PURITY OF WORSHIP, ETC.
(To the Editor of the F.P. Magazine.)
DEAR SIR,—As the inclemency of our Canadian winter and my own increasing infirmities are keeping me confined within the house, there has been given me an opportunity of taking a retrospective look at what is commonly counted a long life. And in doing so I find very many things both omitted and committed that I deeply regret and deplore, but for which, through the free and sovereign grace of God, the atonement and intercession of Jesus Christ, and the operation of the Holy Spirit, I hope to obtain a free and full pardon.
But there are two things that I have never regretted. The first is refusing to enter the Union of the Presbyterian Churches in 1875; but that event is long past, and I do not intend to discuss it here. The second is my resolution to abide by and uphold the principle that the Reformers acted upon; that is, “That what is not commanded to be used in the worship of God is forbidden.” And the longer and more carefully that I consider this matter the more firmly am I convinced that it is the only principle by which the religious worship and ordinances that God has appointed in His Word can be kept pure and entire. If the other principle be admitted as correct—that is, “That what is not forbidden in the Scriptures is allowed”—it would open a door for any or for all the corrupt practices of the Church of Rome, such as putting salt in the water used in baptism, making the sign of the cross, and burning candles in daylight, and many other rites and ceremonies which I need not mention. And it is sad to think that so many Protestant Churches are acting on that principle, and are using their own inventions as substitutes for or as supplements to the ordinances of God’s appointment.
It is a positive command in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to sing psalms, and there is a complete absence of any command to sing anything else in the worship of God. This being the case, the positive command to sing psalms is a virtual prohibition of everything else. And assuredly it is more honouring to God, safer, and more profitable to the worshipper to use what the Lord has prepared and given to us for that very purpose than to substitute our own productions in their place. For the difference between the Psalms of the Bible and human hymns is just the difference between the Divine and the human. And apart from the question of authority, the Psalms are so much superior to all their rivals that I would use them from choice, for notwithstanding the fine sentimentality that is in some of the hymns they are but the words of fallen, sinful creatures like myself, and altogether unreliable to rest my soul upon. But the Psalms are something that will stand when the earth is dissolving, for Jesus Christ has said—”Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” And there is something inexpressibly sweet in the Psalms that is not to be found in any human production whatever. The Psalms are the very words of God that He has given to us, just that we may bring them back to Himself, and when we bring them to Him He accepts them because they are the production of His own Spirit. And they are of such universal application that innumerable multitudes in different circumstances in all parts of the world have received spiritual nourishment in them, and yet they never wear out nor get old. It therefore seems to me the height of presumption to think that we can prepare and present unto Him anything that would be more pleasing or more acceptable to Him than what He has prepared and given to us for that very purpose. Especially when He has so decidedly said—”What thing soever I command you, observe to do’ it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” And Jesus Christ in His commission to His Apostles said—”Go ye therefore and teach all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Jesus Christ also said—”Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” With regard to the use of instruments, it is clear that there is no authority for using them in the New Testament Church, but there is this plain command—”By him (that is Jesus Christ) therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.”
Under all these considerations I am most firmly convinced that the Reformation principle is what is most honouring to God and safest for the worshipper. And I hope the Free Presbyterian Church will always continue to receive, observe, and keep pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in His Word.—Yours respectfully,
GEO. FORREST.
Brucefield Ontario, Canada,
February 4th, 1904.