QUITE recently it had been publicly stated by a certain individual who appears to have indulged in some wishful thinking that in twenty years time from now such a creature as a Free Presbyterian would not be seen in the whole of broad Scotland. That the statement was made publicly would indicate some solid ground to go on, for a man, as a rule, does not lightly stake his reputation as a prophet; that it was made from a pulpit is a very serious matter as nothing should be said there but what can be supported by the Word of God. As the statement bears evident marks of everything but a friendly feeling towards the Free Presbyterian Church, and is calculated to discourage the rising generation from following the Church for which their fathers and mothers suffered the scornful contempt, and sometimes loss of a more material kind, of so-called broad-minded religious professors, it would be well to remember that among many who go under the name of a prophet there were many false ones, and that such incur the wrath of God. “Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!” (Ezekiel xiii. 3).
This is, by no means, the first time that these prophets, who certainly never had their commission from Heaven, ventured to foretell the end of the Free Presbyterian Church. Writing in the year 1903, the late
Rev. D. Macfarlane, Dingwall, says, “Dr. Walker, the editor of the then Free Church Monthly, publicly predicted that our Church would, in the course of three or four years, become extinct, and the reason he gave was, that our funds would by that time be exhausted! The wish was father to the thought. But so far as this prophecy of that rev. gentleman is concerned, all that he has for it is that he bears the mark of a false prophet (Jer. xxviii. 9). His prediction did not come to pass. Our movement was not of man, but of God, and so long as we, as a Church, faithfully adhere to, and display the banner we have been enabled to lift for the sake of truth in our land in a backsliding age, no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper.”—Memoirs and Remains of Rev. D. MacDonald, Shieldaig, p. 64.
The prophet who has recently given us twenty years to go out of existence in Scotland has given as his grounds that the city charges in the South are fed by the influx from the Highlands, and that the Church is manifestly dying in the Highlands. We have to acknowledge that we have not seen for a long time a better example of carnal reasoning, for it wholly leaves God out of account, and involves one or other of the following suppositions, that the Free Presbyterian movement was not from God, and that it was only by human strength that it has come thus far, or, that God has now ceased to countenance that movement and is to leave our land without a witness, or, has transferred His care to a more faithful body of Christians. To the first of these suppositions no unbiased mind will agree, for though the taking up of a separate position by the Free Presbyterian Church was not accompanied by the sound of trumpets, and it never even invoked the strong arm of Cæsar, it has thrived, so that, from a very small beginning it has now spread all over the world, and has overcome many an obstacle set before it. This would never have happened if God had not performed to it His promise to the “worm Jacob.” “Behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff” (Isaiah xli. 15).
With reference to the supposition that God has now ceased to countenance our Church and is going to leave our land without a witness on His side, it may be pointed out that there are signs that the contrary is the case. The Lord has left us His Word, and His worship according to that Word, and the whole counsel of God is still declared among us. In this we are not left with a cold orthodoxy which is merely the fruit of human learning. There are times when the affections of the Lord’s people are warmed and their souls nourished and strengthened to face future trials. These are times when, though preachers do often find themselves as weak as water in facing the solemn duties of God’s house, yet, out of weakness are made strong so that preaching the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ brings them to feel as if they were at the very gates of Heaven. Not only so but we hear, at times, of careless sinners awakened among young and old and led to Christ, which clearly proves that, as a Church, we are not forsaken of God. All this is taking place, be it remembered, when we have to endure the hostility of the world, the scoffing of the infidel, and the criticism of those who are wise in their
own estimation, and our continued existence under these circumstances warrants us to sing with God’s inheritance of old, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us” (Psalm cxxiv. 2, 3). These are matters which go to prove that God has not ceased to countenance our Church and transferred His care to others, for whatever may be true of the Church of God in the future, it has pleased Him that it should be known in our day, not so much by its numerical strength, as by the opposition with which it is continually beset, and the care with which God preserves it.
The Free Presbyterian Church which, according to this self-commissioned prophet, is to come to an end in Scotland within the next twenty years is thus cared for by God, and we may ask, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” When He has honoured it with His help, guidance and preserving care for over fifty years, is it in order to allow it to go out of existence within the next twenty? The Highlands may become depopulated, and a time may come when the city churches will not be benefited by the present influx from the Highlands, but it was not an arm of flesh that preserved the Free Presbyterian Church in the past, and that is not the source of its future hope. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. iv. 6). From the very day it took up its separate position to this day the Bible has been the guide of our Church, and as long as that will continue we need have no fear but that there will be Free Presbyterians in broad Scotland, and though we might get smaller numerically, our Church will continue till the Millennium. At the same time we have reasons for believing that instead of getting smaller, numerically, we may increase greatly. Again we repeat, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” In the past we had, now and again, men and women coming into our Church from other churches. Some of these, who were never a great asset to us, forsook us, like birds of passage, when it suited themselves, while others who evidently had been brought into our Church by the Holy Spirit, remained with us, and have been very useful in their own spheres. It would be setting limits to the power of the Most High to say that He would not bring many such individuals, or whole congregations, or even a whole nation into the Free Presbyterian fold. Let such as readily forecast the end of the Free Presbyterian Church in Scotland be more careful of their utterances in public, lest men point the finger at them and quote the Scripture admonition, “Beware of false prophets” (Math. vii. 15).
J. C.