l--Iovv Dabney

l,aaked
At the -W-arld:
The \1(forld\'iew of Robert L. l) 'l bnc),
PART TWO
Re\,. Joseph C. Morecrafr, III
I. THE SPECIFICS OF DABNEY'S
BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW
A. DABNEY'S VIEW OF EDUCATION
Dabney wrote much and well on the sub-
ject of education and was one of the most
ardent enemies of public, state-supported,
compulsory education in America. He
continually emphasized three points on thi s
subject: (1). Education must be Christian
education, founded on Christ and the Bible, if
it is to be good education; (2). State-sup-
ported education will prove to be anti-Chris-
tian in its effects; and (3). parents are re-
sponsible for the education of their children,
not the state.
First, Dabney believed that education must
be Christian education, founded on Christ and
the Bible, if it is to have good and worthwhile
effects. He wrote that education "i n Chris-
tianity is essential to all education which is
worth the name. And we claim more than
the admission that each man should at some
stage of his training, and by somebody, be
taught Christianity; we mean in the fullest
sense that Christianity must be a present
element of all the training at all times, or else
it is not true and valuable education. -
... knowledge is really valuable only as it is in
order to right actions ... The nature of respon-
sibility is such that there can be no
neutrality .. . between duty and sin. He that is
not with His God is against Him ... Hence
as there cannot be in any soul a non-Chris-
tian state which is not anti-Chri/itian. It
follows that any training which attempts to be
non-Christian is therefore anti-Christian.
God is the rightful, supreme master and
owner of all reasonable creatures, and their
nearest and highest duties are to Him. Hence
to train a soul away from Him is a ro1:)bery of
God, which He cannot justify in any person or
agency whatsoever."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol.
IV, pp. 220-22 1. "To educate the mind
without purifying the heart is but 'to phwe a
sharp sword in the hand of a madman. "'- p.
222
Dabney' continues: "The Bible alone
applies to the heart and conscience with any
distinct certainty the great forces of future
rewards and punishments and the powers of
the world to come. And, above all, it alone
provides the pnrifying influences of redemp-
tion. There can be, therefore, no true educa-
tion withont moral cnltnre, and 110 true moral
culture withont Christianity; .. The teacher
must be Christian."- p. 222
In his day as well as in ours the defense
for "secnlar" and "religionsly neutral" public
education was presented in this fashion: the
state schools will teach sec ular knowledge
and the parents may supplement that secular
instruction with their religious instruction in
the church and home. But Dabney gives a
fatal blow to this statist viewpoint by explain-
ing that: "( I). The secular teacher depends
for the very authority to teach upon the
Bible; (2). The exclusiou of the Bible would
put a stigma on it in the child' s mind which
the parent cannot afterwards remove; (3).
How can one teach history, ethics, psychol-
ogy, cosmogony, without implying some
religious opinions?"- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV,
p. 223. In other words, he believed that
religious neutrality in education is impossible.
Second, Dabney nnderstood that state-
supported education would prove to be de-
structive of Christianity and to the morals and
intelligence of the nation. Because Dabney
believed that instruction in Christianity was
essential to the acquisition of knowledge and
morality, and becanse State education is
secular and ostensibly religiously neutral ,
(which is a myth), he understood that "the
culture and ethics of the ' common school'
[i.e., public school controlled by tbe state]
will leave them [students], after a time, too
corrupt and atheistic to recognize the value
of morality or" its source- the Christian
religion. We often hear this apology for the
State's wholesale intrusion into education
Oct(jber/November, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofC/lalcedon-17
advanced with the exactness of a commercial
transaction. They 'say: ' It costs less money
to build school-houses. than jails.' But what
if it turns out that the State' s expenditure in
school-houses is one of the things which
necessitates the expenditure of jails.?"-
DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. 195. And then in
the succeeding paragraphs of his article he
proceed.s to prove his point presenting
tics from Prussian and French schooling, py .
referring to De Toqueville who "rem.arked of
the United States that crime increased most
rapidly where there 'was most instruction,"
(DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV,p. 195), and by
showing the detrimental effects of jmlllic
school education in the North.
Third, he held that parents, not the state,
are responsible for the education of thei'r .
children. In defense of the system of educa-
tion that prevailed in' Virginia up to 1860,
Dabney wrote: "The tree that bore ' the rank
and file' of the Stonewall brigade was good
enough for me. This old system evinced '
its wisdom by avoiding the pagan, Spartan
theory, which makes the State the parent. It
left the parent supreme in his God'-given
sphere, as the .responsible party for providing'
and directing the education of his own off-
spring."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. Ul9. To
paraphrase, ' theo)der system was a
system than the newer system of compulsory
public schools because it left"the; s.chool as
the creature of the parents,. and not of the.
p . 190. It is as if he were ' address-
ing our crisis today when he wrote:
... the pnnciple upon which the State intrudes into '
the parental obligation and function of educating all
children, is dangerous and agrarian. It is the teaching
of the eibie and of sound political ethics that the '
education of children belongs to the sphere of the
family and is the dutY of the parents. The theQry that
the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of
the COmlnonweahh is a coroinob one, derived from
heathen Sparta and Piato's heathen republic, and ,
connected by reguiar, logical sequence With legalized
prostitution and the dissolution ofthe conjugal tie.-
"The State Free School System" in DISCUSSIONS,
Vol. Iv, p. 194
Dabney concludes his critique of "The '
State, Eiee School System" with these pointed
remarks: "Our old Virginia system, besides
itsecononiy, has these' great logical advan-
tageS: . that it leaves to parents, without
usurp'aiion,their proper function as creators
and electors oftheit children' s schools : ..
Goveriuoebt'is not the creator but the crea-
ture ofhriman society, ' The Government has
no mission from God to make, the community;
on theci>ntrary, the community should make
the Government. Whatlhe community shall
be is determined by Providence, where it is
happily determined by far other causes than
the meddling of historical
causes in the distant vital ideas
propagated by greatindividual minds-espe-
cially by the Church and jts doctrines. The
only communities which have had their char-
acters manufactured for them by their go v-
ernQ1ents have had a villainously bad charac-
the Chinese and the Yankees.
Noble races make their governments; ignoble
ones are made by them.;'- DISCUSSIONS,
Vol. IV, pp. 223-224
Although Protestants historically believed
in the Christian education of children by ,
parents, with the assistance of the church,
and not by the state, in Dabney' s day Protes-
tants were caving in to the
idea, created by the Unitarians, thai the state
is to control education and every other aspect
of human so'ciety for the benefit and ad-
vanceIilent that society. Da:bney rebukes
Protestanlis in his article, "The Attractions of
Pop'ery, M for their defection, leaving only the
Roman Catholic Church to 'stand against the
secularization of education, In this battle for
the freedom of education from the state,
Dabney complains that "the chief, the only
organized protest heard in Ainerica comes
from the Romish Church. It is she who
stands forth preeminent, almost single
handed, to assert the sacred rights of Chris-
tian parents in the training of the souls they
have' begotten,of C,hrist in the l)urture .of the
souls he di'ed to redeem. Today it is this
Romish Church which stands forth precisely
in the position of the Luthers, Calvins, Knoxs
and Mathers as the main; central point, which
is, that the educati on of the young should
be Christian, and should be committed to
Chrisfian hands . ."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV,
p. 548
18 COUNSEL ofChalcedon - October/Noyember, 2000
Dabney's prophetic foresight manifests
itself in his remarks on the effects of the
secularization and nationalization of education
in his article, "Secularized Education," where
he predicts: " ... nearly all public men and
divines declare that the State schools are the
glory of America... And we have seen that
their complete secularization is logically
inevitable. Christians must prepare them-
selves then, for the following results: All
prayers, catechisms, and Bibles will ulti-
mately be driven out of the schools. -
Infidelity and practical ungodliness will
become increasingly prevalent among Protes-
tant youth, and our churches will have a more
arduous contest for growth if not for exist-
ence."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. 242
B. DABNEY'S VIEW OF POLITICS
Dabney had much to say about politics in
articles, letters and seminary lectures. This
was an important aspect of his worldview as
a Christian who believed in the comprehen-
sive. authority of the Word of God. He en-
deavored to base his political views upon the
Bible, although at times he was more infln-
enced by John Calhoun and the constitutional
framers from Virginia, than the Bible.
I. TIIE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE
OF "STATES' RIGHTS"
As the following words of Dabney attest,
he believed that in the Hebrew Repnblic of
the Old Testament, God offered the world a
model' for the formation of civil governments
by the nations of the world so as to insure
justice in those nations.
So far as God gave to the chosen people a
political fOlID, the one which He prefened was a
confederation oflitlle republican bodies represented
by their elderships. (Exodus 18:25,26; Exodus 3: 16;
Numbers 11:16, 17; Nnmbers 32:20-27.)
When he conceded to them, as it were under
protest, a regal nonn, it was a constitutional and
elective monarchy. (I Smnue11O:24,25.) The rights
of each tribe were secured against vital infringement
of this constitution by its own veto power. They
retained the prerogative of protecting themselves
against the usurpations of the elective king by
withdrawing at their own sovereign discretion from
the confederation. (I Kings 12:13-16.)
The history of the secession of the ten tribes
under Jeroboam is often misunderstood through gross
cmelessness. No divine disapprobation is anywhere
expressed against the ten tribes for exercising their
right of withdrawal from the perverted federation.
When Rehoboam began a war of coercion he was
sternly forbidden by God to pursue it. (I Kings
12:24.)
The act by which Jeroboam made Israel to sin
against the Lord was wholly mIother and subse-
quent one-his meddling with the divinely appointed
constitution ofthe church to promote merely pOlitical
ends. (I Kings 12:26-28.)
In historical incidents such as these re-
vealed in the Bible, Dabney saw "God's
preference for the representative republic as
distinguished from the levelling democ-
racy ... "- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III, p. 498
2. THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
Dabney taught his seminary students that
the Christian view of civil government begins
with the revealed truth that the origin of civil
government is in the will of God, not in a
social contract created by man. Therefore
since the powers that be are ordained by
God, they are accountable to the God who is
their Origin and who is supreme over them,
not to the whims and fancies of the majority.
3. THE FUNCTION AND POWERS
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT'
The function of civil government, accord-
ing to Dabney, is "in general, to secure to
man his life, liberty and property. - The
powers of the civil magistrate then are lim-
ited by righteousness ... to these general
functions, regulating and adjudicating all
secular rights, [i.e., non-parental and non-
ecclesiastical rights], and protecting all
members of civil society in their enjoyment of
their several proper shares thereof. This
general fnnction implies a number of others;
prominently, these three: taxation, punish-
ment, including capital punishment for capital
crimes, and defensive war. For the first see
Matthew 22:21, Romans 13:6,7, for the sec-
ond see Genesis 9:5,6, Numbers 35:33, Ro-
mans 13: 1-5, for the third, Exodus 17:9, Luke
3:14,15, Acts 10:1,2. The same thing follows
from the power of capital punishment. Ag-
OctoberlNovember, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon -19
gressive war is wholesale murder. The
magistrate who is charged with the sword, to
avenge and prevent domestic murder, is a
fortiori charged to punish and prevent the
foreign murderer."- LECTURES IN SYS-
TEMATIC THEOLOGY, pp. 869-870
C. DABNEY'S VIEW OF WHY THE SOUTH
LOST THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
Whereas Dabney became a convinced and
patriotic Confederate, he was severely criti-
cal of South Carolina for precipitating the
War. On December 28, 1860, Dabney wrote
to his mother: "I feel sick at heart at the
state of the country. I have been attempting,
in my feeble way, to preach peace, and to
rouse Christians to their duty in staying the
tide of passion and violence. - The very
Christians seem to have lost their senses with
excitement, fear and passion; and everything
seems hurrying to civil war. - As for South
Carolina, the little impudent vixen has gone
beyond all patience. She is as great a pest as
the Abolitionists."- Johnson's, LIFE AND
LETTERS OF ROBERT LEWIS DABNEY, p.
215 . Later, in a letter to Dr. Moses Hoge of
Richmond, dated January 4, 1861, Dabney
wrote: "I considered Lincoln' s election no
proper casus belli, least of all for immediate
separate secession, which could never be the
right way under any circumstances . 'Hence, I
regard the conduct of South Carolina as
unjustifiable towards the United States at
large, and towards her Southern sisters, as
treacherous, wicked, insolent and mischie-
vous. She has,. in my view, worsted the
common cause, forfeited the righteous
strength of our position, and aggravated our
difficulties of position a hundredfold. Yet
regard 'to our own rights unfortunately com-
pels us to shield her ftom the ch<lstisement
which she most condignly deserves . But,
even in shielding Iier, we rnust see to it, as .
we believe in and fear a righteous God, that
we do no iniquity as she has done. - I
reply, it is never too late or too dangerous to
do right . Verily, there is a God who judgeth
in the earth. How can we appeal to Him' in
the beginning of what may be a great and
arduous contest, when we signalize its open-
ing by a wrong? - But I greatly fear the
temper of our people is no longer considerate
enough to place themselves thoroughly in the
right in this matter. " - Johnson, LIFE AND
LETTERS, p. 222
'Dabney remained opposed to secession
until President Lincoln' s unlawful and fatal
call to m ~ s t r soldiers from Virginia to invade
and coerce ' South Carolina and the other
seceding states back into the Union. Almost
overnight he and the vast majority of Virgin-
ians became secessionist. He came to agree
with James Henley Thornwell ' s sentiments
expressed in a letter dated November 24,
1860: "It is impossible to live any longer,
with security and self-respect, in the present
Union."- Johnson' s, LIFE AND LETTERS, p.
224. In a famous letter written by Dabney
and published in the Richmond papers and
throughout the South in April, 1861, Dabney
sought to vindicate Virginia's right to go to
war against the Federal Government in Wash-
ington. He defined hi s position, which was
also the position of Robert E. Lee, Thomas J.
Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Alexander
Stephens, all of whorn were strict Constitu-
tionalists who had been anti-secession. He
wrote:
. .. 1 wish ... to lay this final testimony before the
Christians ofthe North, on behalf of myself imd my
brethren in Virginia, that the guilt lies not at our door.
This mountainous aggregate of enormous crime, of a
mined Constitution, of cities sacked, of reeking
battlefields, of scattered churches, of widowed wives
and orpllaned children, of souls plunged into heD; we
roD it from us, taking the Judge to witness, before
whom you and we will stand, that the blood is not
upon our heads. When the danger first rose threat-
ening in the horizon, out cry was, "Christians to the
rescue." ~ Yes, it was the Christians of Virginia;
cornbined with her other citizens, who caused her to
endure wrongs, until eodurance ceased to be a virtue;
to hold out the olive branch, even after it had been
spurned again and again. - And thus they dared to
stretch over her head the minatory rod of correction!
But no sooner was the perilous experiment applied
than a result was revealed ... This patient, peaceful,
seemingly hesitating paralytic flamed up at the
insolent touchlike a pyramid of tire, and VIrginia
stands forth in her immortal youth .. . wielding that
sword 'which has ever fl ashed before the eyes of
aggressors, the Sic semper tyrannis .... AD her
demands for constitutional redress have been
20 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon- October/November, 2000
refused ... the infamous altemative bas been forced
upon ber either to' brave the oppressor's rod or to aid
him in the destruction of her sisters and her children,
because they are contending nobly, if too rashly, for
rights common to them and to her; and, to crown all,
the Constitution of the United States has been rent in
fragments by the effort to muster new forces, and
wage war without authority of law, and to coerce
sovereign States into adbesion .. . Hence there is now
but one mind and one bealt in Virginia .. .In one week
the whole State has been converted into a camp ...
- ... whatever maYhavebefallen us [in the South],
it will leave you [in the North] with a consolidated
federal government, with State sovereignty extin-
guished, with the Constitution in ruins, and with your
rights and safety a prey to a frightful combination of
radicalism and military despoti sm. - How horrible
is this war to be, of a whole North against a whole
South! - How iniquitous is its real object-the
conquest and subjugation of free and equal States.
- if, then, we bave the right of peacefully severing
our connection with the former confederation, and
the attempt lias been made by' force to obstruct that
rigbt, they who attempted the obstruction are the
first aggressors. The first act of war was commit-
ted by thegovemrnent of Washington against South
Carolioa, when fortresses intended lawfully, only for
her protection, were armed for her subjugation.'
LIFE AND LEttERS, pp. 225f
Dabney also had his views as to why the
South lost the War between the States,
although, in his mind, the principles for which
the South fought were right and true. He
discusses two reasons: (1), The purifying of
the South morally and spiritually and (2). Tbe
chastisement of the Sonth for her failure to
reform slavery by tbe Bible.
In his article, "Tbe Duty of the Hour,"
Dabney explains that mournful, moral degen-
eracy of a people is the result of ages of
totalitarianism, despotism and tyranny. Re-
ferring to his own defeated South, he writes:
"For, young gentlemen, as the true dishonor
of defeat lies only in this deterioration of
spirit, so it is tbe direst wrong wbich the
injustice of the conqueror can inflict. -
Dread, then, this degradation of spirit as
worse than defeat, than subjugation,
poverty, than hardship, than prison, than
death. " - DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. 116
He goes on to explain that "this
degradation ... does not necessarily accom-
pany our prostrate condition."- p. 118. Tben,
he gives wbat he believes is one of the
reasons God caused the South to lose the
War, although he was convinced the South
was right in what it was fighting for:
Divine Providence often makes the furnace of
persecution the place of cleansing for individual
saints. Why may it not be so for a Christian. people?
Why may not a' race of men come forth from their
trials, like the gold seven times refined in the fire,
with their pride chastened, and yet their virtues
purified? This can be from the only cause which
sanctifies the sufferings of the Christian, the
inworkings of the grace of God. Nothing is more true
than that the natural effect of mere pain is not to
purifY, but to harden the sinful heart of man, exasper-
ating at once its evils and its miseries.
The cleansing Word and Spirit of God alone
interprets its suffering to it and convert them into
healthful medicines of its faults. So it is the power of .
true Christianity, and that alone, which can minister to
us as a people the wholesome uses of adversity. The
salvation of the life of the Sonthern society must be
found by taking the Word of God as our constant
guide.
. to what course this spirit of
unyielding integrity prOl)lpt us? The answer from
those infallible oracles is easy. While yon refrain
.. from the suggestion of revenge' and .. . resolve
to abate nothing, to concede nothing of righteous
conviction. Truckle to no falsebood and conceal no
true principle; but ever assert THE RIGHT with snch
means of endurance, self-sacrifice and passive
fortitude as the dispensation of Providence has left
you. If wholesale wrongs must be perpetuated, if
wholesale rights must be trampled on, let our assail-
ants do the whole work and incur the whole guilt.
Resolve that no losses, nor threats, nor penalties,
shall evelY make you yield one jot or tittle of the true
orjnst in principle ...
We are a beaten, conquered people, gentlemen,
and yet if we are true to ourselves, we have no cause
for humiliation, however mnch for deep sorrow. It is
only the atheist who adopts success as the criterion
of right. It is not !! new thing in the history of men
that God appoints to the brave and true the stern task
of contending and falling in a righteous quanel. "-
DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, pp. !l8f .
OctoberlNovember, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon" 21
Dabney intimated in 1865 a second pos-
sible reason for the defeat of the Confed-
eracyby the Union: the failure of the South
to structure Southern slavery according to the
Bible'. He wrote: "When I claim that the
South did thus much for the Africans, I am
far from boasting. We ought to have done
much more. Instead of pointing to it with
self-laudation, it becomes us, with profound
humility towards God, to confess our short-
comings towards our servants. He has . been
pleased, in His sovereign and fearful dispen-
sation, to lay upon us a grievous affliction,
and we know He is too just to do this except
for our sins. While I am as certain as the
sure word of Scriptures can make me con-
cerning any principle of social duty, that there
was nothing sinful in the relation of master
and slave itself, I can easily believe that our
failure to fulfill some of the duties of that
righteous relation is among the sins for which
God's hand now makes us smart. And it does
not becOme those who are under His disci-
pline to boast of their good works. No; verily
we have sinned; my argumen( is that you
must do more for the negro than we sinners
of the South have done. "- "To Major General
Howard," p. 32, DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV
In 1851, in a letter to his brother, Dabney
writes: . "Here is our policy, then, .to push the
Bible argument continually, to drive abolition-
ism to the wall, to compel it to assume an
anti-Christian position. By so doing we
compel the whole Christianity of the North to
array itself on our side. - But to enjoy the
advantages of this Bible argument in our
favor, slave-holders will have to pay a price.
And the price is this. They must be willing to
recognize and gr!lnt in s!!lves those rights
which are a part of our essenti'ill humanity,
some of which are left without recognition or
guarantee by law,!lnd some infringed by law.
These !lre the rights of immortal !lnd domes-
tic beings. If we take the ground that the
power to neglect and infringe these interests
is an essential and necessary part of the
institution of slavery; then it cannot be de-
fended. One thing is certain, the rel!ltions of
an hnmortal being to his Maker override all
others. We must come out !lnd grant that our
right to hold slaves to labor does not include
a right to make a husband guilty of the sin of
separation from his wife, for other cause than
fornication, or to violate the chastity of a
female by forcible means; and that practices
or laws which do any of these things are not
a part of the Scriptunl !lnd lawful institutjon;
but abuses. Unless Southern men are willing
to take this position,. they cannot conquer in
the discussion." -. quoted by Thomas Cary
Johnson in hisbook, THE LIFE AND LET-
TERS OF ROBERT LEWIS DABNEY, p.
129, (Edinburg, Scotland: The Banner of
Truth Trust, 1977 reprint; first published in
1903).
Eugene D. Genovese has written that: "In
1840 the Reverend Robert L. Dabney worried
that the abolitionist agitation was hardening
the hearts of Virginians and thwarting efforts
at reform [of Southeru slavery to bring it in
line with the Biblical laws on slavery].
Dabney responded with a demand for higher
standards. Specifically, blacks should not be
executed for crimes for which whites were
sentenced to a year or two in prison, and
blacks must have the right to 'resist wanton
cruelty and injury.' He excoriated ' unprin-
cipled' masters who inflicted starvat ion,
oppression, and cruel punishments on their
slaves. He urged protection of the family
relation, noting that the. black woman must be
mistress of her own chastity.' If Southerners
did not correct these abus.es, he charged,
they would be turning away from Jesus. In
1851, Dabney published a series of widely
read articles in the Richmond Enquirer and
church publications in which he singled out
the morality of slavery as tbebedroCk iSsue
in the sectional quarrel. If Southerners stand
firmly on the Bible, he wrote, the abolitionists
will have to confess defeat or ruin them-
selves by exposing their infidelity. But, he
added, Southetners can only stand on the
Bible if they acknowledge that they have no
right to separate man and wife or in any
other way violate Christian teaching."-A
CONSUMING FIRE: THE FALL OF THE
CONFEDERACY IN THE MIND OF THE
WHITE CHRISTIAN SOUTH, (Athens, GA:
The University of Georgia Press, 1998), pp.
11-12.
The South did not give heed to Dabney's
22 - TIlE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - October/November, 2000
call for the Biblical reconstruction of slavery,
and so, according to him and many other
ministers whose call for slave reform went
unheeded. Some in his day believe that "God
was punishing Southerners for their sins-not
for having been slaveholders, but for failing
in their duty as masters."- Genovese, p.68
D. DABNEY'S VIEW OF THE ROLE OF
WOMEN IN THE RESTORATION OF THE
AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Dabney, who held to the Biblical, orthodox
and Reformed view of the headship of the
man in family, church and state, and of the
fnnctional subordination of woman to man in
a godly social order, did not at all believe in
the inferiority of women. In the conclusion of
his article, "The Duty of the Hour," he as-
signs them the highest of honors and respon-
sibilities:
... never before was the welfare of a people so
dependent on their mothers, wives and sisters, as
now and here. I freely declare that under God my
chief hope for my prostrate country is in their
women. Early in the war, when the stream of our
noblest blood began to flow so liberally in battle, I
said to an honored citizen of my State, that it was so
uniformly our best men who were made the sacrifice
there was reason to fear that the staple and pith of
the people of the South would be pemlanentiy
depreciated. His reply was: "There is no danger of
this while the women of the South are what they are.
Be assured lhe mothers will not permit the offspring
of such martyr-sires to depreciate."
But since, this river of generous blood has swelled
into a flood, What is worse, the remnant of the
survivors, few, subjugated, disheartened, almost
despairing and, alas, dishonored, because they have
not disdained life, on such terms as are left us; are
subjected to every influence from without, which can
be malign311tiy devised to sap the foundations of their
manhood and degrade them into fit materials for
slaves. If our women do not sustain them they will
sink. Unless the spirits which rule and cheer their
homes can reanimate tileir self-respect, confirm their
resolve, and sustain their personal honor, tiley will at
length become tile base serfs their enemies desire.
Outside their homes, everything conspires to depress,
to tempt, to seduce them. - Only within their
homes is there, beneath the skies, one ray of light or
warmth to prevent their freezing into despair.
THERE, in your homes, is your domain. There
YOU rule with the scepter of affection, and not our
conquerors. We beseech you, wield that gentle
empire in behalf ofthe principles, the patriotism, tile
religion, which we inllerited from our mothers. Teach
our ruder sex that only by a deathless love to these
can woman's dear love be deserved or won. Him
who is ttue to these crown with your favor. Let the
wretch who betrays them be exiled forever from the
paradise of your 31ms. Then shall we be saved,
saved from a degradation fouler than tile grave. Be
it yours to nurse with more tilan a vestal's watchful-
ness, the sacred flame of our virtue now so smoth-
ered. Your task is unobtrusive; it is performed in th'e
privacy of home, and by the gentle touches of daily
love. But it is the noblest work which mortal can
perform, for it furnishes the polished stones, with
which the temple of our liberties must be repaired.
- Such is your work; the home and fireside are the
scenes of your indusiry. But the materials which you
shape are the souls of men, which are to compose
the fabric of our church and state. The politician, the
professional man, is but the cheap, rule, day laborer, '
who moves and lifts the finished block to its place.
You are the true artists, who endue it with fitness and
beauty; and therefore yours is the nobler task.-
DISCUSSIONS, VoL IV, pp. 120-122
E. DABNEY'S VIEW OF LIBERTY AND
EQUALITY IN A SOCIAL ORDER
To Dabney the civil government created
by the Constitntion was "a federation of
sovereign States. - By their several and
sovereign acts they created a central feder-
ated government, with limited powers strictly
defined, and deputed to this common-agent
certain powers over their own citizens, to be
impartially exercised for the eqnal behoof of
all the partners. All other powers , including
that of judging and redressing vital infractious
of this federal compact, they jealously and
expressly reserved to themselves or to their
people. To the outside world they were to be: 1'
one, to each other they were to be still eqnaiS
and independent partners. Each State mnsi
be a republic ... The functions of the general
government were to be few and defined, its
expenditures modest, and its burdens in time
of peace light. - But this century has seen
all this reversed; and conditions of human
society have grown up, which make the
system of our free forefathers obviously
October/November, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - 23
impracticable in the future. And this is so,
not because the old forms were not good
enough for this day, but becau.se they. Were
too good for it."" "The New Soutlr,"DIS-
CUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. 5
He held to these old political principles so
tenaciously because he believed they com-
prised the poliHcai model ordered by the
Word of God. In his article on "Anti-Biblical
Theories of Rights," he wrote: "So far as
God gave to the chosen people a political
form, the one which He preferred was a
confederation of little repu.blican bodies
represented by their elderships. (Exodus
18:25,26; Exodus 3:16; Numbers 1l:16, 17;
Numbers 32:20-27)."4- DISCUSSIONS, Vol.
III,p.498
He goes on i,n his article on "The New
South" to poi!)t out what those adverse
conditions are. The first in importance and
impact is "the silent substitution, ,under the
same nomenclature, of another theory of
human tights, in contrast with, and hostile to,
that of our ,fathers. Those wise men did
indeed believe in a certain equality; but it
was that which the British constitution
(whose principles they inherited) was wont to
express by the maxim: that every British
citizen ' was equal before the law.' The
particular franchises of the peer and the
peasant were very unequal, bu.Un this impor-
tant respect the two men were 'equ.al before
the law,' that the peasant's smaller fran- ,
chises were protected by the same law, which
shielded the peer ' s larger one. This is the
equality of the golden rule, the equality of
that Bible which ordained the constitution of
human society out of superiors, inferiors and
equals; the equ.ality of the inspired Job (ch.
31:13-(5) who in the very act of asserting his
right to his slave, added: Did not He that
made me make him? If I did despise the
cause of my man-servant 'or my maid-
servant when they contended with me,
what then shaH I do when God riseth up?
This is the equality which is thoroughly
consistent with that wide diversity of natural
capacities, virtues, station, sex, inherited
possessions, which inexorable faci'discloses
everywhere and by means of which social
organization is possible. But in place of
this .. . our modern politician now teaches,
under the same name, the equality of the
Jacobin, of the' Sans culotte,' which absu.rdly
claims for every human the same specific
powers and rights. Yes, your Greeley
teaches ... the very doctrine of the frantic
Leveller Lilburn, whose book these great
English RepublicanS caused (not your tyranni-
cal Stuart but the comnlOnwealth's men) to
be burned in London by the common hang-
man!
"Our fathers valued liberty, but the liberty
for which they contended was each person;s
privilege to do those things and ,those only to
which God's Law and Providence gave him a
moral right. The liberty of nature which your
modern asserts is absolute license: the
privilege of doing whatever a corrupt will
craves, except as this license is curbed by a
voluntary 'social contract'. The fathers of
our country could have adopted the subliJ1le
' words ... . LexRex: The' Law is king. - But
now, by this new Republicanism, tpe supreme
law is the will or caprice of what happens to
be the major mob, the suggestion of the
demagogue who is most artful to seduce."-
DI.SCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, pp. 5ff. With these '
words he was challenging the form of civil
government called democracy. '
, '
In 1888, Dabney returned fire on "a .new
attack uppn God's IIoly Word." The new .
eilemy upon which pe fired was named in the
missile he fired upon them, "Anti-Biblical
Theories of Rights," published in DISCUS-
SIONS, Vol. III. These new theories to
Americans originated with the Jacobites, i. e.,
the French radicals who instigated the bloody
French Revolution of 1789 to expunge Chris-
tianity from France.
Because, for Dabney, the Bible set forth
as a model for nations a representative
repUblic ratiler than, a levelling democracy,
any theory of human tights must be consis-
tent with these divinely revealed teachings.
God has ordered in human society superiors,
inferiors and equals, as the Westminster
Larger and Shorter .Catechisms teach in their
exposition oHhe Fifth Commandment, "mak- '
ing the household represented by the parent
and master the integral unit of the social
24 - THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon - OctliberlNlivember, 2000
fabric, assigning to each order, higher or
lower, its rule or subordination under the
distributive equity of the law. On the other
hand, it protected each order in its legal
privileges, and prohibited oppression and
injustice as to all."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III,
pp. 498-499. And, therefore, Dabney reiter-
ates time and again that Scriptural social
ethics defines equality as "equality before the
law," as we have explained ahove.
Dabney showed that Job understood "this
maxim of Bible republicanism" in chapter
31:13,14, as did the Apostle Paul, in Eph-
esians 6:9 and Colossians 4: 1. 5 In those texts,
said Dabney, masters, kurioi, are to give to
their servants , douloi, those things that are
just and equal. Both texts teach the same
doctrine: "On the one hand, they assert the
relation of superior and inferior, witb their
unequal franchises; on the other band, tbey
assert in tbe same breath tbe equal moral
obligation of botb as bearing the common
relation to the one divine Maker and Judge.
The radical social theory asserts, under the
same name, a totally different doctrine; its
maxim is 'all men are born free and equal.'
It supposes the social fabric constituted of
individuals naturally absolute and sovereign
as its integers, and tbis by some sort of social
contract, in entering whicb individual men act
with a freedom equally complete as to God
aud each otber. It defines each one's natural
liberty as freedom to do whatever he wishes,
and his civilliberty ... as that remainder of his
natural prerogative not surrendered to the
social contract. 6 - So widespread and
profound is this confusion of thought, tbat the
majority of American people and of their
teachers practically know and bold no other
theory than the Jacobin one. They assume,
as a matter of COllrse, that it is this tbeory
which is the firm logical basis of constitu-
tional government; whereas history and
science show that it is a fatal heresy of
thought, which uproots every possible founda-
tion of just freedom, and grounds only the
most ruthless despotism. But none the less is
this the passionate belief of millions, for the
sake of which they are willing to assail tbe
Bible itself."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. Ill, p. 500
Why did Dabney think that adopting a
Jacobin view of liberty, equality and human
rights would require "surrendering the inspi-
ration [and divine authority] of the Scriptures
to these assaults of a social science so-
called?"- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III, p. 503.
The answer to that question is this: the Bible
denies everyone of the corollaries of the
Jacobin doctrine, "and that with a fatal
distinctness which no honest exposition can
evade."- p. 503. He then proceeds, point by
point, with the use of sound Biblical exegesis,
to show bow the Bible refutes the humanist
theory of rights'. His points are as follows:
First, [the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's
sin to the human race], the humanistic view ofrights
repudiates the Biblical doctrine of the imputation of
sin from Adam to the race and "of the consequences
of moral conduct from one person to another as
irrational and unjust."- p. 503. Dabney then refers to
Genesis 3:16, ITimothy2:llf, Genesis 9:252-27,
Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 25:19 and Matthew
23:32-36 to prove his point
Second, [the fact that God distributes franchises
and fortunes unequally in the Hebrew Republic], the
Bible discards the view tbat "no privilege or franchise
enjoyed by some adults in tbe state can be justly
withheld from any other order of adults ... for God
distributed the franchises unequally in the Hebrew
commonwealth."- p. 504. He refers to Deuteronomy
21:15,16,Exodus 18:21, Joshua 22: 14, I Peter 2: 13,
Romans 13:7.)
Third, [powers and privileges are distributed by
God among men sovereignly and unequally], the
humanist denounces "not only oppressive inequalities,
but every difference in the distribution of powers and
privileges. Now, the Scriptures recognize and ordain
such distribution ... Such is the stubborn fact."- p. 505.
He then refers his readers to Numbers 18:22,23,
Hebrews 7:13,14, Leviticus 21:13,141, 25:42-47,
Exodus 17:16, Deuteronomy 23:3-8. (He also shows
how Galatians 3:28 does not contradict this Biblical
teaching.)
Fourth, [the Hebrew Republic was not founded
on universal suffrage], according to the Bible, "God's
commonwealth was not founded on universal suf-
frage. That He rejected the Jacobinical principle is
plain from the history of the Gibeonites," who were
given the freedom to own homes, who were pro-
tected in certain rights, who were not slaves, and yet
they were not fully enfranchised citizens, Joshua
October/November, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - 25
9:27. These Gibeonites, however law-abiding, did not
enjoy equality with the young Israelites, "which the
J acobin theory demands indiscriminately as the
inalienable right of all. And to mal<e the matter
worse, the Scripture declares that this disqualification
descended by imputation from the goilt of the first
generation's paganism and fraud upon Joshua.
Fifth, [in human society God has ordained the
functional subordination of women to men, but not
implying woman's inferiority to man], Dabney saw
the emergence of "women's rights" and ''women's
suffrage" as corollaries of the humanistic theory.
"Our purpose here is not to debate the wisdom or
equity of that claim, but to show what God thinks of
it."- p. 507. He showed that both the Old Testament
and New Testament teach the functional subordina-
tion of women to men in a godly social order, but not
the inferiority of women to men, Numbers 27:8, I
Corinthians 11:3, 14 :34, Ephesians 5 :22-24, I Timothy
2:11,12, I Timothy 5:14, Titos 2:4,5, 1 Peter 3:1,5,6.
Sixth, [according to the O.T. and the N.T. domes-
tic slavery is lawful], Dabney was tenacious in his
belief that Scripture teaches the lawfulness of
domestic slavery, while Jacobinism repudiates it. He
summarizes the case which he made thoroughly in
THE DEFENSE OF VIRGINIA AND THE
SOU1H: (1). God predicted the rise of domestic
bondage as the penalty and remedy for the bad
morals of those subjected to it, Genesis 9:25; (2). God
protects property in slaves as any other kind of
property in the Decalogoe, Exodus 20:17; (3).
Numerous slaves were bestowed on Abraham as
marks of God's favor, Genesis 24:35; (4). The
relation of master and slave was sanctified by the
sacrament of circumcision/baptism which was
received by the slave on the basis of his master's
faith, Genesis 17:27; (5). The Angel of the Covenant
himself remanded a fugitive slave to her mistress, but
later assisted her in her journey when she was legally
manumitted, Genesis 21:17-21; (6). The civillaws of
Moses expressly allowed Hebrew citizens to bny and
own pagans as life-long and hereditary slaves,
Leviticus 25 :44-46; (7). Biblical Law declares that
the involuntary labor of slaves is the property of their
masters. "The New Testament left the institution
with precisely the same sanction as the Old. - It is
vain to advance the theory ... that the New Testament
corrected and amended whatever was harsh or
barbaric in the Old. For, in the first pia"e, i ritterly
deny the assertion. The New Testament left the
rehltion of master and bondman just where Moses
placed it. And, in the second place, Jesus and His
apostles expressly goarantee the inspiration of
Moses, without any reservation ... so that they have
embarked their credit as divine and infallible teachers
along with that of Moses. Both must stand or fall
together. - Let every man make up his mind
honestly either to reject the Bible as a fable, and thus
preserve his Jacobin humanitarianism, or frankly to
surrender the latter in order to retain the gospel."-
pp.510-511
Dabney then presents the New Testament texts
endorsing slavery as defined by Moses: Ephesians
6:9, Colossians 4:1, 3:22-25, Luke 7:2-9, Acts
10:34,35, Luke 17:7-10, Luke 15:19, I Peter 2: 18,19, I
Timothy 6:1,2, Philemon If, I Timothy 6:3-5. ' 'The
honest student, then, of the New Testament can
make nothing less of its teachings on this point than
that domestic slavery, as defined in God's word, and
practiced in the milnner enjoined in the Epistles, is
still a lawful relation under the neW dispensation as
well as under the old. ", - DISCUSSIONS, Vol. ill, p.
512
Dabney concludes his critique of the "anti-
Biblical theories of rights," so prevalent in
his day and ours, with these words: "Since
the opinions and practices hostile to the
Scriptures are so pr.otean, so subtle, and so
widely diffused, there is no chance for a
successful defense of the truth except in
uncompromising resistance to the beginnings
of error; to parley is to be defeated. -
There is but one safe position for the sacra-
mental host [i.e., the church]: to stand on
the whole Scripture, and refuse to concede a
. single point."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III, p.
520
In his article "The Attractions of Popery,"
DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, pp. 542, Dabney
clearly distinguishes between an anti-Chris-
tian view of rights and the Christian view and
then shows how thoroughly Americans by
1894 had rejected the Christian view for the
anti-Christian view:
A hundred years ago French atheism gave the
world the Jacobin tbeory of political rights. The Bible
had been teaching mankind for three thousand years
the great doctrine of men's moral equality before the
univernru. father, the great basis of all free, just and
truly republican forms of civil society. Atheism now
travestied this true doctrine by her mortal heresy of
26 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - October/November, 2000
the absolute equality of men, asserting that every
human being is naturally and inalienably entitled to
every right, power, and prerogative in civil society
which is allowed to any man or any class.
The Bible taught a liberty which consists in each
man's unhindered privilege of having and doingjnst
those things, and no otllers, to which he is rationally
and morally entitled. Jacobinism taught the liberty of
Iicense---every man's natnral right to indulge his own
absolute will; and it set up this fiendish caricatnre as
the object of sacred worship for mankind. Now,
democratic Protestantism in these United States has
become so ignorant, so superficial and wilful, tllat it
confounds the true republicanism with this deadly
heresy of Jacobinism. It has ceased to know a
difference. Hence, when the atheistic doctrine
begins to bear its natural fruit oflicense, insubordina-
tion, commllUism and anarchy, this bastard demo-
ctatic Protestantism does not know how to rebuke
them. - p. 542
F. DABNEY'S VIEW OF ECONOMICS
Dabney wrote several articles on eco-
nomic issues, but his most famous oue, which
has been reprinted in boolelet form in the late
twentieth century, is "Principles of Christian
Economy," DISCUSSIONS, Vol. I, pp. If. In
this article he sets forth the basic elements of
a Biblical and Christian understanding of
economics. The foundational presupposition
of Christian economics is that "our property
is purely a trust fund, and the whole of it is
to be used for the benefit of the owner.
There is to be no division at all. There is to
be no line drawn between God's portion and
our portion. All is God' s, and all is to be
employed for him. Here is the only true and
safe starting-point for deducing our practical
rules of Christian expenditure. The idea of a
stewardship is a correct illustration of the
nature of the tenure by which we hold our
possessions. - A steward is one who
manages property which does not belong to
him. - But the Scripture likens our relation
to God to one far closer and stricter than the
steward's. We are ourselves God's property.
We belong to Him, body and soul, just as truly
as the riches which He has lent us."- p. 2
He tben delineates the specific implications of this
presupposition: (1). ''It is proper that we should
employ so much of God's property as is necessary in
our own sustenance. - This expenditure is most
strictly an expenditure in God's service, since it
results in worle done for Him."- p. 4. (2). "it is right
to employ a part of our Master's possessions in
sustaining and rearing the families which He has
committed 10 us."- p. 5. (3). "A part ofllie posses-
sions entrusted 10 us may be rightfully employed in
making a reasonable provision for ourselves and
those dependent on us against the contingencies of
the futnre."- p. 6. (4). "Those who have any prop-
erty remaining after these three lawful deductions are
made are required obviously, by our principles, to use
it in doing good. - Our duty is not done till we have
conscientiously selected that object by which our
expenditure will do the highest honor to God and good
to His creatures that are within our reach."- p. 8
G. DABNEY' S VIEW OF THE FUTURE
Dabney was emotionally defeated becanse
of the devastation of the South and of her
Christendom by tbe War Between the
States' He saw tbe war as America' s bloody
French Revolution aimed at destroying a
Christian moral and social order in this land
and the Reconstruction that followed as
America's Reign of Terror, similar to the one
that followed the French Revolution of 1789.
The gradual betrayal of the South's distinc-
tive Christian beritage by many southerners
also was a discouragement to him. Never-
theless, as most Southern Presbyterians at
the time, he still believed in the triumph of
Christian truth and the kingdom of God in
history before the second coming of Cbrist
and the day of resurrection when all tbese
triumphs in time will be consummated, I
Corinthians 15:24f. He understood that a
complete worldview has a futureview, and the
futureview of a Christian worldview must be
an optimistic, victory-oriented one. Further-
more, how one views the future will deter-
mine how he will face the present witb its
trials and struggles and apparent set-backs
for God's people.
In faithfulness to his commitment to the
Westminster Standards, especially to Larger
Catechism Questiou 191, he taught his theo-
logical students at Union Seminary that
before tbe second coming of Christ several
other events must occur because they are
prophesied in the Bible: (1). The overthrow
October/November, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - 27
of the Antichrist, which to Dabney meant the
collapse and removal of the Roman Catholic
papacy from human society; (2). The procla-
mation of the gospel to all nations and the
embracing of that gospel by the world's
nations, peoples and families; (3) . The gen-
eral triumph of Christianity over all false
religions in all the world's nations; and (4).
The conversion of the Jews to faith in Christ
and their restoration to the Christian
Church.! For those of you who do not
recognize this position, it is called "post-
millennialism" and was the prevalent escha-
tology in the Old South. "
Therefore, even in the midst of the devas-
tation of reconstruction in the South, Dabney
could declare triumphantlyI':
Centuries hence, if man shall continue in his
present state so 10rig, when the c\llTent theories of
unbelief shall have been consigned to that limbus
where polytheism and the Ptolemaic astronomy,
alchemy, andjudicial astrology lie contemned, the
servants of the Cross will be winning larger and yet
larger victories for Christ, with the same Gospel
which was preached by Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Isaiah, Paul, Augustine and Calvin.- ''Nature
Cannot Revolutionize Nature," (1873) in DISCUS-
SIONS, Vol. lV, p. 475
Conclusion
Every educated Southern Christian should
read Dabney's masterful, insightful and
prophetic lecture delivered at the Commence-
ment of Hampden Sidney College, June 15,
1882, entitled, "The New South," in DISCUS- '
SIONS, Vol. IV, pp. Iff, if he wants to under-
stand how we have come to be where we are
today. I leave you with his words of counsel
and exhortation to the "young gentlemen" he
was addreSSing, for his counsei is as perti-
nent today as it was then, if not more so.
First, because "the principles of truth and .
'righteousness are as eternal as their divine
Legislator," (p. 16), they must be upheld and
defended and applied in every age, regardless
of the cost. "Here, in one word, is the safe
pole-star for the 'New South;' let them adopt
the Scriptural politics ... that righteousness
' } ' __ o '
exalteth a nation, but slu is a reproach to
any people. That wisdom and knowledge
shall be the stability of the times, and
strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord
is His treasure. That he that walketh
righteously and speaketh uprightly; .he
, that despiseth the gain of oppressions,
that shaketh his' hands from holding
bribes, that stoppeth his ears from he.ar-
ing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
beholdiug evil; he shall dwell On high; his
place of defense shall be the munitions of
rocks.
Second, do not succumb to the temptation
to BECOME LIKE YOUR CONQUERORS,
in order to acquire popularity, ease and
influence in their culture. Beware of making
wealth and materialism your idol. "If they
[wealth and possessions] be pursued as an
end instead of a means, they become your
ruin instead of your deliverance. - The
only sure wealth of the State is in cultured,
heroic men, who intelligently know their duty
and are calmly prepared to sacrifice all else,
including life, to maintain the right."- p. 17f
Third, do not give in to the temptation to
wrap yourself "like a hermit in the folds of
. his own self-respect. - How plausible the
argument which says: Let those who have by
fraud or force usurped the helm bear the
responsibility of wrecking the ship. But the
error of this resort is that it neglects the
claims of patriotism and robs the State, in the
moment of her need, of the virtues and ,
faculties most essential to her deliverance.
- The alternative temptation is yet more
seductive to the more supple temperament.
This is to exaggerate and pervert the pleas of
acquiescence in the inevitable; to cry, 'Oh
there is no use nor sense in contending
against fate,' and on this argument to act the
trimmer and turncoat. How much easier is
this, to the pliable temper? ~ Ah, how
tiresome is it to such a man to hold up, the
standard of principle whenit is unsustained
by the breeze of popularity! Poor soul, how
his arms ache, and how do they crave rest in
the arms of the corrupt majority. But even
by the light of that policy .. .it would be
better ... still to cleave to moral consistency
and principle. - It is the men who have
convictIons andwho cleave lo them, who are
the article in demand; in demand even with
political adversaries, who, .'themselves, have
28 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon - October/November, 2000
no principles ."- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, pp.
19-20
Fourth, regardless of the heated animosity
of an anti-Christian culture, we must see to it
that we preserve alJ that is true in the prin-
ciples or ennobling in the example of the
Christian South. We are told on every hand
to bury the past, for the issues of the 1860's
are antiquated and of no practical signifi-
cance today. Let us forget the passions of
the past, we are told. Let us concern our-
selves with the issues of today. But Dabney
rejoins: "Be sure that the former issues are
realJy dead before you bury them! There are
issues which cannot die without the death of
the people, of their honor, their civilization
and their greatness. Take care that you do
not bury too much, while burying the dead
past... Will you bury true history whose years
are those of the God of Truth?"- DISCUS-
SIONS, Vol. IV, pp. 20-21
Fifth, we must not alJow "the dominant
patty to teach [our children] a perverted
history of the past contests. This is a mis-
take of which you are in imminent peril. With
all the astute activity of their race, our con-
querors strain every nerve to preoccupy the
ears of all America with the false version of
affairs which suits the purposes of their
usurpatioJ;l. With a gigantic sweep of men-
dacity, this literature aims to falsify or mis-
represent everything; the very facts of his-
tory, the principles of the former Constitution
as admitted in the days of freedom by all
statesmen of all parties; the characters and
motives of our patriots; the purposes of
parties, its very essential names of rights and
virtues aJ;ld vices. The whole sway of their
commercial and political ascendancy is
exerted to fill the South with this false litera-
ture. Its sheets come up, like the frogs of
. Egypt, into our houses, our bed chambers, our
very kneading troughs. Now, against this
deluge of perversions I solemnly warn young
men of the South ... - If you would not be
mere blunderers iJ;l your new constructions,
then you must understand aright the strncture
of those recent actions on which they must
found themselves. You will seek to learn
them, not from a Greeley or a Henry Wilson,
but from a Stephens and a Davis. While you
do not allow your judgments to be hood-
winked by even the possible exaggerations of
our own patriots, still less will you yield your
minds to the malignant fables of those parti-
sans who think they can construct history as
unscrupulously as a political ring. Our age
presents the strange instance of a numerous
party, who think they can circumvent the
resistless forces of truth by systematically
misnaming facts and fallacies, who are
deliberately building a whole system of
empire on the substitution of light for dark-
ness and darkness for light, of good for evil
and evil for good ... - If you wish to be
buried deeper than thrice buried Troy beueath
the final mountains of both defeat and shame
go with these architects of detraction. They'
are but arraying themselves against that
unchangeable God who has said: the lying
tongue is but for a moment, but the lip of
trutb shall be established forever."-
DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, pp. 21-22. Verses
such as these formed the basis for Dabney's
optimism about the future. Although he had
little hope for the short-run, he was confident
that in the long-run the vision and life of truth
would prevail.
I cannot lay Dabney down without issuing
to you his earnest plea pressing you to com-
mit your ways to God through Christ : "On
whom will you call, you who have neglected
your Savior, when you pass down into this
valley of great darkness; when the inexorable
veil begins to descend, shutting out human
help and sympathy from your despairing eyes;
when death thrusts out your wretched soul
from its abused tenement; when you launch
forth into the void immense, a naked, shiver-
ing ghost; when you stand before the great
white throne? Can you face those horrors
alone? How will you endure a beggared,
undone eternity? Can on Christ, then, today,
in repentance and faith, in order that you may
be entitled to call upon Him in the hour of
your extremity. Own Him now as your Lord,
that He may confess you then as His
people."- Quoted in THE JOURNAL OF
CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION, Vol.
XIII, No.2, 1994, p. 347
As J. H. Rice, Jr., spoke of his death,
"StonewalJ Jackson' s chief of staff has
October/November, 2000 - THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon - 29
reported for duty at Headquarters on the
shining plains of Heaven!." And in the trib-
ute Dr. S. Taylor Martin made of Dabney on
January 20, .1898, (after Dabn.ey's death on
January 2), he said: "The rapidly vanishing
remnant of the old Confederacy mourns the
loss of one of the ablest defenders of acaus.e
as true and principles as Just as any for
which a svwrd was ever drawn or the sacri-
fice of human life every made. The Church .
of God of all denominations has lost the
labors of amigp.ty champion, who with un-
swerving fidelity advanced and defended
these fundamental truths without which there
could.be no. true church,.no religion, no
gospel of salvation, no glad tidings, no hope
for lost and ruined man."l4
pray that Dabney, though dead,
will continue to speak the truth to coming
generations, and that they will listen. Pray
for men of Dabney' s caliber to fill the void he
left a century ago, whiCh void reinail;ls U,IJ.-
filled.
May we, as Robert L. Dabney, die uncon-
quered by the world, and in all our thinking
and living stand on the Word of God like a
stonewall!
So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken
The light he .leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
I Notic;e in this section Dabney's use of Old Testament case-
laws llsapplicable today. He did not hesitate to make the Hebrew
Republic the political-social model for nations today_ For" a
thorough discWlsion on this subject see Greg Bahnsen's books, BY
THIS STANDARD and NO OTHER STANDARD.
1 Note Dabney's use o{ the. Olc;l Testament to defend his view
on the" function of civil government. especially in his Scriptural
references regarding 'capital punishinent.
3 For DabneY's extensive Biblical exposition on slavery see his
book, A DEFENSE OF VIRGINIA AND THE SOUTH,
(Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1977 reprint, flfst
published in I 867).
" Dabney:s continued use_ of Old Testament as a
socio,.pOlitical model' for nations today.
s Ephesians 6:5-9: Slaves, be obedient to those who are
your masters according to the flesh; with and trem_
bling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Cbrjst;Dot by
way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ,
doing the will of God from the beart. With,eood will
render service, as to the Lord, and not 'to men ... knowing
that whatever eood thine each one does, tbis he will receive
back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And, do
the same things_ to them', and elve I:lP threatening, knQwing.
that both their Master and yours is i. beaven, and there is
DO partiality with Him. Colossians 4:1: Masters, arant to
your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that too have
a Master in heaven. ' '
6 "Consequently the theory teaches _ that exactly the same
surrender must be exacted of each olie under this social contract,
whence individual is inalienably entitled to -1,l11 the same
franchises an,d functions in society as well as to his moral equality;
so that it is a natural iniquity to withhold from any adult person by
law any prerogative which is legally conferred on any other
member in society. The equality must be mechanical as well as
, moral, else the society is charged with natural injustice."- Dabney.
DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III. p. 500
7 In the_ following quote, notice that Dabney continues to use
Old Testament Israel as a model for nations today.
In \;is book. A CONSUMING FIRE: THE FALL OF THE
CONFEDERACY IN THE MIND OF TIlE WHITE CIIRISTIAN
SOUTH, Eugene D. Genovese' writes of the "impressive scholarly
efforts" of men like Robert L. Dabney and -James iI. Thornwell to
"ground slavery in Scripture." - p. 97
, "When. the States of America sUrr!!ndored at
Appomatox, the last nation of the order fell. , So" because:
historians like to have set dates 00. which to hang their bats, we
may say the first Christendom dled there, in 1865. But the idea of
Christendo'm-has not passed away. remains. -
This means there will be a second Christendom, and if necessary,
then a third. - Jesus did not teach us to pray, saying, <Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done' in heaven if-_and 'i'fhen we g"et
there.' In His commission He told us to disciple nations.
Empowered by the Spirit, this is don'e with the of
and the' rigorous teaching of the Word. IN oUr prayers" Jesus told
us to pray for the heavenly, commonwealth to have an. earthly
manifestation. In short, we are pray for Christendom. , These
prayers will be answl.ll'ed, so tbis means that the' South will rise
again. But this is n_ot said with any regional or national jingoistic
fervor. So will New England rise again. So will Scotland. So will
the Netherlands. And as the gospel comes to the uttermost
regions for the first time, savage tribes will attend His Word. The
earth is the Lord's and He will have"it.". Douglas Jones ancl
Douglas Wi},oo. ANGELS I;N THE ARCHITECTURE: A
PROTESTANT VISION FOR 'MIDDLE EARTIl. (Moscow, Idaho:
Canon Press. 1998), pp. 203205 . .
" LECTIJRES IN SYSTEMAl'IC THEOLOGY, p. 838.
II For a history post.millenniaiism The Prima 'Facie
Acceptability of Postmillennialism," in, Greg Bahnsen's book,
VlCTORY IN JESUS: TIlE BRlGIIT HOPE OF POSThULLEN-
NIALISM, (Texarkana,' ARK:' Covenant Media Press, 1999), pp: "
53f1. .
12 These words were written in. 1873. In 1871 Dabneyehded
his paper, "f.- Caution Against'
similar words: "Centuries bence, ,man shall continue in his
preseot So long, when these current theOries of unbelief shall
have been consigned, by a trucr secular science, to that limbus
where qa.e astronomy, alc.hemy and judicial astrology, lie;
conteruned, the servants of the Cross will be winning target, and .
yet larger victories for Christ, with 'th"e sattie -old doctrines
preached by Isaiah, by St. Paul,. by Augustine, . by Knox, .by
Davies:'- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. III, p. 136
13 ' 1N MEMORIAM, "A Lover of the South" by I.H. Rico, Jr.
14 IN MEMORIAM. I'A Tribute" by S. Taylor Martin," p. 39
30 -.THE (:OUNSEL ofChalcedon October/November, 2000