George Duffield was born on July 4, 1794 in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the grandson of Rev. George Duffield, and son of George and Faithful (Slaymaker) Duffield. His father was for many years comptroller of the state. In the strict Presbyterian circle in which the younger George grew up he was considered “wayward ” but outside that circle he probably would not have been regarded as displaying any particularly wicked tendencies.
Duffield was precocious enough to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania in his seventeenth year, and, having been converted from his waywardness, to be licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia before he was twenty-one, April 20, 1815, after four years' study of theology with Dr. John Mitchell Mason.
On September 25, 1816, George Duffield was ordained and installed pastor of the Presbyterian church, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in which town his grandfather had been a pioneer minister. A strict disciplinarian, he insisted on daily worship and religious instruction in the home, established a Sunday-school for those who did not receive such instruction there, and required all communicants to renounce attendance at dances and theatres, and to abjure worldly amusements in general.
In 1832, as the conflict which in 1837-1838 split the church was beginning, he became a theological storm center through the publication of Spiritual Life: or, Regeneration, in which, it was alleged, he departed from the doctrinal standards of the church. The language of the book is obscure and confusing. Charges were brought against him. The Presbytery of Carlisle condemned the book, but since he declared that it was misunderstood and that in reality he had not repudiated the established doctrines, the Presbytery did not discipline the author. The Synod of Philadelphia took exception to this action. Duffield appealed to the General Assembly, but the appeal was not prosecuted. The Principles of Presbyterian Discipline, Unfolded and Illustrated in the Protests and Appeals of George Duffield, Entered during the Process of the Presbytery of Carlisle, against him April, 1833, in which his Strict Adherence to the Confession of Faith and the Standards of the Church is Shown, was published in 1835.
The controversy had divided his church, however, and on March 23, 1835, Duffield was dismissed. After brief pastorates at the Fifth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and at Broadway Tabernacle, New York, on October 1, 1838, he was installed pastor of the First Presbyterian, then known as the Protestant Church, Detroit. Here for thirty years he had a notable ministry; his interest in the cause of education, temperance, and good morals making him prominent in both city and state.
He was active in the New School branch of the church, and at the request of its committee on publication prepared a statement of the New School theology. It was not acceptable to a majority of the committee, but was printed in the Bibliotheca Sacra in July 1863 under the title "Doctrines of the New School Presbyterian Church. " He was also an early and consistent advocate of reunion. While delivering an address before the International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association at Detroit, June 24, 1868, he suddenly collapsed and died two days later.
Among his numerous published sermons and books are: The Immorality of the Traffic in Ardent Spirits (1834); Discourses on the Sabbath (1836), in collaboration with Albert Barnes; A Sermon on American Slavery: Its Nature and the Duties of Christians in Relation to it (1840); The Death of General William Henry Harrison or, The Divine Rebuke (1841); Dissertations on the Prophecies Relative to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1842); Millenarianism Defended: A Reply to Professor Stuart's "Strictures on the Reverend G. Duffield's Recent Book on the Second Coming of Christ" (1843); The Claims of "Episcopal Bishops, " Examined in a Series of Letters Addressed to the Reverend S. A. McCoskry, D. D. , Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Michigan (1842); The Bible Rule of Temperance: Total Abstinence from all Intoxicating Drink (1868).
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Like the latter Duffield was a man of strong convictions, outspoken and fearless, making stanch friends and some enemies. His piety and zeal in his calling were never questioned. Dr. Alexander McClelland is reported to have said of Duffield that “he knew no man so effective and mighty in presenting the practical side of religion, but that when he turned, as he sometimes did, to metaphysics, he got so deep down in the mud that he did not know where he was, nor did anyone else. ”
Quotes from others about the person
"I knew no man so effective and mighty in presenting the practical side of religion, but that when he turned, as he sometimes did, to metaphysics, he got so deep down in the mud that he did not know where he was, nor did anyone else. " - Dr. Alexander McClelland
Duffield's wife was Isabella Graham Bethune, granddaughter of Isabella Graham, and sister of George Washington Bethune.
