THERE is perhaps no ministry in Christendom which receives such thorough training as the Presbyterian. Since the days of John Knox and his great successor, Andrew Melville, great stress was laid on the scholastic training of the ministry. And in later times the same might be said of the Church of the Disruption Fathers. The scholarship of the Free Church ministry was of a high order and there were men in the theological chairs whose fame as scholars spread far beyond their native land. One has only to mention a few of these such as Dr. Chalmers, Principal Cunningham, Dr. John Duncan and Professor Smeaton to realise what giants there were in the land in those days. These men used their learning in the exposition of the truth and in defence of the faith once delivered to the saints. Scholarship kept in its own sphere may not only be an ornament but a very useful instrument in repelling attacks made by enemies of the truth. Ripe scholarship may be not only useful but very beautiful when its garnered treasures are laid at the feet of the Lord Jesus but it becomes a terrible instrument in the hands of Satan when it puffs up men with high ideas of themselves and when it arrogantly takes upon itself to daringly attack the outposts and citadel of the faith. We pay becoming tribute to gifts and learning when these are used in the right direction but the older we grow the more do we fear the blind indiscriminating worship paid to gifts and scholarship even by some of the Lord’s people. That the world should make much of these is not to be wondered at but those who are taught by the Holy Spirit should never allow themselves to deify or make gods of these. For we must never forget that these at their best are only natural gifts and they can never take the place of the Holy Spirit. If the possessor of these gifts is not taught by the Spirit of God, born again and renewed in his heart, all these will prove very useless in the end. That such is the case we have only to appeal to the facts of history. Take for instance the Disruption Free Church itself which had as we have already pointed out men of great attainments and scholarship controlled and in subjection to grace and how useful they proved as defenders of the faith but the moment when scholarship became more than grace that day the doom of the once noble Free Church of Scotland was sealed. No one can read the life of Professor Robertson Smith, written by men who were in full sympathy with his unbelieving views, without feeling here is scholarship haughtily claiming a place and sneeringly fencing with men who might be lacking in learning but whose state before God no man could question. The haughtiness of this brilliant scholar is a prominent feature in his appearances before his Presbytery and the General Assembly. Whenever scholarship assumes this disdainful attitude to God’s true servants we have no hesitation in characterising it as an instrument of the devil and the sad harvest reaped in connection with the foregoing case is a warning to the professing Church of Christ throughout Christendom for this thing was not done in a corner. The moment that learning was given a place in the Church to which it had no right it became a usurper and if death had not been already stealing over a section of the Church it would have seen to it that the usurper would be taught to keep its place. It is one of the saddest things in the history of our land to trace the downfall of the Free Church by its deification of scholarship. And if it was real, sound scholarship, one could understand how some might be carried away by it but when it was the vagaries of a Wellhausen masquerading in its name one begins to wonder what use men were making of their commonsense when they became worshippers of it. Scotland to-day is reaping the fruits of this subtle movement of the devil. He tried it in the Garden of Eden and succeeded and he is trying it again suggesting to men that by this way they shall become as gods. The mere scholar may draw on his resources and make a true believer the laughing stock of many but all the while the former may be serving unconsciously the devil. The New Testament is full of warning against falling into these snares and one has only to examine the fruits reaped from such a sowing to see the necessity for such warnings. In this connection one of the most dangerous cases is that where a truly gracious scholar may use his scholarship in a direction that disturbs and shakes the faith of those whom the Lord redeemed. We, who speak, teach or write, have need of special grace to guide us and the prayer that the Lord would keep us from giving utterance to anything that would be detrimental to His truth ought always to be on our lips. As a Church we have always given a due place to scholarship when it is on the side of Christ but we hope the day will never come when there will arise in the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church men who give more place to scholarship than grace. It is not a good sign when one’s judgment is swayed to the scholar’s side for no other reason than he is a scholar. We have thought it advisable to set down these points in view of the danger with which the faith once delivered to the saints is threatened in our day. One would think because a man is a scholar therefore he is to be looked up to and listened to apart from any heavenly endowments and graces. We trust the young people of the Free Presbyterian Church will not be led captive by such subtle tactics of the devil. We expect the office-bearers of our Church to have more common sense than to be carried away by views that have wrecked other Churches. Let us give learning its place, viz., at the feet of the Lord Jesus and if it is kept there it will not produce that proud, disdainful and argumentative spirit that shows too plainly that it has not come from heaven.
I am confounded with wonder to think what it shall be, when the Fairest among the sons of men shall lay a King’s sweet soft cheek to the sinful cheeks of poor sinners. O time, time, go swiftly, and hasten that day! Sweet Lord Jesus, post! come flying like a young hart or a roe upon the mountains of separation. I think that we should count the hours carefully, and look often how low the sun is.—Samuel Rutherford.