THE following is the Message, drawn up by Revs. Neil Cameron and J. S. Sinclair, at the Synod’s instructions, and sent to Soldiers and Sailors in connection with the Church:—
Dear Soldiers and Sailors,—We have been asked by the Synod to send you, in its name, a message of affectionate goodwill and sympathy in connection with your present arduous and dangerous tasks.
We desire, at the outset, to assure you (if assurance, indeed, be needed) that all classes of men in connection with the Army and Navy, at home and abroad, are being constantly remembered by ministers and others in the prayers and other exercises of the sanctuary, with special mention of you who belong to our own Church. We need hardly say that, in addition to this, private prayer is continually ascending day and night from the family altar and the closet on your behalf. We believe that many favourable answers have already been given by the Lord to these supplications, and trust that many more will yet be given ere the War is at an end.
Allow us next to state, dear friends, that we entertain the deepest sympathy for you in the difficult and trying experiences through
which you are passing, fraught as these are, to many of you, with imminent danger to your lives. We admire the general courage and cheerfulness which characterise you in frequently overwhelming circumstances. Believing, as we do, that you are engaged in a conflict on behalf of truth, righteousness, and peace, as against falsehood, despotism, and militarism, we earnestly pray that, by God’s blessing and help, your efforts may be crowned with eminent and speedy success.
It is, further, our earnest prayer that all those who truly fear God among you may be “strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man,” not only to acquit themselves valiantly as servants of King and Country, but also as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, setting a good and godly example before their comrades. We deplore the loss of not a few such excellent men in Army and Navy since the War began. Need we say, still further, that we are deeply and constantly concerned about the spiritual and eternal interests of those of you who are still without Christ? You are bound to know, dear friends, from your religious training, that the dangers, to which your souls are exposed, are infinitely greater than those bodily dangers which are so vividly before your eyes. We entreat you, therefore, not to neglect your Bibles, but to read them as often as you possibly can, and to pray that the Holy Ghost may open your hearts to receive the truth concerning sin and salvation. Keep always before your minds, as you have been taught at home, the necessity of the new birth and living faith in Jesus Christ in order to the possession of eternal life, and believe not those who teach any other doctrine. Remembering that sin is the original cause of all miseries in time and eternity, seek to “eschew all appearance of evil,” and all fellowship with transgressors of God’s law in their sins, and earnestly pray that you may be enabled to walk in the fear of God, which is “a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.” May the Most High bless you with His light and His salvation!
In conclusion, we express our heartfelt wish that, if it be the Lord’s gracious will, you should be all preserved and brought back in safety and comfort to your friends and homes, and that, if He has ordered otherwise with respect to some of you, He may prepare you, in His abundant mercy, for the solemn emergencies of death and eternity!
And now, dear Soldiers and Sailors, “we commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” Fare ye well.
Signed on behalf of the
Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
(REV.) NEIL CAMERON.
( ” ) JAMES S. SINCLAIR.
August, 1918.