| | PAGE. |
|————————————————————————-|——-|
| “BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW,” | 325 |
| A SERMON. By the Rev. Alexander Macrae, Portree, | 329 |
| RECOLLECTIONS OF BETSY LINDSAY, | 341 |
| THE LATE PETER MACLEOD, MISSIONARY, STAFFIN, SKYE, | 345 |
| AN LEABHAR-CHEIST PROTASTANACH, LE LAN DEARBHADH O NA
SGRJOBTUIRIBH, | 354 |
| LETTERS BY THE LATE DONALD MACKAY, STUDENT, STRATHY, | 359 |
| PROTESTANT NOTES, | 360 |
| NOTES AND COMMENTS, | 361 |
| CHURCH NOTES, | 362 |
| THE MAGAZINE, | 364 |

N. ADSHEAD & SON,
Printers and Bookbinders,
11 and 92 UNION STREET, GLASGOW.

PRICE TWOPENCE.

THE Free Presbyterian Magazine And MONTHLY RECORD.

VOL. XV.

JANUARY, 1911.

No. 9.

“Behold, I make all things new.”

REV. XXI. 5.

THE Apostle John, at the close of the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation, describes the vision he saw of the final judgment of the great day—”the great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away”; “the dead, small and great,” standing before God; the books opened, and “the dead judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” He then proceeds, in the twenty-first chapter, to describe what he saw and heard of events that shall take place after this great tribunal is closed. He saw “a new heaven and a new earth” appearing, and he heard, among other things, the voice of Him that sat upon the throne saying, “Behold, I make all things new.” We observe in these words, which form our present subject, not only a description of what God purposes to do at the end of the world, but also of what He has been doing all down the ages in the history of His people. All His works of grace from first to last are illustrations of the truth of the words, “Behold, I make all things new,” and it is from this point of view we desire at the present time to consider them.

1. The Lord made “all things new” in the day of Redemption. Sin had made all things old which the Creator had formed new and good at the beginning. It had introduced universal decay and death into the world. All had sinned and come short of the glory of God. This great evil had destroyed the divine image in man’s soul, and separated man from all fellowship with his Maker. God had cursed the very ground for man’s sake. Nay, more, the whole race, as under a broken covenant of works, had become liable to the penalty of eternal death. Such was the deplorable condition in which the Fall left mankind—decaying, dying, made old by sin, ready to perish for ever. But God, who is rich in mercy, had a purpose of grace towards an elect and innumerable company of the race, and in the fulness of the time sent His Son

to redeem them from sin and all its consequences. By His substitutionary sufferings unto death, the Son of God has made all things virtually new for His people. He has removed the curse; He has procured the blessing. He has restored that which He took not away, and has raised them to more exalted and abiding privileges than they lost in the first Adam. He has prepared the way for their complete deliverance from all sin and misery, and for their full and perfect enjoyment of the love and fellowship of a Triune God for ever and ever.

1. The Lord makes “all things new” in the day of Regeneration. Regeneration is redemption applied by the operation of the Holy Ghost. He delivers men from sin in its guilt and power and pollution, and by the process of a spiritual birth, makes them new creatures. Though “the old man” still remains in all such persons—cast down, though not cast out—a new creation is raised up side by side with him. The Lord makes all things new in the faculties of the soul. The dark understanding is enlightened, the dead conscience is quickened and purged, the perverse will is renewed, and the corrupt affections are purified. The divine image is restored in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The Lord also establishes a new relationship between the soul and Himself. Originally united to the First Adam as its federal head in a covenant of works, the soul is now translated into a new union with the Second Adam, “who is the Lord from heaven” under a covenant of grace. Death came by the First Adam; life by the Second Adam; and the new creation is vitally associated with union to the Lord Jesus Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” This new relationship puts the soul into possession of many new and valuable blessings hitherto unknown, such as the knowledge of God’s mercy and love, justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ, adoption into the divine family, and complete preservation unto eternal glory. As a necessary consequence of this wonderful change, all things are made “new” in the eyes of the soul. He has new views of God as holy and just and gracious, new views of himself as fallen and corrupt, new views of the Word of God and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, new views of the world as lying in wickedness, and new views of the material creation as showing forth the glory of God. He is now in a new world, and everything is changed and transformed to his soul’s apprehension. “Old things are passed away; all things are become new.”

2. The Lord makes “all things new” in the day of Restoration. It is a well-known circumstance, attested by experience and God’s Word, that most of those who have become the children of God by regeneration have seasons of darkness and decay in their spiritual history. These seasons are, no doubt, more marked in the life of some than of others. In the case of some, the decay may only be apparent to themselves; in the case of others, it may be observed by their fellow-creatures. But that such times are,

the vast majority of God’s people know to their sad and painful experience. The Book of Psalms, our inspired text-book on this subject, contains many plaintive confessions of sin against the living God, and of spiritual darkness and death as the result; many earnest prayers and wrestlings for restoration to holiness of walk and conversation, and to the enjoyment of the light of God’s reconciled countenance; and many grateful acknowledgments of the Lord’s kindness in answering these supplications. “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant.” “Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like to them that go down into the pit.” “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” “He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.” And do not these divinely-recorded utterances describe the experience of God’s children to this day? How often they feel they have gone astray like lost sheep, and are conscious of walking in darkness, having no light! “Ready to perish in the land of Assyria,” is their sad complaint, and they cry for deliverance and restoration. And then they must confess there are seasons, however short, when the Lord seems to restore their souls and to put their feet upon the Rock and a new song in their mouth to the praise of His glorious name. He makes all things new in the day of Restoration. They appeared to have lost every sign for good—nothing but thick darkness around them, and black despair taking hold of them—when “the Sun of righteousness arose with healing in his wings,” and made all things new once again, to their soul’s comfort and delight. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

1. The Lord makes “all things new” in the day of Glorification. There are two such days in the history of God’s children. The first is the day of death, and the second, the day of judgment. The day of death is that on which their souls, disjoined from their bodies, pass into glory. These souls are then made perfect in holiness. Every vestige of “the old man” is destroyed for ever, and they are made holy even as God is holy. No sinful thought, desire or affection remains to darken the divine image, or to interfere with the soul’s happiness. All things in the soul’s faculties are made perfectly new; the old leaven of corruption is entirely and for ever removed; and a degree of spiritual freedom and enlargement experienced beyond anything known in this present life. Who can comprehend the blissful change? And no doubt many things that are hard to be understood now, are made clear to the glorified understanding in eternity. “What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter.” The day of judgment is the second and final day of glorification. The body as well as the soul will then be glorified. All things pertaining to the body will be made new. Soul and body, re-united in a glorified condition, will experience new and wonderful sensations of joy and blessedness. The Lord Jesus is to be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, with a view to punish the wicked

and to glorify the just. He will openly acknowledge and acquit His people before an assembly of all nations, saying, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. xxv. 31-46). This is the day of final revelation, and many things now hid shall then be made known, to the joy of those on the right hand and to the confusion of those on the left.

1. The Lord makes “all things new” in the day of Final Restitution. (Acts iii. 21.) John saw “a new heaven and a new earth” taking the place of “the first heaven and first earth,” which were passed away; he saw “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”; and he heard many precious words spoken, among which were the words of our text, “Behold, I make all things new.” But on these mysteries of future glory we only touch. There is diversity of interpretation among expositors, and so we must leave the subject to the meditation of our readers, as guided by the Spirit of truth.

We conclude with a word or two of practical exhortation. We are now entering upon a new year, and it ought to be a question with each of our readers: “How do I stand related to these great matters? Have I been brought to feel my need of having all things made new between my soul and God, or am I quite content to remain in the old state of disobedience, enmity, and condemnation?” The Lord Jesus made all things new between God and His people, as their representative, in the day of Redemption, and He is able to make this experimentally known in the day of Regeneration, and every soul is at liberty, under the general call of the Gospel, to ask at a “throne of grace” that he or she should be made partaker of this glorious redemption in its saving power. “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” God’s promises shall stand infallibly true to every soul that puts them to sincere and genuine proof. Let the disobedient be warned against delusive refuges of lies, which shall be burned as chaff at the great day of final account.

Many of those who fear God feel their need of a day of Restoration. It is their earnest desire that He who sits upon the throne would say in their soul’s happy experience at the beginning of another year, “Behold, I make all things new.” Let them not limit the Holy One of Israel. He is able to restore the years which the locust and the cankerworm and the caterpillar have eaten, and to be unto them as in the day of their first espousals, the day in which He took them by the hand and led them out of “the land of Egypt.” Yea, He may show them, in some respects, even greater things than these, and may give them days of heaven on earth such as they have not hitherto experienced. There is much of “the land flowing with milk and honey”—the land of covenant blessing—which they have not yet seen in the fulness of its glory.

A Sermon.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER MACRAE, PORTREE,
Retiring Moderator of Synod.

Preached in St. Jude’s Hall, Glasgow, on 15th November, 1910.

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.”—REV. ii. 4, 5.

THE Apostle John was well stricken in years when the mysteries recorded in the Apocalypse were revealed to him. He was banished to the Isle of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is supposed that he was subjected to these sufferings during the persecution that raged against the Christians under the reign of Domitian, some years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Although much persecuted, he was much comforted. He testifies that he was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s day. The Lord Jesus, in whose bosom he lay in the days of His flesh, revealed Himself to him in the glory of His exalted humanity, and the sight was so overwhelming that he fell down at His feet as dead. Strengthened, however, by the right hand of Him whose glory, as exalted, he beheld, he was fitted to receive the revelation made concerning “the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter.” He is first commissioned to write about the seven Asiatic churches. These churches were not all on the same footing in respect of faithfulness and consistency. Of the Church in Smyrna and in Philadelphia the Lord speaks in a manner that is wholly commendable; of the Church of the Laodiceans, in a manner that is wholly censurable; and of the remaining four He speaks in a manner that is partly commendable and partly censurable.

It is under this last category the Church of Ephesus comes. Christ lays both His commendations and reproofs on the basis of His omniscience. “I know thy works.” He thus shows that, as the alone Head and King of the Church, He is God from everlasting to everlasting. He commends her for her labour in word and doctrine. She was painstaking in performing many of the duties of the ministerial office. He commends her for her patience. Patience presupposes suffering. Thus, the Apostle James adduces the prophets, “who have spoken in the name of the Lord,” for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. Sanctified suffering calls forth the exercise of patience, for “tribulation worketh patience.” He further commends her for her faithfulness in exercising discipline. There were among her those who presumed to claim a right to the apostleship. These she tried by the touchstone of truth, with the result that she

proved them to be liars, and she could not suffer them to be associated with her. All this she did with a view to the glory of the Lord, as it is said, “for my name’s sake.” He, however, finds grounds of censure in her. Although He speaks commendably of her for her labour, patience, and zeal, He does not overlook what was censurable in her. He first reproves her for having left her first love. In the second place, He exhorts her to remember from whence she fell. And, lastly, He pronounces a solemn threatening to the effect that He would remove the candlestick out of his place except she repented. The angel or minister of the church is addressed as representing the church.

I.—The reproof: “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”—It is not judicially that He lays this fault to her charge. It is not in the sense in which He lays the guilt of Adam’s first sin, all actual transgressions of the law of God, and the sin of unbelief to the charge of those who are still under the guilt of a broken law. He is concerned with a people who experienced the constraining influences of the love of the Triune God, and in whose case the sentence of condemnation was withdrawn and cancelled. “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” He rebukes and chastises His children for their folly. His chastisements are fatherly chastisements, and they will never cease to be His children. Notwithstanding their many failings, He will never leave nor forsake them. He finds in them grounds of censure and rebuke; He finds in them much that He can justly complain of; but out of regard to His faithfulness, He will not utterly cast them off. Similarly, in the case of the Church of Ephesus, He found just grounds of complaint and censure. She left her first love. The Lord Jesus Christ is the object of the love of the Church; but in giving this reproof, He does not mean that the church of Ephesus left or forsook Him. He does not charge her with having apostatized from Him, but with having left her first love. Love is a grace implanted in the heart by the Holy Ghost. It is not antecedent to faith, but faith never works without it. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.” The Lord does not mean that this church fell away from love as a principle implanted in the heart. Wherever it is implanted as a vital principle it must inevitably abide—it cannot possibly be eradicated; but it is not always the same in respect of the degree or measure of its exercise. The fruits and acts of it are not always the same, although there will not be a total falling away in respect of its fruits and acts. Love, however, as a grace implanted in the heart, decays in respect of its exercises, fruits, and acts. It is in this sense that the Lord reproves the church of Ephesus for having left her first love.

The reproof is applicable to the people of God individually. The night of conviction may, in their experience, be long or short, as the Lord in His wisdom sees fit. A sense of God’s wrath for sin may, for a longer or shorter period bruise and crush them

with its terrors. But when they are enabled to view Christ, by faith, wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities, they experience the efficacy of His blood to purge the conscience from the guilt of sin. They then have a sense of the pardoning mercy of God in Christ. It is accompanied with a sense of love to God. This love is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The fruit of it is seen in the case of the woman whose many sins Christ forgave. She washed His feet with her tears; she wiped them with the hairs of her head; she kissed them, and anointed them with ointment. It is constraining and persuasive love. It is spoken of as the love of one’s espousals, and it is said to be strong as death. Although in principle it remains, there is a decay or falling away in respect of the measure of its exercise. This is evident from the case of the wise virgins, who also are said to have slumbered and slept. It is evident from the state of the Church, as described in the Song of Solomon. She lay on the bed of carnal security. She relapsed into a condition of deadness and formality. The fervency of her first love manifestly cooled. She exposed herself to the charge of having left her first love. It is a reproof justly administered to the people of God at one time or other during their sojourn in the wilderness of this world.

But the reproof here is particularly administered to the Church in its collective capacity, as publicly witnessing for Christ in the world. The Church of Ephesus was planted by the Apostle Paul. He laboured in this city for three years at least, and ceased not to warn every one, day and night, with tears. In writing his Epistle to the Ephesians, he declares that, after he heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, he ceased not to give thanks for them, making mention of them in his prayers. He alludes to the time of the Church’s first love. It is a time when the Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of love, of power, and of sound mind, is richly poured forth. The Church under the Old Testament dispensation experienced the glow of this love after the deliverance from Egypt and the miraculous parting of the waters of the Red Sea. It was then that Moses and the children of Israel celebrated the praises of redeeming love: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” There was an outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the Church on entering the land of Canaan. It was by faith in God the walls of Jericho fell, after they were compassed about seven days. It is obvious that the Church at that time had experience of being under the influence of her first love. This love was again experienced on the return from Babylon. It found expression in the shout of joy that went forth from the people when the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid. “And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.” But it was reserved for the Church, under the

New Testament dispensation, to experience more richly than ever before the fervency of this love. The richest experience of it was in Apostolical times, for then there was a more copious outpouring of the Holy Ghost than had ever before been experienced by the Church. There was a remarkable experience of it at the Reformation in this and other lands. It was, in some measure, experienced at the Disruption; and it cannot be denied that there was an experience of it by our own Church seventeen years ago. It thrives in the fire of suffering for Christ. The flames of persecution have the effect of causing it to burn more and more fervently; for unto the Church it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. As it happened in the case of the children of Israel in Egypt, that the more they were persecuted, the more they multiplied; so the more the Church suffers for Christ, the more her love to Him is inflamed. The Apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. When the Church is under the influence of her first love, the glory of God and the defence of the crown rights of the Redeemer, as Prophet, Priest, and King, stand out pre-eminently in her view. In comparison with them, the grandeur, wealth, honour, and esteem of the world vanish out of sight.

When, however, the Church is in this manner justly censured, she gives unmistakable signs of having fallen away from former attainments. Although her love cannot be wholly fallen from, it becomes cold in comparison with the warmth of its former exercises. There is a great difference between the flowing and the receding tide. When the Church has left her first love she resembles the tide in its backward course. Her course is one of retrogression and not of progression. When in this condition she may be eloquently spoken of by worldly men as advancing towards the right goal. The less spiritual the Church becomes, the more esteemed she is by those who are destitute of spiritual discernment. The more she conforms herself to the practices of the world, the more she ceases to be felt as a spiritual force in the world. The slightest inclination on her part to touch the hem of the world’s garment, is a sure evidence of her having left her first love. History records that a general once arrayed his army against the advancing foe on a plateau, from which he could engage with advantage in the impending conflict. He, however, left the vantage ground that he occupied and descended to a neighbouring plain, with very disastrous results. In like manner, when the Church leaves the vantage ground of her first love, she not only incurs the displeasure of the Lord, but she so exposes herself to the attacks of her enemies that her wounds will likely bleed for many a day. One step of declension frequently leads to another. When once there is a moving away from the eminence reached, as expressed by the first love, it is hard to say how far the Church may go in a course of backsliding. The downward movement

may not at first be very apparent. All the essential external features of a prosperous and thriving Church may be in evidence. The outward framework of the Church’s activities may have undergone no visible change. The Word of God, in respect of its threatenings, invitations, and promises, may be preached with seeming faithfulness. Divine worship may be conducted with incorruptness. The ordinances of the Gospel may be administered in all their purity; and yet, because the Spirit of life has departed, the odour of the Lord’s presence is wanting, and no quickening or enlivening divine influences are felt. The form exists, but the power is absent. The public ordinances, in which the Spirit of life was at one time experienced, degenerate into cold, lifeless formality. Deadness takes the place of liveliness. Warmth is succeeded by coldness. This coldness is felt by the Lord’s people in their secret devotions, at the family altar, and at the public means of grace. It may be experienced not only in the courts of divine worship, but also in the courts of ecclesiastical government, as well as in the fellowship of saints. Signs of this love having been forsaken by the Philippians were seen from the fact that, while some of them preached Christ of goodwill and love, others preached Him of envy and strife. The unanimity that characterised the deliberations of the first Council of the Christian Church at Jerusalem generally ceases when the Church forsakes her first love. Communion is the fruit of union; true union is the fruit of genuine love; and love closely cements together. If the cold blast of a spirit of uncharitableness be entertained towards members of the household of faith, it is fitted to effectually untie the knot of Christian brotherhood, and to bring the Church under the sweep of the censure that is here administered to the Church of Ephesus. The Church’s love then manifestly cools, the exercises of it fade, and the fruits of it decay. Her zeal ceases to burn with the vehement flame with which it formerly burned. There is a tendency to desire ease, like Issachar, who “saw that rest was good, and the land, that it was pleasant.” There is a tendency to wish freedom from reproach for the name of Christ. There is a disposition to act on lines of expediency, like Peter, when he feared “them which were of the circumcision,” with the result that, to some extent, he conformed to a system that was abolished. Hence Paul declares, “If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” The Church’s sense of her duty to her divine Head, and to the present and coming generations, is not so lively as formerly. The Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian Church against the possibility of her thus declining. He charges her ministers to take heed unto themselves and unto the flock over which the Holy Spirit made them overseers. “For I know this,” he says, “that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore,

watch and remember.” All these things are sure evidences of a Church forsaking her first love.

II.—The exhortation. It is three-fold. (1) “Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen.”—This exhortation shows the seriousness with which the Lord regards the ground of His reproof; it shows the heinousness of the sin committed by the Church in having left her first love. He does not mean that those who receive grace fall from a state of grace, but they are liable to fall and stumble in respect of backsliding. That is the sorrowful fact here expressed by the words, “Thou art fallen.” The Church is often represented as relapsing into this condition. In the days of Jeremiah, the Lord charges her with committing the degrading sins of spiritual fornication and adultery. Notwithstanding, He does not utterly cast her off, but He pleads with her to give up her vile practices and return to Him: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” In like manner Hosea pleads with backsliding Israel to return unto the Lord, and he assigns the reason why there was a necessity for being thus entreated: “For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” While the Lord points out to the Church of Ephesus the fact of her having fallen from her first love, He does not directly plead with her to return as in the case of Israel, but He exhorts her to “remember,” and thus to compare her present with her former condition. She did not seem to be sensible of her present case. A spirit of slumber creeping over the Church is a sure sign of declension. Slumber leads to insensibility, and insensibility implies spiritual stupidity and deadness. The existence of these elements betokens listlessness and forgetfulness of former attainments.

The exhortation, in its general application, has all these elements in it. Thus, men by nature do not remember what they fell from, when by the fall they brought themselves into a state of sin and misery. They are forgetful of what they were, and they are insensible to what they are. They betray a spirit of stupid listlessness to the trumpet of the gospel that conveys the joyful tidings of salvation, and they are, therefore, solemnly warned, “Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”

The exhortation to “remember from whence thou art fallen” appeals to the believer in a state of backsliding. Blindness, hardness and stupidity are characteristics of a declining condition. There is no adequate conception of the sinfulness of the duties omitted or deeds committed. He becomes hardened in a course that grieves the Holy One of Israel. He shows such spiritual stupidity that he is forgetful of former loving kindnesses and insensible to his present condition. Whatever be the form of the declension, there is certainly forgetfulness on his part; and he does not come to himself until he remembers from whence he has fallen. The scriptures furnish us with an example of this condition in the case of David, who remained blinded, hardened,

and stupefied, until the Lord convinced him of his sin, and caused him to remember from whence he had fallen. Thus, conviction and remembrance of his sin led to his repentance. It is the same with the believer in every age.

As a nation, we are sadly drifting away from former attainments. The keynote of a sound and healthy Protestantism that formerly rang throughout the length and breadth of the land is now turned into a cry extolling the virtues of “the man of sin,” and claiming for Anti-christ equal rights and privileges with true religion. Modification of the laws that guard our national Protestantism is the practical result. We are forgetful of past mercies and insensible to present dangers. A cloud of judicial blindness has settled down upon us. We decline to call for a halt that we may consider, and, in obedience to this exhortation, remember from whence we are fallen.

But it is the Church particularly that is here exhorted to remember from whence she is fallen. On the part of the Church in our day there is a persistent falling away, both in respect of doctrine, worship, and practice. In regard to the branch of the visible Church with which we are connected, it is the purest, in every respect, known to us; but when we look at the condition of the churches generally, they are woefully fallen from the doctrines enunciated by Christ and His Apostles, as well as from apostolical worship and practice. The doctrines of a universal fatherhood, a universal atonement, and universal salvation are those that are generally held and delivered. The result is that the people generally will not endure to hear that they are lost, and that they will inevitably perish for ever if they are not born again. Many of their churches resemble places of amusement more than places of divine worship, to whom the character, “synagogues of Satan,” is more applicable than that they should be regarded as the Lord’s sanctuary. In practice, they are equally fallen, with the inevitable consequence that the churches are largely responsible for the spirit of infidelity that is abroad. There is a divine call to them to consider and to think upon their ways. They are entreated to remember from whence they are fallen. It is from an exercise of reflection on their ways that they will first think of pausing. Without serious reflection, there will be no retracing of their steps to the Lord’s testimony. They must remember, and conscience must pronounce them guilty, before they repent.

(2) The second exhortation is, “Repent.” It is an exhortation addressed to all sinners: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is emphatically declared that, except they repent, they shall perish. It is a duty to which believers and churches alike in a backsliding state are called. Repentance is the effect or fruit of remembering from whence fallen. It does not precede the exercise of self-examination or self-searching, but it naturally follows upon sin being brought to remembrance. For example, it is said of Peter that, when he remembered the words of Jesus,

“Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice,” he went out and wept bitterly. The sinfulness of one’s practice must first be remembered, the conscience must be convinced, and the fruit produced is repentance. Thus, the Lord spoke to the Church through Ezekiel concerning the manner in which her backslidings could be healed, and the effect, in consequence, produced in her. “Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed . . . That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.” There is more than a sense of sin in repentance; there is more than a remembrance of it, as it is said, “Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance?” There is an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ; otherwise conviction or remembrance of sin drives to despair, and the repentance that follows is legal repentance, as in the case of Judas Iscariot and others. In the latter case, there is no regard to the dishonour done to God; there is regard only to the misery entailed on oneself. In the former case, there is keen sorrow for the reproach cast upon the name of God. Regard for the honour of God’s name produces humble confession of sin. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” The sorrow that accompanies it is after a godly manner, working repentance to salvation not to be repented of. The soul is humbled; the spirit is contrite; the heart is broken. There is a sense of shame for sin before God, as in the case of Ephraim: “I was ashamed; yea, even confounded, because I did hear the reproach of my youth.” There is a holy indignation against sin and against oneself for sin. Thus Paul recognises the fruits of repentance in the Corinthians when he writes: “What carefulness is wrought in you; yea, what clearing of yourselves; yea, what indignation; yea, what fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, what zeal; yea, what revenge!” It is in these exercises of the soul that the marrow of godliness consists. Repentance produces a change, not only in the mind inwardly, but also in the actions outwardly. There is both a confessing and a forsaking of sin; there is a turning from it unto God. As in faith, the understanding assents, the will consents, and the actions conform; so in repentance, there is pungent grief for sin as committed against God, there is profound hatred to it, and there is an honest effort after new obedience. This is the only way that leads to the doing of the first works. We need not look for a reformation of religion in our land that is worth speaking of without repentance. As individuals, as families, as churches, and as a nation, we need to be saturated with the tears of repentance that we may do the first works.

(3) Hence the third exhortation is, “Do the first works.” The first works were those wrought by the church of Ephesus when she experienced the fervour of her first love. First love and first works go together. The one is inseparably connected with the

other. They stand together and they fall together. The one does not exist without the other. If the first works cease to be performed, it is an evidence that the first love is forsaken. Night is not a surer evidence that the sun has set, than ceasing to do the first works is an evidence that the first love has been left. If once they cease to be done, they cannot be got at again without a process being gone through involving much sorrow and pain. They cannot be got at again except by means of repentance. Repentance is essential to doing the first works. The one is the stepping-stone to the other. And if the first works are done, there can be no doubt about the sincerity of the repentance. Thus the first works indicate a return to God by repentance. They indicate a revival of the exercises of faith and love. They indicate a revival of the fruits of the Spirit, which spring forth after the soul has been moistened with the tears of repentance. They evidence, on the part of the penitent, a holy jealousy for the honour of the name of God. They evidence godly zeal for the observance of all His commandments. The fact of experiencing anew the pardoning mercy of God through Christ in the healing of backslidings—though it be accompanied with a sense of self-loathing—stirs up to more and more earnestness in the work of the Lord. There is a feeling of being under greater obligations than ever to the Lord to faithfully serve Him and to do what He commands. This is the effect that the healing of backslidings invariably has. While there is a profounder sense than ever of the dependence upon the Lord for upholding and sustaining grace, there is a holy resolution to act in conformity with His will. It was thus Peter acted. He was never more earnest in advancing the cause of Christ than after his recovery by repentance and his tasting anew the Lord’s forgiving mercy. He so set himself to the duty of doing the first works, that he loved not his life to the death; and at the appointed time he sealed his testimony for Christ and His truth by his blood. In like manner there was a remarkable coming back to the Lord by repentance in the days of Josiah. The reformation that was effected under him was a striking illustration of the call to do the first works being given effect to. The altars and the groves were broken down, the graven images were beaten into powder, and all the idols throughout all the land of Israel were demolished. Besides, a covenant was entered into before the Lord by the king and by “all that were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin,” to the effect that they would walk after the Lord, and keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all their heart and with all their soul. Thus a return to purity of doctrine, of worship, and of practice usually takes place when the first works are done. There is no indication yet that the churches and people of this land entertain any thought about the necessity of doing the first works. But whenever they be done, the divine authority and absolute inerrancy of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments will be acknowledged; the churches will be

purged of their idolatrous worship; the example of Christ and His Apostles will be followed; and there will be a ready response to the call, “Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.”

Further, performance of the first works is accompanied with fervent love to those who are believed to be members of the household of faith. Love to the brethren was a distinct feature in the character of those to whom Peter addressed his epistle, and, notwithstanding, he pleads with them to continue in the fervent exercise of it: “See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.” Evidence of the abounding of this love in the members of the Church of the Thessalonians was a reason for which the Apostle Paul always felt bound to thank God for them. “Because that the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” Love of pity, entertained for those who, by their fruits, show that they are still hopeless and Christless, is also an accompaniment of the fulfilment of this duty, as well as a spirit of watchfulness, prayerfulness, and faithfulness. The Lord thus requires self-examination, repentance, and obedience. The exhortations are given in such order as that, if effect be given to what is required in the one, it naturally leads to what is required in the other.

III.—The threatening: “Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”—The threatening is couched in terms that are fitted to excite fear and terror. It shows the tremendous issues that depend upon a course of impenitence and disobedience. Parents naturally feel more pungent grief, if anything of a scandalous nature be done by any of their children, than if the same deed were committed by one, to whom they are not related by natural ties. So it is with the Lord. He feels the dishonour cast upon His glorious name by the sins of the world; but He feels with peculiar keenness the dishonour done to Him by the sins of the Church. This fact is brought out in the terrible character of the threatening, to which He declares that He will give effect, in the absence of repentance. The threatening is two-fold.

1. “I will come unto thee quickly.” The words express the idea of His coming unexpectedly. The idea is similar to that frequently expressed in connection with the second coming of Christ. When He at last comes to judgment, He will come suddenly—at a time when an expectation of His coming will be confined to very few, because of the spiritual torpor that will almost universally characterise the inhabitants of the earth. It is in like manner that He threatens to come unto the Church of Ephesus, and in a manner that she did not look for, if she persisted in disregarding the voice of the Lord entreating her to consider her ways, to repent, and to do the first works.

The threatening is not without significance in its application to our own day. The Lord is daily coming suddenly, in a

providential way, when He summons both young and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned to appear, as disembodied spirits, before His divine tribunal. This manner of His coming is intended as a solemn warning to all, but particularly to those who live in forgetfulness of their ways, and in impenitence for the evil of their doings. Among those whom He calls away are “the light of the world,” and “the salt of the earth.” They are instrumental in keeping the light of the gospel burning in the world, and, as the salt of the earth, in preserving it from putrefaction. When the Lord thus comes to the Church—and as He is not, apparently, healing the breaches that are made—the Church may well enquire, “What significance has these visitations for her?” Do they not loudly call to her to remember, and to repent, and to do the first works? But He comes in a special manner when He summons home those who faithfully laboured in word and doctrine. Gifted and powerful preachers of a pure gospel flourished in our land within the last fifty years. The Lord has come quickly, and called them away, one after another, from us. They are succeeded generally by those who, apparently, take more delight in treating their people to matters of a fabulous nature than to the great things of the law of God. The fruit is plain. The people generally have itching ears. They turn away their ears from the truth unto fables, and they heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts. The spirit of discernment is largely gone. Truth is rejected; error is accepted. The precious is not distinguished from the vile, nor the vile from the precious. Teachers and taught alike are become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart is hardened. They do not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved. They are, therefore, given up to strong delusions, so that they readily grasp at lies. All these things are forerunners of the certainty that the more terrible threatening that follows will be carried out.

2.—”I will remove thy candlestick out of his place.” The candlestick is a figure expressive of the Church. It is thus explained in the closing words of the previous chapter. “The seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the seven churches.” There was a candlestick in the Mosaic sanctuary. It consisted of a talent of hammered gold, beaten out into seven branches. Whatever else it might have meant, it was undoubtedly a representation of the Church. There is a certain fitness between a candlestick and the candle that is meant to be fixed in it. A burning candle is for the purpose of giving light; a candlestick is intended to diffuse, as from a centre, the light of the candle. “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” Not only does the Lord threaten, in the absence of repentance, to remove the candle of the word of truth and the ordinances of the gospel, but also the Church itself that was planted in Ephesus for the purpose of administering them. If the

candlestick be removed, all else will be removed along with it. He does not threaten to destroy the candlestick, but only to remove it; for though it be not where it once was, it will surely be somewhere else. The Church of Ephesus long since ceased to be, like the Jewish Church before it; but the Church of Christ will not cease to be in the world as long as the world lasts. If the candlestick, with all the privileges connected with it, be removed from one place, it will be sent to another place. Because the Church of Ephesus left her first love, and did not consider the sinfulness of her practice, nor repented, the Lord ultimately gave effect to the grave threatening pronounced. She ceased to exist as a church. A once highly favoured people were deprived of the highest and most precious privileges. They readily came under the influence of the teaching of the false prophet. For many centuries they are sunk in Islamitic darkness, from which they will not emerge until the light that they despised will again shine upon them.

The case of the Church of Ephesus is fitted to serve as a warning to other churches to the end of time. It ought to serve as a beacon to watch against deviating in any degree from the standard of divine truth. It shows that a church may have much that is worthy of commendation, and yet her defections, in some respects may be so serious, in the view of the Lord, as that she may be threatened with the severest visitations. It further shows that impenitence in a course of defection is sure to be followed by a heavy blow of the Lord’s hand. He who walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks holds in His hand, as King of kings and Lord of lords, the reins of universal government. As King anointed over Zion, He has absolute control over the affairs of the Church. In the exercise of His unlimited sovereignty, He can dispose of nations and churches as He pleases. He was often provoked to remove the candlestick from a people who persisted in despising the privileges of the gospel. He seems to be setting it up at present in parts of the world where hitherto the gospel was never heard of. We deeply grieve Him in this land; and have we not reason to dread that He is threatening to remove the candlestick from us? Let us earnestly seek that we may never cease to do the first works; let us honestly aim at ever holding fast the form of sound words in faith and love which is Christ Jesus. Amen.

Memorials of David Steven.—We are taking the liberty of directing the attention of our readers to the Memorials of David Steven, Bower, Caithness, by the late Rev. Alexander Auld. These Memorials may now be had for sixpence at the Northern Ensign Office, Wick. To our readers in the far north, we need not commend this worthy man, but to many others, the book will reveal a beautiful type of sterling Christian character. An extra two-pence for postage would thus bring to the home a book worth having.