THE name of Mr. Crawford, who died in December, 1903, is well-known and esteemed by many of our readers, and the following notes, which have been sent us by “one who had the privilege of his acquaintance,” will be read with interest:—
“I was taught theology experimentally first, before I knew it theoretically; passing through difficulties in my own experience, and battling them in my own bosom; overcoming solely and only by ‘the sword of the Spirit’ all the different heresies that have been, and still are agitating the Church of Christ (particularly the Free Church). Though I could not put names on them and say, ‘This is Arminianism, or that Socinianism,’ yet whenever they appeared in the Church, I instantly recognised my old enemies. All these are but the outcome of the enmity of the human heart against Jehovah.”
“I have been fighting in the Church for the last thirty years and gained nothing, so I think it is high time to come out of her. There is nothing to be gained now by staying within her pale. Judgment has indeed befallen her, when she was left to pass such a God-dishonouring Act (Declaratory Act of 1892) into a law of the Church.”
“Some think the instruments used in this Secession movement are so weak that it will never stand. That is my hope of this movement. Man has so little room for boasting; God will have the greater glory. Because of the weakness of the vessels the excellency of His power may be the more shown forth, . . . If Mr. Macdonald, Shieldaig, is not a saint of God, I know not where to find one. He asked me once, ‘When we get to heaven, shall we ever forgive ourselves for sinning against the Lord?’ This movement had to take place that such a man might be brought out of his hiding-place.”
“I was asked to visit an aged saint, Janet, who was so sorely beset by the enemy of her soul that even her bodily health gave way. ‘Are your certificates all right, Janet?’ I asked. ‘O yes,’ was the reply. ‘O then, I don’t pity you, if they are all secure.’ ‘Don’t pity me?’ she made answer, ‘Me, lying here tossed and tempted by the great adversary.’ ‘No,’ I replied, ‘if that is all, he’ll soon wear himself out.’ Which answer gave her so much liberty that her bonds were loosed immediately, and she arose from her bed in less than an hour. Bodily health returned with spiritual freedom.”
“I was thrashed for two years on the text—’Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.’—Hosea iv. 17. Yet it was of this same Ephraim, Jehovah said—’How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel?’ ‘Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child?'”
“There was a time when I felt that if God would give me one more glimpse of His holiness, I would be consumed. Infinite wisdom knows how much the soul can bear.”
“The great enemy sometimes attacks the soul with the thought, ‘O, I have committed the unpardonable sin,’ at the beginning of his journey. Sometimes he does this mid-way. Then it is most awful to endure, so that the poor soul is forced to cry out—’If the Lord had taken me away from this earth, when I desired it, years ago, I would have been without the knowledge of myself that I now possess.’ The longer I live the more I know of the depths of wickedness and deceitfulness of my heart. Ofttimes I wonder how is it possible for me to grow in grace and in sin at the same time. The latter I am assured of. Years ago I thought I had a few flowers of holiness, but alas! they are crushed altogether, leaving me a withered, useless branch. (This was his own judgment of himself.) Many years ago I remember Dr. Kennedy, Dingwall, preached from the words—’Grow in grace.’ In the sermon he told the story of a certain tract of land which was infested with serpents so much that the inhabitants determined to set fire to the long rank grass in which they dwelt. Drawing a circle, they set fire to its outer edge, which caused the serpents to jump further in, until at last as the circle narrowed, there was nothing to be seen but serpents. So as the circle of years narrows down, the soul often can see nothing in himself but sin. That is my case.”
“Sometimes the soul’s experience is like Jonathan’s; he had to go on his knees over sharp rocks, ere he could win the battle. If we get the sweet, assuredly we shall get the bitter. Christ said so to the great adversary—’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ Every word! Our poor souls only want ‘bread.’ Jehovah, who knows our needs, sends other nourishment along with the bread.”
“Job’s experience sometimes overtakes the child of God. He, who eschewed evil, who had no spot on his outer garments, whom the Eternal declared upright and perfect among men, nevertheless was maligned, misrepresented, and misunderstood by his friends—men of God as they were. It is always best to leave our case in God’s hands.”
“Sometimes we are like Abraham in our soul’s experience, unable to cleave to the promise—’In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ when he was commanded to offer him as a sacrifice. We are bereft of the promise; then faith is exercised. Well for us in these night seasons, if our eyes are opened to find our experiences portrayed in the Word.”
“There is only one death the ‘old man,’ the great enemy of our souls, can die, that of drowning in the waters of Jordan.”
“I was for many years on the border land, undecided whether I ought to outwardly join the Church of Christ, or refrain from doing so because of the sense of my own unworthiness, my own unfitness to sit down at the table of the Lord: But He graciously opened my understanding to see that if I, like the lepers (2 Kings vii.) sat still outside the camp, I would assuredly die, and if I entered the city, I could but die; so I resolved that if death (spiritual) awaited me, it should be within the city gates, and among the Lord’s own people.”