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 know about the history of America, it is imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers—both Christian and non-Christian—were heavily influenced by the Bible. 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.
The 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

(01:32):
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
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

(02:12):
preaching 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 and 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

(03:17):
visited the school, 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. When I came up, he

(03:40):
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 hearers began to

(04:01):
be melted down. Immediately after 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

(04:21):
Lord's kingdom. And 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 as 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

(04:44):
ministers of Jesus 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 oppose them strongly as persons who had turned

(05:07):
the world upside down. Well, Tenants, handful of graduates, they
were called the log Cabinmen, 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

(05:28):
were collected and the same school who were afterward to
accomplish so much good 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 obtain their training for the ministry

(05:51):
in this humble institution. They went forth preaching the Gospel
in every quarter, bringing thousands of souls to Christ, and
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

(06:13):
to this present day. 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.

(06:37):
Reverend Douglas K. 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

(06:58):
single man whose zeal for Christ moved him to mentor
young men of promise. He is the man whom we
today can rightly call the Prince of Princeton.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
And a terrific job on 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, Lee Habib here

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