presbyterian educational requirements; they also adopted the Westminster Confession, making exceptions concerning predestinarianism, which did not suit revival work.
Because of disapproval of this action by the Kentucky Synod and finally by the General Assembly, in 1810 Ewing and two other ministers formed an independent body, the Presbytery of Cumberland.
He then was conspicuous for the power of his ministry.
For nine years he had traveled and preached indefatigably Kentucky and Tennessee, building up congregations in regions religiously destitute, holding camp-meetings, winning everywhere enthusiastic, grateful response.
For his ministry he never received money, supporting his growing family by farming.
He was principal author of the Circular Letter issued by Cumberland Presbytery to justify its founders.
Ewing presided over many of the churches meetings, championed its doctrines in controversy, and fostered all its concerns.
In 1820, Ewing removed to central Missouri, following many Kentuckians.
Of his teaching, his Lectures on Theological Subjects (1872), widely circulated among Cumberland Presbyterians, were the outcome.
Long a slaveholder, now, in a slaveholding country, he agitated against slavery.
After four years in a church near Lexington, Missouri, in 1836 he became pastor in that town.
There he was register of the Land Office, supporting himself thus while incessantly active in the ministry.
He built up the Cumberland Church to much strength in Missouri.
By correspondence and visits he maintained an influential connection with the church in the East. Finis Ewing died on July 4, 1841, in Lexington, Missouri.
(Excerpt from Lectures on Important Subjects in Divinity
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Religion
In three years the presbytery, because of its evangelistic zeal, grew to a synod Ewing was one of the framers of a revised Westminster Confession, the adoption of which by the synod in 1814 marked the separate life of Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
This revision sought a middle way between Calvinism and Arminianism.
Connections
In 1793, Finis Ewing married Peggy, daughter of General William David son. They had several children.