BY THE REV. NEIL CAMERON
“And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”
(II. Cor. v. 19).
THE Lord of His great goodness and mercy has spared us to see the beginning of another year. When we look back over past years how like the barren fig tree we have been in the Lord’s vineyard. The patience and long-suffering of the Lord towards us in our daring transgression of His law and in despising and rejecting of Christ in the Gospel astonishes the angels of glory. May the Lord, by His Word and Spirit, cause that our rebellion and unbelief may become grief of heart and also shame and confusion of face to us all in this new year upon which we have entered to-day.
Let us consider:—
I. Reconciliation.
(1) This word means, to bring parties who are at variance to an agreement or union. Man, by his disobedience to God’s command and by obeying Satan, broke for ever, so far as he was concerned, the peace that existed between him and God. He became an enemy to God in his mind most unjustly and wickedly, and he would continue in that state and condition for ever had not God provided a way by which He could be just in reconciling guilty men to Himself. Let us seriously lay to our hearts that there is only one way by which God offers reconciliation to the sinful children of men, and that every sinner who will die without repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, which God demands of men—”Repent and believe the gospel”—shall be irretrievably lost for ever.
(2) The Lord Jesus Christ came into this sinful world, and took upon Himself the sins of all that shall be saved, and endured all the divine wrath and curse that were to be their portion for ever. This is the marrow of the gospel; for therein is the love, mercy, and grace of God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—revealed and bestowed upon men through the gospel. This is set forth repeatedly and in many ways in God’s Word. It is clearly set forth in Psalm lxxviii. 18: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” We read in the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians iv. 11 of these gifts: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” In this way God reconciles sinners to Himself. All who are reconciled are convinced of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment by the Holy Spirit, and are enabled by Him and by the grace of God conveyed to their hearts not only to repent of their sins but to believe in Christ as the only Saviour of the lost, and the only way to the Father. Peace with God through faith in Christ crucified for them flows into their consciences and hearts; in other words, they are reconciled to God. All that are saved are thus reconciled and not otherwise.
(3) But such as are sent forth to the ministry of reconciliation are called by the Holy Spirit to that work over and above their effectual calling. This is clearly revealed both in the Old and New Testaments. This was true in the case of Moses; in the case of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, etc. It was also true of the apostles—”Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” It was true of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch. It is true yet. We believe that all who are called by the Spirit for the ministry of reconciliation are equipped by Him for the office of the ministry, and are made willing to go forth, and also encouraged to do so by some portion of God’s Word brought into their mind by the Holy Spirit. I should be very sorry to harass any who have been truly sent; but I am sure if such as may be in doubt as to this matter will search carefully, seriously, and prayerfully, they will find that they passed through two calls—one by which they were brought to repentance and faith, another by which they were thrust out to work in God’s great harvest, as Aaron was called.
(4) It is also made very manifest that both in Old and New Testament times there were many false prophets, who ran but were not sent. Such have been the cause of all the backsliding and misery that the Church of God has had to pass through in all the ages of time. It is the cause of all the backsliding of the Church in our time also. God never committed the ministry of reconciliation to any who were not reconciled to Himself by Jesus Christ; for without it they are ignorant of the real gospel. These men lead the people away from the true gospel of the grace of God unto another gospel—a gospel upon which the curse of God rests. Such have led the people away from the true God to idolatry and to all forms of sin in the past, and they do so with a vengeance in our day in Scotland. But as we will have to say a little about this later on we will not follow the matter further here.
II. The Ministry of Reconciliation.
(1) The term minister means a servant, not of men but of Jesus Christ. Christ bound His disciples when He sent them to all nations by the formula: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” It is on the condition that they would act up to this command that He promised:—”And lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. Amen.” Be it observed that they were prohibited by a strict command not to teach their own notions or opinions, but what they found in God’s Word. It is clear that this command binds Christ’s servants still, and will continue to do so till the end of the world. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Church at Corinth, declares that he received of the Lord that which also he delivered unto them; meaning that it was not on any other authority but Christ’s he did and taught everything among them. So every minister of the Church of Christ should be able to prove from the Word of God that all he teaches the people is solidly based upon the inspired Scriptures of the whole Bible. The Bible is the depository out of which all the doctrines taught, and the form of worship, government, and discipline of the Church of Christ must be taken by its ministers. But men began to broach very ruinous doctrines and practices in the Church even in the Apostolic age. The true ministers of Christ had no small contentions with such men, who were in every case endeavouring to father their heresies on the Bible. As one after another of these heretical views was disproved by God’s Word, and cast out of the Church, the true meaning of the Scriptures became established. This was how the dogmatical creed of the Church took its origin. The Westminster Confession of Faith was compiled not only to set forth what was proved to be the true meaning of the Bible, but also as a safeguard against all heresies controverted and proved to be false down through the past ages. To this Confession of Faith in all its articles, and to the form of worship, government, and discipline of the Church of the Reformation in Scotland all its office-bearers voluntarily bound themselves by what was acknowledged to be equivalent to an oath.
(2) We observe in our text that they are designated “Ambassadors.” An ambassador is “a minister of the highest order sent by one sovereign power to another.” The ambassadors of Christ are sent by Him with conditions upon which rebels in the Kingdom of Satan are offered free pardon, and the privilege of being received by God into His everlasting Kingdom of Grace and Glory. The ambassador of Christ has the most responsible position that can be imagined. He is sworn to be faithful to his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has to be faithful to the souls of his fellow-men. The terms of reconciliation are clearly stated, and he is bound on his oath that he will not change them in the least. The terms are:—”Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon”; or in other words:—”Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” They are to compel them to come out of the Kingdom of Satan in which all are by nature, not by physical force, but by persuasion and in a beseeching way. But they are not allowed to change the terms. It must be absolute surrender on the sinner’s part; casting away the arms of rebellion and a forsaking of Satan’s service with his whole heart, never to return to it for evermore. The ambassador may expect to be subjected to all opprobriums, slanders, enmity, and persecution even unto death, should he be faithful to Christ and to never-dying souls. He must not, in order to avert these trials, change his opposition to the sinful practices of Satan’s slaves in sin; but must continue to “tell the wicked that it shall be ill with him” if he forsake not his ways. Far less must he join the wicked in their sins in order that he may not be called a narrow-minded bigot. He must not only tell the sinner that the pleasures of sin will bring him to hell, in the pulpit, and after that indulge himself in dancing, whist drives, theatre-going, Sabbath profanation, etc., etc. Satan has got plenty so-called ambassadors who encourage poor sinners to continue in sin by the old and too successful lie of Satan: “Ye shall not surely die,” should they disobey God’s command. Alas! how many are in this generation of such traitors? who do their utmost to advance Satan’s Kingdom under the cloak of being Christ’s ambassadors. But Christ declares how He will deal with such men on the dreaded day: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
III. The trust committed to these ministers and ambassadors—the Word of Reconciliation; in other words, the whole Bible as it is of a truth the God-breathed Word.
(1). They are bound to declare the whole counsel of God to men. The Apostle Paul did not shun his duty in this matter:—”I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” Writing to Timothy, when he lay under the sentence of death in Rome for the gospel of God which he had preached, we see that instead of warning him of the danger to which he would expose himself should he act as he did, he addresses him thus:—”I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.” This was not only Paul’s warning and advice to Timothy, but also the advice and warning of God, the Holy Spirit. Timothy is also enjoined:—”Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” These things are not written for Timothy only, but also for the ambassadors of Christ till the end of time. It is by so doing that they shall save themselves from the most awful consequences of ruining themselves and them that hear them. “Thus saith the Lord,” was the ground upon which all the Lord’s prophets in Old Testament times warned their hearers to listen to their words, because they were God’s words, and of the awful consequences of their refusing to do so. The same is true of all Christ’s true Ambassadors under the New Testament dispensation. Prophets, and Apostles, and ministers, who were God’s true servants could say:—”Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” This is what Peter meant when he said:—”To whom shall we go; for thou hast the words of eternal life.” Christ and Him crucified, held forth in the gospel, is all in all to the ambassadors of the kingdom of God; for they are sure that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
(2). But we observe in our text that God had not only committed the ministry of reconciliation to His Ambassadors, but also the Word, that is the whole Bible. It is quite evident that He has not committed His Word to the men, who tear it to pieces in our day like Jehoiakim, King of Judah, who burnt Jeremiah’s prophecy in the fire after cutting it with his pen-knife. But God has commanded His Word to a thousand generations, and He will take good care of it till He has accomplished by it all that He purposed to do. He has done so in past ages, and He will assuredly do so in this infidel generation. When that cannot be done otherwise He will have men ready to act like the nobleman in France. When the King of France’s order to arrest all the Protestants was issued, officers came to this gentleman’s mansion to arrest him. He got time to run out to his garden at the back of the house, dug a hole, and buried his Bible in it. He was arrested and haled to prison. Somehow he got out of the prison, made straight for the garden, digged up his Bible, and fled to England with it. When matters came to such a pass in the Free Church of Scotland that men had to choose whether they were prepared to continue in Church fellowship with her after the highest places in her colleges and pulpits were handed over to rationalists, who taught that the Bible was of human authorship, and that it was full of errors and immoralities; and when no discipline could be put into practice against these infidels in her courts, men had to make their choice how to act then. It became quite evident that if men were to follow the Free Church in her downward career, they would have no divinely inspired, infallible Bible and no Confession of Faith. This was declared to the people by some of her ministers time and again. But when men had to prove by their deeds whether they would part with money and property in order to maintain and defend God’s Word and the original Creed and Constitution of the Free Church, only two of the many hundreds of ministers within the pale proved that it was the Word of God that was committed to them by the Lord, and not money and property. Others who were very loud as to what they would do in defence of the Bible and the Confession of Faith, became dumb when they saw that they had to choose which to lose—the Bible and Confession of Faith or their manses and salaries. Some of those refused to enter into a union with the United Free Church in 1900, and raised an action in the civil courts for the property of the Church (which they gained) and made a great deal of their own faithfulness. Faithfulness in what? In having clung to the property in order to make sure that they would not, if at all possible, lose it. Well, if it was property that the Lord committed to them, they can say to the Lord Jesus on the great day of judgment, “we have kept faithfully that which thou hast committed to us.” But it was not property that the Lord committed to Revs. D. Macfarlane and D. Macdonald, but the Word, and they did act like the noble Frenchmen in taking good care that they would not lose the Bible whatever became of property. These men were like David in Psalm cxix., 105-6: “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path; I have sworn and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments”; they had also given their oath that they would hold by the Bible and Confession of Faith even should persecution become their lot. They held by God’s Word, and let the world go, as our forefathers did before them. Are we without houses to dwell in and churches to worship our God in? It would amaze you were you to be told of the amount of money raised in our comparatively small and poor Church for building churches and manses. Are we poorer than our neighbours on account of that? Did not the Lord fulfil His promise to us? — “Verily I say unto you, there is no man who left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the Kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.” So you see that there is no loss in time or eternity for leaving everything and everybody in order to adhere to Christ and His Word, for “the earth belongs unto the Lord and all that it contains.” It is written—“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
(3) The majority of the Declaratory Act Church (as stated above) lost the whole of the funds and property of the Free Church by a decision of the House of Lords. In delivering the decision of the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor—Lord Halsbury—stated that the United Free Church was a creedless Church. This was a reasonable conclusion on account of the fact that that Church claimed the right to change her creed when and as often as she desired to do so. This was an amazing blow to the United Free Church. But the case was taken up in Parliament, and an Act was passed by which the most of the funds and property were restored again to the United Free Church—the party who refused to enter the Union were held entitled by the Act to a certain proportion of the spoil. Hints about union with the Established Church began to be mooted then. The first step taken publicly and actually in this direction was in a clause added to the aforesaid Act of Parliament for the allocation of the property and funds of the Old Free Church. This clause, inserted by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, into the Act, was to relieve the ministers and elders of the Established Church of their vow to “assert, maintain, and defend the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith.” This was the first fundamental step of the Established Church of Scotland from her ancient and scriptural moorings. The fact that her office-bearers could not take the above stated relief (why should they desire or have it? is amazing!) without an Act of Parliament, shows the value of being established. By it a vital part of the settlement at the Reformation of the Church was removed; and that at a perilous time when the Scriptures were in the melting pot of infidels and rationalists, and the Confession of Faith shelved by the most of the ministry. A free hand was now given to enter into negotiations for union with the United Free Church. Committees were re-appointed and “Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in Matters Spiritual,” were agreed to by a majority or by all of the Presbyteries of the Church. These articles were “passed into a binding law and constitution” in the Assembly of 1921; and an Act of Parliament was passed that year legalising these articles. While some of the declarations so framed and ratified are not openly destructive of the creed of that Church, they are very serious when they are looked upon from the point of view of the well known heterodoxy of the compilers of them. For instance—”This Church has the inherent right, free from interference by the Civil Authority, but under the safeguards for deliberate action and legislation provided by the Church itself, to frame or adopt its subordinate standards, to declare the sense in which it understands its confession of Faith, to modify the forms of expression therein, or to formulate other doctrinal statements, and to define the relation thereto of its office-bearers and members, but always in agreement with the Word of God and the fundamental doctrines of the Confession of Faith contained in the said Confession, of which agreement the Church shall be the sole judge (italics mine), and with due regard to liberty of opinion in points which do not enter into the substance of the Faith.” This shows that the Establishment of religion is a thing of the past in Scotland, and that the Confession of Faith, Form of Church Government, Form of Worship, etc., are now left at the caprice of men to change them or to make new ones in their place, and that they themselves are to be “the sole judge.” Thus the principle of Establishment has been abandoned by that Church; but they took good care of the endowment. The United Free Church, the other party to the union, passed by a large majority many years ago, a Report of their “Social Problems Committee” in which these most extraordinary statements appear—”Why do we need the Old Testament at all? The answer to that is perhaps we don’t need the Old Testament.” Again, the same report says: — “Possibly the amount of Scripture which is thus living, and which actually operates in the lives of some Christians, might turn out to be a little more than a tenth of the whole.” The United Free Church has not repealed yet, so far as the writer saw or heard, the adoption of these statements and many others of the same kind contained in the Report. Still, not a word has been heard during the negotiations for union on either side as to such atheistic views of the Bible. In fact the inspiration of it is denied altogether in the Report. Still this did not stand in the way of union. Is this union in the truth? Great praise was lavished on the leaders of this union. They are evidently men of learning and ability; but evidently they lack the insight into the true meaning of God’s truth and principles revealed therein; the integrity of conscience to act in accordance with that truth and these principles in every thing about the affairs of the Church of God, which characterised the Reformers of the Church of Scotland. The following portion of God’s Word occurred to the writer in this connection: — “A man was famous according as he lifted up axes upon the thick trees.” These were the builders of the House of the Lord. “But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.” Give an axe and a hammer to a rustic with strong arms, who sees no beauty in exquisite carved work, and he will soon smash the whole thing to pieces. The men who broke down the creed and constitution of the Church of Scotland must be rustics spiritually, and being ignorant of the spiritual carving of the Lord’s temple and of its beauty, they broke it down. They may be held in estimation now; but when the Lord returns to build Zion again in Scotland, the writer believes that their memory will be execrated. We desire to call special attention to the fact that several long steps have been taken by this Church of Scotland before and since the Union, towards idolatry and the Church of Rome. The Roman Catholic cross has been displayed outside several churches in Glasgow; images of the Virgin with Child and saints have been introduced to churches in Edinburgh; and prayers for the dead are publicly offered. These things and many others not mentioned here are alarming, especially as the most of the people of this country are quite apathetic regarding the scripturalness or otherwise of this conduct of the Churches. In the opinion of the writer, this Union will greatly accelerate the down grade of Christianity in Scotland, and will lead more of the people to infidelity and non-Church going, and the rest to a form of godliness while denying its power. Episcopacy, from which our godly ancestors in Scotland suffered for fifty years, contending to blood during twenty-eight of these, is gaining ground among the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and no one seems to feel alarmed. Our forefathers, who were men of backbone and conscience for God’s truth, and who held that Episcopal Church government is contrary to the order set up by our Lord and His Apostles in the New Testament Church, would not submit to it even when enforced by the sword. They gained the day at the Revolution Settlement and, on account of their faithfulness and intrepidity, we have had civil and religious liberty. But we are selling our birth-right like Esau for less than a mess of pottage. Those noble men and women laboured, and we have entered into their labours. Their fame will be savoury in this country while it will be inhabited by men and women who will value civil and religious liberty; if that be not so, the people of Scotland will have become slaves, and they will very well deserve it. Let us remember that what the Lord committed to His ambassadors is “the Word;” and that our aim is to observe whether men hold to it or not in this country at the present time.
(4.) The Free Church of Scotland, by one of her Presbyteries, has remitted to her General Assembly to be held next May, a resolution aiming at another union. The O.S. Church, the R.P. Church, and the F.P. Church are by it to be invited to unite with the Free Church. When the first movement for union with the Free Church was brought before the Synod of our Church in November 1900, it was decided that such a step “was premature”—the motion asking that a committee be appointed to confer with the Free Church, it was withdrawn. On the 15th December 1905, a motion was brought up by Rev. John Macleod, Kames, asking that a committee be appointed to confer with the Free Church aenent union, which was seconded by Mr W. R. T. Sinclair, Edinburgh. The writer, Rev. Neil Cameron, Glasgow, proposed an amendment as follows:—
“This Synod refuses to consider a motion for union with any Church which does not hold the absolute infallibility of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, both in her profession and practice, etc.”
“In support of his motion, Mr Cameron said he was not opposed to union, and as soon as a Church could be found fulfilling the requirements of the motion he had submitted, he would consider it his duty to consider the matter of union with it; but that although the Free Church made ample profession as regards her maintaining both, they were very faulty in their practice.”
This motion was seconded by Rev. A. Macrae, Portree. Eighteen voted for the amendment, and five for the motion. Those that supported the motion went over to the Free Church. Again, in the month of August 1916, the Free Church appointed a committee to confer with the Free Presbyterian Church for union. At the meeting of our Synod in Glasgow, May 1917, the following motion (which we curtail for want of space) was moved by Rev. Neil Cameron:—(1) The Free Church has never explicitly condemned the views advocated by Dr W. M. Alexander in “Demonic Possession.” (2) The Free Church, by making a declaration that “she had always adhered “to the Confession of Faith as adopted in 1846, is thereby justifying their continuing under the Declaratory Act, and condemns the separation in 1893 of the Free Presbyterian Church. (3) That the Free Church admitted into their ministry men from Churches holding very latitudinarian views. (4) That the Free Church has been lax in her general discipline and practice—by holding church bazaars, sales of work, church soirees and social meetings, prayers at the grave, and a popish symbol in a window of one of their churches. These differences were sent to the Free Church Assembly desiring them to remove them. But instead of taking any steps to have these unscriptural and unpresbyterian objections to union out of the way, they sent a very evasive reply, which was not deep enough to hide its bottom. So, at the Synod of 1918, the Free Presbyterian Church brought the insincere movement to an end. Four of our ministers went over to the Free Church in November of 1918. All the objectionable things which we pointed out as differences between them and us, which would prevent us, without their removal, from considering union with them, are carried on in the Free Church still. Those ministers who went over from us have become quite dumb about those unscriptural innovations. Instead of an improvement in the profession and practice of the Free Church the contrary is true. To give one instance or more of this:—In the “Evangelical Quarterly” of last April (Revs. J. R. Mackay, D.D., and Donald Maclean, D.D., are its co-ioint editors) the second part of an article on the resurrection of Christ, by Rev. W. M. Alexander, D.D., appeared, in which it is stated four times that the last twelve verses of the Gospel by Mark are an appendix. Mr Mackay must have changed his mind very much as regards the authenticity of these verses since the writer had a talk with him before he went to the Free Church. The writer desires to warn him of the danger to which he exposes himself by departing from the orthodox stand made by all sound divines in the past as to this unsound conclusion. Taking all the evidence into serious consideration, the proper conclusion must be that these verses formed part of Mark’s gospel when it was written at the beginning. The writer would warn Mr Mackay to abstain in future from attending services under any pretence where Popish ceremonies are countenanced such as prayers for the dead, etc., as he did in St. Giles, Edinburgh, on 11th November, 1929. It has appeared now that he did not countenance prayers for the dead that day. The Free Church persistently declares that there is no difference between the creed and constitution of the two Churches. If they believe that, why do they take every opportunity that opens to break up congregations of this Church? For example at Obbe, Harris, and at Portree, etc. One feels constrained to come to the conclusion that what they really aim at is the wiping out of the Free Presbyterian Church. Hitherto, they have not been, in the least, successful in their efforts, and if the Free Presbyterian Church will adhere steadfastly to her scriptural position, no power of men or Satan can prevail against her. Another thing in which the Free Church acts with very lax hand is the manner in which they observe to keep the Sabbath day holy. Statements are made by her as to the need of doing this; but in her practice, as in many other things, these statements are not carried out. These few observations are made on account of the fact that the Free Church endeavours to make people believe that the fault, why a union should not take place between the two Churches, is entirely ours. We separated from the Free Church in 1893, not only for the change made in her creed by the Declaratory Act, but also on account of the corruption in her worship and practice. We have not repented yet of having done it, and we do not expect that we will have any reason to repent in the future. Why should we go back to these heathen practices in order to unite with the present Free Church, the writer cannot conceive. Let our motto be—”First pure and then peaceable.”