(Background Music: Appalachian Spring)

I will life up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon they right hand.
The sun shall not smite three by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve they going out and they coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

And it is the help of the Lord that is in these hills that our story is about. For these quiet, peaceful hills have seen much. They have seen the centuries roll by in silent procession. They have felt the deer and bear wear faint trails across their slopes. In their valleys they have seen the Indian build his campfires.
(Settlers enter scene)
These hills saw the white man come across the mountains to the east, searching for ground on which to build new faiths, new hopes, and new houses of worship. They watched him fell trees, hew logs, build homes. They saw him clear a patch of land and plant corn for bread. They felt the need of men to break new frontiers, strengthening themselves in the help of the Lord that is in these hills.
Just over the hill on which you stand they saw men, who came later, open the earth and lift out iron ore. They saw the ore carried up the road before us to old Laurel Forge. In that crude foundry cannon balls were molded and were carried by flat boat on Harpeth River to the Cumberland and the Ohio and the Mississippi and were fired in the Battle of New Orleans. These hills, these sacred hills on which you stand, have seen, have heard, have felt the birth of a new church.
(McAdow family separates from settlers and moves toward log house)
My name is Samuel McAdow. I was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1760, the youngest of 8 children. I was the protege of a Presbyterian minister who had seen to my education and I was graduated with honors from Mecklenberg College after which I entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1799, soon after the death of my first wife, several neighbors and I decided to travel the long journey across the Smokies and the Southern Appalachians to middle Tenenssee.
I left the party in East Tennessee, near Knoxville, and spent the summer, serving as supply pastor of a Presbyterian Church.
In the Spring I came to middle Tennessee, preaching over a wide area.
A little later I began preaching at Rock Bridge Church in Christian County, Kentucky, and there I met Hanna Cope who was to become my new wife.
We married and decided to move to Dickson County, Tennessee.
In July 180 we arrived in this valley and established our home. It was this comfortable log house that you see and which was destined to fulfill a plan of the Lord's contained in these hills surrounding you.
The years of travel and exposure had left their mark on me, and here I established a school and tried to conserve my health. But still, every Sunday found me preaching somewhere.
(Settlers have exited to right)
This "Cumberland Country," consisting of the portions of Kentucky and Tennessee lying West of the Cumberland Mountains between the Green and Tennessee Rivers was, as it is today, one of the most beautiful and most productive portions of the United States. The first white settlers came in 1780. In the next 3 decades thousands of brave and enterprising citizens of Virginia and North Carolina immigrated to the land which they believed "flowed with milk and honey."
But while the land was rich, the people in one sense, were very poor, for they had forgotten the promise in the best of all books which says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
(Settlers enter from right, in disorganized movement, typify evil by frivolity of action.)
Historians record that a decided majority of the people were reputed to be infidels, and as infidelity is the prolific parent of vice, it was not surprising to find the whole country was remarkable for vice and dissipation. A melancholy spectacle is presented to our view. We behold infidelity and vice combined abounding in the land, while the Church, that should have been busily erecting barriers to arrest its progress, was either benumbed by lethargy or wasting its strength in frivolous disputes.
(Enter anti-revival ministers)
The elder members of the clergy were few and past their prime. They had been useful in gathering the people into congregations, and introducing the rudiments of church order, but the altered times demanded a more active kind of labor. Accustomed to a fixed routine, they could not move out of it. They were a stately and dignified set of men, the reserve of whose manners had the effect of keeping people at a distance, and checking familiarity.
The doctrine of the Presbyterian Church, with its fatalism, offered little hope or incentive. Its ministers could offer only its message, which said: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. Those predestined unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to the good pleasure of his will, hath been chosen unto everlasting glory–and that without any foresight or action of man's faith or good works or perseverance–all to the glory of his gracious grace. The rest of mankind, God was pleased to pass by and ordain them to dishonor and wrath, all to the praise of his glorious justice."
That was the message that could not heal this sin-sick land.
It was not the will of God, however, that such a country should be so completely under the influence of Satan and helpless before such a doctrine.
(Enter King, Ewing and Ephraim McLean)
He opened the windows of Heaven and blessed the land with THE MIRACLE OF 1800!
(Enter settlers, forming three groups–Revival ministers preach to them)
In May 1797 at Gasper River congregation, in Kentucky; in September 1798 at Muddy River congregation; in July 1799 at Red River congregation, (both also in Kentucky)–the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the people.
(Enter children)
With the force of a sudden wind come to a hushed world, this mysterious force of God came–unbidden. Men, women and children felt the conviction of sin and cried for mercy.
In the next few years, throughout the Cumberland Country, whole families came from great distances in their wagons to churches prepared to camp for several days.
They came confessing their sins, abject in their penitence, imploring ministerial leadership in their search for spiritual peace.
Many of the staid, fatalistic ministers of the Presbyterian Church were at a complete loss. They mistook Pentecost for Bedlam.
(Settlers assemble together)
The second stage of the MIRACLE OF 1800 was marked by a divine call to the ministry reaching the hearts of many young men in the area. God was providing shepherds for the thousands he had brought into his fold.
(King and Ewing take Ephraim McLean to anti-revival ministers)
But the Synod of Kentucky–in the only instance in Presbyterian history when the absolute right of a presbytery to judge its own candidates for ordination was flaunted–denied ordination to these divinely called young men because they lacked seminary training, impossible for them to acquire in this primitive frontier and unnecessary in telling the simple story of "Whosoever Will" to unlettered, but soul-starved people of the day and age.
(Anti-revival ministers shake their heads and turn their backs)
At the same time the Synod castigated those of its ministers who had participated in the Great Revival and who felt they could no longer preach a doctrine of fatalism.
(People gather in small groups, dismayed–and slowly exit right)
Four long years were spent in church courts and before commissions, in an effort to resolve the differences. Ministers who belonged to the Revival Party sought to get the Presbytery and the Synod to let them preach as their consciences dictated. They had long since decided the question whether it was "better to obey God rather than man."
The only answer they received in their efforts at reconciliation was: "Recant this heresy or be deposed."
(Ewing, King and McLean exit left)
These noble men, then, were compelled to either abandon the good work of God, or constitute a new presbytery, separate and distinct from the Synod of Kentucky.
This was a tremendous step for a group of ministers to undertake–leaving past associations and an ordered way–and launch a ministry on faith.
On the 3rd of February, 1810, two of the Revival Party leaders–FINIS EWING and SAMUEL KING–left their homes in Kentucky and brought with them a young man who had served his apprenticeship as a licentiate–EPHRAIM McLEAN–journeyed on horseback, by way of Nashville–and arrived here at my home in the late afternoon.
(Three horseback riders appear on road–cross the bridge–enter McAdow yard–dismount–hitch horses. McAdow comes from house to greet them)
They came to seek my advice as an older man, well-educated and highly respected. For, being in poor health, I had not been as active in the discussions in Kentucky as had Finis Ewing and Samuel King.
The discussion of the propriety of constituting a new independent presbytery was long. After I had heard them out, I told them "Brethren, this is a very important matter–I must have time for reflection and prayer." And after the evening meal was over and my guests, weary from their long journey, were settled for the night, I went to a secluded grove where I often went to seek God's aid.
(McAdow appears from log house and walks toward grove)
How heavy I felt the burden of that decision. Here was a great area with thousands of souls that for the first time had experienced the power of heartfelt religion–who were looking for leadership–and this small body of ministers, heavy-hearted, cast off by the church they had served since youth–yet fired with the desire to tell the story of a Christ who died for all men.
(McAdow kneels in prayer. Narration and music stops–complete silence)
There was but one question in my mind on that night as February 3rd became February 4th–and as the night wore on I entreated God to give me the answer. What is thy will, O God? What is thy will, O God?
Dawn came and with it the answer!
(McAdow returns to log house and is met by other ministers)
"God has answered the doubtful question, and I am now ready to constitute a Presbytery–and to ordain this young man before we adjourn."
And here–in this house–150 years ago–Cumberland Presbytery came into existence!
(People begin to gather at fence of log house)
In the cradle of these hills on which you stand, in a log house similar to the one before you, the searching hearts of countless souls came to gather strength and sustenance from the infant church born that fateful God-blessed day.
Under the benign sunshine of God's love and approval, offering the Whosoever Will Gospel, the growth spread like wildfire. Three years later, in 1813 a synod was formed–and in 1829, the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized.
(All look toward Chapel as symbol of the future of the new church)
Could these Founding Fathers foresee the growth and power and influence of the Church born that day? Could they know that worshipful church edifices of stone and brick would be erected from the Alleghanies to the Pacific–in China, Japan and South America–that would bear the name chosen that day? Could they dream that the Whosoever Will gospel of the new Church would influence the preaching of all denominations after a few years?
Here history was made. You stand on sacred ground. The hopeful hearts of our ancestors that were lifted to these hills for God's guidance and assurance, were filled to overflowing satisfaction with the blessing of our Lord in the forming of our church.
From this day, may the pioneer spirit and strength and courage and devotion and determination of McAdow, King and Ewing bring a new determination–under God–to make the Church they founded a power in the day in which we live.
Let us grow in the faith of our fathers, facing the challenge of today and the challenge of the future, confident in the knowledge that we will be true to this faith, this Holy Faith, ‘til death.
(Processional, led by McAdow, King and Ewing, moves in single file from log house to the Chapel, as audience sings "Faith of Our Fathers")

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