By Andrew Thomson, DD.
Continued from page 175 in the last issue
Questions Nos. 94 to 122 (some of which have been edited)
NOTE: This instalment, in continuing to deal with the qualifications which one ought to possess in order to partake of the Lord’s Supper, now deals with the qualification of love. As the answer to Question No. 63 shows, these qualifications “are such as are prescribed in Scripture, or suggested by the nature and ends of the ordinance; and may be reduced under these five heads — Knowledge, Faith, Repentance, Love, and New Obedience.” (See the May issue for a biographical footnote about Andrew Thomson).
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Q. To whom is our love to be exercised?
A. To God, to Jesus, and to our fellow men. -
Q. Why should we love God?
A. Because He is possessed of all amiable perfections, and because “he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). -
Q. Why should we love Jesus?
A. Because He is “the brightness of the Father’s glory” (Hebrews 1: 3), and because He gave Himself for us to the cursed death of the cross. -
Q. Should not you love your God and Saviour supremely?
A. Yes: “with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). -
Q. What is the best proof of your love to God?
A. “Keeping His commandments” is the only substantial and satisfying proof that I can give. -
Q. Why should you have this love to God and Jesus in order to your worthily partaking of the Lord’s Supper?
A. Because the want of it shows that I am not properly acquainted with the divine character, that I have not a just sense of the value of my Redeemer’s sacrifice, and that I am not qualified for holding “fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1: 3), whose love to the Church is commemorated in this ordinance. -
Q. Why should we love our fellow men?
A. Because they are under the same dispensation of grace, and because we are expressly commanded to do so by our Saviour. -
Q. Should you love all your fellow men alike?
A. No: I must have a particular affection for those who are of “the household of faith”; for those who have the image of God renewed in their hearts, who believe in Christ, and obey His Gospel. -
Q. But must you not love the rest of mankind also with a sincere affection?
A. Yes: whatever be their name, their kindred, their character, or their circumstances, I must feel towards them sentiments of kindness and liberality; I must refrain from doing them any injury; I must relieve their distresses, when I can; I must do them all the good that lies in my power. -
Q. Is not particular stress laid in Scripture on that branch of love or charity which is usually termed forgiveness of injuries?
A. Yes: our Saviour has said, “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14, 15). -
Q. What do you particularly conclude from this at present?
A. I conclude that it is peculiarly unbecoming to go to the Lord’s Table with a spirit of revenge because our Saviour has said, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother has ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go my way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matthew 5: 23, 24). -
Q. Must not your love to men be chiefly expressed in endeavours to promote their spiritual and eternal welfare?
A. Certainly: their souls are infinitely more precious than their bodies, and their eternal than their temporal interests: if, therefore, I love them at all, I must be principally concerned, as far as my instructions, my example, and my prayers will go, to make them “wise unto salvation.” -
Q. Why must you love especially your brethren “of the household of faith”, in order to partake worthily of the Lord’s Supper?
A. Because this ordinance is only for the disciples of Christ, and He has made brotherly love the very test of our discipleship to Him. “By this,” says He, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). And, besides, there is a great absurdity, as well as gross presumption, in professing to celebrate the memorials of His love to us, at the very time our hearts are burning with hatred, or cold with indifference, towards any of those for whom He died. -
Q. What do you understand by new obedience?
A. Such a pious and holy deportment, such an abstinence from what is sinful, and such a pursuit of what is good and praiseworthy, as is prescribed in the Word of God, and as the graces of faith, repentance and love are naturally fitted to produce in the case of those in whom these graces have been really and effectually wrought. -
Q. Why is this obedience called new obedience?
A. Because it is the obedience which the true Christian is enabled to yield in consequence of his being regenerated, or becoming what is termed in Scripture, “a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). -
Q. Is regeneration a doctrine of Scripture?
A. Yes: our Saviour said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), and Paul says, “Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:4). -
Q. What is the moral state of man previously to his being regenerated?
A. He is backward to good and prone to evil: his heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, (Jeremiah 17:9); in his flesh dwelleth no good thing, (Romans 7:18); he is dead in trespasses and sins, (Ephesians 2:1); etc. -
Q. What is the general change that takes place when he is brought from this state of corruption?
A. It is described by Paul in these words, addressed to the Ephesians, “That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). -
Q. By whom is this change wrought?
A. It is wrought by the Holy Spirit of God. -
Q. Is the manner of His operation known to us?
A. No: but that is no reason for doubting of the fact, which is clearly stated in the Scriptures, and is evidenced by the effects which are produced; as our Saviour Himself argued with Nicodemus, “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” [where it will] “and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). -
Q. Are not all the graces of the divine life ascribed to the operation of the Holy Spirit?
A. Yes: both their formation and their improvement are ascribed to Him; and hence we read not only of the “renewing of the Holy Ghost,” but also of the, “sanctification of the Spirit” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). -
Q. What is the conduct of those who have experienced this change, and are said to yield new obedience?
A. They are “dead unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:13). “They exercise themselves to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men” (Acts 24:16). They are righteous before God, seeking to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless (Luke 1:6). They strive to be “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” and to “live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:12), etc. -
Q. Must not your obedience to God be the obedience of the heart, as well as of the external conduct?
A. Undoubtedly: according to the uniform language of Scripture, it is the heart which God principally requires, and if that be withheld from Him, everything else is vain and worthless in His sight. -
Q. Must not your obedience be yielded from right principles and motives?
A. Yes: if my principles and motives are worldly, impure, or condemned in Scripture, it is evident that the actions flowing from them cannot be acceptable to God. My obedience must proceed, not from a desire to “be
seen of men,” or to “make gain of godliness,” but from a profound regard to the authority and glory of God, from a sincere attachment to my Lord and Saviour, from a serious view to the rewards and punishments of a future state, and from other considerations of a similar kind. -
Q. Must not your obedience be universal?
A. Yes: the divine law being the only rule by which I ought to regulate my thoughts and actions, and that law admitting of no sinful indulgence and no neglect of duty, I must study to “cleanse myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1), and to be made “perfect in every good work to do the will of God” (Hebrews 13:21). -
Q. Must not your obedience be constant and progressive?
A. Yes: I must be “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58); and be in the path which “is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). -
Q. In order to partake worthily of the Lord’s Supper, is it necessary to have your obedience in that state of perfection in which you have now described it?
A. No: I should, indeed, study always to obey God as perfectly as His law requires; but as the Lord’s Supper is itself an appointed and most important mean for enabling me to yield that obedience, I must partake of it with a view to the attainment of that very end. It is a privilege which belongs to those who are “weak” as well as to those who are “strong in the faith” — to those who are “babes” as well as to those who are “perfect men in Christ Jesus.” -
Q. How far then is new obedience necessary in this case?
A. It is necessary thus far: I must be conscious of a dislike to what is sinful, and an earnest wish to forsake it; I must feel a hearty desire to be reconciled to God in Christ, and in Him to be created again unto good works; and I must have formed a sincere resolution, in a humble dependence on divine grace, to be henceforth faithful and conscientious in the discharge of all my various duties. -
Q. Why are these sentiments necessary for communicating worthily?
A. Because the want of them would be most inconsistent with my professed design in partaking of the ordinance of the Supper, which is not only to commemorate, but also to declare my reliance on, the death of Christ, “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14).
How We Are to View and Apprehend Christ
Edward Pearse
(From his work, The Best Match or The Soul’s Espousal to Christ, which is reviewed on page 280).
View and apprehend Him in His Godhead and divine nature. The gospel reveals Him in His divinity. It propounds Him to our faith as God, the true God, the great God, the mighty God, God over all. And thus should faith view and apprehend Him. Thus Thomas’s faith apprehended Him when he said, “My Lord and my God.” Indeed, nothing but a Godhead — an infinite, eternal, unchangeable Godhead — is a foundation strong enough for faith to build upon.
View and apprehend Him in His personal relation, not only as God, but also as God the Son, and so as distinguished from the Father. Thus, the gospel reveals and propounds Him to our faith, and thus also should our faith view and apprehend Him. Thus Peter’s faith, with the rest in whose name he spoke, eyed and apprehended Him: “We believe and are sure, that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God,” John 6: 69. There is a distinct honour due to every person in the sacred Trinity. And the more distinctly our faith views and apprehends Christ in His personal relation as Son, the more complete it is and the more it gives Him the honour of that relation.
View and apprehend Him in His humanity, or as the Son of God incarnate. The gospel reveals and propounds Christ as the object of faith to us, not simply as God, and as God the Son, but as God the Son incarnate, as the Word made flesh, John 1: 14; or, as God manifested in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16; as having taken human nature into personal union with Himself, and so being both God and man in one person. And thus also should faith view and apprehend Him. “You believe in God,” says He, “believe also in Me,” John 14:1. Hence also He speaks so often of believers eating His flesh and drinking His blood, of His giving His flesh for the life of the world. And withal He tells us that His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed. By all which He signifies to us that our faith must respect and apprehend Him as man as well as God, as the Son incarnate: and indeed, thus He is the next and most immediate object of faith. The Godhead or divinity is the ultimate object of faith, but Christ the Son incarnate is the next and most immediate object of faith. Hence we are said by Him to believe in God. Faith first eyes Christ as man, or the Son incarnate, and by Him comes ultimately to focus itself upon God. The humanity is a gate to the divinity; that by which our faith passes to the Godhead. As one divine says, “He that comes not to Christ as man shall never come to Him as God.” The truth is, faith cannot deal with God immediately but as God clothed with our nature.
View and apprehend Him in His office of Mediator. The gospel reveals and propounds Christ to our faith in His office. It propounds and reveals Him as Christ, as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world, as one
sealed, sent, and anointed by the Father for the redemption of lost souls. And thus also should faith eye and apprehend Him. So also did Peter’s faith apprehend Him: “Thou art the Christ,” said he, “the Son of the living God.” Hence we read of “believing that Jesus is the Christ.” Hence also Christ tells the Jews, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” “If ye believe not that I am He,” that is, the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour that was promised. Oh! faith is short of the view it should have of Christ unless it views Him in His office.
View Him and apprehend Him in His infinite ability and sufficiency for the discharge of His office. The gospel reveals and propounds Him to our faith as one able to save to the very uttermost; and our faith should eye and apprehend Him accordingly. It reveals Him indeed both as an only and all-sufficient Saviour. As an only Saviour: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else,” Isaiah 45: 22. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4: 12. And as an all-sufficient Saviour: “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, and he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” It reveals Him in the infinite virtue of His blood, the inexhaustible fulness of His grace, the completeness of His obedience, the excellency of His righteousness, the perfection of His satisfaction, and the like. And thus should our faith eye and apprehend Him. O labour for such an understanding and apprehension of Christ as this, if ever you would believe aright, and be indeed espoused to Christ! Labour for a sound, clear, distinct knowledge of Him as the great object of faith. Pray much for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That was the Apostle’s prayer for the Ephesians, and let it be yours for yourselves. ●
History of the Halkirk and Wick Congregation
Rev. D. M. Boyd
IN May 1893 the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed when a number of ministers, elders and people protested against the passing of a Declaratory Act by the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland which modified the Free Church’s adherence to its principal subordinate standard, The Westminster Confession of Faith. This Confession was the principal subordinate standard of most of the Presbyterian churches worldwide.
The Free Presbyterians formed themselves into a separate Church professing to hold to the original constitution of the Free Church of Scotland which they claimed had now been vitiated by the passing of the Declaratory Act.
In Caithness, there was strong support for the Free Presbyterian Church. There were two principal congregations formed — the Halkirk-Thurso-
Strathy congregation and the Wick congregation. There were separate ministries in these two congregations for most of the 20th century.
On Wednesday 14th July 1897 the Halkirk Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland building was officially opened for public worship with a service conducted by the Rev. John Robertson Mackay, Gairloch, (a native of Strathy and later to become Professor Mackay of the Free Church of Scotland College, Edinburgh). The following day the communion season commenced, at which Mr Mackay was assisted by the Rev. James Steven Sinclair, Glasgow, (who was born in Pulteneytown, Wick, and who was the editor of The Free Presbyterian Magazine for 25 years). The Lord’s Supper was commemorated on the third Sabbath of July, which continued to be the annual date for the observing of the sacrament in the congregation for many years.
At that time, the Halkirk church building was the first and only Free Presbyterian church in Caithness, which had congregations in Wick, Lybster, Dunbeath, Keiss and Halkirk. It cost £410. The internal structure has altered since it was first built. Initially the pulpit was in the centre of the right hand wall upon entering the front door of the church, but now the pulpit faces the door.
From a manuscript by the Rev. William Grant, minister of the Halkirk Congregation from 1926 until 1964, it appears that the congregation was joined to the Helmsdale Free Presbyterian congregation so that the Rev. D. S. Cameron could be settled as the first minister in November 1901. The manuscript reads:
HELMSDALE FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SCOTLAND CONGREGATION
THIS congregation is the direct continuation of the old Free Church of Scotland in Helmsdale ministered to by the eminent Rev John Macdonald who died in 1854.
The passing of the Declaratory Act in 1893 resulted in the formation of this Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland congregation which has continued loyal to the Reformation principles upheld by the Disruption of 1843.
Services were held in the premises of Mr Donald Sutherland, Fishcurer, Shore St, and continued until the present church was built in 1928. In 1901 Helmsdale and Halkirk congregations were united as one charge. Gaelic services were held regularly but ceased some years ago when the Gaelic speaking element died.
Among the early preachers were students and laymen. Later the Revs D Cameron, N Matheson and M Gillies ministered to the joint congregation. The present ministry, that of the Rev Wm Grant, began in 1926 and thus extends over 26 years.
The practice of no instrumental music and the singing of Psalms only in the worship of God is adhered to. Many notable men and women highly respected in the community were members of this small congregation.
Laymen continue to give much helpful assistance in conducting services.
The Helmsdale church building was opened on Wednesday, 16th May 1928.
In May 1983 the Synod approved the union of Strathy with the Halkirk and Thurso Congregation and reduced Helmsdale to a preaching station. The Northern Presbytery, on 21st June 1983, disjoined the Helmsdale preaching station from the congregation and joined it to the Dornoch, Rogart, Lairg and Bonar Congregation. The Helmsdale Church is no longer used for services.
In May 1989 the Caithness congregations suffered from a secession by the only Free Presbyterian minister and by the only elder in Caithness. They joined the Associated Presbyterian Churches with most of the two congregations and forcibly occupied the Free Presbyterian churches in Wick, Thurso and Strathy. They also took with them all the congregational records, so that the present writer has not had the benefit of their use. Only one church, the Halkirk Church, with the accompanying manse, remains in Free Presbyterian hands.
A group of loyal Free Presbyterians gathered from Strathy, Thurso, Halkirk and Wick each Sabbath to maintain the worship of God according to the worship, doctrine and practice of the Church of the Scottish Reformation. Although deprived overnight of office-bearers, this small congregation regrouped and began to regrow.
The Northern Presbytery, at its meeting on 6th June 1989, appointed the Lairg Kirk-Session to oversee the Caithness congregations. On 25th June 1991 the Presbytery confirmed that the Halkirk Congregation would continue as a separate pastoral charge with its own Kirk-Session, having the oversight of the Wick Congregation, and in 1992 the two congregations were formally joined by the Synod into one, known as the Halkirk and Wick Congregation.
There were no communion seasons in Caithness for the first two years after the split, but eventually one was arranged for September 1991. A communion season has been held each year since, and there have been encouragements at these seasons, with additions to the congregation and the communion roll.
On 16th September 1995 Mr Lorence D. Couper was ordained and inducted as a Deacon in the congregation.
On 14th July 1997 the congregation celebrated the centenary of the opening of the Halkirk church with a service of thanksgiving to the Most High for preserving in this area a faithful witness to the biblical truths recovered at the Scottish Reformation.
THE above account is taken from Halkirk Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 1897 1997, an 11 page booklet which also contains footnotes, list of pastors, illustrations, maps, extracts from The Free Presbyterian Magazine and other information, and which may be obtained from the Interim Moderator, Rev. D M Boyd, 11 Auldcastle Road, Inverness, IV2 3PZ, price £2.50, including postage.