Rev. J. R. Mackay having called Rev. Neil Cameron to occupy, meanwhile, the Moderator’s Chair, gave in, on behalf of Mr. Beaton and himself, the yearly Theological Report. He explained that during the past winter session we had three students studying Theology, viz., Mr. Andrew Sutherland, a student of the first year in theology, who studied New Testament Greek and Church History at Wick, and Messrs. Donald MacLeod and Murdo Morrison, students of the third, that is, the last, year of our Theological Course, who studied Old Testament Hebrew and Systematic Theology at Inverness. Mr. Beaton had reported as follows:—
Report of work done during Session 1907-8 in the Classes of Biblical Criticism and Church History.
In the Biblical Criticism Class we read the Gospel according to Matthew, translating the same, and noting any points of linguistic or grammatical interest. In the exegetical part of our work the Epistle to the Hebrews was read, and lectures were given on the authorship, date, and destination of the Epistle. As a preparatory study to this great Epistle, works dealing with the typology and ritual of the Mosaic economy were recommended and read. The elaborate system through which, by types and shadows, the good things yet to come were foreshadowed, is beautifully set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and its unfolding of the spiritual meaning lying behind the types gives a significance to the Mosaic economy, and a call to the serious student of the Word of God to search the Scriptures, so that they too—like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, when their understandings were opened—began to see new beauties in these Old Testament Scriptures as the Prophet, mighty in word and deed, beginning at Moses, expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things that were written concerning Himself. In the subject of Textual Criticism we read Burgon’s Traditional Text and Miller’s Guide to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. The school represented by Dean Burgon, Scrivener, and Miller, has not yet come to its own, but there are not wanting signs that scholars are not altogether satisfied with the predominant school of Wescott and Hort. But whether the tide is turning or not, the text underlying the Revised translation of the New Testament, and which is the outcome of the principles advocated by this school, is a sufficient warning to us to steer clear of a system of textual criticism that would rob us of many passages of the New Testament Scriptures.
During the session we also devoted some attention to the geography of Palestine, more especially as having reference to New Testament times. The subject is intensely interesting, and in view of the many references in the New Testament to the towns, rivers, lakes, etc., of Palestine, it is well nigh a necessity that the student of theology should be familiar with the geography and history of the land whose fame has gone to the ends of the earth because of the mighty works that were done within its borders. In laying stress on such an equipment I am not forgetful that, after all, these matters belong to the outer court of equipment for the great office of those who are ambassadors for Christ, but still, as handmaidens in the service of the Redeemer, they may be useful to those, part of whose work it is to expound the Scriptures to their fellow-men.
In the class of Church History we read Mitchell’s History of the Westminster Assembly. The period covered by this excellent work is of the deepest importance to students of Church history, taking us back as it does to the formation of the Confession and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. In Scottish Church History we confined our attention to the period from the introduction of Christianity to the Restoration in 1660. In dealing with the subject of Church polity we read MacPherson’s Presbyterianism. We also dealt with the main outlines of procedure in Church Courts, more especially as having reference to the Deacons’ Court, Kirk-Session and Presbytery, and also with the procedure in cases of discipline. We had as our guide on this line of study Sir Henry Moncrieff’s Practice.
In conclusion, I have to report that Mr. Sutherland did his work in a highly commendable manner, showing diligent application to his studies, and taking a high percentage in the written examinations. I have also to acknowledge his kindness in ungrudgingly supplying the pulpit for me often during the session. In presenting this report to the Synod, I trust it is no mock humility on my part when I crave the prayers of my brethren in the ministry and the Lord’s people throughout our Church that He would abundantly bless us as teachers and students. The attainment of knowledge, even in theology, is apt to leave us dried and withered, unless ‘the dew’ descends from heaven.”
In regard to the work done at Inverness, Mr. Mackay reported that they took up work early in November and, with a brief break towards the end of January and the beginning of February, carried on this work until about the middle of April. They met four days a week, and generally for two and a-half hours each day. In Hebrew: To begin with, a written examination, having for its subjects the whole of Dr. Davidson’s Introductory Grammar and the Book of Ruth in Hebrew, was held. These subjects had been prescribed as summer work, and in them, he was pleased to say, our students acquitted themselves creditably. During the session the following portions of the Hebrew Bible were read:—(a) the first seven chapters of Genesis; (b) the whole of the Prophecy of Micah, consisting of seven chapters; (c) the first seven chapters of Isaiah; (d) the first seven Psalms; and (e)—in order that our students might have an introduction into the study of Aramaic—a small portion of Daniel. He would not take up the time of the Synod in indicating in detail what was attempted by way of introduction and exegesis in connection with these several portions of God’s Word. In Systematic Theology: Dogmatics in the strict sense occupied our time during this concluding session. On three days of the week he endeavoured, from his own view-point, to give a course of lectures embracing a brief but completed system of Dogmatics, save that the question of the Sacraments was so far omitted. The important subject of the Sacraments was, however, studied throughout the session, on Fridays. On that day we read Turretine’s De Sacramentis. He considered it a very important part of the theological equipment of our students that they were at this stage led to make the acquaintance of Turretine at first hand. As a rule, examinations were held on the work done in Old Testament Hebrew as the several portions of the Hebrew Bible, referred to already, were gone through. Two examinations were held in Systematic Theology. In all these papers a high percentage was gained. Messrs. MacLeod and Morrison were, for diligence and obedience, all that could be wished.
Mr. Mackay afterwards read the following report of the Committee appointed by the three Presbyteries of this Church to examine Divinity Students, viz., Rev. Neil Cameron, Rev. Alex. Macrae, and Rev. Donald Beaton (Convener):—
The Committee appointed the following Examiners for the different Subjects: I.—EXAMINERS: Hebrew—Rev. A. Macrae; Theology—Rev. N. MacIntyre; Church History—Rev. N. Cameron; New Testament Greek—Rev. Jas. S. Sinclair. II.—SUBJECTS: (1) Hebrew—Book of Micah, Translation and Exegesis, also Questions on Grammar; (2) Theology—Hodge’s Outlines, Anthropology, and Turretine’s Caption De Sacramentis; (3) Church History—Mitchell’s Westminster Assembly and Hetherington’s Church History of Scotland, vol. I; (4) New Testament Greek—Epistle to the Hebrews, Exegesis, Questions on Introduction, etc.; Miller’s Guide to Textual Criticism of New Testament.
Mr. Andrew Sutherland sat for his first Theological Examination in the subjects of Church History and New Testament Greëk. In the former he obtained 70 and 71, and in the latter, 77 per cent.
Rev. J. S. Sinclair moved that the Synod receive the Reports of the Theological Classes tendered by Mr. Mackay, and express their sincere thanks to the Revs. J. R. Mackay and D. Beaton for their efficient services as tutors. He remarked that considering the qualifications of their theological teachers, they did not need to envy any College in Scotland. Rev. Neil Cameron, in seconding the motion, said that it was a very great matter that they had every confidence that their students were being taught sound doctrine and sound principles in accordance with God’s Word, when there was so much error being disseminated in the present day. The motion was very cordially adopted.
The next subject on the paper was the “London Mission,” and the Rev. Neil Cameron gave some account of the recent beginning of this Mission and of the encouraging attendances that were given when he visited London at the end of March, so that he felt encouraged to intimate that there would be regular services. The Mission was attended by a number of young people from the Highlands. There were good attendances when the Rev. Mr. Macqueen visited it at the end of April, and the latest reports from the members of Committee and students officiating there bore that the attendance was well maintained. The supply had been up till now regulated by members of the Southern Presbytery, and it lay with the Synod to say whether they approved of what had been done. Rev. D. Macfarlane moved that the Synod approve of the steps that had been taken in connection with the London Mission, and that the matter of supply be left to the care of the Southern Presbytery. He expressed his earnest wishes that the Mission might go on and prosper. The clerk stated that the services were attended by young people of various denominations besides their own. The motion was unanimously agreed to.
Rev. Neil Cameron also gave a brief report of what had recently been accomplished in connection with the Canadian Mission. The Committee had arranged with Mr. Donald Macleod, Divinity Student, to go out for a year as an ordained missionary, and on the first day of June Mr. Macleod was licensed to preach, and ordained to the office of the ministry at Glasgow by the Southern Presbytery. He left Scotland on the 6th June, and arrived safely at his destination, where he was now engaged in work. Letters that have been received from him report encouraging attendances at the services.
The next head was “Remits from Presbyteries.” There were three from the Western Presbytery. The first taken up was in reference to Mr. Donald M’Leod, Broadford, who has been conducting services there for a considerable time, and it was agreed, on the motion of Rev. D. Mackenzie, to pay Mr. Macleod meantime £2, and to fix his salary at £5 per annum. The second was in regard to Mr. James Macleod, Jun., Raasay, and it was agreed to approve of Mr. Macleod’s appointment as a missionary, and to fix his salary at £7 per quarter. The third remit referred to Mr. Alexander M’Lennan, missionary, Rona, who desired, on account of failing health and the heaviness of his work, a change of sphere to the mainland. This was spoken to by the Rev. Neil Cameron, and it was decided to allow the Western Presbytery to keep the matter in view, and to make any necessary arrangements in view of their seeing a suitable opening for Mr. M’Lennan elsewhere.
A remit from the Northern Presbytery requested to know whether it was competent for congregations who had a moderator and session, though they were not regularly sanctioned charges, to send a representative elder to Presbytery and Synod. The Synod ruled that it was competent and that it had been allowed hitherto.
Under “Any Competent Business,” it was agreed that Mr. Murdo Mackay, Strathy Point, who was doing constant work as a missionary, should be appointed as a regular missionary of the Church, and that he should receive a fixed salary. It was decided to forward a protest, in the name of the Synod, as already had been done by the Northern and Southern Presbyteries in their own name, against the attendance of the King and Queen, and other high personages, at Mass in a Roman Catholic Chapel in London at the time of the deaths of the King and Crown Prince of Portugal. Another public matter pertaining to Royalty that the Synod thought should be taken notice of was the King’s practice of Sabbath desecration, and the Rev. D. M’Kenzie moved, and the Rev. D. Graham seconded, that the Moderator (Rev. J. R. Mackay) and Revs. Neil Cameron and J. S. Sinclair should be appointed to draw up a suitable Protest to be sent to the King.
The Clerk read a communication he had received from the Clerk to the Glasgow University General Council on the subject of the Universities and Theological Colleges, enclosing the Report of a Committee which recommends that all the Churches should unite in having one Faculty of Theology at the University, and that the Professors of this Faculty “should not, on their appointment, be subjected to tests, whether doctrinal or ecclesiastical,” He said that at present Theological Professors at the University were Established churchmen, who must sign the Confession of Faith and Formula, but that the new proposal would do away with these tests, and that Unitarians would be equally eligible with Presbyterians for teaching divinity. Rev. D. Macfarlane moved that the same Committee as was appointed on the previous matter anent the King be instructed to draw up a Protest against this proposal in regard to the teaching of theology at the University. The motion was unanimously agreed to.
Rev. D. Mackenzie moved that a Day of Humiliation and Prayer for the moral and religious condition of the country be held at a comparatively early date. The motion was seconded by Mr. F. M’Donald, and it was unanimously agreed that Thursday, the eighth day of October, 1908, be held for the purpose.
The Moderator called attention to the spiritual necessities of our summer fishing people on the Aberdeenshire coast, and it was agreed to leave the matter with the Northern Presbytery to see if anyone could be sent to attend to their interests.
The Synod adjourned, to meet again (God willing) in Glasgow, on Tuesday after the second Sabbath of November, at eleven in the forenoon.
The meeting was closed with singing the last three verses of the seventy-second Psalm, and prayer.
A Sermon.
BY THE REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS,
MODERATOR OF SYNOD.
Preached before the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church,
met at Inverness, on 7th July, 1908.
“From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”
HEBREWS X. 13.
I N drawing attention to this portion of God’s word, we shall consider:—
I.—The Person who is here presented to us as “expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”
II.—The Enemies who are thus to be treated; and
III.—What is implied in this Person’s “expecting.”
I.—The Person who is here brought before us as “expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,” is evidently none other than the Eternal Son of God, who is Himself God. This epistle to the Hebrews is remarkably rich in giving expression to Christ’s essential glory. He is the Son, who is the Heir of all things, by whom God created the worlds, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His Person, to whose deity the Father bears witness in the forty-fifth Psalm, where He addresses Him as “God, whose throne is for ever and ever;” and in the hundred and second Psalm, where He speaks of Christ as the Creator of heaven and earth. In, however, contemplating Christ as He is brought before us in the words of our text, we must regard Him not merely in what He is in virtue of His essential nature, but also in regard of what He became in assuming a nature which was not His from all eternity. For when, in the fulness of time, God sent forth His own Son made of a woman, made under the law, that Son so laid hold of the seed of Abraham as to have taken up our nature into His own Person; and thus there enters into His self-consciousness, into His Personality, a divine consciousness, and also a human consciousness, for “He is God and man in two distinct natures, and one Person.” He is the God-man who now “expects till all his enemies be made his footstool.” In this connection, it is all-important that we should be impressed with the honour and dignity which it has pleased God in this way to confer upon our, (that is) human, nature. God at the beginning created man in His own image, and when man thus created dishonoured God and His law, man might justly have been left to occupy the lowest place in the scale of being. Yet was it the good pleasure of Him who doeth all things according to the counsel of His own will, to raise up human nature from this low place, and to exalt it above every created nature. The first step of this exaltation consists in the act of the Eternal Son in taking up that nature into His own Person, so that in Christ the human is not less truly now a nature of the Son of God than is that essential divine nature which is His from everlasting to everlasting. And still further, in regard of this exaltation of our nature in the Person of the Son of God, be it noted that, albeit that it is the sad fact that our Maker was grievously wronged by mankind, it is now the case that in human nature God’s law, in respect of precept and penalty, has been honoured as it could not be in any other created nature. All the obedience rendered by elect angels in heaven, all the sufferings endured by the damned in hell, all the obedience of which the whole human race, supposing none of them ever to have sinned, was capable, could not put so much honour on the law of God, in regard of both precept and penalty, as has now been put upon that law in human nature in the Person of the Son of God. And because of all this, God has highly exalted Christ, and every creature in existence has been made subordinate and subject to our nature in the Person of the Son of God.
Our text, as we shall afterwards have occasion to note, speaks of enemies of Christ, but meanwhile, in connection with Christ’s exaltation—in connection with this “expecting”—we have to note that Christ had to meet with an enemy which is not among the enemies who are to be made His footstool, but which, notwithstanding, was for Him the most awful enemy of any; I mean the wrath of an offended God. It was the fact of His having had to confront that enemy that made His sweat in Gethsemane to be drops of blood. It was this that caused Him, according to Psalm lxxix. 15, to pray, “Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.” It was the sorrow which the awakening of the sword of divine justice (Zech. xiii. 7) against Him brought upon Him, that found expression in the first twenty-one verses of the twenty-second Psalm. But Christ was such a Person as that the curse of the law could and did exhaust itself in the stroke of justice which alighted upon Him, and He, having drunk the cup of wrath to its bitterest and last dregs, has had now a cup of salvation given Him to drink. Just as, in the justification of the ungodly, there is bestowed upon sinners not only pardon of sins but also acceptance of their person, so similarly, in regard of Christ, the Scriptures teach us that when He had finished the arduous work given Him to do, not only was there a cessation of punishment and pain, but there was the positive experience of the highest conceivable felicity, yea, of felicity beyond finite conception. In the words of the twenty-first Psalm, we say of Him: “In thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice. Thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with the light of thy countenance.” Christ will never again meet with God as with an enemy; He will never again mourn the absence of the Father’s countenance. On the contrary, God in His justice is for Him, and with the light of God’s countenance as with the countenance of His own God in an everlasting covenant, He is for evermore made exceedingly glad. And it is no little part of this gladness that, in connection with this salvation in which His glory is made great, He is exalted above every other possible enemy, and that He has a promise given Him that His foes must be made His footstool.
II.—The Enemies.
And yet Christ has enemies. He is not without friends. The Father, not only as the Son is and has ever been the object of His necessary unchangeable love, the Father, as the representative of Godhead in the everlasting Covenant, as God the Judge of all who, as such, bruised His own Son, is now, as the God of peace, for Him, and crowns Him with glory, and honour, and love ineffable. The Holy Spirit as He has been given to Christ of the Father upon His ascension is His friend. Elect angels are His friends. And stranger still, Christ has some men and women of our rebel race who are His friends. This fact is matter of surprise. For since through the fall the whole human race came into alliance with Satan, Christ’s arch-enemy, the question arises, how has He come to have friends from among the human race? We answer:—
(1) To begin with, it was the good pleasure of Him who doeth all things after the counsel of His own will that a certain number of our race, an innumerable number indeed of our race should be, when they were still enemies, the objects of the Father’s unmerited love; a people for whom Christ purposed to lay down His life. It was the fact of His having, according to the divine purpose, taken these “enemies” of the human race as friends, that made Him so many other enemies. For these “enemies” whom He loved, because He would love them, had made themselves many enemies, and there was not an enemy of His people but Christ took as His own enemy. It was thus that in the sense in which we have explained, He had to meet with God Himself as an enemy.
(2) But again, Christ has had and will have, while sun and moon endure, friends from among sinners of the human race, who through grace and by actual choice have been, or shall be, won over to Him. These realise that there is a God to whom they are necessarily under obligations, they are taught that they owe a duty to God, to their neighbour, and to themselves, and that in failing to fulfil that duty they have become debtors to divine justice in the matter of a debt which would be required of them, but which they could not render. And Christ is revealed to them and in them as He that came forth from God and assumed their nature and came under the law which they broke on very purpose to satisfy divine justice. It was the claims of an offended God which Christ primarily came to meet, and because He met them, He becomes for this among other reasons exceedingly precious to His people. And this people who thus make choice of Him become to Christ as the apple of His eye. In coming to Christ they pass from death to life, for God is pacified towards them. But they have innumerable enemies notwithstanding, and all these enemies are in our text reckoned as Christ’s enemies. They are to be made Christ’s footstool, and in this victory His people will participate.
Satan and his hosts are Christ’s arch-enemies. “The god of this world,” we are told, works even now in every child of disobedience. And that evil spirit is not satisfied with the unorganised opposition of many individuals. Satan believes in organising his forces, and thus forms his army into systems wherewith he may be the better able to oppose the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. The Roman Empire, in the days immediately before the times of Constantine, became, as a whole, an instrument in the hands of Satan, wherewith He sought to crush Christ’s cause in the world. Afterwards Papal Rome, and, more emphatically than even before, Papal Rome, since 1870, became a willing instrument in Satan’s hands to thwart, either by force or deceit, Christ’s cause and kingdom. Infidelity, and very especially that form of rationalism that seeks to throw discredit on the oracles of God, is another enemy to Christ, and although infidelity as rationalism opposed to the Scriptures, has not proved so plastic in its being adjusted into a system, as has priestcraft, still is it the case that certain churches in this and in other lands have become the means through which rationalism too has assumed the form of an organised power inimical to Christ. Spiritual death in sinners of mankind is regarded by Christ as an enemy. Temporal death, as it holds His people’s bodies in possession, is another enemy, and the very last to be destroyed. A believer has not so much as a headache, but Christ regards that as His own enemy. But all these and other enemies which we cannot now name must be made Christ’s footstool. How that is to be accomplished may be touched upon as we proceed to notice our third head.
III.—We now indicate what is implied in Christ’s expectancy.
(1) Although this state of expectation is the condition of one who has sat down having ceased from His work (v. 12), we are not, on this account, to think that Christ is now inactive. On the contrary, as that One upon whose shoulders is the government of the universe, He is most active, active as Head of His Church, active as Head over all things for the benefit of His Church. As Head of His Church His activity may be traced in the equipment wherewith, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He furnished His Apostles at Pentecost. It is seen in the success which has attended the spread of His gospel in Asia Minor, in Greece, in Italy, in Britain, in America, in parts of Africa, even to the ends of the earth.
His activity as Head over all things for the benefit of the Church might be illustrated from several sources. I refer now only to one instance. In the sixteenth century the gospel of the grace of God had a resurrection in Europe, so that it was preached with a clearness and power that was not known before since the days of the Apostles. It was Christ’s purpose that this resurrected gospel should be sent to the East and to the West Indies, and to many other of the most remote parts of the earth. But at the Reformation the roads by sea and land leading to those heathen nations, were in the power of those countries that had given their strength to the Papacy, very especially in the hands of Spain, which was then the premier power of Europe. But contemplate things for a little. Those nations which accepted the Reformation are seen to be raised up in the scale of nations, a matter especially noteworthy in respect of Great Britain. As a nation identified with Protestantism, it became the head of the nations of Europe. Then those roads which had been formerly in the hands of Spain, because Spain in the just Providence of God was meanwhile becoming as the tail of the nations, fell into the hands of Great Britain. Britain was thus used as an instrument in Christ’s hands to send His gospel to the ends of the earth. This fruit of Christ’s activity is a matter to which our attention as inhabitants of Great Britain ought to be directed, for it is to be feared that they are comparatively few nowadays who read aright the cause of Britain’s elevation in the scale of nations. Britain owes its elevation to one man, and that one man is not a mere man but is the second Adam, the Lord from heaven and a quickening Spirit. We hear much nowadays about Britain’s navy, about the new territorial forces, about an imperial sentiment, but very little about Him who must reign until His enemies be made His footstool. But we should not forget that Christ is as able to make Britain the tail of the nations of Europe as in the past He shewed himself capable of making Britain, as a power advancing His gospel, the head of the nations, and we should fear lest by our forgetfulness, yea, and worse than forgetfulness of His cause, lest by the countenance given to Priestcraft and infidelity among us, such a judgment as I have spoken of may be wrung out of Christ’s hands.
(2) Again, this condition of “expecting”—as of one who has sat down after an arduous work—implies a contrast between the nature of Christ’s activity now in His exaltation and of His activity in the days of His flesh. His activity now is but reward after, and for, labours performed; it is rest after storm and conflict. For, as we have repeatedly said, Christ took everything that opposed His people’s complete salvation as things opposed to Himself. The wrath of an offended God belonged to a kind of opposition that differed entirely from all other enemies that stood in the way of the final triumph of His Church and Cause. In order to overcome the latter, Christ, we may say, was exalted; but in order to overcome the former He must be humbled, He must suffer, He must be brought to the dust of death. To overcome the latter is but comparative rest for Christ; to overcome the former was labour so arduous that His sweat was as drops of blood. To overcome the latter is but Christ’s honour; to overcome the former He must Himself be reckoned among transgressors, and be treated by God as though He, and not His people’s sins, had caused all God’s displeasure and kindled a fire in His wrath. But now that time of strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death is past, and the offended God is the pacified God, the God of peace, who, as He ever—on Calvary as elsewhere—regarded Christ as the necessary object of His essential, infinite, unchangeable love, regards Him now as the Servant who is worthy of glory and honour and power and might and dominion and love. This “sitting down” and “expecting” suggests a profound contrast between Christ’s activities now and then.
(3) This “expecting” implies the assured confidence with which Christ carries on the work of redemption in the world. He is able to redeem His Church with a price, since He entered Heaven with His own infinitely precious blood. He is able to redeem them with power, since He has received from the Father the Spirit, the Comforter which is to abide with His Church for ever, and which He poured out on the Day of Pentecost. He thus rests as one that has the assurance that the work committed to Him by God the Father—of bringing in those new heavens and new earth wherein righteousness is to have its dwelling—shall have a sure accomplishment, when God shall be glorified in the highest degree contemplated in the divine decree, when His Church shall be supremely happy and blessed, and every foe shall, either in mercy or in judgment, be brought into subjection.
(4) This “expecting” implies how long-suffering Christ is towards His foes. He shewed great long-suffering towards the Roman Empire ere He at length made it as the chaff of the threshing floor in the summer season. He shewed great long-suffering towards those countries that opposed His cause at the Reformation, if by any means they should repent. He shews much long-suffering at the present moment towards Great Britain, notwithstanding the extent to which Anti-christ, and infidelity are being countenanced in it. How great is the long-suffering He shews towards individual sinners that refuse to submit to His sway!
(5) Christ’s “expectation” cannot suffer disappointment. The Father promised Him that “His foes should be made his footstool,” Ps. cx. 1. And the extent to which this expectation has been realised already confirms in our mind the truth of the promise, and the assurance that the consummation referred to in our text will one day be infallibly realised. Although in the beginning of the fourth century Satan could make the whole Roman Empire, with Diocletian at its head, his instrument to utterly crush the Church of Christ in the world, Christ manifested that the Kingdom by right appertained to Him when, ere a quarter of that century had scarcely run, the Empire, with Constantine at its head, itself became Christian. In 1514 the last spark of a public testimony against the Papacy appeared as if about to die in Europe, but Christ, who quenches not the smoking flax, through the instrumentality of Luther and Calvin and Tindal and Knox, caused Europe to be shaken out of its indifference to His cause, and led some of the, to-day, leading nations of Europe to throw off the Papal yoke. The just judgments of Him, who must reign until His enemies are made His footstool, ought to be seen in the troubles which have overtaken those nations of Europe which gave at the Reformation their strength to the Beast. Those nations that then despised Him are now lightly esteemed. May not that be in more or less measure said of Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal? Upon no country in Europe did heavier judgments fall than upon France, which was at one time as the Papacy’s right hand. That country has been in a series of revolutions as a man visited by one stroke of paralysis after another. And there is ground from Scripture to conclude that, as nations that have not repented of their spiritual fornication, those countries will yet be visited with sorer punishments than the world hitherto has at all experienced. For all Christ’s enemies are to be brought very low. The Dragon, the Beast, the False Prophet, death and hell, yea and every one whose name is not found written in the Lamb’s book of life, are to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. On the other hand, such as rejoice in Christ’s exaltation are to be brought into a state of inconceivable felicity. Wander they as far as they choose in search of them, they shall never eternally see the face of an enemy. Not only will they not have cause to dread the wrath of an offended God, the Judge of all, but even the frown of their Father’s face will not in chastisement afflict them. For there shall be no more curse, no more mental anguish, no more physical pain, no more corrupt nature to depress them, no more devil to tempt them. Sorrow and sighing shall have fled away, and they shall be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
Application:
(a) Christ, albeit that He is now made exceedingly glad with the light of God’s countenance, and has all power in earth and in heaven given Him, has still many enemies. All unregenerate persons are God’s enemies. Every one of these enemies Christ must meet with. With some He meets in mercy, with others in judgment. Those whom He meets with in mercy He makes, in a greater or less degree, a comfort to His Church. He met with Saul of Tarsus in mercy, and so turned him from a wolf to a lamb; and from a persecutor to a tender nurse towards the Church of God. And although all converted people are not in the measure of Paul a comfort to the Church of Christ, still all are in some measure made a comfort, for “the remnant of Jacob are in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord” (Mich. v. 7).
But it will be terrible for those whom Christ will in judgment meet with as enemies. He was hungry, and they gave Him no meat; He was naked, and they clothed Him not; He was sick and in prison, and they visited Him not; and, therefore, their portion shall be with the devil and with his angels in everlasting fire (Matt. xxv. 41). Precious souls, seek from God that He would reveal Christ to you in His matchless excellency, that you may believe upon Him and love Him, for if you but truly knew Him you could not but love Him (1 Cor. ii. 8).
(b) Christ’s cause is a winning cause. His cause appears oftentimes weak and contemptible among men. But who laughs last, laughs longest. There be that laugh now who shall mourn then, and there be that mourn now who shall laugh then. Christ’s cause is sure to be uppermost in the end. Yea, as to those that oppose Him, whether men whose heart is set upon this world and its vanities, or those that arrange themselves on the side of systematised error, or death, or hell, there shall be no place for them but the blackness of darkness. Christ, and not Satan, is at length to inherit all things. This thought should cheer His drooping people, and should cause them to pray hopefully for the coming of His kingdom, whom nothing can withstand.
(c) As a Church, although it becomes us to speak with deep humility and self-loathing, we were some fifteen years ago, compelled to dissociate ourselves from many old associations in order that we might continue loyal to Christ in His word, and in those doctrines dear to the true Church of God throughout the centuries. Especially did we realise that rationalism as it had found footing in the then Free Church was an enemy to Christ. In staking then our all upon Christ as our only Teacher, we felt in our conscience that we had His blessing and the light of His countenance, in what was done to uphold His truth in His name. May it be given us to remain true to Him!
Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland.—The Synod of this Church held its meetings in Belfast at the end of June. Among other business, the Rev. J. M’C. Cromie submitted the report of the Theological Hall. Education at the Hall was free, and the Synod came to the decision in the event of a student leaving the Church he shall pay £10 for each session he has studied.