A PUBLIC MEETING in support of the sanctity of the Sabbath was held in the Burgh Hall, Dunoon, on Friday evening, the 29th August, Rev. James S. Sinclair, Glasgow, presiding. The meeting was organised by Mr. H. S. MacGillivray, who adheres to the Free Presbyterian Church, but was unsectarian in character.
After the first four verses of Psalm xlvi. were sung, the Rev. Ewen MacRury engaged in prayer.
Mr. MacGillivray then explained that he had approached the clergymen of Dunoon on the subject of the meeting, but he had received no expression of sympathy from any but two, namely, the Revs. E. MacRury of the Free Church, and J. C. Chalmers of the U.F. Church, neither of whom, however, could at the time promise to be present. He was thus under the necessity of asking the Rev. James S. Sinclair, Glasgow, to preside, who consented to do so. The Chairman, in the course of his remarks, commended the authorities of Dunoon for their past zeal in the matter of Sabbath observance, when they refused to allow the Sabbath pleasure steamer to touch their pier, and expressed regret that there should be so much necessity now for such a meeting. He reminded the audience that Christ had not abrogated the Fourth Commandment, that “the Sabbath was made for man”—for men universally—with a view to their highest good in rest and worship, whether they availed themselves of it or not, and that the Sabbath pleasure-seekers acted contrary to this principle in imposing unnecessary toil upon others to minister to their demands.
Mr. H. S. MacGillivray moved the first resolution, to the effect that this meeting asks the Town Council and Magistrates to show their loyalty to the Sabbath by refusing to grant the boat-hirers and others seven-day licences; and also calls upon the Magistrates, if they had not power to prevent such desecration, to take steps at once to secure such power. Rev. Duncan Mackenzie, Gairloch (then officiating at the Free Presbyterian services, Dunoon), seconded the adoption of the resolution in a vigorous and useful speech. The motion was carried. Mr. John MacLachlan, student, moved a second resolution: “That this meeting reaffirms the binding and unchangeable nature of the Christian Sabbath, and declares that the favour of the Most High cannot be enjoyed without loving obedience to the moral law, and that the meeting most respectfully impresses upon all the ministers and office-bearers of the Churches in the community to show stern loyalty to the Sabbath, and to enjoin upon their congregations its due observance, and also to engage in a vigorous and continuous crusade against all the various forms in which it is violated.” Mr. David Miller, in seconding the motion, spoke of the necessity of parents impressing upon their children the duty of observing the Lord’s Day. The motion was adopted.
Mr. Donald Macleod moved a third resolution: “That this meeting pledges itself to take all necessary steps to return to the Town Council only those men who promise to uphold the Fourth Commandment, and to maintain the sacredness of the Lord’s Day.” Speaking to his motion, Mr. Macleod said that the Sabbath desecration which had gone on in Dunoon for the last fifteen years was great, and that he desired publicly to protest against the Sabbath being made hideous by the sounds of motors and motor boats, as well as other noises, and by the opening of shops. It would be a step in the direction of getting these things stopped, if satisfactory men were returned to the Town Council. Mr. D. Collins, Hunter’s Quay, in seconding the resolution, said that he looked upon Dunoon as a much less desirable place than it was twenty years ago, and that he thought that the War had been a national punishment for national sins—Sabbath desecration among others. The resolution was carried.
Mr. P. Maclean, Sandbank, moved the fourth and last resolution: “That this meeting resolves to wire the First Lord of the Admiralty to prohibit the opening of war vessels at Dunoon to the public on Sabbaths.” Mr. MacGillivray seconded the motion, which was adopted.
There was a fair attendance at the meeting, consisting of very respectable people, representative of various denominations. Four men, apparently of the working class, appeared in opposition, and were allowed to voice their sentiments, but the mind of the majority was clearly against their views. By the friends of the Sabbath, the meeting, though comparatively small in numbers, was considered good and promising. May the Lord bless every lawful effort put forth for the maintenance of the sacred Day of Rest!
John Brown, of Haddington.*
BY THE REV. D. BEATON, WICK.
* “John Brown, of Haddington,” by Robert MacKenzie, M.A. Hodder & Stoughton. 1918. Price, 12/ net.
AT the end of last year there was issued from the Press a Life of the Rev. John Brown, Haddington, which will, in all probability, be reckoned in the years to come the standard biography of this noted minister and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. Among the great and good men who have occupied pulpits in Scotland, the name of John Brown will be held in everlasting memory as one of the righteous. His struggle with the hindering circumstances of poverty, his indomitable spirit in acquiring knowledge, his piety as a humble follower of the Lord Jesus, and his faithfulness and zeal as one of His ministers, all tend to give John Brown a place among the noted men of a land which has had its own goodly band. In a life so full of the evidence of God’s work of grace there are many lessons that may be gleaned for the edification of the Church of the living God.
John Brown was born in the year 1722, in the hamlet of Carpow, near Abernethy, by the river Tay, in Perthshire. His father was one of the weavers of the place, and was a self-taught man. He set an example of godliness in his home, and his precocious son was privileged from his earliest years to feed upon sound, though strong (for a boy of his years), religious meat in the shape of the books that his pious father had gathered together. In a brief sketch of his life, John Brown makes a reference to his early years: “The more I consider the dealings between God and my soul, I am the more amazed at His marvellous loving-kindness to me and my ingratitude and rebellion against Him. It was a mercy that I was born in a family which took care of my Christian instruction, and in which I had the example of God’s worship both evening and morning—which was the case of few families in that corner at that time. This was the more remarkable that my father, as I have heard, being born under Prelacy, got no instruction in reading, or next to none, but what he got from masters after he began to herd.” In the same sketch he makes reference to an incident in his life which throws some light on a custom evidently prevailing at that time on Communion occasions. At the dispensation of the Supper only communicants were permitted to be present within the church, while the non-communicants who had been present at the preaching outside did not enter the building during the dispensing of the bread and wine. This is how he refers to the incident:—”About the eighth year of my age I happened in the crowd to get into the church on the Sacrament Sabbath, when it was common for all but intended communicants to be excluded. The table or tables which I heard served before I was put out, were chiefly served upon Christ, and in a sweet and delightful manner. This captivated my young affections, and has made me since think that little ones should never be excluded from the church on such occasions. Though what they hear may not convert them, it may be of use to begin the allurement of their heart.”
It was only a few months he was privileged to attend school, but he made the most of his opportunities. “My parents’ circumstances,” he writes, “did not allow them to afford me any more but a very few quarters at school for reading, writing, and arithmetic, one month of which, without their allowance, I bestowed upon the Latin.” At this early age (between 8 and 10) he not only read but learned by heart the Westminster Assembly’s Larger Catechism, Vincent’s Catechism, and Flavel’s Catechism. So that he was well equipped in early youth as far as catechetical knowledge was concerned. The death of his father and mother cut short the eager scholar’s career at school, as the following pathetic sentence from the sketch of his life shows:—”My father dying about the eleventh year of my age and my mother soon after, I was left a poor orphan, who had almost nothing to depend on but the providence of God.” From this date began his struggle in life’s hard school, and right nobly did he conduct himself in the uphill path. He was attacked by fever no less than four times in succession, and his otherwise healthy constitution was seriously undermined by weakness. These afflictions and his reading of religious books turned his thoughts to higher things, and his own account of what he passed through is of considerable interest. “Meanwhile,” he writes, “in 1734, and especially in 1735, the Lord, by His word, read and preached, did not a little strive with and allure my soul. The reading of Alleine’s Alarm to the Unconverted, contributed not a little to awaken my conscience and move my affections. Some of his hints, made worse by my mind, however, occasioned my legal covenanting with God. I made much the same use of Guthrie’s Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ. Indeed, such was the bias of my heart under these convulsions, that I was willing to do anything but flee to Christ and His free grace alone for my salvation. In these times I had no small delight in reading religious books, the Bible, Rutherford’s Letters, and the like; and by means of these, particularly by means of Gouge’s Directions how to walk with God, was led into considerable circumspection in my practice. The sweet impressions made by sermons and books sometimes lasted days on end, and were sometimes carried to a remarkable degree. Under these I was much given to prayer, but concealed all my religious appearances to the uttermost of my power. Four fevers on end brought me so low within a few months after my mother’s death as made almost every onlooker lose all hopes of my recovery; only I remember a sister, the most simple and the most serious of all us children of the family, told me that, when she was praying for me, that word ‘I will satisfy him with long life, and show him my salvation’ was impressed on her mind, which, she said, made her mind perfectly easy with respect to my recovery. Apprehensions of eternity, though I scarce looked for immediate death in these troubles, also affected me. But the death of my parents, and my leaving a small religious family to go into a larger, in the station of a herd-boy, for two or three years, was attended with not a little practical apostasy from all my former attainments. Even secret prayer was not always regularly performed. But I foolishly pleased myself by making up the number one day which had been deficient in another. It was my mercy, too, that in all my services, I was cast into families, except perhaps one, where there were some appearances of the grace of God, besides useful neighbours.”
One of these families, to which he makes reference, was that of John Ogilvie, a pious farmer, between whom and his youthful herd boy there sprung up a beautiful intimacy and spiritual friendship. A contemporary of John Brown’s has left a fine description of the aged farmer and the youthful shepherd that is well worthy of reproduction. “Mr. Brown,” says this writer, “was born in poor circumstances. His infant life, through the death of near relatives, may be styled friendless, but as soon as he could do anything, Providence provided a friend for him in the neighbouring mountains to Abernethy in John Ogilvie, a shepherd, venerable for age, and eminent for piety. This worthy man, though intelligent and pious, was so destitute of education, as not to be able to read English. Knowing the narrow circumstances of your father’s [i.e., John Brown’s] family, his serious disposition, his love of learning, his wonderful capacity, he was induced to engage him in his service, to help him with his sheep, particularly to tend his lambs, but chiefly to read to him. They were not long companions till they became dear friends, and both of them found their connection mutually beneficial. To accommodate themselves they built a lodge on Colzie Hill, to which they repaired not only to screen themselves from the storm, but to read the Word of God, to pray, and to sing the praises of the Chief Shepherd. Thus ‘the wilderness and the solitary place was glad for them, and the desert rejoiced with joy and singing.’ The ruins of this lodge are well known, and from its sacred use obtained, and yet bears, the name of the Tabernacle. But, however, the pleasant period comes to an end; the farmer dispersed his flock, and the godly shepherds separated.”
There is something particularly arresting in the picture of the aged pilgrim and his youthful companion exercised in the momentous concerns of eternity as they withdraw from their occupation of herding sheep betimes to have communion with Him who is the Good Shepherd, and who leads His flock to green pastures and by still waters. John Brown, young in years, was travelling a rough road, and was in deadly concern about his soul’s salvation, though in after years, looking back on his efforts and his experiences, he concluded that there was not wanting an element of legality in his endeavours. He made a vow to pray six times a day, while he was herding, and three when he was not. “All movings of the affections,” he says, “I took for special enjoyings of God, and now thought myself sure of heaven, if I was not a hypocrite; to avoid which deceit I kept the whole of my religion as hid as I could, especially prayer. . . . In this way of doing I continued from that time till June, 1740, or else 1741, at least, if not till now; still putting my fashion of religion in Christ’s room, setting up formal prayers, etc., for my Saviour, yea, for my God.” His own account of his experiences during this eventful period cannot be better told than in his own words. “At length,” he writes, “after a multitude of ups and downs, glowings of affections, and sad coolings, I, after a sore fever in 1741, which somewhat awakened my concern about eternal salvation, was providentially determined, during the noontide, while the sheep which I herded rested themselves as in the fold, to go and hear a sermon, at the distance of two miles, running both to it and from it. The second or third sermon which I heard in this manner, and I had no other opportunity of hearing the greater part of the year, being preached on John vi. 64, ‘There are some of you that believe not,’ by one I both before and afterwards reckoned a most general preacher, pierced my conscience as if almost every sentence had been directed to none but me, and made me conclude myself one of the greatest unbelievers in the world. This sermon threw my soul into no small agony and concern, and made me look on all my former experiences as nothing but common operations of the Holy Spirit, and in this manner I viewed them for many years afterwards, and often in my sermons, after I was a preacher, described the lengths which common operations might go on this footing. But at last I began to doubt that I had been too rash in throwing aside all my former experiences as having nothing of the really gracious in them. And I saw that it was improper for a preacher to make his own experiences, either of one kind or another, anything like a discriminating standard of his conceptions or declarations on these delicate subjects. On the morrow after, I heard a sermon on Isaiah liii. 4, ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,’ which enlightened and melted my soul in a manner I had not formerly experienced; and I was made as a poor lost sinner, the chief of sinners, to essay appropriating the Lord Jesus as having done all for me, and as wholly made over to me in the Gospel as the free gift of God and my all-sufficient Saviour, answerable to all my folly, ignorance, guilt, filthiness, wants, slavery, and misery. This sermon had the most powerful, pleasant influence on my soul of any that I ever heard. By a sermon on Isaiah liv. 24, ‘Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength,’ my soul was also remarkably affected and drawn to the Lord.
By means of these and other ordinances, the sweetness which I felt about 1735 was not only remarkably returned to me, but I had far clearer views of the freedom of God’s grace, and of the exercise of taking hold of and pleading the gracious promises of the Gospel.”
John Brown was nineteen years at this time, and the spiritual struggles through which he was passing were the preparation by an all-wise God to make him a polished shaft. It was in virtue of passing through such an experience that he says in his Reflections of a Christian upon his Spiritual Elevations and Defections:—”Sometimes He hath lifted me up, in allowing me sweet, distinct views of divine truth, and of Jesus and His Father therein. . . . Anon, He casts me down into deep and darksome caves. I groped as a blind man at noon-day. . . . Sometimes God, by His Word and Spirit, afforded me the most convincing assurance that He was my Saviour, my Husband, my Father, my Friend, my Physician, my God—my all and in all. Anon, He permitted me to fall into such darkness and doubts that I could be persuaded of scarce anything inspired. . . . Sometimes God hath lifted me up to sweet serenity of soul. . . . Anon, He cast me ‘into deep waters, where there was no standing.’ . . . Sometimes He hath so feasted me in His ordinances that the frequent return of Sabbaths, sacramental occasions, opportunities of family, social, or secret worship, were my delight. . . . Anon, ordinances became to me as ‘dry breasts,’ and their approach a trifle, a burden; and neither before, nor in, nor after, did I enjoy the visits of Christ. . . . Sometimes God hath carried me up to Mount Pisgah and shown me the celestial Canaan, and my irrevocable title thereto. . . . Anon, He held back the face of His throne, and spread His cloud over it. . . . Are thy frames, my soul, so changeable? Let me charge thee to have no confidence in thyself; but to live by faith on the Son of God and His everlasting covenant, which are ‘the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.'” These words will be as a mirror to God’s people, in which they can see what a truthful representation he has given of their ups and downs, of their wavering doubts and certain hopes; and above all things will they put their “Amen” to the advice: “Live by faith on the Son of God, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
CHRIST THE JUDGE OF ALL.—There are five things in this Judge which makes His wrath more dreadful:—(1) He is such a Judge that the power of the most powerful cannot daunt; (2) He is such a Judge that the wealth of the most wealthy cannot bribe; (3) He is such a Judge that the wit and subtlety of the wisest and most subtle cannot delude; (4) He is such a Judge that there is no appealing from His sentence; (5) He is such a Judge that there is no repealing of His sentence.—Caryl.
(To be continued.)