Higher Criticism in the Established Church

IT is not long since Canon Barnes of Westminster caused some sensation in the religious world and in the public press by giving bold expression to modern rationalistic views with regard to certain Bible truths. He described the Fall of Man, as recorded in Genesis, as a myth, and insisted on the evolutionary idea of man’s development from the lower animals. This blatant infidelity, as far as we have seen, has been passed by without any Church censure. The Church of England is in a sad way with the inroads both of Rationalism and of Ritualism. But the Church of Scotland is very little better. During the past month a prominent member of that Church (Dr. Norman Maclean) has voiced sentiments of unbelief similar to those of Canon Barnes. On 3rd November he delivered in Edinburgh, under the auspices of the Edinburgh Sabbath School Teachers’ Association in connection with the Church of Scotland, the first of a series of lectures. His subject was, “The Message of the Bible for Boys and Girls,” and there were fully three hundred teachers present. In the course of his address he advised them “never to teach the young anything which would require to be unlearned later on in life.” He said that “there was nothing which drove more people from the Church than the discovery that the things they had learned in the Church, when children, would not stand the test of human reason and understanding. The Bible was a record of the spiritual evolution of man. Taking the story of the Garden of Eden as an illustration of one of the difficulties which confronted teachers in explaining different passages of Scripture, Dr. Maclean went on to point out that the story was spiritually true, and that it was metaphorical. It was the story of the dawn of conscience in the soul of man. The Bible should not be regarded as a verbally-inspired record, but as a spiritual record. Concluding, the lecturer thought it should be the teacher’s duty to bring home to the children the beauty and pathos of the Bible.”

Now, what are we to infer from this kind of talk? We are, for one thing, plainly to infer that Dr. Maclean holds that human reason or understanding is the supreme judge of what is to be received as matter of belief in the Bible. What human reason refuses to agree with is to be rejected. Reason is above the Bible, not the Bible above reason. Personally we have not so learned Christian truth, and we gravely fear that Dr. Maclean has yet to acquire the alphabet of it. The Bible came to us at the first as a divinely-inspired revelation from heaven, containing much no doubt incomprehensible by reason, but nothing contrary to it, and it called for faith, and by self-evidencing power produced faith in itself as the Word of God. Thus the place for human reason is not on the judgment-seat above the Bible, but at the footstool beneath it, with the reverential utterance, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” Dr. Maclean manifestly suggests that the orthodox teaching of the past with respect to the Scriptures is now a thing to be discarded, and to have no place in Sabbath School instruction. Taking what he calls “the story of the Garden of Eden” as an illustration of the difficulties that confront teachers, he points out that the story is not literally, but only “spiritually true.” It is “metaphorical,” and is “the story of the dawn of conscience in the soul of man.” Why the narrative in Genesis should not be taken as literally true, Dr. Maclean does not attempt to show. The simple reason is that he cannot. There is absolutely nothing inconsistent with reason in the narrative, and the Bible itself gives not the slightest hint that the story is metaphorical or figurative. The difficulty is in the lecturer himself. He tells us that the Bible is “the record of the spiritual evolution of man,” and that the narrative of Eden is “the story of the dawn of conscience.”

Dr. Maclean is an evolutionist, and he must make the Bible fit his theory. Evolution implies progress upward, and the account of man’s sin in the Garden of Eden, instead of informing us of a Fall, tells us, according to Dr. Maclean, of the beginning of the conscience in man who had before no conscience—a step upward and not downward. This is a complete reversal of the truth, and a contradiction of the inspired record in Genesis and elsewhere. According to this scheme of unbelief, God made man, at the beginning, not a pure, innocent, intelligent being with a soul, but a beast and a savage, and the conscience was only developed in his breast at a later stage—in the Garden of Eden. If this theory is carefully examined, it will be seen to increase the supposed difficulties of the Bible, and not to solve or lessen them. Viewing all the recognised facts concerning God and man, we hold the evolution scheme to be highly improbable and unreasonable—the offspring of unbelieving imagination, and in direct contradiction to the whole system of truth unfolded in the inspired Scriptures.

Dr. Maclean, however, further says that “the Bible should not be regarded as a verbally inspired record, but as a spiritual record.” Here he deliberately sets himself (along with many other Professors and ministers in Scotland to-day) in direct opposition to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, and His apostles. The Bible is undoubtedly a spiritual record, but it is “a verbally-inspired record” also. It is the united testimony of Christ and His apostles that the Old Testament as well as the New is inspired of God, as to word as well as substance. And what is to be thought of the Christianity of the men—no matter what name or profession they have—who can deliberately reject that testimony for the theories of infidels? Are they to be respected as Christian teachers, or even as professing Christians? Verily not.

We are living in an evil time. Here is a popular doctor of divinity in the Established Church of Scotland, who stands on platforms as a social reformer, and he urges upon the acceptance of three hundred Sabbath School teachers, in a Hall connected with the Offices of the Church, what we can only describe as the theories of infidelity. If these teachers are blind enough to accept his views, they go back to their Sabbath Schools entirely weakened in regard to their belief in God’s Word, and ready to instil these dangerous opinions into the minds of the children. What dreadful fruit such instruction will bring forth in the coming generation we need not attempt to describe. There will be a greater crop than ever of unbelievers, and the end of unbelief is everlasting woe. May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, arrest the tide of apostacy, and bring leaders in Church and State down to the feet of Christ, to learn of Him and His Word! The most of them, it is to be feared, presently worship a false Christ. Apart from a divine change, by the Spirit’s power, there will be no spiritual prosperity in our land, or throughout the world.

“It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. xxx. 7). So we may say, this is the time of the Church’s trouble, but the Church shall be delivered out of it. The enemies have their time to afflict and trample upon the Church; but Christ hath His time to trample on them. Let us wait and expect with comfort better times. The kingdoms of the world will be known to be the Lord Jesus Christ’s. There will be a further subjection to Christ’s Kingdom than ever there was since the first times, when the fulness of the Gentiles and the conversion of the Jews shall be. Let us comfort ourselves with the times to come. Christ is in glory, and He will bring His Church to further glory even in this world, besides eternal glory at the latter day. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy (Micah vii. 8). Let not the enemies of the Church triumph over much; though the Church be fallen, yet she shall rise again “after three days,” saith the prophet, Mat. xxvii. (Rev. xi. 11). Christ, though He were abased as low as possible He could be, yet after three days He arose; so the Church shall rise out of her troubles after three days; that is, after a certain time that we know not; but the exact time is only in the hands of Christ. But certainly there are glorious times of the Church coming.—Richard Sibbes, D.D.

A Sermon.

Preached by the REV. D. M. MACDONALD, PORTREE, as
Retiring Moderator of Synod, at Inverness, on 18th May, 1920.

“For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”—I COR. i. 21.

THE circumstances which gave rise to this Epistle are revealed in the preceding verses of the chapter. Corinth was a large city, and many of its inhabitants were of different nationalities. Some of these had embraced the Christian religion, and being of different origin to the Jewish believers, strife and dissension were easily provoked by headstrong parties among them. The apostle exhorts them to unity, and reprobates their unseemly dissensions. He declares that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and that the preaching of the Cross is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.

The Greeks were very fond of philosophical disputations, by means of which they sought to show their wisdom, but Paul points out that the highest wisdom is to be acquainted with the saving power of the Gospel, and to live in the exercise of faith on Christ. In dealing with the verse, we propose to notice:—

I.—The world’s ignorance of God;

II.—God’s method of saving the world; and

III.—The effects of His Gospel method.

I.—The world’s ignorance of God.

In his original condition man had a true knowledge of God. This knowledge was lost by the Fall, and ever since it is impossible for man to know God savingly until quickened by the Holy Spirit. The worship of God at the outset was observed in families, but in the course of time, owing to the gradual spread of heathen practices, true religion was confined to a few people. The Jewish dispensation continued from the time of their bondage in Egypt down to the death of Christ. Notwithstanding the efforts of priests and prophets their religion degenerated into mere formality. When the Lord Jesus preached the Gospel personally, He was strongly opposed by self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. He saw that the Jews were steeped in self-righteousness. This was the outcome of their ignorance of Him whom they professed to worship and serve.

If the Jews were so ignorant of God, despite their privileges and their possession of the Scriptures, wherein He reveals Himself, how much more was this true of the Gentile world, characterised by the apostle as being without God, without Christ, and without hope! Their condition was altogether lamentable. Now, it is evident, considering all the privileges and knowledge that Gospel hearers have, that, unless God Himself will deal personally with them, in order to save them, they must perish in their sins. The world by its own wisdom can never attain to a saving knowledge of Christ. Its wisdom is always opposed to the wisdom of God. The greatest philosophers amongst the Greeks, although they concluded that God existed, knew Him not. God, in His infinite wisdom, permitted this ignorance in order that His wisdom might be displayed in the plan of Salvation. A mere head knowledge of this plan will save no sinner. The belief prevalent amongst many in these times is that birth in a civilised community is all that is required, along with some hazy ideas of the Christian religion, in order to be saved, so deep-rooted is man’s ignorance of himself and of his Creator. The false religions of the world only confirm sinners in their ignorance and folly. It is the glorious Gospel of Christ alone that can impart life and salvation.

II.—God’s method of saving the world.

That leads us to consider the plan of redemption implies the covenant of grace between the three Persons of the adorable Trinity. God the Father determined in His sovereign love that sinners should be saved, and sent His beloved Son into the world to redeem the elect. The eternal Son delighted to do the Father’s will, and accomplished the work given Him to do. The Holy Spirit, the third Person, was to apply to souls the benefits of the redemption procured by Christ as the divine surety. Neither angels nor men could have devised this method of saving the lost. Infinite wisdom alone could contrive a plan whereby the divine attributes might be glorified in consistence with the salvation of unworthy sinners. “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.”

We must now notice the nature of the preaching that God owns in the conversion of sinners. It is obvious that He does not honour what is not in accordance with His own Word. The doctrines preached must be based on the Holy Scriptures if they are to be of benefit to immortal souls. In the eyes of worldly men in the apostle’s time the preaching of the cross was foolishness, and so it is still in the estimation of not a few.

The doctrine preached by the inspired apostles may be summed up under three heads.

Ruin by the Fall.

First, We have touched on this already, and shall not enlarge much on it. The disobedience of our first parents brought ruin upon the whole race. Every sinner is by nature exposed to the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. All must give an account to God at last, for our sins have exposed us to the divine wrath, and unless acquitted as believers, at the last day to eternal punishment. Sinners are undone in regard to their state and nature. When a sinner is saved his state is altered, and a new nature is given to him, so that he becomes a new man in Christ Jesus. He is no longer in a state of alienation, but in a state of grace. Sin has not now dominion over him as at first, but grace reigns in him through righteousness unto eternal life. This is clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, and is in accordance with the experience of God’s people in every age.

Redemption through Christ.

The next doctrine preached by the apostles was that of. In no other way was it possible for sinners to be redeemed than through the substitutionary sacrifice of the eternal Son of God in our nature. This is beautifully expressed in the Epistle to the Philippians: “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.” The Lord Jesus, as the covenant head of His people, endured the penalty due to them. He had to satisfy law and justice on their behalf. To the divine law He gave perfect obedience, and bore its curse in His own person. Without blood justice could not be satisfied, and on Calvary He gave His blood freely for the redemption of the guilty. Satisfaction had to be given to law and justice, and neither angels nor men could satisfy either of these. None other than God in our nature could pay the ransom price. Truly, this is the wonder of wonders, that the beloved Son of God should be willing to be “made sin for” those who were undeserving of the least mercy.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends,” but Christ gave His life for His enemies. This is marvellous in the eyes of all true believers. Consider for a moment how redemption was wrought out. As soon as He was born, the Saviour was persecuted. King Herod sought His life. When He began His public ministry He was tempted of the devil, and very soon opposed by wicked men. He suffered in His reputation and character. Although he went about continually doing good, men said He was in league with the devil. In Gethsamane he sweated as it were great drops of blood. The traitor, Judas, betrayed his Master with a kiss, and the other poor disciples fled. Being led before Pilate, He was unjustly condemned, and compelled to bear His cross to the place of execution. Every insult was heaped upon Him there, and to make it appear that He was the vilest of the malefactors crucified with Him, He was placed between them. When they crucified Him, blood came forth from His holy hands, feet, head and side. This caused great suffering of body, but His soul sufferings were far more intense. The hosts of hell were let loose upon Him. Ungodly sinners reviled Him, and God the Father forsook Him, so that in His great agony of spirit He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” We cannot have any adequate conception of the bitterness of His sufferings. He, as an old divine said, dried up the hell of His elect on Calvary. The penalty due to them was borne willingly by Him. He made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. Exalted to the right hand of the Father, He is now a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins. All who believe on Him are freely forgiven and justified from all their iniquities. Justification has for its foundation the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and in order to be justified you must accept of Christ as your personal Saviour.

Regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

Apostolic preaching was not confined to the above doctrines. It is noticeable that was proclaimed as being necessary to salvation. “Being washed (it is written) with the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Believers are described as being created anew in Christ. There is a new principle within them which inclines them to love holiness and hate sin. They are conscious of a new law in their members warring against the law of sin and death. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh,” so that they cannot do the things that they would. As the outcome of being regenerated, there is a process of sanctification going on in believers which shall issue in their eternal perfection. Sanctification is a work, not an act, like justification, and it prepares the Lord’s people for glory. Owing to indwelling sin they are often perplexed, and ready to think that they are deceiving themselves. How can they be sanctified, they say, when they feel sin so strong within? It is light that reveals objects in a dark place, and when the Spirit enlightens the mind, sinners then begin to realise what is within, and the more believers are sanctified, the more do they feel their own sinfulness. Unlike some in our day, Paul did not claim perfection, but he sought after it, and that is what every Christian in a healthy state of soul seeks.

At the resurrection the bodies and souls of God’s people shall be reunited, and shall be perfectly holy in heaven. They shall be conformed to the image of Christ, and they shall be led by Him unto fountains of living waters throughout eternal ages. It is due to the work of the Spirit in them here that they shall be fit to enjoy the fellowship of God in eternity. May He sanctify each one of us, and may we be kept from grieving Him away from us!

These were the doctrines proclaimed by the first preachers of the Gospel wherever the Lord opened a door for them to make known “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” The Reformers followed in their footsteps. Luther, Calvin, and Knox were of one mind in regard to these fundamental truths. When they began to preach the Gospel the Roman Catholic Church received its deathblow, and multitudes were saved. The Puritans and Covenanters were worthy successors of these men, and at no period in the history of Britain was there a fuller presentation of evangelical truth than during the time of these courageous and zealous witnesses for Christ. Their ideas and example have influenced for good succeeding generations. We owe a debt of gratitude to these men which we cannot repay but by following in their footsteps. They brought the great realities of eternity to bear upon the consciences and minds of their fellow-sinners with remarkable effect. Many experienced the power of the truth in convincing them of sin, and leading them as needy sinners to the feet of a gracious and compassionate Saviour. The Holy Spirit owned their labours abundantly, with the result that many came forth boldly to testify their love for, and faith in Christ during testing times.

It is such preaching that is needed in our day. There is a painful lack of evangelical truth in the pulpits of our country at present. Many of those who profess to be the servants of Christ are willing to preach anything but the true Evangel. The consequences are everywhere evident. Sins of every sort are becoming alarmingly prevalent; non-churchgoing is on the increase; there is open defiance of law and order, and true religion is treated with contempt. All these evils are in some measure due to the unscriptural theories that are propounded in many pulpits, and to the absence of law and Gospel preaching. In former times the Word of God had some authority on the consciences even of unconverted men, but now it is unchristian Socialism that has taken its place, and compels men to disregard the laws of God and man.

In the eighteenth century, when religion was at a very low ebb both in England and Scotland, God raised up a band of mighty preachers, such as Whitefield, Romaine and Newton in the former, and Boston and the Erskines in the latter country, to proclaim the truth as it is in Jesus. The doctrines taught by them were such as we have mentioned, and the Holy Spirit owned them in causing a widespread revival of religion to take place. Britain was roused out of its moral and spiritual torpor, while righteousness and truth were advanced in the land. This is what is needed to-day, and let it be our endeavour to abide by the example and doctrines taught by these faithful servants of Christ. We believe that when God revives His cause it will be by the sound preaching of the Gospel. Although no immediate fruits may be seen, it is the duty of the ministers of Christ to persevere in declaring the doctrines of grace, and in due time they may reap the fruit of their labours. At the marriage in Cana of Galilee the Lord Jesus performed His first miracle by turning the water used at the feast into wine. The water was there in the pot, and all that was required to turn it into wine was divine power. On that occasion His glory was revealed. So, where there is a faithful proclamation of the truth, all that is required to transform it into the wine of salvation is the exercise of the divine power, and when that takes place the glory of Christ is manifested.

III.—Let us now notice briefly some of the effects of the preaching of the Gospel.

It saves those who believe. But let us consider, first, what it saves them from. Sin is the great evil from which men need deliverance. The loss of many is that they do not feel their need of being delivered from sin. Few have the experience of Paul, when he cried, “O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!” All who are taught from above know something of this, and they are saved from the reigning power of sin. Grace now reigns in them. Believers are delivered from the guilt as well as the power of sin. Peace with God becomes theirs when saved by the Gospel, and they enjoy fellowship and communion with Christ through the Word and Spirit. You who are still at ease in sin, and satisfied with your own righteousness, must perish, unless you accept the righteousness of Christ freely offered to you in the Gospel.

Deliverance from the penalty due to sin, and from the power of Satan, is another result brought about by the preaching of the truth, when savingly applied by the Holy Spirit to the heart and conscience. “The wages of sin is death” in its threefold aspect. Eternal death shall be the portion of impenitent sinners in the next world. Dear soul, think of your latter end, if you are unforgiven. Consider the final state of the ungodly. In hell there shall be no Gospel privileges, no temporal mercies; association with fallen angels and the vilest of mankind; an accusing conscience; dreadful remorse at the recollection of past sins and lost opportunities, and eternal despair shall be the portion of the lost. Satan shall be their master, and he shall use his power to torment to the utmost all under his sway. From all these tremendous evils the Gospel saves those who accept of it.

Observe also, that it delivers from the curse of a broken law, and the sword of divine justice. If you are not united to Christ, you must face these in your own person, and there is nothing more certain than that they will exact the utmost penalty. Christ, as the divine surety of His people, has paid their debts to law and justice, and they are therefore set free.

Notice, also, that the Gospel takes down the pride of man, gives him his own place as an unworthy, hell-deserving sinner, and glorifies the triune Jehovah as the source of the salvation of all who believe.

In the last place, observe that it is explicitly stated that the preaching of the Gospel, when made effectual, saves only such as believe. Faith is necessary to salvation. “Without faith,” it is written, “it is impossible to please God.” Those who believe have set their seal to God’s testimony concerning sin, its wages, their own character, and Christ as the only Saviour of sinners. They believe in the verbal inspiration of the written Word, from Genesis to Revelation. Although they may have doubts and fears concerning their own interest in Christ, they have no doubt whatever concerning His ability to save and the merit of His atoning death to save millions of transgressors. Neither do they doubt the absolute infallibility and inerrancy of the Word of God. Closely allied with faith there is trust. Faith unites to Christ, and the believer places his trust in the infinite merits of his adorable Saviour for the salvation of his soul.

It is the duty of sinners to wait on the sound preaching of the Gospel, but that in itself will not save the soul. You must believe the Gospel, or in other words, you must believe on the Lord Jesus, in order to be saved. Be not satisfied with merely hearing the word. Seek earnestly the faith by means of which sinners are justified.

The Gospel is the only remedy for the evils that afflict the nations and individual sinners. Wherever it has had free course it has wrought wonders. Reforms that have been of the greatest benefit to the world may be traced to the gracious influences of the Gospel. It has turned savages into humble followers of Christ, abolished slavery, procured civil and religious freedom for multitudes, and would heal speedily the gaping sores of a world at present distracted and blasted by the judgments of God, if its inhabitants would accept of it and render obedience to its precepts. No, it is not Christianity that has failed, but it is man’s unbelief and rebelliousness that have kept the choice blessings of the Gospel from coming down upon the nations, as rain upon the mown grass.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Amen.

Instrumental Music in Worship.

STATEMENT AGAINST SAME BY GLASGOW PRESBYTERY (1808).

THE following Statement was issued by a Committee of the Glasgow Presbytery of the Church of Scotland in 1808 in answer to a Statement by the Rev. Dr. Ritchie of St. Andrew’s Church, who, along with his congregation, introduced an organ without the Presbytery’s consent. Rev. Dr. Candlish, of Edinburgh, who published this Statement in a small volume entitled “The Organ Question,” describes it as a masterly production by an able divine who was one of the chief members of the Committee, Dr. William Porteous:—

Your Committee, in obedience to the appointment of the Reverend Presbytery of Glasgow, beg leave to submit the following Answer to a paper given in to the Presbytery, by the Rev. Dr. Ritchie, on the sixth day of January last, entitled, “Statement of the Grounds on which the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church thinks himself vindicated in permitting, and the Facts connected with his employing an Organ in Public Worship on the Lord’s day.”

Your Committee beg leave to preface their Answer with the following request: That it may be explicitly understood by all parties, as a fixed principle, that in this discussion between our brother and us we are to avoid all general speculation about what might or what might not be a proper form of Religious Worship to be adopted by an infant Church, met for the first time to model its establishment. For the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church, and his Congregation, and we, your Committee, either in the character of teachers or in the capacity of hearers, are defined constituent parts of the Established Church of Scotland, and have pledged ourselves, each of us, to defend its Doctrine, Government, Discipline, and Worship, as contained and specified in its standards, and confirmed by the public law of the land.

If that paper, which we are appointed to answer, had been written by a man entirely unacquainted with our Sacred Records, and only dictated by those feelings which, as the Statement expresseth itself, “the God of Nature hath implanted in every bosom, abstract from all positive religious establishments;” or, had it been written by a professed Episcopalian, inclined by education, and influenced by habit, to prefer the pomp of cathedral worship to the simplicity of the primitive times of the Church of Christ; or, had it even been written by a Congregationalist, who conceives that the will of his particular flock is a law paramount to all Confessions, or Liturgies, or Directories—your Committee, in their Answer, would have considered themselves as called on to have adopted a very different mode of reasoning. But let it be remembered, that our Answer is directed to that Statement given in by the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church, for himself and his Congregation, component parts of the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. And while we shall allow the most liberal toleration, in matters of public worship, to other bodies of professing Christians in this part of the United Kingdom, in no shape whatever do we consider ourselves at liberty to infringe the Presbyterian Establishment of our country, as contained in her standards, making a part of the public law of the land, acquiesced in for a hundred and twenty years, often recalled to our memory by the solemn decisions of our Church, and sanctioned by the decided approbation and veneration of the people of Scotland. Holding it, therefore, as an undoubted principle, that neither the Reverend Presbytery nor the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church are entitled to legislate a new form of Worship for their respective Congregations, but that they are expressly bound to defend and practise that form which was demanded by our forefathers in the Claim of Rights, established at the Revolution, and declared to be unalterable by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union,—your Committee flatter themselves that they shall be able to convince the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church, and the world at large, that the judgment passed on the 7th October last, by the Presbytery of Glasgow, was agreeable to the law of the land, and to the law and constitution of this our National Church. And should we, in our reasoning, use any language which may seem to a stranger to condemn any practice of Public Worship used by other Churches of Christ, let it be remembered, that it is our object solely to defend our own practice; and whatever argument of defence may assume the appearance of attack, it ariseth from the scantiness of language to express our ideas, not from any desire on our part to hurt the feelings of our Christian neighbours.

Our brother commenceth his Statement by observing, that a wish had been entertained for more than thirty years to have an Organ erected and employed in Public Worship in St. Andrew’s Church. Though this may be literally true, it can be of no importance whatever, when judging upon the legality or even expediency of this measure. During that period it is well known this Congregation have had two very respectable Ministers, who were as desirous of pleasing their people as faithful Presbyterian Ministers ought to be. They were men of wisdom and prudence, as well as of taste. Neither of these ever attempted to bring forward a measure of this kind. Ought not this circumstance to have put our brother on his guard, especially if he be well informed, when he says that for thirty years this Congregation have wished for an Organ? The wish of any Congregation ought to have no weight whatever to induce the Minister of that Congregation to infringe the fundamental laws and constitution of our Established Church, to which both Minister and people have covenanted to adhere, and which they have promised to obey. The simple wish of a Congregation might be an argument to influence the Minister of English Independents, or Scotch Seceders; but in our Established Presbyterian Church, where the direction and superintendence of the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government, are committed to Ministers and Elders, the office-bearers of our Church, acting in their legislative and judicial capacity, such an argument seems improper, and is most certainly unconstitutional. For our brother, therefore, to have so unprecedentedly given ear to the wishes of his Congregation, and hastened to obtain for them their favourite object, without even consulting the Presbytery of Glasgow in their official capacity, we do not trespass the rules of charity and politeness when we say, was, on his part at least bordering upon something like unconstitutional conduct. Had the Reverend Presbytery of Glasgow carried their opinion no higher than the dissentients did, on the 7th of October last, who declared the introduction of Instrumental Music unauthorized and inexpedient, your Committee would still be justified in saying what they have now said, relative to the conduct of our brother, when he talks of having yielded to the wish of his Congregation. Your Committee are afraid that this strong desire to please his Congregation, may have imperceptibly warped our brother’s better judgment, and induced him to view that opposition which he has met with from the Presbytery of Glasgow to his favourite measure, as an opposition founded merely in prejudice; and to affirm such things in vindication of himself and his Congregation, in that Statement which he gave in, and which is now upon record, as fair logical reasoning will not support.

Considering the polite and candid manner in which the Presbytery of Glasgow accepted at once of the declaration of our brother, that he would not again use the Organ without the authority of the Church; and the indulgent spirit which they manifested, in granting him liberty to give in an explanation after the matter was decided, and even recording the whole of his argument in behalf of his opinion; your Committee did not expect to have heard of such expressions as these,—“The discussion was hurried on with such a storm of zeal”—“Such insinuations against the People and the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church, I can express by no other terms, than that they are a total perversion of the meaning of words, utterly confounding the nature of things”—“Not free from the influence of this mistake, I am disposed to presume, the Respondents” (he must mean the Reverend Presbytery, because they had adopted the paper of the Respondents prior to the giving in of his Statement) “seem never to have inquired what was done in St. Andrew’s Church; they conjure up to themselves some horrid prostitution of sacred things, and then fight against it, as pro aris et focis, wielding their arms against a shadow.”

Your Committee are disposed to forgive irritation even in a liberal, philosophical, and Christian mind, when disappointed in a favourite measure. Even the best of human characters are not free from imperfections. And to the imperfections incident to humanity they are disposed to ascribe the unguarded language used by the Minister of St. Andrew’s Church in his Statement. Perhaps your Committee would be justified in saying, that, in point of form, our brother had no legal title to have uttered one syllable after our sentence was pronounced. He declined voting in the cause. He dissented not from the judgment, of the harshness of which he now complains. And therefore, had the Presbytery adhered strictly to ecclesiastical form, our brother could not have been indulged in having recorded his laboured defence of his favourite opinion; nor would we, your Committee, have now been called upon to answer a voluminous Statement, comprehending in some parts of it rather an attack upon the judgment of the Presbytery, than merely an indulged explanation of his own conduct upon the twenty-third of August last.

The world, to which our brother appeals, shall judge between us.

We find some difficulty in ascertaining exactly the arrangement adopted by our brother in his Statement. But after the most attentive consideration on our part, we are inclined to believe that it resolves itself into the five following heads, which we shall analyse and answer in order:—

I. “That the use of Instrumental Music in Public Worship is not forbidden by the Word of God, but, on the contrary, is expressly encouraged, perhaps enjoined, in the Old Testament, and is clearly authorised by the New.”

In his reasoning to support this, his first conclusion, our brother sets out by observing, that “There is but one fixed and infallible standard for all that regards Public Worship. Whatever is not agreeable to, or founded on the Word of God, ought to have no place in the Worship of Christians.” To this position we most heartily assent. It is with particular pleasure that we observe this great Protestant principle, the foundation of our Reformation from Popery, and by which the door is for ever shut against all the will-worship and superstitious rites of the Church of Rome, recognised and gloried in by the author of the Statement.

With respect to his reasoning adjected to this fundamental principle;—namely, that “before the giving of the Law, Instrumental Music was employed by the twelve tribes of Israel;”—and that when we “look into the covenant of peculiarity introduced by the ministry of Moses, no mention is made of Instrumental Music among the ritual observances of the Law;”—we dare not give such positive assent. For a great variety of opinions have been entertained by learned men, as to the precise period when Instrumental Music was introduced into the Jewish Church, in the Public Worship of God. Some have conceived that it had no existence prior to David, who, having a great genius for Music, and being himself a masterly performer, incorporated it with the Tabernacle service. Others suppose, from a passage in the eighty-first Psalm, and from another in Exodus (xv. 20), that Instrumental Music in the Worship of God was practised by the Israelites prior to the giving of the Law, “Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a Psalm, bring hither the Timbrel, the pleasant Harp with the Psaltery. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt.” “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a Timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with Timbrels and with dances.” While there are others who are of opinion, and perhaps with equally good reason, that Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of God was chiefly instituted by Moses, and that it forms an enactment of the Ceremonial Law. Thus, Num. x. 10, “Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the Trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over your peace-offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God; I am the Lord your God.” Of which last opinion is Calvin; for in his Commentary upon Psalm xxxii. 2, he pronounces Instrumental Music a part of the Pædagogia Legalis; that is, a Levitical institution.

But whatever opinion be adopted concerning the precise period when Instrumental Music was introduced into the Hebrew Church, we can never assent to the averment of our brother, “That in a system of merely temporary institutions, it was not deemed necessary, by positive enactment, either to forbid or to enjoin the use of Instrumental Music; but it was left to the will, and situation, and circumstances of the worshippers.” For whether we are of opinion or not, that every circumstance relative to the Ceremonial Law and the Tabernacle service was shown to Moses on the Mount, it is certain that David, who was raised by Divine Providence to be king over Israel, having a great genius for Music, did either amplify what he found in the institutions of Moses, with regard to Instrumental Music, or did himself introduce it into the Tabernacle service, believing it would contribute to soften the rugged temper of the people.

If the last opinion be the just one—namely, that it was David who, either to gratify his own genius for Music, or from believing it would contribute to soften the rugged temper of the people, added the pomp of Instrumental Music to the Tabernacle service, which was afterwards adopted by his son in the service of the Temple;—then we shall be entitled to say, from a strict examination of the history of the Hebrew Republic, that, like the first appointment of a king in the person of Saul, and like the building of a temple, suggested by David himself, this was a form of Worship neither commanded, nor even highly approved of by God, but simply permitted. This view of the matter seems to be countenanced by that marked and accurate distinction which is kept up in Scripture, when speaking of the Temple service, betwixt what was positively enjoined by the Ceremonial Law, and what was commanded by David the King: “And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with the Instruments of Music of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord.” (2 Chron. vii. 6.) “And when the builders had laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel, with Trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with Cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.” (Ezra iii. 10.)

If, on the other hand, authorities are not wanting to countenance the opinion that there are positive enactments in the Law of Moses in favour, at least, of one kind of Musical Instruments, with which “all the earth” is exhorted to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord” (Ps. xcviii. 6.) the conclusion must be, that it is a constituent part of the Ceremonial Law. “And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with Cymbals, with Psalteries, and with Harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the Trumpets. And when the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the Trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel. And all the Congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt-offering was finished.” (2 Chron. xxix. 25-28.)

Whichever of these opinions we adopt, it is evident that the regulations relative to Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of God are as much incorporated with the Mosaic or Jewish Constitution as Circumcision, which was instituted long before the giving of the Law; or as the Temple itself, which was not built till after the death of David. Therefore, we are entitled to conclude that Circumcision, Sacrifice, Instrumental Music, and the Temple—the whole of these institutions, must stand or fall together.

We shall allow to our brother that David was a prophet, and that he was actuated by the purest motives, when he set apart a particular class of people to sing those hymns which he composed, with the accompaniment of Instruments of Music, improved or invented by himself. Still, it does not follow that the Worship of God should have any such accompaniment under the Gospel.

We shall even allow that under the Pædagogia Legalis, all the instruments mentioned in the hundred and fiftieth Psalm were daily used in the Temple, and that the whole ritual Worship, prescribed by the Law, by David, and the prophets, was in full authority, and in uninterrupted observation until the publication of the Gospel. It remains still to be considered, whether Christianity did not dissolve the obligations of the Law, and entirely change many of those institutions which relate to the Worship of God.

It seems to be acknowledged, by all descriptions of Christians, that among the Hebrews Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of God was essentially connected with Sacrifice—with the morning and evening sacrifice, and with the sacrifices to be offered up on great and solemn days. But as all the sacrifices of the Hebrews were completely abolished by the death of our blessed Redeemer, so Instrumental Music, whether enacted by Moses, or introduced by the ordinance of David—or, if you will, of Abraham, or any other patriarch—being so intimately connected with sacrifice; and belonging to a service which was ceremonial and typical, must be abolished with that service; and we can have no warrant to recall it into the Christian Church, any more than we have to use other abrogated rites of the Jewish religion, of which it is a part. Nor was there any need for a particular commandment to abolish it, as our brother seems to think, seeing that the whole service, of which it is a part, is completely abrogated.

(To be continued.)

HE who was eternally in the form of God, that is, was essentially so, God by nature, equally participant of the same divine nature with God the Father; God over all, blessed for ever; who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth; He takes on Him the nature of man—takes it to be His own—whereby He was no less truly a man in time than He was truly God from eternity.—John Owen.

The late Corporal John Mackenzie.

THE following letter was sent by the late Corporal John Mackenzie to his brother-in-law, Mr. John Nicolson, Tolsta, Lewis, a few days before he fell in action in France.

There are several other letters of his, which we intend to publish in the Free Presbyterian Magazine. We are sorry that this publication has been delayed so long. NEIL CAMERON.

FRANCE, 7th June, 1918.

MY DEAR BROTHER,—How I am as one residing in the secret place of the Most High! He hides me in His pavilion, and there my soul finds pasture. Oh, what a comfort and felicity it is to have Christ as our high tower in such trying circumstances! His name is a strong tower, and the righteous will run into it, and are safe. Of none other than those who are reconciled to God in His dear Son is this true. So that to them He is made precious—to them who believe, and receive Him as their own personal Saviour. He gives me strength and confidence in Himself, and teaches my fingers to war.

I am often mourning with the Psalmist in the thirteenth Psalm. Yet my Saviour is never absent, but He is ever smiling to hear the cries of one for His aid and presence. Paul did say: “We are not fighting with flesh and blood only, but with spiritual wickedness in high places.” But I am fighting with both. God will soon turn His hand against our adversary, though he (the German) seems as if he were armed with defiance to God, and filled with the bitterest cruelty and hatred to humanity. He is indeed the leviathan whose scales seem to be bullet proof for mercy or judgment, so that nothing can penetrate his skin until God will put His hook in his nose and fish him out of the sea of this wrath, and He will give the Kaiser then what is the Kaiser’s, and to God what is God’s: thus by taking the coin out of his mouth and by casting the fish into the sea of His infinite wrath. When God will withdraw His restraining grace from one, He ceases to reason any longer with him concerning his need of mercy. The arch enemy will then possess his own, and will consequently be made a vessel of dishonour to God throughout the everlasting ages. He says: “I will not always strive with man, because he is flesh only.” These words were spoken by God, whose voice is now to the children of men, before He visited the people for their wickedness, and brought on them a most terrible judgment on account of which God said: “I will never again destroy the world by a flood.” Oh! the callous spirit we manifest still toward God, whose wrath against sin is unchangeable!

I am quite well yet, and am praying that this fearful strife and envy should be replaced by reconciliation and mercy.

I hope this may find you well and enjoying the Sun of righteousness. Dear brother, let your voice be often heard at the throne of sovereign grace for the manifestation of the glory of God and the salvation of never-dying souls. Pray for me.

With my love to your dear Margaret and yourself—I have you always on my heart. How are my father, brothers and sisters? Don’t forget to convey my love to them all.

Your sincere brother, JOHN.

Memoirs of Elizabeth Cairns.

Written by herself some years before her death, and now taken from her original Copy with great care and diligence.

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.”—PSALM lxvi. 16.

“As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts.”—PSALM xlviii. 8.

“Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”—2 COR. iii. 18.

(Continued from page 207.)

I COME now to make some reflections upon these four years past:—

1. I shall begin with the change of my employment. My being accustomed to live alone, made all company, though ever so good, a burden to me, on the following accounts:—(1) I was diverted from my life of meditation, reading, and prayer, that had been my custom so long, and so became my element, out of which I thought I could not have lived. (2) I could not converse upon what I was taken up and exercised with, for I thought those were secrets that none but God and my own soul should have known. (3) I could not take pleasure in any worldly or diverting company and converse, though in themselves lawful and innocent. I knew no joy then but in God and things spiritual. (4) My former employment was so easy to me, by long custom, that I could have used it, and not have been long diverted from spiritual exercise; but, now I had everything to learn that still required a presence of mind: this brought me to an extreme strait; but, oh! how seasonably and sovereignly did the Lord appear for me, by sending in His Word with power, and so made me to trust His promise in the midst of all seeming contradictions!

2. There was a capacity immediately given to me, so that there was not anything that I was called to, though I had never done it before, but I would have gotten wisdom and strength to manage it; so that I may say that the same God which taught Bezaleel to work the work of the tabernacle, as in Exod. xxxi. 2-5, and teaches the husbandman wisdom, how to cast out the principal wheat and barley in the season, as Isa. xxviii. 25, 26, taught me to win my bread with my hands. Here I see that common gifts come from the Lord as well as spiritual.

3. I observe that all along there hath been a shutting of all doors of relief on me from secondary causes, and this ought to teach me a daily dependence on the Lord for his conduct in all things. So much for reflection on the change of my employment.

After this I had opportunity to hear the Word preached, and to partake of the Lord’s Supper, which were all new to me, yet I both heard and saw what I had experienced formerly. These secrets, that I thought none should have known but God and the soul, were proclaimed in those sermons, and represented by those elements of the bread and wine in the sacrament.

1. Here I did see the sweet harmony that is among those means of grace to lead the soul to an happy end.

2. I observe that the Lord would have all His institutions honoured. As to the work of conviction, humiliation, and conversion I met with in this period of my life, when I compare it with the work of conviction and humiliation I met with in the first and second periods, I think they all agree (1) as to their author; it was the Word and the Spirit. (2) As to their nature and kind. (3) They all agree in their outgate. (4) They brought forth the same effects; but great was their difference as to degrees. The conviction I met with in the first period, I may compare it to the morning light, or break of the day; the second, to the breaking up of the day, or the rising of the sun. But this third period was in a great degree brighter and distincter in every step, as the path of the just is compared to the shining light that shineth more and more until the perfect day (Proverbs iv. 18). Oh, what infinite wisdom and mercy did shine in this, the Lord’s measuring out the degrees of His work suitable to my age and capacity!

And here I shall a little show how this work of conversion was carried on: (1) It was by a sharp, humbling light from the Word, as marked in the history of the former periods. (2) The Lord, as it were, took me aside from all instruments, and managed home on my soul all those steps of conversion, and the following outgate, immediately from Himself, that made such impression on my soul, and left such a stamp behind it, that ever since I durst never raze it nor yet call it a delusion, for all the ups and downs I have met with since.

There were those lessons the Lord taught me here:—(1) The happy state of man, in his first creation, with its excellencies and enjoyments. (2) How he fell, and the misery of that estate into which he fell. (3) The way of delivery by Christ. All this with particular application.

As to the effects that followed on this work, they were better felt than ever I was able to put in words:—1. Here I desire to adore the Lord’s sovereign appearance for me, in every turn of extremity, and desire to keep a savoury remembrance of the divine lessons He taught me. 2. I see myself still in the Lord’s hand, as the clay in the hands of the potter. Oh, how may I stand astonished and wonder at His pains taken on me, from my birth to this day! 3. I see how the Lord prepared my soul for more than ordinary manifestations, by sending in the Spirit and the Word that put my whole soul into a spiritual capacity, to take up things divine and supernatural, and enlightened my understanding, in fundamental truths, more than in all my life formerly. I see there was an agreeableness between those fundamental truths and divine lessons that were taught me, and the more than ordinary degrees of nearness and manifestations that were sometimes allowed me.

As to the effects of these more than ordinary allowances:—(1) They brought forth self-abhorrence. Oh, what humbling discoveries did I get, both of natural, moral, and religious self! (2) I saw that the sovereign grace and love of God in Christ should have the glory of the whole of my salvation in time and through eternity. (3) I was kept from creature-adoration, for there was little of the creature to be seen in all my deliverance. (4) I was made to look back on the world and all its pleasures and profits with a diminishing eye. I desired no more of the things of this life, but that I might be carried through, and not be a burden to any for my bread. (5) Here I saw how inexpressible a difference there is between the portion of Jacob and the world as a portion; I can say, from my own experience, that in one half-hour’s real and sensible communion with God there is more joy, more pleasure, and inexpressible advantage than all the pleasures of youth and profits that ever the world could afford me. (6) Those more than ordinary allowances gave sin and the body of death such a deadly stroke that for a whole year I felt little of its opposition; as to that life I lived during this time, taste and see can best declare. (7) They reconciled me to death, so that ever since, for the most part, death has been the object of my desire, and life the matter of patience to me. Oh, how did those Pisgah sights and transforming discoveries of the land of immediate vision shake the house of natural pleasure, and loose my affections from human life and all its enjoyments! (8) Spirituality became my element. Oh, what inexpressible pleasure when the mysteries of redemption and grace were opened up to me by the Word and shinnings of the Divine Spirit on my soul, and I was made to believe all and embrace all with application, as revealed to me. (9) All the knowledge that ever I had attained to by reading and hearing was but like star-light beside the sun, when compared with what was taught me as the effect of those manifestations. (10) The knowledge I received (by the more extraordinary allowances) of God, of Christ and redemption by Him, and the way of the Spirit’s applying that redemption, of a life of grace here, and of glory to come. All the sermons ever I heard, or any other argument, never discovered that I had received a delusion in any of all those particulars.

An accidental providence fell out in this period that threatened me with a sudden death. The matter was:—There was a house I sometimes resorted to for prayer, and one time I was in at the door, and by an impression that fixed on my mind I was turned back, and before I went a stone-cast the house fell flat to the ground. Oh, that I may learn from this providence to watch always, for I know not in what shape death may attack me! There was another remarkable providence I met with:—As my father and I were coming from hearing sermon, and riding a water, the horse and we were in great danger of being lost, yet we were mercifully delivered. Oh, what mercy did shine in our preservation, not only with respect to us, but also to religion, which would have suffered by it! Oh, how would this dispensation have opened the mouths of enemies, and grieved the hearts of the godly! So much for reflections on the four past years.

(To be continued.)

The late Mr. John MacLachlan,

ELDER, KAMES.

JOHN MACLACHLAN was born at Broadhill, in the island of Coll, Argyllshire, in the year 1836. He lived morally an unimpeachable life until he became a young man, but was like other unregenerate men, “without God and without hope in the world.” He left his native home at the age of twenty-three years, and came to reside in Bute, where he remained four years. He then removed to Ardarnock, in Cowal, and, at the end of other four years, came to Tighnabruaich, where he lived till the end of his earthly pilgrimage.

When the saving change took place in his case, we are not in a position to say. He traced the beginning of that blessed change to a sermon he heard; but we could not ascertain the minister’s name, nor the portion of God’s Word that was expounded at the time. But it was evident to everyone who knew him that the change was a real one. He was a very modest man, and very reticent as to his own private concerns, so that he spoke very little about himself at any time. However, he made one feel that he was very conscious of the depravity of his own heart, which caused him to conclude, like the Apostle Paul, that “he was less than the least of all saints.” He became a member in full communion with the Free Church in the year 1882 (?), and was made an elder in 1885 (?).

The writer met him for the first time in the early spring of the year 1891, and knew him afterwards until he passed away last May. He was a straightforward man, who could not be moved from what he considered his path of duty towards God and man. An instance of this occurred while he acted as a gardener to a certain lady. She asked him to come on the Lord’s Day to bring in some vegetables from the garden. He told her that that would be a sin against God, and that he would not do it, but that it could be done on Saturday evening. She remonstrated, urging that vegetables taken in on Saturday would not be fresh for use the following day. But he held firmly to his convictions. She then told him to come to see her on Monday morning. He came, as she requested, expecting to be paid off. When she appeared, she told him that he was to do as he desired, and she never troubled him again about Sabbath work.

In the month of March, 1893, the office-bearers of the congregation of Millhouse (the designation by which that congregation was then known) held a meeting in order that they might consider what would be their duty should the General Assembly of the Free Church refuse the following May to take steps to rescind the Declaratory Act, which they passed the previous year. After considering seriously the nature of the changes effected by that Act upon the Creed and Constitution of the Church, they resolved unanimously “that they could not for truth and conscience sake remain any longer in communion and fellowship with that Church unless steps were taken at the coming General Assembly to relieve them of the heresies embodied in that Act.” No one was more hearty in coming to this conclusion than John MacLachlan. The Assembly refused, by an overwhelming majority, to rescind the Act. Immediately this became known, Rev. Donald Macfarlane got up and read and tabled a protest separating himself, and all who would adhere to him, from the communion and jurisdiction of that Church in order that they might be able to maintain all that the Free Church stood for in 1843. The following Sabbath Rev. D. Macfarlane occupied the pulpit of the Millhouse congregation, and on the Monday thereafter he delivered a lecture to the congregation explanatory of the position now taken. The whole congregation, with few exceptions, immediately decided to adhere to the original position of the Free Church, and to separate from this new heretical Church formed by the infamous Act. They were the first congregation to take up the position held since by the Free Presbyterian Church. John MacLachlan rejoiced exceedingly in the relief achieved by this step; for all the Lord’s sincere followers were harassed during many years by the place given in the Free Church to Rationalism and heretical doctrines. Now that she had made room in her constitution for all these innovations, she ceased to be the Church of their love, and became an alien to them. John held steadfastly to the position taken that day to the end of his life, not without being put to a test, for their minister left them, and went over to the present Free Church in 1905. But John MacLachlan was not the man to follow any man, but in so far as that man would follow Christ. He was a constant reader of the Bible, which held a very warm place in his heart, and which became the matter of his daily meditation. We often noticed the melting effect the doctrines of grace had upon him while listening to the word preached. He held in high esteem such as stood firmly for Christ’s cause and truth in our day, but he had no respect for such as proved unfaithful when the day of trial came.

Twenty years ago he came into possession of a considerable sum of money, which was left him as a legacy in Australia. This made his lot quite comfortable, so far as worldly prosperity was concerned. But this favourable change in his worldly circumstances had not in the least lifted his mind with pride or vain show, for he remained the same humble man he was when he worked for his daily bread. It was not very long after this change in his affairs took place when symptoms of failing health appeared, which caused his own family, and his relatives and friends, some alarm. But, having been possessed of a very robust constitution, he continued to maintain his strength until two years before the end came. Even then, he made an effort to appear once at least in the house of God every Sabbath day, and when he became so frail that he could not walk the distance of about three miles, he engaged a conveyance to bring him there. It was very evident that he could say with the Psalmist: “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” At last he had to give up going altogether. On the 29th day of April (which was the week of their Communion at Kames), he became seriously ill early in the morning. His brother, Mr. Allan MacLachlan, was immediately summoned to his bedside. When he arrived, and perceived that the end was near, he asked him: “What is your hope for eternity?” He replied: “I am resting on the finished work of Christ.” Thus, the humble and upright John MacLachlan departed to be with Christ on the 30th day of April, 1920. His remains were interred in the burial-place called Kilmichael, in the island of Bute, on the Monday following, to rest there till the great day of the Lord.

We desire to express our sincere sympathy with each member of his family, and with all his relatives and friends, also with the congregation of Kames. May the Lord raise up from among the young in that congregation men to fill the places of those taken away!

N. C.

PAUL tells us “he died daily”; he was ever sending more and more of his heart out of this world, so that by the time he came to die, all his affections were packed up and gone, which made him the more ready to follow. “I am ready to be offered up,” says he. If it be but a tooth to pull out, the faster it stands, the more pain in drawing. Oh! loosen the roots of thy affections from the world, and the tree will more easily fall.—Gurnall.

“A Lamb of the Flock.”

IT is with great sorrow that we have to record the death of a promising young believer in the person of Mary M’Angus, second daughter of William M’Angus, Hilton, Fearn, Ross-shire. She passed away, at the age of eighteen years, on the 20th of October. We learn that from early childhood she was given to prayer, in which she had great belief. For five weeks before the end came, she was confined to bed, and suffered greatly. She used to say that this was the lot appointed her, but that her sufferings were nothing in comparison with what the Lord Jesus suffered. Her last moments were free of pain, and she said distinctly three times, “The door is open,” and with a smile of peace she passed into the presence of the Lord. She urged her young friends to pray for mercy, while they had health and strength, so that death would not find them unprepared. May the young remember their latter end, and may the death of young believers lead them to seek earnestly a saving interest in Christ!

We desire to express our deepest sympathy with the father, brother, and sisters of the deceased in their loss. J. M.

Searmon Allachaidh.

LE MR. EOIN UELSH.

(Air a leantuin o t. d. 219.)

“Ciod bhur barail’se? an e nach d’thig e chum na feisde?”—EOIN xi. 56.