THE following interesting reports of services conducted by the Rev. Walter Scott, Brushgrove, Clarence River, New South Wales, are taken from The Clarence and Richmond Examiner of 6th June, 1908:—
THE POWER OF FAITH.
ON Sabbath night Rev. W. Scott preached in the Church at Woodford Dale. There was a good congregation. Mr. Scott’s subject was Hebrews xi. 30—”By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” In applying the subject, at the close, the preacher remarked that if they had no stone walls to demolish, or cities to destroy, like the Israelites, they had the greater strongholds of sin and error to combat. The fortresses of sin in their minds, like the walls of Jericho, were to be cast down by faith. He instanced the worldliness and infidelity which obtained even in connection with religion; and again, such alarming immorality and profanity, generally prevalent, as so many impregnable obstacles to the truth of God which nothing but faith could cast to the ground. “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” (Zech. iv. 7.) Mr. Scott maintained that their weakness, in the matter of the progress of the Gospel, lay in the changed attitude of religious society towards the Bible, which had been deposed from its supremacy as the unerring word of God; and also to the absence or decay of faith. These were the weapons which had so transformed Europe during the Reformation of the sixteenth century; the Romish system had then been shaken to its foundations, as the nations, which had been sitting in darkness, saw once more the great light from a re-opened Bible. The weapons of their warfare, though not carnal, were yet mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds—even “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
ORDINATION SERVICE.
AN impressive ordinance was conducted in the Free Presbyterian Church, Brushgrove, on Sabbath morning. The Rev. W. Scott occupied the pulpit during the preliminary service. The opening Psalm, led by Mr. Philip, was cxxxii. The sermon for the occasion was preached from Acts xx. 17, 28—”And from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them . . . . Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers (bishops), to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” The text was considered with special reference to the ordaining of additional ruling elders over the congregation, and to the nature and duties of the office. They had before them, it
was observed, the Apostle’s solemn charge to the presbyters, or elders, of Ephesus. They should notice that he first enjoined upon them a personal care, as preparatory to a due care of the flock. They were to take heed unto themselves. He would have them realise that to them, as Church rulers, had been committed the oversight, or pastoral charge, of the flock, which, therefore, they were watchfully to tend as shepherds. He reminded them, moreover, that it was the Church of God they had been set over—rendered transcendently sacred to their glorified Lord by His having given for it His own most precious blood. By these considerations he exhorted them. Called themselves to ordain such elders, they had to be assured of the Divine warrant for the steps they were taking. As having the government upon His shoulders, the Lord Jesus was the Church’s alone King and Head. So far, then, as Scripture was concerned, the only offices left permanently in the Christian Church, by Apostolical authority, were the office of elder—the teaching and the ruling elder, 1 Tim. v. 17—and the office of deacon. The former was charged with the spiritual oversight of the flock, and the latter with the care of the temporalities. The order of procedure which must guide them was that laid down in the New Testament—(1) That, in the Apostolic Church, the office-bearers were chosen, or elected by the people. Of this they had several examples, as Acts vi. 1-6. (2) That under the Apostles the offices of bishop and elder were identical; bishops, in Scripture, being elders, and elders being bishops. Thus, in their text, they had the fact stated that the elders were overseers—this term, in the Greek, being the same as that rendered bishops in other passages. Whilst the designation elder (presbuteros) represents the office or an official person, that of bishop (episkopos) signifies the duties of the office or oversight. (3) That in each church or congregation there was a plurality of elders—Acts xiv. 23: They ordained them elders in every Church; and in the Church of Ephesus Paul called for the elders. And (4) that in the Apostolic Church, ordination was the act of the Presbytery—the presbyters, or elders, in their collective capacity (1 Timothy v. 14)—“With the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery.” Thus, solemnly, were persons to be set apart to ecclesiastical office—with fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands (Acts xiii. 3). Such were the scriptural elements of their Presbyterianism as now being followed. They then went to explain the historic contentions of their Church in behalf of the Reformation doctrine of the Divine right of Presbytery.
At this stage the congregation sang Psalm cxxxii. 15-18.
The Moderator then constituted the kirk session, or eldership, with prayer. A narrative was given of the steps leading up to the ordination in hand. The officer of the court having called for objections to the life, or doctrine, of the elders-elect without response, the presiding minister read the questions, as formulated by the Synod, which, being satisfactorily answered by Mr.
Alexander Kidd and Mr. James D. Kidd, both standing, the relative formula was then duly signed by them in presence of the congregation. The ordination prayer followed—the whole congregation standing—during which the elders-elect, kneeling, were consecrated to the office of ruling elder; whereupon they were formally admitted as members of court, and received the right hand of fellowship. The Moderator delivered the usual address to the elders ordained, and also to the congregation.
The service concluded with praise and the Benediction, the closing Psalm being cxxxii. 15-18.