* This address was sent to the Free Church Congregation at Tain.—Ed.
DEAR FRIENDS,—Several months have elapsed since I last addressed you by letter. Another portion has been gone over of the space given to sinners to repent, and to believers to work out their salvation. Every day God has been speaking to us in His providences,—pleasant or painful,—calling upon us to acquaint ourselves with Him. And death has been busy, driving away the wicked in their wickedness, and introducing tried and tempest-tossed saints into the rest which remaineth for the people of God.
It was with much concern and heaviness of heart that I had to give up the hope of resuming my work among you, and that I learned that any reasonable prospect of future ability to engage in it depended on my taking entire rest for some time to come. The Lord, in denying me health and strength for labour, called upon me to “be still.” I have been using every means in my power for the restoration of my health, never having had such a sense of the blessedness of being permitted to engage in the Lord’s work, and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as I have now. These means have, I trust, in some measure, been blessed to me. I entreat a continued interest in the prayers of God’s people,—that I may be delivered from impatience of spirit, and from fainting,—and that it yet may prove to have been good for me to have been “afflicted.” Dear Friends, you enjoy the stated dispensation of word and ordinances. But, as one bound, above all others, to have you in my heart, it may not be unreasonable that I remind you, in a few sentences, of the great ends of the Gospel ministry.
The awakening of the unconverted
One of these is the awakening of the unconverted to a sense of their danger. “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” The wrath of God abides upon the unconverted, and who knows the power of that anger? How awful the thought of being exposed to the wrath of an infinite God! What a solemn earnestness becomes a ministry, which has, as its first announcement, that all are children of wrath, and as its continued announcement to those who despise the riches of the Divine goodness and mercy, that they treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath! No means, and no human instrumentality will, of themselves, avail to quicken dead souls. But would that I had been more earnest in endeavouring to “pull them out of the fire!” Oh! that the Spirit of the living God were poured out on the prayerless—the impenitent—the formalists,—that many, being pricked in their hearts, might say, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
The drawing of sinners to the Saviour
A great end of the Gospel ministry—the chief end, it may be said—is the drawing of sinners to the Saviour,—by the holding forth of His glory,—His all-sufficiency,—His fulness,—but particularly, His love!—His love to souls,—to the vile,—to sinners,—that love which is commended by His dying for them. The ministers of Christ who have known His love, and experienced its constraining power, will be often dwelling on it in their ministry, and endeavouring to display its unsearchable riches. I have reason to abhor myself for my cold and unworthy handling of this blessed subject. The Lord shew me, and take away this my sin; and oh! that those who are enemies to the cross of Christ were brought under the power of His love, and they would be enemies no more,—and that those who are seeking rest and finding none, and perhaps, ready to sink under a sense of their guilt and of their unbelief, were brought to see this love in its freeness, and to put their trust under His shadow who said, in the days of His flesh, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings?”
The comforting of God’s people
Another precious end of the Gospel ministry is the comforting of God’s people. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God.” God’s children are often sorrowers. They have sorrows which arise out of the new nature they are made partakers of, in connection with their condition in this world. The Lord, in His providence, often leads them to the bitter waters of Marah. Jesus was “a man of sorrows,”—and they must be conformed to Him. But He is the consolation of Israel. He drank the cup of wrath to the dregs. He has overcome the world. He intercedes for them. He sympathizes with them. He is with them in the waters. His love is unchangeable. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed,—but His kindness shall not depart from them. The Comforter apply the word of strong consolation to each one of the little flock who needs it to keep him from fainting!
The promoting of the sanctification of believers
Let me also remind you that another end of the Gospel ministry is the promoting of the sanctification of believers—that they may follow holiness, and that their conversation may be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ, amidst all the snares and temptations which beset their path—especially in a day of restraint and gloominess, when iniquity abounds, when there are comparatively few living fervid Christians—when there is little of the evidence of continued intercourse with heaven, and when Divine power is much withheld from the dispensation of ordinances. Dear Christian Friends, unworthy though I am to address to you the word of exhortation, let me say to you, Seek to give evidence that you are Christ’s—by your tender walk—by your love one to another—by your concern for the Lord’s cause—by doing something for Christ, as He gives you opportunity. You have need of wisdom to know such opportunities, and of a heart to improve them. Alas, too often we fail to see their value, till we are deprived of them. May He, to whom there is nothing too hard, keep His own unspotted from the world, and followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
During the past season, I was in another land in quest of health. I may mention three things which were particularly impressed on my mind, while travelling and sojourning there. 1. The privilege of having a free Bible, with liberty to read it in our own tongue, none making us afraid. 2. The value of the legacy which our godly fathers have handed down to us in our Confession of Faith, and Catechisms. These are human compilations. The Bible is the only rule. But those who come to know the state of the professing Church in other lands will be led to see, more and more, their importance and value, in their own place—under, and subordinate to the Word of God. 3. The preciousness of the Sabbath as a day of holy rest. Oh! how is this felt when one sees it openly and fearfully desecrated on every side. The Lord of the Sabbath preserve his own day amongst us! Let every one do what in him lies to maintain its sacredness. Let heads of families be stirred up to increased watchfulness and diligence, that the Lord’s Day be observed in their dwellings, and let the young be warned against the enticements of sinners, lest they glide insensibly into acts of Sabbath profanation, which, at one time, they would tremble to think of. There is sufficient mournful evidence of the truth that there is no sin which has greater power in hardening the heart than that of knowingly breaking the Lord’s Day.
It was a cause of great regret to me that, owing to the state of his health, my young brother who has been labouring among you, could not continue to do so during the winter. I have done everything in my power to secure the services of one of whom there would be reason to believe that the Lord had thrust him into His harvest; and I trust that the arrangements made for the discharge of the various ministerial duties during the winter months, will be countenanced and blessed by the Head of the Church.
Poor though my thoughts are, I think daily of you, and try to remember you before God,—the Office-bearers, that they may be guided and strengthened in their work,—the Sabbath School Teachers, that their hearts may be encouraged in their labour of love,—Heads of Families, that the Spirit of prayer may be poured out on them,—the afflicted, that sore trials may be blessed to the health of the soul, and that God would make the bed of His people in the time of languishing,—the Young, that they may lay it to heart that childhood and youth, passed without Christ, are vanity, and that it is time for them to seek the Lord,—and all that name the name of Christ, that they may depart from iniquity.
Dear Friends, the Lord now speaks to us very solemnly as a land and as a Church. We are threatened with the judgment of war. The pestilence is committing its ravages amongst us. And the righteous perish. One of the cedars in our Church has just fallen. These things proclaim the blessedness of those who have the Lord as their refuge in troublous times. I know not if I shall have an opportunity of speaking to you again the word of God. The great and dreadful day of the Lord is at hand. Let us be warned to make sure work of being in Christ. They only are safe and blessed who are in Him,—and who look for, and love His appearing.—I am, your affectionate pastor,
CHARLES C. MACKINTOSH.