Legacy to the F.P. Church.—The Rev. Mr. Macfarlane, Raasay, has received notice from Messrs. Guild & Guild, W.S., Edinburgh, of a legacy of £1000 bequeathed to him for behoof of the Free Presbyterian Church, by Mr. Neil Maclean, 9 Danube Street, Edinburgh, who died on 8th February, and of whom we give a brief notice in this issue. The legacy is payable free of Government duties at the term of Martinmas next. Captain Maclean’s Trust Disposition and Settlement is dated 19th August, 1895, and the following is the section in reference to the above legacy:—”To the Rev. Donald Macfarlane, Raasay, for behoof of the religious body with which he is now connected and known as the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, for the general uses and purposes of said religious body, the sum of one thousand pounds sterling; said sum to be administered and applied by the said Donald Macfarlane and his successors in office, in accordance with the Constitution or Rules and Regulations of said religious body.”
Acknowledgment of Donations.—The Rev. Neil Cameron desires to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the following donations to the St. Jude’s Building Fund:—£5 from a friend, through Mrs. J. Anderson, West Princes Street, Glasgow; £2 from two sympathising friends, through Mr. Angus Fraser; and 10s. from an anonymous donor in Inverness-shire. Mr. Cameron’s address is 110 Hill Street, Garnethill, Glasgow.
Communions.—Farr, Sutherlandshire, 1st Sabbath of this month; Portree, 2nd.
Memoir of Rev. Mr. Macdonald.—Rev. Mr. Macfarlane, Raasay, has almost ready for the press a memoir of the late Rev. Mr. Macdonald, Shieldaig. It contains a number of interesting particulars of the beloved minister’s life and history, and is bound to be read with great interest by Free Presbyterians and others. Further notice will be given in a future issue.
Notes and Comments.
Ritualists and the late Queen.—A requiem for the soul of the late Queen Victoria was sung in the Church of St. Matthew, Westminster, London, on the morning of the 4th February. This Popish service in an English Church did not pass off without protest. About thirty members of the Protestant Alliance were present. After the blessing had been pronounced, a gentleman stood up in the centre of the church, and said in a loud voice, “This is rank blasphemy; what we have seen this morning, my friends, is a blasphemous insult to the memory of Queen Victoria.” Some other Protestants shouted—”This is a joss house,” “This is the house of Baal,” “This is blasphemy.” It is stated that the service was sanctioned by the Bishop of London. Romanism has come in like a flood into the Church of England, and nothing less is needed than that the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against this great enemy of God and man.
The Original Seceders and the Spirit of the Age.—When in the year 1733 the Commission of Assembly deposed Ebenezer Erskine and the three protesting brethren for their faithful testimony against the error and despotism of the moderate party, the authors of that act made history with more effect than they were aware. They laid the foundation of the secession movement which soon acquired a national and even a world-wide importance. The course of that movement, though somewhat marred by a spirit of rash censure and doubtful disputation, was nevertheless not without signal tokens of the presence and blessing of the Great Head of the Church. Days of the Son of Man were experienced through the length and breadth of Scotland in connection with the ministrations of the Messrs. Erskine and their like-minded associates. M’Kerrow’s history of the Secession is not a satisfactory book by reason of its excess of dry Presbyterian records and its defective account of the spiritual and inward side of the Church’s history. Such humble literary efforts as the autobiography of Elizabeth Cairns of Stirling, and Marion Laird of Greenock give a better insight into the true wellsprings of the movement. Nevertheless such right-hearted persons as still remain in that Church may now reflect sadly upon the word of the apostle “Here have we no continuing city.” The Church of their fathers is now, to all appearance, a wreck. So far back as the end of the eighteenth century, both the Burgher and Anti-burgher sections of the Secession were invaded by the spirit of the age in the shape of an epidemic of voluntary doctrine. This resulted in rents in both the bodies which left the faithful minorities very small. In 1820 these voluntary majorities joined and formed what became the United Presbyterian Church. In 1842 the two conservative sections also united and formed the original Secession Church which remains till this present. In 1852 a considerable number of original Secession members and people joined the Free Church, and since then the Church of Ebenezer Erskine has been small among the tribes of Israel. This last month the spirit of the age has made further havoc of their small numbers. Two prominent ministers, Rev. Messrs. Patrick of Glasgow and Aitken of Kirkintilloch, have intimated their severance from the body. The reason, of course, is that they find the place too strait, and they view with approbation and desire the broad pastures and well frequented highways of the United Church. The Kirkintilloch congregation has resolved by a majority of 64 against 10 to follow its pastor’s lead into the communion of Principal Rainy and Professor George Adam Smith. They probably expect to solve some problems by this course, but if their ears were open they would hear a voice saying, “The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.”
A Scheme of Church Union.—The columns of the Northern Chronicle have been busy these last two months with enthusiastic proposals of union with the Established Church. A gentleman writing over the signature F.D., broached the idea in an early December issue, that the Free and F.P. Churches should seek shelter under the broad wings of the mother Church. Since then various seconders of the proposal have been busy amending or defending the scheme. We very much dislike the function of turning on the cold water tap on any well meant effort to mend the present distracted state of Scottish Presbyterianism. Nevertheless it seems a real kindness to criticise with some force proposals so fanciful and visionary. We say then to F.D. and his associates that they do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the wisdom of God. A union between brethren long divided and scattered is one of the thoughts of God, and He has clearly indicated how He will accomplish it. For in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel we have a prophecy of the healing of the immemorial breach between Ephraim and Judah. “They shall become one in mine hand.” But the sequence of events in the chapter is well to be marked. It is not till after He has caused a resurrection in the valley of dry bones that He promises a union of Judah and Ephraim. So the Divine scheme is life first, and then union. F.D.’s scheme is union first and then life. The same revelation of the Divine mind we have in Jer. 1. 4, 5. There also we find Ephraim and Judah speaking to one another about a scheme of church union. But this is preceded by a revived sense of their apostacy from the God of Israel. No such conditions are in evidence at the present time. The Established Church is, in these days, a valley of dry bones. Anyone who views her condition otherwise has need to anoint his eyes with eyesalve. For the Free Presbyterian or the Free Church to merge themselves with the Establishment would be to destroy instead of strengthening the things that remain and are ready to die. Neither does the Established Church desire the fellowship of old-fashioned Presbyterians, whose usages and doctrines she has spurned. The present aloofness is best for all parties.
The late Professor Davidson.—There passed away at Edinburgh on the 26th January, Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages in the New College. The deceased, who was about 71 years of age, was appointed to the Hebrew Chair in 1863, as successor to the distinguished and beloved Dr. John Duncan. We regret to say, however, that while Professor Davidson was an able and accomplished scholar, he did not follow in the theological footsteps of his worthy predecessor, but earned for himself the ignoble distinction of being the pioneer of a new and pernicious method of interpreting the Old Testament in Scotland. As the father of the destructive Higher Criticism in this country, it will be difficult to estimate the injury he has done to the cause of sound truth in our midst. His amiable qualities as a man will by no means mitigate this. While such papers as the British Weekly and British Monthly abound, as might be expected, with unqualified eulogies of the deceased professor, we feel an obligation resting on us to tell what we believe to be the whole truth about his views and teaching. Having studied under him, we are in a position to do this at first hand, and hope to give a more detailed sketch of the man, his theological ideas and methods in a future issue.—ED.
Petitions against Change in King’s Declaration.—Mr. Mellor (Yorkshire, Sowerby) presented in Parliament on 25th February, a petition from the colony of Victoria, signed by 98,000 persons, which was read by the Clerk. The petitioners asked the House not to consent to the attempt being made to tamper with the statutory declaration required by the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement to be made by the Sovereign, as dangerous to the Protestant succession and the stability of the Throne, and fraught with great dangers to the civil, religious, and political liberties of the people. A large number of petitions, similarly worded, were also presented by Mr. Mellor from various towns in the Austral-asian colonies, from New Zealand and Tasmania, Canada, British Columbia, British Guiana, Windward Islands, Mauritius, China, Arabia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Barbadoes, Bermuda, various places in India, Singapore, Durban, and Pietermaritzburg, East London, Jerusalem, Paris, Dusseldorf, Vienna, Switzerland, some towns in Spain, &c., Christian colonies of the Zulus—total 144 petitions, with 520,543 signatures. From England the petitions were signed by 284,647, from Scotland by 51,197, from Ireland by 16,949, from Wales by 8676, and from the Channel Islands by 2309 persons. In the case of the petition from the Zulus, which was in the native language, Mr. Mellor said he had obtained and handed in a translation.
The Imprisoned Preacher.—Quite a sensation has been felt throughout the country at the imprisonment of the Rev. W. C. Macdougall, minister of Coatbridge West Free Church. Mr. Macdougall had been dealt with by the Free Church (previous to the union) under the Inefficiency Act, and had been asked to retire from office. This he refused to do, and continued to minister to his congregation as usual. The U.F. Church, however, took the case of the Church Buildings to the Court of Session, which Court decided in their favour. Recently an interdict was issued by the Court prohibiting Mr. Macdougall from the use of the church; but he has refused to obey the interdict. He was finally called to appear before the Court, when he declared his willingness to submit to sentence rather than yield in what he considered a point of principle. On the motion of Mr. Guthrie, K.C., legal representative of the U.F. Church, the judge passed sentence. The penalty was one month’s imprisonment. We are not in a position, as yet, to give a decided opinion on all the points of this remarkable case, but it is our impression that Mr. Macdougall has not been fairly dealt with. If he had been a Higher Critic instead of a Constitutionalist, we believe he would have been very differently treated.