| | PAGE |
|——————————————————–|——|
| “Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation,” | 281 |
| Notes of a Sermon; by Rev. Malcolm Gillies, Stornoway, | 285 |
| Christ in the Psalms, | 294 |
| The late Malcolm MacEwan, Missionary, Tain, | 297 |
| The Bondage of the Will, | 299 |
| Fruit found after many days, | 303 |
| “There shall be no night there,” | 305 |
| A Doctor’s Testimony, | 306 |
| Giving, | 307 |
| Nadur an Duine ‘na Staid Cheithir Fillte, | 308 |
| Notes and Comments, | 314 |
| Literary Notice, | 317 |
| Church Notes, | 318 |
| Acknowledgment of Donations, | 319 |
| The Magazine, | 320 |

PRINTED BY N. ADSHEAD & SON, 11 UNION STREET
AND 34 CADOGAN STREET, GLASGOW.

THE Free Presbyterian Magazine and MONTHLY RECORD.

VOL. XXXVI.

November, 1931.

No. 7.

“Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem
a quiet habitation.”

THIS was a promise delivered to the citizens of Jerusalem at a great crisis in the city’s history. Sennacherib, the Assyrian ruler, had launched an attack on the confederate armies of Egypt and Ethiopia. In the varying movements of the campaign while Sennacherib was at Libnah he detached part of his army to attack Jerusalem. Under its commander, the blaspheming Rabshakeh, the city was menaced with utter destruction. The consternation of the people is vividly presented to us in the account of the sacred historian as recorded in II. Kings xix. 9-34. The proud and defiant speech of the Assyrian commander had the effect of breaking down the morale of the people. Even Hezekiah was deeply moved and “he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.” It is interesting to watch rulers in a time of crisis. What will they do? Will they sink beneath the overwhelming difficulties that beset them? Or will they wisely direct the thoughts of those who look to them for guidance to sources of comfort that will allay the wild fears that are surcharging their hearts? It depends altogether whether they have learned that there is One who has said: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Ps. 1. 15). In this fateful hour Hezekiah knew

to whom to make his appeal. He went into the house of the Lord and prayed that God would save them out of the Assyrians’ hand so that all kingdoms of the earth might know that He was the Lord God. The prayer received a speedy answer for it was given to Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that the Lord would put His hook in the nose of the enemy and His bridle in his lips and turn him back the way he came and he gives Hezekiah the further assurance: “Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same way shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake and for my servant David’s sake” (II. Kings xix. 32-33). The divine method of accomplishing this end was soon made known in an arresting manner to the besieged people and in an overwhelming way to the besiegers. On the morrow 185,000 of the great Assyrian army lay dead around the walls of Jerusalem. It is to this time of upheaval, uncertainty and distress, that the prophecies of the 33rd Chapter of Isaiah are generally understood to refer. The ruthless and resistless march of the Assyrian host is set before us by a series of figures that vividly portray the desolation that marked its progress. On the other hand there are messages fitted to allay the fears of the distracted people and a call to consider the stability of Zion, the city of solemnities, in the midst of all these upheavals—”Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation” (Is. xxxiii. 20). At the time of writing our country is passing through what is probably the most serious crisis which has ever beset us since we became a nation. The spectacle of Great Britain being refused financial help by the nations that could afford to help her is humiliating in the extreme. Is this the nation that boasted in her wealth and held her head high among the nations of the world fallen so low now that her statesmen and financiers are in a state of panic and have to resort to emergency legislation to keep her

from sinking deeper into the morass? We made gold our god and material greatness our chief end and our Dagon is lying with its face downwards and there is no true prophet among us to tell what the end shall be. But, if it will not be worse with us yet than it is, this will be traceable to the Lord’s goodness who is not dealing with us according to our sins. In these days of trouble the action of a certain section of the press in stupidly trying to keep up the courage of the people by printing lying statements cannot be too severely condemned. It is better that we should really know where we are than to be deceived by a false optimism that has as its only ground unfounded ideas in the lively imaginations of certain press writers. Minimising real trouble does not help us forward one step. This was not Hezekiah’s method. The trouble was real, the situation desperate but its very desperation led him to take the step he took and made him lay the matter before the Lord and we are sure that all who wish our country well are not forgetful of their duty in remembering it at a throne of grace and pleading that the Lord would deliver us from deserved and greater judgments.

In regard to the message delivered by the prophet it is interesting to notice that while the cause of God must be affected by movements not only national but world-wide in their impact yet it is not affected in the same way by these distracting upheavals as the state. The troubles that disturb the peace and stability of God’s cause in the world may to only a very small extent affect the peace and stability of the state. Teaching of error, unfaithfulness to the truth as revealed in the Scriptures, inconsistency between practice and profession, and permission of false doctrine, all have a disturbing effect on the cause of God but the present upheaval in our country only affects His cause in so far as it is dependent on material resources for its work. We are called upon by the Lord speaking through the prophet to look upon Zion and we are promised that our eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation. It is not such disturbances as these which strike at the peace of Jerusalem and

it is well that our thoughts should be turned to this great truth in these times of national distraction. The apparent instability and insecurity of Jerusalem as viewed by her enemies as a tabernacle easily taken down is offset by the divine promise that it is a tabernacle which shall not be removed. Nothing appears so weak and helpless in the eyes of worldly men as God’s cause. It was so weak in the eyes of the Assyrian commander that his proud and defiant spirit affected the volubility of his tongue and the uncouthness of his language and his speech is left on record as a warning to all who, like him, would daringly measure their strength with the Almighty’s. He was not the first neither is he the last who has discovered that the contest is unequal and that the hand stretched forth to grasp the prey is never permitted to reach it. The Church of Christ, as one of the Reformers put it, is an anvil which has broken many a hammer. The tabernacle seemingly so easily taken down, so easily moved, is not to be taken down and though the hosts of opposition gather around its walls with the fond expectation that it is soon to be laid low the cherished hope of their heart never materialises. Something happens and the whole situation of the besieged and besiegers is changed. It was so in Hezekiah’s day, and it has been so in many a critical time in the Church’s history since then. In such times as we are passing through it is well that we should turn our eyes to the kingdom that cannot be moved. Nationally we have been warned by God in His overruling providence how easy it is for Him to bring down one of the mightiest nations that has ever existed in the history of the world and as we think of the terrible shaking we have received may our prayer be that Britain will turn to God and acknowledge her sins and may all the Lord’s people find encouragement in the promise made to Hezekiah and his people: “Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken” (Is. xxxiii. 20).