THE bulk of the people now in the Free Presbyterian Church were either comparatively young or not born when the Church was formed in 1893. The fathers and mothers who bade farewell to the Declaratory Act Free Church are now almost gone. When error gravely challenged the doctrines of God’s Word, they unhesitatingly took up the challenge and held no parley with the enemy in the gate. This meant for them the loss of property—churches, manses, and meeting houses, but they left all behind with the assured confidence that they had a good conscience and a good God to whom they looked for help, and now at the end of all the years we have been in existence, we can say without a note of hesitation, He has not failed us but given us churches, manses, meeting houses and also the goodwill and generosity of the people far beyond our expectations and far beyond our deserts. It is gratifying to those who saw the beginning of our Church to find that notwithstanding the various trials by which our people were tested that they remained steadfast to the Cause to which they had given their allegiance. The sneers of a scoffing world left them unmoved; the departure from their former love to other folds, of men whom they loved and honoured did not cause an exodus from the ranks of the people. The Cause they professed to follow was more to them than the attachment they had to men, honoured and revered though they were. This steadfastness is all the more remarkable when account is taken of the natural instability not only of men in general but too often of professing people as well.
*At last Synod, when the formation of our Church in 1893 was commemorated, a Committee, consisting of the following:—Revs. D. Beaton (Convener); N. Macintyre; D. N. Macleod; D. M. Macdonald; D. A. Macfarlane; M. Gillies, was appointed to draw up an address to our people “for their continued faithfulness, their generosity in supporting the cause of Christ in our midst since the beginning of our Church.” The Committee was instructed to have the Address printed in the Magazine. It was further agreed that heartfelt acknowledgment be made to the Lord for His goodness “to us, by His Word and Divine providence.”—Editor.
The Reformed Church of Scotland was only twelve years in existence when Morton’s disrupting policy saddened the last days of Scotland’s great Reformer, John Knox, and through the cunning policy of King James was well nigh ruined. The Secession Church was only in existence fourteen years when it was rent asunder by the controversy over the Burgess Oath. The noble Free Church, too, was only in existence for twenty years when the insidious disruptive virus began to work and in 1873 a second disruption was prepared for, but was for the time averted. When all this is taken into account we have good reason to acknowledge the good hand of God upon us and the loyal steadfastness of our people, notwithstanding what some who do not wish us well may say.
Under the honoured name of liberty, a new conception of loyalty to the most solemn promises has become the order of the day. Men say that it is an immoral thing to bind the consciences of men to the truths embodied in documents drawn up three hundred years ago. But, if these documents embody truths contained in Holy Scripture then that alters the whole situation. The Free Presbyterian Church has from the beginning given forth no uncertain sound as to its view of the absolute integrity and inerrancy of God’s Word. None of its office-bearers ever called in question that infallibility and inerrancy; that is a birth-right which every Free Presbyterian should honour and steadfastly cleave to as God given, for it does not belong to any of us by natural right.
All our office-bearers (ministers, elders and deacons) pledge themselves to accept the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith. To say that the antiquity of this document gives men liberty to play fast and loose with solemn ordination promises raises a serious ethical question. May the signatories of such a document put their names to it and accept emolumenta given, and not implement the solemn promises made? Surely never! Even men of the world would give the same answer. This laxity has never appeared in our Church and our prayer is that it never may. We make no claim to perfection though falsely accused of doing so. But we do claim without a hesitating note that we stand by the Bible as the infallible Word of God and the doctrines of the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms as containing doctrines founded on that divine Word.
It would be mock humility to deny the fact that God has blessed the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church. That God has called not a few, from darkness into His Kingdom we dare not deny. We believe that among the jewels which will be gathered at last, there are many Free Presbyterians from Scotland, England, U.S.A., Canada, Rhodesia, New Zealand and Australia. After all, the glory of any Church is that God recognises it and honours its witness. What the verdict of the world may be, or even professing people with an unfavourable bias may say ought to be a matter of indifference to any faithful Church.
The Committee gladly embraces this opportunity of making a special appeal to the young of both sexes, that they willingly and nobly come forward to support and defend with all the might and strength of youth the rights and claims of the King of kings and Lord of lords, as now they are doing to their King and country. Surely the one is as worthy, necessary, urgent and noble as the other. They would counsel them never to be ashamed of the Church of their birth, whatever place or company they may happen to be in. If our Church were always ready to go down with instead of against the stream—to move with the times, countenancing, in, and resembling the world that lieth in wickedness and helping it in all its frivolous, sinful ways and fashions, with her ministers and others remaining blind and dumb, she would be thought equally as much of, and be as popular as any other Church. If any kind of creed, worship and gospel, or any form of church government, however, far removed from the Word of God and Scriptural Presbyterianism would satisfy her, or that she would be indifferent to, it would greatly add to her popularity; but to the serious loss of her fidelity to the truth. They would further most seriously and lovingly counsel them to seek the Lord and His salvation in the promising days of youth which no one who has done it, will ever regret. “Son, give Me thy heart.”
While making this earnest appeal to the young, the Committee take this opportunity of placing on record that those of our Church enrolled in the several branches of the country’s war services, are especially remembered at the throne of grace, publicly and privately, by our ministers and praying people. We feel profoundly for all our forces facing danger, manifold discomforts and death itself on our behalf. We are greatly pleased to know that many of them ask to be prayed for. May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, empower these men and women to confide in the Saviour and rejoice in the gospel, though it be foolishness to the natural heart—”The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” We pray God to shelter them, and prepare them for whatever may be His sovereign purpose concerning them. We pray, also, for the bereaved and for anxious parents and relatives, who so frequently can do little more than labour to conceal their tears and heart-pangs at the thought of possibly seeing their beloved ones no more in time. May the God of Israel be their refuge and may the everlasting Arms be about them and theirs.
The Synod’s Committee take this opportunity of commending to our people the duty of family worship and also the duty and privilege of attendance at prayer meetings and other services conducted on week days. They would point out and remind them that in times of vital godliness the weekly prayer meeting was well attended, and it is to be hoped our people will see to it that, as far as their circumstances permit, they will not neglect attendance on it. The Committee would, also, point out to our people the binding obligation of attending public worship on the Lord’s Day, as means instituted by God for the ingathering of sinners and the edifying of His people. They would further warn our beloved people against the new conception of public Worship, now so prevalent, of attending once only on the Lord’s Day, and devoting the rest of the day to worldliness and pleasure under the disguise of seeking health of body and mind to the wilful neglect of the soul, instead of spending the whole time in the public exercises of God’s worship except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. They would most seriously warn them of lapsing into the unscriptural, destructive and God-dishonouring custom of hearing the Word of God preached once only on the Lord’s Day where they have no legitimate excuse for absence—”Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Once a day hearing is too often the first step taken to join the churchless millions. May we further ask our people that none of them request the ministers of our Church to have prayers at the grave or ask other ministers to do so.
In His providence, God has been very kind to us. The generous giving of our people has been marvellous and in this year they have exceeded all past efforts. While tendering to them our heartfelt thanks for all they have done in the past we are not forgetful that God has put it into their hearts to show this generosity to His Cause. This generosity has given the lie to those early prophets who positively affirmed that finance would be the rock on which our Church would founder. To our people who have stood faithful amidst all the vicissitudes through which our Church has passed we send our Christian greetings and pray that in the days to come they may remain steadfast to the testimony raised in 1893. Denominational loyalty is not inconsistent with full recognition of Christianity’s wider claims. Our prayer for them in these days of sorrow and anxiety is that the Lord may be with the bereaved and may He disappoint the fears of hearts that are haunted night and day with dark forebodings,
Remember what is written in the Holy Oracles:—”Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall no more go out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name” (Rev. iii. 11, 12); and again, “Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end [purpose] of their conversation [the life they live], Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and forever” (Heb. xiii, 7, 8). Finally we conclude with the prayer,—”Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied” (Jude, 2).