J. Gresham Machen: Where he died Is important

Posted on July 17, 2026 
Filed under History, People

Michael Horton shares this insight into the life of J. Gresham Machen –

“Already frail in health, J. Gresham Machen kept his appointment to preach in North Dakota. For someone reared in Machen’s world, the Presbyterian Church was far from being a ‘little flock,’ as Jesus described his church (Luke 12:32). It was powerful in every area of civil and social life.

From a family of Baltimore elites, Machen, born in 1881, had a Harvard Law School–trained Episcopalian father (Arthur Webster Machen) and a Presbyterian mother, Mary Jones Gresham. It was his mother who had the greater influence on his life, teaching her son Greek, Latin, and the classics as well as piano. He enjoyed regular Sunday dinners with Woodrow Wilson and his family after the morning service at Princeton’s Nassau Presbyterian Church. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition.