Communions.
March: First Sabbath, Ullapool; second, Portree and Ness; third, Finabay; fourth, Kinlochbervie; fifth, North Tolsta. April: First Sabbath, Portnalong, Achmore and Stoer; second, Fort William; third, Greenock; fourth, Glasgow and Wick. South African Mission—The following are the dates of the Communions:—Last Sabbath of March, June, September and December. Note.—Notice of any additions to, or alterations of, the above dates of Communions should be sent to the Editor.
London Communion.
—In connection with the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper on Sabbath, the 24th March, the following services have been arranged (D.V.) to be conducted by the Rev. R. R. Sinclair, Wick; and the Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale, Isle of Skye, at Eccleston Hall, Eccleston Street, Buckingham Palace Road, London, S.W.1:—Thursday, 21st March, 7 p.m. (English). Friday, 22nd March, 3.30 p.m. (Gaelic), 7 p.m. (Fellowship Meeting). Saturday, 23rd March, 3.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sabbath, 24th March, 11 a.m. (English), 3.45 p.m. (Gaelic) and 7 p.m. (English). Monday, 25th March, 3.30 p.m. (Gaelic) and 7 p.m. (English).
Subscriptions to the Magazines.
—As the financial year for the Magazine ends on 31st March, subscriptions are now due. The subscriptions remain the same as last year, viz.: 4s. post free for the Free Presbyterian Magazine and 2/6 post free for the Young People’s Magazine. Owing to the increased cost of paper and printing materials it may be necessary to reduce the number of pages of these Magazines in the near future but due intimation will be made if this is necessary.
Day of Humiliation and Prayer.
—At a meeting of the Northern Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, held in Dingwall on the 30th ult., it was unanimously agreed to in view of the state of war which broke out on September 3rd, 1939, and the deplorable manifest lack of acknowledging the person of Christ and His claims both in Church and State that Tuesday the 28th day of March be observed as a Day of Humiliation and Prayer throughout the bounds of the Northern Presbytery.—D. J. Matheson, Clerk of the Northern Presbytery.
Notice to Conveners of Standing Committees.
—Conveners of the Standing Committees of the Synod are reminded that, by the Synod’s decision, the Reports of their Committees are to be presented to and approved by the respective Committees and further that the Reports should be in the hands of the Clerk of Synod (Rev. Robert R. Sinclair) not less than one calendar month before the meeting of Synod so that they may be printed and issued with the agenda paper.
Greenock Manse Purchase Fund.
—On behalf of the Greenock Congregation, I wish to thank all kind friends at home and abroad for the generous financial help our congregation received in defraying the debt on our Manse. It is now clear of debt. “The Lord is good to Israel.” The Lord has marvellously supported the Free Presbyterian Church for the last forty-six years. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18). A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His providence. “And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. i. 22, 23). “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts” (Haggai, ii. 8). The cattle upon a thousand hills are His by creation, and right-of disposal. When the gospel takes possession of the soul of the sinner it will make him liberal, considerate, and compassionate towards his fellow man, but particularly towards the cause of Christ. Then is fulfilled the saying: “But the liberal deviseth liberal things: and by liberal things shall he stand” (Isai. xxxii. 8). It is by their fruit men are known, and not by a loud, empty profession. The miser may close his heart against the cause of Christ as Nabal hardened his heart against the cause of the Lord in the days of David. “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” Nabal died the death of a villian. A solemn warning to those who assume Nabal’s attitude towards the cause of Christ. A professed follower of the Lamb of God who acts niggardly towards the cause of Christ is a cheat like Ananias, or like Sapphira, his wife. “But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” (Acts, v. iii.). The Lord’s people can truly say with the Psalmist: “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Ps. exix. 72). The generosity of some of our people has been outstandingly noble, praiseworthy, and singularly unselfish! It was to the Lord they were giving, and not to man. That is the true, and Christian spirit. There may have been a few individuals who were weak-minded enough in giving unnecessary gifts to some because of their supposed popularity, but that type was never numerous, nor outstanding in graces, nor in mental attainments in our Church. The Church has been graciously protected by the Most High from such men. The efforts the Free Presbyterian people have made in buying and building Churches, Manses, Mission Halls at home, in our South African Mission, and in Canada, has been truly unique. “So builded we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth” (Neh. iv., vi., vii). The people have been true, and faithful to the cause of Christ. The property belongs to the people as long as they will adhere to the Constitution of their Church. When ministers, office-bearers, and adherents move beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution they cease to have legal or moral claim to a fragment of the property. May the blessed Spirit lead by faith our dear people into the unsearchable riches of Christ.—James MacLeod.