The Outer Isles Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland at their meeting in Tarbert, Harris, on the 23rd September last, agreed to ask the Press to publish the following statement:—
It appears to us that God is speaking loudly to every individual, to every section of the visible Church and to the whole Nation by this terrible war. His call is: “to search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord.”
We have been highly privileged. God’s Word in Law and in Gospel was the foundation and bulwarks of our moral, civil and ecclesiastical prosperity. We were renowned throughout the whole world for our reverence to the Divine Law, faithfully expounded by God-sent pastors. Our strict keeping of the Lord’s Day, solely for the Lord’s worship was a Covenant sign between God and us, just as it forms the bond of the Decalogue itself. The preaching of the Gospel as the Law fulfilled and setting forth “God so loved,” was the complement of the Moral Law which enjoined: “Thou shalt love,” and its teaching was, and still is: “Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and Godly in this present evil world.” We have sadly gone astray and have turned away from the Divine authority. We have sought to win the favour of men rather than obey and glorify God. We have given an undue and dangerous tolerance to the promoters of creeds and religions which are openly or secretly antagonistic to our Protestant faith, such as Romanism, Mahommedanism, etc., and have ceased almost altogether from possessing that zeal for Christ’s Crown and Covenant for which our forefathers contended unto blood.
The fruits of our declension from the ways of God are evident on every hand. God’s worship is generally neglected in public and in families. Necessity is made to cover a multitude of sins of Sabbath-breaking, while intemperance, lasciviousness and other glaring offences abound. In the professing Church, there is much gross laxity of discipline; unholy practices, it is to be feared, receive no censure from many professing Christians who recognise no law but that of expediency. There is little brotherly love; intolerance of others, and trampling on the rights of individuals characterise men’s dealings, while mutual confession of faults is almost unknown. Systems of truth, tested by the evidence of centuries are replaced by creedless and puerile expositions. The truly Godly have been removed from our midst, and there is little to show that the rising generation are following the example of their pious forefathers and adorn the Gospel in heart and life. The Lord however has a remnant of true and faithful witnesses who are zealous for His Name. He calls upon them to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Wise, so that they may not act or speak rashly and unbecomingly so as to counteract the endeavours they put forth to serve the Lord Christ, and thus do injury to the Cause they whole-heartedly wish to serve.
The members of this Presbytery do not isolate themselves from the common declension of the times. They desire unfeignedly to be humbled before the Lord for sins of omission and commission. They would bewail their own barrenness, lukewarmness and lack of faith, and would entreat all others to join them in their desire to humble themselves before God. They freely acknowledge their own inability to will and to do that which is good and would earnestly plead for grace for themselves and for all others, not only to confess but to forsake all sin, according to that Word: “He that covereth his sin shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin, shall find mercy.” “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought His judgments; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zephaniah, ii, 3.) By Authority of the Outer Isles Presbytery. D. J. Macaskill, Moderator; Malcolm Gillies, Clerk.