This Log Cabin Led to the “Great Awakening”—Which Led to the American Revolution

On this episode of Our American Stories, if you want to understand the history of America, it's imperative to recognize the role the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers—both Christian and non-Christian—were deeply influenced by its teachings. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app. William Tennant helped father the Great Awakening
in the United Colonies, which produced the spiritual strength of

(00:30):
faith to win our liberty during the Revolution. Here to
tell this story is Robert Morgan, who's the author of
one hundred Bible verses that made America, defining moments that
shaped our enduring foundation of faith. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Reverend William Tennant Senior was born in Scotland and graduated
from the University of Edinburgh, but he was ordained into
the Church of Ireland when he migrated to the Thirteen
Colonies in seventeen sixteen. He was seeking freedom of religion
and he settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia,
and there he served as a pastor. But that's not

(01:10):
all he did. He and his wife Catherine took in
students who wanted to prepare for the ministry. These young
men became part of the Tenant home and William instructed
them in matters of theology and ministry. In seventeen twenty seven,
Tenant purchased one hundred acres of land and built a
log cabin to serve as a school for the training

(01:31):
of these pastoral students. The log cabin was across the
street from his house, and the students, which included his
four sons, studied there. It was a humble school, a
literal log cabin academy that lasted less than twenty years,
and never had more than one part time teacher, and

(01:52):
only had about twenty young men who studied there. And
yet the impact of that humble seminary on American history
is impossible to gauge. All four of his sons became
ministers who helped spur on the Great Awakening, and so
did William Tennant's other students. They all excelled in preaching

(02:13):
the gospel. One historian said, William Tennant had the rare
gift of attracting to him youth and worth and genius,
imbuing them with his healthy spirit, and sending them forth
sound in the faith, blameless in life, burning with zeal
and He was unsurpassed in training them to be instructive, impressive,

(02:36):
and successful preachers. This rough building became the first Presbyterian
seminary in America, and the log Cabin became a bonfire
for the Great Awakening. Many of Tenant's students became preachers
whose sermons helped spread the great religious revival that swept
over the colonies in the years leading up to the

(02:57):
declaration of Independence. Tenants taught them the importance of preaching
personal conversion to Christ. He said that people must be
born again to go to Heaven, and that's the message
that touched the heart of the colonies. On November twenty second,
seventeen thirty nine, the celebrated evangelist George Whitfield visited the school,

(03:18):
and this is what he recorded in his journal. Set
out for where old mister Tenant lives and keeps an academy.
We came thither about twelve and found about three thousand
people gathered together in the meeting house yard, and mister
Tenant preaching to them, because we were past the appointed time.

(03:39):
When I came up, he soon stopped and sang a psalm,
and then I began to speak as the Lord gave
me utterance. At first the people seemed unaffected, but in
the midst of my discourse, the power of the Lord
Jesus came upon me, and I felt such a struggling
within myself for the people as I scarce ever felt
before the hears began to be melted down. Immediately after

(04:03):
our exercises were over, we went to old mister Tenant,
who entertained us like one of the ancient patriarchs. His
wife seemed to me like Elizabeth, and he liked Zachariace.
We had sweet communion with each other, and spent the
evening in concerting measures for promoting the Lord's kingdom. And

(04:23):
Whitfield went on to describe Tenant's log cabin like this,
the place wherein the young man's study now is a
log cabin about twenty feet long, and there is many
broad and to me it seemed to remember the school
of the old prophets, for their habitations were primitive from
this despised place. Seven or eight worthy ministers of Jesus

(04:45):
have lately been sent forth, more are almost ready to
be sent forth, and the foundation is now laying for
the instruction for many others. The devil will certainly rage
against them, but the work I am persuaded is of
God and will not come to naught. Cardinal ministers opposed
them strongly as persons who had turned the world upside down. Well,

(05:11):
Tenants handful of graduates, they were called the log cabin Men,
did turn the colonies upside down, and becoming evangelist of
the Great Awakening. One writer said, it is doubtful whether
ever before or since then lads were collected and the
same school who were afterward to accomplish so much good

(05:33):
in their own day, and to send down such streams
of blessings to unborn generations. It is absolutely startling to
glance at the list of the eminent ministers, great preachers,
the greatest in the early annals of our church, who
obtained their training for the ministry in this humble institution.

(05:54):
They went forth preaching the Gospel in every quarter, bringing
thousands of souls to Christ, building up the churches in
many regions, establishing schools and academies, and starting streams of
godly influences that flowed over the whole land, the currents
of which have not subsided even to this present day.

(06:16):
Tenant died on May sixth, seventeen forty six, at the
age of seventy three, but his graduates and supporters joined
together to establish a more permanent training school for Presbyterian
ministers in the colonies. It was called the College of
New Jersey, today known as Princeton University. Reverend Douglas K.

(06:38):
Turner wrote, the germ of this distinguishing seat of learning
Princeton is to be found in mister Tennant's seminary. In today,
when we believe everything must be large and spectacular, it's
good to remember that America was shaped, in large part
by a small school run by a single man whose

(06:59):
zeal for Christ moved him to mentor young men of promise.
He's the man whom we today can rightly call the
Prince of Princeton.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to
Robert Morgan, who's the author of one hundred Bible verses
that made America the story of William Tennant, the Prince
of Princeton. Here on Our American Stories, Lihabib here the

(07:33):
host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
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(07:55):
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