EXTRACT FROM LECTURE BY LATE REV. JOHN KENNEDY, D.D.,
DINGWALL. *
THE estimate formed of the state of religion in the present day will, of course, entirely depend on the views we form of what true religion is, and on the standpoint we occupy when we examine the religious aspect of society. If we think of religion as embodied in the men who profess it, if we judge of it entirely by the attainments in knowledge and experience of its living representatives, our estimate of its present state must not, we fear, be a very favourable one. As compared with the divines of other days, what dwarfs are those who represent the theological attainments of the present! The objective religion of our times is not the bright and massive thing we find in the prelections of the theologians of days gone by. A little gospel doctrine is now-a-days made to go a great way. It is used only as a scanty seasoning instead of being the staple of the fare. The subjective religion of our times, too, is a very vague and superficial thing indeed as compared with the recorded experience of Christians in former days. If I decide in favour of the religion that requires for its sustenance the whole system of truth and the whole record which contains it, that gives to communion with God and to preparation for heaven a paramount place in the aspirations it produces, and that stands prominently apart from the ways of the world, I cannot withhold my concessions from the claims of the past.
But though true religion is essentially the same in every age and country, and although the fruits it produces must always be according to the Word of God, there may at different times be a varying development of its peculiar features. We must not forget, too, that the Lord makes the mode of His dealing with individuals subservient to the claims of His cause in the age in which they live. In no past generation had the time come for a world-wide diffusion of the gospel. Christians then found a narrower sphere for their service. Not but aspirations for the world’s regeneration stirred the hearts of these men of might, but it moved them to closer wrestling with God, rather than to active dealing with men. It was thus their personal godliness acquired such depth and intensity as may well bring us to shame in our days of perfunctory communings with our hearts and with God. The time to answer their prayers for the world, in the diffusion of the gospel, had not yet arrived, and meantime they themselves reaped the advantage in their own increased spirituality. Let us not be too ready to charge on the Christians of other days the lack of a missionary spirit. When the Lord actually called them to go forth, they were ready to forsake all and to follow Him. But His time had not then come. They could be missionaries only in spirit, as their hearts in prayer went over the benighted nations of the earth, and cried to God in their behalf.
- Delivered between thirty and forty years ago, and taken from the Rev. A. Auld’s “Life of Dr. Kennedy.”
Activity and diffusiveness are the distinguishing features of the Christianity of modern times. If these were connected with the massive theology and the deep and devout godliness of other days, we would have a reproduction of apostolic Christianity. But let not the want of these make us blind to the benefit of what we have. It is well to remember wherein we are lacking, but let us at the same time be grateful for that whereunto we have attained. Let us be so even though it may be said that, in these times of loose and scanty theology and of very superficial experience, it is easy to pass off as good before men a religion that will prove vain for eternity. Yea, let us be so even when, because of how much more fashionable it is to be religious after a sort than in days of testing persecution, the difference between Christianity and unholiness becomes less manifest, the outlines of the former being less distinctly defined, and therefore its fair form less clearly exhibited. But if the stream be shallower, it is wider than before. If we have lost in devoutness, we have gained in diffusiveness. In distant and barbarous regions, that seemed then outcast from the fellowship of the civilised world, and from the favour of the Great Creator, the silver trumpet of the gospel now proclaims “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to men.” God blessing it, the gospel has proved its power to triumph over the hoary superstitions of the East, and over the barbarous habits of savage tribes scattered over the many isles of the South. Into almost all languages has the Word of God been translated, and every opening in all lands has been taken advantage of in order to diffuse it. Bright spots now appear on every explored portion of the earth which the Word of God has reached and where the grace of God has begun its saving work. No Christian can refrain from rejoicing in this, and from rendering a tribute of praise to Him who has thus distinguished the times in which we live. And if we look to the Home field we find a most consistent scheme in operation there. All classes, down to the very lowest, are objects of Christian regard, and are being reached by the light and the appliances of the gospel. It was an old taunt flung in the face of those who pled for foreign missions, that they neglected the heathen at home; and the sneering counsel was often given, “Evangelise the masses at home, and when you have done so it will then be time enough to seek out the lost in other climes.” That truly ought to be done; but neither ought the other to be left undone. But now, at least, both the Home and Foreign Missions are in operation, and instead of being conflicting schemes, they prove mutually helpful. The more we succeed at home, the Lord blessing our labour, the more disposed will we be to help those who are perishing abroad; and the more we sow the seed in other lands, the more shall we find it to be true that “there is that scattereth and yet increaseth.”
While standing on the elevation of the age we live in, we cannot refrain from casting a glance on the course of time and the revolutions of Providence in the past. How solemnising is the retrospect! How perplexing at first sight is the general aspect of the past! How countless are the calamities that are borne along on the wave of advancing time! How many individuals, communities, cities, and nations have been crushed under the great wheel of Providence as it moved onwards to where we stand! To the mind of one who has not learned to trace all misery to sin, and who looks not to those things which are unseen and eternal, the scene before him in the past is utterly inexplicable. “Why,” he asks, “should this earth be a vale of tears? Why are individuals and communities both compelled to feel that beneath the sun there is nothing satisfying and nothing sure?” If he acknowledges a Supreme Lord, ruling over all beings and over all ages, how perplexing must be his thoughts of His character! I cannot wonder that he likes not to dwell on the aspect which, as seen through the fumes of the world’s sorrows, the character of God presents to him; that he should try to relieve his mind of the apprehensions it produces; and that he should endeavour, therefore, to find a counterpoise to the world’s griefs and troubles in the joys and benefits with which they are commingled. How often has one who has found this seeming counterpoise confined to it all his attention! Having seen the world’s smile, he refuses to see aught else. Having heard the world’s laugh, he refuses to listen to its wailings. Transforming in his own imagination this world into a paradise, and fancying a God all mercy as its Creator and its King, he rids himself of the terror that came on him from above, and of the uneasiness which he felt as he surveyed the howling wilderness around him. ‘Tis thus he finds it easy to rest in present enjoyment, dreaming of future happiness.
But not thus should we contemplate and be affected by the course of Providence in the past. It is not like the uncertain revolutions of a wheel to which a strong hand has given an impetus to propel it, but which no wise and mighty hand continues to direct. There were “living creatures” connected with the wheels seen by Ezekiel in the vision by which the mystery of Providence was unfolded to his mind. “When the living creatures went, the wheels went by them,” and “whither the Spirit was to go, these living creatures went.” Thus are we taught that all the movements of Providence are minutely and efficiently regulated by the wisdom, power, and faithfulness of God. And if we remember how full of sin the world is, and how full of bliss and purity is the home in heaven awaiting the ransomed of the Lord, and how thorough the retribution reserved for the wicked; then, consistent with all His character, and consistent to His word are all the doings of God in His providence, even though the scene of His operations be found by all, because all have sinned, to be a vale of tears, though many on this earth are the afflictions of the righteous, and though the wicked are generally found at the summit of the world’s prosperity.
It should indeed be felt by us intolerable to stand between the troubled past and the dark future, on the ever-shifting line of the present, without faith in the God of providence as the God who doeth all things well; without the power to lean on Him as “the God of all grace,” as we ourselves advance in our own faith into the future, and without committing to His care as God and Father the interests of His cause and people.
The events of the future we can scarcely refrain from attempting to forecast, but how little can we correctly anticipate even with all the directions afforded by the antecedents of God’s dealings in the past, and by the declarations of prophecy in His Word! What may be immediately before us in the generation next to come who can tell? On the rapid progress of our country and our age a rude arrest may very soon be made. The nations of the world have not outgrown the folly that led them at a younger age to lay waste their territories by the ravages of war. How very lately were we almost at war with the very people who, our kinsmen by blood and our compeers in intelligence, are twice our brethren by religion! How soon again may wars arise to afflict or rumours to disturb us! But “the Lord reigneth, and let the earth be glad.” Let the earth indeed be glad, for its best days are coming. A whole millennium of glory, peace, and righteousness awaits it in the future. Yes, that blessed time shall come. He who cannot lie has promised that it shall. Gospel light shall then have chased away the darkness which now benights so many portions of the earth. The old systems of error shall be swept aside from before the progress of Heaven’s own truth. Righteousness shall then flow as a river, and vice in all its forms shall be carried down before it. The beauty of holiness shall then adorn the masses, and not, as now, be but the ornament of a chosen few. Love shall attain the paramount sway, and vexing quarrels shall no longer set men against their fellows. Nations shall then become members of one great human family, and shall study war no more. The earth shall resound with hallelujahs of praise to God, and crowds shall in light and gladness be passing from it to the mansions of glory above.
A new will can only come from a new nature.—Late Rev. William White.