THE prominent place which the Church of Scotland gave to the religious education of the young, alike in the home and the school, from the days of John Knox to the Education Act of 1872, helped in no small degree to give Scotsmen an enviable position among men of every nation. The great leaders of the Church took a broad, comprehensive view of what education meant, and laid the foundations deep. To them man had a soul as well as a body, and the soul required to be disciplined and trained as surely as the body, and so, in their educational system, religious instruction formed a very important part of the school curriculum. At the head of many of the parish schools, mean though the surroundings were, there were to be found men of deep religious convictions, who shaped the character, outwardly at anyrate, of the scholars passing through their hands. These humble, thatch-covered buildings were the centres from which a fine moral influence was exercised over the minds of the young of the community. The Bible and the Shorter Catechism were known to every child who passed through the parish schools of Scotland. When the State took over the education of the young in 1872, unfortunately, religious instruction did not get the place in the 1872 Act which was its due, and when the much-discussed Act of 1918, which has been so severely criticised for its extravagant schemes, came into existence, Mr. Munro, the Secretary for Scotland, of whom better things were expected, only inserted a clause, after pressure was brought to bear on him, continuing “use and wont” where an Education Authority so desired. Generally speaking, it may be said, the majority of the people of Scotland are desirous that their children should have religious instruction, but there are influences at work in the larger centres of industry and among the teaching profession that are inimical to the “use and wont” of religious instruction being continued in the day schools. Socialism of the atheistic type is naturally averse to all such instruction, and it is particularly aggressive especially in the large industrial areas.
In the teaching profession also there is a strong driving power that is determinedly set against “use and wont.” It would be unjust to say that this section of the Educational Institute wishes to have no religious instruction in the school, for this they deny; but there can be little doubt that this section, whose views are being expressed through the Educational Institute of Scotland, has set their faces against the system of religious instruction which has so long prevailed in Scotland. Recently the Institute drew up a Statement on Religious Instruction in Schools, which was submitted to the Joint Council of Education Authorities and Teachers. In this statement the Institute suggests that teachers who are indifferent to religion, or who have religious doubts, ought not to be asked to teach. Much can be said in favour of this, but a question arises: Ought a teacher of this cast of mind to accept an appointment under an Authority where it is clearly understood religious instruction is to be given? The Institute suggest further that, inasmuch as teachers in secondary schools are specialists by training, they may have reasonable misgivings as to their competence to teach in a province in which they are not specialists. This is sheer nonsense, and a more biting term might be applied to it. Teachers are not asked to give teaching that can only be given by theological and biblical experts. The Shorter Catechism is a source of great trouble to some teachers, and the Institute suggest that the teaching of a catechism is pedagogically unsound, and is apt to hurt the consciences of many teachers. Examination by outsiders is another great offence to the Institute. They maintain that “examination and inspection by amateurs are specially objectionable.” This is rather hard on the ministers who are usually asked to take the work of examination, and as one of these amateurs, the writer may be allowed to say that where you have conscientious teachers religious instruction will be given as wholeheartedly when there is no examination as when there is; but we are casting no unworthy aspersion on an honourable profession when we say that all teachers are not conscientious, and one does not require to be two or three hours examining a class to discover whether the subject has been taught or not. There are some shirkers in the teaching profession, like all other professions, and the examination day has many a time made that only too plain.
It is to be borne in mind by our readers that those who may be spoken of as the driving power in the Educational Institute of Scotland do not represent the views of the whole teaching profession of Scotland on this vital matter. This section, being aggressive, is more vocal, but we believe that in this matter they are out of sympathy with many of the finest and best minds in the teaching profession—the men and women who adorn their profession. From experience we know how thoroughly religious instruction is given in many of our schools, and nothing can give an examiner greater pleasure than to see how earnestly and devotedly many teachers teach this subject. The education of our children, especially their religious education, is of the greatest importance, and the indifference of the people of Scotland to this matter in recent times is strangely out of keeping with that of our forefathers, and we seem only to be moved when heavy claims are made on our pockets. In a month’s time the election of members for the Education Authorities will take place, and our people should see that only those who will maintain “use and wont”—the Bible and the Shorter Catechism—in the school will receive their votes.
Unfortunately for Scotland, the Churches’ (Established and United Free) Youth Committees with the Educational Institute agreed on a syllabus for religious instruction, which has been pertinently and powerfully exposed by Dr. Baxter, reference to which has already been made in these pages. Its strong leanings to the higher critical views are plainly manifest in the list of books given in the bibliography. The same unhallowed influences are at work in educational circles in England. Recently at a meeting of the Association of University Women Teachers an address was delivered by Canon Barnes, one of the leading lights of the moderns in the Church of England, on “The Problem of Religious Education,” which concluded with the daring utterance, “I have come to the conclusion that an attempt to use such allegories as the creation of woman, the Fall, the Daniel and Jonah stories, for didactic purposes, was highly dangerous. It encouraged the prevalent belief that religious people had a low standard of the truth.” Yes, even church dignatories, we may add, give this impression when they give utterance to such sentiments in the hearing of those who have the training of the young. If teachers are foolish enough to listen to such guides, one cannot but view the future with the deepest concern, as far as the religious instruction of the young is concerned.
Sermon.
Preached by REV. D. MACFARLANE on Sabbath, 28th April, 1918.
“Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee.”—
Song of Solomon i. 3.
THIS book of the Song of Solomon is concerning Christ and His Church. Sometimes we find Christ speaking to His Church or of her. At other times the Church speaks to Him or of Him. In our text it is the Church that speaks, and she speaks to Himself indicating her nearness to Him. In speaking of what she says we have to notice four things:—
I.—The name of Christ.
II.—His name compared to ointment.
III.—His name compared to ointment poured forth; and
IV.—The effect all this has on His people.
According to this arrangement, we shall notice—
I.—His name, by which we understand several things.
(1) It means Himself personally.
1. When you mention the name of a man you mean that man personally. In like manner
the Church means Christ Himself personally when she mentions His name.
2. His attributes and title. With regard to His attributes, He is a “Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
3. Anything by which He makes Himself known as the Creator without whom nothing was made that was made (John i. 3).
(2) As the great Ruler of providence who sits upon the circle of the earth, without whose providence a sparrow shall not fall to the ground.
(3) As Mediator between God and man, He has a name given Him by the Father “which is above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. i. 21). He is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah ix. 6). His name revealed in the word of the gospel is magnified above all His other names. “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). We might enlarge in mentioning more examples of His name given in the Scriptures, but let those given suffice.
II.—His name compared to ointment.
(1) His name is compared to ointment because He is the Anointed One. “Thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed” (Acts iv. 27). The Father anointed Him by the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me” (Isaiah lxi., 1). (2) Because a fulness of grace dwells in Him. Oil is an emblem of grace, as it is spoken of in the parable of the ten virgins. The wise virgins had oil in their lamps—that is, they had grace in their heart, although it was not in exercise while they slept. All the grace believers receive dwells in Christ as the fountain out of whose fulness they all receive. “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell” (Col. i. 19). (3) He is compared to ointment because of His preciousness. We read in Scripture of very precious ointment. Christ is precious to His people. “Unto you, therefore, who believe He is precious” (1 Peter ii. 7). There are ointments which have a healing efficacy. The name of Jesus has a healing efficacy. Thomas was sick for eight days at least, but when Jesus revealed Himself to him he was healed, and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God.” His name has a healing efficacy on His own people, and, more than that, it has the efficacy of quickening those who are dead in trespasses and sins. (4) His name has a moistening effect on His people when they feel themselves dry, hard, and rusty. The people who drive in machines oil the wheels. If they do not do so, they will not run as they would wish. The wheels get stiff and rusty, and the slow movement they make is with a disagreeable noise. So it is with the Lord’s people. If they have to preach or pray they find that their speaking is disagreeable to themselves and to their hearers, but when Christ comes to them the wheels of their soul are oiled, their heart is enlarged, and they run with ease and comfort in the way of His commandments. If they have to pray they find it difficult to express their thoughts in words till their souls are anointed with the unction from on high through His name. Some pray like a machine that can be worked always, but the Lord’s people are not so.
III.—His name as ointment poured forth.
Ointment kept in a corked bottle will do no good till the cork is removed and the ointment poured forth. Christ’s name as the Saviour was hid from men and angels in God’s purpose, till it pleased Him to reveal His purpose of salvation. Christ’s name was revealed—(1) In the first promise given of Him in the garden of Eden to our first parents. This revelation of Christ’s name was a sore blow to Satan, who thought that all the human race would be left to perish like the fallen angels. (2) In the renewal of that promise from time to time till He came into the world at the end of four thousand years. (3) His name was poured forth in His assuming human nature. He was God manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. ii. 16). He took to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul. (4) His name was poured forth in the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament as a type of His sacrifice. (5) His name was poured forth in His death. He poured out His soul unto death, and He Himself says, “I am poured out like water. . . . My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels” (Ps. xxii. 14). We are all subject to death; many are dying daily, but the death of Christ is the death of death. It extinguished the death of His people in eternity, which is the wages of sin. (6) His name is poured into the souls of His people by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Christ is formed in them (Gal. iv. 19). (7) The name of Christ is poured forth in the preaching of the gospel. Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of the gospel. He is the very soul of it. A gospel without Christ is like a dead body without a soul. In preaching the gospel the prophets of old preached Him. The apostles preached Him. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. iv. 5). Not only that the prophets and apostles preached Christ, but all His ministering servants preach Him, and He shall be preached by such to the end of time. There is no true preaching without preaching Christ. To preach our own goodness, our good works, our own sufferings as the ground of salvation is not the gospel. Although many preachers have no better gospel to proclaim to their people than these things, yet the true gospel is good news from heaven. It is the joyful sound which brings true comfort to us in a world of sin and misery. It is the only remedy for all the evils that exist in the world. The preaching of the gospel “is a saviour of life unto life to some and a saviour of death unto death unto others.” If it is not a saviour of life unto life to you it must be a saviour of death unto you. It must be either.
IV.—The effect all this has on His people.
They love Him. “Therefore do the virgins love thee.” Note (1) on this head that His people are called virgins, which implies that they are pure. By nature they are as impure as others having no good thing dwelling in them. But being born again they have a new nature which is pure and cannot sin. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him, and cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John iii. 9). It is not the new nature that sins, but sin in them. “Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. vii. 20). Note (2) that they love Him. They love Him as their best friend who manifested His love to them by dying for them. They love Him as a person whom they know. You will not love a person of whom you are ignorant. They were once ignorant of Him, but now they know Him. “They beheld His glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father” (John i. 14). He is lovable in Himself, and “altogether lovely,” as the Church says, and it is impossible to know Him without loving Him. But those who are ignorant of Him hate Him as the Jews who put Him to death did, and as they to this day do, and curse His name whenever they hear it mentioned. They are under the influence of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, but His own people loved Him, not merely in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. They manifest their love to Him in several ways:—(1) In seeking His fellowship. If you love a fellow-creature you desire to have his company as often as possible. If you love Christ you desire to have communion with Him. (2) They manifest their love to Him by mourning when He is absent. The hearts of the disciples were full of sorrow when Christ told them that He was to leave them. When Christ is absent they refuse to be comforted till He comes to them, as Jacob refused to be comforted by his son and daughter when Joseph was taken from him, as he thought, by death. (3) They manifest their love to Him by serving Him and doing His will as dutiful children obey their parents because they love them. (4) They love His people because they are His people. When they were in a state of nature they did not love God’s people, but hated them, although some in that state respect the Lord’s people for their good conduct, and this is true especially of those who are afterwards changed by the grace of God. If you have a warm side to the Lord’s people it may be a forerunner of your being added to their number. There is natural love and spiritual love. Among men children of the same family love one another, or be comforted by his sons and daughter when Joseph was taken the same family, and love one another and manifest their love in doing everything in their power for the good of one another. When one member suffers all the other members suffer in sympathy with it. And when one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. xii. 26). (5) They love His word. They love the Bible more than any other book; it is their constant companion and guide on their way to the Father’s house in heaven. They meditate upon it day and night, and find good for their souls; while others love books written concerning worldly matters. If you love such books more than the Bible it is a mark that you are none of God’s people, but if you love Christ you love His Word, law, and gospel from beginning to end. (6) They love His cause in the world, and do all in their power to advance it. While others are indifferent as to whether it is prospering or declining while they are very diligent about their worldly concerns. They mourn when His cause is in a low condition, and they rejoice when it is revived, and when even one sinner is brought to repentance and added to the Church.
In conclusion, what think ye of the name of Christ in the several aspects of which we have spoken of it. Is He precious to you in His person, in His people, and in the revelation He has given of Himself in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments? Do you love Him and manifest your love in a way becoming the gospel, or is He still despised and rejected of you? What do you do for the coming of His kingdom in the world? These are questions you ought to consider in order to ascertain whether you are of the number of His people or still in a state of sin and misery. We leave these questions with you, in the hope that they may be blessed to you, which is our earnest desire.