By the Rev. DONALD BEATON.
THE place of the Book of Psalms in the lives of the great Reformers is dealt with by Mr. Prothero in the fifth chapter of his book. John Wyclif, the morning star of the Reformation, lay dying at Lutterworth, and his enemies the friars crowded round him asking him to confess the wrongs he had done to their order. The old man asked his servant to raise him from the pillow, and gathering his remaining strength he said, “I shall not die but live” (Ps. cxviii. 17) and declare the evil deeds of the friars.” It was with the words of the 31st Psalm that John Huss died—”Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” When he reached the place of martyrdom he knelt and repeated the whole of this Psalm. At the same spot little more than a year afterwards Jerome of Prague resigned his soul to his God in the same words as his friend Huss uttered—”Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” In Knox’s account of George Wishart, one of the most touching pieces that even the graphic pen of Knox ever wrote, we are told that he desired Knox to return to his pupils, adding “One is sufficient for a sacrifice.” That night he spent with the Laird of Ormiston, and after supper the company sang the 51st Psalm in Wedderburn’s version—
“Have mercy on me now, good Lord,
After Thy great mercies;
My sinful life does me remord,
Which sore has grieved me.”
Then he passed to his bed-chamber with the words “God grant quiet rest.” That same night he was seized, carried to St. Andrews, and condemned to be burned. “When he came to the fire,” says Knox, “he sat down upon his knees and rose up again, and thrice he said these words, “O thou Saviour of the world have mercy upon me! Father of Heaven, I commend my spirit into Thy holy hands.” (Ps. xxxi. 6.) It is evident that the Psalms were very precious to those who laid down their lives in confirmation of the truth they professed.
When we come to the men who belong peculiarly to what is known in church history as the Reformation period, such as Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, Beza, Zwingli, we find that in their great battles for the truth of God they found strength and comfort in the Psalms. Luther had a great admiration for the Psalms, and in his own characteristic way refers to the second Psalm as the best. “I love that Psalm with all my heart,” he says, “It strikes and flashes valiantly among kings, princes, counsellors, judges, &c. If what this Psalm says be true, then are the allegations and aims of the Papists stark lies and folly. If I were as our Lord God,
1 “The Psalms in Human Life.” By R. E. Prothero. See the Magazine for last month.
and had committed the government to my son, as He to His Son, and these vile people were as disobedient as now they be, I would knock the world in pieces.” But if Luther was a man of almost superhuman courage there were moments in his career when his heart sank within him, and in the hour of his great depression he would say to his friend Melanchthon, “Come, Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm,” and the two would sing the Psalm together and feel stronger to fight another battle and face another foe. The 118th Psalm was another great favourite of Luther’s. “This is my Psalm, my chosen Psalm,” he says, “I love them all; I love all Holy Scripture, which is my consolation and my life. But this Psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a familiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honours and power of the earth.” It was his desire that the soothing words of the fourth Psalm—”I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest”—would be the last words he would hear on earth. While Calvin lacked the impetuosity of Luther and that deep intensity of feeling that touched human nature at so many points, yet his love of the Psalms is not less strong. True we have not quoted in this book Calvin’s memorable reference to the Psalms in his commentary on that book, but there are sufficient references to prove that to Calvin the Book of Psalms was a great strength to him in trouble. When in any anxiety of mind he repeated the words of the 6th Psalm—”My soul is sore troubled; but, Lord, how long wilt Thou punish me?” In the agony of mortal pain he groaned out, “I became dumb, and opened not my mouth, for it was Thy doing.” (Ps. xxxix. 10.) Almost his last words were a fragment from the Psalms, “How long, O Lord?” Melanchthon died with the words of the 31st Psalm on his lips—”Into Thy hands I commend my spirit;” and when Beza passed into the presence of his God it was with the words “If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to make what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it?” (Ps. cxxx. 3.)
The same reverence for the Psalms is manifested by the English and Scottish martyrs. Bishop Ridley on the last night he spent on earth refused the company of his brother, saying that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as he ever did in his life—”I will lay me down in peace and take my rest; for it is Thou, Lord, only that makest me dwell in safety.” (Ps. iv. 9.) The next morning he was chained to the stake, and as the flames rose around him he exclaimed with a wonderful loud voice, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; Lord, Lord, receive my spirit.” The story of Lady Jane Grey can never be read without stirring to its depths the best feelings of our humanity. In that solemn hour when she faced eternity, when the executioner’s axe was the appointed instrument to bring her into the presence of the Judge of the quick and the dead, she drew comfort and consolation from
the Psalms. To the Duke of Suffolk, who had departed from the Protestant faith, she wrote urging him to lay to heart “the saying of David in his 104th Psalm, where he saith thus: ‘When Thou takest away Thy spirit, O Lord, from men they die, and are turned again to their dust; but when Thou lettest Thy breath go forth they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.’ Be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Fight manfully, come life, come death: the quarrel is God’s, and undoubtedly the victory is ours.” To her sister, Lady Katharine, she sent her New Testament, urging her to “desire with David to understand the law of the Lord God.” Her husband was condemned to die on the same day. He begged for a last interview and last embrace. Lady Jane refused; the meeting could only increase their trial and disturb their preparations for death. She saw her husband led out to execution, and she saw his dead body in a cart pass under her window—”a sight to her no less than death.” But painful though this experience was it did not shake her resolution to die as a Protestant. When she came to the foot of the scaffold she repeated the whole of the 51st Psalm; then laying her head upon the block she said, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit, O Lord.”
The Scottish martyrs showed the same deep love for the Psalms. Hugh Mackail sang on the scaffold the sixth verse of the 31st Psalm in the metrical version—
“Into Thy hands I do commit
My spirit; for Thou art He,
O Thou, Jehovah, God of Truth,
Who hast redeemed me.”
and then broke into these impassioned words—”Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations! farewell the world and all delights! farewell meat and drink! farewell sun and moon and stars! Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant! Welcome blessed Spirit of grace! God of all consolation! Welcome glory! Welcome eternal life! Welcome death!” Time would fail to speak of Richard Cameron, Donald Cargill, Alexander Peden, James Renwick, Isobel Alison, and Marion Harvie, but a word must be said in connection with the Wigtown martyrs, Margaret MacLachlan and Margaret Wilson—the former aged 60 and the latter 18 years. The elder woman was set lower down the river that the younger might see her struggles and be moved to recant. Her persecutors pitying Margaret Wilson pulled her out of the water and offered her life if she would say “God save the king” and take the test. “May God save the king if He will!” she said, for she desired the salvation of all men, but she would not renounce her faith or take the test. She was then again tied to the stake, and as the salt waves curled above her breast and all but touched her lips, she sang the 25th Psalm—
“My sins and faults of youth
Do Thou, O Lord, forget;
After thy mercies think on me,
And for Thy goodness great;”
and so on until the waters choked her voice and silenced the song she sang so sweetly on earth, but which, one fondly believes, was continued in heaven.
It is needless to remind readers of this magazine what an important place the Psalms had with the Puritans, those deeply taught and experienced Christians whose writings are the finest works we have on experimental theology- What the Psalms were to the Huguenots is also referred to in Mr. Prothero’s book, but as we have already taken up too much space, we may on a future occasion say something about the Psalms in missions.
An Address on Preaching the Gospel.
BY THE LATE REV. PROFESSOR JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D.
IN June, 1844, a Committee of the Free Church issued a report (with introductory narrative by Dr. Moody-Stuart) of the deliberations of the General Assembly of that year “relative to the state of religion in the land.” This report contains several interesting addresses, one of the most valuable of which is the following by Professor Duncan on truths that ought to be emphasised in preaching the Gospel. The Committee express their regret that “the report of Dr. Duncan’s speech, than which there was none during the whole proceedings more worthy of preservation,” is “brief and imperfect,” while they believe that it is sufficient, as now given, “to convey some idea of its general character”:—
Professor Duncan said, that in desiring and aiming at the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints, it was of great importance that they should have a distinct idea of what the conversion of a sinner means. He thought it was, in a great measure, owing to the want of this that a number of those disorders in practice and errors in doctrine, to which Dr. Cunningham had referred, might be traced. Next to, and closely connected with, an earnest desire for the salvation of souls, and a constant expectancy (which cannot be too strongly inculcated), was the right and scriptural understanding of what they aimed at when they desired and expected a sinner’s conversion. Conversion was not merely to be understood as a turning from one thing to another thing, but as the turning of an absolutely lost sinner to the God of free and sovereign grace. It was therefore of great importance in existing circumstances, and at all times, that their minds and spirits should be under the sober regulation of revealed truth. And while different suggestions had been thrown out as to the means of promoting these ends, one deeply important question for them to consider was, What was the improvement or the amelioration of those means which they were already employing under the authority of the Word of God, which ought to be adopted in their present circumstances? The question was not only, should there be more
preaching, but should there be better preaching. Here he begged to refer to the earnest admonition given by Dr. Malan at the Assembly in Glasgow, to beware of Arminianism. He (Dr. Duncan) did not believe that Arminianism existed in their own Church. But he could not disguise from his own mind, that of late years, at least previous to the Disruption,—he knew not how it may have been since, for they could not expect to get rid of all these evils in a day,—since evangelism had become more fashionable, it had become more indefinite and diluted; and if this does not amount to Arminianism, it is a rounding off the corners of that which is called Calvinism, but which I believe to be Jehovahism; it was a rubbing off and a smoothing down of the salient points of Calvinistic doctrine into something which, if it was not Arminianism, was a kind of doctrine with which all who are called Calvinistic evangelicals and Arminian evangelicals could agree. Now this was just the beginning of the evil,—it was the letting in of waters,—the dilution of the gospel; and the dilution of the gospel would very soon lead to the perversion of the gospel. He remembered an anecdote of a poor man and his wife in England, who were labouring people. They attended a dissenting minister, who, in the course of his ministrations, recommended a Commentary on the Bible. These poor people accordingly laboured to be able to purchase one, and were at last able to do this. After perusing it for some time, the man asked his wife what she thought of the Commentary. “Why,” said his wife, “we used to read the Bible in the evening, and it seemed to do us good; and now that we have got the Commentary,—it is very good, no doubt, but I do not think it does us so much good. The Bible did us good like a glass of wine, but the Commentary does us good like the same glass of wine in a pailful of water.”
Dr. Duncan reminded them that zeal for God’s glory should be ever uppermost in the minds of His servants. When they urged sinners to repentance, the character and claims of Jehovah should be laid as the basis for it. This was the basis of all revelation—Jehovah He is God. That was a doctrine not only of the Old Testament, but set forth and explained in the New Testament, where He was set forth as working all things after the counsel of His own will. The doctrine of man’s fall—his total fall, not merely from virtue and righteousness, but his total alienation from Jehovah, and the consequent loss of all internal good,—his entire separation from Jehovah God, out of which came the doctrine that the fall was a total ruin,—ought to be much insisted on. The doctrine, too, of the Trinity ought not only to be referred to, but set forth in their whole preaching, in its relation to the manifestation of God’s glory in the salvation of sinners. Their preaching should be the gospel of the Triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity should be ever taught, though not ever formally taught. The doctrine of the person of Christ, which gives glory and excellence to the work of Christ, should be brought
forward,—not salvation merely, but the glorious Saviour Himself, and that not only for the sake of guilty sinners’ salvation, but for the exhibition of the Divine character—that it was worthy of God to save sinners for such a Saviour. Man’s total apostacy from God—his total depravity—would lead to the exhibition of what alone can be, in an apostate’s condition, any comfort or support—the love of Jehovah. It opened such a deep wound that nothing but a Saviour—as a Saviour for an absolute sinner, dead in trespasses and sins—could heal it. God should be proclaimed as the sole Creator, Christ as the entire Saviour,—not the Redeemer only, but the quickener also, not the author of faith only, but the perfecter and finisher of faith. The doctrine of man’s impotency—of his total inability to bring himself back to God, should be held up. The opposite doctrine—the doctrine of man’s ability to convert himself, countenances the absurdity that man is to return to a dependance on Jehovah by the belief of a certain independence, which is not only absurd, but also dishonourable to God. It would not do to tell a man that he may come to Christ, but that he must come. Some, indeed, would have man to do all, though he could do nothing; and others would have him to do nothing, because all was done for him. As long as I am told that I must come to God,—and that I can come, I am left to suppose that some good thing, or some power of good remains in me, I arrogate to myself that which belongs to Jehovah. The creature is exalted, and God is robbed of His glory. If, on the other hand, I am told that I cannot come to God, but not also that I must come, I am left to rest contented at a distance from God, I am not responsible for my rebellion, and God Jehovah is not my God. But if we preach that sinners can’t come, and yet must come, then is the honour of God vindicated, and the sinner is shut up. Man must be so shut up that he must come to Christ, and yet know that he cannot. He must come to Christ, or he will look to another, when there is no other to whom he may come; he cannot come, or he will look to himself. This is the gospel vice, to shut up men to the faith. Some grasp at one limb of the vice and some at the other, leaving the sinner open—but when a man is shut up that he must and cannot, he is shut up to the faith—shut up to the faith, and then would he be shut up in the faith. God is declared to be Jehovah, and the sinner is made willing to be saved by Him, in his own way, as sovereign in His grace. Many may dislike this doctrine as harsh and severe, but it is because they view God’s sovereignty apart from His grace. They spoke of the sovereign God, but why not of the sovereignty of grace. For himself, he felt comfort when shut up to this truth, that God was sovereign, and His grace sovereign; for though he was a sinner—an absolute sinner, Jehovah had said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” This doctrine came like heaven’s own thunder, and struck down all human dependence. It came upon a man as lost, as the very chief of sinners, and depending solely on God’s will;
and then, oh how blessed to know the sovereignty of grace. It struck him down when he read, “The Son quickeneth whom He will.” His mind fixed on the “whom He will,” and he was undone, because it did not depend on his own will, but on the will of another. But he read again and found that it was the Son that quickeneth whom He will, and this raised him from the dust, because the Son, on whose sovereign will his salvation depended, was the same “Jesus Christ who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”
It was of importance that the truth which gave such glory to God, which alone could comfort, because it alone brought man down, be declared; that Jehovah’s glory be exhibited; that men be made to feel their own emptiness; that they may see Christ’s sufficiency, and Christ’s yearning heart over sinners. On what had been said as to the mode of preaching, he should say not a word, as he was sure all were convinced that it was not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. If God gave the desire, and sent His servants forth with His glorious word impressed on the heart and conscience, He who had given His word for that very end would accompany it with demonstration of the Spirit; having appointed these means, and ordained them, He would give grace to apply them; and he believed that Jehovah had this end in view, and the more so when they were feeling their infirmities and sins.