September 21, 1880 Letter
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Dabney praises Spurgeon’s plain, powerful ministry but warns that personal-centered succession risks prelatic drift. He urges Presbyterian order and simple Protestant worship.
Archives
The Confessional Presbyterian Archive is a curated digital library dedicated to preserving and promoting the writings of 17th–20th century Presbyterian pastors, teachers, and leaders. Featuring thousands of searchable texts, biographies, and historical resources, the archive provides direct access to the primary-source materials of American Presbyterianism.
September 21, 1880 Letter
The Sabbath of the State
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Critiques the National Liberal League’s secularism, linking abolitionism and radicalism to atheism and communism, and defends Sunday laws and church-state order.
Dr. Alexander and Immersionism
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Editorial reflections celebrating Christmas as a home-centered reminder of Christ’s humble incarnation and its inspiring power; urges charity toward Roman Catholics while critiquing certain Roman teachings.
The General Assembly of 1881
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Essays on agnosticism and a report of the 1881 Southern Presbyterian General Assembly, emphasizing the doctrines of grace, missions funding, church independence, and reform.
The Huguenots and Human Rights
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Central Presbyterian reports on the 1881 Paris Electrical Exposition—electric light, telegraph, induction diagnostics—and presents the Synod of Virginia’s evangelistic report on presbytery missions.
The Influence of the German University System on Theological Literature
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Affirms God’s universal righteousness and critiques German university influence on Protestant theology—Erastian state control, sacramentarian Lutheranism, and lax spiritual discipline.
The Revised Version of the New Testament (Southern Presbyterian Review)
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An 1881 review criticizing the British-led Revised Version for privileging novel critical readings over the Received Text, omitting contested passages and hiding critical grounds.
“Oh! You Are a Pessimist!”
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Editorial criticizes papal pomp and Leo XIII’s revival of Aquinas, warns of Church–state alliances, and debates whether intemperance should be handled by Church or State.
Professor W. Robertson Smith
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Review condemns W. Robertson Smith’s Old Testament criticism and defends the Masoretic text and Mosaic authorship. It accuses Smith of one-sided, rationalistic methods undermining inspiration.
Review of Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government
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Review of Jefferson Davis’s Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, defending Southern secession and constitutional claims while assessing Davis’s statesmanship and motives.
The Christian Sabbath
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Defends the Christian Sabbath as a moral, perpetual duty instituted at creation and affirmed by Scripture and the Westminster Confession; argues first-day observance after Christ’s resurrection.
Stonewall Jackson (1872)
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Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Chickamauga report and R.L. Dabney’s lecture on Stonewall Jackson, highlighting Jackson’s character, leadership, and religious devotion in Civil War memory.
The Nature of Physical Causes and Their Induction
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Two pieces: one reviews the Council at Jerusalem and apostolic precedents for church polity; the other explores inductive reasoning and the rational law of causation.
The New South
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Dabney’s 1882 commencement address warns that social and economic centralization, radical egalitarianism, and press corruption threaten the republican institutions bequeathed by the founders.
What Is Inductive Demonstration?
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Examines the nature and limits of inductive reasoning. Contrasts Aristotelian and Baconian methods and highlights problems noted by Mill, Whewell, and Galileo.
Doctrine of Original Sin
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Landis defends historic Reformed teaching that Adam’s sin was imputed because it was common, critiquing Hodge’s antecedent, immediate, gratuitous imputation.
The Emotions
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Discussion of evolution and a review of James McCosh’s The Emotions, critiquing classifications of feelings and arguing emotions’ primacy for moral life and action.
The Inductive Logic
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Defends Scripture against misapplied scientific induction; critiques the limits and abuses of inductive logic and urges sound epistemology to reconcile science and faith.
The Stoning of Stephen
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Sermon on Stephen’s martyrdom and prayer ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Argues for Christ’s deity, the soul’s conscious state after death, and assurance of immediate entrance to glory.
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