RETIREMENT OF DR. AIRD, CREICH.—On Sabbath, 15th Nov., Rev. Dr. Aird preached three farewell sermons to his congregation at Creich. He retires after over fifty years’ ministry in the Free Church. On the Thursday previous, at the close of the Harvest Thanksgiving Service, Dr. Aird was presented with a cheque for about £90. In replying, he stated, that the Secession movement was the main cause of his leaving the district. Office-bearers in the congregation had left him. He had no wish to be an eyesore to anyone, and in that way he felt it was time for him to retire entirely from the north.
THE SABBATH IN INVERNESS AND GLASGOW.—A motion to open the Reading Room of the Inverness Free Library to the public on Sabbath was defeated by a majority of 8 to 5. The motion was to open the Reading Room for two hours in the afternoon and two in the evening, and that all newspapers be removed from the table and wholesome literature of a moral and religious nature substituted. The opposition to the motion, though successful, was based on shallow and shifty views. No man said that he was afraid that the God of Sinai would kindle a fire in Inverness if His plain commandment were set at nought. And yet, in the last resort, the supernatural sanction of the Sabbath is the most sufficient and honourable defence that can be made for it. In Glasgow there are rumours of the revival of an iniquity which withered ignominiously twenty years ago, viz., the sailing of a Sabbath excursion steamer on the Clyde. There was a worn-out river steamer or two engaged in this profane traffic about twenty years ago, but they never became popular, owing to the drunkenness that prevailed aboard, and owing likewise to the remaining vitality of the Sabbath sentiment. The projectors, it seems, intend now to ensure success by running a new steamer on teetotal principles. It does not follow however, that they will succeed. There still remains, we think, with many of the community at least, as much right mindedness as to draw the line at pleasure excursions on the Sabbath. However, we are aware that public opinion on this matter is rapidly degenerating, and the west of Scotland may now be as ripe in this respect as the east. On the east coast the Sabbath has for years been violated by steamboats plying on the Firth of Forth. Sadducees and dissipated persons from Edinburgh and Leith embark on the pursuit of pleasure to Aberdour, Stirling, North Berwick, &c., and no doubt help to lower the moral tone of these already well demoralised places.
MODERATOR-ELECT OF FREE ASSEMBLY.—Rev. Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, New College, Edinburgh, has been chosen to succeed Principal Miller, Madras, as Moderator of the next General Assembly of the Free Church. Professor Davidson is distinguished as a Hebrew scholar. He is also distinguished as the pioneer of the newer criticism in Scotland, and is responsible, to a
large extent, for the loose views about the Old Testament that have become popular among ministers during recent years. It was at his feet the late Professor Robertson Smith first imbibed German rationalism. Successive generations of students have also to bear testimony that it was from his chair they first heard the Old Testament treated, not as the infallible Word of God, but as the mere product of the genius and energies of men.
MEMORIAL PORTRAIT OF THE LATE PROFESSOR ROBERTSON SMITH.—The memorial portrait of the late Professor Robertson Smith, painted by Sir George Reid, P.R.S.A., was presented to the Free Church College, Aberdeen, yesterday afternoon. The proceedings took place in the College hall, and there was a large attendance, including a number of clergymen and the students of the College, the professoriate being also present in their academic robes. Professor Salmond presided, and the meeting was opened with the singing of the hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” after which the Rev. G. W. Thomson offered prayer, Dr. Salmond intimated a number of apologies, and said Principal Brown, who was unable to be present in consequence of his great age, wished the following statement read:—”Dr. Robertson Smith is worthy of all the honour that can be paid to his memory for the unequalled brilliancy of his talents and the versatility of them, and for the uncommon ease with which he was able to acquire and even to speak the most difficult languages. The one thing in which I was unable to go along with him was his treatment of the books of the Old Testament, against which I had to protest; but all that is at an end now, and there I wish it for ever to remain.” (Applause.)—Dr. Walter C. Smith, Edinburgh, in handing over the portrait to the College, said they were all of one mind that the spot where many would naturally look for such a memorial would be in the place so closely associated with Dr. Robertson Smith’s early life, and with a great part of his work. The movement had no connection whatever with the unhappy circumstances which led to his services to the Free Church being lost. Most of them—he might venture to say, all of them—had very full sympathy with Dr. Robertson Smith—(applause)—and held assuredly that, whether his critical opinions were right or not, by the law and constitution of the Church he was entitled to maintain them and remain a Professor in the Church. (Applause.) On that point he thought they would all agree. No Protestant Church had ever laid an embargo on free criticism, for the very existence of their Church depended on the free criticisms of its critics. The movement was simply an expression of their personal love for the man, their high esteem of his brilliant genius and attainments, and his example of splendid diligence to the students who might now or in future times follow in his footsteps. It was primarily an offering of love, and most cordially did he join with what Principal Brown said as to the brilliancy and versatility of Professor Smith’s genius; but he was not merely a man of brilliant talents—he was
greatly beloved, a single-souled man, a man without one shadow of guile, who loved truth, who sought truth, and took on him frankly all the responsibility of his convictions. If he had one fault, it was that he was a little impatient with stupidity. (Laughter and applause.) In conclusion, Dr. Smith remarked that if there was any place that had a right and claim for a memorial of critical learning that could be set up in this country, it was Aberdeen. He then unveiled the portrait, and Professor Salmond, in name of the Senatus, accepted the gift. The portrait, he said, would recall a man, whom, above most others, they all desired to have remembered and honoured by succeeding generations of students within the College, not merely in respect to his wonderful gifts, but even more for his personal character and worth. He thought they could look back to the years of the controversy with chastened satisfaction and real thankfulness. They were fruitful, quickening years, which enlarged their visions. Through these years Dr. Smith was the truest possible friend to all his associates, nor would it be possible for the Free Church to have had a more loyal, reverent, and obedient son. (Applause.) All his investigations in Old Testament history never made him waver, but convinced him more and more that God was not only the centre of Old Testament faith and religion, but that God was its cause, its only adequate and possible explanation. The gift of the portrait would be an incentive to succeeding generations of generous youth within the College walls to strive nobly to serve God and their generation. (Applause.) Rev. Alexander Miller, Buckie, eulogised the work and worth of the deceased Professor; and, on the motion of Rev. James Harvie, Lady Glenorchy’s, Edinburgh, seconded by Rev. A. Alexander, Dundee, the thanks of the subscribers were voted to the artist, Sir George Reid. The proceedings closed with the doxology.
NOTICE was taken in our July number of the above portrait of Professor Robertson Smith, which was on exhibition in the Common Hall of the Free Assembly Buildings during the sitting of that court. It has now been finally presented to the F.C. College, Aberdeen. The speeches of Dr. Walter C. Smith and and Professor Salmond are fulsome in praise of the deceased scholar. The latter declares that “Dr. Smith was the truest possible friend to all his associates, nor would it be possible for the Free Church to have had a more loyal, reverent, and obedient son.” But the great question is—not what he was to his associates or to the Free Church, but what he was to Christ. Was Professor Smith His friend or loyal son? How did he treat Christ’s Word? If he put that under the proud heel of rationalistic and destructive criticism, he was no friend to Christ nor to the souls of men. Professor Smith denied the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy, and thereby gave the lie to the author of the book, and, what is even worse, to Christ and His apostles who not only received it as the work of Moses, but as the
word of the living God. He also introduced to English readers, as editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica, articles by the German infidel, Wellhausen, who has the profane audacity (to use the language of the late Dr. Watt of Belfast) “to associate the Jehovah of Israel with Baal, and to relegate the leading events in the history of the chosen race to the region of the purely mythical.” The work of Robertson Smith is breeding infidelity and atheism in the visible Church, and his memory should be allowed to sleep in deserved obscurity.
PASTOR CHINQUY.—We had much pleasure in paying a visit to Pastor Chiniquy when in Glasgow. We found him wonderfully hale and vigorous, notwithstanding his great age of 88 years. He has crossed the Atlantic to these lands to give a word of warning against Romanism before he dies. The word is much needed, and he knows that. The Pastor observes a great change for the worse in this country since former visits. He misses Begg, Wylie, and others who were prominent Protestants in days past, and finds none filling their places. The chief blame of the declining Protestantism he lays at the door of the ministers. They have neglected their duty against Rome, otherwise matters would not be so bad as they are. In speaking of the Free Church giving the loan of a large sum of money to Roman Catholics, he described it as a sign of apostasy. Union in any form with Rome was “union with hell.” The Pastor has been addressing a series of meetings in Edinburgh, and we trust he has roused up the flagging energies of sluggish and sleepy Protestants in that quarter. A brief report of one of his addresses on “Rome and the Bible” appeared in the Scotsman, and we insert it. This address called forth the indignation of a leading Roman Catholic ecclesiastic in Edinburgh, Canon Donlevy, and he wrote a brief letter to the press, in which, among other things, he states that, “it is sincerely to be hoped that the Catholic Truth Society of Edinburgh will not be slow in making the local ecclesiastical air too hot for the traducer of our dearest faith, the glorious inheritance of our fathers, preserved to us by the blood of countless martyrs, in all the lustre of its undimmed and divine glory, and thus prove to Scotland, that if Rome in its Church cannot rule the unruly tongue of Pastor Chiniquy, it can at least still rule the world for truth, and with light and leading.” Ecclesiastical air too hot for the traducer! Significant metaphor, out the mouth of Rome that lit the martyr fires of these lands! The spirit of deadly persecution in Rome is as alive as ever. The talk about her “countless martyrs” is mere empty bombast. We are sorry to say, however, that she rules too large a part of the world, and is likely to rule more for a time, in these latter days. Romanists know no shame, or Canon Donlevy would have hid his face, if it were for nothing else than the defeat which Father Begue, one of his fellow-priests, received from Pastor Chiniquy in Oban, on November 17th, to which reference is made in another part of the Magazine. We
hope the Pastor will have a successful visit in this country, and that he will safely return after a period to Canada, having the satisfaction that he has been the means of doing something to stem the advancing tide of Romanism.
PASTOR CHINQUY IN EDINBURGH.—Under the auspices of the Scottish Reformation Society, Pastor Chiniquy, Canada, addressed a meeting in Free St. Andrew’s Church, Edinburgh, on the evening of 24th November, on “Rome and the Bible.” Professor Thomas Smith presided. The Church of Rome and the Bible, the pastor said, were the two greatest enemies in the world. Among Protestants of the present day there was a mistaken charity in speaking well of Romanists in respect to anything which had a little appearance of good in the Church of Rome, for any little good was lost by the terrible injury Protestants thus did themselves. The Church of Rome did all she could to make Protestants believe she respected the Bible, but the fact was that, though she forced her priests to swear to read it, she also made them take another oath to interpret no single word of the sacred writing according to their conscience or intelligence, but only according to the unanimous consent of the “Holy Fathers.” The Bible was thus a sealed book to the priesthood. At present the Jesuits, who ruled the Pope and the Church of Rome, were the shrewdest men the world had ever seen, and there was a plot being worked with such ability that it would require a little of the grace of God if, before twenty-five years, Scotland did not fall into the hands of the Pope. It was coming fast upon the country. The Episcopal Church was corrupted, a great many of the Ritualists being disguised Jesuits, sworn to obey the Pope among themselves. They had given a secret promise and made their peace with the Pope, and the Pope had invited them to remain in the Episcopal Church, concealing their position and true faith, that they might be of greater service to Romanism. Ritualism was Romanism coming into their midst, and Protestants ought to raise the banner of their heroic ancestors and say the Church of Rome must be destroyed. Rome to-day was thirsting for their blood. It was one of the secret teachings of the Church of Rome that it was not a sin for a Roman Catholic to kill a Protestant, and if the Protestants did not destroy the Church of Rome, he declared the Church of Rome would destroy the Protestants.
ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.—We regret the omission of reference to these atrocities in our last number. “The Sultan of Turkey,” to use the words of a correspondent, “for infernal cruelty and bloody butchery, stands immeasurably above the Pharaoh of old. He has massacred the Armenian Christians again and again, in thousands and tens of thousands.” This humiliating spectacle has been for a considerable time the wonder of Europe. Equally humiliating, we think, is the spectacle of the European powers looking at one another helplessly, and putting forward no effort,
through mutual jealousy, to stop these barbarious atrocities This country may be well ashamed of herself for the lack of mercy and righteousness that could leave her inactive and unassisting when such large numbers of our fellow-creatures were murdered in cold blood. The carnal policy of ruling politicians has prevented Great Britain from doing the noble work of the good Samaritan to the down-trodden race of Armenia. This is an evidence of our degeneracy as a nation. Some have said that Britain’s interference would produce a greater war. We simply don’t believe it. If it did produce another war, Britain would have still nobler work to do in defending itself against the brutish wickedness of nations that would crush the hand of deliverance stretched out to a perishing people. What if Britain would die in the struggle? Let her die a martyr in the cause of Christ and humanity. Many of her sons have cheerfully endured this death. But these are not the days of the martyrs. These are the days of the murderers. The Armenians may be but poor, ill-conducted, wrong-viewed Christians, and these calamities may have been sent as chastisement for their sins. But the doom of Turkey, we believe, is written on the wall, whatever hand will wield the sword of the Lord to accomplish this righteous end.
EPISCOPACY NIGH AT HAND.—At a meeting of Perth Free Presbytery on 24th November, the Rev. J. H. Wells, Bridge of Earn, moved, “That whereas the title of Bishop is scriptural and primitive, and is employed in sundry places interchangeable with other titles to designate the office of elder or teacher in a congregation; and whereas it may prove conducive to the visible unity of the Church throughout the world if the ancient and venerable title of Bishop (which was laid aside at the Reformation on account of many erroneous and unscriptural assumptions which had become associated with it) were to be reinstated in Presbyterianism; and whereas at the present time the claims of Episcopacy are unduly pressed, to the great injury of Presbyterianism (many even thinking that a church without Bishops cannot be worthy of the name of church), the Presbytery, taking these premises into consideration, recommend the discarding of the title “reverend” as descriptive of pastor in charge of a congregation, and the adopting instead, of the title of Bishop.” The proposal and speech of Mr. Wells was greeted with much amusement. Dr. Bannerman, Perth, said that Mr. Wells, being the father of the Presbytery, was entitled to be treated with a degree of respect. He moved that they do not simply pass from the motion, but that they express their sympathy with Mr. Wells’ object. This was agreed to, and the discussion ended. Mr. Wells may think his proposal a very innocent one, but such is the love of power and authority in the heart of man that no sooner would the title of bishop be assumed than the next step would be the exercise of functions of lordships already too prevalent in the Church of England and the Romish Church.