(Continued from page 155.)
REV. FINLAY COOK, REAY.
ADAM SUTHERLAND, Lodibest, a godly man, was one day going to the Communion at Halsary. Mr. Cook was to preach. On the way, Adam was afraid he would be late, and said to himself, “If I get in, and get room to stand, I will be satisfied.” When he arrived, Mr. Cook was praying. When the prayer was over, Mr. Cook said to the people, “Sit close, that others may get room, for there is a person here who was saying in his own mind, coming on the road, ‘If I get inside and hear, I will be satisfied, though I get no room to sit down.'”
Mr. Cook said that he would know when the Sabbath was past, although there was no watch or clock in the land, as “the tempter” would then leave off assailing him, as his manner was on the Sabbath.
In speaking of the new birth, Mr. Cook said: “What is the most joyful cry that a father can hear? It’s the cry of the newborn child. And when the child is born, the best provision in
the house is laid on the table. So is it with the heavenly Father and the angels in glory, when a sinner is born again.”
On another occasion, he said: “If Christ had not lain in a bed before me, I would be afraid my bed would be turned into fire beneath me.”
Again, he remarked that the hypocrite’s faith might be as thick and strong as a ship’s cable, when the poor believer’s faith might seem as small and weak as a silk thread.
In referring to the necessity for trials, he remarked that the gentry could not live on their rich diets, were it not for the bitter herbs they ate along with them. “So,” he went on, “Christian, you have need of bitter herbs along with your graces and comforts.”
At a catechising, he said to a man, a blacksmith by trade: “Donald, why do you put the iron into the fire? Is it not to form and mould it as you desire?” “Yes,” replied the man. “So,” Mr. Cook said, “does the Lord with His people. He puts them into the furnace of affliction to shape and mould them in His own way, to His own will.”
Preaching in winter on one occasion, he said at the beginning of his discourse: “My friends, this is a cold day, and it is a cold Church that is without Christ, and they are a cold people who are without Christ.” Then, looking in the direction of some young persons who had come a distance, he proceeded: “But if I saw some of you, young people, coming here with a broken heart, seeking Christ for your souls, it would be a summer day to me in the middle of winter.”
Again, at another time, he said: “O, poor believer, do not be afraid of the judgment seat. The Judge is your Father; the Advocate is your elder Brother; and all the jury (the saints) are your friends.”
REV. JOHN SINCLAIR, BRUAN.
Mr. Sinclair was one day preaching in Lybster, when there came a man into the church who lacked his reason, and was commonly called “Fool Jock.” Going forward through the passage with feathers in his hat, and a stick in his hand, some in the church began to smile and laugh at him. Mr. Sinclair stopped speaking, and tears began to run down his cheeks. The congregation became very still without a motion, when he said, “The day is coming when these will be arrayed in white robes, and when you who laugh will go down to hell.”
He was one day about to serve a table at a Communion in the old church of Latheron. A good many communicants had sat,
and the precentor had ceased singing, when Mr. Sinclair said, “There is one at the table I debar from it.” He then paused for a little, and said, “There is one at the table I debar from it, in the name of the Lord, and the reason is that he has not bent his knee this day in prayer.”
(To be continued.)
Notes and Comments.
President Lincoln’s Order to the U.S. Army and Navy in 1862.—In view of the United States alliance with us in this momentous struggle, it is interesting to read President Lincoln’s order to the U.S. Army and Navy in the last great crisis in that nation’s history. It is as follows:—”The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, demand that Sunday labour in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and character of the National Forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. ‘At this time of public distress,’ adopting the words of Washington in 1776, ‘men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country, without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.’ The first General Order issued by the Father of his Country, after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should even be defended: ‘The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavour to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.’” This is a high-toned and noble order, worthy of the man who issued it. In this and other quotations we have allowed the name “Sunday” to remain, as the term used by the speakers or writers, though we object to this way of designating the Sabbath, or Lord’s Day.
Another Step in the Wrong Direction.—It would appear that harvest Sabbath breakers are to have a sop to their conscience, at least, the issue of special “Services for Sunday Workers in the Fields,” with a foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop says: “There are places, it is said, in which it will be found really necessary to the due ingathering of crops, and consequently to the safety and wellbeing of our country, that some quite temporary relaxation of our Sunday rule as to rest and worship should be called for.” One would have thought after his experience in giving permission to Sabbath ploughing that the Archbishop had learned that it is a somewhat daring experiment
to tamper with God’s laws, however lightly esteemed by men. Thousands have read, in the trying spring weather we had, God’s answer to men who were to get on without Him and break His laws at the same time.
Russia in the Quagmire.—The woful condition in which Russia finds herself at present is a bitter disappointment to the Allies, and there is danger that the great lesson taught by the chaos created by the Revolution in this mighty nation should be overlooked. Socialism, with a strong element of atheism, is gaining rapidly in the working class circles of the world. It is to bring in an almost ideal state of things as far as man’s happiness in this world is concerned if we are to believe its advocates. In Russia the opportune moment came, and the birth of a new nation freed from the tyranny of Czarism was hailed by the British people as an event of epoch-making importance. Everything was done by this country to make the Socialist Agitators of Russia feel that they were worthy of all praise. But as time goes on, things do not appear quite so promising, and Socialism governing a nation is giving a poor exhibition before the civilized world. We rejoice in knowing that the tyranny of Czarism is broken, but we deeply regret that the power that has broken it is in itself very dangerous and a menace to all true liberty.
A New Revelation and the Coming Revival.—In these days, all sorts of new ideas are advanced by so-called leaders of thought. Some time ago, Sir Conan Doyle wrote in one of the London papers: “In recent years, there has come to us from Divine sources a new revelation which constitutes by far the greatest religious event since the death of Christ. When one knows, as I know, of widows who are assured that they hear the loved voice once again, or of mothers whose hands, groping in the darkness, clasp once again those of the vanished child, and when one considers the loftiness of their intercourse, and the serenity of spirit which succeeds it, I feel sure that a fuller knowledge would calm the doubt of the most scrupulous conscience. Men talk of a great religious revival after the War. Perhaps it is in this direction that it will be.” In ordinary circumstances, these gropings in the dark while the Sun is shining would not be worthy of serious attention, but coming from such a source, and at a time when the seed thus sown falls on fertile ground, it is necessary to be reminded that we have Moses and the Prophets; let us hear them; for if we believe not their testimony, neither would we believe though one came from the dead.