THE Committee of Synod has sent the following letter of sympathy to the Protestants of Ireland, through the Moderator, of the Irish Presbyterian Church. We append the reply received by the Synod Clerk from the Rev. James Bingham, D.D., the present Moderator:—
“TO THE PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND.
DEAR BRETHREN,—We, the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, desire to express our deepest sympathies with you in the present painful crisis in your history. We are sincerely convinced that you are standing at this moment for the maintenance of the safeguards of your civil and religious liberties—the heritage bequeathed by noble ancestors, and we earnestly pray that, by God’s blessing, your steadfastness of attitude in the good cause for which you contend may be crowned with abiding success. As Presbyterians who perceive that Popery is a menace to all that is best in the civil and religious condition of the Empire, we greatly dread its ascendency among us, and feel entirely convinced that a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland, with a Nationalist priest-ridden majority, will prove a curse and not a blessing to the whole country. It is our earnest desire that the present Home Rule scheme may yet be so modified as to leave you in the permanent enjoyment of your rights and liberties under the Imperial Government. May the King of kings, in His great mercy, avert the dread prospect of civil war and bloodshed, and grant to Ireland and the United Kingdom a lengthened period of solid peace and spiritual prosperity! Commanding you to God, whose displeasure we have all provoked by our sins, but whose clemency in Christ we entreat on our own and your behalf, we bid you God-speed in ‘every good word and work.’ Fare you well.
In the name of the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
(Signed) ANDREW SUTHERLAND, Moderator.
( ) JAMES S. SINCLAIR, Clerk.”
REPLY FROM MODERATOR OF IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
“THE MANSE, DUNDONALD, BELFAST, 30th July, 1914.
MY DEAR SIR,—I am in receipt of your letter, with the enclosed letter of sympathy with the Protestants of Ireland, from the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
I am sending both communications to the press, and I feel sure that when they appear the action of the Synod, at this crisis of almost unparalleled gravity in the history of our country, will be highly appreciated, not only by the members of the Presbyterian Church but by all the Protestants of Ireland.
With much gratitude and respect, believe me, faithfully yours, J. BINGHAM.
Rev. J. S. SINCLAIR, Synod Clerk.”