| | PAGE |
|——————————————————————————————————-|——|
| The Use of the New Testament Term, “Saint” | 441 |
| A Sermon, by the Late Rev. D. Macfarlane, Dingwall | 443 |
| A Short Sermon on Dress | 451 |
| Kitty Smith | 452 |
| Notices of the Martyrs and Confessors of Lesmahagow, by the
Rev. Charles Thomson, of North Shields | 456 |
| Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.) | 460 |
| How the Translation of the New Testament was Received at
Luanza, Central Africa | 464 |
| The Alleged Gloom of the Scottish Sabbath and the Covenanter | 465 |
| A Word to the Tempted | 467 |
| Encamping at Alush | 468 |
| The Late Donald Ross, Elder, Hilton, Fearn | 469 |
| Notes and Comments | 470 |
| Church Notes | 473 |
| Acknowledgment of Donations | 475 |
| The Magazine | 476 |
| Title Page—Vol. XXXIV. | i |
| Contents—Vol. XXXIV. | iii |
PRINTED AT THE
“COURIER” OFFICE, INVERNESS
THE Free Presbyterian Magazine And MONTHLY RECORD.
VOL. XXXIV.
April 1930.
No. 12
The Use of the New Testament Term, “Saint.”
THOSE who have given themselves to the interesting study of the history of words know that many of them have wandered far from their original meaning. This is also true of quite a number of Bible words, for instance, “prevent” (to go before), “let” (to hinder), “carriage” (baggage), “careful” (anxious), etc. Among these may be reckoned the term “saint.” In its present connotation it suggests to us a person who lives a life of devoted piety and holiness, but in the New Testament it refers to all believers who have been sanctified, set apart to the service of Christ. Latimer, in one of his sermons, says: “All faithful Christ’s people, that believe in Him faithfully, are saints and holy.” The modern meaning of the term is to a large extent due to the Roman Catholic teaching of canonization. In the canonization of certain teachers of the Church and famous leaders the Church of Rome has attached to the designation “saint” a certain standard of sanctity of the Romish type.
For the correct usage and signification of the term we have a sure and safe guide in the New Testament. The term (hoi hagioi, holy ones) as applied to members of the Church is used in the plural with one single exception (Phil. iv. 21). The word occurs no less than 60 times. Its adjectival form (hagios, holy) is applied to three, and three only, individual persons in the New Testament, and these are the three persons of the Trinity—”Holy
Father” (John xvii. 11); “thy holy child Jesus” (Acts iv. 27, 30); “Holy Spirit” (Matt. i. 18); and “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” (Rev. iv. 8).
The New Testament never uses the word “holy” (hagios) in speaking of any individual, but of persons of the Trinity only, and when the saints are designated as the “holy ones” (hoi hagioi) the plural form is used.
It is much to be regretted that the translators of 1611 followed the Romish practice of speaking of the Evangelists and Apostles as saints, e.g., St Matthew, St Luke, etc. In the Greek MS. the word for “saint” is absent. The Gaelic translation kept to the MSS. and rejected the Romish practice by simply saying: “An Soisgeul a reir Mhata” (the Gospel according to Matthew), etc. In the Roman Catholic Gaelic Version of the New Testament, however, we have:—”Soisgeul Naomh Iosa Criosta air reir Naomh Matu.”
Our quarrel with the Romish practice is not because we have any hesitation in regarding the Evangelists and Apostles as “saints,” but because of the unscriptural view held by the Church of Rome in their canonization. Careful readers will have noticed that none of the Old Testament saints have been canonized by the Church of Rome; that honour is reserved for the New Testament writers. The explanation of this is to be found in the Romish doctrine that maintains that the Old Testament believers when they died did not go to heaven but to the “Limbus Patrum.” Hence we never read of St Isaiah, St Jeremiah, St Ezekiel, etc. We object to this distinction made by the Church of Rome, and reject as unscriptural the grounds on which she canonized the New Testament writers and refuse to follow her lead in this partial and unscriptural canonization. Of course it may be said that we read of St David and St Enoch, but these belonged to the Celtic Church, and are not the well-known believers of the Old Testament whose names they bear. It has been well said that “All who wish to be scriptural, and to follow the well-known practice of the Primitive Church, should be very careful in referring to the Apostles, the Evangelists, and other New Testament characters (not to say the early so-called Fathers) to avoid giving them the prefix of “Saint,” whether in announcing the lessons in divine worship, or in quoting the inspired writers in preaching, as well as on all occasions either public or private. It will assuredly be no loss to these holy men to be deprived of a title never joined to
their names in the Bible, or in any of the writings of the Primitive Church, but introduced in corrupt ages by the Church of Rome, and which that apostate system has delighted to bestow, even down to our day, on cruel persecutors and grossly immoral writers!”
A Sermon.
BY THE LATE REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. And shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John v. 28, 29).
IN the afternoon we were preaching from the 25th verse: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” That text speaks of the spiritual resurrection of the soul that is by nature dead in trespasses and in sins. In our text this evening Christ speaks of the literal resurrection of the body that is dead in the grave. As there was an hour when the spiritually dead were to be raised to life there is an hour in which all that are in their graves shall be raised to life again. That hour no one knows but God only.
In treating the subject we shall speak of:
I. The hour of the resurrection of all that are in their graves.
II. The means by which they shall be raised to life—the voice of the Son of God; and
III. What follows the resurrection of the dead—the final judgment of the quick and the dead.
I. The hour of the resurrection of all that are in their graves. Although none but God knows that hour, we learn from Scripture that many events are to take place before that hour comes.
(1.) In II. Thessalonians, ii. it is predicted that a great apostasy from the faith was to take place, which has been accomplished in the Man of Sin and his followers. This apostasy began after the Apostles had been removed from the world to the rest that remains to God’s people, and is still in existence. Another great apostasy took place before this one—namely, that of the
Jews who had forsaken the faith—rejected the Saviour, and are now nearly 2000 years shut up in unbelief. In our own day on apostacy from the doctrines of God’s Word has taken place in many of the Churches of the Reformation. How long that apostacy shall continue we cannot tell, but we are strongly of the opinion that it shall last for several generations. Oh! how many precious souls in these Churches shall be lost in eternity during that period. Paul, in his I. Epistle to Timothy, speaks of a time coming when people would not endure sound doctrine, but turn their ears from the truth to fables. This apostacy was to be brought about by false teachers. who would be numerous. They shall be in heaps, as they really are in the present day, as compared with those who teach the truth. The late Dr Kennedy, who gave many faithful warnings, said that there was a time coming when a minister who preached the doctrines of God’s Word would be in danger of his life for preaching the truth.
(2.) Another great event which was to take place was that the Gospel would be preached to all nations before the end of the world. It may be said that this is now a fact, although there are many in the world who have not yet heard the Gospel message, yet the Gospel has reached all the nations of the world, and it is a good sign that the Bible has been translated into the different languages of all nations, of which there are about 500, so that all may read the Bible in their own language. Surely this is a preparation for the glorious days to come when all nations shall serve the Lord, though this is lamentably neglected by our own nation to their own hurt—“For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.”
(3.) Another glorious event is to take place before the hour spoken of in our text comes—namely, the millenium. The millenium may begin like a grain of mustard seed, but shall go on gradually till “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is. xi. 9). Satan shall be bound for 1000 years, and idolatry, which is the worshipping of the creature, together with all other systems of error and superstition, shall be swept away from the earth. There was before Christ came in the flesh a great shaking of nations, according to Scripture, and before He comes in the power of the Spirit to revive and advance His cause
in the world, a great shaking of nations shall precede that event. During the millenium all kings shall be godly, and “Kings shall be nursing fathers to the Church and queens nursing mothers,” but in the present day it is deplorable to think that there is not perhaps any godly king or queen in the world so far as we know.
(4.) Another event which is to take place is the loosing of Satan at the end of the thousand years. He shall then go forth to deceive the nations of the world, and because he knows his time is short, he shall work with all his might. How does Satan know that his time is short? He knows it from the Bible, he said to Christ when he was tempting Him in the wilderness. “It is written.” Satan knows the Bible better than many in Dingwall, who, though they have that book, do not read it. Satan shall proceed with his evil work till he has succeeded in deceiving all the nations of the world. When shall he begin his work of deception? So far as the Church is concerned, he will begin in the pulpit, where all errors begin, and the evil effect of the pulpit will descend to the elders, members, and adherents. With respect to the nations he will begin in the throne. He shall deceive kings, and the evil influence of these shall affect the subjects, and then he shall incite the nations he had deceived to persecute and destroy, if possible, the Lord’s people, who are the fruit of the millenium. When these are gathered together in camp he shall come upon them with his great host to destroy them. It is likely that the enemies are armed with all weapons of destruction, while the Lord’s people have only the powerful weapon of prayer, but the Lord himself shall fight for them, He shall send down fire from Heaven to devour them, while His own people are safe. Then at the end of this destruction the final judgment shall begin, for John saw “a great white throne and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them.” It is then that Christ shall come again the second time. Pre-millenarians say that He shall come before then and reign in the world in human nature for 1000 years, but there is no Scripture warrant for that idea. He came first in human nature to work out everlasting redemption for His people, and He shall come again the second time to judge the quick and the dead, but there is no mention in Scripture of His coming a third time. “The heavens must receive Him till the restitution of all things” (Acts iii. 24). When He was
about to leave the world He said to His disciples, “Yet a little while and the world shall see me no more, but ye shall see me, because I live ye shall live also” (John xiv. 19). None saw Him after His resurrection except His own people, but when He shall come again every eye shall see Him—the wicked as well as the righteous. Then cometh the hour mentioned in our text when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth out of their graves.
II. The means by which they shall be raised to life. The voice of the Son of God, a powerful and an almighty voice. None can raise the dead to life but He who is God. The Jews denied that He was the Son of God, but He referred them to the works which He did, which none other than God could do. He raised many persons to life in His state of humiliation, and that by His voice. He said to Lazarus when dead in the grave, Come forth! and he that was dead came forth. It is the same voice that shall raise the dead at the resurrection. There shall be some living at that time who shall not die as we die; His own people shall be changed and taken to heaven like Enoch and Elijah. They shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. They shall have a glorious passage to the Father’s house above, but all the rest shall be raised by the voice of Him who is Almighty, and who created the heavens and the earth by the word of His power. He had power to raise himself from the grave, but it was the Father that raised Him by right. His resurrection was not a question of power but of right. When He paid the debt of His people to justice by the sacrifice of Himself, the Father raised Him from the dead, which was, so to speak, a receipt put in His hand. He left a copy of that receipt to His Church—namely, the Christian Sabbath, which from His resurrection is to be observed to the end of the world. When a man pays a debt he is entitled to a receipt, which he is very careful to preserve, and none but an enemy would try to get hold of the receipt to destroy it. There are many who profess to be the friends of Christ who belie their profession by doing their utmost to destroy or profane the Christian Sabbath. But we speak of the general resurrection of the dead at the last day effected by the voice of Christ. His own people, or rather their bodies, shall be raised first. He who raised them by His voice from their spiritual graves will come to their graves at the morning of the resurrection and say, “Children, it is daylight, rise out of your beds in which you have lain
so long though you did not feel it longer than a moment.” Some of them had a very long sleep. Abel had the longest, and others had a long sleep too. If Christ comes to our grave and speaks to our bodies in such a loving manner as this, we shall have at the resurrection a day that shall never end, an eternal day; no night, no darkness, unbelief or sin then, but a bright day, a warm day, never such a warm day as the resurrection day. The grave was cold and dark, but at the resurrection day it shall be warm and bright. All in their graves, whether buried in the earth or in the sea, from Adam downwards to the last that shall die, shall be raised. Young and old, rich and poor. Not only that His own people shall be raised from their graves, but the wicked shall be raised also. John in the Isle of Patmos saw a vision of the resurrection and of the last judgment. All shall be raised to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Although it is Christ that shall raise them to life He will employ the angels to gather them to His judgment seat. “And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds; from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. xxiv. 31). They shall gather not only the Lord’s people but the wicked also. This is taught in the parable of the wheat and the tares, where He says, “I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt. xiii, 30). There shall be many bundles of the wicked according to the sins in which they lived. Atheists shall be in one bundle, infidels in another, the higher critics in another, murderers in another, persecutors in another, Sabbath-breakers in another: all of them shall be in bundles according to their sins. When all are gathered to the judgment seat of Christ then Christ, who is the Judge, shall as a shepherd divide His sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on the left (Matt. xxv. 32, 33). All good and bad shall be judged; some may ask why the righteous are to be judged seeing that they had been acquitted from all guilt when they were justified. In the Shorter Catechism, which is founded on Scripture, it is stated that they shall be acquitted at the Day of Judgment, but it is to be borne in mind that it is not from any real guilt they shall be acquitted by the Judge, but from all false accusations, scandals, and reproaches cast upon them by the devil and wicked men. The Judge shall acquit them publicly in the pre-
sence and hearing of all of these false charges. Some of the Lord’s people died under false accusations, but they shall be fully acquitted at the Day of Judgment, and the false charges will fall as a heavy load upon those who made them, and they shall lie upon them for ever.
All shall be judged according to what is written in God’s books. The books shall be opened and read publicly, so that all present may hear what is in them. So far as the Lord’s people are concerned there is no guilt in the books against them. Before their justification there was much guilt marked against them in the books, but when they were justified Christ drew the pen, dipped in His own blood, across what was marked against them and, therefore, they are free from guilt and condemnation, but it is otherwise with the wicked on the left hand of the Judge. All their guilt is still in the books, as is the case with those who buy on credit goods from merchants. Merchants mark in their book all that they buy, and this is in their book till payment is made, and if payment is not made, the debtors are sued in the civil courts and fined or punished. So it shall be at the Day of Judgment. The wicked shall be punished with everlasting punishment for their sins. So our text states that they shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. All shall be judged according to their works. The works of the Lord’s people are good, and the works of the wicked are evil. None can do good works till they are first made good themselves. The tree must be good before it can produce good fruit. An evil tree cannot bear good fruit. The sinner must be changed in his nature before he can do good works. Christ the Judge shall pronounce judgment on both parties before Him. He will say to His own people on His right hand: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. xxv. 34); and to those on His left hand: “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The former shall have everlasting life, the latter everlasting death. Everlasting death does not mean annihilation, as some say, nor does it mean, as others hold, that the punishment of the wicked shall come to an end. If the punishment of the wicked shall come to an end the felicity of the righteous must come to an end too, for the word in the original rendered everlasting is the same in both cases. There are men who hold what is called
the Larger Hope, that is to say, that all the wicked cast into hell, including the devil and his angels, shall be taken out of that awful place of punishment to enter heaven, but that is a delusion. The Larger Hope may be held in this world, but those who died holding this view found out by sad experience that there was no Larger Hope in eternity. Hell is a place of everlasting despair. There is no hope for a better state there. There are many ministers who speak of all that die as if they were in heaven, but these ministers are not yet on the way to heaven themselves, and betray their ignorance of the change that the sinner must undergo before he can have a well-grounded hope of going to heaven, for, as Christ says, except a man be born again he cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God.
In conclusion, we have been speaking on a most solemn subject. The resurrection of all that are in their graves and the last judgment of the quick and the dead. We shall not live in the world to the Day of Judgment, but death will decide our state for eternity; as the tree falleth so shall it lie; as death finds us so we shall be at the Day of Judgment. Seek preparation for death. Seek to be found in Christ not having your own righteousness but the righteousness which is by the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. You may forget your sins now, but you may remember them entering the world of eternity. I heard a man “speaking to the question” on the Friday of a Communion. He told that he fell into the sea and reached the bottom, and he was afraid that he was to be drowned, and that all the sins he committed came to his memory as a heavy load, and that if he had been drowned he would have been lost for ever; but he was rescued, and from that day forth he was a changed person. He began to cry for mercy and pardon, and he obtained mercy and was forgiven for the sake of Christ. Christ shall come again, and His coming shall be a terror to the unconverted. They shall be crying to the mountains and rocks to hide them from His presence, but what is a terror to them is a matter of great joy to His own people. They love His appearing, and the last prayer of the Church is: “Even so come Lord Jesus” (Rev. xxii, 29). No tongue of man or angel can describe the blessedness and happiness of the redeemed in heaven, or the misery of the lost in hell. While on earth they are both associated with each other, but in eternity they are separated by an impassable gulf which stands between them for ever. While on earth they are in the
same family, in the same congregation, and perhaps sat together at the Lord’s Table or Communion occasions, but the association was broken at death, never to be repaired. Some of those lost heard the same Gospel by which others were saved, but they rejected Christ, preferring worldly matters to Him, and are now lost. They may have thought that they would receive Him before death, but they allowed the accepted time to pass away, and when it was too late He would not receive them. This reminds me of an anecdote about one of the Dukes of Argyle. It is said that he came in an ordinary garment, and not in that which belonged to him as Duke, to ask a certain lady in the neighbourhood in marriage. She would not have him, she refused the offer he made. Soon, thereafter, there was a large meeting of the nobles of that district. The Duke was present in the attire befitting his station. The lady, who was in high position, went to the meeting also. She observed with admiration the Duke, and she asked who he was. She was told that he was the Duke of Argyle who had asked her in marriage the day before. The lady walked up to the Duke and said that she regretted having refused to marry him, but that she was to-day willing to take him as her husband. The Duke said to her: “You refused the Duke of Argyle yesterday and you will not get him to-day.” Christ may say this to you if you refuse Him to-day; it may be too late to-morrow. Christ in the state of humiliation veiled His glory so that many rejected Him on that account, but now He appears in His glorious apparel, and those who refuse Him on account of His humiliation shall not get Him as their husband in His glorious attire, however much they may regret their refusal of Him as the crucified One who was despised and rejected of men. Know then to-day if you hear His voice harden not your hearts against the Saviour of Sinners. Ah, may we have grace to consider these things. Seek to know Christ that you may be with Him where He is, who says: “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The Lord add His blessing to the preaching of His Word. Amen.
Gold may be gold, and bear the King’s stamp upon it, when it is trampled upon by men.—Samuel Rutherford.
A Short Sermon on Dress
I OFTEN think of the contrary states of my mind during the former and latter part of this service. For awhile, regardless of the worship of God, I looked around me, and was anxious to attract notice to myself. My dress was much above my station, and very different from that which becomes a humble sinner, who has a modest sense of decency and propriety. The state of my mind was visible enough from the foolish finery of my apparel.
At length the preacher gave out his text:—”Be ye clothed with humility.” He showed a comparison between the clothing of the body with that of the soul. I soon began to feel ashamed of my passion for fine dressing, but when he described the garment of salvation with which a Christian is clothed, I felt a powerful discovery of the nakedness of my own soul. I saw that I had neither that humility mentioned in the text, nor any one part of the true Christian character. I looked at my gay dress, and blushed for shame on account of my pride. The minister seemed to be a messenger sent from heaven to open my eyes. I looked at the congregation, and wondered whether anyone else felt as I did. I looked at my heart, and it appeared full of iniquity. I trembled as he spoke, and yet felt a great drawing of heart to the words which he uttered . . . He opened the riches of divine grace in God’s method of saving the sinner. He described the meek, lowly, and humble example of Christ. I felt proud, vain, and self-consequential. He represented Christ as Wisdom; I felt my ignorance. He proved Him to be Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption; I felt that I was a slave to sin, and led captive by the devil. He concluded with an animated address to sinners; warning them to “flee from the wrath to come”; to cast off the love of outward ornaments; and desired that we might be clothed with true humility. From that hour I never lost sight of the value of my soul, and the danger of a sinful state. I inwardly blessed God for the sermon, although my mind was in a state of great confusion. The greatest part of the congregation, unused to such faithful and scriptural sermons, disliked and complained of the severity of the preacher, while a few, as I afterwards found, like myself, were deeply affected, and earnestly desired to hear him again. But he preached there no more.”—Elizabeth Wallbridge, “The Dairyman’s Daughter.”
Kitty Smith.
CATHARINE SMITH was a native of Pabay, a small island in Loch Roag, Skye, where dwelt seven families. From their insular situation and poverty, it had not been in the power of the parents to educate their children; but little Kitty is an example of the truth that all God’s children are taught of Him, for when only two years old she was observed to lay aside her playthings, and clasp her little hands with reverence during family worship; and at the age of three she was in the habit of repeating the 23rd Psalm with such relish and fervour, as showed that she looked to the Good Shepherd in the character of a lamb of His flock. Her parents taught her also the Lord’s Prayer, which she repeated duly, not only at her stated times, but often in the silence of night. She frequently pressed the duty of prayer, not only on the other children, but on her parents, and she told her father that, in their absence, when she would ask a blessing on the food left for the children, her brothers and sisters would mock at, and beat her for doing so. At another time, when she was probably about six years old, she was out with her companions herding cattle, when she spoke to them of the comeliness of Christ. They, probably to tempt her, said He was black. She left them, and returned home much cast down, and said: “The children vexed me very much to-day. I will not go with them, for they said that Christ was black, and that grieved my spirit.” Her parents asked her what she replied to that. “I told them,” she said, “that Christ is white and glorious in His apparel.”
It is probable that Kitty was sufficiently enlightened to discern the moral comeliness of the gracious Redeemer, while her thoughtless comrades did not extend their ideas beyond personal beauty. They would have said anything that might produce the effect of provoking their playfellow, whose more intelligent spirit grieved for them that they “saw no beauty in Him” whom her soul loved, “that they should desire Him.” Perhaps no Christian character is truly confirmed in faith and patience, without some trial of persecution, which both shows to the heart its own corruption, by the irritating effects of gainsaying, and affords an opportunity of proving that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. This dear child had her trial adapted
to her age and sphere, and came forth on the Lord’s side holding fast the word of life in as firm a way as a much more experienced Christian might have done.
The Rev. J. Macdonald, of Ferintosh, having preached in the parish of Uig, Skye, Kitty’s parents were among the many who went to hear him. On their return they mentioned what he had said about the formality of much that is called prayer, and the ignorance of many as to its spirituality; they stated, according to their recollection of the sermon, that many had old, useless prayers, and greatly needed to learn to pray with the Spirit. The child observed this, and two days after, said to her mother, “It is time for me to give over my old form of prayer.” Her mother replied, “Neither you nor your prayers are old,” but she replied, “I must give them over, and use the prayers which the Lord will teach me.” After this she withdrew to retired spots for prayer. At one time her younger sister returned without her, and on being asked where she had left Kitty, she said, “I left her praying.” Her father says that he has often sat up in bed listening to her sweet young voice, presenting this petition with heartfelt earnestness, “Oh, redeem me from spiritual and eternal death.”
From the remoteness of her dwelling, Kitty had never attended any place of public worship—but the Sabbath was her delight—and often would she call in her brothers and sisters from the play in which they were thoughtlessly engaged, asking them to join in prayer and other devout exercises, and warning them, that if they profaned the day, and disliked God’s worship, they must perish. Her mother observing the intent gaze with which she looked on a large fire, enquired what she saw in the fire? She replied, “I am seeing that my state would be awful if I were to fall into that fire, even though I should be immediately taken out; but woe is me, those who are cast into hell fire will never come out thence.” Another day, when walking by the side of a precipice, and looking down, she exclaimed to her mother, “How fearful would our state be if we were to fall down this rock, even though we should be lifted up again; but they who are cast into the depths of hell will never be raised therefrom.”
One day her mother found her lying on a bench with a sad countenance, and addressed some jocular words to her with a view to cheer her. But the child’s heart was occupied with solemn thoughts of eternity;
and instead of smiling, she answered gravely, “O, mother, you are vexing my spirit, I would rather hear you praying.” In truth, eternity was very near her, and the Spirit of God was preparing her for entering it. As she got up one morning, she said, “O, are we not wicked creatures who have put Christ to death.” Her mother, curious to hear what one so young could say on such a subject, replied, “Christ was put to death, Kitty, long before we were born.” The child, speaking with an understanding heart, said, “Mother, I am younger than you, but my sins were crucifying Him.” After a pause she added, “What a wonder that Christ could be put to death when He Himself was God, and had power to kill everyone; indeed, they only put Him to death as man, for it is impossible to kill God.” She often used to repeat passages from Peter Grant’s Spiritual Songs, such as “It is the blood of the Lamb that precious is.” When she came to the conclusion of the verse, “It is not valued according to its worth,” she would in touching terms, lament the sad truth, that His blood is so lightly thought of. Being present when some pious persons spoke of those in Rev. vii. who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, she said, “Is it not wonderful that, while other blood stains what is dipped in it, this cleanses and makes white?”
Murdoch Macleod being engaged in the valuable duties of a Scottish elder in the little island of Pabay, Kitty wished much to hear him, but from bashfulness was ashamed to enter the house where he was employed in worship; she therefore climbed up to the window and sat there till all was over. Being asked what she had heard, she said she was amazed to hear that Christ offered Himself as a Saviour to many in our land who rejected Him, and that He was now going to other and more remote quarters to win souls. She then added with the pathos of a full heart, “O, who knows but He may return here again.”
Soon after she had completed her seventh year she was attacked by that sickness which opened her way to the Kingdom of Heaven. When her father asked whom she pitied most of those she would leave behind, she replied that she pitied everyone whom she left in a Christless state. She suffered much from thirst during her illness, and her mother, reluctant to give her so much cold water as she longed for, fell upon the evil expedient of telling her that the well was dried up. The following day, when she saw water brought in for
household purposes, poor Kitty’s heart was grieved, and she said, “O, mother dear, was it not you who told the great lie yesterday, when you said the well was dry. O, never do so again, for it angers God.” During her illness, she was enabled almost literally to obey the command, “pray without ceasing,” and was often interceding with the Lord to look down and visit her native place. On the morning of her last day on earth, her father said, “there is a reason for thankfulness that we see another day.” Kitty opened her eyes, and said, “O Holy One of Israel, save me from death, a petition often used when in perfect health, and evidently referring to spiritual and eternal death. Throughout the day she was generally silent, when her father remarked, saying, “I do not hear you praying as usual”; to which she replied, “Dear father, I pray without ceasing, though not because you desire me to do so.” In her last moments she was heard to say, “O, redeem me from death.” Her father, leaning over her, said, “Kitty, where are you now?” To which the reply was, “I am on the shore”; and immediately her soul was launched into the great ocean of eternity. In December 1829 this lowly child was carried from her poor native island to the blessed region where the redeemed of the Lord find their home, and her name has left a sweet perfume behind it.— “History of Revivals of Religion in the British Isles.”
No Condemnation.
MY guilty conscience often condemns me—my backslidings often condemn me—my inward and outward slips and falls often condemn me, and my own heart often proves me perverse. It is so, to our shame and sorrow. But shall these things alter the eternal purpose of God? Shall the inward condemnations of conscience cancel the grand act of justification on the part of Jehovah? Shall doubts, fears, sinkings, despondencies and exercises, stretch forth their hands to blot the believer’s name out of the Book of Life? Shall they dash away the validity and efficacy of the blood of sprinkling, nullify the work of the Son of God, and prove the Holy Ghost a liar? They may tease, they may harass, they may distress, they may perplex, but they shall not eventually condemn, for “there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” and he that believes in Jesus is passed from death unto life, and from condemnation unto justification.—J. C. Philpot.
Notices of the Martyrs and Confessors of Lesmahagow.
BY THE REV. CHARLES THOMSON, OF NORTH SHIELDS
(LATTERLY FREE CHURCH MINISTER, WICK).
V.
(Continued from p. 431).
FROM 1686 till the Revolution, the persecutions of John Steel were in nowise abated. New advertisements were put up, renewing the offer of a thousand merks for his head. Soldiers surrounded his house at all hours of the night and day; and the murderer of John Brown of Priesthill, the indefatigable and “bludie” Claverhouse, watched for him, evening and morning, searching the muirs, and glens, and mountains. But Steel was safe, for he was hid under the shadow of the Almighty’s hand till all those calamities were overpassed. After a hot persecution of nine years’ duration, he was delivered from his sufferings by the Revolution of 1688. His name appears, along with a multitude of others, in the Act of Parliament rescinding fines and forfeitures. He then returned, and occupied his lands in peace; but neither for the nine years’ rent, which Airley had lifted, nor for the damage done by the persecutors, and by Huge Bawties, did he ever receive any compensation. His unbending firmness, however, did not pass unnoticed by the revolutionary Government; and he received, from the Marquis of Douglas, a Captain’s commission in the 26th, or Cameronian regiment. In 1689 the Parliament of Scotland passed an Act abolishing prelacy, and all superiority of any office in the Church of that kingdom, above presbyters; and, in the following year, another Act was passed, restoring such of the Presbyterian ministers who had been thrust from their churches since the 1st of January 1661, as were yet alive, to the free exercise of their ministry in their respective parishes; and appointing that the Episcopalian incumbents should desist from their ministry in those parishes, and remove themselves from the manses thereunto belonging, that the Presbyterian ministers, formerly thrust out, might again peaceably enter in; and the Privy Council was appointed to see this Act put in execution. In pursuance of this enactment, Captain
John Steel had a district allotted to him, from the churches of which he was commissioned to expel the Episcopalian incumbents. Notwithstanding the dreadful sufferings to which he had been subjected by those very men, he did not retaliate in the day of his power, for he was possessed of another spirit than theirs, but executed his commission in as mild and gentle a manner as possible. His orders were to make, with his sword, a small cut in the incumbent’s gown, and, in the King’s name, to order him out of the Church of Scotland. He used to relate an anecdote of the curate’s wife of Dalserf, which showed the great affection she had for her husband. When Steel and his men had entered the curate’s house, and he had drawn his sword to make the requisite incision in the curate’s gown, she screamed out, “Oh, my dear Joseph!” rushed between him and the armed men; and earnestly offered her own life to save her dear Joseph’s. The captain, deeply affected, vainly assured her that he would do her husband no bodily harm; at length, he ordered his men to withdraw, laid down his own weapon, and succeeded in quieting her mind by convincing her that her Joseph’s life was in no danger. He was employed far and near in expelling the Episcopalian incumbents; and it is most likely that he resigned his commission as soon as the Church was cleansed of those intruders.
How long John Steel lived subsequently to the Revolution is not known, but it appears that he was alive, and repaired his house, nineteen years after, for in the wall of the old mansion at Waterhead there was a stone inscribed—
“Praise God.
J. S.
1709.”
It is probable that he was so impoverished, by the repeated spoilings of his goods, and destruction of his property, to which he, during the persecution, had been subjected, that he could not repair his dilapidated mansion before 1709; and the inscription on the stone may be viewed as an expression of the pious Covenanter’s gratitude to God for having preserved him amidst all the perils to which he had been exposed; and for enabling him and his family to enjoy, in the evening of his life, a comfortable habitation. He lies buried in Lesmahagow Churchyard, where a plain thruch-stane,* with-
* Thruch-stane, i.e., through-stone, a flat tombstone.
out a name, marks his grave. His great-great-grandson, and representative, Mr William Steel, still inherits his lands, and resides in the house of Waterhead, which he lately rebuilt, and fixed in a conspicuous part of it the stone above-mentioned.† The Confessor’s descendants are numerous and respectable, and, in 1832, ranked among their number four ministers and two preachers of the Church of Scotland. In the Muirlands of Lesmahagow, his memory is held in great veneration, and often does the grey-headed peasant relate to his assembled children the wonderful deliverances of their “great fore-elder.”
The Presbyterian branch of the vine which the Covenants watered with their blood still flourishes in Scotland, and is fruitful. Would that the Great Husbandman would purge it, that it might bring forth more fruit—even as in the days of old!
“Lord God of Hosts! we thee beseech,
Return now unto thine;
Look down from heaven in love, behold
And visit this thy vine.”
The two last bloody kings of the House of Stuart invaded the dignities and prerogatives of the King of Zion. They set themselves, and took counsel together with a corrupt hierarchy, an abandoned nobility, and a cruel soldiery, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us: but He that sitteth in the heavens laughed, the Lord had them in derision. He spoke to them in wrath, and vexed them in His sore displeasure.” Charles II. was cut off, in the midst of his unclean revelries, by a stroke. The messengers of the Man of Sin were his counsellors and his comforters in his dying moments; and he went down to the grave with the Popish Lie in his right hand. “Thy pomp is brought down to the grave—the sound of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” James II., whose minions had sworn to break down the carved work of the sanctuary, and to lay waste the dwellings of the righteous for a hunting field, was cast out of his kingdom as an abominable branch. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! art cut down to the ground, thou that didst weaken the nations. For thou hadst said in thy heart, ‘I will ascend
† This was in 1832.
above the heavens; above the stars of God I will exalt my throne; I will sit in the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.’ Thy saints that saw thee did narrowly look upon thee, they well considered thee. ‘Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook the kingdoms, that destroyed the churches, that never dismissed his prisoners to their own homes? All the kings of the nations—all of them—lie down in glory, each one in his own sepulchre. But thou wast not joined to thy fathers in burial because thou hadst destroyed thy country, thou hadst slain thy people. And Jehovah, God of Hosts arose against thy children, and He cut off from them the name, and the remnant, and the son, and the son’s son. ‘I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart, for thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.’
What a contrast to their persecutors is exhibited by the Martyrs and Confessors of the Scottish Church! What Christian does not shudder when he reflects on the former? and who does not exult when he thinks on the latter? How very clearly do the lives of those holy men and women demonstrate, that though “the treasure was in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power was of God, and not of man!” They were “troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” In all things they approved themselves as the servants of God, “in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labour in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold they lived; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, and yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.” Their mantle yet lingers upon the hills and dales of Lesmahagow; and though the parish has been, for a long time, given to spiritual slumbers, yet there are indications, of late years, that a better spirit is returning; and that the inhabitants are awakening to a juster sense of the importance of those matters, which their covenanting ancestors held so dear. Let them beware of putting their hand to the plough, and then looking back.
Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.)
THE following graphic description of this powerful Pope, whose official title was Gregory VII., is taken from the Rev. Frank C. Raynor’s “The Giant Masquerade,” a review of which appeared in the Magazine some years ago. By his strong and daring rule he imposed his iron will upon kings and princes, and made the Church supreme over the State, a condition of things that gave rise to the term Hildebrandianism that is the doctrine that the State is in subjection to the Church. We now give the quotation: “Gregory VII. (1073-1085) was perhaps the greatest man who ever sat on the throne of the popes. It was he who consolidated the papal system into the fierce autocracy which it afterwards became. He saw with unerring clearness that the Pope was the keystone of the soaring arch of sacerdotalism, and that political power alone could maintain his supremacy. As a constructive politician, and known as St Hildebrand, he was one of the greatest minds of western history.
He was of lowly origin, and spent his youth in a monastery in Rome, where he had ample opportunity of seeing the corruptions of the times. He practised the harshest austerities and delighted in the suppression of all bodily instincts. Arriving at manhood, he determined to seek a more congenial place for the practice of his strange piety. He accordingly went to Clugny, in Burgundy, where Odilo had achieved a widespread reformation in the monastic life of France. Here Gregory soon became master of all the knowledge of his time. But the life of holy retirement was not suited to his scheming and energetic spirit. He returns to Rome, and attaches himself to one of the three conflicting Popes. Soon he becomes, by virtue of his massive abilities, the power behind the throne. Not until 1073, however, did he consent to ascend the throne which he had for so many years dominated; but when he did so, his hand was soon felt with double weight.
Gregory’s ambition was to make the so-called Chair of St Peter the Great White Throne of the world, before which all should bow. This was the crown and flower of his policy, the passion throbbing through all his resolutions and labours, and the reward which sweetened his adversities. He achieved his desire and his own ruin almost in the same hour, falling mortally stricken
even as he planted the standard on the captured pinnacle. As his life ebbed away in exile, Gregory was solaced by the reflection that he had set the coveted jewel of temporal power, fairest and most resplendent of earthly gems, in the triple crown. But he did not know how that evil stone was to be reddened by the feuds of ages, till it burned fierce as a tiger’s eye with savage jungle passions and ravening appetite. No occult jewel on the brow of Indian goddess ever smouldered through the pages of fiction with more sinister and mysterious revenge, cursing every hand that touched it and changing men into beasts.
The dream of temporal power did not originate with Gregory, but he gave it its most magnificent interpretation, and enshrined the evil thing in the papal Holy of Holies. It had flickered before the “Seat of the Apostles” for ages. Was it a disease endemic in that Papal Chair? or a legacy from that teeming Roman dust of the Seven Hills? or had he who lied in the wilderness also whispered by that throne those ancient words, so subtle and poisonous, “All these will I give thee if—?”
Temporal power was the “ignis fatuus” which lured, crazed, and finally betrayed these spiritual princes to their doom. Even the wisest of them escaped not its malign spell, but with a strange, blind infatuation they pursued this evil genius to the abyss. Some of them doubtless thought, by the possession of this charm, better to serve the Kingdom of God, but the sequel only emphasised the tragic fallibility of their judgments, and revealed to the world a succession of spiritual leaders who had bartered God’s pillar of fire for the occult glitter of diabolical jewellery. Temporal power—how easy is it to see this to-day!—was a devil’s bait, a brilliant fly of gauze and enamel, a splendid decoy, which made the most spectacular catch the toils of darkness have ever enthralled, leaving marks of uttermost desolation on the history of spiritual religion.
Once the popes were caught in this glittering but fatal web, the Sword of the Spirit—that mystic Excalibur of conquest, whose triumphs had transfigured the early centuries—seemed to shrivel to a foolish toy, and was flung aside (nothing appears more vain and futile to a non-spiritual order than a reliance on heavenly power), now grasped the sceptre and clutched at the crown. Then, in the tumultuous panorama of historic scenes and rivalries which followed, the [so-called] successors of the Apostles snatch wildly at any means to
power—sword, spear, cannon, arquebus, rack, thumb-screw, phial of poison, assassin’s dagger, or forger’s pen—for “they who stand in slippery places make nice of no vile hold to stay them up.” Century after century the fatal jewel works out its dark spell, and like a dreadful vice in the blood, the more it ruins, the more deadly-sweet its thraldom becomes. That sombre rock of temporal power, that papal Acropolis, crowned with that shimmering chair, must be sustained at any price; and who has a better right to employ the legions of the abyss to uphold his reign than that one who claims to hold the keys of hell? . . . . . .
Gradually, by legend and presumption, the towering claim was built up. To these was added the still more daring ally—fraud. “After the middle of the eighth century,” says Janus, a Roman Catholic, “the famous Donation of Constantine was concocted at Rome.” The pretence was that Constantine, having been healed of leprosy by the Bishop of Rome, declared his intention of building a new capital in the East, and resigning to the Popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West. “The forgery,” continued Janus, “betrayed its Roman authorship in every line; it is self evident that a cleric of the Lateran Church was the composer? Then in the middle of the ninth century rose “the huge fabrication of the Isidorian Decretals. About one hundred pretended decrees of the earliest popes, together with certain spurious writings of other church dignitaries and acts of synods, were then fabricated in the west of Gaul, and eagerly seized upon by Pope Nicholas I., to be used as genuine documents in support of the new claims put forward by himself and his successors? “Those forgeries,” says Gibbon, “were the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes.” In spite of their absurd anachronisms, they were (so uncritical was the age) accepted as genuine until the dawn of the Reformation, and had an immense influence in advancing the pretensions of Rome.
It was upon this bizarre foundation of fact, fiction, and fraud that Gregory VII. determined to build. He began by attempting to reform the crying abuses among the clergy, most of whom kept their wives and concubines in their own homes. Gregory determined to enforce the law of celibacy (a celibate clergy, having no ties, were devoted slaves to the hierarchy), and called upon
the people to forsake the immoral priest — a procedure which created for him legions of enemies. He then proceeded to make the election of the Pope independent of the Emperor, the Roman nobles, and people. To this end he called in the aid of the Norman robber-chiefs, who had made themselves masters of Southern Italy, to browbeat the Romans, while he snatched from them their prerogatives. He next took the step which was to embroil Europe in troubles for fifty years, and forbade the investiture of any priest by a layman. . . . . Gregory’s act was aimed directly at the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV. He resisted, and summoned a Council at Worms which declared the Pope to be deposed. Gregory replied by deposing Henry from his throne, placing beneath him the ban of the Church, releasing his subjects from their allegiance, and exhorting them to the virtue of rebellion. There was much discontent in the Empire at the time, and princes, priests, and people abandoned their unfortunate Emperor, who was forced to bow to the storm, and endure the most humiliating penance. Crossing the Alps in the depth of winter, garbed in rough sackcloth, this prince, more accustomed to riding at the head of his armies, came at last to the Castle of Canossa, in the courtyard of which, shivering with cold and hunger, mocked by the beggars and passers-by, he waited three days and three nights, imploring absolution of the proud and triumphant priest, who with the Countess Matilda, enjoyed the spectacle from within. Never was humiliation more abject, never triumph more complete. But Henry had his revenge. A few years later he captured Rome, put it to fire and sword, and set up a new Pope. Gregory died in exile (1085). Gregory, however, had not lived in vain. The spectacle of Canossa had dazzled the imagination of Europe, and set the tiara scintillating with brilliance. The world had seen an Emperor prostrate in the dust before this almost supernatural “Vicar of Christ.” It could not forget.”
The eye may be watery, and the heart flinty. An apricot may be soft without, but it has a hard stone within.—Thomas Watson.
The doctrine of the death of Christ is the substance of the Gospel.—Stephen Charnock.
How the Translation of the New Testament was Received at Luanza, Central Africa*
THE great day at last! Two perspiring couriers come up the Palm Avenue, the sun shining on their spears afar off and heliographing their approach. Down go the brown sacks from their brown shoulders, and nothing more tangible than intuition tells me that—yes, there they are. This THEY in large capitals means our long-loved, long-looked-for New Testament published by the National Bible Society.
I sobbed. The men smiled. One of our preachers sang. And then all of us prayed. It had been the talk of a thousand camp fires one thousand times. Its arrival had been preached and prophesied about, and now at last when it comes we are awed into a childlike (not childish), uncanny contrition. Are we going to be worthy of it? Are we going to translate the Word into deed? The Bible substantiates all we say; liquid speech substantiated by printed page. But will we really trans-substantiate all that it substantiates?
Then the news spread. Straight as the topography of our Luanza would allow it, it spread and spread in a land that never had any book but the Book. No newspaper ever in this land. One oh-to-be-joyful sort of man gushed out at a street corner in prayer: “Lord,” he cried, “now I have all; I have a gun to shoot with, bullets to charge it with, arrows for my bow, and a net for catch-
* This refers to the revised translation of the New Testament into Luba by Mr Dan Crawford, the well-known African missionary, whose book, “Thinking Black,” captured the imagination of the religious public of the English-speaking world. Mr Crawford, who was a Plymouthist, was born at Gourock in 1870. He died at Luanza, Central Africa, in 1926. He translated the whole Bible into Luba, the language of the people among whom he spent his life. The New Testament appeared first of all, and the above account refers to the reception given to a revision of the same issued in 1923. The account was sent by Mr Crawford to Rev. J. H. Falconer, and is taken from Dr Tilsley’s “Dan Crawford of Central Africa” (p. 467).
ing many fish.” It was all genuine good-hearted gush. It was all honest heart-hunger in a hungry land.
To my knowledge the only bit of Bible that hits of majestically this heathen Bible-hunger is away back in I. Sam. iii.—”And the Word of the Lord was precious in those days: there was no open vision.” Now, the open Book means the open Vision. The elders had vowed to sit up all night reading it, but before that, at sun-down, we sound sleepers had an open-air thanksgiving meeting when my text was: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.”
The Alleged Gloom of the Scottish Sabbath and the Covenanter*
BY DR JOHN LEE.
MOST certainly that description is not historically correct; there never was such gloom attending the observance of the Sabbath in Scotland as that celebrated writer alleges. The Sabbath, though observed with the greatest reverence, was a day rather of sober and cheerful piety than of any painful restraint. It may be, as the question has been asked, not improper to state that the greater part of the description applying to the religion and morals of that class of persons in Scotland, who are known by the name of Covenanter, must have been
* The above is Dr Lee’s answer to a question asked him when he appeared as a witness before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Observance of the Lord’s Day, which sat in 1832. The question put to him was: “Can you say, from your knowledge of history, whether the description given by a celebrated novelist of the period of the Covenanter is historically correct, and whether their precise manners were as strongly marked in contrast to the other party as that ingenious writer would have us to suppose?” “The celebrated novelist” whom the querist had in view was Sir Walter Scott, whose unfair treatment of the Covenanter has misled so many, and which called forth Dr MacCrie’s trenchant reply, in which Sir Walter cuts rather a sorry figure. Dr MacCrie’s famous criticism was reprinted in his works.—Editor.
supplied almost altogether by the imagination of the writer. He seems equally to have forgotten the state of things which supervened upon that event, which was certainly hailed as joyfully by the Presbyterians of Scotland as by any other class of his Majesty’s subjects, although they had great cause afterwards to complain of the harsh treatment which they experienced, in violation of the solemn promises which that monarch had repeatedly made to them. But on that subject, as I believe the authority of the celebrated writer referred to is often thought almost the best that can be quoted, I think it right to state that he seems to have been utterly unacquainted both with the observances of the Presbyterian Church and those of the Episcopal Church which succeeded it. He imagines, for instance, that the liturgy was observed after the Restoration of Charles II.: whereas, in point of fact, the only change that took place in the worship in the churches consisted in the discontinuance of the Directory and the adoption of three Articles, which had not been thought offensive in the days of Knox, viz., the use of the Lord’s Prayer, the repetition of the Creed by parents when they brought their children to be baptised, and the use of a doxology in connection with the singing of the Psalms. These were the only marked deviations from the worship which had been previously observed; and the whole objection of the people of Scotland arose from their belief that the hierarchy and his Majesty’s claims of supremacy in matters ecclesiastical were not divinely warranted, and that the power of the Church, patronised by the King, had been exercised formerly, and they were afraid would still continue to be exercised in a manner inconsistent with the full enjoyment of their religious privileges. I refer to these particulars merely as specimens of the inaccuracy of the descriptions which have probably made an impression not easily effaced, though it has done great injustice to the characters of an oppressed and persecuted race, who, derided as they have been as feeble-minded fanatics, did more than any other body of men both to maintain the interests of religion and to secure for their posterity the enjoyment of civil liberty.
But, in point of fact, there was neither in the form of worship on the Lord’s Day, nor in the general tone of the preaching, that marked difference which that same author would have us to suppose is so strong? There was a difference, but not such as he represents . . . . At the same time it is right to observe that
there was a very marked and glaring distinction between the character of the ministers of the one denomination and of the other at the period referred to; and in my apprehension the description given by Bishop Burnet, who could scarcely be suspected of undue partiality to Presbyterians, is in some respects one of the most candid which is to be found. The strictest Presbyterian, in his anxiety to defend the outraged and insulted character of his forefathers, may also be content to refer to such an honest chronicler as Burnet. He owns that the Presbyterian ministers who were turned out of their livings in 1662, were grave, solemn, diligent and faithful, whereas the new incumbents put in the places of the ejected preachers, were generally very mean and despicable, the worst preachers he ever heard, ignorant to a reproach, many of them openly vicious, a disgrace to their order, and to the sacred functions, and indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts.—Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Observance of the Lord’s Day with the substance of the Evidence, pp. 33, 34.
A Word to the Tempted.
LET as bear this well in mind in our private temptations, when the devil accuseth and terrifieth our conscience, to drive it to desperation. For he is the father of lying, and the enemy of Christian liberty; therefore he tormenteth us every moment with false fears, that when our conscience hath lost this Christian liberty it should feel the remorse of sin and condemnation, and always remain in anguish and terror. When that great dragon (I say), that old serpent, the devil (who deceiveth the whole world, and accuseth our brethren in the presence of God day and night (Rev. xii.) cometh and layeth unto thy charge, that thou hast not only done no good, but hast also transgressed the law of God, say unto him, thou troublest me with the remembrance of my sins past; thou puttest me in mind that I have done no good. But this is nothing to me; for if either I trusted in my own good deeds, or distrusted because I have done none, Christ should both ways profit me nothing at all. Therefore, whether thou lay my sins before me, or my good works, I pass not; but, removing both far out of my sight, I only rest in that
liberty wherein Christ hath made me free. I know Him to be profitable unto me, therefore I will not make Him unprofitable; which I should do, if either I should presume to purchase myself favour and everlasting life by my good deeds, or should despair of my salvation because of my sins.
Wherefore let us learn with all diligence to separate Christ far from all works, as well good as evil: from all laws, both of God and man, and from all troubled consciences, for with all these Christ hath nothing to do. He hath to do, I grant, with afflicted consciences: howbeit, not to afflict them more, but to raise them up, and in their affliction to comfort them. Therefore, if Christ appear in the likeness of an angry judge, or of a law giver that requireth a strait account of our life past, then let us assure ourselves that it is not Christ, but a raging fiend. For the Scripture pointeth out Christ to be our reconciliation, our advocate, and our comforter. Such a one He is and ever shall be; He cannot be unlike Himself.—Martin Luther.
Encamping at Alush.
“And they departed from Dophkah and encamped in Alush”
(Num. xxxiii. 13.)
THE Christian Church also encamps at Alush in an evil sense, when persons of all descriptions join themselves to it, induced by temporal advantage, which they expect to reap from it, and, with their unrenewed hearts, bring with them heathenish vices. This is a disease from which we still suffer. If we look at the mass of those who call themselves Christians, what do we see but a rude, perverse, ignorant, unbelieving, and disobedient multitude, differing very little from the heathen in their manner, or even inferior to them; for, with the exception of gross idolatry, and that which is immediately connected with it, where is the heathenish vice which is not practised by Christians? Thus it ought not to be; but every one that names the name of Christ ought to depart from all iniquity. The truths that are preached also suffer a similar decline, since human wit and ordinances of men are so mingled with them that congregations and their preachers will no longer hear sound doctrines, but take an open and de-
cisive part against it. There are also individuals who amalgamate the service of God and the world, and seek to serve these two irreconcilable masters at the same time. They halt between two opinions, receive as much from religion as suits their purpose, and as much of the world as pleases them. One doctrine they accept, another they reject; obey one command and refuse obedience to another. These are amalgamations, and this is an Alush, where the true Christian will not be found lingering. Those amalgamations are also to be dreaded, in which men mingle their own wisdom, or rather their folly, with the wisdom of God; and their chaff with the pure wheat of the divine Word; as likewise that lukewarmness which Christ expressly reprobates in the angel of the Church of Laodicea, in which the individual is neither cold not hot, but a mixture of both. Law and gospel are there mingled together; freewill and grace, and an empty, plausible tolerance, which leaves everyone to believe what he pleases, with the exception of the vivifying truths of the Gospel.—Krummacher.
The Late Donald Ross, Elder, Hilton, Fearn.
OUR little loyal congregation in Fearn is much the poorer by the removal from their midst of Donald Ross, one who greatly valued the privileges connected with God’s house, and one who was highly esteemed and respected by all who had intimate acquaintance with him as a man that feared the Lord and eschewed evil.
Donald lived for about 67 years in this world, and, for a number of these years he was, like others, ignorant of his true state and ignorant of the Lord Jesus as his only Saviour. He had, however, the great privilege of being brought up by God-fearing parents, whose example and training could not fail to make an impression upon him. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
We are not able to state at what age he underwent a saving change, but we are informed that the late Rev. Alex. Macrae was instrumental in bringing him to a knowledge of Jesus Christ as his Redeemer. For the
late Mr Macgillivray, Fearn, Donald had the greatest regard, and he often referred, when speaking to “the question,” to what he had heard many years before from his late pastor.
He was admitted as a member in full Communion by the Kirk-Session of Tain congregation in 1914, and seven years later he was ordained as an elder of the joint congregation of Tain and Fearn.
Though he could neither read nor write, Donald had a very retentive memory, and a thorough grasp of the doctrines of salvation. On “the men’s day” at Communion seasons he spoke with conviction and much earnestness. That the things pertaining to Christ’s cause in the world were very near his heart none could gainsay. He was able to attend the Communion services in Tain last July though far from well. On the Monday he bade farewell with some of his friends there, remarking that it was not likely they would ever meet again in this world. So it happened. He gradually grew weaker, and was confined to his bed for some weeks before the end came. The writer called on him a few hours before he passed away, and, on asking him how things fared with him, he answered with difficulty by quoting that Scripture:—”They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more.” He knew death was near, but we believe for him death had no sting. On the 5th day of September 1929 he was called away to that rest which remains to the people of God.
To his sorrowing widow and family, to his brother and sisters, and to the Fearn congregation, we extend our sincere sympathy.—D. J. M.