(The following are extracts from a diary of the late Mr. Harley, who was a member of the Free Presbyterian Church Congregation in Edinburgh).
Sabbath, 21st July, 1934—In the interval between Church services reading the second chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, very pleasant reflections, especially upon verse eight, engaged my mind for a space. My attention was wholly absorbed in admiration of the wisdom of God in redemption through a Saviour already come: divine goodness was specially manifested to the New Testament Church in this superior privilege. Confessed in my heart also how agreeable it was to God’s glory that He should accept from man that worship only which he has prescribed in His Word. I believe that these thoughts which held captive my imagination on the Lord’s Day, were blessed communications of God’s presence, enlarging me with the joy of salvation.
The rudiments or first principles in natural religion may be considered insufficient in efficacy to guide men to salvation; for though natural light teaches that a supreme being should be worshipped, the darkness which surrounds men forms an impenetrable veil to communion. “Who can by searching find out God?” Man therefore wanders in error and ignorance till the light of the glory of God shines in His Son.
The lamentable bias of the unregenerate leads him to devise ways of his own whereby to please God and propitiate justice, and to rely upon his own inventions and good works as a righteousness in opposition to the grace of the gospel.
The Colossians, the objects of the Apostle’s very tender regard, learn from him that, by abiding in Christ,—rooted and built up in Him—their salvation proceeds. The doctrines and traditions of the world, though they may entertain a show of wisdom, bear no message of salvation, nor do they lay a sure foundation for hope, and raise the soul humbled by a sense of its sinfulness.
The imaginations of natural men tend to cleave to the elements of the world, the tangible things perceived by the senses, rather than to the verities of faith, whose place is in the heart.
Under the worldly sanctuary the Church in her tutelage partook of righteousness, learned of Christ, and were favoured with views of God’s grace. Thus believers in Israel partook of the first fruits as they traced the unseen out of the visible; the divine blessing on appointed aids confirmed patience and hope: in spirit they ascended to heaven in the cloud of the symbolic.
When faith came and the day of the gospel dawned, the Church advanced beyond the darkness and the shadow of the ceremonial into the glory of a more full age and stature in Christ; and the elements or rudiments find no place in the life of faith. They but oppose Christ, and set up rivals to Him in their own hearts; not beholding the beauty and majesty of the substance who follow after effete ceremonies and shadows for their hope.
Services merely of man’s appointment, whatever their praise, fail of the honour of edification, else the soul would be made perfect by the flesh. The enrichments of the inner life and progress in holiness come through channels of which God is the author: ordinances only of divine sanction will command the blessing of the sovereign Spirit. The soul which has experienced the new birth, rejecting those elements which perish in the using, will repair to Him in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and be fully satisfied in that plenitude which is freely opened up and exhibited to believers through the grace of the new Covenant. “Ye are complete in Him.” (To be continued.)