A STATEMENT AND AN ADDRESS BY MR. GEORGE FORREST,
BRUCEFIELD.
(Continued from page 69.)
BUT to come back to our subject. On Sabbath, the 29th of September, Mr. Grahame told the Congregation to remain in their seats for a short time after the pronouncing of the benediction, which most of them did. Then Mr. Walker said that some of the people had been speaking to him about having the Communion, and he would like to know the mind of the Congregation in the matter. There was not much to be done, only to say when they wanted it, and who they wanted to assist Mr. Grahame at the time. No one said anything. Then Mr. Walker asked me if I had anything to say about it. When thus appealed to personally, I stood up and said, in substance, what I have already written here regarding the irregularity of their proceedings last year, only perhaps not so plain as I might have done if I had known beforehand that the subject was to be taken up. But as it was, no one offered to answer my objections. Mr. Walker simply said that he did not take the same view of things that Mr. Forrest did, and, turning to Mr. Grahame, asked him if he had anything to say in this matter. He replied, “I do not hear very well.” “But,” says Mr. Walker, “Did you hear what Mr. Forrest was saying?” Mr. Grahame replied, “I may have heard some, and may be not all; you better take a shew of hands,” which was accordingly done. Thus my objections, serious and solemn as they were, were voted down without an attempt to answer them, and the Congregation resolved to go on in the same manner as they had done last year. Well, it might be easy enough to vote me down, but, in my view at any rate, the Congregation took a very serious and a very dangerous step. For, looking at it in the most favourable light, Mr. Walker might have, quite thoughtlessly and without any ill intention, taken it upon himself to do as he did; but now that the mistake was pointed out to them, the Congregation resolved to proceed in the same way. Other counsel, however, prevailed, and a Session was constituted. This, it may be said, removed the objection regarding the irregularity of the proceedings of last year, and perhaps it did, but it also intensified my first objection, that is, the inconsistency of pretending to be testifying against the sin of the Union Church, and, at the same time, living, and moving, and having their being in, and from that Church. Surely it is a strange pretence, if not a sham, when they had a Union Session, constituted by a Union minister, who also examined and admitted candidates to the Sacrament, and who
were also assisted by other three Union ministers! Thus there were four Union ministers and three Union elders (seven in all, a perfect number in Scripture) employed on that occasion; and, yet, they say that they are clear of the Union Church, and independent of her! But the question has been put to me: Could you not continue to come to the Church and Sabbath School as you did before? Well, let it be remembered that on Sabbath the 29th of September, 1889, the Congregation did, by a decided congregational act, by their uplifted right hand, declare in favour of going forward in the irregular, unwarrantable way that just then had been exposed to them; and although the mode of procedure was afterwards changed, the change was made unknown to me, and I was not aware that a Session was to be constituted until I heard Mr. Grahame say so at the close of the service on the Fast-day, when he was just going to do it, and, moreover, be constituted with elders (with one exception) out of a Church with which I had no connection. If I may be allowed the expression, it was an unconstitutional constitution, for it brought the Congregation under the rule and authority of a Session belonging to another Church: if otherwise, the whole thing was a solemn sham. So by that procedure I was virtually expelled from the Session. And not only that, but Mr. Grahame, who is by that act now the recognised head, both of Session and Congregation, and who is supposed to be the mouthpiece of the Congregation in their public prayers, has, in the most pointed and plain way, dropped me out as if I had neither part nor lot among them by using this simple phrase in the prayers in the Church, “Thy servant in the eldership” (not servants), so that, as the whole thing appears to me, neither minister nor people recognise me any more as an elder of the Congregation, although I never yet resigned my office, nor did I stop going to the Church until I noticed, time and again, the distinction made in the prayers of the Congregation concerning me.
And, now let anyone be placed in my position and see how he would like it, and if he would act much better than I have done.
When they try it, they will see. I would now fain ask a question: “What have I done that I should be thus, as it were, cast out of the synagogue?” If I am allowed to answer for myself, then I say that I have done nothing—only refused to leave the position solemnly taken by Mr. Ross and the rest of us in Montreal at the time of the Union; and although there have been many inconsistencies on our part in maintaining the principles for which we then contended, yet I have never changed the position which we took up that day. God helping me, I never will. No doubt if I had been more yielding I might have increased my popularity, but then that is not the way that truth has been maintained in the past, nor is it the way that it can be maintained now. We may make up our minds to that.
Of course, if we are wrong in dissenting and separating from
the Union Church, the best thing we can do will be to acknowledge, as speedily as possible, our mistake, and at once apply for admission into her, and so have a right to all the privileges that she is enjoying. But, if we are right, as I believe we are, then, instead of hanging on in this irregular way to the Union Church, let us rather cast ourselves on Christ, the Head of the Church, who has all the resources of omnipotence under His control, and who is infinite in love and mercy and grace, and who can supply all our wants out of His fulness, and can give us grace according to our need. For He has not said to any of the seed of Israel, “Seek ye me in vain.”