Correction.
In the March number, on page 411, 8th line from the top, “Son of God” should read “son of God.”
Communions.
Oban and Kames, 1st Sabbath of May; Glendale, Skye, 3rd; South Harris, 4th. Coigach (Lochbroom), and Bonar, 1st Sabbath of June.
An Unprofitable Book by a Degenerate Son.
There is hardly anything that has given us more pain of late than the perusal of a certain new book by Mr. Oliphant Smeaton, son of the late eminent Professor George Smeaton, of the New College, Edinburgh. Professor Smeaton was one of the soundest and ablest divines that Scotland has produced, a faithful and accomplished expounder of that system of Scriptural doctrine commonly denominated Calvinism; but his son, we regret to say, has written a glowing eulogy on the late Principal Morison, the most zealous advocate of the erroneous Arminian system that has been known in recent times. Mr. Oliphant Smeaton is good enough to tell his readers that when “only a lad” he was troubled with the doctrine of Predestination, that he swung from Calvinism to “something akin to Roman Catholicism,” and that at length he found the light that brought him rest in the writings of Principal Morison. So much the worse, we say, for the light and the rest. There is a light which is darkness, and a rest which is no rest. It is not ours to determine Morison’s personal standing before God, but as far as his views of the Gospel system are concerned, we can contemplate nothing better fitted to infuse a delusive hope for eternity into immortal souls. Mr. Oliphant Smeaton had the blessed privilege in his youth of a godly father and mother that were in no ordinary degree intellectually and spiritually capable of directing him in the right ways of the Lord. But he has manifestly cast their instructions behind his back; and as if glorying in his own shame, he has published a book in which he condemns those life-giving truths that should have lingered in his memory, if not in his heart, surrounded with the sweet halo of holy and happy memories. The writer is the last person in the world to affirm that any man is to accept a system of doctrine simply because his parents have held it, but he is strongly of the opinion that Mr. Oliphant Smeaton should have thought twice before publicly identifying his name, and that in terms of no common admiration, with the Morisonian system of theology. This scheme has done nothing for Scotland or any other country but to produce a superficial easy-going worldly religion, that has wrought no deliverance for humanity, while on the other hand, Calvinism has shaken and reformed the world. Mr. Smeaton is a lover and writer of novels, and no doubt his Arminian religion will present no check to his progress in this field. Truth may be a stumbling-block to the pursuit of fiction; but error never.
There is, however, one sentence in this book which we must notice as a most unwarrantable misrepresentation that not even a school-boy should have been guilty of. Mr. Smeaton says that “before he died, Dr. James Morison had the satisfaction of knowing that the doctrines for which he fought and suffered were accepted as the essentials of our Christian faith, as the ‘every-day dogmas’ of every Protestant Church in Britain.” We admit that the larger so-called Protestant Churches, such as the United Free and the Established, now accept, in one way or another, the dogmas of Morisonianism, but are the smaller bodies to be all included in this category? Or does smallness of size exclude a religious body from the designation of a Protestant Church? Mr. Smeaton sublimely contemns the existence of the Reformed Presbyterian, Original Secession, and Free Churches, as well as others that need not be mentioned. But fiction is one of Mr. Smeaton’s favourite fields, and so we need not wonder that his eyes are blind to the most patent realities.
Acknowledgment of Donations.
The Rev. Neil Cameron desires to acknowledge, with thanks, the following donations to St. Jude’s Building Fund:—A Friend from the North, £10; A Friend, Garve, 5/; A Friend, Paisley, 10/; A Friend, Jura, 10/; A Sympathiser, Lochcarron, per Miss Kennedy, 15/. Our readers will understand that it is anonymous donations that are acknowledged here. One donation, not anonymous, was inserted by mistake in last issue.
Protestant Alliance Meeting.
The fifty-first annual gathering of the Protestant Alliance was held on the 23rd April, in the Queen’s Hall, London. In the afternoon, Colonel Wellesley Robinson presided, and in opening the proceedings said our forefathers thought they had crushed out the viper of Roman Catholicism, but they were wrong. Rome had never lost sight of its aim to regain its power in this land. At the present day this object was proclaimed, and Rome was a real force in the land. The first resolution affirmed that it was absolutely necessary that the Sovereign on his accession should give a personal assurance of his rejection of the distinctive errors of the Church of Rome, and pledged the meeting to resist any attempt to alter in any way the words of the Royal declaration. The Rev. William Thomas and Mr. W. C. Maughan, Glasgow, supported the resolution which was carried unanimously. In the evening a demonstration was held in the same hall. Mr. B. Nicholson presided. He said that Mr. Balfour’s Education Bill favoured the ritualistic faction and not the Protestants. Unless Protestants arose against its sacerdotal tendencies, we should have the greatest and most precious of our liberties snatched away from us. The Rev. W. R. Mowll, M.A., then brought forward a motion which stated that the inaction of successive Governments in neglecting to enforce the Act of 1829 for the suppression of Jesuit and other Papal orders was fraught with danger to the highest interests of His Majesty’s subjects. The Rev. Henry Dening, M.A., moved a resolution deprecating the development of Ritualistic teaching and practice in the Church of England, and earnestly calling upon Lord Salisbury to nominate for promotion such men only as were faithful in both preaching and practice to the principles of the Protestant religion. Mr. John Kensit seconded the resolution. If Lord Salisbury and the Cecil family, he said, had been pandering to priestcraft, let them remember that Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal party did the same when they were in power. The resolution was eventually carried with acclamations.
Sabbath Concerts in the U.F. Church.
The following is the summary of a programme of a concert held in the Cowgate U.F. Church, Edinburgh, in December last:—“A Service of Praise will be given by the Choir, in the Church, on Sabbath Evening, 22nd December, 1901. The Rev. Charles Wedderburn will preside. Programme—Part I.—Ward’s Sacred Cantata ‘The Nativity.’” Here followed the names of Instrumental Marches, Choruses, Solos, Quartettes, &c. Part II. consisted of Solos and Anthems. The additional items of the advertisement were as follows:—“Piano, Miss Madge Mackay. Organ, Mr. G. Crerar. Conductor, Mr. R. Douglas. Doors open at 6.30. Commence at 7. Collection to defray expenses.”
This needs little comment. Music is the chief religious deity of the present generation. In the name of Christianity, ministers and people are returning to idol worship. The Greeks had their goddess of music, and so have the larger so-called Christian churches of to-day. They imagine that they will bring the people to Christ by their Sabbath concerts, but they labour under a great delusion. To a false Christ they may bring them, but not to the true Christ of God. Man-made devices in worship are under His curse. The United Free Church, which boasts of its Christian enlightenment, is only leading the people back to that heathenism from which they were delivered at the glorious Reformation.
Meetings of Assemblies.
The Moderators-elect of the General Assemblies are as follows:—Established Church, Dr. James Russel of Campbeltown; United Free Church, Dr. Robert Howie, Govan; Free Church, Rev. D. M. Macallister of Free Greyfriars and Buccleuch, Edinburgh. The U.F. Assembly expects to meet this year in Glasgow. The case of Professor George Adam Smith and his views on the Bible will come up; and it is mooted that Principal Rainy will bring forward a motion condemning some of his views, but not calling for any special discipline. Should this forecast be realised the process will only be on a level with Rainy’s past methods of procedure which have wrought such incalculable evil in Scotland.
“The Bible and the Critics.”
The Rev. John Macewan, D.D., Edinburgh, has published a book with the above title, in which he criticises the pernicious views of Professor George Adam Smith and other higher critics. Dr. Macewan does his work with ability, but there is one very large fly at least in the apothecary’s ointment; he affirms that the standards of the United Free Church to which he belongs maintain the sound doctrine of inspiration. Now, the Confession of Faith embodies that doctrine, but the U.F. Church has made void the Confession by its Declaratory Acts. In 1892, the General Assembly of the Free Church declared in the notorious Declaratory Act of that date that diversity of opinion was recognised in the Church on various points of doctrine, and one of these points was undoubtedly the inspiration of the Scriptures. Leading men in the Church then got legal standing for erroneous views of inspiration. The formula of the U.F. Church is further adapted to this condition of affairs and makes it quite consistent for men, who do not regard the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God, to hold office in the Church. Dr. Macewan is under erroneous Declaratory Acts, and administers a defective formula so that his present effort in nowise delivers his soul. Dr. Macewan’s ecclesiastical history is rather a sad one; he was once a vigorous supporter of Drs. Begg and Kennedy in defence of the sound principles of the disruption; he is now in the company of the betrayers of the faith, and is silent on important points for the maintenance of which he was at one time almost prepared to shed his blood.
Death of Mr. Rhodes.
There passed away at Capetown, on the 26th March, Cecil John Rhodes, the leading man of affairs in South Africa. Mr. Rhodes, who was 49 years of age, was the son of a Church of England clergyman. By his company interests in connection with the diamond mines, he amassed immense wealth, and became the leading figure in the business and political circles of South Africa. His chief idea was the extension of the British Empire, and towards the accomplishment of this end, he put forth all his energies, and freely expended his money. Mr. Rhodes was essentially a man of the world and a not very scrupulous one either, so that while we may stand amazed at his remarkable mental vigour and vast activity, we can only view his career with a melancholy interest. His god, it appears, was this present world, and so darkness shrouds his end. In his will he has left vast sums of money for the promotion of education in South Africa, and for the encouragement of young men there and in other countries who might desire to prosecute their studies at Oxford, in his native England.