By the retiring Moderator, Rev. ARCHIBALD BEATON, Gairloch.
And let Jerusalem come into your mind (Jer. ii. 50).
THE Lord is speaking to captives in these words; the Jews who escaped the sword of the Chaldeans when Jerusalem was destroyed and were carried captives into Babylon; and had also escaped the sword of
the Medes and Persians when Babylon was taken. These are asked to go back to the Metropolis of their nation, and not linger in Babylon, and rebuild the city and temple and restore the worship of God. There is a striking resemblance in some ways between the captivities into which Israel had fallen and the conditions to-day spiritually and temporally. We, in this land, are in some measure robbed of our external privileges, such as the preaching of the gospel—ourselves being the robbers—and through severe war conditions we are deprived of many temporal conveniences, though we did not come so far as to lack the staff of bread. Yet we do not repent and turn to Christ—Jerusalem does not come into our mind. We, in Scotland, are like those captives, in that we are espoused to Christ by covenant relationship, and we should look for His coming back to build His house with living stones. Let Jerusalem come into our mind by way of prayer for Zion. Let us be active for Zion: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” In making a few remarks on these words and applying them, as enabled, to suit the occasion, let us consider:—
I. Jerusalem, and what we are to understand by it. 1. Jerusalem was a hallowed spot, revered by the Israelites, because the temple was there and the means of grace. The Church triumphant is called the “heavenly Jerusalem,” and we understand the Church militant, and in a visible Church form, by Jerusalem. The Church in the world to-day is the Jerusalem in which we are interested or should be interested. Our own branch has a special place in our hearts, even the places where our congregations and meeting places are. The gospel Church then is our Jerusalem in these last days. In her the redeemed are gathered and prepared for the worship of God in heaven. 2. The captives in Babylon were to remember Jerusalem and why? (a). Because the temple was there. The devout Jew said: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” Daniel had his window open toward Jerusalem and kneeled and prayed three times a day. These were faithful in captivity and remembered Jerusalem and its worship, and there are some literal captives to-day in the enemies’ hands who remember the Lord God of their fathers and are anxious to get communion news or anything of interest about the Cause just as if they were in one of our cities at home. Besides, there is the spiritual captivity and in a measure this is true in Scotland now—evangelicalism and piety are oppressed. This divine injunction, however, is addressed to us all whether we are oppressed at home in our own native land, or captives in enemies’ hands or in the services of the nation or in our factories helping the war effort: “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” (b). To keep them from becoming settlers there and proselytes. Many have in the providence of God to go where they cannot get the gospel ministered to them. Some go willingly in search of their livelihood. Some of these go from our congregations, and not a few keep in touch with the Church of their fathers, they read the Church’s Magazine and contribute to the support of the cause to which they are attached. There are others, of course, and they mix up with irreligious people and learn their ways, marry strangers of
the godless sort and you hear no more about them. They lose the way, many of them never to find it again. Others have to-day to go forth to the different services of our nation and have to be in very uncongenial companies. Life in our services to-day to a conscientious young man or woman is like Lot’s life in Sodom. We sympathize with these. But let them remember Jerusalem and her God and commit themselves to Him. (c). To keep them prepared to return. They were to return to Jerusalem and to their God. How were they to return? In repentance of course. But some of the godly were made captives, yes! That very often happens in times of divine displeasure the godly are made to suffer, but Christ will be with them in the “fiery furnace”—”When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” The bulk, however, of these captives were delivered there for their sins. Judah sinned as a nation. The punishment was of a national kind. Then a return to repentance was the remedy. Repentance is a suitable condition of heart for ourselves as a nation. It is in heart sorrow that we must return to the doctrine and worship of the New Testament Jerusalem.
II. There is a Jerusalem which we, as a people, are to remember and commemorate. 1. What is our Jerusalem which we are to remember? (a). In a broad way the cause of Christ in general—”The field is the world.” The harvest is great and the labourers are few. Those who love Christ covet the world for Him. They pray: “Thy kingdom come”: Thy glory fill the whole earth. As matters are now darkness is covering the earth and gross darkness the people. The people of God are few but still he has a “remnant” scattered throughout the world but still gathered into one—members of one body. Popery and Mohammedanism are strong, the Jews are still under the veil, but the day of refreshing from on high would soon make Christ gather a great harvest from among these. (b). In a narrower way our own branch of the visible Church. While we are to remember the whole visible Church, it is natural to us to have a special interest in our own branch—the Free Presbyterian Church. Of it we are members. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are tokens of our membership. In it we have the gospel ministered to us. In it we are in fellowship with the members of Christ’s body in believing a certain creed and upholding certain principles, what we firmly believe to be the creed and principles of the Church of Scotland in her best days. The Free Presbyterian Church was the birth place of many souls. When the Lord “writeth up the people” it shall be said: “This and that man was born in her.” We pray that the Lord would yet richly bless our Church by acknowledging the Word preached in her to the good of souls and to His own glory. The young people should be taught to take a deep interest in their Church. This should be instilled into them by their parents, ministers, elders and lay preachers. Some parents have their children’s names in the Sustentation Fund Collection Book and in this way the children are taught to support the cause of Christ in their childhood years; when they begin to earn they think it their duty to contribute out of their own pockets. In some cases you will find in the Highlands, and perhaps in the Lowlands too, parents with a large family, all earning, and yet the father will be the only contributor to Christ’s cause. The
ministers, elders and catechists of our church should take a deep interest in the young by pastoral visitations and other means. I met an intelligent business gentleman, of our own church, one day in the train and he told me that our ministers came short in pastoral visitation. If we lose the young we weaken the Church, the old are fast dying out. The Devil’s instrument, the R.C. Church, knows this, they use every means to keep hold of the young, and why should we, for Christ’s sake, lack?
- We are to remember the needs of Jerusalem to-day. We are living in days of great upheavals politically, socially, morally and, we may say, spiritually. The Lord is speaking in His displeasure. He has come to chastize the nations of the earth and to shake them terribly. In spiritual matters there is a great degeneration. Sure signs of degeneration are toleration and compromise. These are characteristics of the age. Almost anything is tolerated and taught in the churches of the land. All sorts are tolerated as office-bearers and members in many churches, irrespective of their moral character. For the spirit of compromise it has gone beyond all bounds in this age. We find it frequently revealing itself in our magistrates and Ministers of State when there is any agitation for the opening of theatres, cinemas and music-halls on the Lord’s Day. They seem to know no other way but the way of compromise. The magistrate as he is the servant of God, in his official capacity, will have to give account of his stewardship. Terrible will be the reward of the compromiser at the hand of the just God. There are compromisers in the professing Church and they should not be spoken of with less emphasis. They are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Graceless ministers, elders and church members, all cumber the ground. They never know the day-spring from on high; they are the devil’s servants while professing to be Christ’s. These unfaithful ones hold the Church in Egyptian bondage. There is need of an exodus from the Egyptian slavery, when that will take place Pharaoh and his men of war will be destroyed and will cease to trouble the scattered remnant and strangers. What is needed to-day is a wide-spread outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The instrument, namely the Word of God translated, whole or in part, in upwards of a thousand languages is already spread like seed. All that is required is prepared soil. This soil is the broken heart for sin—to be in possession of repentance and faith like King David in the 51st Psalm. We need the spirit of that Psalm to-day. The cause of Protestantism needs this gracious spirit to-day throughout the globe. Our own branch of the visible Church needs it if we are to prove a blessing to our communities and our land. If God were to look in mercy on this land and give this Spirit to awaken, the Rationalistic theories which entered our pulpits, colleges and missionary societies would fall, like Dagon before the Ark. People would not accept these foundationless theories any more. In the political sphere, on the other hand, Jesuitical intrigues and propagandas would come fast to light. Then the rationalistic and Jesuitical press of our land would be used in the service of Christ. The B.B.C., likewise, would be a willing handmaid to Christ, though now the Devil has the monopoly in that Corporation. All will be holiness to the Lord when the glory of the latter days will come—”In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.” The Church to-day, however, has her marching
orders: “go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, Amen.” The Church as an organised body is to “teach” through her ministers and invade and conquer the enemy’s territory by the uncarnal weapons which have the promise of heaven’s blessing. The Church’s work is to direct sinners to Christ and in doing so, she is to reprove and rebuke sinners for their sins and to show the evil of every frivolity that captivates the heart and leaves Christ at the door.
- We are to remember Jerusalem by commemorating what God did for it, as we are doing this year. (a). The establishment of Protestantism and Presbyterian Church Government. This was, indeed, one of the days of the Son of man; Romanism was abolished in Scotland by it. Dr. Hay Fleming said that the Church of Rome “by her foulness had become one of the gates of hell.” The gross ignorance and immorality of her clergy in Scotland in pre-Reformation times was simply scandalous. Her people also indulged in the same sins—”Like priest like people.” It is in the midst of the most degrading state of morality that the Church of Rome will thrive to-day as in the past. Before the Reformation the whole land was steeped in the sink of idolatry and superstition and in all the sins that are generally hatched by these. The discovery of the deplorable state of matters, morally, was a secondary cause of the Reformation but the primary cause was the Word of God. In 1542 the Scottish Parliament gave permission to the people of Scotland to read the Bible. This had blessed results. The Great Day will tell the tale; together with the Word of God was given the Holy Spirit in rich abundance like water to the parched ground. At the Reformation Scotland did not pass through such a fire of persecution as England did, but she was stained with martyr’s blood. Associated with the Scottish Reformation we have the names of such martyrs as Resby, Paul Craw, Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart and other noble spirits. Associated with the establishment of religion and Presbyterian Church Government we have the fearless John Knox and other heroic and pious church leaders. We should recall these times with thankful hearts.
The benefits of the Reformation soon became apparent. A great change took place in the services of the Church; the pure gospel was preached by men who knew it to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. The labourers were, however, few while the harvest was great. This scarcity of preachers, let it be observed, did not induce Knox and his fellow Reformers to fill the pulpits with any kind of preachers. No! they believed in having God-fearing men as office-bearers in the Church of Christ. They waited for the Lord’s time and eventually he raised up men suitable for the ministry. Besides the pure gospel they had the same material for praise as we have; the Psalms were exclusively used, though not the same metrical version as is now in use. Instrumental music was never heard of in the Reformed Church. The few organs that existed in the pre-Reformation Church were cast out like the idols of the Mother of Harlots. The Reformers contended for purity of worship and so must we. These giants of the Reformation Church insisted on the observance of the Lord’s Day. That day was practically non-existent
before as in all countries that are under the sway of papists. The Reformers did not stop till they got the Church established by law. The cause which the Reformers espoused suffered much, and had its ups and downs, as church history indicates, but their gospel and their church government reached us and we are in possession of it as a Church, and we are to thank God for it, and take care of it. It is no small honour, friends, to be custodiers of God’s Word. We are to take a glance into the past, view the contentions of the Church of God and thank God for their victories. (b). The Free Presbyterian Church is interested in the contentions of the Reformers and their successes. The history of the Church in Scotland is our own historical background. We commemorated the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638 at our meeting of Synod in 1938 when papers were read by different members and afterwards published. This year we have three historical events to commemorate, namely, the tercentenary of the Westminster Assembly, the centenary of the Disruption and the 50th year of the distinctive testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
The Westminster Assembly. Every boy and girl is familiar with the Shorter Catechism and its contents. They may, of course, know little about its historical background. This was only part of the work produced by the Assembly of Divines which sat at Westminster, there were, also, the Larger Catechism, The Confession of Faith and The Directory of Public Worship and Form of Church Government. These documents were drawn up by godly and learned men, who commenced their great and solemn undertaking on oath, which oath we have on record in the Confession with other historical documents. In order to remind those men of their solemn undertaking the oath was read to them every Monday morning. Dr. Schaff, the American church historian said about the work of the Assembly: “Whether we look at the extent or the ability of its labours or its influence on future generations, it stands first among Protestant Councils.” The Confession is one of the outstanding documents produced. A good deal of controversy gathered round it. It has been tampered with by back-sliding Churches and our own separate existence is a proof of that. But let it be remembered that the Confession became part of the Revolution Settlement and part of the civil law of our native land. It is ours. It contains the marrow of God’s Word as do the other documents produced by that Assembly of 300 years ago.
The Disruption. This important event took place in 1843. It was carried out by those who contended for the spiritual independence of the Church of Scotland or in other words the non-interference of the civil courts in matters which belonged to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Church. The fathers of the Free Church made their position so clear that none need be at a loss to know what that position is. The Claim, Declaration and Protest, of 1842 is the document in which the position of those who afterwards formed the Free Church is proclaimed. This is our Claim also. The Protest of 1843 declares that the Claim of 1842 will be held to, and that the rejection of the Claim of Right as it is sometimes called is the only reason why the Disruption took place. The granting of the Claim at any time was a sufficient reason for the Free Church to return to the Establishment. Dr. Chalmers said, as Moderator of the first Free Church Assembly:—”We quit a vitiated establishment,
but would rejoice in returning to a pure one. To express it otherwise, we are the advocates for a national recognition and national support of religion and we are not Voluntaryists.” This Church was so constituted as to avoid the rock of Voluntaryism on the one hand and the rock of Erastianism on the other. This is the position and the constitution that we are to commemorate and thank God for.
Commemoration of the Origin of the Free Presbyterian Church. The witness of the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893 was a gift of God, in a time of extremity, as that witness still is: The only regrettable thing is that the witness was so few when the Cause was at stake. The majority, Meroz like, “did not come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” The passing of the Declaratory Act in 1892, in the Free Church, and not rescinding it in 1893, was the cause why the Free Presbyterian Church took up a separate position, in order to continue the Free Church of 1843. By that pernicious Act the Constitution of the Free Church was changed and no one holding the principles of that Church, as settled in 1843, could consistently remain in fellowship with her now. We are still a witnessing Church to-day. (a). We still witness against the Declaratory Act. This Act as we pointed out was a pernicious Act. We may still use a stronger epithet and call it Satanic. It was designed to explain the sense in which the Church did not understand the Confession, but this sort of interpretation implied the other, that is to say, it interpreted in what sense the Confession was held by the Church. The fertile mind of Satan could not reason things in a more subtle way. The Act formed a basis for every pernicious heresy which found its way into pulpits of the Free Church. (b). On entering on our 50th year we witness against those who handle the Word of God deceitfully. We live in a terrible day. One can almost hold any view and be a minister. One can hold alliance with Rome and still be looked upon as a good Protestant. But we judge otherwise; one cannot serve two masters. The very object for which the church of Christ was established on the earth was to declare and uphold the truth, it is: “the pillar and ground of the truth.” In order to bear this mark of the true Church the Free Presbyterian Church must “contend earnestly for the faith,” as she has always done, in humble dependence on her God. This contending is partly in witnessing against “ungodly men” who creep into the Church and begin to propagate erroneous views. There are many heresies which invade the Church to-day under the cover of modern thought and advanced education and charity—false charity. Pity the one who will be charitable to Satan’s fabrications! (c). We witness against Romanism. Our Confession says that the Pope of Rome is “that Anti-Christ,” “that man of Sin” and so far it has not been proved that the Confession is wrong in applying Scripture in that way. The popish Church is an idolatrous body and is guilty of many horrible blasphemies which may well shock the reader, when in search of information about this wicked system. Rome is an enemy of the Bible. The prohibiting and burning of the Bible, even in our own day, can testify to this. The Bible will, however, be the end of Rome; we live in this hope. We as a Church should witness more fervently against this enemy of Christ. Some of our young people marry into the Roman Church. If we instruct our young this evil may be prevented and at any rate we will be clear of their blood should they turn papists.
We, however, declare that any young man or woman who allows himself or herself fall a prey to those wicked priests never valued the liberties of true Protestantism. (d). We, as a Church, witness against those ministers and others who left us for other camps. Many ministers turned their back on us and went to other churches, some who were highly respected and outstanding, and perhaps these thought, in their folly, that when their gifts and education were taken away from the Free Presbyterian Church that that was the end of her. But our preservation does not lie with men, however useful they are in their own place, but with the God of Jacob. These did not go to better Churches, they did not reform the communions with which they associated themselves. To ministers we may add other office-bearers, members and others who left us. Some had grievances, sometimes because they would not get their own way; cursed pride and the spirit of rebellion got the better of them and off they would go. Some are very good Free Presbyterians when everything is going smoothly but once trouble arises they have no power of endurance. After all our Church has had to meet with inside and outside we still witness on Christ’s side: “wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
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We are apt to forget that we are citizens of the New Testament Jerusalem. (a). We are apt to forget our rights. One of our rights is freedom. The fathers of the Disruption contended for freedom from the civil authorities and were successful. There is another freedom which those who would be “Israelites indeed” must contend for, the freedom of the soul from sin and Satan; “If the sin make ye free ye shall be free indeed.” This freedom we can have only as citizens. Though the middle wall of partition was broken down over 1900 years ago the gospel did not reach many parts of the world yet. We are in possession of the gospel and what did we profit by it. Let us search to see if we are really the children of Zion. (b). We are apt to forget our duty. As citizens we are heirs to certain duties. We who are born Britishers have certain duties incumbent upon us by our relationship to the State. We are citizens and we are to defend the rights and privileges of the commonwealth. In like manner we are bound to defend the rights and privileges of the citizens of Zion. Those who are loyal citizens are united to Jerusalem in a bond of love. They defend in love. “They cannot afford to let anything go, if they do, they do it at their peril.”
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A confession. We deem it not out of place to end up with a confession in connection with ourselves as a branch of the visible Church. When we commemorate what the Lord did for us since 1893 let it be remembered that we desire to do it humbly: “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no.” We as a Church travelled through the wilderness of this world all these years and had many trials and we may be sure our trials are not over. We have to confess that we are not worthy of the gospel which our Church brings before us. The gospel which proclaims the hope of eternal life is more than thousands of gold and silver. As a Church we are not worthy of the honour of being instrumental in bringing this gospel to poor perishing sinners, not only at home but in the Dominions, and to the heathen in
Africa where the message has been abundantly blessed. There is another confession which we have to make as a people connected with the Free Presbyterian Church and that is that we never used our privileges as we should have done. The converted have many shortcomings and there are others and they have been in the Church all their days and are still unconverted; this is a sad tale. Let us remember the Lord will not hold us guiltless who trifle with His Word. However much we as a Church tried to serve the Lord we have to confess our shortcomings and in the face of that we have to acknowledge the Lord’s forbearance with us these years we have been in existence.