THIS Fellowship Meeting was conducted in the Oban Free Presbyterian Church on 30th October, 1903. It was conducted in the same manner as it is conducted to-day in that congregation—the first part was devoted to Gaelic and the latter part to English. The time which the meeting lasted was from 6.30 p.m. to 10.20 p.m. The presiding minister opened the question, and another minister closed the question. The notes were taken by Mr. Duncan MacKenzie who afterwards became minister of Gairloch and Kames. He himself was one of the speakers but kept no record of what he himself said.
Mr. Kenneth Beaton, retired farmer, Oban, gave out the question, which was John x. 14: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” Marks were asked of those who know the good Shepherd, as distinct from those who know Him only in name.
GAELIC SPEAKERS.
Mr. Andrew Cameron, elder.—Sheep are at times excluded by gates from rich pastures—there are clover fields, and the sheep wait at the gates. Christ’s sheep wait at the gates till He opens the gates for them, for they cannot open these gates themselves. Then they get a taste of the pasture and they know that it is the Shepherd’s own provision. A little boy was once asked the best word he liked in his father’s prayer, and he said, “Amen.” He wished to get away from prayer. At one time Christ’s sheep were like that when their consciences were awakened, as Adam when he fell. He hid himself from the Lord. They wished to get away from God’s presence, away from holiness. But when God comes to them in power, and they in prison, and manifests Himself to them, their language is: “Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Thee.” On their deliverance from prison they taste of God’s love, and the fruit of that love is love to God Himself, and love to His people, and love to all that belongs to Him.
Mr. Angus Macdonald, Oban.—”Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” Christ’s people are a tired people, a sorrowful people, but He says to them: “Let not your heart be troubled.” Christ’s love in their souls constrains them to live to Himself. They have their fears, for Christ says: Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In regeneration, God made known to them their lost state, and they never lose sight of the fall. They desire to live above the world: “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” “Set your affections on things above.” Their “life is hid with Christ in God.”
A. MacKenzie, Ontario, Canada.—Christ’s sheep have the spirit of thankfulness. They give thanks to the Father for the benefits of redemption: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” They were in darkness but the true light shined into their hearts. It is the Holy Spirit in the truth that revealed to them their lost state. They were in the “pit,” but God took them out, and enabled them to hope in Christ—to meet with Christ. Then they found themselves in a new world. They did not close in with Christ unknown to themselves. The Spirit of adoption is given to Christ’s sheep. Some of them attain to the faith of assurance. They believe that God loved them with an everlasting love.
Captain James Dawson, Elder, Oban.—They at times find themselves as beasts in the presence of the Holy One. When a sifting process is going on in them—the chaff being removed from the wheat—their language is: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life,” and “Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee.” However black they may see themselves, and however withered they may feel themselves to be, they will not cast away their hope. The weak hope they have, they will not give up for the whole world. They entreat God to fulfil His promises to them.
Mr. William Campbell, Elder, Glendale, Skye.—Christ’s sheep are poor and afflicted. They feel themselves empty of all good. They hunger and thirst after righteousness. They set their seal to what is said of Christ in the Scriptures. In their straits they go to God’s Word. Some of them are all their lifetime subject to bondage, and it is good to be in that state itself.
Captain MacKenzie, Deacon, Oban.—There is no doubt about the fact that the Shepherd knows the sheep, but the sheep often doubt if they are the Shepherd’s. But the Shepherd knows His sheep. He opens their eyes and their hearts. Then they give heed to the things spoken concerning the Shepherd as Lydia did. It would be no good to sheep to be on a field of gravel. God’s sheep feel at times as if in a condition like that. But beside this field of gravel there is a rich park, beautiful and well-watered—the very best. The Lord leads them there—even to the mysteries of His blessed Word, and they taste of the sweetness thereof. When an animal gets into a rich pasture he must get many a stroke before he leaves it. So it is with God’s own—they get many a stroke from the enemy and from their own hearts to drive them away from the rich pastures in which they feed. They are unwilling to leave it for it is pleasant to their taste.
ENGLISH SPEAKERS.
Mr. Angus MacDougall, Elder, Oban.—Christ’s sheep have come to know the Shepherd as their surety—as one who took their place. In the salvation of a soul a miracle of grace is performed; and no one can perform a miracle but God only. They know themselves as self-destroyed and that the wages of sin is death. They know the deceitfulness of their heart. They are at times afraid of making shipwreck of their faith. But it is very comforting for them to know that they were chosen of God. They decide by grace to serve the Lord. They are a hungry people and a thirsty people:—”My soul for God, the living God, doth thirst” (Ps. xlii. 2).
Mr. Duncan Crawford, Elder, Oban.—All the knowledge the sheep have of Christ their Shepherd is of Divine teaching, the teaching of the Spirit through the Word. They are willing to give Him the honour and the glory for all that He has been pleased to reveal to them, by the Holy Spirit, of Himself. They were in their spiritual graves, and it was He who took them out of these graves: “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins.” They were dead; they set their seal to the truth of that. Who made the difference? God who is rich in mercy.
They remember the hole of the pit from which they were taken, and the rock from which they were cut. They sorrow after a godly sort. Do they sorrow because the eye of man is upon them and because they cannot sin in the presence of man? No! that is the sorrow of the world that worketh death. They have sorrow in connection with the curse they have brought upon themselves and do feel that God would be just supposing He had cast them to everlasting ruin. But that is not so much the element of their sorrow as the dishonour their sins, past and present, do to God. The sight they have got of their guilt and its effects make them exclaim with the Psalmist: “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.”
They cannot help loving Christ. It follows as a matter of necessity that they cannot help loving Him. Then they cannot help keeping His commandments. If there is love to God there must be an expression of that love, and that expression is obedience to the Shepherd. “If ye love me keep my commandments.” Their obedience at best is short of what it ought to be. They love all that belongs to Christ, all that belongs to His glory. They know His voice. Where did He speak to them? In His Word. That is the voice of the Good Shepherd. They love His house: “A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.” They have particular and common marks. There are marks that are common to all the flock. Sin is a sore burden to them. They soon understand under Divine teaching that sin is not eradicated out of their nature. As they grow in grace, they grow correspondingly in their knowledge of sin. It is a bad sign if the sense of indwelling sin is getting less. They are not of the world in the measure they are able to walk according to the profession they make. The world judges them strange, because they don’t run with them, and because of that they speak evil of them. A certain person said, God’s children wished to die, (1) To the law, by which they had already been killed; (2) To sin in all its emotions; (3) To self and every selfishness; (4) To the world in all its riches and honours and allurements and smiles. That is just what Christ’s sheep desire.