THE life-story of individuals and the history of churches have invariably many lessons for those who wisely ponder over the story when certain chapters have been written. It is a long time to look back to 1893. What changes have taken place in the world since then; our country has been plunged into three wars—the South African, the first World War and the present which is being waged with such intensity, when millions of human beings are being launched into eternity. During this period great ecclesiastical changes have taken place in Scotland. In 1900 the Declaratory Act Free Church and the United Presbyterian came together—the present Free Church refusing to enter the newly formed denomination. Then came the staggering blow of the House of Lord’s decision in 1905 when the stricken reeling under its effect spoke foolishly instead of laying to heart that it was their own doings that disestablished their own Church more effectively than all the ineffective speculating of Principals, Rainy and Hutton against the Church of Scotland. The chief culprits assumed the role of martyrs and proclaimed themselves to be such but there were others in Scotland who read in the crushing blow under which they staggered the just reward for their ecclesiastically engineered tactics. As Principal Rainy said there was something wrong somewhere and there were not a few in Scotland who had no hesitation in putting their finger on what was wrong and who was the cause of it. In 1929 the majority of the United Free Church which had prominently displayed the Voluntary principle flag at its masthead joined with the Established Church forming the Church of Scotland. The future historian will, in all likelihood, regard such a conversion as one of the ironies of Scottish ecclesiastical history. Whatever may be said of the present United Free Church this at any rate may be said they showed more consistency in this matter than their brethren who joined the Church of Scotland. So in Church and State, though there were no other happenings than these remarkable things, history was being made.
During these eventful years the Free Presbyterian Church held on her way under the good providence of God, meeting the storms that met her on the voyage and while some waves struck her with more force than others the little vessel did not founder and is still bearing witness in defence of truths for which she came into existence.
When their long journey in the wilderness was coming to an end Moses addressed the Israelites in these moving words: “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. viii. 2, 3). Surely if ever there was a people that had reason to call to mind the Lord’s wonderful dealings with them it was the people addressed and should not we as Free Presbyterians listen to this call and meditate with gratitude on all the ways the Lord dealt with us since our beginning in 1893.
As Free Presbyterians we are never allowed to think too much of ourselves or our preachers for whenever we do so we get something to remind us that this is not the way to glorify the God who led us all these years in the wilderness. Whenever we give the glory to man that should be given to God we have to pay a penalty that is not pleasant for men who are ready to be governed by the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God which is not only contrary to but antagonistic to it, and which comes down from above. Those who remember the days when our fathers left the Declaratory Act Church look back with wistful feelings. A band of godly men and godly women, bowed down in Egyptian bondage, had been delivered from it and what peace and harmony reigned among us! These were happy days and is it any wonder that some of us would like to feel once again the harmony and love that then prevailed? But we must be careful not to be carried away by the glamour of the things that are past. We are in danger of idealising the days that are gone. Never have there been such beautiful summers as the summers of our youth—how pleasant and what sunshine there was in those days! So we say to ourselves; but let us turn to God’s Word to see what it has to say about such wistful moralisings as these—”Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this” (Eccles. vii. 10). These words seem to indicate that they are a reminder to those who put such a question that God is the planner of the present as well as the past, the One who orders the dark days as well as the bright days. The wisdom of man is here set over against God’s wisdom and is antagonistic to it. Sin has caused such an upheaval in man’s soul that he is continually misinterpreting and misjudging God’s wisdom. The happy days and the dark days are all part of a divine plan for His Church and for His people in which He is making all things work together for their good.
One has only to turn over the earlier volumes of our Magazine and read the obituaries of men and women who are now in heaven to get some idea of the ripe harvest the Lord reaped from the Free Presbyterian Church. And despite all who hold the contrary the Free Presbyterian Church was honoured at home and in the Mission Field by the Lord of the Harvest and as long as He has a people within her borders whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and whom He has decreed to be called through the instrumentality of the Free Presbyterian Church God will send the messenger and the message there whatever the devil and his emissaries may say or do.
Questions have risen at times in connection with various matters which have caused considerable controversy. In the Free Mason and Dancing con-
traversies the attitude of the Church gave a hard blow to certain idols which were worshipped with intense devotion. The press of the country rose almost en masse against us and glib-tongued press men thought they would crush our Church with their pens and bring us to a sanity as unquestionable as their own. They made the mistake of their lives. We were ridiculed from Land’s End to John O’ Groat’s in this country and even in the U.S.A. and Canada as some of the most benighted people in the civilized world. The Church went on with her witness and laughed them to scorn. Some from among ourselves have wished for wider freedom and sought it where they were likely to get it. Others, again, who thought us far too lax on certain points also left us and after wandering for a time in an ecclesiastical no-man’s land found a resting place for their faithful souls in Churches which, to say the least of it, were not so strict as the Church they left.
It may be necessary to remind some of our critics that the noble Free Church of 1843 was rent from top to bottom by the Union Controversy in her 30th year; for there seems an idea in the mind of some that there have been no controversies so intense as those which have beset the Free Presbyterian Church. The Union Controversy shook the Church to its very foundations and it is a well known fact that another Disruption was contemplated and preparation made for carrying it out. We have weathered the storm since 1893 and neither in number of ministers nor in the means to support them are we as weak as some of those who prophesied evil told us we would be. In the meantime we say nothing more about these false prophets—major and minor but hope to make some reference to their prophecies later on.
Meantime let our people give thanks to God for all that He did for us in the past and for what He is still doing for us. On our side there are many things we have to confess with shame but notwithstanding all this let our prayer for the Free Presbyterian Church be:—
“Therefore, I wish that peace may still
Within thy walls remain,
And ever may thy palaces
Prosperity retain.
Now, for my friend’s and brethren’s sakes
Peace be in thee I’ll say.
And for the house of God our Lord,
I’ll seek thy good always”
(Scottish Metrical Psalm, exxii. 7-9).