A CORRESPONDENT has sent us the following letter which he forwarded to the Editor of the Free Church Record, but which he got returned with the query, “Are you a Member or Adherent of the Free Church?” As the letter is a good one, and brings out, in a plain and pithy manner, certain points of importance in connection with the case of the Free Church and Professor W. M. Alexander, we give it a place in our columns:—
REVIVALS.
SIR,—Perhaps you will allow me to make a few remarks in regard to the letter with above title which appeared in your last issue. The writer classes Dr. Alexander with Paul and Baxter. I happened to read quite recently Dr. Alexander’s famous book Demonic Possession, and fail to see what claim such an author as the author of that book can possibly have to be placed in the same category with Paul and Baxter. It may be said that I am reviving an old controversy, and that I am behind the times, when I refer to Dr. Alexander and his higher critical views! Well, I am a constant reader of the Record, and I notice that the Free Church has conferred the highest possible honours on Dr. Alexander, and not only so, but lauded his praises over and over again; and now we hear Alexander, Baxter, and Paul named in the same breath. To be candid, I may say that, to me at least, such effusions in regard to Dr. Alexander’s greatness seem to be a bit dubious. We all know that a guilty person who seeks to minimise his faults endeavours, whether to himself or to his fellows, to extol certain things in connection with his wrong-doing. This it seems to me is what the Free Church is doing in thus seeking to extol Dr. Alexander. All who have taken an interest in Church matters for some years past, know that the Free Church has not done its duty to the cause of truth in the way Dr. Alexander was dealt with. And now, instead of confessing their sins, and repenting of them, Free Churchmen seek to hide their sins, and the sins of the Church. Such procedure is not likely to hasten a revival. When Dr. Alexander was dealt with by the Free Church, he acted in regard to his book in exactly the same manner in which the Free Church is now acting in connection with her sin in neglecting to deal with him as she ought to have done. He minimised the unscriptural views advocated in his book, and withdrew his book, not because of its errors, but because it was making a disturbance in the Church—and by the bye, it seems that booksellers did not know till the beginning of last September that Dr. Alexander had withdrawn his book from circulation. The Free Church has from the beginning of this case sought to excuse Dr. Alexander—the majority of her ministers knowing at the same time that Demonic Possession was a higher critic’s production—and they have continued to minimise and cover their unfaithfulness for the past number of years. Like Saul of old they may say, “Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord,” yet “this bleating of the sheep, and lowing of the oxen” cannot be overlooked or silenced, except by honest confession and true repentance. I have often heard the remark made, “You should hear Dr. Alexander preach and speak.” I may say that I read one article from his able pen which I liked very well, but I would have liked it better if Demonic Possession had never been written or had its author given conclusive evidence before the world of his conversion from higher criticism. I may say, however, that I have read articles from the pen of other higher critics which no man on earth could find fault with as to soundness of doctrine. So that this is not a proof of what a man really is. But I am afraid my letter is too long already, and so I close, expressing the hope that the Free Church will cease to act in a self-justifying spirit, when her actions demand quite different conduct.—I am, etc.,
A. M.
Southern Presbytery.—This Court has appointed as a Thanksgiving Day for the Harvest, Wednesday, 22nd November, in the Glasgow congregations, and any other suitable week-day in the same week in the rest of its congregations.