Historical Address DELIVERED BY GEORGE W. F. BIRCH, D.D., LL.D., OF BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY, AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE SEVENTYFIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLAYSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH The Claysville Presbyterian Church is the vital factor of historic Claysville. If the National Pike was the occasion of the existence of Claysville, I feel that this discourse would not commence aright if it were not to praise God that there were those among the first settlers of this village who were filled with the spirit of Noah, Abraham, and David. Noah took the first step in humanity's fresh start as the lord of creation when he came forth from the ark to build an altar unto the Lord. Wherever Abraham pitched his tent in Canaan, there he had an altar. The son of Jesse felt that Jerusalem, the city of David, would not be the city of God until the Ark of the Covenant was transferred from the house of Obed-Edom to the hill of Zion. So the little company which formed the nucleus of the Claysville Presbyterian Church was a Noachian band, as it felt that the town could not start right without a church; was an Abrahamic band, as it felt that a cluster of homes without a church was a contradiction; was a Davidic band, as it felt that the social and political welfare of the community hinged upon the presence of the Church of the Living God. Hence, when Joseph Henderson and Barnet Bonar, during the summer of 1820, invited the Rev. Thomas Hoge to preach the Gospel in the village of Claysville, they put themselves abreast of Noah, Abraham, and David, and inaugurated in this community that object lesson of the Sermon on the Mount which our Lord presented when He said, " Ye are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light of the world." "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." If Claysville is better than it would otherwise have been; if it has been preserved from moral decay; if it has advanced in material prosperity; if it has been a centre of religious instruction and secular knowledge; if from its homes there have gone forth the torch-bearers of the everlasting gospel; if it has been to fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors, this earth's revelation of that path of the just which is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, it has been just because the Claysville Presbyterian Church has been the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The God of Providence stamps the march of events during these seventy-five years of church life as salt which is pungent, as light which is lustrous, as a city set on a hill which is conspicuous. Therefore the Claysville Presbyterian Church is a factor of historic Claysville so vital that without it the history of this town and vicinity would be another story. If the foregoing line of thought presents a correct view of the relation of this church to the town, we can |