BY REV. RALPH ERSKINE.
I.—THE GREAT GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE TO SHILOH.*
ARE ye gathered to Shiloh? O then endeavour to gather others! See if you can get all in your family to come to Shiloh with you; saying with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, whatever others do,” Joshua xxiv. 15. O have ye been gathered to Christ, and will you be careless though your friends, your children, be gathered to the devil? O hath Christ brought you to Himself, and will He bring you to glory, and gather you to heaven? and will you be easy though all about you be gathered unto hell? No, no; that cannot be your disposition, if you be a believer indeed. If you be content in your lifetime to serve Him, you will study to your power that others may do the like. And this is the name to make the love of Christ continue in the world; for, when you teach your neighbours, your servants, your children, the way of the Lord, they, following your example, may teach their children too; and this will go from generation to generation, so as generations to come may praise the Lord; or, at least, it will not fail on your part. O! how is it to be regretted, that few come to Christ; and of the few that come, how few do show their love, in endeavouring to bring others to Him? Therefore, O let this be amended, and endeavour, in the places where you dwell, and the station you are in providence placed into, that, by your holy conversation, others may be gathered into Shiloh too.
Are you gathered? O, let not believers, that are gathered to Shiloh, forget their gathering together for prayer; Hebrews, x. 24, 25, “Let us consider one another, to provoke unto love, and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.” The wicked, that are to be gathered, to the burning Tophet are making speed in sinful ways, and gathering in clubs and cabals to hearten and harden one another. And, O, shall not the godly gather together, to exhort and excite one another in the way to heaven; as iron sharpeneth iron, so does the holy gathering of saints use to sharpen the edge of their spirits in the Lord’s way. But since fellowship meetings have been deserted, many professors are blunted and rusted; several Christian societies are broken and evanished even at a time, when they that fear the Lord should speak often one to another in spiritual conferences. O! if you be gathered unto Shiloh, let your zeal for Him appear in restoring and reviving these Christian gatherings, in a regular manner. And pray, that the devil’s scattering wind that he has raised in our day for separating and dividing ministers and Christians from one another may be laid.
To add no more, and to encourage you in the whole of your Christian course, O you, that through grace have been gathered to Shiloh, take home the comfort that belongs to your gathered state. As to those who are yet in a distant state, separate from the Lord Jesus, we have little more to offer, if you abide there; for, in the Lord’s time, you will be gathered to the grave, and after that you will be gathered before the tribunal of God, to receive the dreadful sentence, “Depart from me ye cursed;” and, in all appearance some here will be gathered before that awful tribunal before they be gathered together here again; it is more than probable that we are not to meet again in this manner, till we meet before the fiery bench of the glorious Judge; and if you be not gathered to Him as an amicable Jesus now, you must be gathered to Him as a terrible Judge then. And O! that the thoughts of this would excite poor souls to think of gathering to Shiloh before they part, that they may part with God’s blessing and not under His heavy curse! But as to you that have been gathered unto Christ I would have you know that God allows you strong consolation. You having fled for refuge to the hope set before you, you may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God that the joy of the Lord may be your strength in the whole of your work and warfare as you go through the wilderness. You may rejoice in this, that as your hearts are gathered unto Shiloh now, so your happiest gathering time is but coming; for He that hath begun to gather you as stones for the spiritual building will never leave the work till the building be completed with shoutings of “Grace, grace unto it.” He will never give over gathering you until you be completely happy. From time to time, the work will be advanced by means of His word and ordinances till the consummation of the work in glory; “for He hath appointed a gospel ministry for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till they all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Eph. iv. 12, 13. He hath appointed these three fearful things, death, judgment, and eternity, to be three happy gatherings for you; the initial gathering being over by your getting into Christ, after your progressive gathering has come to a close, in you having finished your course, and fought the good fight of faith, your glorious and consummate gathering will take place; the day of death will be the glorious commencement of it. The first coming of Shiloh hath ushered in a gracious gathering; His second coming will produce a glorious gathering; but of these glorious seasons I formerly spoke at large; I only say, therefore, that then, O believer, then shall you be ever with the Lord; and it is for this reason that you are now gathered to Him, that there you may be forever with Him; and so sure as you are gathered to Him in time, so sure shall you be with Him throughout eternity; not only forever with the patriarchs, and prophets and apostles, not only forever with angels and archangels, not only for ever with saints and seraphims, but forever with the Lord, for none of these can make a heaven without Him. Christ Himself will be the centre of the assembly and heart of the meeting; and though now you are but with Him for a start and He is with you but for a moment and so your communion with Him is but in transient glances of His glory. It may be just now you are with Him in the banqueting house, but instantly you are, as it were, at the back of the door. It is only for a little, but then for ever; and it is but a little of Him that you have for a little while; yet then, O then, shall you be forever with the Lord, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. iv. 18. Know that being gathered to Him on earth you shall be gathered to Him in heaven; and being gathered in grace you shall be gathered in glory. For all the promises of grace and glory are gathered in Him, and you being gathered to Him, are in Him also in whom all the promises are yea and amen.
And now this gathering of the people here is to part; but, O happy gathering to these who can date their first or further gathering to Shiloh from their gathering to Carnock? For, part with whom you will, Christ and you shall never part again. Whatever clouds may be in your sky, yet your sun is risen and will never set. But the most part of you here were never gathered to Shiloh. And O how can you find it in your heart to go away without Him and without so much as a desire after Him, who is the desire of all nations! For my own part I cannot think of your going away in such a case. Alas! shall He have it to say, “I would have gathered you as a hen does her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!” O! wherefore did you gather to this place if you would not be gathered to Shiloh! And if you be more willing to be gone than willing to be gathered, woe’s me that my text will be no more but a witness against you upon Carnock green that you would not; and that the devil and the world and your lusts are more desirable to you, and you had more heart to be gathered to them than to be gathered to Shiloh. O then, sirs, heartless parting while you are contented to part with Shiloh forever rather than part with a base lust or black devil. If that be not your choice then let your heart say in the sight of the living God, if you can, “Lord, I think I would be gathered, and would rather choose to die upon the spot than not to be gathered unto Shiloh, and my soul could wish that all my dearest lusts were buried in this green, never to rise again, and that Christ might have my heart forever in room of them all.” Why man! can you say that to the heart searching God? Then, poor soul, let me desire you to take the first convenient closet or corner you can get, and there tell Him this over again more solemnly; and at the same time bless Him that Shiloh ever came to you and that ever you felt the virtue of this promise—”To him shall the gathering of the people be.”
* This extract is taken from Vol. IV. of Ralph Erskine’s works. It is the concluding appeal of a remarkable series of sermons on the text, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Gen. xlix. 10. The eighth sermon from which the extract is taken was preached at a communion season at Carnock, which played such a prominent part through its eminent minister, James Hogg, in the days of the Marrow Controversy. Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine were the sons of a gracious minister of Christ who suffered much in the times of the persecution. It was through his preaching that Thomas Boston was savagely impressed; or, as he puts it in his own characteristic way, got “an unexpected cast.” Ralph and Ebenezer played an important part in the Marrow Controversy, and were afterwards leaders in the 1733 Secession movement.