REV. ROBERT GUTHRIE.

1820-1842.

ROBERT GUTHRIE was born near the city of Baltimore, on the 12th of November, 1770. While he was still a boy, his father moved to North Carolina, and settled near Hillsboro. He used to relate to his children, that he heard the sound of the cannon on the memorable day of the battle at Guilford Court-house. Of course he was in his eleventh year. It is supposed that his parents were members of the Presbyterian Church. It is at least evident that he was reared under a Presbyterian influence.

In 1791 he was united in marriage with Mary Smith, of Orange county, North Carolina. It would be difficult to conceive of a more congenial union. It lasted about fifty years, attended by all the trials incident to the settlement of a new country, and the rearing and education of a large family; but the writer believes it was a union of more than ordinary interest and affection. The wife was "a helpmeet" in the scriptural sense of the expression.

In 1792 Mr. Guthrie left North Carolina for the West, and spent one year in East Tennessee, near Jonesboro. The next year he left East Tennessee, and after spending some time in the neighborhood

in which Gallatin, Middle Tennessee, now stands, settled finally on the Ridge, near the Old Ridge Meeting-house. One of his sons has now in his possession a letter of dismission and recommendation granted to Mr. Guthrie and his wife by the session of the Presbyterian congregation of which they were members in North Carolina, and signed by the pastor, Rev. James Bowman. It appears from this letter that both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church previous to their settlement in the West. Subsequent examination, however, satisfied them that they were destitute of religion. Soon after their settlement in this country, the great religious movement began to develop itself which resulted in the revival of 1800. Mr. Guthrie was attracted to one of Mr. McGready's early meetings, and there became convinced, for the first time, that he had never experienced a change of heart. With Luther we recollect that "justification by faith" was the great truth which instrumentally wrought the Reformation. truth seems first to have been deeply wrought into the Reformer's own heart. Its out-working shook the papal throne. With Mr. McGready and his fellow-laborers the new birth, as a deep and powerful experience, seems to have occupied a similar place. In the preaching which preceded and attended the revival it overshadowed all other truths. The new birth, as an earnest reality, was emphatically the doctrine of the revival. Mr. Guthrie returned home from this meeting, and some time afterward expe

This

rienced the change which he felt to be necessary, or at least received the evidence of it, while engaged in family prayer. It is believed that both he and his wife made their second profession of religion previous to the full development of the revival, and of course were among its first-fruits. As we would suppose, he entered heartily into the new and great work. He was, however, no enthusiast. In what he did, he followed the convictions of a sober, thoughtful, yet decided mind.

It is not known at what time Mr. Guthrie began to exercise his gifts as a public speaker, but we find from the record that he was a licensed exhorter and candidate for the ministry in 1805, at the time of the meeting of the Commission of Kentucky Synod, and that he was included in the sweeping resolution of that body which prohibited the "young men" who had been before the Commission "from exhorting, preaching, and administering the ordinances, in consequence of any authority which they had obtained from Cumberland Presbytery."

The action of the Synod's Commission resulted in the formation of what, in Cumberland Presbyterian history, is known as the "Council." After the organization, or rather the reörganization, of the Cumberland Presbytery, in 1810, he was licensed and ordained by the Nashville Presbytery. In addition to the parts of trial which had preceded, at the meeting of the Nashville Presbytery, at New Hope, March 30, 1814, having been examined on "English Grammar and Divinity," in connection

with Ezekiel Cloyd he received licensure. At this same Presbytery it was "ordered that Messrs. Guthrie and Cloyd ride each three months on the upper circuit." It will be recollected that "Messrs. Guthrie and Cloyd" were at that time poor men, and had large families dependent upon them for support, and that the upper circuit was at least a hundred miles from their homes. Upon the minutes of the fall session of the Presbytery, in the same year, we find the following resolution: "Resolved, that all the licentiates under our care prepare to stand an examination from time to time on such branches of science as Presbytery may direct." In conformity with this resolution, Mr. Guthrie was ordered to prepare for an examination on Natural and Moral Philosophy at the next regular meeting of the Presbytery. At the same time he was furnished, from the Presbyterial library, with "Ferguson's Astronomy and the Plates," for additional study.

The next particular notice of him which we find in the Presbyterial records is an order upon the fall minutes of 1819 for his ordination. He was accordingly ordained the following spring, at Stoner's Creek, April 6, 1820, Rev. Thomas Calhoon preaching the ordination-sermon, and Rev. David Foster presiding and giving the charge. The record is that he was previously examined "on experimental religion, his internal call to the work of the ministry, his knowledge of Natural and Revealed Theology, of Philosophy, Astronomy, Geography, English Grammar, and Ecclesiastical History; also

as to his knowledge of the Constitution and Rules of the Church, and the principles of its Government."

It will be perceived from this brief sketch, that previous to his entrance upon the work of the ministry, he had charge of a family. It had grown to some size. He was the father of several children. He had commenced the world with but limited means, and had added but little to the original stock. He was a poor man, and his education was limited. He nevertheless labored to prepare himself for ordination in conformity not only with the letter, but the spirit, of our form of Church-government. If the record has been faithful, and his examinations were not a mockery, his preparation was very respectable. The writer has heard him speak more than once of his trials in this respect. He was compelled to labor closely for the support of his family; and when at his daily toil, his custom was to carry his English Grammar in his pocket, and improve the intervals which might occur, in preparing for his examinations before the Presbytery. In the summer, while his horse rested from the plow, he would snatch the moments for necessary study. In the next generation these things will seem almost fabulous, but they were the works of a generation of men who have just passed before us. Men who are now beckoned to the halls of our Colleges, instructed gratuitously, and in many instances greatly favored otherwise; men at whose feet the treasures of knowledge are poured