BY THE LATE REV. ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE, DUNDEE.
TO ALEXANDER M’NEIL, ESQ., ADVOCATE.
SIR, I have read the report of your speech at the meeting of Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, on Tuesday, 16th November last, and also the motion which you propose to lay before the shareholders on the 24th February. As a Christian minister, and a free British subject, I take leave to express in this manner the deep feelings of righteous indignation which these have awakened, not in my breast only, but in the breast of every believing man whom I know.
You candidly acknowledge that in the ranks of your opponents are to be found “men of lofty intellect, of great learning and piety, and unbounded benevolence,” and yet, in the same breath, you say, “You must judge for yourself, according to the reason and plain sense of the matter.” That is to say, that the host of intellectual and pious men who are arrayed against you do not
judge according to reason or plain sense in this matter, but by some airy superhuman notions, which a man of sense may brush aside as so many cobwebs. Ah! sir, speak out your mind. Tell what it is that lies at the bottom of your enmity to the entire preservation of the Lord’s day. It is the concealment of your sentiments that is the darkest part of your whole address. You are an utter stranger to me, and I dare not judge as to your true motives. But every thinking man cannot but form this opinion in his own mind, that the reason why you despise the lessons of all God’s holiest and wisest servants in this land, is not that you think little of the resolutions of popular assemblies (that is a miserable subterfuge, unworthy of any but a mere debater), but that you despise and trample under foot the divine message which they bring. You say you are threatened to be overwhelmed with a flood of obloquy. Do not be afraid. You are on the world’s side—”the world cannot hate you.” There are not many to lift up their voices in behalf of the holy Sabbath. Those who do, are the followers of One who bade us bless and curse not. You say “you do not court approbation, and you care nothing for condemnation.” This may be a brave speech; few will regard it as a wise one. If you mean that you do not care for the condemnation of worldly men, there would be something right in that, for in doing our duty we must expect that the world which crucified our Lord will not spare his servants; but if you mean that you do not care for the condemnation of God’s people, and of the word of God, and of the Lord Jesus, who is to be your Judge, then will you soon repent your words with bitter tears. Why, sir, what are you, that you should say, “I care nothing for condemnation?” “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee?” “Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him?” If the condemnation of your words, which God’s people are now testifying in every part of the land, be righteous condemnation—if it be in accordance with the word of God and the mind of Christ—is it the part of a wise man to say, “I care not for it?” You may say so now in the blindness of your heart, but the day is at hand when you will feel the reverse.
And now one word as to your proposed motion. It runs as follows:—”Whereas it is the duty of the directors of the company to give implicit obedience to the law of God, etc.,—This meeting resolves that it is not inconsistent with the duty of the directors as aforesaid, and they are hereby enjoined to provide trains to be run from the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively, in the morning and in the evening of Sunday,” etc.
I do not know whether this motion has come entirely from your own mind, or whether several have agreed with you in it; but I here freely state my conviction, formed upon the calm and deliberate study of the motion, and without the slightest desire to use a harsh or improper term, that THE MOTION IS BLASPHEMOUS.
You say, first, that it is your duty to give implicit obedience to the law of God. What is the law of God? “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it” (Exod. xx. 8-11). Now, sir, if, as I presume, you spent your early years in Scotland, trained up, perhaps, under the watchful eye of one who prayed for her child that he might walk in wisdom’s ways, you cannot be ignorant of the explanation given of this commandment, in the Shorter Catechism (Qu. 60): “The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.” This is the law of God, and this is the received interpretation of it, both of which were, no doubt, in your eye when you penned that memorable sentence, “It is the duty of the directors to give implicit obedience to the law of God.” And yet, before the ink was dry, you write down, “The directors are enjoined to provide trains to be run in the morning and evening of Sunday.” In other words, you hold in your hand the two Tables of Stone, written with God’s finger, and you say we should obey this; and then you dash them on the ground, and say it is our duty, notwithstanding, to trample on and defy them. Ah! sir, you may call this reason and plain sense, but simpler men can see that it is open mockery of God’s holy law, and of Him on whose heart it was graven from eternity. Such lip-acknowledgment of God and his law God hates and despises. I solemnly declare, and it is the feeling of many besides me, that I would have been less shocked if you had written down, “It is the duty of the directors to break God’s law.” That would have been honest and downright, and thousands would have applauded you. But when you set out with the hypocritical declaration that it is your duty to give implicit obedience to the law of God, and then conclude by declaring your resolution to break it, I believe in my heart, that not only will God’s children abhor the blasphemy, but honest, worldly men will despise your cowardice. And now, sir, I have done. You will know the feelings of deep compassion with which you, and the unhappy men who voted with you, are regarded by many an humble and holy believer, who loves, because he knows, the preciousness of an unbroken Sabbath-day. Never in all my experience did I meet with a child of God who did not prize, above all other earthly things, the privilege of devoting to his God the seventh part of his time. It is still a sign between God and his Israel.
It is this simple fact, sir, that affords me ground to fear that, with all your talents, with all your reason and plain sense, you are yet an utter stranger to the peculiar tastes and joys and hopes of those who love the Lord. You proclaim your own shame. You prove, even to the blind world, that you are not journeying toward the Sabbath above, where the Sabbath-breaker cannot come. If you shall really carry your motion, against the prayers and longings of God’s people in this land, then, sir, you will triumph for a little while; but Scotland’s sin, committed against light, and against solemn warning, will not pass unavenged.—I am, sir, etc.
P.S.—As an advocate learned in the law, you must be well aware that the law of God, as expounded by the Confession of Faith of the Established Church of Scotland (and which is subscribed by every denomination of orthodox Dissenters in Scotland), is also the law of the land, as ratified and enacted by the Act 1690 of the Parliament of Scotland, in the two following clauses:—
“As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God, so, in His word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him; which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.”
“This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts, about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.”
If this be true, which you know it is, then you stand convicted before the British public as one who proclaimed it to be the duty of the directors to break both the law of God and the law of the land.
ST. PETER’S, DUNDEE, 1st December, 1841.
Notice to Treasurers in Western Presbytery.—It is requested that all Treasurers of Congregations and Mission Stations within the bounds of the Western Presbytery send to the Rev. Alexander Macrae, Portree (interim Clerk of Presbytery), a copy of their annual financial statement (audited) for the year ending 31st March, that it may be presented to the Presbytery at its first meeting.
Recollections of Betsy Lindsay, A Godly Young Woman who passed through much tribulation, and died at Edinburgh in 1839.
BY THE LATE REV. FRANCIS M’BEAN, FREE CHURCH,
FORT-AUGUSTUS.
(Continued from page 70.)
LETTERS FROM BETSY LINDSAY.
THE following letters were addressed by Elizabeth Lindsay to various friends during her illness.—
“22nd April, 1837.
MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,—. . . There is not a case we sinners can be in but there is a provision in the covenant suited to our need. Are we cast down? There is abundance of comfort. God is the ‘Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.’ Are we burdened with sin? ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.’ Are we heavy laden? He says, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Are we oppressed with anxious cares? He says, ‘Cast all your care upon him who careth for you.’ Are we grieved and dismayed because we have backslidden in heart from God? He says, ‘I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.’
Now, my dear friend, we know that all the blessings and mercies that ever were, or ever shall be, enjoyed by any believer in time or eternity are all the fruits of Christ’s purchase—the fruits of His incarnation, of His death, resurrection, and ascension—and run to us through the channel of this covenant. Oh, then, what great reason have we to rejoice in God! ‘Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ . . . Oh, what a wonder that mercy should ever have been extended to sinners of the race of Adam! But it was because God’s thoughts were thoughts of love from all eternity.
‘Wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity thy love,
Firm as a rock thy truth shall stand
When rolling seas shall cease to move.’
If we could measure eternity, then might we attempt to measure the love of God, which has a breadth and a length, a depth and a height, which passeth knowledge; and this ocean of love is as full
and free as ever, for all the souls that have been made partakers of it or ever shall. It will not in the least exhaust it, for how can that which is finite exhaust that which is infinite?
My dear friend, I am afraid I have tired your patience, but I trust you will take it as an evidence that I long earnestly to see you, that we might speak of the love of our dear Redeemer. . . . I was exceedingly sorry at parting with Mr. K., but I hope it is for the glory of God and the good of souls that he has gone to England. Oh, what a changing scene is this! Everything around us tells us that this is not our rest, if we would but learn that here we have no continuing city. I humbly trust that he will receive a blessing for the kindness he has shown to me and mine. The Lord give mercy unto him and his house. . . .
Now, my dear friend, remember Zion. Plead with the Lord that He would arise and build all her waste places. Pray for me; and may the Lord deal bountifully with you. Amen.—I am, my dear friend, yours very sincerely,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.”
“22nd April, 1837.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,—I hope you are well. Oh, what need you have to improve the day of health, for God will require you to give an account to Him at the day of judgment for such a precious privilege. In health you have an opportunity to hear the Gospel preached which tells us of a Saviour, and that He is just such an one as we sinners need. Oh, then, come and enlist under such a Saviour’s banner! Among the angels in heaven there is ‘joy over one sinner that repenteth.’ God loves the young to come to Him. He says, ‘I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.’ And in another place He says, ‘Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live.’ Give God the morning of your days, and ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.’ Reject not the Gospel of Jesus. Oh, remember what an awful thing it will be if you slight the precious blood of Christ, after having heard that it is so freely offered to you. Make your Bibles your daily companions, and when you read them, or when you hear the Gospel preached, pray that God would teach you to understand it. Remember the Saviour’s word, and take heed how ye hear. Consider you are hearing for eternity. The Word will either be the saviour of life unto life or of death unto death; it will either be the means of your salvation or of adding to your condemnation. Remember, my dear young friends, that there is something more needed than the mere reading of the Word or going to Church. You must be ‘born again,’ or you ‘cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Pray earnestly to God to give you a new heart, for without a new heart and a right spirit you can never see God in peace. Seek earnestly to be prepared for a
sick and dying bed ere you come to it. Perhaps you may not be favoured with a sick bed; it may please God to cut you off in a moment—in the very bloom of youth and health—and as the tree falls so it must lie! But oh, how happy you would be if you had an interest in Christ; for so an abundant entrance would be administered to you into the presence of Jesus Christ. . . . — From your affectionate friend and soul’s well-wisher,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.”
“16th August, 1837.
MY DEAR E.,—May grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope, my dear E., you are now enjoying better health than you did. The country air, through the blessing of God, has often a wonderful effect in restoring to health and enlivening the spirits. I am sometimes ready to envy you the beautiful spots which I know you will often be retiring to; everything around you will be speaking forth the praise of God, and have a tendency to spiritualise the mind. From the river that is gliding softly past, you may gather something that may be useful to your own soul, while you remember the river that makes glad the city of God. But how very different would it have been, had it not been for the eternal love of a three-one God; had it not been for this, instead of the river of God’s grace, that glides softly but swiftly by, we should have been for ever exposed to the wrath of a justly angry God, that would have raged like the foaming billows, throughout the never-ending ages of eternity. But He saw there was no hand to help, therefore His own arm brought salvation. ‘In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.’ He is still the same, although they may be saying, ‘Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore?’ They forget at such times that He rests in His love, and they have to say, ‘This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.’ They see, then, that although they change, He changes not, but has still the same watchful care over them. It was therefore the Psalmist had to say, ‘Thou hast known my soul in adversities.’ Oh that we may experience much of this love in our hearts, that we may come daily ‘to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.’
Dear E., I long much to see you, although I cannot hear a word you would say to me, which I find a greater trial than ever the want of my eyesight was. But God in a wonderful manner makes up for the want of my hearing, by enabling me to understand the most of what is said by the motion of the lips. There is hardly a word that any of my own family says that I do not know; there are some strangers I do not understand well, but that is supplied by writing on the slate, only it is a very tedious
way of communicating for both parties. ‘But the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.’ Infinite Wisdom will do me no wrong.
‘Good when He gives, supremely good,
Nor less when He denies,
E’en crosses from His sovereign hand
Are blessings in disguise.’
I had another attack of convulsions yesterday, which has exhausted my little remaining strength very much; the Lord is just taking one pin after another out of this frail tabernacle, and in His own good time it will fall totally. It has been with great difficulty I have written these few lines, so I hope you will let pain and weakness be an excuse for the many imperfections of them. May you deeply draw abundant supplies of grace out of the great storehouse of our God. Pray for me, and may the Lord deal bountifully with your soul. Amen.—I am, my dear E., yours very sincerely,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.”
(To be Continued.)