1856 SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN. Manuscript Sermons of a South Carolina & Louisiana Southern Presbyterian

A wonderful archive related to Southern Presbyterian, Rev. Robert R. Small of Columbia Theological Seminary. Small had been converted at the age of 15 at the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He first attended Oglethorpe University, where he founded a student missionary agency and was known for his piety and zeal. He then entered Columbia Theological Seminary in 1852, graduating in 1855, and by then having a reputation for unfeigned piety and missionary earnestness. 

Upon graduation, he began a mission to the destitute sand-hillers of Charleston [sort of the coastal version of "hillbillies," perceived as ignorant and who lived in ongoing poverty]. Completing his term as R. A., early in 1856 he had traveled to Louisiana as candidate to a Presbyterian church there. He was well received and selected, but upon returning home contracted typhoid and died shortly thereafter. 

The present pouch was gifted to Robert S. Small by eminent Presbyterian R. Q. Mallard in 1855, probably for his graduation. Mallard [1830-1904] graduated at nearly the same time and went on to pastor Central Presbyterian in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most influential churches of the time, and Napoleon Avenue Presbyterian in New Orleans. After the Civil War, he published a now famous work exploring southern slavery, Plantation Life before Emancipation. 

The contents of the leather pouch include:

*An 8pp manuscript secretarial long-hand account of the student meeting held at Columbia Theological Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina on April 16, 1856 to mourn the death of Rev. Robert R. Small, a resident graduate of the seminary and pioneer Presbyterian preacher in rural South Carolina and then just being settled in Louisiana. It describes his character, preaching, his life, his zeal for the expansion of the Kingdom, and his untimely death from typhoid fever contracted while preaching in rural Louisiana. This manuscript in the hand of Rev. Jethro Rumple [1827-1906]. 

Rumple was an influential Presbyterian divine, historian, and Civil War chaplain. Born in Cabarrus County, he was educated in the local field schools and later enrolled in the academy in the Poplar Tent community. After teaching school in North Carolina and South Carolina for several years, Rumple began the study of theology privately under the Reverend Walter W. Pharr, pastor of the Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church. In 1854 he entered Columbia Theological Seminary, where he remained for two years. On 31 July 1856 he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Concord and, upon receiving calls from the Providence and Sharon churches in Mecklenburg County, he was ordained and installed as their minister on 9 Jan. 1857. There he served until called to the Presbyterian church in Salisbury. Installed on 24 Nov. 1860, he spent the rest of his life in that city.

In addition to his pastoral work, Rumple was a missionary chaplain to the Army of Northern Virginia during the final two years of the Civil War, 1863–65. He served on most of the important committees of the Presbyterian Synod and the Presbytery of Concord. From 1863 until his death Rumple was also a member of the board of trustees of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.

*A 25pp manuscript sermon by Robert R. Small on Acts XVII.31, Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. The sermon is about the same temperature as molten lava! It has the feel of M'Cheyne or Edwards on fiery judgment. Not for the faint of heart.

*A 23pp manuscript sermon by Robert R. Small on Colossians II.9, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 

*A 23pp manuscript sermon by Robert R. Small on Colossians II.10, And ye are complete in Him which is the head of all principalities and powers. 

*A 17pp sermon by Robert R. Small on Revelation 17, discussing the Great Whore, etc. 

All in a very good state and entirely legible. A valuable archive of early Southern Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Preaching, and Columbia Theological Seminary.