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Home / Publications / Free Presbyterian Magazine / 1998 to 2003 / November 2002 / The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2 (1) A Sermon by William Nixon Revelation 22:17. And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2 (1) A Sermon by William Nixon Revelation 22:17. And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Various important truths in this verse press themselves upon our attention, such as:

1. The nature of the blessings offered here.
2. The circumstances in which the invitation is given.
3. Those to whom the invitation is sent.
4. Those by whom the invitation is given

1. The nature of the blessings offered here. The water of life may either mean the influences of the Holy Spirit on the soul, or the blessings of the gospel generally. Cast out of the favourable presence of God, you are here invited to draw nigh to Him and be accepted in the Beloved. Exposed to His anger, you are invited to experience the manifestations of His favour. Exposed to innumerable providential calamities in this world, you are here invited to come to the Redeemer to ward off these calamities from you, or sanctify them for your benefit, and finally deliver you out of them all. Deserving all the torments of hell, you are invited to partake of all the glories of heaven. Naturally the fallen offspring of fallen man, you are here invited to receive life from Jesus as your life-giving head. Prone to seek your happiness in the world, which continually disappoints you, you are here invited to the Redeemer that He may truly bless you.

As long as you are destitute of the blessedness here offered, all the happiness you can have is not worthy of the name; whereas if you come to Jesus, you may receive ever-increasing measures of wisdom, holiness and joy out of His fulness. In this world you meet with little but disorder and misery; in fellowship with Jesus, and with His people, you will experience a peace that passeth understanding. Earthly things are all deceitful; spiritual realities answer the highest possible expectations of the soul. The world is a spiritual wilderness, full of obstacles to your progress heavenward. Jesus here offers to strengthen you by His grace for all the toils and conflicts of your spiritual course. The men that have their portion in this life are continually contending with each other for shares of earthly good. In the salvation of the gospel, there is enough for all who can apply, and an infinite fulness of good still untouched. Your sins are hidden from the sight of God under the covering of Christ’s atoning blood. Your depraved and wretched hearts are renewed and cheered by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. And under the enlivening beams of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, you may pass in safety and comfort, and even in triumph, onward through life and through death itself into the regions of glory and honour and immortality.

These exceedingly great and manifold blessings are all purchased by the precious blood of God’s own Son and offered to you freely. You have nothing to give for them; nay, you are forbidden to attempt to secure them by any personal merit. It is as persons who not only do not deserve any good, but who deserve all evil at the hand of God, that you are to come to Him – through Jesus, as destitute, ill-deserving creatures, for a salvation that is both complete in itself and freely bestowed. All you have to do is to come and take it. If you approach unto God in the public and private ordinances of His grace, and if your whole soul goes out in dependence on Jesus for pardon, peace, hope, spiritual life and strength, all these, and all other spiritual blessings, will infallibly become yours.

2. The circumstances in which the invitation is given. Towards the conclusion of the book of Revelation the two contending hosts of good and wicked beings, who have been at war through all past ages, come at length to their greatest and most decisive struggle. The followers of the Lamb are triumphant. Their enemies are shut up for a thousand years in hell. Hallelujahs are sounded forth from heaven and re-echoed by the earth, because “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”, producing everywhere upon the earth “righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost”.

At length, and just before the end of the world, the scene of moral brightness that the earth presented gives way to one of temporary darkness. The powers and agencies of evil are again let loose and come forth raging over the earth. Many are seduced to evil and fall away to the camp of the enemy. Once more the opposing hosts gather together to battle and while the enemies of God and of His people are, as they think, hastening forward to conquest, they are suddenly arrested by the judgements of God and finally crushed. Then all nature suddenly prepares for the great judgement. The millions of the dead come forth from their graves. The great white throne is erected in the sight of an astonished universe. The Saviour descends to sit upon it and gathers all nations before Him. The lake burning with fire and brimstone is revealed in readiness to receive the wicked. The Heavenly Jerusalem, with its walls of jasper reposing on foundations of precious stones, is also made to burst upon our view. Then the solemn announcement is given that the wicked and the righteous are finally separated, and that their character and destiny are unchangeably fixed, for He that is unjust must be unjust still, and he that is holy must be holy still (Rev 22:11).

We shall individually pass through the ordeal of these events to our everlasting state; and if we would have a blissful, not a terrifying, interest in these realities, we must now come and take of the water of life freely. It is in view of these events that the invitation of the text is addressed to all; and, no doubt, the intention is to overawe our minds into a willing, earnest reception of offered mercy by the prospect of coming judgement. Let us then look on to the awful season that is fast approaching us all; and, as our fitness or unfitness for that season depends on our reception or rejection of the Saviour now, let us feel impelled to go to Him, with an intense and agonising earnestness of heart, for all the blessings which He offers so freely to bestow.

But the circumstances in which this invitation is here addressed to us are encouraging as well as overawing. It is great mercy in God to us, in the midst of such solemn declarations of His purposes, to think of the frailties and fears of His guilty creatures and to introduce so gracious an invitation. Had the Book of God ended without any such offer, many a humble believer might have taken alarm and cast away His confidence and concluded that the Lord would then be favourable no more. But when we behold the great God, while revealing the glory of His wonderful doings, casting a look of pity and love upon the unworthy, and when we hear the Eternal sending such a message of tenderness from amidst the most awful revelations of His terrible and overpowering judgments, can we be otherwise than melted into love, and covered with tears of gladness in His blessed presence? Can we do otherwise than come at His request to the Redeemer for the blessings of His grace? Can we do otherwise than come and take of the water of life freely?

Here it may be observed that probably some of you will needlessly discourage yourselves from coming to Jesus for the blessings of His grace, of which you are in need. And others of you will conclude that you are disposed and prepared to partake of these blessings, although not in a state of mind to welcome the offer of salvation.

3. Those to whom the invitation is addressed. They are the thirsty and the willing. “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” Any one who feels his need of these blessings, or who feels his need of happiness, without as yet seeing distinctly where it is to be found, is here specially exhorted and encouraged to come to Jesus for salvation. “Let him that is athirst come.” Let the man who cannot find any peace, any rest, any satisfaction in created objects and earthly enjoyments, who, after all his keen pursuit of happiness, is still disappointed and full of tossings to and fro, let him only make trial of the privileges and blessings, the employments and prospects of a follower of Jesus; let him only believe the gospel and obey it; and he will find he has arrived at a source of life and true happiness – a full, overflowing, boundless eternal fountain of all real good – of which he had hitherto no conception.

Especially let any one who not only says with others, Who will show me any good? but knows that the good he needs is to have the light of God’s countenance lifted upon him – and therefore thirsts for God, for the living God, that he may come and appear before God – let every such individual consider himself specially called upon to come to Jesus as his prophet, priest and king. And Jesus will enlighten his mind and renew his heart and wash away his sins in the all-atoning blood. He will cover him with the garment of the all-perfect righteousness and subdue, control, deliver and defend him, and finally and entirely and for ever redeem him from all evil.

But some doubting, troubled hearers of this gracious invitation say, We fear that we are not athirst, that we are not so sick of the world and so desirous of these spiritual blessings as is necessary that we may be made welcome to the benefits of the Redeemer’s purchase and grace. To meet the feelings even of such, consider what is said in the text: “Whosoever will, let him come”. If any of you doubt whether you have the earnest longing for salvation implied in thirsting for God, yet if you have any willingness at all to come to the Saviour, even to you is the word of this salvation sent: “Whosoever will, let him come”. Your heart may be like a barren wilderness, but Jesus can turn it into a fruitful field. It may be like the dry and parched earth, but He can make it like a well-watered garden. He can put His Spirit within you as a fountain of living waters, springing up within you into everlasting life – in all spiritual knowledge and joy.

Even in this world, there is a river flowing through the city of God to make it glad. The influences of the Holy Ghost, proceeding from Jesus, fill His ordinances, and you are to come and drink of the living stream; you are to come and refresh yourselves at the wells of salvation; you are to come and find peace in the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon you, and light, life and strength from the communications of His Spirit, and everlasting consolation and good hope from the promise of His grace. You are to come and take such views of His holy and gracious character, of the security and peace of His people, and of the realities of the future unfading blessedness in heaven, as shall animate you to be devoted to His service, to cleave to His followers, and to walk with Him by faith on earth, that you may at length see Him as He is, and be for ever transformed into His likeness by the blessed sight.

It might be expected that the first sound of this invitation would make the heart of all who hear it leap for joy, and that poor perishing sinners would flock in crowds to the blessed Redeemer, receiving Him through His ordinances and cleaving to Him by a continual faith. But many hear the invitation with indifference and neglect it, or question its truth or value, or reject it with positive aversion, or, insincerely professing to esteem it, merely pretend to accept the offer. Even the few who are brought to see so far its reality and its worth, still keep halting between the idea of embracing it and the idea of putting it away from them. They come with a strange reluctance to make use of it and they are ever apt to think lightly of it again. They seldom or never feel all the activity and the joy which it is fitted to inspire.

Hence it is necessary not only to make the offer of salvation, the simple offer of which should immediately fill every one with an earnest desire to accept it, but also to follow the offer with urgent repetitions of it.

4. Those by whom the invitation is given. “The Spirit and the bride say come . . . .” Although God the Father is not expressly and formally introduced in this passage as alluring you to the Saviour, yet the revelation which He has made of Himself as full of compassion, and the melting calls which He gives you to turn to Him from your backslidings and iniquities, are certainly intended and fitted to persuade you to take refuge in His favour and loving-kindness, as the life of your souls.

Further, you are here invited to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has filled the Scriptures with innumerable inducements and invitations to you to come to the ordinances of grace for salvation. The Scriptures were inspired by the Spirit; for “holy men spake” what the Bible contains, only as they were “moved by the Holy Ghost”. The Bible is full of all imaginable reasons for your immediately receiving, by faith, a free and full salvation; and every one of these inducements is just the voice of the Holy Spirit inviting you to come to Jesus. In every sentence of the sacred writings, the Holy Spirit is urging you to forsake your wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts and to return unto the Lord for mercy and abundant pardon.

The Holy Spirit has also filled the character of Jesus with innumerable attractions to allure you to Him. On one occasion, we find Jesus, in the midst of the inhabitants of Nazareth, quoting the prophecy about Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18ff). And, having exhibited Himself as the heavenly teacher and almighty Redeemer predicted in these words, they “all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”. Now, what I want you to notice is that the grace which He then manifested is expressly ascribed by Himself to the Holy Spirit resting upon Him. To understand, then, how the Spirit invites you to come to Jesus, you should remember that whatever is attractive to you in the person of Christ, in His incarnation, in the graciousness of His character, in His miracles and doctrines, or in His life and death, was owing to the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him. And as the Holy Spirit has filled the person and work of Jesus with innumerable reasons to persuade you to come to Him for redemption, in this way also are you to listen to the Holy Spirit as inviting you to come.

Further still, the Holy Spirit fills the creation around you with continual proofs of the necessity and desirableness of your obtaining an interest in the salvation of the gospel. Every view that creation, the work of the Spirit, presents of material beauty reminds you of the far greater loveliness of moral and spiritual beauty. And every instance of calamity and death reminds you of your need of an interest in that world where no calamity ever enters.

And the Spirit invites you by all that He has done in and for believers since the beginning of the world. The graces they have manifested, the joys they have experienced and the intercessions they have offered up for you, are all the result of the Spirit’s work in them. Therefore, whatever motives to receive the truth which these considerations furnish are just so many invitations of the Spirit sent to you, through the medium of the saints, to come and partake of those blessings which have so enriched them.

Again, the Spirit has given you your natural conscience which often points out to you your sin, your danger and your duty. Every time the voice of conscience is heard within you warning, admonishing, reproving or encouraging you, you hear, in fact, the voice of the Spirit Himself, declaring His mind in reference to your character, conduct and prospects.

Further still, the Spirit works directly on your consciences and hearts. He awakens and strengthens within you the sense of what is right and wrong. He strives with you to bring you to repentance. He reproves you of sin and righteousness and judgement. It is the work of the Spirit within you when you are convinced that you are sinners by nature and by practice and are therefore odious in the sight of God, when especially you feel the hatefulness of unbelief in rejecting the offered Saviour, when you are impressed with the truth and rectitude of His character and claims and with your need of an interest in His finished work, when you see that no sin – and no sinner while he continues in sin – shall find favour with Jesus, and that He will take vengeance on all who know not God and obey not the gospel of His Son. And His gracious design is to persuade and enable you to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered to you in the gospel.

The bride, the Church of Christ, also invites you to come. This invitation is addressed to you alike by the Church on earth and Church in heaven.

The Church on earth invites you. She is unceasing in her prayers that sinners may be converted and that saints may be edified. Her members make their light to shine before men so that others, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father in heaven. Her ministers are set apart to labour for your salvation. The ordinances of the Church are maintained as the means of leading you to Jesus and to know the things which belong to your peace.

Thus the Church invites you to come and take of the water of life freely. She does so by her privileges. Her Maker is her husband, and her Redeemer the Holy One of Israel (Is 54:5). She greatly rejoices in the Lord, and is joyful in her God; for He clothes her with the garments of salvation; He covers her “with the robe of righteousness, even as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” (Is 61:10). And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so the Lord rejoices in His Church. Now, when you are called to enter into the relation in which the Church stands to Jehovah and to share in her favours, is anything missing which would induce you to cast in your lot with the Church? Well may you incline your ear and give up all your sinful ways, longing to serve the Lord in the beauty of holiness and yield prompt obedience to the call which the people of God address to you: “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning” us.

This invitation is also given to you by the Church in heaven. Even the angels earnestly desire the salvation of men. They pry into the scheme of redemption. They come forth to minister to the heirs of salvation and never cease their services to the meanest saint until they have conducted him safely beyond the regions of temptation and sin, into the immediate presence of God. Plainly, it is love to God and to His creatures that prompts them to take such a lively interest in the salvation of men. And we may safely conclude that the redeemed from the earth, animated by the same love, take a similar interest in our spiritual welfare. Indeed, they are expressly set before us (in Rev 6:9ff and 11:16ff) as earnestly praying for, and then adoring, the execution of God’s purposes toward this earth. No doubt the reason for their conduct is that they long for the promotion of the Redeemer’s glory in the salvation of His people. Thus joy is felt in the presence of the holy angels, over every repenting sinner, by the spirits of the just made perfect.

Were the veil now rent which separates heaven, the holiest of all, from this world, the outer court of the great temple of the universe, and were you admitted to listen to the expression of the feelings of the glorified saints toward you, with what earnestness would they unfold before you the degradation and ruin inseparable from sin, and the unspeakable blessedness awaiting everyone who embraces the mercy offered in the gospel! How eagerly would they urge you to Jesus, who has saved them and can save you to the uttermost; who has raised them, and can raise you, from the pit of ruin to the heights of glory everlasting! How would they, by all the miseries they have escaped and all the blessedness to which they have attained, and by all that is due to their glorious Lord, invite, entreat and even, if possible, compel you now to come to Jesus for His grace that you too may escape all this misery and attain all this blessedness, to the honour of His power and love!

You should contemplate the character and condition of the departed saints and contrast it with the mournful state, and the still more mournful prospects of sinners, until you feel yourselves most urgently impelled to the same Redeemer. Behold the circumstances of all who have departed from this earth to the presence of the Saviour. Their manifold iniquities are for ever pardoned by God, and blotted out from the book of His remembrance. The last vestiges of corruption have disappeared from their natures; not one spot of defilement can be detected even by the all-seeing eye of God. No tempter, no temptation and no enemy disturbs for a moment the order, harmony and blessedness of their spirits. They cannot experience any feeling of want or sickness or pain or suffering of any kind. Weakness and trouble, sin and death, have no existence in that happy world. The redeemed are there admitted to most beatific visions of God’s glory, of the absolute perfection of His nature, and of the wisdom, righteousness and grace of all His dealings. They behold the glorified Redeemer reflecting from His person with a softened, yet surpassing brightness, all the attributes and glory of the Godhead. And there the Spirit of holy love, continually flowing out from the God of love, fills, animates, and binds together in inseparable union, the whole family of saints and angels.

Are you not ready to exclaim that it would indeed be good to be there? Do you not feel the contemplation of the unmingled, everlasting happiness of the redeemed on high exciting in you a longing desire to share in the same final and complete redemption? Is it not your heartfelt wish, breathed forth now into the ear of the Lord of Hosts, that you may come out of all your tribulations and wash your robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, and so be before the throne, serving God day and night in His temple, where He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among you, and where you shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on you, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed you, and shall lead you into living fountains of water; and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes? If you would attain all this blessedness, you must come now to Jesus and take of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Endnotes:
1. Reprinted, with abridgement, from The Free Church Pulpit, vol 1. Nixon, a minister in Montrose from 1833, was a prominent leader of the party which opposed the declension which swept through the Free Church after the mid-nineteenth century.

Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – November 2002

Publications

  • Free Presbyterian Magazine
    • Historic Sermons
    • 1896 to 1904
    • 1904 to 1910
    • 1910 to 1919
    • 1920 to 1929
    • 1930 to 1939
    • 1940 to 1949
    • 1950 to 1956
    • 1998 to 2003
      • October 2003
        • A View from the Outer Hebrides
        • The Untiring Travellers – Part 2
        • Sanctification – Part 2
        • The Ten Virgins
        • John Wesley 1703-1791
        • A Pastor’s Concern
        • Seeking Great Things
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 2003
        • A Kingdom Where Order Reigns
        • Church Information
        • The Untiring Travellers – Part 1
        • Sanctification – part 1
        • The Achreny Mission – 2. 1815 to 1843
        • Evidences of Saving Faith – part 4
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2003
        • Church Information
        • A Prayer-Hearing God – Part 1
        • The Achreny Mission – Part 3 – After the Disruption
        • Meditation – Its Blessedness
        • Obituary – John Beaton, Raasay
        • African Missions Update
        • Growing Vatican Sovereignty
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Christ as Prophet
      • March 2003
        • What We Make It?
        • King Solomon’s Chariot
        • Samuel Rutherford – St Andrews and Westminster
        • Those Who Have Fled for Refuge – Part 4
        • The Parable of the Talents
        • The Kinsman
        • Scottish Church Initiative for Union
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • May 2003
        • A Powerful Voice
        • Notes and Comments
        • “Ye Shall Ask What Ye Will”- Part 2
        • Christianity – an Exclusive Religion – The Religion of the Bible
        • The Prodigal Son
        • The Study of Providence
        • Poor and Needy
        • John Piper and His Doctrine
        • African Missions
        • Protestant View
      • June 2003
        • No Sense of Need
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Call of Matthew
        • Christianity – an Exclusive Religion – The Christian Doctrine of God
        • The Sower
        • Evidences of Saving Faith – Part 1
        • Meditation Sanctifies
        • Mbuma Zending Meeting – 2003
        • Zimbabwe Ordinations and Inductions
        • Book Reviews
      • July 2003
        • Acceptable Worship
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Grace Glorified in Election
        • Christianity – an Exclusive Religion – Some Further Doctrines
        • The Pharisee and the Publican
        • Rabbi Duncan
        • Evidences of Saving Faith – Part 2
        • A Plea for Prayer
        • Continuing Repentance
        • Book Review: Christmas Evans, The Life and Times of the One-Eyed Preacher of Wales
      • January 2003
        • Thankfulness
        • The Lord God of Elijah
        • Samuel Rutherford – Fair Anwoth by the Solway – 1627 – 1636
        • Manna
        • All of Grace
        • Obituary – Mr Edward Arthur Christensen, Auckland
        • Obituary – Miss Isabel Murray, North Tolsta
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • February 2003
        • Christ’s Infinite Riches
        • Protestant View
        • Church Information
        • The Lord God of Elijah – Part 2
        • Samuel Rutherford – His King’s Palace in Aberdeen
        • The Privilege of Prayer
        • In Possession of the Promises
        • The Rich Man and Lazarus
        • Humiliation and Prayer
        • Book Reviews
        • Notes and Comments
        • Book Review – Sidelights on Bible Characters
        • Book Review – Authentic Christianity: Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles
      • December 2003
        • Nineteenth-Century Drift
        • A Prayer-Hearing God – Part 2
        • The Achreny Mission – 4. After the Disruption – Part 2
        • Meditation – Its Consequences
        • Visit to the Ukraine
        • Book Review – Letters from the South Seas, Margaret Paton
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • April 2003
        • The Promised Land
        • Church Information
        • “Ye Shall Ask What Ye Will”- Part 1
        • Samuel Rutherford – The Last Years
        • The Pearl of Great Price
        • Repentance
        • A Private Among the Padres
        • Damaging Doubts
        • The Prince – Defender of all Faiths
        • Protestant View
      • August 2003
        • What Kind of Faith?
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Head Stone of the Corner
        • The Vineyard
        • Mary and the Spiritual Mind
        • The Achreny Mission – 1. 1760 to 1815
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Evidences of Saving Faith – Part 3
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Book Review – God’s Hymnbook for the Christian Church
      • September 2002
        • The Shepherd’s Reward
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Jubilee
        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Conflict
        • Those Who Have Fled for Refuge – Part 2
        • The Beliver’s Sanctification
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Update
        • The New Archbishop of Canterbury
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
      • October 2002
        • “My Counsel Shall Stand”
        • Church Information
        • The Way to the City
        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Consolidation
        • “Your Mercy”and the Jews’ Future
        • Springing Up After Many Days
        • Book Reviews
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2002
        • Christ’s Spiritual Conquests
        • Church Information
        • The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2 (1) A Sermon by William Nixon Revelation 22:17. And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
        • The Right Way (1) Rev J S Sinclair
        • Obituary Mr Murdo Macleod, Elder, Stornoway
        • Book Reviews
        • Foreign Mission News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • May 2002
        • Divine Compassion
        • Book Review – The Antichrist
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Coming to Christ – Part 2
        • A Master in Israel
        • The Cleansing of the Leper
        • The Christian’s Life
        • The Puritans on Prayer
        • Advice on Preaching
        • The Great Draught of Fishes
        • Book Review – Church and State
      • March 2002
        • “Hear the Word of the Lord”
        • The Blessing of Asher
        • Thomas Cranmer – That God Might Be Truly Worshipped
        • Psalms or Hymns in Public Worship
        • Obituary – Reverend Donald Nicolson
        • Is Britain Being Protected?
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Protestant View
      • June 2002
        • “Another King, One Jesus”
        • Church Information
        • Pray Without Ceasing
        • The Puritans on Prayer – Part 2
        • Inventing Religion
        • Princeton and Pelagianism
        • Among the Children
        • Hopes of Future Usefulness – A Letter of John Love
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • January 2002
        • “Religion in its Purity”
        • Notes and Comments
        • Attaining a Knowledge of Our Sins
        • The Meat Offering
        • The Strength of Faith
        • Thomas Cranmer – Moving Towards a Reformation
        • The Extent of the Atonement
        • Rev John MacDonald (1925-2000) – Obituary
        • Book Review – God and Cosmos
        • Protestant View – Queen Invites Cardinal to Sandringham
      • July 2002
        • The Need for Opened Eyes
        • God’s Wrath Against Sin
        • The Puritans on Prayer – A Wondrous Mysterious Grace
        • Revival in Arran
        • Man’s Righteousness and God’s
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Protestant View
      • February 2002
        • Offering up Our Desires to God
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Look unto Me and Be Ye Saved
        • Thomas Cranmer – The Man of Extreme Caution
        • The Power of the Gospel
        • The Goodness of God in Redemption
        • Obituary – Mrs Isabella Turner
        • Book Review – Galatians
        • Book Notices
        • Protestant View
      • December 2002
        • “A Zealous, Godly Preacher”
        • The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2
        • Samuel Rutherford – From Birth to New Birth
        • Those Who Have Fled for Refuge – part 3
        • Obituary – Mrs Annie MacIver, North Tolsta
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • April 2002
        • “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
        • Coming to Christ – Part 1
        • Thomas Cranmer – On to the Fire
        • The Plague of Leprosy
        • Divided Allegiance
        • Obituary – Miss Margaret Sutherland
        • Book Review – The Hidden Pathway
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 2002
        • Everything Devoted to God’s Service
        • Unity Among the Brethren
        • Those Who Have Feld for Refuge
        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Conquest
        • Symptoms of Spiritual Death
        • Book Review – The King’s Daughters
        • African Mission News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • September 2001
        • Knowing God
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Path of the Just
        • Obituary – The late Miss Jean Nicolson
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Lexie MacLeod
        • Raasay Congregation – a Brief History
        • The Knowledge of Sin
        • Induction at Sengera
        • Book Review: The Source of the IRA/Sinn Fein
        • Protestant View
      • October 2001
        • Tragedy
        • “God Gave the Increase”
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness for the Church
        • Desires for Glory
        • Calling a Minister
        • The Vatican Archives
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2001
        • Scotland’s Preachers
        • Recent Inductions
        • The Rose of Sharon
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness on the Personal Level – Intellectually
        • “Be Strong and of a Good Courage”
        • God’s Wonderful Goodness
        • “Withhold not Correction”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
      • May 2001
        • Sinking in Capernaum’s Doom
        • Book Review – Irish Worthies
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Goodwill of God
        • Keeping the Heart in Temptation
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 2
        • The Garden of Nuts
        • The Son of Man Lifted up
        • Obituary – The late John Angus MacLeod
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Kenya
        • Book Review – Faith and Justification
      • March 2001
        • “Just with God”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Priest
        • W S Plumer- Part 2
        • Obituary – The late Rev Alexander McPherson, Perth
        • Pastoral Letter – Rev Alexander McPherson
        • Joseph MacKay
        • Book Review – Forerunner of the Great Awakening
      • June 2001
        • Blessedness
        • Church Information
        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 1
        • Who Belong to the Visible Church?
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 3
        • Religion in the Highlands After 1688 – Part 3
        • Raising Questions Against Darwinism
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • July 2001
        • Cry Aloud Spare Not
        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 2
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • Our African Missions – an Update
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Spring Visit to Ukraine
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • January 2001
        • Looking Forward
        • Book Review – The Government of the Church
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Faith, Its Nature, Origin and Effects
        • Thomas Halyburton and How God May Be Known
        • The Divinity of Christ
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 1
        • Keep a good conscience
        • God’s True Family
        • What is the Object of Faith?
        • Communion in Singapore
      • February 2001
        • Calling the Sabbath a Delight
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Prophet
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 2
        • Book Review – Daily Prayer and Praise by Henry Law
        • Psalm 122 – Henry Law
        • The enemies of the Christian
        • African Mission News
        • Protestant View
      • December 2001
        • Protestant View
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Book Review – Tell it to the Generation Following
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – Usefulness on the Personal Level
        • The Impossibility of Neutrality
        • “Christian”Entertainment
        • Attaining a Knowledge of Our Sins
        • Church Information
        • Notes and Comments
        • A View From Zimbabwe
      • August 2001
        • “There They Preached the Gospel”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • “He Will Bless Us”
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • “He Delighteth in Mercy”
        • “The Voice of Christianity in Scotland”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Ian M MacLeod, Elder, Dingwall
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Catherine MacKenzie, Stornoway
        • Book Review – Southern Presbyterian Leaders 1683-1911
        • Book Review – The Westminster Confession of Faith, Milestone, Millstone or Manifesto?
      • April 2001
        • Sowing the Seed
        • The Duty of Nations to the Church
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 1
        • “The Finger of God”
        • Obituary – The late Miss Peggy Nicolson, Inverness
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Zimbabwe
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 2000
        • The Resurrection of Christ
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably
        • The believer is to put those sins… into the hands of Christ
        • The Puritans and the Ministry
        • Christ Glorifying God
        • Blessed Are They That Mourn
        • The Nature of Vital Piety (2)
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • October 2000
        • The Fear of God
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably (2)
        • He indeed is rich in grace whose graces are not hindered by his riches
        • The Puritans and the Ministry (2)
        • James Stewart
        • Christ Healing a Leper
        • Visits To Eastern Europe
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2000
        • “What Are They Among so Many?”
        • Vain Religion
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Desired Haven
        • God may bear long with the wicked, but…
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • James Stewart (2)
        • The Temptation of Christ
        • Book Review
      • May 2000
        • The Church of God From Age to Age
        • Jesus of Nazareth passeth by
        • Rev Lachlan MacLeod (1918-1998) – Obituary
        • “So let him give”
        • The Solemn League and Covenant
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
      • June 2000
        • The Example of the Church in Smyrna
        • Eastern Europe – Spring 2000 Report
        • Church Information
        • The Nature of the New Birth
        • This is Indeed the Christ
        • Obituary The late Mr Alasdair Gillies, M.A., Elder, Dingwall
        • Report of Mbuma Zending Meeting – 29th April 2000
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Donsa One of the Pilgrims at Ingwenya
        • African Mission News
      • March 2000
        • Two Free Churches
        • Sermon The Gracious Invitation of Christ
        • The Rev John Sinclair of Bruan (1801-43)
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Regeneration Regulating the Affections
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • July 2000
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Church Information
        • Lift up a Standard for the People
        • At the Westminster Assembly
        • The Earth Corrupt before God
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • Obituary – The late Mr Kenneth Gillies, Elder, Raasay
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • February 2000
        • The Rev. Christopher Munro (1817-85)
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • “Come unto me”
        • Joy and Peace in Believing
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Negotiations in London
        • Obituary
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Scottish Day Conference
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • January 2000
        • Another Millennium
        • Notes of a Sermon The Earth Filled with His Glory
        • The Second Coming of Christ – Three Main Views
        • The Latter Day Glory
        • Building up the Church of God
        • Princeton Seminary – The Majestic Testimony by David Calhoun.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • December 2000
        • The Divine Saviour
        • A Sermon by John Kennedy
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • The Late Roderick Macleod,
        • The Aberdeen Church
        • Book Reviews
        • Book Reviews
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 2000
        • Where Are We Now?
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Given in His Fulness
        • Alexander Henderson
        • I cannot always come to Christ
        • Obedience to Christ
        • The Nature of Vital Piety
        • The Puritans for Today
        • Protestant View
      • April 2000
        • The Family Under Attack
        • Sermon
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • The King in Scotland
        • Comments on Psalm 51
        • Unsettling the Settlement
        • The pope’s visit to the Holy Land
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • October 1999
        • Declaring All the Counsel of God
        • Church Information
        • God so Loved the World
        • The Rev. James S. Sinclair
        • The Glasgow Assembly
        • Calvin’s View of the Millennium
        • Book Review
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Annual General Meeting
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • September 1999
        • Old Testament Types
        • Church Information
        • Christ Seeing of the Travail of His Soul
        • Alexander Stewart of Cromarty
        • The Intercession of Christ
        • Resolved to Abolish Episcopacy
        • “And the sun was darkened”
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 1999
        • Morality and Politics
        • Church Information
        • Sermon
        • Rev Alexander Morrison (1925-1999) – Obituary
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • Casting down the Walls of Jericho
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • May 1999
        • “Upon this rock I will build my church”
        • The Blessed Poor
        • Rev Angus Mackay
        • Is Christ our High Priest?
        • Signs of Religious Declension
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • March 1999
        • Heaven-provoking Legislation
        • Church Information
        • The Drawing Power of the Cross
        • The Alpha Course Examined
        • Teaching Christianity in Scottish Schools
        • The late Mrs Margaret Tallach, Glasgow
        • Letter by John Love, D.D.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
      • June 1999
        • Made a Faithful Shepherd
        • Notes and Comments
        • How May Sanctification Be Attained?
        • Protestant View
        • Mbuma Zending Meeting Report
        • Address to Mbuma Zending Meeting
        • Spiritual Pride in Man
        • Church Information
        • Preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ
        • The Free Church and the World
      • January 1999
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • Church Information
        • Let me see thy countenance
        • The Religion of the Highlands
        • Personal Creed and Resolutions
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe Mission
      • July 1999
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Pre-eminence of Christ
        • A Man Who Wished to Live Obscurely
        • The Nature of Saving Faith
        • The Light of the World
        • God is: therefore God is to be Worshipped
        • Book Review
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
      • February 1999
        • The Purposes of the Lord’s Supper
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society – Appointments
        • The Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God
        • Holy Importunity in Prayer
        • A Heavenly Eternal Crown of Glory
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
      • December 1999
        • The End of a Millennium
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Until the Day Break
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • The Rev. Donald Macfarlane of Dingwall
        • The Pagan Origin of Christmas A Reminder
        • Ministers Prepared by Temptation
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 1999
        • The Advance of Rome under Hume
        • Notes and Comments
        • Eastern Europe Mission
        • Church Information
        • The Marks of a Time of Revival, and the Means of Bringing it About
        • The Free Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Thy Kingdom Come
        • The National Covenant
        • Work of the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1998
        • Unsettled and Discouraged?
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
      • April 1999
        • The Observance of Easter
        • The Smitten Shepherd and His Flock
        • The Prince of Highland Preachers
        • The Inter-Faith Movement
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 1998
        • The Golden Key of Prayer
        • Church Information
        • Weighed in the Balances
        • Christ, the Way
        • Praying as Beggars
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Our African Mission
        • Patrick Mzamo – A sketch of an African elder and lay-preacher
      • October 1998
        • The Westminster Assembly and Romanism
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Christ Liveth in me *
        • God’s Way of Bringing Sinners to Christ
        • The Effects of Television Violence
        • Sin and Sanctification
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Philemon Ndebele
      • November 1998
        • Faithfulness or Vilification
        • Church Information
        • The Best Security in Evil Times
        • Pentecostal Dialogue with Rome
        • The Prayers of the Aged
        • The Religion of the Highlands – The Persecution of a Highland Laird
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Eastern Europe Mission Work
      • May 1998
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • A Vessel Meet for the Master’s Use
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Serving the Lord with Humility
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland on the Internet
        • Booklet Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Story of Mamlotshwa
      • March 1998
        • A Minister of God
        • “I will yet for this be inquired of”
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Godliness With Contentment
        • Protestant View
        • African Mission News
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Private Prayer and Public Profession
        • Truth and Life
        • The Free Church, Psalms and Hymns
      • June 1998
        • Family Worship
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Ngwenya – Mother of the late Rev. B. B. Dube
        • Church Information
        • The Lord is Risen Indeed
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Church of Scotland and the Bible
        • Mbuma-Zending Meeting – 1998
        • Three Characteristics of True Faith
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Three Characteristics of True Faith
      • July 1998
        • The General Assemblies
        • Church Information
        • The Scriptural Warrant for Creedal Subscription
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • A Cambuslang Case of Conversion
        • Booklet Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
      • January 1998
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • MaHlabangana
        • Winter Visit to Eastern Europe
        • THE NEW YEAR
        • The Church Built and Kept by the Lord
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Fruits of the Declaratory Act In the Free Church of Scotland
        • Redeeming the Time
        • African Mission News
      • February 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • A Mission Day of Prayer
        • Church Information
        • Leaning Upon her Beloved
        • Brought Home to Heaven
        • Observing the Sabbath
        • Church Deputy’s Visit to North America
        • African Mission News
        • A Faithful Ambassador is Health
      • December 1998
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • “My grace is sufficient for thee”
        • The People of the Great Faith
        • Sudden Conversions
        • A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
        • “Give ye them to eat”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • August 1998
        • The General Assemblies
        • Sermon – The House of Many Mansions
        • Lessons From the Doctrine of Divine Justice
        • Book Notice
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Paul Magaya – Lay Preacher in Shangani
        • Church Information
      • April 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Notes and Comments
        • Protestant View
        • The Manner of Coming to Christ
        • Book Notice
        • A Lily from the Ukraine
        • Eastern Europe Mission
        • Church Information
        • Called of God
        • Threats to our Religious Liberties
        • Mazwabo’s Amazing Transformation
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