THE extraordinary change, for the worse, which has come over the observance of the Sabbath in Scotland has long been foreseen by all true lovers of God’s commandments, but a condition of things now exists which has awakened deep concern in the minds of many who were indifferent to the signs of the times which so ominously pointed in the direction of the glaring and open defiance of the Fourth Commandment that now prevails. Motor ‘buses, by offering cheap fares, are doing a roaring trade on the Lord’s Day. The Railway Companies, following suit, have now inaugurated a series of cheap trips by train and steamer which are patronised by thousands of the people. So busy are some of the stations in Glasgow on the Sabbath, owing to these cheap fares, that the scenes are compared by newspaper men to those witnessed on the annual exodus at the Glasgow Fair Holiday, when this great city pours out its inhabitants all over the country. Behind all this catering for the public stands the god of commercialism—with brazen face and unbowed head—boldly asserting that something must be done to give return for the money invested in railway stock. An extraordinary change has come over the people. In them is fulfilled the words of Scripture—lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. The mania for sport, which has swept the country as a whirlwind, is not satiated with six days of the week. It is boldly challenging its right to the seventh, and already its demands have been acknowledged in too many cases, and the claims of the Sabbath set aside. If ever there was a time since the Revolution Settlement when the lovers of the Lord’s Day in Scotland had reason to pray the Psalmist’s prayer, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law,” it is now. As a
master strategist, Satan began with the outworks, and enlisted in his army professing Christians,—ministers, elders, deacons, and communicants, and once he had them enlisted he took good care to keep them busy in battering away at the outposts until respect and reverence for God’s commandment were well nigh dead. It is not for us to discuss at present some of these methods, but for those of us who have been watching the strategy of the god of this world for years, we cannot help acknowledging that there was a Satanic mastery about it which disconcerted and depressed the minds of those who saw all too plainly where the present trend of matters would end. Fortunately, in God’s over-ruling providence, Satan outwits himself at times. This has been eminently seen in the case of Mr Norman Shaw, to whose dismissal from the service of the Clyde Lighthouses Trustees we made a brief reference in our last issue. Mr Shaw had been in the service of the above body for over ten years, and had been appointed assistant lighthouse keeper at Toward Point, in Argyllshire. On Sabbath, 1st May, he was asked to attend for the purpose of testing a new wireless installation between Cumbrae and Toward. The head lighthouse keeper, Mr Buchanan, undertook to listen in and pass on the messages. Late on Sabbath afternoon, Mr Liddell, the master of works at Port Glasgow, found that the head keeper’s voice was very indistinct on the ‘phone, and he asked him to call Mr Shaw, who refused, on conscientious grounds, to carry out this request. The correspondence between Mr Liddell, the master of works; Mr Anderson, Clerk to the Clyde Lighthouses Trustees; Sir William Raeburn, Chairman of the Trustees, and Mr Shaw has been published in the press, and wide publicity given to it. Mr Shaw, in his reply to Mr Liddell, said:—”I am quite prepared to attend at any time to an emergency call from the Cumbrae, but I am not all prepared indifferently and indiscriminately to throw away all the liberties and privileges of the Sabbath Day altogether; they are none too great in any lighthouse service.” Mr Anderson then took up the matter, and in his letter to Mr Shaw informed him that “it is not for you to dictate the terms upon which the lighthouse service is to be carried on.” Mr Shaw replied in a dignified way, saying he should be sorry to give the impression that he had any desire to dictate. The issue, as the public know, ended in Mr Shaw being dismissed from the service of the Trustees. Throughout the correspondence Mr Shaw writes as one
who had a good conscience and a good cause. The Trustees, stung by the public criticism of their tyrannical action, issued to the press through their Clerk an official version of the events leading up to Mr Shaw’s dismissal. It has not in any way improved their case. There is revealed throughout the statement a spirit of domineering that found itself face to face with something it had never reckoned on, and which was stronger than the tyrant’s petty power—a conscience that feared God. The Trustees showed they were utter strangers to what demands an enlightened conscience can make on a man who seeks to honour God and wishes to keep His law. Sir William Raeburn, in one of his letters, in characterising Mr Shaw as a “dour, bigoted Sabbatarian,” reveals the spirit that has placed him and his fellow-Trustees in such an unenviable light in the eyes of the public generally. There is the bigotry of the so-called narrow-minded, but of all kinds of bigotry there is none so hateful and tyrannical as the bigotry of the broad-minded. When it strikes it strikes like a serpent and pours its venom into its helpless and hapless victim. It is this kind of bigotry that kindled the martyr pile and harassed the lives of God’s saints in this world, and we do not think Mr Macquisten, M.P. for Argyllshire, went too far when he characterised the act of the Trustees in dismissing Mr Shaw as no better than the Russian Soviet, who wish to destroy all religion. The case between the Trustees and Mr Shaw was admirably put by Mr Macquisten, M.P., in his reply to a letter by Sir William Raeburn when he says:—”You dismiss a man with a wife and family, and expel him from his home after ten and a-half years’ service, for no other reason than that he declines to do a job on the Sabbath which can be done equally well on a week-day.” It is here the tyranny of the Trustees is glaringly shown. The work could and ought to have been done on a week-day, but the Trustees, with their little brief authority, unfeelingly turned out on the world a man with a delicate wife and four children because he would not break the law of his God to suit the plans of some of their officials. Fortunately there are still some in Scotland who can admire men with a conscience, and we have been struck at the widespread sympathy that this case has called forth. The matter, as our readers are aware, came up in the House of Commons in a series of questions to the President of the Board of Trade, who replied that he could do nothing, as the Clyde Lighthouses
Trustees were not under the jurisdiction of the Board of Trade. Public meetings have also been called in connection with the case. Mr Macquisten, the M.P. for Argyllshire, deserves the hearty thanks of the public generally for his strong and able advocacy of Mr Shaw’s case in his excellent letters, and for opening a fund on Mr Shaw’s behalf. Dr Duff, Lecturer on Moral Philosophy, Glasgow University, also wrote excellent letters to the “Glasgow Herald,” and Mr H. S. Macgillivray, Ardenlee, Dunoon, took up Mr Shaw’s case with his usual energy and enthusiasm.
We have devoted considerable space to this case, because we believe that God is speaking through it to the Free Presbyterian Church particularly, and to the people of the whole country generally. It is not without a purpose that so much publicity has been given to the matter, and we sincerely hope and trust that it will encourage others who, because of the nature of their employment, are continually faced with the menace of doing unnecessary work on Sabbath, so that they may get sufficient courage to obey the law of their God. We believe that in doing so the Lord will not allow them to want their daily bread. The splendid example of the Hebrew youths is set before us for all time. Let us read their noble confession:—”O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel iii. 16-18). There is something nobly inspiring in these words, rising high above all merely natural courage—”But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” The devouring flames had to deal with material that could not be consumed.
Free Presbyterian Services at Newcastle-on-Tyne.—
Services in connection with our Church have been begun at Newcastle. The services are held in the Rechabite Hall, 22 Ellison Place, Newcastle, at 3 p.m. on Sabbath afternoons. Friends of the cause interested in these meetings may get additional information from Mr Frederick Bentley, 2 Leazes Terrace, Newcastle.
A Sermon
BY THE REV. JAMES A. TALLACH.
Preached at Winnipeg, Canada, 24th April 1927.
“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me” (Psalm
cxxxviii. 8.
THE conviction expressed in this verse is one of the highest attainments of faith. It signifies the reliance of a poor, imperfect sinner upon the power and will of the great God our Saviour. Notice particularly the personal pronoun, “me.” Far too many who ought to know better, content themselves with vague, impersonal ideas about religious things. This leaves them ignorant of the inner sanctuary of Christ’s heart. While they acknowledge Him as the Saviour of sinners, they have never known the comfort of being saved by Him. Oh, sinner, seek to deal with God always on the ground of personal responsibility. It is a very common mistake for us to imagine that God concerns Himself only with what we conceive to be big things. In nature we find it comparatively easy to be convinced that the mind of the Creator is occupied with the vast revolutions of the sun, moon and stars in their orbits; we see the glory of God silently and eloquently expressed in the daily and nightly movements of these heavenly bodies in the firmament. We think that because they are so great, so immense, they are worthy of His interest. In our foolish blindness we miss the lesson taught by each lowly flower of the field; a lesson, moreover, which is full of comfort to Christ’s spiritual lilies, growing in obscurity, neglected by the great ones of the earth, and too often overlooked even by the Church in the world. Christ seeks to correct this mistake when He directs us to “Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Each flower, one of countless millions, is perfect. It grows out in the field unseen, unknown, yet God gives it a form of beauty. Does God care for little things, then? Surely. Listen to this Psalm, verse 6—“Though God be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly,” and again, in verse 7—“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me,” and again in our text, where faith reaches to heavenly heights—“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me,” poor, guilty, imperfect me, one single soul among countless millions. Taking these words as
*
being true of all who have come behind and touched the hem of Christ’s garment, we proceed to notice :—
I. The believer is not a perfect person.
II. He will yet be made perfect.
III. What is the foundation of our confidence.
I. The believer is not a perfect person. There is certainly a great difference between him and the world lying in the wicked one. He has made great advances towards perfection compared with what he was before he believed, but he is still far from being perfect. (1) He is profoundly conscious of his shortcomings when he considers the condition of his heart in relation to his Redeemer. The heart of every believer has but one object of supreme desire—that is Christ—a complete Christ, glorious, fairer than the children of men, altogether lovely; this, he says, is my beloved, this is my friend. There are other friends and companions, gracious, like-minded people, some very near and very dear to him, but in point of supremacy, Christ stands unrivalled. As one star after another gradually loses its lustre under the increasing glory of the rising sun, so under the glory that shines from the person of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, all other objects of attraction are gradually shorn of their brightness, and the believer is left with Jesus only. Christ is seen to be most worthy of love, and it is just here that a sense of imperfection strikes chill upon your heart if He has been made precious to you. You do not love Him as He deserves to be loved. You are frequently more conscious of your lack of love than of its presence. You cannot even love Him as you would wish to. You love, but what a poor, selfish attempt it is. Dare you say you love Him when your heart is cold and unfeeling? Can such a gloriously perfect heart as Christ’s is, love you? Can it recognise and respond to such feeble efforts? In answer to these questions, the plain truth is, you are dissatisfied with yourself just because you are so well satisfied with Him. You are impatient with your own imperfections because you are so intensely conscious of His perfection. The world passes by light-heartedly, knowing nothing of such sorrow, while you retire to pray and weep alone. Yet, even in such retirement there is a holy sweetness which the world knows not of, nor can they know it, because they know not Christ as you do.
(2) Again, the child of God is reminded of his shortcomings when he examines himself concerning his
duty to Christ. In regeneration the Holy Spirit implants a principle of new obedience in the mind of the sinner, and the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments supply him with his rule of duty. These are a perfect standard of righteousness, and this is the test by which all believers try themselves. It matters not where the sinner is who has been saved, we always find that he honours God’s Word, and his whole effort is, not to lower that standard to his attainments, but to be raised himself, at whatever cost, to the level of this holy rule. It is a very high standard—”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself.” Again—”Be ye holy, for I am holy,” and “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” When that holy law in its spirituality tries the lives even of the most pious souls, they are ready to exclaim with Daniel—”We have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments . . . unto us belongeth confusion of face.” When it shines in its holy purity into the heart, it makes manifest a condition of things which tends to utter wretchedness, as with Paul—”I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am.” So there is no perfection in heart or life. Note how severe the true believer is with himself. The hypocrite easily assures himself that he is rich, increased with goods and needs nothing; but your conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit of truth, and your heart influenced by the constraining power of the love of Christ, is not so easily satisfied. Your mind acknowledges and glories in the perfection and holiness of the law of Christ, even while it is grieved at its own imperfection as seen in the light of that very law. This is a disposition of mind the hypocrite never attains to.
(3) Pursuing this matter further, just think for a little of the Scriptural teaching about heaven. It is the believer’s privilege to get foretastes of glory here below, and under the impulse of these his desires and longings often travel far ahead of himself, and he looks forward by hope to the rest that remains within the veil. Such exercises of mind are right and proper, but he is reminded that these blessings are only to be
enjoyed by saints. Heaven is rest only because it is a state of purity, the very atmosphere breathed is “Holiness to the Lord.” The fellowship of heaven is holy—God in the three persons, angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. How dare he presume to join company with such perfect beings. There is no imperfection encountered anywhere, and “nothing shall enter that defileth, or worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie.” The nearer he is in his apprehension to glory, the more conscious he is of his own utter sinfulness and unfitness for its society. Feelings similar to these occupied the breast of godly Isaiah when he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, and heard the seraphims crying one to another—”Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts.” “Woe is me,” he says, “for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” Yet it is questionable if he was ever nearer to God in the world than just then.
We have attempted to describe the case of a man who delights in the glorious perfection revealed concerning Christ, the law of love, and heaven. While he delights to contemplate these objects of his desire, he is then most acutely conscious of his own unfitness to claim them. Is this your case? It is more or less the experience of every gracious soul. It is a most humiliating condition, yet it is full of hope. There is every reason to rejoice even while cleaving to the dust. You also can truly say—”The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Oh, happy soul.
II. We come now to consider that the believer will yet be made perfect. (1) Perfection is the end aimed at in sanctification. A sinner is wholly justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Justification is an act affecting the legal standing of a sinner before God, and is complete from the moment the sinner closes with Christ. Sanctification, however, being a process, is never complete on earth. There is a growth in grace and in the knowledge of God, there is advance in holiness and purity. Now, as long as anything is growing there is no absolute perfection. In the case of the corn there is first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; but in the blade just appearing above the soil there is the promise of perfection. In the helpless infant there is the promise of full-grown manhood in the future. This development is not apparent from day to day, indeed, there are times when through illness the infant’s growth may be greatly retarded, but the general tendency is onwards. He does not perceive it so much
as do others, and they exclaim on seeing him again after a period of time, “Well, how the child grows.” He is already perfect in nature, but not in degree. So with the gracious soul; the new-born nature in him is perfect as an infant, but it has not yet attained to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Jesus Christ, but the promise is there. The tendency also is onward—”He must increase, I must decrease.” There are times of spiritual sickness when growth is retarded, but that which has begun with God shall end with God. In spite of all opposition and imperfection, God will perfect what He has begun. He will give grace and glory.
(2) As ripe corn is cut down and gathered home, so with believers when their sanctification is complete. Their bodies fall asleep in Jesus and rest in the grave until the resurrection, their souls being made perfect in holiness do immediately pass into glory. Being made perfect in holiness! what an unspeakable mercy! But the full capacity to enjoy that perfection must remain until the resurrection. Then this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; death shall be swallowed up in eternal victory. A perfect soul shall be re-united to a perfect body, never to part. Henceforth, joy, peace, harmony shall reign triumphant. Paul now shall not say “the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary the one to the other.” That warfare is ended. Ever more the single effort of each glorified saint will be the praise and glory of redeeming grace. As with each one, so with all the innumerable host of redeemed ones. Not only is each one perfect, being like Christ even as they see Him, but amongst all that company absolute concord exists. There is no anger, malice, misunderstanding, but the songs pouring out from every living soul unite together to form one unanimous chorus—”Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.” Does that not savour of perfection? And again—”God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” Have patience, tried Christian.
(3) And what shall we say of the employment of those happy beings throughout eternity? The powers of body and soul being clarified, are fitted for the full enjoyment of God. Of these we just consider know-
ledge, love and joy. In this life our knowledge of God is but imperfect, even in the most advanced of God’s scholars. For “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Knowing Him as He is will produce an ever-deepening sense of love, a love that casts out every fear, for “perfect love casts out fear.” There will be no fear of man nor fear of presuming, nor fear of hypocrisy to mar or retard the free, spontaneous acting of a heart made perfect in love. The combination of these two—the knowing God and the loving God—will produce joy unspeakable and full of glory. Knowing God in His grace and beauty, having continued intercourse with Him, and loving Him without fear with all the fervour of a holy being. This is joy unspeakable. Add to this the full consciousness of being loved in return, that even in His sight whose eyes are as a flame of fire, you stand perfect without blemish, knowing that you have every right to love and to be loved; this is perfect joy. Oh, beloved! these are great and precious truths; we see them through a glass darkly, and sometimes the glass is very, very dark, but even so, it is good to look, and to remember, that they are truths, their existence not depending on our understanding of them, but upon the testimony of God concerning them.
III. We now come to examine the foundation we have for entertaining the hope of perfection. The merely nominal Christian would dispense altogether with this consideration. His own assurance is quite sufficient warrant to him of his interest in heaven. He is not so sensible of his imperfections as to trouble much over them. He easily assures himself that with very little alteration he can take his place with the saints in light. Not so the true believer. In order to carry such a weight of glory he knows that the foundation must be capable of bearing it. His expectation is not based on his good resolutions, nor on his will power, nor yet on his graces. These all are sandy foundations. It is founded on the Lord—”the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” “The Lord is my Rock.” Is this true of you? How many are there to-day who have lively enough views of heaven as a place of rest from toil and worry, and they pursue an unclouded way in this world, confident in the hope of a peaceful eternity. How many of those who so live shall ever realise their hope? Oh, sinner, I would have you know that to entertain even a faint hope of glory is a most serious
matter, and in order to enjoy that hope in any measure it must be secure. The Lord alone provides such security. He is the Rock, His work is perfect. Any sinner whatsoever, building his hope upon such a foundation will never be put to shame.
(1) In considering the nature of this foundation very briefly, let me remind you of the love of God. The fact that God loves is undeniable; Scripture declares it, Christ manifests it, and experience confirms it. The matter we are dealing with just now is—What is the relation of this love to the perfecting of the saints? Well, is it conceivable that the holy love of God should be satisfied with the slightest imperfection in any of its objects? Such a thought cannot be entertained for a moment. He necessarily hates all imperfection. Even while loving the souls of His people, He hates their sins. Now, in order to satisfy the demands of His own love, He has made abundant provision in the world for the purification of believers. For this end the ministry of the Church exists—”And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints . . . till we all come . . . unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” To this end also all matters of a providential and gracious nature terminating upon the creature tend. “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” In order that none of these things should fail of their appointed end, they are under the direct supervision of the Holy Spirit—God all wise, all powerful; from whose presence they receive that living power which makes them efficacious in the case of each and every believer. The end in view is—”That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” The motive behind all, giving meaning and direction to all, and assuring the ultimate attainment of the object aimed at, is Love—infinite, incomprehensible, irresistible; love that will not be denied. It is thus, caught in the arms of Jehovah’s love, a poor, weak, imperfect sinner may bid defiance to every power and artifice of the world, the flesh and the devil, secure in the hope of everlasting glory. Oh, let us wonder; let us adore; let us hope.
(2) Consider again the righteousness of the Lord with special reference to the Covenant of Grace. In a past eternity the three persons of the glorious Trinity entered into covenant relations. The terms of that covenant
were that the Son of God, the second Person of the God-head, should undertake to provide a redemption by which the elect of God might be redeemed, perfected, and glorified. In accordance with these terms, and in the fulness of time, He came into the world, taking their nature into union with His divine nature, obeyed, suffered, and died in their room. The price demanded was paid to the uttermost farthing. In token of its acceptance Christ was raised from the dead, ascended on high, was crowned with glory and honour, and sat down at the right hand of the Father in glory. The infinite value of the blood of Christ provides for the perfection of all that innumerable company who have believed, who are believing, and who will yet believe on His name. Now, would it be a righteous thing in God to accept the price and not to meet the ends for which the price was paid? Is it conceivable that God should take more pleasure in the suffering and agony of His Son than He will have in the glorifying of His Son in His saints? The righteousness of a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God demands that all who believe in Christ should be perfected—His finished work demands it. They shall all be as perfect as the perfect work of Christ can make them. “Perfect even as their Father in heaven is perfect.” It is upon this basis that the prayer in the 17th Chapter of John is founded—”I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (verse 13). Verse 10—”And all mine are thine and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” Verse 17—”Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Verse 28—”I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one.” The whole appeal is addressed to righteousness—”O righteous Father.” I make no comment on these Scriptures, they speak plainly for themselves. O poor trembling believer, let them speak to you! Let them comfort you and establish you! “What shall we say to these things; if God be for us, who can be against us?”
(3) Finally, I wish to draw your attention to the faithfulness of God. We lose much by comparing the faithfulness of God with that of men, and forget that “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent; hath He said and will He not do it.” We overlook the fact that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years
as one day. In such forgetfulness we lose much solid ground for humble confidence. God promised to bless Abraham with a numberless seed; He promised also to give Canaan to them for an inheritance. It was over 400 years before that promise was fulfilled. To us, 400 years is a long time and many changes occur. Abraham died, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all died. Had God forgotten His promise? Where was His faithfulness? What changes took place during those years! Jacob tried to settle down in Canaan, but was removed to Egypt by famine. “All these things are against me,” he says. Joseph died, not in Canaan but in Egypt. The children of Israel, from enjoying the favour of Egypt for a time, were later reduced to the condition of abject slavery. Where was God during these trying years? Had he forgotten His promise? Let the plagues of Egypt answer: let the song of Moses and Miriam answer—”Sing ye to the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously.” Four hundred years! Changes! Wanderings! Death! Famine! Enemies!—What are these to the everlasting, unchanging One who fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding.
While on this pilgrimage way there will always be a good deal of the Jacob nature in all believers. Fightings without and fears within. The more worthy I see Christ to be, the less worthy I appear to be of Him, the more honour I see in the law of Christ, the more I blush for shame at my own shortcomings; the more desirable heaven is to me, the less I appear to be fit for it. The consideration of these things brings us to the point of fretfulness and despondency, everything seems to go contrary to us. But into the darkness, God, our covenant God, stretches out His arm, grasps us in the hand of promise—a promise made strong with unchanging faithfulness—”Even if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself.” “Where He hath begun the good work, He will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.” The time may seem long to us, the obstacles insuperable, but the word of our God shall stand for ever—”Fear not thou worm Jacob.”
Repentance, if genuine, is not the passing sorrow of the day, but the real feeling and habit of the heart.—Rowland Hill.
Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions: what a mercy to be better for the rod!—Rowland Hill.
The Religion of Freemasonry and the Christian Faith.
II.
(Continued from p. 132.)
IN our last issue we saw that Freemasons of eminence admitted that Freemasonry was a religious system. Here is what a Methodist minister, a prominent Freemason, says of the religion of the Craft:—”It is not possible to conceive of anything more religious in its ceremonies, its ritual and its atmosphere, than Freemasonry. . . No other institution has ever brought together men of such diversity of type, temper, and training, and united them at the altar of prayer, in the worship of God, and the service of humanity.” Lord Amphill, the Provincial Grand Master, has warmly eulogised the writings of this minister, and urged his audience to read his writings (Hunt’s “Menace of Freemasonry to the Christian Faith,” p. 25). Dr Mackey, in his “Encyclopædia,” a recognised Masonic work, says emphatically:—”Freemasonry is a religious institution, and hence its regulations inculcate the use of prayer as a proper tribute of gratitude to the beneficent Author of Life. . . Hence it is an indispensable obligation that the Lodge should be opened and closed with prayer” (p. 594). He further adds:—”Masonry, then, is indeed a religious institution; and on this ground mainly, if not alone, should religious Masons defend it.” In his “Text-Book of Masonic Jurisprudence,” he is even more emphatic, saying:—”The truth is, that Masonry is undoubtedly a religious institution, its religion being of that universal kind in which all men agree.” It is scarcely worth while quoting other passages from recognised Masonic writers setting forth that Masonry is a religion—in fact, the universal religion; for what is so readily acknowledged by prominent members of the Lodge need not be denied by outsiders. As Free Presbyterians, we have not charged Freemasonry with being irreligious, as has wrongly been attributed to us, but we have charged it with having a religion that is Christless and, therefore un-Christian. It remains for us now to show the nature of the religion professed by the Lodge. We bring against it three damaging indictments—(1) It is a religion which perpetuates elements of the worship of ancient pagan gods; (2) It is dishonouring to God and to
Jesus Christ; (3) It is composed of the most incongruous elements.
(1) Freemasonry perpetuates elements of the worship of the ancient pagan gods. Mr J. S. M. Ward, the Secretary-General of the Masonic Study Society, and the author of many books on Masonry, has written a work of 400 pages, whose very title speaks for itself—”Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods.” He shows, in this book, that “every bit of Masonic ritual is derived from the religious worship of modern India, ancient Mexico, and the mystery religions of pagan Rome and Egypt” (Hunt’s “Menace,” p. 9). This book contains the glaringly pagan sentiment and damaging indictment against the religion of the Lodge when the writer says:—”The Hindoo conception of the Deity [is] the same as that taught in our Lodges.” Mr Hunt, after his exhaustive examination of Masonic literature, writes thus:—”Freemasonry is simply Theosophy. It is the perpetuation of the worship of the old pagan gods of ancient Egypt, Greece, India, etc., among English-speaking peoples. While the missionary is seeking to carry Christianity into Eastern lands, the pagan gods are taking their revenge by establishing themselves, through Masonry, under the veil of secrecy, throughout the West. The contention is that God revealed Himself ages ago, long before the Christian era, to the whole world; that there is no essential difference between the gods of this land or of that” (“Menace,” p. 6).
(2) The religion of the Lodge is dishonouring to (a) God and (b) to Jesus Christ. The God of the Christian is the living and true God, besides whom there is no other. It is daring impiety and reveals a mind steeped in darkness when anyone attempts to place alongside of Him any other God, and especially one that is a god only in the imagination of the deluded worshipper. The Christian’s God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Christian is not at liberty to acknowledge the God of the Unitarian, still less of the Jew or the Mohammedan. Yet Masonry has no objection to these gods. It says to the Christian Mason, you may have your distinctive Christian view about your God outside the Lodge, but you are not to bring it in here. We are too broad-minded, says the Lodge, for the narrow view of God entertained by the Christian. In the Lodge we acknowledge the God of the Jew, the Mohammedan, etc. Is this an exaggeration of the real situation, or is this sober truth? Let us hear what
Masons have to say on the subject. Mackey, in his “Lexicon,” says:—”The religion, then, of Masonry is pure theism, in which its different members engraft their own peculiar opinions; but they are not permitted to introduce them into the Lodge, or to connect their truth or falsehood with the truth of Masonry” (p. 404). “So broad,” says another authority, Robert Morris, in his Webb’s Monitor of Freemasonry, “is the religion of Masonry, and so carefully are all sectarian tenets excluded from the system, that the Christian, the Jew, the Mohammedan, in all their numberless sects and divisions, may, and do harmoniously combine in its moral and intellectual work with the Buddhist, the Parsee, the Confucian and the worshipper of Diety under every form” (p. 280). And lest it be objected that these are American writers, though the objection is pointless, because two years ago the Provincial Grand Master visited the U.S.A. Lodges, carrying with him a letter by the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, expressing cordial relationships between the English and American Lodges (Hunt’s Menace, p. 11), it may be advisable to quote from English writers. Here is what Hutchinson, in his “Spirit of Freemasonry,” says:—”All Masons, therefore, whether Christian, Jew or Mohammedan . . . although we take different routes . . . we mean to travel to the same place. . . . We know that the end of our journey is the same.” This book received the sanction of the Grand Lodge as an authoritative exposition of Freemasonry in 1802. Now what are we to make of a religion that plays fast and loose with the claims of the only living and the true God like this? We picture to ourselves a Moses, a Jeremiah, an Isaiah, an Elijah thundering against the Craft with words that would burn as fire in the consciences of members of the Lodge. Anything said at our Synod was far too tame when we think of the enormity of the dishonour done to God by the religion of the Lodge. What is all the lip service to Him as the Great Architect of the Universe if He is not given His rightful place as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? But we have another very serious charge to bring against this religion, viz., that it dishonours Christ, and we have the authority of the Great Judge who shall decide the issues on the Great Day that “he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him” (John v. 23), and no amount of so-called honour paid to God, though it be continued till the Day of Doom, if the Son is not honoured in like
manner can be anything else but barren and is already sentenced by the Judge of the whole earth.
(b) The religion of the Lodge dishonours Christ. Any acknowledgment made to Christianity in the religion of Freemasonry was eliminated in 1723, when the Grand Lodge formed in 1717 drew up its new Constitution. Prior to this date the religion of Freemasonry was a mixture of Paganism and Christianity. The chilling breath of Deism was withering vital religion, and the Deists though very broad-minded gentlemen in many things, were excessively narrow-minded and bigoted as far as Christianity—we mean true religion—was concerned. In fact they were—to quote Dr Johnson’s biting jibe—bigots to laxness. Now, though it was thought that the Christian element had been carefully excluded from Masonry, it was found that there were still elements lurking there—so the good Masons set in search for the leaven with a keenness and thoroughness that would have done credit to any orthodox Jew seeking for the old leaven before the great Passover Feast. Freemasonry had been broken up under two central authorities, but now when the last elements of Christianity were excluded, they came together in 1823. Here is the decision:—”It is declared and pronounced that Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz., those of the Entered Apprentices, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.” The man who gets credit for this open dishonour to the Christian religion was the Duke of Sussex, an open and an avowed Deist. We shall see later on that in the prayers of the Lodge Christ’s blessed name is excluded: the name of Him through whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. In two passages of Scripture in connection with the ritual of the Mark Master Degree and the Royal Arch Degree the name of Jesus is deliberately and intentionally omitted. These are I. Pet. ii. 5, and II. Thes. iii. 6-16. Why should His name be razed from the place where the Holy Ghost has placed it? What daring mind planned it, and what hand carried it out? Masonry says to the Christian Mason, you may honour your Saviour, but you are not to bring Him into the Lodge. The best and kindest Friend that ever the believer met may accompany him to the door of the Lodge, but into the Lodge the Beloved of the Father must not enter. Oh, Christian men! if you have parted with Him there once, can you
ever do it again? Will you bind yourself to a system by the most solemn oaths that treats your Lord and Master so. If it is a question between Christ and the Lodge—let the Lodge go and cleave to Christ. This is all that was implied by the discussion at the Synod. And shall we, as believers, be ashamed to vindicate the honour of His name and maintain His cause though Masonry was ten million times stronger than it is? Unitarianism robs Him of His Deity, but Freemasonry will not acknowledge Him at all in any sense worthy of the name. It gives the cold-shoulder, deliberately and intentionally, to the well-beloved of God. In support of the foregoing contention read the following taken from the “Treasury of Masonic Thought.” The book was issued by the Masons of Dundee to raise money for the erection of a new temple in the city. The following quotation is from an article by Dr Churchward, and the volume has a preface by the Rev. W. Paxton, F.R.S., who is now pastor of Great George Street Congregational Church, Liverpool:—”It is a Christian belief,” says the writer, “that life and immortality were brought to light, and death, the last enemy, was destroyed by a personal Jesus only 1923 years ago, whereas the same revelation had been accredited to Horus, the anointed at least 300,000 years before. . . . The Egyptians, who were the authors of the Mysteries . . . did not pervert the meaning by an ignorant literalisation of mythical matters, and had no Fall to encounter in the Christian sense. Consequently they had no need of a Redeemer from the effects of that which never occurred. They did not rejoice over the death of their suffering Saviour, because his agony and shame and bloody sweat were falsely supposed to rescue them from the consequences of broken laws” (quoted in Hunt’s “Menace,” p. 40).
(3) The religion of the Lodge is composed of the most incongruous elements. It is generally speaking described as the religion of all good men, whatever that may mean. In its worship so-called Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, Unitarians, Deists, Confucians, etc., are all bound together by the most solemn oaths, and have fellowship in religious worship. Dr Mackey, in his Text-book explains the reason of this, and coming from a Masonic authority, no Mason can object to it:—”The precepts of Jesus,” he says, “could not have been made obligatory on a Jew; a Christian would have denied the sanctions of the Koran; a Mohammedan must have re-
jected the law of Moses, and a disciple of Zoroaster would have turned from all the teachings of his Zend Avesta. The universal law of nature, which the authors of the old charges have properly called the moral law, is, therefore, the only law suited in every respect to be adopted as the Masonic code.” The Deism of Freemasonry comes out glaringly in this quotation. The “moral law,” as understood by Freemasonry, is not the Decalogue, but “the universal law of nature.”
The more we probe into the religion of Freemasonry the more do we feel that half enough was not said against it at the Synod. Though the hue and cry raised throughout the land against us by Masons, as if we were a set of obscure, bigoted, ignorant men, was great, we hope whatever else may be said about us, they will not now charge us with ignorance on this particular subject at any rate, and we may be able to turn the tables on our critics and show that it is they who were befogged, and because of their plight were incapable of realising their own dense ignorance.
(To be continued.)