I T has been a usual thing in the Church of God, when either a Church or nation was threatened with calamities that a Fast should be called. At the present time the unrest that is in this kingdom is fitted to awaken alarm in the minds of all thoughtful and serious people. On the one hand the tension between the interests of labour and capital is so great that we seem at times as if on the verge of revolution. On the other hand, the determination of the Government to grant Home Rule to Ireland is in danger of having in its train the disruption of the Empire or the oppression of Protestantism in Ireland. “Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it?”
These threatened and threatening calamities have not in the just providence of God overtaken us without a reason. Some of these reasons are very evident. To begin with, ever since the commencement of the Tractarian movement in England some 80 years ago, a process has been going on within the Protestant Churches of this land in the sense of reverting to the idolatry which before the Reformation held almost all Europe in its grasp. Secondly, as if the Lord were not sufficiently provoked through this our idolatrous backsliding, large sections of the professed Christian ministers of this land giving heed to infidels have turned to tear and mock God’s infallible word. And, over and above the superstition and infidelity mentioned, we are chargeable, as a people, with greatly depreciating the Gospel of the Grace of God and the privileges connected therewith, so that but few are found in the exercise of repentance towards God, and of faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. The Presbyteries of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, conjointly taking these premises into consideration, resolve to call a Fast, so as to make acknowledgment of our own and our nation’s sins, and to implore God’s mercy upon
our land. And although of course we claim no jurisdiction over other denominations, we cannot help calling upon the whole nation to join with us in this Fast. In order that this might be done in union, the said several Presbyteries appoint Thursday, the 12th September, for this end.
(Signed) D. MACFARLANE,
Moderator of the Northern Presbytery.
( ) MURDO MORRISON,
Moderator of the Western Presbytery.
( ) NEIL CAMERON,
Moderator of the Southern Presbytery.