THE Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church met at St. Jude’s Church Hall, Glasgow, on Tuesday evening, the 20th May. Rev. Murdo Morrison, Lochinver, retiring Moderator, conducted public worship, and preached from 1 Cor. iii. 11. Rev. D. M. Macdonald, North Uist, was appointed Moderator for the ensuing year. The Synod held two sederunts on the following day. Reports of Committees appointed by last Synod were given in, and the usual Church Committees for the year were appointed. Rev. Neil Cameron moved the adoption of the Annual Financial Statement, drawn up by the General Treasurer at Inverness, which showed that the various funds of the Church were in a satisfactory condition. A further supplementary addition was made to the salaries of ministers and missionaries. Rev. D. Beaton submitted the Theological Report and Canadian Mission Reports. It was indicated that several young men were coming forward to study for the ministry, and that arrangements were made for a deputy (Rev. James Macleod) to go to Western Canada at an early date, who would also conduct the services at Winnipeg during the winter. The usual Loyal Address to the King was adopted.
The Foreign Mission Report was also submitted, and a petition with regard to supply from Free Presbyterians in Australia, adhering to the Synod. Rev. E. Macqueen moved the adoption of the Foreign Mission Report, which contained several interesting items of a spiritual kind. The Clerk was instructed to communicate with Principal Henderson, Lovedale, South Africa, relative to the translation and publication of the metrical Psalms in Kafir. It was announced that an anonymous donor had sent a second instalment of £100 for work among the Jews. Rev. Neil Cameron moved a resolution expressing gratitude to God for the cessation of the War, pointing out the moral causes of the terrible conflict, and tendering sympathy to the bereaved. It was agreed, on the motion of the Rev. Alexander Mackay, that a protest be sent to the Secretary for War and the Graves Commission against the erection of Popish Crosses and Memorials and Shrines in commemoration of the dead soldiers. It was agreed that, as last year, a donation of £20 be sent to the Trinitarian Bible Society for the circulation of the Scriptures among the Jews. The Synod adjourned, to meet again (D.V.) in Inverness on Tuesday after the third Sabbath of May, 1920. A full report in next issue.
Communion Table Addresses.
BY THE LATE REV. PROFESSOR JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D.,
EDINBURGH.
(Hitherto Unpublished.)
TABLE SERVICE No. V.*
- This Table Service was delivered at Free St. Luke’s, Edinburgh (Rev. Dr. Moody Stuart’s), on Communion Sabbath, 12th July, 1868.—ED.
(Address before Distribution of Elements.)
COMMUNICANTS, I must take it for granted that, as you are in duty bound to examine yourselves before sitting down at this table, you have been examining yourselves of your knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of your faith to feed upon Him, of your repentance, love, and new obedience. It is very solemn work this, for a man to sit in judgment on himself about such great matters as these: about knowledge to discern the Lord’s body—and oh, the distinction between the Lord’s body and common bread and wine—about faith to feed upon it; about repentance, genuine repentance flowing from faith in the crucified Saviour, looking on Him and mourning, and being in bitterness; about love to embrace Him in all His loveliness, and to give the whole soul over, loving Him; and about new obedience, as the evidence of unfeigned faith, faith that works by love.
And the result may have been very different in different persons. In none, I believe, can the result of an examination, too important to be entered upon and conducted without earnest imploration of that Spirit who reveals and discovers, have been otherwise than humbling. While different in different individuals, in none really led by the Spirit of God can the results have been otherwise than very humbling. Still, some in the main may have been enabled to see these graces in them, and in some good and abundant degree as evidences of God’s grace, and of God’s having dealt bountifully with them. To these I do not mean at present to speak; it becomes them to be thankful.
But others, examining themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, the result may have been this, that they have very little knowledge of the Lord’s body and of the peculiar nature of the sacramental relation between the Lord’s body and blood and this bread and wine. Then, examining themselves of their faith to feed upon Him, the result may have been that they see much more of Christ’s worthiness to be trusted than of their trust in Him. They feel poverty of trust, while yet the most perfect satisfaction of soul that their souls, if they were ten thousand souls, might, on the warrant of the Gospel, be well committed to Him, and if committed to Him, would be safe in His hands. Then, examining themselves of their repentance, the result may have been this, a discovery of the greatness of their impenitence, of the hardness of their hearts, making precious that name of Christ “exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance.” There is this sweet name, “Exalted . . . to give repentance,” which they would have and can get from none but Him. Then, examining themselves of their love, the result as to their own love to Christ may have been only (shall I say only?) a discovery of how exceedingly lovely and loving He is, making them even doubt if they have a spark of that love, which could be called the reciprocity of His love, yet giving such a feeling of the want of love as is founded on the glorious Saviour’s worthiness, and as endears the promise, “The Lord thy God shall circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God.” And as for their new obedience they may have found that, however Christian friends and neighbours may comfort them about it, they cannot be comfortable. Oh, beware of flatterers; beware of the flatteries of Christians, who at best will regard it unwisely. Look at your new obedience; how scanty it has been, how little worth! Well, a humbling sense of this leads to a high appreciation of the promise, “I will cause them to walk in My ways.” Now such are worthy communicants. I do not say that the happier and more comfortable are unworthy communicants; far from it. But, concerning such as I have described, I venture in the Lord’s name to say that they are worthy, accepted communicants. “Blessed are the poor in spirit;” “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness;” “He will regard the prayer of the destitute.”
But now let us speak of the Master of this feast, and of the feast which He has prepared for us, of which He is both the Entertainer and the Viands.
In that wonderful Fifty-third of Isaiah, that precious representation and anticipation of the evangelical history, we read, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. . . . It pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when his soul shall make a sin, a trespass offering (I quote from the Hebrew), he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. . . . By the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant, my engaging one, justify many: for he shall bear their iniquities.” Here then, in this wonderful chapter, so often quoted in the New Testament—in this rich Old Testament gospel, this Old Testament anticipation of gospel times—two words are ever repeated, the prophet comes over them again and again, each being in his mind so expressive. They are He, He, He, and We, we, we. First, then, the prophet gathers us into and upon a person, He, He, He. And who is He?
“In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. In Him was life.” This leads up to that mystery which is at the bottom of all, the eternal generation of the only-begotten Son of God. “We show unto you that eternal life,” not in Adam, made a living soul, but “That eternal life which was with the Father.” Not only the living One, but life. “With Thee (the Father) is the fountain of life.” The first thing then that we have to attend to about the “He” is that He is God’s eternal, only-begotten, well-beloved Son, of the same essence with the Father, equal in power and glory. Life to the lost, to the dead, could come from no other source than the eternal life itself. But, “As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;” that which distinguishes the true God from all that are called gods being the “having life in Himself.” Then the second thing is that “The Word was made flesh.” The eternal generation would not have profited us without the incarnation, though the incarnation would have profited us nothing, if He who became incarnate had not been the eternal, only-begotten Son of God. He would not in his incarnation have been life to us, if He had not been the everlasting life. To Adam, had he stood, He might have been life, the communicator of life, but to fallen beings, to the lost, to the dead, that suffices not, neither the eternal generation without the incarnation, nor the incarnation without the eternal generation. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” And so we come to the body. Thus said the eternal Son to the eternal Father, in the prospect of the incarnation, and to all the ends thereof, according to the covenant that He should make His soul an offering for sin, and therefore must have a human soul to offer: “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, a body hast thou prepared me.” The Son’s assumption is also recorded in the words, “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” And here was, as intimated to the Virgin, the highest work of the Holy Ghost: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
And that is the body which was broken for us, and this is the “He” who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. This is He. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Angels and archangels for ever prostrate themselves before Him, as the eternal, co-equal Son of the Father; but for us men He took this body. “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” If that had been all, He would have been just worshippable. Whatever might have been the ends of His being made of a woman, He would have lost nothing of the glory of His godhead by that; the angels would have worshipped Him. But He was “made under the law.” I speak not of the wisdom of God, which does not do anything without an end, but looking at the thing itself, He might have been made of a woman, without being made under the law. We know that God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but might He not have taken a body to condemn the world in? He came not into the world to judge the world, but might not the Judge of men have become man in order to come nigh them just to be their Judge? But “God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law,” not as an individual person, for then His obedience would have been due for Himself; not as an individual—He was not under Adam’s covenant—but as a substitute. For us sinners, enlightened in the knowledge of Him, inclined and enabled to believe on Him, for us He was made under the law. He came into our place, He took our whole place, and in our stead fulfilled all righteousness, and subjected Himself to penal endurance. What a stoop! “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
But, secondly, there is the “We”: but who are “We”? Who are we, set forth in this contrast and relation? The contrast is between Him, being the Holy One of God, and us sinners, transgressors, iniquitors; that is the contrast. And with the contrast, the relation, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Was ever the like heard of? Will ever the like be heard of again? It is the wonder of the universe. He is a unique person in His work, and His obedience unto death is a unique obedience; and He, in His Word, is the unique, glorious, unfathomable truth.
So Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us, and the passover is to be eaten with bitter herbs. The paschal lamb is sweet feeding, but it is to be eaten with bitter herbs. And He is sweet, but sin is bitter. Transgression is bitter, wounding is bitter, and bruising is bitter, and putting to grief is bitter. Sin is bitter, and the soul made an offering for sin is a bitter thing. Witness Gethsemane and Calvary, the holy and righteous One made sin for sinners, the blessed One made a curse to redeem the accursed. It is sweet to take the cup of salvation, but it has these bitter ingredients. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn, and shall be in bitterness.” And so for us poor sinners there is just this remedy for our sin, what Bunyan in his “Pilgrim’s Progress” (2nd Part) prescribes for Matthew when he has eaten the bitter fruit, “Sanguis Christi cum grano penitentiae” (“The blood of Christ with a grain of repentance”).
And so, seeking that He may give you along with them the faith and the repentance and the love and the new obedience, I put into your hands the symbols of His broken body and shed blood, that, while you with the mouth feed on these symbols, you may in your hearts, by faith, feed on the reality symbolised.
(Address after Distribution of Elements.)
He shunned it not; He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He felt the bitterness of it all—(witness Gethsemane and Calvary)—but He drank the bitter cup, my Lord and my God. We could not prepay such love, and we cannot repay such love. So the only sacrifice is a eucharistic one—thanksgiving. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?” “I will take the cup of salvation.” What shall I render to the Lord for one benefit? I will take another benefit.
Now, communicants, you are not your own; you are bought with a price. Ah! when you were your own masters and mistresses, miserable bond-slaves you were, to yourself, to Satan, to the world. But now, “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Your bodies are not your own; they are His, for “This is my body, which is broken for you.” Your spirits are not your own, but His, for “Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.”
Ye do not belong to this world. “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,” this present evil age. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,” that is, a singularized people, altogether distinct from and distinguished from the world. “That he might redeem us from all iniquity.” The pieces of the sacrifice, and God and Abraham between them! “And purify unto himself a peculiar people.” The refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap—(an allusion to the “action” sermon preached by Dr. Moody Stuart).
Be not conformed to the world in its sentiments, in its notions, in its views, in its pursuits. You do not belong to it; you are bought from it. You belong to your purchaser; you do not belong to sin. “Know ye not, that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?” “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” You are redeemed from the curse of the law, and so from the law as a covenant of works. Not from all obligation of its precepts; that cannot be. The original obligation of creatures is enhanced by the obligation of redeemed creatures. But you are redeemed from its precepts as regards its covenant of works obligation. The primary obligation of creatures cannot be dissolved; the obligation is enhanced by redeemed and new creature ones. But “Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Paul says that Christ is the husband of the Church. Now, legitimate children all are the united product of the husband and the wife. So all good works are the product of Christ, the husband, and of the espoused soul. “Married to another, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Let us, like the disciples, come to the marriage. Let us hear the woman of Samaria get her short lesson which saved her. Let us hear the thief on the cross get the few words which saved him. The things hid from the wise and prudent are revealed unto babes; nor can all the malice of wicked men prevent this.
A single word brings about this spiritual marriage, and from it proceeds a great deal. It grows much in spiritual meditation. “Of him my meditation shall sweet thoughts to me afford.” Plenty of bitter ones we shall have; but, if meditation affords us sweet thoughts, sweetness will enter our hearts, and make them sweet themselves, and from the communication of sweetness they will go out in sweetness. Meditate, meditate, meditate.
And what are we redeemed to? Unto God. “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God.” For Christ as Mediator is Mediator between God and men, and “God raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God,” in God the Father. In the life of faith, it is conjugal faith and love and obedience toward Christ, and filial faith and love and obedience toward God. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” And finally He will present them, before the presence of the Father’s glory, saying, “Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me!”
Meanwhile—meanwhile—it is the crucible and the tub. We have need of these. Let us not grumble at them. But in the crucible and the tub we have need of patience, that, after we have done and endured the will of God, we may inherit the promise. The Lord sanctify you in soul, body and spirit, and bring you at length to His heavenly kingdom.
Diary of the Rev. James Calder,
MINISTER OF CROY, INVERNESS-SHIRE. BORN, 1712; DIED, 1775.
Edited from the Original MSS., with Illustrative Notes,
BY THE LATE REV. WM. TAYLOR, M.A., STIRLING.
(Continued from page 18.)
“July 8th.—Long refreshing conference on spiritual subjects with E—h G—n, the first-fruits of Croy. This eminent saint still advancing in the upper and sweeter regions of Christianity.
“15th.—Blessed be the Lord, there is a goodly number preparing to renew their baptismal engagements this year for the first time, of whom I hope well; though of some of them, alas! I stand in doubt.
“September 15th.—Monster of ingratitude that I am! I loathe myself while I am cold to Thee, my God, my Jesus!
“October 25th.—Received a most joyful visit this day from J—t K—e, who has been long a prisoner of hope, and is now, through the Lord’s great mercy, loosed from all her bonds, loosed from the horrible pit and the miry clay, established on Christ the Rock of salvation, and a new song put into her mouth, even praises to redeeming love. Her spiritual distress has been deep and lasting, and now her outgate is proportionably great and glorious. Her views and sentiments of the ever-blessed God and the divine Redeemer, of all His perfections as they shine in Christ, and particularly of His amazing love, are surprisingly just and very glorious—which she expresses in a strain so sweet, so sacred and sublime, as fills my mind with wonder and joy, and proves clearly that she has received a rich portion of the heavenly unction promised in more or less to all His people. . . . For ever blessed be the Lord for this new and glorious seal of my ministry, this clear and remarkable instance of saving conversion. May the Lord keep His hand about this young and most hopeful convert, and spare her to be a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified in her and by her many years on earth! Amen! And may the same gracious God relieve and enlarge her hopeful brother and some others, who are yet under a spirit of bondage, in His good time and way! Amen! Amen!
“December 5th.—Blessed for ever be the Lord who has raised up a number of pious and faithful friends to me and my family in this parish and its neighbourhood, who feel for me in all my afflictions, as I do for them—among whom — is the foremost. There is something so Christ-like in this pious and excellent gentleman that he has won all my heart. O Lord Jesus, who beheld him standing as a doorkeeper in Thy house, and counting it his highest honour to be so employed, and beheld him from morn to eve serving with joy at the sacred table where Thy bleeding, dying love was remembered—while almost all the gentlemen of our unhappy country stood aloof; remember him, O Lord, who thus remembered Thee! and build him a sure, a blessed, and an honourable house, who thus honoured Thee and Thy house while others of his rank and station neglected their duty and their God. Amen! So let it be! Amen! So shall it be! I know Thee too well, O my God, to distrust Thee—for Thou art a faithful God, and Thou hast said, I will honour them that honour me.
“23rd.—Met with several of my most promising children in Christ, which made me happy.
“31st.—Glory for ever be to my adorable Lord and Master that my poor labours this year have not been altogether without success. Yea, this year and the immediately preceding one have been more remarkable than any former year of my ministry, not for the number of converts (for, alas! they seem to be very few in number), but for the depth, the solidity, and the lustre of the work, and for the clear and glorious outgates vouchsafed to some few—which gave me unspeakable joy. But, alas! that joy is exceedingly damped while I perceive such numbers of my poor flock still lying in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity—and, alas! I am not so much affected and concerned for their dismal and dangerous situation as I ought to be.
“While I am thanking and praising a gracious God for the blessings and mercies of the by-past year, I have the greatest reason to be humbled deeply before the Lord on account of my numberless failings, omissions, and shortcomings in duty every year of my life, and in this last year in particular—for all which I earnestly implore, and humbly hope for forgiveness for the sake of my adorable Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the ever-blessed Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, be all glory, and honour, and praise for ever and ever. Amen!”
The Diary volumes for the years 1770 and 1771, while breathing the same spirit with those of the previous years from which we have given extracts, present less variety. Mr. Calder’s health was now failing, and the excitement of the great revival in his parish and the neighbourhood was over. He was, moreover, called for a good while from home; among other reasons, to attend the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Edinburgh, to do the little he could, as he says, “in a cause which I know assuredly to be the cause of Christ, and on the success of which I know assuredly that the salvation of thousands, under Christ, in the present and future generations depends.” He makes interesting references to the ecclesiastical proceedings of that day, and to some religious characters; among others the eminent Lady Glenorchy, whom he visited at Taymouth Castle, and who seems to have been as much attracted by his piety as he by hers. But he feels himself nevertheless out of his element in the more bustling world, has less time for retirement with God, and complains that his soul is less prosperous. At the end of 1770, he records that while he has cause to hope that his flock “have been prospering in grace and advancing in holiness of late,” and though he “never had more sensible liberty in preaching the gospel than this year, yet very few have been awakened, as far as I can judge, in this place, and some who have formerly been awakened continue still under a spirit of bondage.” He makes a similar statement at the end of 1771, and says, “For this I have too good cause to fear that I am in a great measure to blame, as I have not been wrestling with the angel of the covenant and travailing as it were in birth, with all the ardour and agony of soul that the infinite importance of the case requires, till Christ should be formed in the souls of my poor people who are ready to perish. Yet,” he adds, “I find the Lord is dealing savingly with some few, who have not yet the courage and faith to make an open profession of His name; which, however, I believe they will do in a little time in the Lord’s strength.”
(To be continued.)
A Letter by the late Rev. D. Macdonald, Shieldaig.
THE following interesting letter by the late Rev. D. Macdonald, of revered memory, has been kindly sent us by Mr. A. Ross, missionary, Harris. Some friends there desire its publication. It was written by Mr. Macdonald shortly before his death, which took place on the 20th August, 1901:—
F. P. MANSE,
SHIELDAIG, 28th March, 1901.
MY DEAR SIR,—I have no doubt but you have been told that I am an invalid, and not able, on account of bodily weakness, to go much out of the house, or to preach. My elder, Mr. F. M., officiates for me. Still, I am getting slowly better, and, as the weather is getting warmer, my health may be restored to me. Jesus Christ is extraordinarily kind to me, liberal and attentive. His smiles and company make one very happy, and forgetful of reverses. How are my nephews at Hosta? Is H. showing you any kindness? I know he is warm-hearted. I am glad to hear he is attending on the means of grace. How is the blessed cause prospering? Do you feel that you are encouraged in your work, and that your enemies are disheartened? Remember me very kindly to Roderick Johnston, and to all the other friends of the cause. I am glad to hear that so many families have left the C—church and joined your church.
O, how loving Christ is to me in my sickness! How tender, affectionate, and liberal! How sweet His kisses are! He likes to entertain me with the kisses of His love. He does not like to leave me sorrowful with short visits. He allows beams of His holy face to dart into my heart, to set my whole heart in a ferment of love.
Write me on receipt, and let me know all the Uist news worth relating.—I remain, yours most sincerely, DONALD MACDONALD.
P.S.—Remember me to my nephews at Hosta.—D. M.