(Continued from vol. xxi., page 145.)
JOHN GRANT.
When the Rev. Finlay Cook came first to Caithness, he went to see John Grant. When he entered the house, John asked, “What man is this?” He was told that it was the minister. “Aye, aye,” said John, “the minister!” and with this word he put on his cloak and went out, saying, “I’ll soon know what sort of a man he is.” Mr. Cook got afraid, and asked a drink. However, John soon came in (evidently from prayer) and said, “The minister is a gracious man, but as the Lord’s anger is against this generation, they will not get much good of him.” Possibly this proved true in a comparative degree, but still the fact remains that a large number of persons had good reason to bless the day that they heard the Gospel, with power, from Mr. Cook’s lips.
John Grant was a separatist from the Church of Scotland in his day—an attitude for which there was some small degree of justification owing to the presence of Moderatism, though that Church was vastly better then than it is at the present time. In those ancient days, the worship was almost everywhere scriptural, and the Gospel was preached with purity and power by not a few able ministers of the New Testament. Still, John Grant was a separatist on account of the “Moderate” elements, and the apparent condoning of them by those whom he judged knew better. It suited his position therefore sometimes to take the more mystical view of certain passages of Scripture. A story is told of a woman who was one day going to his meeting when one of the elders of the Church met her, and said, “Woman, what puts you away from ‘the gates of Zion’ to these by-corners?” It is not stated what answer she gave, if any. She went on to the meeting. John had begun the service, and was explaining a Psalm or some portion of the Word, where “the gates of Zion” were mentioned. He said that the gates of Zion were the wounds of Christ, which interpretation, coming at the moment, no doubt greatly comforted the woman.
It embodies otherwise a valuable spiritual truth. It is through Christ’s wounds, as gates, that Zion—the living people of God—enter by faith into peace, and fellowship with the Redeemer.
(To be continued.)