John Calvin

(Continued from page 346.)

DURING the time of Calvin’s sojourn in Strassburg, several efforts were made by the people of Geneva to induce him to return. But the remembrance of “the wormwood and the gall” he had tasted before made it difficult and painful for him to contemplate going back. He was also deeply attached to the Church at Strassburg, and was not readily disposed to give up his important work in this city. Still he had a strong desire to see the Lord’s work revived in Geneva. His conflicting thoughts may be gathered from the following quotation from a letter, dated October 23rd, 1540, which he sent in reply to overtures from the Council of Geneva: “I am in singular perplexity, having the desire to meet your wish, and to wrestle with all the grace that God has given me to get her (the Church in Geneva) brought back into a better condition, while, on the other hand, I cannot slightly quit the charge or lay it down lightly, to which the Lord has called me, without being relieved of it by regular and lawful means. For so I have always believed and taught, and to the present moment cannot persuade myself to the contrary, that when our Lord appoints a man as pastor in a church to teach His Word, he ought to consider himself as engaged to take upon himself the government of it, so that he may not lightly withdraw from it without the settled assurance in his own heart, and the testimony of the faithful, that the Lord has discharged him.” This statement of Calvin’s is worthy of the study and reflection of pastors of churches in later generations. The struggle was a very sore one in his case. He said in a letter to Farel: “I tremble in my innermost being when mention is made of my return.” At length, on 1st May, 1541, the Council revoked the sentence of banishment pronounced against Calvin and his friends three years before, and on 13th September Calvin returned to Geneva.

The Reformer appeared the same day before the Council with his letters of commendation from Strassburg. The Council at once made provision for his residence in the city. They voted him a house and garden, and a stipend which would come to about £140 in our money, though no doubt of more value then than the same sum at the present day. At the same time, it is worthy of note that Calvin was never highly remunerated for his labours. When he came to Strassburg he was practically without a penny; he knew the pangs of poverty among his other trials; and his income was very moderate, indeed, while he sojourned there. So slow even then were professing Christians to learn the exercise of liberality towards Christ’s cause and servants. The head in light is too often before the heart in love. “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Calvin’s circumstances were now, however, better than hitherto, and he had not again to complain of want till the end of his days. The Lord withholds no good from them that walk uprightly. (Psalm lxxxiv. 11.)

One of the first things that Calvin did on his return was to inform the Senate that “a Church could not hold together unless a settled government should be agreed on, such as is prescribed to us in the Word of God, and such as was in use in the ancient Church.” The Council appointed six of their number to confer with him on this subject, and soon a draft of a system of government and laws was presented to the Council. After due examination this system was accepted in November, 1541, and finally adopted by the vote of the people on 2nd January, 1542. It may be stated that the form of Church government which Calvin proposed, and Geneva adopted, as agreeable to the Word of God, was the Presbyterian form. Calvin’s mind, under the teaching of the Spirit, was in profound subjection to the authority of the Scriptures, as the infallible directory of all things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Free from all bias in favour of a particular order, and with a mind remarkably just and impartial in its enquiries and decisions, he sought and found the Presbyterian system in the New Testament, as the divinely prescribed order of the visible Church.

Four classes of officers were to be appointed in the Church:—Pastors, doctors or teachers, elders and deacons. The pastors were to rule, and to preach the Word, the doctors to give instruction in learning and theology, the elders to rule, and the deacons to look after the poor and the temporal needs of the Church. A Church court on this basis was set up in Geneva, called a Consistory, and similar to our Presbytery. It was composed of six ministers and twelve elders, and assembled every Thursday for the administration of Church discipline. Notice was taken of all kinds of offences down to refusal to attend divine worship. As has been observed by historians, Church and State were closely interwoven in Calvin’s system. He strongly maintained the spiritual independence of the Church in matters of doctrine and

worship, but he held that Church and State should co-operate together in the advance of the kingdom of Christ, and this we believe is in full accordance with the Word of God. “The powers that be” are under obligation to acknowledge Christ as King of kings, and to protect and support His Church. “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (the Church) shall perish.” There may be union without intermixture, though it is to be regretted how little of this Scriptural ideal has been hitherto realised in the history of Christendom, but we believe a day is coming when, by the blessing of God, it shall be realised. As far as we can see, Calvin’s system kept the distinction between Church and State on the whole wonderfully clear: the Consistory only went as far as to excommunicate offenders; if anything more was needed in the way of punishment, the case was referred to the Council (the Civil Court) to decide. Of course, the practice of inflicting physical penalties for religious offences was one common to that age, and was not altogether without good results, though carried too far in some cases. Calvin did a great work in reforming the morals of Geneva both by his preaching and his discipline. It would be well, indeed, if some of his salutary laws were introduced into England and Scotland to-day. Not only were drunkards and gamblers punished, but adulterers also. The latter were liable to be cast into prison. He also succeeded in getting suppressed numbers of “low taverns” with which Geneva, before his return, abounded. Card-playing received no favour at his hands, and games for money were expressly prohibited. Still further, restrictions were enforced as to those who became citizens of Geneva. It was then a town of about 13,000 inhabitants, and strangers were flowing into it from all parts. It is said that in the course of eleven years, 1548-1559, the population was increased by incomers to the extent of 5,000. In view of this influx, and of the fact that the life and prosperity of Geneva were bound up with its adherence to the Reformed faith, it was enacted that all who came to stay must take a loyal oath “to live according to the holy Reformation, and to be obedient and subject” to the authorities. “All were required to attend sermons and public worship, and to denounce blasphemous and dissolute and dishonest persons.” No Roman Catholic was permitted to enter. “Any burgess who became a Roman Catholic forfeited his citizenship.” Geneva was greatly transformed under Calvin’s influence. So much so that John Knox said that there were many places where he found the gospel purely preached, but that there was no place where he saw the lives of the people so much conformed to the practice of the gospel as in Geneva.

Calvin did not succeed in maintaining this pure order of things without encountering great difficulties. The Libertines were still in evidence, and they rebelled against the new discipline. The contest began three years after Calvin’s return, and went on for the long period of nine years. It came to a considerable height

in December, 1547, when the Council of the Two Hundred met to deliberate upon the state of matters. There was quite a tumult in the Council, and Calvin and the other pastors seemed in danger of their very lives. At this point he said: “I know that I am the primary cause of these divisions and disturbances. If it is my life you desire, I am ready to die. If it is my banishment you wish, I shall exile myself. If you desire once more to save Geneva without the Gospel, you can try.” This impressive challenge, so full of self-surrender, had the effect of making the Council pause and consider, but the calm was only a temporary one. During the time of this conflict, and in the year 1549, as already stated, Calvin’s devoted wife died. Her last pathetic words are recorded, and they exhibit the spirit of one who “endured as seeing Him who is invisible,” and overcame by faith in the divine promise: “O glorious Resurrection! God of Abraham and of all our fathers, not one of the faithful who have hoped in Thee for so many ages, has been disappointed. I also will hope.”

In 1552 the battle with the Libertines came to its final climax. In that year they received the assistance of Servetus, a physician, who had been condemned to death by the Roman Catholic authorities at Vienna, but who had fled to Geneva. Servetus was arrested and imprisoned at Geneva, also, as a blasphemous and sedition person, and eventually put to death. Calvin has been unduly and unjustly blamed in connection with the death of this man, but we shall notice this again. Another case came up before the Council—that of a man Berthelier, who, along with another, “had been debarred from the Lord’s Table by the Consistory” on account of evil living. Notwithstanding a remonstrance from Calvin, the Council annulled the sentence at the demand of Berthelier. The Libertines now determined to take the Communion by force the following Lord’s Day. They were present with their swords in the church of St. Peter. Calvin preached on the nature of the holy ordinance, and the state of mind necessary to those who would observe it, and concluded by saying: “As for me, so long as God shall leave me here, since He hath given me fortitude, and I have received it from Him, I will employ it, whatever betide; and I will guide myself by my Master’s rule, which to me is clear and well-known. As we are now about to receive the holy supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, if anyone who has been debarred by the Consistory shall approach this table, though it shall cost my life, I will show myself such as I ought to be.” He then came down from the pulpit and stood at the communion table. “Removing the white cloth, and covering the bread and wine with his hands, he said in a voice which rang through the building: ‘These hands you may crush; these arms you may lop off; my life you may take; my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profane, and dishonour the table of my God!'” The words were attended with such remarkable power that an awe fell upon

the whole assembly. The Libertines withdrew abashed. “And the Holy Supper, as Beza tells us, was celebrated in the profoundest silence and with an holy awe, as if God himself had been visibly present in the assembly.” That same evening Calvin preached again on Paul’s address to the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx.) “in the full belief that he was preaching his farewell sermon” before a second banishment. He commended the congregation “to God and to the word of His grace” amid the tears of all present. But the Council took care to do nothing, and Calvin was left undisturbed to carry on his work.

(To be Continued.)

Read in London March 1, 2009 when minister was
on Sabbath morning A Sermon. (applying to the Sabbath)

BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.

Preached to his Congregation in the Free Presbyterian Church
there, on Sabbath, 10th October, 1909.

(Taken down by a hearer.)

“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”—
2 COR. iii. 3.

THE Apostle here speaks of believers in figurative language. Having spoken of letters of commendation, he tells the Corinthians that those of them who were converted through his instrumentality, and that of his fellow-labourers in the Gospel, were the best letters to commend them as Christ’s ambassadors. “Ye are our epistle.” They were their epistle as instruments of their conversion, but they were “the epistle of Christ,” as He was the Author of that important change. The word epistle is the Greek name for “letter,” in English we call it letter.

In addressing you from the words of our text, as the Lord may enable me, I shall keep to the metaphor the Apostle uses here in comparing believers to an epistle or a letter, and I shall mention as I proceed the various things suggested by the figure, and

I.—The Writer. No letter is written without a writer. We have several epistles in the New Testament, and as a rule, the names of the authors of these epistles are given. There are epistles by Paul, epistles by Peter, epistles by John, and one by Jude. Who is the writer of the epistles mentioned in our text? The writer is Christ, for the Apostle calls believers “the epistle of Christ.” But it may be objected that the Apostle says that the epistle is written “by the Spirit of the living God.” That is true, but men in high positions in the world have their secretaries to

write their letters. The earthly king has his secretary for that purpose. He may write some of his letters with his own hand, but he writes the most of them through his secretary, and those written by his secretary are all the same the king’s letters. Christ has His secretary, so to speak, to write His spiritual epistles. Who is that secretary? It is the Holy Spirit, called in our text “the Spirit of the living God.” The secretary of an earthly king is inferior to the king himself, but not so here. The Holy Spirit is the “same in substance, and equal in power and glory” with Christ. In the arrangement of the everlasting covenant Christ became the Servant of the Father to work out everlasting redemption, and the Spirit was given to Christ to apply his redemption to those given Him in the covenant. Hence the Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ.” It is to be borne in mind that Christ employs the Spirit in writing His epistles, not as an instrument but as an Agent.

II.—The Pen. In writing a letter a pen is necessary. However good a writer you may be you cannot write without a pen. Christ uses means and instruments in carrying on His work in the world. What are the pens He uses in writing the epistles under consideration? The prophets of old were His pens, the Apostles were pens, and all Gospel ministers, and others, are His pens. In the 45th Psalm the Psalmist calls himself a pen in the hand of the Spirit: “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (verse 2). The Psalmist here calls his tongue a pen. The tongue was necessary to speak; necessary to preach the Gospel. The tongue was given to man to declare God’s glory, though many employ that member of the body in the service of sin. You need, not only a pen, but a good pen in order to make good writing; you cannot make good writing with a bad pen. Christ always writes with a good pen. He never writes His epistles with a bad pen. His ministers were by nature bad—”the children of wrath even as others,” but Christ made them good. You know that pens are made. In my younger days pens were made of quills. How were they made? They were made by the writer himself with a sharp tool called “the pen-knife.” What is the pen-knife which Christ employs to make His pens? He employs His own Word—a two-edged sword—cutting both ways—law and Gospel. By this sharp instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, He prepares His ministering servants to serve Him in the ministry of the Gospel. You cannot make a good pen of a bad quill, but Christ can make good ministers of the worst of men. He made persecuting Saul one of the best ministers that ever served Him in His Church on earth.

Christ does not write all His letters by the same pen. He uses different pens. In Old Testament times He used Prophets; in the New Testament time He used the Apostles and others as His pens; and He still makes new pens to serve His purpose in converting sinners and in building them up in holiness till they are made meet for heaven. When you need a new pen you throw

away the old pen, which served you so long in writing. You throw it away as a useless instrument. But Christ does not treat His old pens—after they have done all the work they were able to do on earth—in that manner. They are more precious to Him than that. He has work for them to do in heaven. Not, indeed, to write any more letters with them, but to declare His praise for ever. These old pens are perfectly new there. Think of this when you throw away your old pen. Where are the Prophets? Where are the Apostles? Where are the Reformers? Where are the Gospel Ministers that were in Ross-shire fifty years ago? They are in heaven. But Christ makes new pens, and He will continue to do so to the end of time, till all His redeemed are gathered into His fold on earth, and then He shall not make any more pens. His work on earth is “finished”; all His letters are written, and well written.

Each believer is an epistle of Christ, and it is not the same time He takes to write all His letters. He writes some of them in a few minutes. The thief on the cross, whom He saved, is an instance of this. Others might be mentioned who were effectually called, justified, adopted, and sanctified like that thief in a very short space of time. On the other hand, Christ takes many years to finish some of His letters—some 40 years, some 50 years, and some 60 years. We have an account of aged Christians who were in the state of grace for the period of sixty years; and in Old Testament times there were some in that state for several hundred years, and Christ was writing these epistles all that time.

III.—Another thing you require in writing a letter is ink. Although you would try to write with a pen without ink, you could not make any writing. The dry pen would not leave a word or a sentence behind it. Ink is necessary in writing a letter. What is the ink Christ uses in writing His own letters? We are not to guess in this matter. We must go to “the law and to the testimony” for the answer. Well, what is the means the Holy Spirit takes in His work of applying the benefits of Christ’s redemption to sinners? You say, “The Word of God.” That is just the correct answer. Then, the Word of God is the ink. As you dip your pen in the ink in order to write, so Christ dips, so to speak, His ministering servants, who are His pens, into the Scriptures—into the Word of God. “The entrance of thy word gives light.” Christ leads His ministers into the meaning of God’s Word, and opens their understanding to understand the Scriptures. And then He uses them as His pens to write, and the mark of the ink—God’s Word—is left behind on the hearers of the Gospel to whom the Word is blessed, and that through them, as pens in the hand of the Spirit. If you are Christ’s epistles, you bear on your soul the mark of God’s Word. The Word of Christ dwells in you in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The saving work of the Spirit agrees with the Word of God. And the work that does not agree with that Word is a

delusion—a delusion under which the great majority of professing Christians in the present age are. But we are speaking about the ink in which the pen must be dipped before it can write. There are fountain pens. These pens have a small fountain of ink in them. So have Christ’s ministers; they have the Word of God in them. Christ gave them that Word. “I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them” (John xvii. 8). But as the supply of ink in the fountain pen does not last always for the work it has to do, and it requires a new supply again and again in order to write, so it is with ministers. They feel themselves sometimes dry without the ink of God’s Word; they cannot sometimes find even a text of Scripture to preach from. In that condition they cannot preach. If you begin to write with a dry pen, you injure both the pen and the paper on which you write. In like manner, if ministers preach when they are thus dry, they hurt their own feelings and the feelings of the Lord’s people, and they would rather not have preached at all in that dry frame of mind. This will teach them to cry to Christ for a new supply of His blessed Word. When they get that in answer to prayer, they shall then say with the Psalmist: “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Their own souls are benefited by their preaching, and the “poor and needy” are refreshed with the dew from on high, and fed with “the bread of life.”

IV.—Another thing you need in writing a letter is paper. What is the paper on which Christ writes? The Apostle tells us. It is the heart. “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” The material of which writing paper is made undergoes a great change before it is fit for writing purposes. Of what material is it made? Some say that writing paper is made of old rags. However that may be, it is a fact that the heart of man by nature is much worse than old rags. It is spoken of in God’s Word as “filthy rags.” “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah lxiv. 6). This being the case, the heart of man must undergo a great process of preparation before it can be used by Christ to write upon. The tables of stone on which God wrote the law were first prepared for that purpose. They were hewn by Moses with a chisel, dressed and prepared, and then God engraved the law upon them with His own hand (Exodus xxxiv. 1). The writing was the writing of God, but He used Moses as His instrument to prepare the tables. In like manner, God uses the law, of which Moses was the representative, in preparing the heart of the sinner. Indeed, He uses law and Gospel in that work. The law is the chisel that cuts and wounds, the Gospel is the polishing instrument whereby the heart is finally prepared for writing on. The change necessary is spoken of in Scripture as “a new creation,” a taking away of the stony heart, and giving a heart of flesh. This is done in the case of every sinner that is saved by the effectual work of the Holy

Spirit, and the Apostle speaks of it in our text. He says that the writing is made “not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” The natural heart is not only corrupt, but also hard as a stone, while the new heart is soft and tender as flesh. There is a heart of stone in all men by nature, but Christ by His Spirit effects such a wonderful change in His own people that they have now a tender heart. This is then the paper on which Christ writes. He does not write upon it as it is by nature. He changes it; as the material on which paper is made is changed by the manufacturer, so is the heart changed by the Spirit of God.

One thing more before I leave this part of the subject. You buy the paper you use in writing a letter. What is the price you pay for it? “Not much,” you say; “I can get a packet of paper for one penny.” Ah, Christ did not buy His paper at such a cheap rate as that. What did He give for it? He gave Himself, He gave His precious blood, He gave His obedience unto death. Oh, what a price! The wonder is intensified when you bear in mind that it was when His people were like “old filthy rags” He bought them at such a cost. If the stationer were to offer you old rags for your penny instead of fine white paper, you would refuse to buy such stuff. But Christ did not refuse to buy His people when there was nothing in them but sin. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans v. 8).

V.—We now come to the writing. A letter is something written. You all know what it is to write a letter. What is the first thing you write in a letter? You write the name of the place of writing. If you write a letter in this town, the first thing you write is “Dingwall.” In like manner, the first thing Christ writes in His own letter is the name of the place of writing. Where does He write His letters? In His Church on earth. He writes all His letters there, and as He writes all His letters there, He writes first the name of the place of writing. And therefore He says, in Rev. iii. 12, “I will write upon him (the believer) the name of the city of my God.” Zion is the name of the city of God. It is there the Holy Spirit converts sinners, and prepares them for glory. In the eighty-seventh Psalm and fifth verse, we read—

“And it of Zion shall be said,
This man and that man there
Was born; and He that is Most High
Himself shall establish her.
When God the people writes, He’ll count
That this man born was there.
There be that sing and play; and all
My well-springs in thee are.”

The second thing you write is the date of writing. You write the day, the month, and the year. Christ does the same. The date of the sinner’s conversion is written down by Him. The people of Israel were commanded to remember month Abib as the time of their deliverance out of their bondage in Egypt. In

the 22nd chapter of Acts we find the Apostle Paul telling the date of his conversion. Not only that he could tell the day, but the exact hour in which the great change took place. It was, he says, “about noon,” when the sun was at its meridian height, shining brightly, indicating, as it were, that the new convert was to be “a burning and a shining light” in the Church, as really he was. Not only that Christ knew the date of Paul’s conversion, and wrote it down, but Paul himself knew it, and probably wrote it down in his diary as a time to be remembered. Some of the Lord’s people remember the day of their conversion, others remember the month, and others the year. Those who know the time of their conversion have, what may be called, an anniversary. Some observe an anniversary of their birth—their natural birth—and they have on that occasion a feast and rejoicing. The Lord’s people—some of them—observe an anniversary of their new birth, and they feast and rejoice in the company of Christ, who comes to them to remind them of His loving-kindness to them in saving them. Some poor one may now say, “I am afraid I am not one of the Lord’s people, because I cannot tell the date of my conversion, though I cannot deny that a change came over me, and that Christ is precious to me, and that His people are my people, and His cause is my cause.” But you are to remember that you are not the writer of the epistle at all, but Christ. He knows the date, and wrote it down. If you bear the marks of His people in other respects as you do by the confession you have just now made, you need not be so much perplexed about the date. If you see a tree growing and bearing good fruit, you may be sure that it was planted some time, though you cannot tell when. There are some of the Lord’s people in whom the work of grace begins so small, like the little leaven in the parable, that they cannot tell when the leavening process began till the whole lump of the dry meal is leavened. By their fruit they are known. There is, however, in the case of all God’s people, a certain period of their life in which they turned from sin to God, a time of their conversion, a time of their embracing Christ by faith, a time when they enjoy spiritual comfort from the Word of God in the private and public means of grace, though some of them are for the most part during their lifetime kept in darkness about their interest in Christ. Such have faith of adherence, but want faith of assurance. They cannot say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” but they can say, “To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Let us now come to consider what is written in the body of the letter. You do not finish a letter by stating by your pen the place and date of writing. That is only a beginning. Neither does Christ. For “he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it”—bring it to perfection. What more does Christ write? Well, to put it briefly, He writes His law in the minds and hearts of His people. He draws by His Spirit and Word the

image of God, which was effaced by sin, on their souls again, never to be obliterated any more for ever. He restores that which He took not away. The law of God was written on the soul of man at his creation. By sin he lost that treasure. Christ regained it at a great cost, and He restores it to His redeemed people. It was a token for good that this was to be done when the law was written on tables of stone. It intimated that although their hearts by nature were as hard as the stone, yet they would be so changed that the law would be written again on them. I have already spoken of the change that was made by the Spirit in the souls of God’s people by making them a “new creation.” Their state was changed by the Father when He justified them. But their change of nature is effected by the Spirit. They are perfect in their justification, as perfect as they shall ever be. But they are not perfect in their sanctification. That work is only begun. When God created man he was perfect in His image all at once; God’s image was not put on him by degrees. But in restoring the image of God to His redeemed, the work of the Spirit is gradual. It is a change “into the same image from glory to glory”—2 Cor. iii. 18—that is, from one degree of sanctification to another. This work shall be carried on gradually by the Spirit till they are made perfect in holiness at death. They shall then be, with respect to their souls, as perfect in their sanctification as they are now on earth in their justification. This is, in short, the writing that Christ makes in the body of His epistle.

Before I proceed to notice the last thing that He writes in the letter I may remark that all Christ’s letters are public letters, so that, as Paul says, they may be read and known of all men—verse 2. Public letters are open to all men, and all may read them. There is nothing in Christ’s letters, so far as His writing is concerned, that needs to be concealed. It can stand the light of day, and the gaze of all men, good and bad. Christians are not shut up in monasteries and nunneries, where their fellow-creatures cannot see them, but are public in the world, and associate with their fellowmen in their lawful callings, so that all may see them. They may be read and known of all men, as it is written, “All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed” (Isaiah lxi. 9). Even their enemies were constrained to acknowledge this. We have an account in history of those who burnt some of the Lord’s people at the stake confessing afterwards that those they so cruelly put to death were God’s people. They were compelled by the force of conscience to make this confession, though their enmity to God and His people impelled them to continue in their persecuting work. How may those who are Christ’s letter be read and known? You cannot see Christ’s writing, for it is inward in the heart or soul. The work of the Spirit is there. “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” But grace in the heart manifests itself outwardly. You may read and know them in their lives—in their holy walk

and conversation in the world. They were thus read and known in all generations. They are “manifestly the epistle of Christ.” Their conduct is manifest to all, though grace in the heart is invisible to creatures. The eye of God only can see it.

What is the last thing you write in a letter? You write your name, that the person to whom you write may know from whom the letter is. Christ does the same. He writes His name. So He tells Himself. “I will write upon him my new name” (Rev. iii. 12). There are anonymous letters, but none of Christ’s letters are anonymous. He writes His name; He owns the letter as His. His name is a new name. As the Saviour, a new name was given him, and this new name is “Jesus.” “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Luke ii. 21). He signs the letter by His name “Jesus.”

After you write your name in the letter, what more do you do? You enclose it in an envelope. So does Christ. After He has finished, by His Spirit, the work of sanctification in His people, He will at death enclose them in His own envelope, so that they are no more to be seen in their persons in this world, or read or known by their fellow-creatures on earth except by their memory.

After you enclose your letter in an envelope, what more do you do? You write the name and address of the person to whom you wrote the letter, on the back of the envelope. So does Christ. To whom does He write these letters? To His Father. What is the Father’s address? Heaven. “Our Father who art in heaven.” Do you do anything more before despatching your letter? Yes, you put a postage stamp on the envelope. What kind of stamp do you put on? One bearing the image of the king. So does Christ. His own image is the postage stamp He puts on all His letters. That insures their safe arrival at their destination. The royal stamp is enough to pay cost of carriage to any part of our kingdom. It is enough for the carriage of believers to the kingdom of glory. He who made them His epistles put that stamp upon them. It is the writer, and not the letter itself, that puts the postage stamp on the letter.

The last thing you have to do now is to send away your letter. How do you do this? You either post it in the post office or hand it to the letter-carrier. Well, it is the latter way Christ takes to send away His own letters. He does not put them in the post office, to lie there for any time. He hands them at once, without any delay, to His letter-carriers. Who are these? They are the holy angels. We read that these angels carried the soul of Lazarus to heaven as soon as he died—(Luke xvi. 22). The holy angels are waiting at the death-bed of God’s people, to carry their souls to heaven when Christ hands them to them immediately after death. The angels are thus waiting, just as you see postmen waiting at the Dingwall Post Office to receive letters which they are to carry to their destination, according to address. On the other hand, evil angels are waiting at the death-bed of the

unconverted, to carry their souls to hell as soon as they die! As soon as Christ hands His letters to the holy angels, they set off at once, and although the distance they have to travel is so long—no man can tell how long—their motion is so swift, and their errand so delightful, that they are at the end of their journey within a very short time. The time is so short that it is but “to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord,” as Paul speaks of it. “As it does not yet appear what we shall be,” we cannot at present enter within the vail, to behold the happy reception the Father gives to the letters of His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. Let each of us seek to be “the epistle of Christ.”

THE EPISTLE OF SATAN.

As people are at times cheated by spurious letters, it will be proper, in conclusion, to give a word of warning on the subject. Satan, in order to deceive, transforms himself into an angel of light, and in that shape he writes letters—(I keep to the metaphor)—purporting to be written by Christ, and by this device he deceives many, especially in this age. Do you ask, “How can I distinguish between Satan’s letters and Christ’s letters?” There is a great difference between them. Take the following marks of distinction:—

1. The handwriting of Satan is different from that of Christ’s. A letter-forger tries to imitate as much as possible the handwriting of the person in whose name he writes. But if you receive a letter from a forger, purporting to be written by your friend, whose handwriting you know so well, you may know at once that the letter was not written by your friend. In like manner, you who know the handwriting of Christ, will not be too readily deceived by Satan, however he may try to imitate the handwriting of Christ. The handwriting of Christ is inimitable. As no creature ever spoke like Christ, so no creature ever wrote like Him.

2. The pens that Satan uses in writing his letters are quite different from those Christ uses in writing His own letters. While Christ employs converted ministers for that purpose, Satan employs unconverted ministers as his instruments to do his own deceptive work. When, in an evil age, the enemy sends forth a host of ministers from his college to deceive congregations, he “transforms them into the apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. xi. 13). Under that disguise he knows that his messengers are more readily received by ignorant people, than if he had sent them forth in their natural form. He has thousands and tens of thousands of ministers of this description in the present day, so that congregations need to be on their guard lest they be deceived. “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. iii. 2, 3).

3. There is a difference in the ink. The Word of God is the ink Christ uses to write His letters; the word of man is the ink Satan uses to write his own, and if he dips his pen sometimes in Scripture, it is in order to deceive. Although he quotes Scripture to suit his purpose, yet he often misquotes it, and always gives a wrong interpretation of it. His key to expound Scripture is not Scripture itself, but the opinions of men. How much of this way of interpreting Scripture is to be seen among Satan’s ministers in our own day!

4. There is a difference in the paper. To speak plainly—while Christ prepares His people by regeneration in order to write His image upon them, Satan makes good Christians of his own children without that essential change, without which no man can enter the kingdom of heaven—(John iii. 3). Or if he acknowledges that such a change is necessary, he will tell them that they were “born again” when they were baptised. He deludes some of his subjects by making them believe that man did not fall from the state in which God created him, and that therefore all men shall go to heaven after they leave this world. Some of his ministers, who are his pens, declare openly that it is “difficult,” if not impossible, for man in his state of nature “to go wrong.” In their view, under the teaching of Satan, men are good enough as they are born into the world, and there is no need of the regenerating work of the Spirit to make them better. This is the kind of material on which Satan writes his epistles.

5. There is a difference between what Satan writes in his letter and what Christ writes in His own. (1) With regard to the place of writing. Although it would appear that the place of writing is common to both writers, viz., the Church, yet we learn from Scripture that the place from which Satan writes is different from Christ’s writing place. For we read of a place of worship which was called by men a Church, called by Christ “the Synagogue of Satan.” It is by calling his place of writing the Church, Satan deceives many. If he gave its appropriate name—“the Synagogue of Satan”—people would not be deceived by him. But as he is a forger, he pretends to write from Zion, Christ’s writing place. But from what has been already pointed out, it is clear that Satan’s place of writing and Christ’s are different, although the evil one performs his work of deception with more plausibility within the pale of what is called the “Visible Church.”

(2) With respect to date, that is, the date of conversion. Satan has his converts as well as Christ. Does he convert sinners to himself? There is no need for that, for he has all from their birth. But you are to bear in mind that he pretends to convert sinners to God, and he knows that by his way of conversion he has a firmer hold of them than before their conversion. At what date are Satan’s converts converted? In the case of some of them they are converted when they are baptised; others are converted when they partake of the symbols of the Lord’s body

and blood in the Sacrament of the Supper; others are converted when they give up the grosser forms of sin and become moderate in their habits; and so on. But in all these ways of conversion Satan may reckon his converts as his own still, and as already stated, he has a firmer hold of them than he had before their conversion.

(3) With regard to what is written in the body of the letter. While Christ writes His own holy image on His people—implanting in them the graces of the Spirit, working spiritual thoughts, desires, and affections, which lead to corresponding actions—the devil is so far content to see his image still remaining on his own people under the cloak of a Christian profession. His image is on them from the womb. But although they are born into the world bearing his image, yet he may be said to still write his image on them deeper and deeper, inasmuch as he works in them, prompting them, by manifold temptations, to actual transgression, which more and more blinds the eyes of the mind, hardens the heart, sears the conscience, and corrupts the affections. Thus evil men wax worse and worse in their nature as well as in their practice.

(4) Satan’s epistles are public epistles as well as Christ’s, and may be read and known of all men. “The children of the devil are manifest,” as well as the children of God—(1 John iii. 10). How may they be read and known? You cannot see what is in their heart except as it manifests itself outwardly in their actions; and as they profess the Christian religion, and perform religious exercises, you are to look at them in that aspect of their character in order to know them. Follow them to their places of worship, and observe how they worship. Some of them adhere to the outward form of worship instituted by Christ in His Church, but as they were not regenerated by the Spirit, they know nothing of the power of godliness, and consequently they rest in the mere outward form, without seeking to worship God in the spirit and to hold fellowship with Him. They have gone through the outward form exactly as prescribed by the Head of the Church, and they are satisfied with that. These we call Formalists. But there is another class of Satan’s converts (and they form the great majority of present-day worshippers bearing the Christian name) who have, to a large extent, ceased to worship God in the manner prescribed by Himself because they consider it antiquated, and invented another way more agreeable to the carnal mind. What these aim at in their worship is not to please God but to please themselves. You have only to read newspaper reports of their religious services, and you will see that these so-called worshippers have usurped the place of God as the object of worship. These we call Self-worshippers.

By these, among many other marks, they may be read and known of all, except such as are under judicial blindness. As there are multitudes of our fellow-creatures illiterate, who cannot

read—not a few still, even in our own kingdom—there are many more who have no spiritual discernment to distinguish between true Christians and the great multitude who are so only in name. But the people of God, who are taught of Himself, are able to make the distinction; and while they cannot associate with false worshippers in their religious services, they pity them, and give glory to God who made themselves to differ.

(5) There is a difference in the signature adhibited to the letter when it is finished. As already stated, Christ writes His own name at the end of His letter, as the author of all that was written in it. Satan does not sign His own name, but, as a forger, he signs the name of Christ. And how can it be proved that the letter has never been written by Christ, though His name is to it? It can be proved, first, by the great difference there is between the handwriting of Christ and that of the forger. However Satan may try to imitate Christ’s writing, he cannot do it, for it is inimitable. Second, by internal evidence. Spurious letters are proved to be ungenuine by this test. There are writings attributed to some of the fathers who succeeded the apostles in the Christian Church, which have been proved to be spurious by internal evidence. By comparing these writings with other writings which were well known to have been written by those fathers, it was found that they did not agree, and therefore it was concluded, on good evidence, that the fathers to whom these writings were attributed were not the authors of them. On the same principle, when you compare what Christ has written in His own epistle—His work of grace in the souls of His people—with what Satan has written (including the signature) in his own epistle, you will find that they do not agree; on the contrary, that there is as much difference between them as there is between light and darkness. But as a deceiver of souls, Satan makes his dupes believe that his work in them is the genuine work of the Spirit of God, and he keeps them under this delusion till he gets them with him down in the pit of destruction.

(6) Satan imitates Christ in addressing his letters to God, the Father in heaven; but if he should, through temporary failure of memory, omit to write this address on them, he has agents in his service who will, through the telegraph of prayer, wire the address to eternity when burying the dead. These agents are so full of false charity that they send all men to heaven, making no difference “between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not” (Mal. iii. 18).

(7) There is a difference in the postage stamp. The stamp Christ puts on His own letters is, as already mentioned, His own holy image, in which His people are made perfect at death, so far as their souls are concerned; but the stamp Satan affixes to his letters is a counterfeit—an imitation of Christ’s image in one form or another, as suits his purpose in deceiving immortal souls. So long as he sees that his postage stamp is different from Christ’s

stamp, he is content to allow his dupes to pass on to eternity in the hope of entering heaven, while he knows that hell is their place of abode for ever!

(8) Lastly, there is a difference in the letter-carriers. Holy angels are Christ’s letter-carriers. They carry the souls of believers to heaven immediately after their death; but evil angels, of whom he is the prince, are Satan’s letter-carriers, and they carry the souls of all the wicked—that is, all that die in an unregenerate state—to hell as soon as they die. As there are two classes of men in the world—the righteous and the wicked—there are two places (and two only) in eternity—heaven and hell; and the souls of the former class shall go to heaven, and the souls of the latter class shall go to hell immediately after death, and both parties shall remain in their respective places for ever and ever; the one party enjoying perfect blessedness in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity, the other party enduring the greatest misery for ever.

I have in this lecture spoken of these two classes under the titles of “the epistle of Christ” and “the epistle of Satan.” I now appeal to you, in the name of God, to examine yourselves as to which of these epistles you are. You must be either Christ’s epistle or Satan’s. There is no intermediate position for you to stand in between these two. There are a few of you of whom I am persuaded that you are the epistles of Christ, but the larger number of you by far are still in your natural state, and if you continue in that state till death, Satan shall claim you as his own, and the justice of God shall see to it that you shall have your portion with him in everlasting torment. But you are still in the land of the living, where mercy may be found, and where God waits to be gracious to sinners that come to Him by Christ as the way; and we beseech you in Christ’s stead, “Be ye reconciled to God” on the ground of Christ’s atonement. Oh, seek by earnest prayer that the Holy Spirit make you, by His effectual and saving work, the epistle of Christ, that you may live to His glory during your time on earth, and that when you die you may be carried by the holy angels to heaven, to be for ever with the Lord.

Home Rule.—By the time the Magazine is in the hands of our readers, it will be known whether Mr. Asquith will be in a position to fulfil the pledge he gave of bringing in Home Rule for Ireland should his party be returned. We look at the matter from a religious standpoint, though in the nature of things it is bound up with politics. No one who has ever spent any length of time in Ireland will regard this question as of mere passing importance. It is a matter of life and death to the Protestants of Ulster; and the men into whose hands Mr. Asquith means to put such power hate the Protestants with a keener hatred than they do the devil.

Interesting Report of South African Mission.

BY REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS, SYNOD DEPUTY.

(Continued from page 307.)

WHEN the first part of this Report was written, after I was only a few days in Matabeleland, I was still hesitating as to whether I should devote the five Sabbaths which it was my purpose to spend in Rhodesia, entirely to the Mission, or whether I should give one of those Sabbaths to Highlanders in Bulawayo. I was not, however, long at the Mission when I concluded that it was my duty to devote all the Sabbaths I should be in that country to work at the Mission. Mr. Radasi, as already told, has three stations under his charge—Ngwenya (the principal one), Bembesi, and Koco. I held services on the first, third, and fifth Sabbaths at Ngwenya, on the second and fourth at Bembesi and Koco. Mr. Radasi preached or presided at our meetings occasionally; but, what between an effort to keep on the work expected at the day school, and his constantly acting as an interpreter for me when I spoke, his time and energies during those five weeks would have been well occupied had he not preached so much as once.

Bembesi, where we were on the second Sabbath, is about seven miles from Ngwenya, Mr. Radasi’s home. Our people there have a comfortable and sufficiently commodious place of meeting—the gift of Sojini and Sibendi, Fingo chiefs. Over and above the two ordinary services at which I preached, Mr. Radasi, in the interval between, conducted a Sabbath School, which, in proportion to the number of our people there, was well attended. I should say the people gathered at Bembesi would be about two-thirds of the number that I had witnessed at Ngwenya on the previous Sabbath.

At Koco, which is farther south than Bembesi, and about the same distance as the latter place from Ngwenya, our people had not, when I was there, a church or meeting-house to worship in, but one was in process of erection, and it is probably by this time being used for the ends for which it was being built. On that account we held our service in a private dwelling, quite a neat and spacious hut having been, by one of our own people, put at our disposal. The gathering at Koco was but small, but I am bound to say the service was not the least enjoyed of several much-enjoyed services held by me among the natives of South Africa.

Mr. Radasi’s rule is to be on the Sabbath at Ngwenya; but he gives an occasional Sabbath at Bembesi or Koco. Nevertheless, services in connection with the Free Presbyterian Church are regularly conducted by native members of our Church at these two last places.

Of the services of the first Sabbath at Ngwenya, I gave some

account in the former part of this Report. The services of the third and of the fifth Sabbaths, as already intimated, were also held at Ngwenya. The church or meeting-house, where I should reckon about one hundred persons may congregate, was full or nearly full on the three Sabbaths I was there. The facts that the preacher on the first Sabbath was a stranger from a far-off land, that on the third Sabbath we had Communion services, and that on the fifth Sabbath, office-bearers were ordained and baptisms administered, might to some extent have helped to keep up more than the average attendance during those three services; but apart from these fortuitous circumstances, I am satisfied that quite a good and substantial congregation meet regularly in connection with Mr. Radasi’s ministry at Ngwenya. The native population of Rhodesia is, say, as compared with the peoples of India or China, not vast. I have somewhere read that the native population of Southern Rhodesia, which includes Mashonaland and Matabeleland, and is of the extent of 200,000 square miles, is less than half a million. Our Mission, besides, is not planted in the most populous part even of Rhodesia. One has to remember that a Mission can be planted nowhere without the sanction both of the native chief or chiefs of the district, and also of the native Commissioner. Ngwenya was not the spot first thought of by Mr. Radasi himself, but he had to take the place which Providence opened up for him.

The week-day services in connection with our Communion were not so largely attended as one had hoped for. Two facts went largely to give the explanation of this state of things. The first heavy rains of the season had fallen in those days. In this part of Rhodesia there are no bridges on the many rivers which come so suddenly into being when a heavy fall of rain takes place, so that one is apt to find oneself in a rather parlous condition if out at a distance from home in rains at such a season. And then, besides, whenever the first rains have fallen, the poor people make an effort to get their fields sown.

On the Friday before the Communion, we kept a Prayer Meeting. After an address given, two Fingo members of the congregation, as well as Mr. Radasi, prayed. I was not able to understand the words spoken, but I could not help being deeply affected with the evident and touching earnestness of those men.

On our last Sabbath at Ngwenya one elder and three deacons, all Fingoes, were ordained to serve in those offices. I had devoted a week-day previously to this service to giving them an explanation, as simply as I could, of what our acceptance of the Westminster Confession of Faith means. One elder and one deacon, who had been in those offices in Cape Colony, I presume, before Mr. Radasi went to Rhodesia, were regarded by Mr. Radasi ever since they became members of the Free Presbyterian congregation in Matabeleland as such office-bearers, and thus now there are in connection with us there two elders and four deacons.

By these mainly are the meetings at Bembesi and Koco kept open. On the same Sabbath on which the ordination was held, I baptised one man, two women, and three children—all Matabeles. I had, of course, previously to granting them baptism, examined the adult applicants, and they seemed to me not only to accept the doctrines of grace, but to have some feeling of their truth and power. The husband of one of the two women baptised was present, and was himself baptised that day. The second woman baptised—(if my memory serves me right)—had two children also baptised, and her husband, although he did not come forward for baptism, was, as I learned, quite willing that his wife and children should thus be baptised. A third woman, a member before this time—also with her husband’s consent, although himself not yet venturing to ask for baptism—had been there with a child for baptism.

It was, I think, on the Wednesday before the last Sabbath spent in Matabeleland that, in company with my interpreter, I visited what had been the late Chief Ngege’s kraal—a circular, small enclosure, with somewhere from ten to twenty families. I there met with a specimen of almost pure heathenism, and I had the feeling, as Dr. Love puts it in one of his letters, that one had there to fight Satan on his own ground. Not that they are fierce; but especially the women and children have a very poor, degraded look, and their minds, so one thought, enveloped in such mists of darkness and ignorance that, if the Gospel were merely an agency of human power, one would be apt altogether to lose heart in setting to address them. They came out of their huts into the open in goodly numbers, and I endeavoured to speak to them from John iii. 16, Mr. Radasi interpreting. This, I may say, was a kind of work in which, when I proceeded to South Africa, I expected to engage in more frequently than anything realised by me. I may give the reason. Kraals in the Ngwenya district are not numerous; indeed, I did not know of any of any considerable size, at least, save Ngege’s, in the neighbourhood of our Mission at Ngwenya. As a rule one finds the natives scattered over the country in single or double huts and families, and these at some distance the one from the other.

If one were to search for the most populous parts, the experience would be that, generally, where the people were most populous, the land was most fertile, and where the land is most fertile British farmers are in possession. Now, the sad thing is that few of these British farmers wish missionaries, and least of all, native missionaries, to come to preach to the natives who are in the position of squatters and cottars on these farms. Even Ngege’s kraal was on a Britisher’s farm, and although I preached to the people of the kraal without waiting for the farmer’s consent, as I had learned he was from home that day, I thought it my duty afterwards to write him and explain the circumstances under which I had preached to the Matabeles in Ngege’s kraal. Of

course no objection can be made to natives going out from those farms to hear the missionary at his own Mission station; but the fact that British farmers are, to an increasing extent, taking possession of the most fertile and at the same time most populous parts of Rhodesia, has led almost all the denominations sending missionaries there to take steps to secure from the Government large farms in connection with the Mission stations. This they do at once, in order that the natives may not be dispossessed of all the best of the land, and also in order that, without molestation, their missionaries may visit and preach to natives whose homes are on such farms. There are, indeed, ten acres attached to the Free Presbyterian Mission at Ngwenya, but the place, although healthy, and for the district central, is not well watered. Mr. Radasi, I may further add, digged near the Mission a well about sixty feet deep, and thus there is always as much water to be had at the Mission as the Mission itself requires, but there is not sufficient to entice others to come and live on the Mission lands.

It gave me much pleasure to read in the December number of our Magazine, that not only did the Synod receive my suggestion on the subject of clothing the Matabeles in a kindly way, but improved upon my suggestion by asking that friends should send contributions, whereby lighter material than is ordinarily worn in this country, could be bought and sent out to the Mission. That no doubt would be the ideal way, but inasmuch as at a future time the Church may supplement its kindness by sending some light second-hand clothing too, it may be the proper thing that I should place on record the law regulating the admission of second-hand clothing into Rhodesia, as that was supplied to me by the Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. The fact is that when I visited Sir William Milton, the Administrator referred to, at Salisbury, and told him what I had suggested to the Synod on the subject of clothing the Matabeles, he informed me that it was contrary to their Custom’s laws to introduce clothing of that kind into the territory.

Afterwards, however, I fell in with one Mr. Woodhouse, a Methodist Episcopal preacher to the natives at Umtali, Rhodesia. I spoke to Mr. Woodhouse about the disappointment I felt on account of what Sir William told me was the law touching the introduction of second-hand clothing into Rhodesia. Mr. Woodhouse assured me that they were constantly in the way of getting such clothing for the natives at their mission, and that no objection had ever been made to it. Mr. Woodhouse also kindly allowed me to make any use I liked of the information he thus gave. The result was that I took it upon me to write Sir William on the matter, giving expression to my surprise that what was allowed at Umtali was disallowed at Ngwenya. I am indebted to Sir William for the following reply which I received after returning to my home, and inasmuch as it may interest people beyond the Free Presbyterian Church, it may be put on record:—

“ADMINISTRATOR’S OFFICE,
SALISBURY (RHODESIA), 3rd December, 1909.

SIR,—I am directed by Sir William Milton to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 19th ultimo, from Beira, on the subject of distributing second-hand clothing to the church-going natives living near the Free Presbyterian Mission, Ngwenya, Matabeleland.

In reply, I am to inform you that since your interview with Sir William on the 17th of November, he has gone into the question of the introduction of second-hand clothing for the purpose mentioned by you, and finds that by Section 16 of the ‘Customs Union and Tariff Ordinance, 1906,’ the importation of second-hand clothing is only prohibited when brought in for sale, and His Honour is of opinion that the Customs Authorities have not any power to stop the importation of such clothing when it is sent under a declaration that no portion of it is for sale.

If the clothing is imported through Cape ports, it will have to be fumigated at the port of entry unless a certificate of fumigation before shipment is produced.

I should mention that any such clothing should be valued as ‘second-hand’ consignment before being despatched from Great Britain.

If duty is paid at Cape ports it will be at the rate of 15 per cent. ad valorem, if declared to be for presentation and not for sale, otherwise at the rate of 2/- per coat, vest, or trousers.

If the goods are imported via Beira there will be three per cent. transit duty in addition to the 15 per cent. ad valorem under a similar declaration.

The Customs authorities would be unable to accept any certificate of British origin, as the suppliers could not know where every article was made.—I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

A. H. HOLLAND,

Private Secretary.

Rev. J. R. MACKAY,
Free Presbyterian Manse,
Inverness, Scotland.”

I visited Bulawayo, some thirty-seven miles distance, twice during my stay at the Mission. On the first occasion I had to make arrangements concerning the voyage home; and to buy some things required for Communion Services, and at the Schools. Friends, ere I left home, had given me some money to spend on the Mission, and it occurred to me that I could not do better than thus dispose of it. A detailed account of these transactions will be submitted to the Financial Committee, and if there be any reason for it the account may be printed later on in the Magazine. In the course of this first visit to Bulawayo, I arranged for a later date upon which to preach a Gaelic sermon for the benefit of Highlanders living in that town. I thus returned the second time

to Bulawayo on the Monday after the fourth Sabbath at the Mission, and on the following evening preached in the Presbyterian Church (Mr. Greenfield’s) to a fair gathering of Highlanders hailing from Sutherland, Ross, Inverness and Argyll, what is reckoned to have been the first Gaelic sermon ever preached in Rhodesia. The Highlanders of Bulawayo generously marked their appreciation by making the preacher the recipient of a valuable and much-prized gift. I may mention that my precentor on the occasion was Mr. D. C. Morrison, a brother-in-law of Rev. Donald Macfarlane, Dingwall.

I bade farewell to our dear friends at Ngwenya on the Tuesday after the second Sabbath of November. They too, ere I left, shewed their gratitude for the Church’s interest in them by presenting me with a valuable jackal-skin rug. Except for those visits to Bulawayo, I had none for those five weeks to converse with, at least to any considerable extent save Mr. Radasi, nor any to preach to but native Africans, yet I felt much drawn to them, and parted from them with regret. My distinct impression is that it is a Mission which the Lord is blessing, and will bless. It is a work which for many reasons the Church at home should bear sympathetically and prayerfully on their spirits. Perhaps the greatest discouragement is owing to the felt want of sympathy towards missions, and especially towards a mission carried on by a native, on the part of the greater number of Europeans who for mining and farming purposes have taken up their abode in Rhodesia. In fact, Sir William Milton, at the interview already referred to, told me that the Administration stretched a point when they allowed Mr. Radasi without any immediate European supervision to start his Mission. They did so, he said, on account of the excellent testimonials with which he came to them, and he added that he was bound to say that he never heard anything but good of Mr. Radasi. But notwithstanding this regrettable state of mind characterising the most part that one has met with of Europeans in Rhodesia, there are many circumstances in connection with the Mission which are fitted to encourage us. Of course, the salient fact, the fact outweighing all other facts, whether favourable or unfavourable, is the desirable possession by the Mission of the constant goodwill of Him who said: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and I am come down to deliver them.” I have already expressed my conviction that something of this favour is being experienced at the Mission, but I may now, in bringing this Report to a close, refer to some external circumstances which may be the means through which this favour works out the gracious purposes of Him whose it is. It is, then, for one thing, no little comfort to feel assured that if the pure Gospel of the Grace of God is known among us in Scotland, it is the same Gospel, and the same godly practice that are being taught the Fingos and Matabeles at our Mission in Matabeleland. This is a

circumstance to be appreciated all the more in view of such a fact as that at the present hour the Society which perhaps sends more missionaries to South Africa than any other is the so-called Society for Propagating the Gospel, a Society representing the Ritualistic party in the Church of England, whose teaching, one may well fear, is little better than that of Roman Catholics.

Another circumstance which I consider promising is the extent to which Mr. Radasi has the sympathy of the natives themselves, and that from the chiefs downwards. The late Chief Ngege was always friendly, and his two sons, whom I met both at their kraal and at church, continue like-minded. To Chief Sibendi, although himself not much of a church-going man, we owe at the present time the place of meeting at Bembesi, and he very kindly came, accompanied with three followers, to pay his respects while I lived at the Mission. To Chief Sojini I referred in the former Report as one that had come over a hundred miles in order to be present at our first service there. After his return home he sent me the following letter in the native language, which I insert as being a message to the Free Presbyterian Church not less than to me:—

“SELUKWE, 26th October, 1909.

REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A.,

Sibulela uhambo lwako lokusi hambela sikubone ufika apa e Africa uzo kusitandazela hai utando olunga osenzele lona ote ngenxa yemipefumlo yetu warazula amanzi olwandhle ngamana u Tixo akugcine ude uyokufika e Scotland ubalise nge Africa nabahleli kuyo ngezinto ozibone ngamehlo sibulela nebandhla lase Scotland elite levelana nati ngokubako kwako apa e Africa ngendhleko ngenxa yotando lwebandhla livelana nati ukuba sizimfama nje sibone amandhla ka Krestu notando asenzele lona nge Sicaka asitume ngengalo yake enamandhla ngalamazwi ndiyakubulisa kwakona ngalamazwi ndiyalibulela Bandhla elise Scotland ndhlela ntle eluhambeni lokusinga ekaya ndim owako wenene.

(Signed) GARNER SOJINI.”

The following is Mr. Radasi’s translation:—

“REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A.,

We are thankful to you for the visit you have paid to us here in Africa, to come and pray for us. Oh, what great love thou hast shown to our souls by crossing the waters of the ocean! May God keep you, and make you return safely to Scotland, to tell them about Africa and its people, and what you have seen with your own eyes. We also thank the Church in Scotland for its sympathy for us, for having sent you here to Africa at great expense, through their love to us. They sympathise with us because we are blind. We see the power and love of Christ that He has shown to us by sending us His servant. With these words I send my greetings. I again thank the Church in Scotland. May you have a safe voyage home.—Yours truly,

GARNER SOJINI.”

I refrain from giving more illustrations of the sympathy of the leading natives of the district, but one can see from what has been stated that Mr. Radasi is all the more likely to be useful from the kindly way in which all classes of the native population regard his work. For although the Mission is not a very large one, it is being taken notice of through a large surrounding district. Sojini has sent his son from Selukwe, a place about 120 or 130 miles to the north-east. Chief Ratilani, who lives about 100 miles to the south-west of the Mission, has been trying to make arrangements whereby two of his sons might be taught at the Mission. Two young men now at the Mission have come from beyond the Zambesi River.

Another promising circumstance is the firmness with which purity of worship, as well as soundness in doctrine, is being upheld at the Mission. Mr. Radasi has only a very few Psalms in metre which he can use, but to these he has adhered. So far as the Matabele portion of his congregation is concerned, that method needed no courage in order to follow it, inasmuch as everything of the kind is new to them, and they are inclined to accept what is taught them for the first time as right. But a goodly portion of the Fingo section were used in Cape Colony to more latitude in the matter of praise. One is glad to have to report that these also quite heartily fall in with Free Presbyterian ways, but the whole circumstances press home upon one the desirableness of our people in Matabeleland having a metrical version of the Psalter, with greater force than one might have felt it at a distance of a few thousand miles. On this account I ventured, when at Ngwenya, to write to Principal Henderson of Lovedale, asking him whether he could not get some men at Lovedale to give us a metrical rendering of the Psalms in the Kaffir language. I reminded him of some communications which Mr. Radasi had had hereanent with the late Principal Stewart, and how, as I thought, on account of the failing of Dr. Stewart’s health, this business had not been more advanced. I took it upon me to say that, if any considerable number of the Psalms were thus rendered, the Free Presbyterian Church would give some reward for his labour to the versifier, and would also order 500 copies of the Psalms from the Lovedale Press at their usual rates. Principal Henderson’s reply was as follows:—

“LOVEDALE, SOUTH AFRICA,
6th November, 1909.

DEAR MR. MACKAY,—I have your letter of the 28th ultimo, which arrived in my absence. As to your proposal, which I take to be that you desire a rendering of the Psalms into such metre as will admit of their being sung to the Psalm tunes to which we have been accustomed in Scotland, I do not see any very serious practical difficulty in the way. Bantu “poetry” is, in its own way, metrical, but it is not rhymed. The Psalms could be rendered

into common metre, short and long, quite as well as other literary compositions in foreign languages that have been so dealt with. Only, the work will require time. If your Church can undertake it I am sure you will be rendering a service of great importance to the Native Christian Communities springing up in the country, and a service the value of which time will only enhance. I have wired you to-day an invitation to come to Lovedale. This I sincerely trust you may be able to accept, as it would give me an opportunity to discuss your proposal.

Will you excuse a hurried line? I have returned to work to-day after a week’s absence.—With kind regards, I am, yours sincerely,

JAMES HENDERSON.”

It was not possible for me to accept Principal Henderson’s kind invitation, as I had, ere this letter reached me, definitely arranged to return home by Beira and the Red Sea, and had already paid for a cabin on board the D.O.A.L., S.S. Admiral. I therefor wrote Principal Henderson in that sense, renewed the promise of being at the expense implied if the Psalms were given us in Kaffir, metrically rendered, and expressed the hope that my inability to proceed to Lovedale would not retard the execution of this desirable piece of work.

To this second letter Principal Henderson was pleased to send the following reply :—

“LOVEDALE, SOUTH AFRICA,
7th December, 1909.

DEAR MR. MACKAY,—I have your note of the 15th ulto. and regret that it was not possible for you to pay us a visit here.

Should circumstances again lead to your visiting the Mission field I trust you may include Lovedale in your arrangements.

With regard to the proposal for rendering the Psalms in a Kaffir metrical version, I am sending you a copy of certain Psalms which have already been so rendered. I think it would be advisable for you to have these tried by your teacher, as the question arises whether a rendering in the Kaffir (or Xosa) language, which is the language of the greater part of our Mission field, would be suitable for Bembesi, Matabeleland, where the language spoken by the people is somewhat remote from Kaffir, and indeed probably nearer to Sesuto or even Zulu.—With very kind regards, I am, yours sincerely,

JAMES HENDERSON.

The Rev. J. R. MACKAY,

Free Presbyterian Manse,

Inverness, Scotland.”

The Kaffir Psalms have not, however, come to hand ‘as I send this report to the Editor.

I hope I have said enough to lead our people to an increased prayerfulness and sympathetic interest in this comparatively small mission in Matabeleland. It may be an opening to some greater

things in the future. It embraces representatives of the Tonga, Makalanga, Matabele and Fingo tribes, and it is not too much to say that if these were evangelised, there is not a tribe in South Africa to which, so far as language is concerned, they might not have a tolerably easy access.

Much, very much, have I to record of the Lord’s goodness to me in this long journey. I referred to the remarkable weather which we experienced from London to Capetown in the former report. The experiences of the return journey were still more remarkable. I indeed hesitated as to whether I should venture home by Beira and the Red Sea as the East Coast route has such a reputation for excessive heats. I felt not a little anxious on this account, in coming down to a level lower than the sea, as in parts of Portuguese South Africa, and when, as the train approached those parts, rain began to fall, and the sun’s heat became proportionally less, I felt as though the Lord were laying a carpet to make the journey more comfortable to an unworthy servant. The same kind Providence followed us during those four weeks in which we were sailing in the waters of the East Coast of Africa, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean. We had neither excessive heat nor cold, neither storms, nor weather too calm. The weather was simply perfect. The only sad circumstance was that few recognised God’s hand in it, although everyone would own that the voyage had been extraordinary in its favourableness. For my own part, I believe it was an answer to the prayer of many, and in order that now it may redound to the glory of God through the thanksgiving of many, I venture to put on record my impressions of God’s nearness to me in His Providence, from the time of my leaving Europe until my return home.

P.S.—In regard of personal expenses: I received from Mr. Clunas, Treasurer, the sum of £150. After paying for outfit, voyage, sojourn in Africa, and the supply of my pulpit for fourteen Sabbaths, I am able to return Mr. Clunas the sum of £16 14s. 1d.

J. R. M.

Foreign Missions and the Higher Criticism.—The Council of the Bible League, says the Bible League Quarterly, have before them several communications of the gravest possible character regarding the spread of “Higher” Critical Teaching in the Foreign Mission Field. They are not at liberty at present to divulge all the information, but we would bring the matter before our readers in order that there may be united and definite prayer that steps may be taken to counteract this painful declension, which is doing such serious harm by hindering the spread of the Gospel amongst a great number of inquirers, especially in India, China, and Japan.

The late William R. Morrison,

KINLOCHBERVIE, SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

THE subject of this notice was born at Achrisakill, a township on the north side of Loch Inchard, on the west coast of Sutherlandshire, in the year 1828. His father, Robert Morrison, or Rob MacEoin, as he was generally called, removed to Foindle, a small township on the south side of Loch Laxford, when William was about three years of age. Rob MacEoin was a man who feared the Lord, and ruled his house well, as we are informed. William, thus having the high privilege of early training in the admonition of the Lord, to reverence His Word and honour His law, was enabled to carry it with him to the end of his days, and was often grieved when he would see others slighting God’s law, such as herding cattle on the Lord’s Day, and other unnecessary works, which are getting far too common in our day in our once Sabbath-honouring Highlands. The impression made on William’s mind in early life by pious men and women was evident from the delight he took in speaking and relating anecdotes about them as his journey here was drawing near the end. We are sorry we cannot give much of his personal experience, as he seemed reserved on that point, but he showed himself a witness for the truth and a wrestler at a throne of grace.

William was about fifteen years of age at the time of the Disruption in 1843, and remembered it well. Having a fair measure of education, and endowed with a wide understanding, he kept himself closely in touch with the proceedings of the Free Church, and bemoaned her backslidings. In the year 1871 William removed from Foindle to Kinlochbervie, bringing his father and mother with him in their old age, and he availed himself of the privilege of attending Communions not only in the neighbouring parishes, but also at Lairg and Creich in the days of Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Aird, and other witnesses who believed that want of conformity to God’s law is sin as surely as the positive breach thereof, and did not fail to warn their hearers of the inexpressible danger of departing from the rule of God’s Word. So when the Free Church broke her constitution by passing the Declaratory Act of 1892, William was the first in his congregation to sever his connection with that Church. Seeing he could no longer conscientiously support that Church, he lost no time in sending his own mite, and that of such as he found like-minded, to the support of those who were honoured in abiding by the standard of truth. It was largely through his influence, along with the late John M’Leod, Badcall, Inchard, of whom mention was made in these pages (Vol. viii., No. 8, page 268), and the late Donald M’Leod, Inshegra, who predeceased both, that a public testimony was raised in Kinlochbervie in connection with the Free Presbyterian Church, being encouraged in word and action by

the late William Sutherland, catechist, Lochinver, who was chiefly instrumental in raising the testimony in Scourie. These three men wrought unweariedly in bringing ministers to the parish to enlighten the people on the falsity of the Declaratory Act, and the necessity of raising a testimony for the truth, sometimes bringing them in their own conveyances from Lochinver—a distance of forty-seven miles. At first the schools and the Established Church were open for them to gather in at such times, but in 1899 the School Board of Eddrachillis, which was mostly composed of ministers, thought it a fit time to close the schools against all religious meetings except at Communion seasons, while they were left open for concerts and dances. Such actions will contribute largely to show the stamp of men’s characters. Soon after the Established Church was also closed against them. The only recourse now was to meet in William Morrison’s house, and this, being large and commodious, was able to accommodate a large number of people. Instead of this emergency doing harm to the Free Presbyterian Church, it only pushed them forward in getting a meeting-house of their own built. They had much trouble in obtaining a site, it being refused on the common grazing, until latterly it was obtained on a croft. Some willing hearts and hands going about the work, the meeting-house was formally opened in July, 1902. A missionary was placed over the congregation, Scourie combined, and although some have proved themselves “unstable as water,” the congregation is still pulling through.

In October, 1902, the subject of our sketch was ordained an elder, with others in the congregation, at the time of the first Free Presbyterian Communion held in Kinlochbervie. He acted as treasurer to the congregation since early in 1903, until, owing to the frailty of old age, he was relieved of the work by his son. He also led the exercises of the congregation on the Sabbath in the absence of the missionary.

As was stated already, owing to his reserve, we cannot give much of his spiritual experience. On one occasion, while speaking to “the question” at a Friday fellowship meeting, he gave as a mark of the Lord’s people, that they would be sometimes afraid that they hadn’t the right faith, and that they might be that way until they would see it on the other side of time. He said to a friend after a Communion season: “I was hoping that I would have been converted at the Communion, but I am as I was before it.” On another occasion he said to the same friend, apparently having been in very deep waters for days: “I was often angry at Peter for denying his Master, but it is one of the sweetest passages of Scripture for me to-day.” He was a frequent wrestler at the throne of grace, pleading for himself and others. He was unable to attend the public means of grace since March, 1908, but was, in general, able to take part at the family altar, late and early, till very near the end. On being asked by a friend, a few days before he died, how he was, he said, “I have much

reason for thankfulness that, though weak, I have no pain.” The friend remarked, “There are some who cannot find fault with the Lord’s doings, whatever He will do to them,” and he replied, with deep emotion, “I believe that.” The last few days he did not speak much—the nature of his trouble was paralysis—but he showed signs of consciousness to the last. He was called away, we believe, to his eternal rest on the 4th September last, at the ripe age of eighty-one years.

Our very sincere sympathy is offered to his widow and all the members of his family, whether at home or abroad. May the Lord speedily raise the children in the place of the fathers!

D. M.

An Leabhar=Cheist Protastanach, le Lan Dearbhadh o na Sgriobtuiribh.

(Continued from page 355.)

AN ROIMH AG AGAIRT COIR A BHI ‘N A MATHAIR
AGUS ‘N A BAN-MHAIGHSTEAR DO GACH EAGLAIS.

C. 40.—Ciod a tha Eaglais na Ròimh a’ teagasg air a cheànn so?—F.—Tha gur i-féin “màthair agus ban-mhaighstear nan eaglaisean uile.”—Créud Phuis IV.—EAR. 10.

C. 41.—Am b’ ise ceud eaglais Chriosd?—F.—Cha b’ i idir. B’ i eaglais Ierusalem a’ cheud eaglais¹ fo fhrithealadh an t-soisgeil. Air là na Cuingeis, shearmonaich Peadar do na h-Iudhaich, agus shuidhich è a’ cheud eaglais ann an Ierusalem.² (Ceist 17.)

C. 42.—Am bheil è féumail gu’m bitheadh co-chomunn aig eaglaisibh eile ri eaglais na Ròimh?—F.—Cha n’eil. Bha eaglaisean aig Criosd (mar bha eaglais Ierusalem), mu’n robh eaglais na Ròimh ànn idir; agus anns gach linn de’n chreidimh Chriosdail, o’n là ‘dh’éirich a’ Phàpanachd, bha earrannan gle mhòr de ‘n Chriosdachd aig nach robh co-cheangal air-bith ri eaglais na Ròimh. Bha eaglaisean Criosdail ann an Breatainn, agus ann an Eirionn, fada mu’n robh ùghdarras air-bith aig a’ Phàp anns na rioghachdan sin. (Faic Nòd air Ceist 45.)

C. 43.—Am bheil thu ag ràdh gu’n robh eaglaisean ànn, mu’n tàinig an t-Ath-leasachadh anns an t-seathamh Linn déug, nach

¹ Lùcas xxiv. 47.—Agus aithreachas agus maitheanas peacaidh bhi air an searmonachadh ‘n a ainm-san, do na h-uile chinnich, a’ òiseachadh aig Ierusalem.

² Gniomh. ii. 1.—Agus an uair a thàinig là na cuingis, bha ‘iad gu léir a dh’ aon inntinn ann an aon àit. R. 41, An sin bhaisteadh iadsan a ghabh r’ a fhocal gu toileach: agus an là sin féin chuireadh riu timchioll tri mille anam. R. 47, Agus chuir an Tighearn gach là ris an eaglais an dream a thèarúinear.

d’aidich ùghdarras eaglais na Ròimh? Ma tha ainmich iad.—
F.—Thà mì. Eaglaisean na h-Aird-an-ear, a bha ann an co-
chomunn ri eaglais Ierusalem, an eaglais Ghreugach, agus an
eaglais ann an crochaibh mòra Russia—thog iad sin, gu h-iomlan,
fianuis an aghaidh ladarnas ‘us ar-amach na Ròimh.

C. 44.—Ach nach ‘eil na h-eaglaisean sin, ann an tomhas mòr,
air an truailleadh le saobh-chreidimh agus iodhol-aoradh?—
F.—Thà iad. Ach gidheadh, is fianaisean iad air taobh mhòran
de na teagasgaibh Protastanach againn-ne. Tha iad ag àicheadh
nam féin-theagsg a ta aig na Pàpanaich mu àrd uachdaranachd,
agus neo-mhearrachdas—tha iad a’ diùltadh Créud Phàp’ Pius IV.,
agus a’ ceadachadh do’n Chléir pòsad. Tha iad, mar-an-céudna,
a dh-aon bheachd ruinn-ne, air iomadh puing eile.

C. 45.—Am bheil è mar sin fior nach robh eaglais air-bith eile
ànn, roimh àm an Ath-leasachaidh, ach eaglais na Ròimh?—
F.—Cha n’eil idir, idir. Cha n’è mhàin gu’n robh eaglaisean na
h-Aird-an-ear agus eaglaisean na Gréige, agus Russia dealaichte
agus saor o eaglais na Ròimh, ach bha mòran eaglaisean ànn,
maille ri eaglaisibh Bhreatainn agus Eirinn, ‘n an eaglaisean
Criostail, fada mu’n robh iad air an toirt fo chuing na Pàpanachd.¹

¹ Gheibhear cùntas air searmonachadh nan Abstol ann an Leabhar Gnlomhran nan Abstol. Air dhoibh, air tús, eaglais a shuidheachadh ann an Ierusalem (Gnlomh. ii.), a-réir àithn’ an Tighearn Iosa (Luc. xxiv. 47), chaidh iad do gach àit, a’ searmonachadh Chriosd. Tha è air innseadh anns an Leabhar chéudna, mar shuidhich an t-Abstol Pòl eaglaisean ann an Ephesus, ann am Philippi, ann an Tesalonica agus ann an àithbh eile, agus mar stad è mu-dheireadh anns an Ròimh. Tha am fear-eachdraidh Eusebius ag innseadh, gu’n “robb, mar tha béul-eachdreach ag ràdh, Partia air a chur air leth mar àit-searmonachaidh do Thòmas; Scitia do Aindreas; agus Asia do Eòin agus an deigh dhà a bhi ‘searmonachadh rè tìne, an sin, gu’n do bhàsaich è ann an Ephesus. Chithear gu’n robb Peadar a’ searmonachadh ann am Pontus, Galatia, Bitinia, Cappadocia, agus Asia, do na h-Iudhaich a bha air an sgapadh mu-n-cuairt.”—(I Pead. i. I.)

Thugadh an creidimh Criostaidh, air tús, do Bhreatainn, gle mhoch. Tha am fear-eachdreach Theodoret ag ràdh, “Thug na h-Abstoil air na Breatann-aich gabhail ri lagh an Tighearna air a chéusadh.” A bhàrr air sin, tha è ag ràdh, “an deigh do Phòl a dhol do’n Spàinn, gu’n tug è slaint a dh’-ionusuidh nan eilean a ta air an suidheachd anns a’ chuan.” Gun teagamh is ann air eileanaibh Bhreatainn a tha è ‘labhairt. Dh’-fhaodamaid iomadh teisteanas eile a thoirt o na pìomh sgriobhadairibh, mar dhearbhadh air so. Bha an creidimh Criostaidh air a theagsg ann am Breatainn anns an dara, anns an treas, anns a’ cheathramh agus anns a’ chòigeanmh linn. Tha na fir-eachdraidh, Bede agus Gildas a’ labhairt le moladh air Martaraich na h-Eaglaise Breatann-aich. Bha triùir easbuigean o Bhreatainn, aig Comhairle Arleis, anns a’ bhlìadhna 314. Tha an ainmean air an cur ri Achdaibh na Comhairle sin. Tha so soilleir o Airreamh nan Comhairlean air a sgriobhadh le Labbe, an t-Iesuteach. Bha Easbuigean Breatannach, mar-an-céudna, aig Comhairle Shardica, anns a’ bhlìadhna 347. Is ann ‘s a’ bhlìadhna 596, àm air an robb cumhachd a’ Phàpa ‘g a nochdadh féin, a chunnacas am manach Austin—cha n’è Easbuig Hippo—ann an Sasunn, agus a dh’-iarr è gu’n géilleadh Eaglaisean Bhreatainn do riaghailltibh na Ròimh. Gidheadh, sheas na Breatannach gu làidir, tréun, an aghaidh na h-ionnsuidh so a thugadh air an coir a thoirt uatha; ach b’éigin doibh fasgadh a ghabhail anns a’ Chuimrich (Wales), far an do ghleidh iad an saorsa, uin fhadh an deigh sin. Tha so air a dhearbhadh o

C. 46.—Nach ‘eil eaglais na Ròimh ag ràdh gur i-féin ciste-gheidhidh an Sgriobtuir, agus gur h-ann ‘n a comain-sa tha sinne airson a’ Bhìobuill?—F.—Tha i ag ràdh sin, agus o là a cùl-sleamhnachaidh, bha i, mar chiste ghlaiste, a’ cumail an Sgriobtuir o’n t-slugh. Is bréugach a ràdh gur h-ann ‘n a comain-sa, a tha sinne airson a’ Bhìobuill. Bha an leabhar naomh sin air ‘earbsadh ris na h-eaglaisibh Criosdail uile, air aon dòigh—Eaglaisean na h-Aird-an-ear—na h-Eaglaisean Gréugach, Abisinianach, agus Coptigach.—Cha n-è sin amhàin, ach bha am Biobull air a dhion le cùram éudmhor, ameasg luchd-aideachaidh a bha ‘co-stridh an aghaidh a chéile. Fo làmh Dhia, thug eaglaisean Shasuin, Eirinn, agus Albuinn dhùinn am Biobull, agus bha iad sin, air tìs, làn-dhealaichte bho eaglais na Ròimh. Ach geda b’fhlor a tagradh, ‘nuair a tha i ag ràdh gur ann o’ làmh-sa a fhuair sinn am Biobull; ciod è dhe sin? Is iomadh làmh dhubb ‘s an robh solus air a ghleidheadh. Giùlainidh am post’ an litir, ach cha n-èil ùghdarras aige thairis air na nithibh a ta innse; cha dàna dhà, aon fhocal de na tha innse ‘atharrachadh, no thoirt aisde.