The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, always an articulate body, ready to engage in apologetics and to communicate its message to the world, has not only looked outward but has also supported the development of the denomination from within. Nowhere are these activities better seen than in her publications. This article offers an overview of the periodical publications of the denomination from 1822 to the present.

Evangelical Witness

Twenty-four years after the creation of the first Reformed Presbyterian presbytery in North America, Rev. James R. Willson began the publication of the Evangelical Witness, a monthly magazine published under the patronage of the American Evangelical Tract Society. It existed from August 1822 through July 1824 and from January 1825 through December 1826. Dr. Willson edited the Evangelical Witness while he was the pastor of the united Coldenham and Newburgh, N.Y., congregations—later Coldenham. He died in 1853. The contents of the Evangelical Witness reveal an astonishing variety of interests on Willson’s part: theological treatises (“Marks of Grace”); scriptural commentary; Covenanter history; the history of the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary; notices and reviews of new publications; historical treatises (the “Execution of Charles I”); statistics (e.g. on slave holdings state by state); reviews of sermons by both Covenanters and others; current events (“On the Present State of Europe”); fiction, presumably his own; obituaries: ordinations; scientific discussions (“Dissertation on the Mosquitoe” [sic]); miscellaneous “Items of Intelligence,” encompassing such varied matters as the anniversary of the American Bible Society, attempts at revolution among the slaves of the West Indies and the Southern States, and the progress of the Greek War for Independence with notice of Lord Byron’s participation: and treatises on geography (“On Slave Lake” in the N. W. Territory).

Many of Willson’s contributions were idiosyncratic, and would never be seen in a denominational journal today. But they reveal Willson’s mind. A regular feature through two volumes is entitled “Travels of Titus in The United States.”

Through the popular travel narrative Willson was able to convey all manner of information to his readers. The fictitious narrator, Titus, seems not to be a Covenanter, although he is quite familiar with the denomination. As he travels west across Pennsylvania, he is joined by a variety of fellow travelers.

The American Christian Expositor

From 1831 to 1833 Dr. Alexander McLeod and his son, John, edited The American Christian Expositor in New York City. This monthly was more specifically designated as an organ of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, The elder Dr. McLeod, a native of the Isle of Mull, Scotland, came into the Reformed Presbyterian Church after immigrating to New York. He was a remarkable preacher and an eminent theologian. The magazine ceased publication upon his death in 1833. Dr. David Carson describes the content of the Expositor as largely concerned with the “civil institutions of the United States” and reflective of the editors view that was more liberal than that of the denomination’s constituency (A History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in American to 1871, 171).

The Reformed Presbyterian

In 1837 Rev. Moses Roney, pastor of the Newburgh, N.Y., RPC, began editing The Reformed Presbyterian from his home. He had studied theology under Dr. Willson and was chosen by the Synod to be editor of the magazine. With the exception of one year, Roney edited the monthly magazine from 1837 until his death by tuberculosis in 1854. The Rev. Thomas Sproull succeeded him and remained editor until 1863 when the magazine consolidated with The Covenanter. The Reformed Presbyterian set the pattern that has been followed ever since by Covenanter periodicals. Essentially it became a magazine that by its content informed the members of the church and bound them together and inducted such items as past European history hearing on the Church, statistics, reports of presbyteries and synods, their committees and boards, ordinations, obituaries, discussions of the Christian faith and practice, sermons on varied topics, missionary correspondence, the issue of human slavery, and, toward the end of its separate existence, the conduct of the Civil War and the matter of Christian citizenship.

The Covenanter

In 1845, shortly after the onset of The Reformed Presbyterian, Rev. J.M. Willson, son of J. R. Willson, began to edit The Covenanter. He served as editor until the two magazines consolidated in 1863. The magazine began as “a mouthpiece for those who wanted deacons in congregations.” Thus, it existed concurrently with The Reformed Presbyterian that took the other side. Its content included “issues of reform, distinctive principles,” current issues under discussion (Carson, 173), anti duplicated many of the features found in The Reformed Presbyterian, among them: missionary correspondence, ordinations, presbytery and synod reports, book notices, obituaries, including those of several soldiers who died during the war, and the conflict between civil dissent anti service in the army. Of particular interest is the notice of President Lincoln’s assertion about the Christian Amendment. The report stated that two Reformed Presbyterian men visited with President Lincoln, and upon being told that they were Covenanters, he remembered having met Covenanters before, persons who wanted the “Constitution amended by putting slavery out, and by putting a recognition of God in it.” He then told his visitors that one of these objects had been attained and that he hoped to attain the second as well.

The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter

From 1863 to 1866, Revs. Thomas Sproull and J. M. Willson edited The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter. Upon Willson’s death in 1866 Sproull became sole editor until joined by his son, J. W. Sproull, in 1868. Thomas Sproull retired in 1874 and his son, Rev. T. A. Sproull and Rev. D. B. Willson, son of J. M. Willson, joined J. W. Sproull in the editorship.

By 1889 this magazine, reflecting the growth of the denomination, refers to domestic mission efforts among the Chinese, the Native Americans, and the African-Americans in the South. Included in the reports of the Board of Domestic Missions are references to new works in Kansas City, Burdette, Quinter, and Topeka in Kansas, La Junta, Colorado, and Seattle, Wash. The Syrian mission reported 85 adult baptisms between 1861and 1888, together with 128 infant baptisms. In 1889 the editors make clear their purpose: “There are two weekly papers edited by brethren connected with our church, well known to us all—The Christian Statesman of Philadelphia, and the Christian Nation of New York. They are devoted to the cause of National Reform. They do not deem it their duty to make the position of political dissent prominent, nor do they press it upon their reader. This pamphlet is devoted to the principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church’” (RP&C, XXVII, 1). By this time the editors were regularly including Bible lessons.

The overriding issue, however, was political dissent. The East End platform produced in Pittsburgh by several Reformed Presbyterian ministers in 1890 is quoted in full. Briefly, it advocated simpler terms of communion, admittance to membership without binding a person to an “explanation of political dissent and other matters,” restricted rather than close communion, occasional hearing, organic union of churches, and a free discussion of the subordinate standards of the church (RP&C, XXVIII, 364). Referring to an invitation for the church to join the United Presbyterian Church, a strongly negative editorial appeared under the title, “A Few Frank Words”: “It is right for us to ask, how shall we be helped in the work of Christ by such a step?” The editor remarks that the invitation came from those less than candid about the true nature of their church, anti shows just how far apart the two denominations are. (RP&C, XXVIII, 150-151). Defending the Reformed Presbyterian Church was quite spirited. The readers were invited to read the opening seminary lecture, given September 19, 1890, by Prof. Thomas Sproull, entitled “The Reformed Presbyterian Church Is Not a Sect.” Sproull declares, “She is not an offshoot from another body, nor an exotic brought from foreign soil, nor yet a spontaneous growth springing up from the debris of defunct religious associations. She is the vine that the right hand of God has planted in our land and caused to take root and flourish and that shall ultimately send forth its boughs to the sea and its branches to the river” (413).

The RP&C made no effort to hide the current troubles from the denomination. Because the publication of the minutes of presbyteries and the synod was standard practice, little could be kept from the members.

Our Banner

Our Banner, a monthly periodical, existed from 1874 to 1894. Its editors were Rev. John H. Boggs, pastor of the Brooklyn. New York, congregation, Rev. David Gregg, pastor at Third New York, and Rev. J. C. K. Milligan, mentioned above. Boggs resigned from the editorship in 1880 when he joined the Presbyterian Church. In 1889 Gregg did likewise, becoming pastor of Park Street Congregational Church. Boston. Milligan, as reported above, left the church in 1891. Rev. N. R. Johnston, who had been sent to the freed slaves in South Carolina and later had an important relationship with Geneva College, succeeded Milligan and managed briefly to promote a more conservative tone. For several years he served in the mission to the Chinese in Oakland, Calif. With his retirement, Our Banner expired. The departure of the original three editors from the Reformed Presbyterian Church makes an early editorial outlining the prospectus of the magazine remarkable: [the magazine] will “propagate the principles for which our martyrs died…emulate the excellencies of The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter and The Christian Statesman…and seek to heal the divisions in the Church” (OB, I, 20). They specifically assert that “It will be our privilege, dear brethren, wherever we go, to second your effort for the Christian Amendment of the United States Constitution, and to press with all a Covenanter’s zeal, the royal claims of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I, 23). The content of Our Banner includes two or three lead articles, departments such as “Home Reading” or “Children’s Bread,” a devotional, a sermon, church news, reports on other denominations, an editorial, mission reports, an occasional article by a woman (a rarity at that time), reports on current events, a few obituaries and some filler from outside sources. An entire issue of’ 64 pages is devoted to the printing of the Minutes of Synod.

Herald of Mission News and Olive Trees

The Herald of Mission News began publication in 1887. Owned by Rev. R. M. Sommerville, pastor of the Second New York congregation and Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, the magazine was “published with the approval of the Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.” The editor states that “the Herald of Mission News has a distinct and definite purpose. As the title indicates, its specific object is to furnish the churches with reliable missionary intelligence and to advocate more earnest and faithful endeavor to extend throughout the world a knowledge of Christ” (January, 1887, 1). A typical issue would contain under “Our View of Mission Work” a letter from a Covenanter missionary abroad, general items of missionary work in many denominations and letters from Christian workers, both Covenanter and otherwise. In 1896 Sommerville asks, “Shall we suspend the publication of the Herald of Mission News and take charge of’ the Missionary Department in a Weekly Church Paper?” (November, 1896, 210).

The December 1896, issue, contains historic photos of the Latakia Mission and some of the converts, and of Larnaca and of Nicosia, Cyprus. The editor states that “the Herald of Mission News, then, will be published for at least another year…The price of this magazine is fifty cents” (December, 1896, 253). Evidently, a change in plans occurred, for, in 1897, the magazine assumed a new name, Olive Trees, again described as “A Monthly Journal devoted to Missionary Work in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.” By 1914 Olive Trees was a 24-page magazine with a department for women and considerably less news from the American congregations, most of it concerning the activities of’ the Women’s Missionary Societies. In January 1916, an editorial appeared beneath the photographs of Dr. and Mrs. Sommerville that stated in part, “We are glad to give our reader these pictures of Doctor and Mrs. Sommerville…Our prayer is that they may both be spared many days to still help by their words and counsel, and we know when their work here is finished that the ‘well done’ awaits them…We know there are some who think we ought to have only one paper in our Church. We heartily agree, however, with Mr. Pritchard that it is better for all our Church work to have Olive Trees continue” (1-2). The photos ran through November of 1920, the year of’ Dr. Sommerville’s death.

A 1917 editorial reads, “We want it distinctly understood that we are not running a general Church paper. Olive Trees is a Missionary magazine and as such we feel that it ought to be in every home in our Church” (January, 1917, 1). Sometime earlier the old cover was dropped and by 1918 the magazine sported a plain olive green cover with the scriptural citations intact. The subscription price, then, was $1 per year. Edited by Revs. M. M. Pearce and R. A. Blair, the departments remained essentially unchanged. In 1920 the magazine featured the 25th anniversary of the China mission. Dr. F. M. Wilson succeeded to the editorship in 1923. In January, 1928, the editor stated that “Synod’s committee appointed to consider the question of publishing the Christian Nation and Olive Trees met and decided that it would recommend to next Synod that it sees no way by which any change can be made. The Christian Nation is a private business not subject to change. Olive Trees was given Dr. Somerville to the Board on condition that it never be merged…Olive Trees will be published as heretofore. There is no thought of discontinuing it” (OT XLIII, 197). Synod decided otherwise. By May Olive Trees had been discontinued and the statement made: “Combination offer of Olive Trees and the Missionary Review of the World is now extended to subscribers of these two magazines” (XLIII, 73). At this point The Covenanter Witness was born.

Christian Nation

The Christian Nation began publication in New York City in September 1884, under the editorship of John W. Pritchard. A weekly publication, its banner read “A Journal of Enlightened Statesmanship, Sound Public Morals, Choice Literature, [and] General Information.” Its contents included editorials, articles on a variety of subjects (e. g. “Christian Progress in Japan,” “Masonic Oaths,” “Meeting of the John Brown Society,” and “The Discord and Concord of Christendom” by Philip Schaff), domestic and foreign news, the Sabbath school lesson, “The Old Arm Chair—a regular feature that included poetry taken from other journals—a children’s page, For the Lambs of the Flock,” book reviews, obituaries and much congregational news. By 1890, there often appeared two full-page advertisements plus as many as nine columns of ads including such diverse items as a cure for opium addiction; arms and legs with rubber hands and feet; Beecham’s Pills; Robt. McCracken, Fine Shoes; Funk and Wagnalls’ Publishers; H. O’Neill & Co. Complete Lines of Fine Felt, Plush and Velvet Flats, Feathers and Flowers, Fine Hosiery and Merino Underwear, etc.

The tumultuous Synods of 1890 and 1891 were fully aired. In 1890 the magazine described the personnel of Synod, including Rev. Thomas Sproull, “the oldest constituent member of Synod” [but not present] and “the only living member of the Synod of 1833” (CN VII, 7). The magazine published open letters on both sides of the political dissent issue.

The magazine reflected the Church’s deep interest in the World War I. In “The Zero Hour” Rev. R. J. G. McKnight bases his thesis upon the terminology of the trenches. Congregational notes name the members serving in the armed services. In January 1918, an attempt is made to list every soldier and nurse involved in the war, identified by their congregation. By June the Scottish Synod personnel are also listed and by July the soldiers of the Irish Synod. Occasionally. photographs appear of those who had died. By now there are far fewer ads—most notable are ads for War Bonds or for the Covenanter Ambulance Fund. In November Pritchard announces that he will publish in hook form, “a record of the Covenanter Church’s part in the war.” During its first 30 years the Christian Nation kept its readers well informed about the Church’s mission work. On January 23, 1918, a letter from Dr. Kate McBurney gives the readers a complete description of a Chinese wedding and concludes, “After all, the main point in this story is that here is another Christian family in China. Is not that something worthwhile coming so far to see? The Gospel has gained some footing among the boat people and we have the above story to tell.”

In 1924 Rev. J. H. Pritchard, pastor of the White Lake congregation and his father’s assistant, became editor. By then the magazine had created the format followed in large measure by the Covenanter Witness throughout most of the twentieth-century: a twelve-page paper, usually opening with an editorial, followed by various departments—Prayer Meeting Topics, CYPU column, Junior Topics, Sabbath School Lesson, Children’s Lesson—finally relaying congregational news. Atop each page ran the banner, “A Family Magazine.” The masthead reveals that The Christian Nation had taken over Our Banner in 1894 and The Reformed Presbyterian Standard in 1909 (see below). By 1928 the paper was published in Ridgefield Park, N. J. The subscription rate was 52.50 per year.

That same year Synod established an official church publication for the first time. Pritchard was elected editor. On July 11, 1928, Pritchard wrote, “The Covenanter Witness makes its bow with this issue. At its recent meeting, the Synod established a new church paper…the editorial staff chose [the name] ‘The Covenanter Witness.’…All the church news…will appear in these columns. All the activities of the Covenanter Church will here be presented. All the church’s interests will here find a center and become vocal” (3).

Reformed Presbyterian Standard

This magazine began in 1899. Originally a twelve-page, semi-monthly magazine, edited by Rev. J. S. Martin, pastor of the New Castle, Pa., RPC and Rev. G. A. Edgar, pastor of the Olathe, Kan., RPC, congregation, its rationale was clear: published “in the interest specially of Young People’s Work in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and General Reformatory Movements.’ At first it focused almost exclusively on the congregational Y.P.S.C.E.—sometimes known as Christian Endeavor Societies. Gradually, its interests broadened. One issue features the dedication service of the New Castle Church in 1901. An occasional photo appears, usually in connection with the death of a prominent church member.

By 1905 the format had solidified: Christian education topics, Sabbath school topics, some opening articles of general interest, both ecclesiastical and otherwise, C. F. society news, a regular column from Geneva College citing contributors and their contributions, Synod reports that grew in size over the years, a Christian Culture Course designed to educate young people in the history of the Church, and a considerable amount of congregational news notes. Like the Christian Nation, the magazine depended heavily on advertising, most of it centering in New Castle and Beaver Falls.

In 1906 the magazine became a weekly, the subscription rate rising from 75 cents to one dollar per year. It remained a twelve-page magazine. The first weekly issue contains a long article, complete with photographs, about the new electric railroad, centering in Winona Lake, Indiana, and extending to Warsaw and Goshen. Apparently. Christian businessmen heavily hacked the enterprise. Once (June 5,1906) there appears a photo of Fern Cliff [sic], the McCartney home near the Geneva campus, and the announcement that it was up for sale. With each meeting of Synod, photos of the retiring and the newly elected moderator appear, and eventually photos of some of the foreign missionaries as well.

On April 1, 1909, the following editorial statement appeared: “Believing that the principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church are Scriptural, that among the churches she has a mission, that the mission can best he fulfilled in a church of her size by one weekly church paper…we have for these seasons…deemed it best to combine the two weeklies…” This was the editors’ final message to their subscribers, and the magazine was then taken over by the Christian Nation.