(Continued from p. 269.)
III. The third point which we purposed to notice is that this heritage is in danger. It is in danger when it is persecuted. In an age when much is spoken and written concerning toleration, one would hardly expect to find persecution, but, nevertheless, this monster will put forth its ugly head in ways and in places where one would least expect it. Let a local committee be given the opportunity of choosing from a short list a man to fill a vacancy in any of the professions. He may come with excellent credentials. His qualifications for his work are more numerous than any of the others who apply for the post but he is rejected and representations adverse to him made to the body responsible for filling the vacancy. Why? His one and only fault is that he is a Free Presbyterian, and the local committee naturally conclude that if he is a true Free Presbyterian he will not be one of the ringleaders of their concerts and dances, and so of no use to them. Further, it is in danger from without when instead of persecution there is plausibility. Individuals, clerical and lay, make it their business to associate with adherents and members of the Free Presbyterian Church. They speak of their great regard for our Church, and give us credit for adhering to the old paths. They sometimes attend public worship in our congregations, and none appear to listen more attentively, but it is all done in order to create a good impression, and as a means to an end. They even go to the length of shedding crocodile
tears over the divisions among us and piously sigh for the day when these divisions will be healed. The hollow hypocrisy of such play-acting ought to be apparent if one would remember that these same individuals never raise their voices within the pale of their own church against the cause of these divisions. Let Free Presbyterians beware of such plausible creatures.
There is danger from within when we become lukewarm towards the testimony which our church raises against error. This constitutes a real danger to our heritage, for it manifests that we are not alive as we should be to the ruin which heretical doctrines will bring upon the soul. Those who raised a testimony on behalf of the truth in 1893 did not look with a complacent eye on heresy. They realised only too well how it militates against the glory of God and the highest interests of the soul, and treated it as a poisonous viper which they were duty bound, as the professed friends of Christ, to put forth all their power to crush, and to apply the Gospel antidote in order to counteract the baneful effects of its poison. Was there not a great difference between them and us in this respect? Have we not reasons to smite upon our breasts and confess that we are not so vigilant, and our voice is not so often heard, as was the case with them, against, Arminianism, Antinomianism, and Romanism? Have these “three unclean spirits like frogs” which “come out of the mouth of the dragon” become less harmful in our day than they were in their day? Is the reason for our comparative silence not to be found in our lukewarmness, and, therefore, it must be a guilty silence, which will be bitter to us some day?
Our heritage is in danger from within when we show signs of being ashamed of it. It has become fashionable with the majority to look upon us as old-fashioned and behind the times, and as an “impracticable element.” It is contrary to nature not to be perturbed by having these things cast at one, with the result that many when in certain companies hide, and even deny, the fact that they were brought up in the Free Presbyterian Church. This is often the case with some when they remove to localities where they are not known, for though there may be
a congregation of our Church within a short distance of their homes they will not go near it, but instead will go to places where their very conscience tells them that they will not hear the pure gospel. In that way they manifest unfaithfulness of the most glaring kind to the Cause of Christ. We are well aware also that many efforts are put forth to draw our young people away from us, and when those who put forth these efforts are successful with any individual, very often that individual becomes more hostile to us than those who seduced him. We cannot but conclude but these seducers come under the terrible denunciation of the Saviour when He says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.”
There is also a danger to our heritage when people place more value on the things of the world than on the legacy that had been bequeathed unto us. In God’s Word we read that Esau “for one morsel of meat sold his birthright,” and one can find no better comparison for young women, brought up in the Free Presbyterian Church, when they marry men from other churches they go away with them to these churches. Such women ought to remember that they have not married their consciences to any man, and that it is wrong for them to follow any man into a Church where the Word of God and their conscience tells them they should not go. We have heard of husbands who insist that their wives follow them into such churches but they are doing what neither the Law of God nor the law of man permits them to do. This along with the exercise of discipline in a scriptural manner has caused many to forsake the Word of God, and embrace what may well be described as a counterfeit of Satan.
IV. The fourth point that falls to be noticed in connection with our heritage is our duty towards it. It is our duty to hold fast to the Word of God, and to the doctrines contained in it, which have been handed down to us at such great cost. The Apostle Paul, in writing to Timothy, says, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus.” Thus he would have Timothy be careful of that priceless heritage that was bequeathed to him, and not only Timothy but us also, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” Let us consider the testimony that had been raised in 1893. It was raised in order to hand down to us entire an inspired and infallible Bible, given of God to be the only rule of faith and manners. It was not raised by men who occupied an influential position in the professing Church. It is true that some of these said great things beforehand as to what they were going to do, but when the testing time came they were like “the children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.” The testimony was raised by weak men whom the world despised, but whose action was owned by God, and though their action was characterised by former friends as a “storm in a teacup” we believe their work will continue to the Millennium.
Further, it is our duty to keep a vigilant eye on attempts made to injure our heritage, and in doing so we should be on our guard against actions which have selfish and self-justifying ends in view. These actions always tend to the breaking down of the walls of our Zion and will give no delight to a true child of God, but will strengthen, encourage and delight Sabbath-breakers, fornicators, drunkards and fugitives from discipline generally. Therefore, in every line of action which we take we ought to ask ourselves whether it is the approbation of that class of people or of God which we have; or it may be that we have not the approbation of either, which is as fatal to our heritage as anything possibly could be. Our duty, therefore, is to seek grace to obey the exhortation which says, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown,” and in our endeavours on behalf of our heritage to seek a single eye to the glory of God. In spite of the endeavours of some and the wishes of many that heritage is still preserved for us so that in all humility we can say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”